The Benevolent Emperor

Emperor Wu of Great Chu reigned for forty-one years. After his death, his son ascended the throne and adopted the era name Xianghe. In the third year of Xianghe, Emperor Huan died suddenly at the age of only thirty-six. Emperor Huan's legitimate crown prince, aged fifteen, succeeded him and changed the era name to Gongcheng, but at the end of February in the first year of Gongcheng he fell gravely ill and died within three days, leaving no heir. In the space of just four years, three emperors had died in succession, and the imperial court was instantly left headless. Han Ruzi, a prince born to Consort Wang, a palace maid who had caught the emperor's favor only by chance, and who had been raised outside the palace since childhood with no power base to speak of, was thus pushed onto the throne. He was emperor in name only, in truth a tool that the empress dowager, the imperial clan, and powerful ministers all wished to use: the empress dowager wanted to install an even younger and more pliable emperor; his half-brother, the Prince of Donghai, and the Cui clan of consort relatives behind him coveted the throne; and even the eunuchs and palace maids treated him as a decoration that could be replaced at any moment. With no powerful maternal relatives, no senior ministers to assist him, and not even a proper education in the art of rulership, Han Ruzi had only himself to rely on. Through the bargain struck in the imperial ancestral temple he came to see the true situation clearly; within the palace he groped to learn who was useful and who could be trusted; and while learning to think as an emperor, he fought to stay alive and seize real power in every test and clash. Abandoning the time-travel premise, the novel adopts a third-person limited perspective close to its protagonist, letting readers grope forward together with this young Son of Heaven through the information-starved depths of the palace. It is a historical tale of power and strategy about how power is truly grasped.