The Picture of the Five Flowers of Chivalry

冯玉奇Nov 2025

3.1

Word count: 85K words
Chapters: 21

Summary

During the Tianqi era, the Imperial Grandson encounters five beauties from the Yang and Su households and has them painted in the Five Flowers Portrait for his harem. Consort Yao, pregnant, is secretly given slow poison and dies; her coffin rests at Huangjue Temple, but the corpse is stolen by the thieving monk Huijue. Through strange chance she revives and drifts to a mountain stronghold. When the border is in crisis, General Su Hongming secretly communicates with an enemy tribe beyond the pass. The brothers Tao Wencan and Tao Wenbin lead troops to war and win merit, only to be slandered and framed. Tao Wenbin is ambushed while being escorted and flees among the people, where he meets the surviving Consort Yao and a heroine in distress. As Manchu forces press in, Tianqi leads a personal expedition and is trapped on Qilin Mountain; loyal officials and knights fight desperately to break out. After the army returns to court, the wronged are vindicated, and Tao Wenbin is ordered by decree to marry the two women who shared his hardships.

Editor's review

Feng Yuqi's work fuses palace intrigue, martial chivalry, and border warfare into one highly plotted narrative. From Consort Yao's poisoning and corpse theft to her revival and drift into the greenwood, and on to the Tao brothers' campaign and wrongful accusation and Tianqi's trapped expedition, the threads advance layer by layer, with characters' fates repeatedly overturned between court and wilds. The author drives the story with coincidence and calamity, giving it the compact pace and legendary color and ethical concern characteristic of old-style popular fiction. The contrast between loyal and treacherous is sharp, and the ending of vindication and marriage through shared hardship continues the traditional storyteller's expectation of completeness. It suits casual reading, especially for experiencing how Republican-era popular literature wove chivalric imagination through a historical frame. Yet the cast is large and events shift quickly, so readers must patiently sort out the threads.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Republican-era popular fiction and old-style chapter novels
Those interested in a mix of palace secrets and martial chivalry
Literary scholars wanting to understand Feng Yuqi's style
Casual readers who prefer dense plots and dramatic turns of fate

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strict historical accuracy and realism
Readers uncomfortable with multiple threads and coincidence-heavy plotting
Those sensitive to the ethics and gender writing of old-style fiction

Reading tips

First clarify the relations among the Yang and Su households and the Tao brothers, then enter the main plot
Treat turns such as Consort Yao's revival and Tao Wenbin's flight among the people as legendary technique, not to be judged by realistic logic
Compare with popular fiction of the same period to observe how chivalry and romance intertwine
When reading the border-war sections, note the structural role of the loyal-versus-treacherous opposition

版权信息
第一回识玄机燕藩登大宝梦南柯罗汉挞逃王
第二回翡翠琼瑶恩承雨露金枝玉叶宠冠群芳
第三回疑雨楼五花争媚主眠云馆天启乐销魂
第四回芙蓉宫瑶妃得病满洲汗遣使求亲
第五回皇觉寺暂停艳尸莲花庵权作窝窟
第六回死去再生名花历劫御前舞剑娘子行军
第七回陶文灿领兵征漠北左斗南设计破阴谋
第八回卖主献关求荣反辱特恩拜师领旨救亲
第九回黑白不明有功反罪是非颠倒无怨成仇
第十回陶文彬挥刀求自刎缪金凤敷药医金创
第十一回冒功劳山寨杀兵丁隐姓名花园传剑术
第十二回大帅行军雪中杀敌娇花献媚虎帐谈情
第十三回谗里谗再召回都痴中痴还想献关
第十四回常琪英无心救徐岱缪金凤立志破满军
第十五回万年遗臭削职为民一箭飞来以德报怨
第十六回天启帝御驾亲征麒麟山众将被困
第十七回得二美福汗班师占一卦预知脱险
第十八回伏乱箭三将同遭擒归二妃两方成和议
第十九回通客氏佛门宣淫为老父运动复官
第二十回班师回朝封宫赐爵交杯合卺奉旨完婚

FAQ

Is this book a good entry point for readers unfamiliar with Feng Yuqi?

Yes. Although the plot has many threads, the main lines of loyal-versus-treacherous conflict and reunion through hardship are clear, making it a suitable introduction to Feng Yuqi's popular fiction style. It is best to grasp the two lines of Consort Yao and the Tao brothers first, then gradually sort out the other characters.

How closely does the historical background relate to real Ming history?

The setting is the Tianqi era and involves border warfare and a personal imperial expedition, but the whole is chiefly legendary narrative and should not be treated as a history book. Readers may see it as popular imagination unfolding within a historical frame, with the focus on characters' fates and chivalric episodes.

There are too many characters and they are easy to confuse. What can I do?

Keep notes as you read on the main figures of the Yang, Su, and Tao families and their relations, especially following Consort Yao, Tao Wencan, and Tao Wenbin. Once these two core threads are grasped, the other supporting characters mostly cluster around the loyal-versus-treacherous conflict, and the reading will gradually become clearer.

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About the author

冯玉奇 Author

Feng Yuqi was a writer of popular fiction in the Republican era. Public information about him is limited: neither his dates of birth and death nor his native place are clearly recorded. Yet the 172 works held in our collection attest to the sheer volume of his output. His writing is driven by plot, and his subjects range across wuxia, modern romance, social fiction, and time-travel and alternate-world fiction. Representative works include Chivalrous Five-Flower Chart, Wen Suchen, National Soul: Blood and Flowers, The Understanding Flower, Sea of Blood and Flowers of Love: Favors and Grudges, Soul Broken at the Slanting Sun: The Strange Man of the Desert Island, and Remnant Light on Green Waves. Most of these appeared in Republican-era popular-literature journals and as standalone volumes. His language is plain and accessible and his narrative pace brisk; he excels at interweaving love and hatred, gratitude and grievance, and chivalrous adventure, while also depicting the ways of the world. His work had a certain influence among urban readers of the time. Today his writings are collected in the Feng Yuqi volume of the Republican Popular Fiction Collection, offering a useful sample for studying the generic ecology of Republican-era popular literature.