The Han Restoration: Emperor Guangwu

The Han Restoration: Emperor Guangwu is a long-form historical romance by the internet historical novelist Jiutu, following his Home (published as Turmoil of Sui). Centering on Liu Xiu, founder of the Eastern Han dynasty, it recounts his legendary rise from commoner to emperor. Planned at four volumes and roughly 1.5 million characters, it has been published by Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House since 2018. The story begins in the late Western Han: Liu Xiu was a ninth-generation descendant of Liu Bang, founder of the Han, but generations of the Decree of Grace had long since reduced his branch to ordinary commoners. After Wang Mang usurped the Han and founded the Xin dynasty, his archaizing reforms and expansion of the Imperial Academy allowed Liu Xiu and his friends Yan Guang and Zhu You to leave their hometown for Chang'an to study. There they witnessed a realm in chaos, with warlords rising on every side and the people longing for order, and Liu Xiu vowed that he would become an imperial guard commander in office and marry Yin Lihua. Thereafter he raised troops on oxback, fought the bloody Battle of Kunyang, took up arms again, and struggled through the chaotic age alongside his elder brother Liu Yan and the Twenty-Eight Generals of the Cloud Terrace, finally rebuilding the Han and achieving the Guangwu Restoration. The author follows the principle of "no distortion of great events, no constraint in small ones," laying out the story along the true course of history while rendering details with literary imagination, with emphasis on character and devotion to family and country amid chaos. The structure is grand, with battle scenes and political intrigue interwoven; the first volume, Youthful Wanderings, won the inaugural Liang Yusheng Literary Award in the historical-military category.