She Who Became The Sun, the first book of the Radiant Emperor duology, is a Historical Fantasy novel written by Shelley Parker-Chan and released July 20, 2021.
The book centers around a retelling of the Hongwu Emperor's rise to power. It tells the story of Zhu Chongba— a woman who claims her brother's destiny of ruling China in his place and finds herself drawn into a web of deceit, treachery, assassination and war, going head-to-head with both the enemy force and plotters in her own faction such as the coldhearted Chen Youliang.
This story is contrasted with that of General Ouyang, a "eunuch general" whose family, after rebelling against the Yuan dynasty, found himself enslaved by Lord Esen-Temur, plotting his revenge all while navigating the complicated relationship shared between both the Temur dynasty and himself and Esen.
These two stories weave into one another more than once, telling a tale of ambition and revenge where fools die quickly, and the sharpest of blades are only outdone by the sharpest of minds.
The sequel, He Who Drowned The World, was released in August 2023.
She Who Became The Sun contains examples of:
- Ambition Is Evil: The inherent corruption of ambition is a recurring theme of Zhu's plotline.
- Zhu Chongba herself vows to become the ruler of all China, and this destiny leads her to become a clever plotter who will do almost anything to achieve her goals, even the manipulation of her own allies and an innocent child.
- Chen Youliang is a coldhearted schemer whose willingness to do anything in the name of gaining more power marks him as one of the most evil men in the entire novel, capable of watching a man be skinned alive with nothing but a joyful glint as it marks his ascent.
- Bittersweet Ending: Both Ouyang and Zhu have ensured their goals are achieved, but the cost to them is horrific. Zhu has sacrificed much of her conscience by murdering the little boy that could have risked her rule, and Ouyang finds that he is actually sad about having murdered Esen in his mission of revenge, as well as being willing to plunge his entire force into a war with the Great Khan with full knowledge of how easily they may die in the process.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: On the "black" side are people like Esen's father or Chen Youliang, who are heartless in nature and draw no lines, even sometimes reveling in the bloodshed they create. On the "gray" end is Zhu herself and Ouyang, who are unscrupulous and quick to resort to violence, but are happy to achieve their ends via deception and diplomacy if possible and have genuine loved ones and moral boundaries.
- Cruel Mercy: Ouyang cuts off Zhu's hand but leaves her alive, believing from his personal experience that it's a Fate Worse than Death to be publicly mutilated. Instead, it reaffirms Zhu's tenacity.
- Death by Despair: Witnessing their father's death sinks Zhu's brother into a stupor from which he does not awaken. Zhu, who's been fighting tooth and nail to survive, thinks poorly of him for giving up on life at the first challenge.
- Death of a Child:
- Zhu's entire family dies except for her. The children are not spared.
- At the end of the novel, Zhu resolves to eliminate the successor to her throne, a young boy, and kills him to secure her own ascent.
- Divine Right of Kings: Deconstructed. Those with the Mandate of Heaven have demonstrable supernatural powers and appear to have some ability to sense destiny, but it's ambiguous to what extent the Mandate is granted to them or claimed by them, given that single-minded ambition and personal drive appear to be major factors.
- Enemy Mine: When Chen Youliang becomes too much for them to take on, Ouyang and Zhu join forces and create a plan that will destroy him.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Esen is absolutely crushed when Ouyang's betrayal comes to light, answering Ouyang's Motive Rant with an anguished reminder of how close they were.
- Evil Versus Evil: The central war is between the Yuan Mongols and the rebellion in China, neither of which is depicted charitably. Each one is a teeming hotbed of ambition and schemes, their armies often barbaric. Where Ouyang and Zhu stand out is in their willingness to show charity and humanity where their loved ones need it most.
- Family Extermination: All of Ouyang's male family members were killed for opposing the Yuan, and Ouyang was only spared the same fate as a Cruel Mercy. He gains Revenge by killing Esen and his father, ending the Temur bloodline.
- Flaying Alive: The punishment for treason in the court, and Chen Youliang's preferred fate for his enemies, is being skinned alive in a Public Execution.
- Gambit Pileup: She Who Became The Sun is a story in which almost every character is The Chessmaster, all of whom have individual goals and plans, whether reaching for power or revenge. Ouyang's goals clash with Esen's and Wang Baoxiang's, Zhu clashes with Chen Youliang and the other rivals in the court, all the while Liu Futong believes he's playing all of them into his own hands. Everyone has a plan, but only the truly cunning survive, much less win.
- Godzilla Threshold: Zhu and Ouyang agree that Chen Youliang's brilliance is enough of a threat to the both of them that both will ally together to destroy him.
- Historical Fantasy: While the plot may focus on a real ruler from Chinese history, it completely alters the events of the Hongwu Emperor's life by making the Mandate of Heaven a genuine cosmic force, as well as implying that multiple rulers have supernatural powers. While the fantasy is very much of the low variety, it's clear that there are fantastical things subtly at work, whether real or perceived.
- Intimate Hair Brushing: As childhood friends, Xu Da thinks nothing of helping Zhu do her hair. As a man with many and varied intimacy issues, Ouyang peeks in and nearly goes into conniptions over the unmanliness of the act.
- Invisible to Normals: Ghosts can only be perceived by people with an exceptionally close attunement to "the pattern of the universe", such as Zhu and others who hold the Mandate of Heaven.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Wang Baoxiang is a scholar and bureaucrat adopted into a Proud Warrior Race family, and is constantly demeaned and abused for it. It drives him up a wall that his logistical work is directly responsible for the province of Henan's day-to-day functioning, yet no one cares at all about it or him.
- Loophole Abuse: Wang Baoxiang is the adoptive son of Chaghan-Temur, mistreated and rejected by his father. As such, when Ouyang performs his coup, Wang Baoxiang is more than willing to stand with a dagger to his throat and declare that since he is not Chaghan's biological son, Ouyang ought to spare him. Ouyang, surprising even himself, does as he asks.
- Mercy Kill: Zhu rationalizes her murder of the Prince of Radiance as this. Since his mere existence would cause further bloodshed, she justifies it to herself in the belief that killing him is merciful.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: At some pivotal times, Zhu feels intense internal warmth drawing her towards her destiny, whereas the thought of choices that would take her away from it leaves her deathly cold. It's implied to be an effect of holding the Mandate of Heaven.
- Mystical Plague: To keep her troops and herself out of the crossfire of the internal fight for the Red Turbans' leadership, Zhu orchestrates one: At her wedding, she prepares several tables worth of offerings to the ghosts while not telling anyone about the purpose of the food. Predictably, soldiers eat from it and later fall mysteriously ill, which leads to her army's section of the camp getting cordoned of during the worst if the infighting.
- Phosphor-Essence: People with the Mandate of Heaven can manifest an aura of light around them. Rumor holds that the Yuan Emperor's has dimmed to almost nothing due to his misrule; conversely, Zhu Chongba can shine like the sun.
- Questionable Consent: One of the central elements of Ouyang and Esen's relationship is the complicated issue of whether any potential sexual relationship between them would be truly romantic, or if Esen simply views Ouyang as a possession to which he is entitled.
- Revenge: A major part in Ouyang's story, who plots vengeance against his family's killers out of filial duty.
- Sadist Teacher: Master Fang, the monk in charge of the novices, believes that Misery Builds Character and hands out painful, humiliating Corporal Punishment for the slightest infraction with sadistic pleasure.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Little Guo gained his rank through nepotism and other people's scheming, yet is utterly deaf to anything that might challenge his own arrogance. Ma wryly notes how he compares himself to Zhuge Liang, the best strategist in history, without a shred of self-awareness. His overconfidence gets him killed in one of Chen's schemes.
- Soup of Poverty: Zhu's last meal with her famine-stricken family before everyone but her dies is a soup of water, some beans, and their last winter melon. They don't even let her have any melon.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: Everything Ouyang does to avenge his family makes him feel even more miserable, especially killing Esen, the only person he loves. He rationalizes it as a combination of filial obligation and destiny but hates every moment of it.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The rivalry in the Red Turbans' leadership, exacerbated by the Prime Minister's paranoia and Chen Youliang's scheming, is almost as dangerous to them as the Mongols. The Yuan are deeply amused to learn that the Red Turbans captured a major city, then promptly abandoned it and executed Little Guo on a trumped-up charge of treason for having held it.
- Wham Line: When a sudden coup is enacted, Esen is talking with the ever-treacherous Wang Baoxiang, who reveals the true culprit behind the events befalling his family as Ouyang with a single line:"Oh, no, brother. This isn't my plot against you".
- Xanatos Gambit: Chen Youliang manages to successfully pull one on Zhu by offering her troops that she needs to take a city. If Zhu takes the city, he gets credit because his troops did it. If Zhu fails? It's her failure and not his. She outmaneuvers him anyway by winning the city through guile instead of force.
