Red Dragon

Miao DiBaihua Literature and Art Publishing House; Tianjin People's Publishing House2018

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Series
The Tianshun Trilogy
ISBN
9787530675915

Tags

Featured Fiction Mystery and Suspense Historical MysteryPolitical StruggleEpic Historical NovelDuomen CoupPalace CoupsSecret OrganizationImperial ExamClue TrackingMysterious PlotHistorical RecordsSuspense NovelMing Beijing

Summary

Red Dragon is the first volume of scholar and novelist Miao Di's "Tianshun Trilogy," a long historical mystery novel set against the Ming dynasty's "Duomen Incident." The story takes place in the first month of the seventh year of the Jingtai era (the first year of Tianshun, 1457). Yang Jizong, a provincial graduate who has come to the capital for the metropolitan examination and will later become a jinshi, is drawn into a string of baffling cases by a corpse in the snow that died of charcoal poisoning. Together with the constable Fang Tianbao, the Embroidered Uniform Guard officer Yuan Bin, and others, he traces the clues layer by layer. The cases are tangled and contain cases within cases, and ultimately thrust him into the vortex of court political maneuvering; meanwhile, the various actions of the secret society known as the Red Dragon Society, dedicated to "protecting the imperial house and securing the foundation of the state," are tightly interwoven with the palace coup that changed the course of the Ming dynasty. The author uses official history as his skeleton, "threading the needle" through the gaps in the historical record with plausible imagination, so that the great era and great events never stray from historical fact while the details and characters are drawn from legend. A large portion of the book recreates the life and customs of Ming-dynasty Beijing: ice sleds on frozen lakes, horse meat eaten at street stalls, diabolo spinning, shadow puppetry, the equestrian troupe performances at the Guanwang Temple, officials exchanging calling cards on New Year's Day, the "whipping the spring ox" ritual at the Start of Spring, and the temple fair at the Yanjiu Festival at the White Cloud Temple, allowing the tension of court intrigue and the warmth of everyday city life to run in parallel. The narration adopts a limited third-person perspective, so that readers approach the truth step by step along with what Yang Jizong sees and thinks, and also experience the sense that "seeing is not necessarily believing": the metaphor of the "Chang'an divided pagoda" in the story refers both to the protagonist being used in political schemes without realizing it and to the vast difference between the surface and the truth of historical events. The book runs about 448 pages and combines the rigor of historical research with the readability of a mystery.

Editor's review

把“夺门之变”这样的国家级大事件，写成一场从雪地尸体开始、层层反转的探案故事，是《赤龙》最吸引人的地方。作者苗棣是中国人民大学历史系出身、长期研读明史的中国传媒大学教授，此前写《大明亡国史》《庸人治国》，对明代制度与人物下过扎实功夫；这一次他把学问收进故事背后，让史实成为骨架，让想象在史书的缝隙里生长，于是既有“一半是历史、一半是传奇”的分寸，也有悬疑小说该有的钩子。更难得的是明代北京市井的质感：冰床、空竹、皮影、马解班子、打春牛、燕九节庙会，这些或已消失、或今人难以想象的场景被细致铺陈，读来像跟着主人公走了一趟五百年前的京城。朝堂上波谲云诡，街巷里烟火可亲，两条线交错推进，节奏张弛有度。作为“天顺三部曲”的开篇，它也为后续《黑煞》等故事埋下人物与时代的伏笔。适合喜欢明史、爱看历史推理，以及想借小说感受古代北京城市生活的读者。影视化项目已于2018年启动，也可作为读懂“夺门之变”的通俗入口。

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Reading tips

  1. 先粗略了解“土木堡之变—景泰—夺门之变”的史实链条，再读正文更易体会虚实
  2. 可以随主角杨继宗的时间线阅读，留意每处案情的伏笔与反转
  3. 读到风俗描写时不妨放慢速度，它们是理解明代北京生活的重要部分
  4. 读完后可衔接系列第二部《黑煞》，观察作者如何处理不同人物视角

About the publisher

Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House; Tianjin People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1958

Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House and Tianjin People's Publishing House both belong to the Tianjin Publishing and Media Group and often release books under their joint names. Their publishing areas cover social psychology, applied psychology, philosophy, biography, and inspirational growth. Representative works in the collection include Freud's The Ego and the Id and Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, as well as psychology and philosophy titles such as The Art of Practical Thinking; in biography and inspiration, there are Lu Xiaoman: Loneliness in Peerless Elegance, Make Peace with the Past, Treat the Future Gently, and If You Won't Endure Hardship or Strive, What Is Your Youth For? Authors associated with these titles include Freud, Shi Lin, Richard W. Small, Li Jiangyan, Chen Langyu, Cai Wangang, Xia Li, and Jing Wen. Public information on the specific division of labor between the two houses and their further publishing features is limited.

FAQ

《赤龙》是真实历史还是虚构小说？ 它是以真实历史为骨架的历史传奇小说。“夺门之变”等大事件、杨继宗等主要人物于史有据，而具体案情、秘密组织“赤龙会”等细节则出自作者的合理想象，属于“一半是历史、一半是传奇”。
没读过明史，能读懂这本书吗？ 可以。小说采用限制性第三人称视角，跟着举子杨继宗的所见所想推进，不预设明史知识；事先了解“夺门之变”的大致背景，会更容易把握朝堂线索。
《赤龙》是系列中的第几部？ 它是苗棣“天顺三部曲”的第一部，2018年12月由百花文艺出版社、天津人民出版社联合出版；系列后续作品包括《黑煞》等，故事仍围绕明英宗天顺年间的朝局展开。
这本书有多少页？主要看点是什么？ 平装本共448页。主要看点是：以正史为宗的“夺门之变”前史、层层反转的悬疑案情，以及大量还原明代北京风俗的细节描写。

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About the author

Miao Di Author

Miao Di is a Chinese author about whom limited public information is available. Two works can currently be confirmed: The Fall of the Ming: A Biography of the Chongzhen Emperor and Red Dragon. Judging from these two books and their categories, his writing spans both history and fiction. The former centers on the Chongzhen reign at the end of the Ming dynasty and belongs to the field of ancient Chinese history and dynastic studies; the latter has a modern background and incorporates elements of quality fiction and suspenseful mystery. This range suggests that the author can handle historical narrative grounded in sources about the rise and fall of a dynasty, while also building suspense and shaping characters' fates in fictional storytelling. Because more biographical information is lacking, his education, career, and writing history cannot be described in detail; readers may come to know this author mainly through the subjects and methods of his works.