Zhan Ge

Zhan Ge is a long alternate-history novel by I Am Not Myself (pen name of Shen Lin), published in 2007 by Chengdu Times Press. It runs about 480,000 characters in two volumes and four parts: Disaster from the West, The Gaoji War (some sources say the Goulo War), Leaping in the Abyss, and Thus Pass the Dead. The dynasty is entirely fictional. The story begins with Ming Keming, a sixteen-year-old prison guard who gets a post in the imperial prison through connections. After he absent-mindedly passes a scroll to an old man in his cell, he offends the powerful and is sentenced to have his kneecaps cut out, leaving him crippled for life. The prisoner turns out to be the founding official and elder statesman Xu Qizhi (Mr. Benxin), who has been demoted and jailed; Ming Keming serves him for five years, is taken as a disciple, learns his strategic arts, and inherits the School of Divine Calculation. He then practices medicine and divination in the marketplace under the name "Xu Riyue," is recognized by Grand Marshal Jiang Dongguo and brought into the army as an advisor in commoner's clothes. When the commander dies in battle during the western campaign, he takes charge in the crisis, rallies an army of 200,000, breaks the enemy's heavy cavalry with a chain of schemes, and captures the enemy chief. He is then drawn into the power struggle between the new emperor and the powerful minister Li Zhecun, Prince of Changping, rises and falls several times, and finally becomes a master strategist before retiring to the countryside. The book is written in spare prose, with strategic deductions and ingenious plans; battles are mostly staged in command tents and on sand tables. The title "Zhan Ge" splits the character for "war," expressing the idea of ending war by force and protecting the common people.