Literature / Under Heaven

Under Heaven is a novel by Guy Gavriel Kay published in 2010. Set in a Low Fantasy version of Tang China, it is a fictionalized retelling of the events leading up to the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763 AD). River Of Stars is set in the same universe, but several centuries after the events of this book.

Kitai is a huge empire and the cradle of an ancient, highly refined civilization. Now ruled by the Ninth Dynasty, it is at the height of its power and magnificence. Shen Tai, the second son of a famous general, has taken it upon himself to bury the thousands of dead bodies left on a battleground at the far western edge of the empire, as a form of mourning for his departed father. His only company are the howling ghosts of the fallen soldiers; also, he occasionally gets visits from squads of soldiers bringing supplies in honor of his work. And then, one day, an extravagant gift is thrown into his lap: two hundred and fifty Sardian mounts, the "heavenly horses" of unparalleled speed and stamina which the Kitan empire endlessly craves. He must now return from his self-imposed exile to the heart of the empire, the sprawling capital city of Xinan, and take sides in bitter factional struggles that threaten to tear the whole country apart.

His two companions on this journey are the martial artist Wei Song, a female member of the secretive Kanlin order, and the perennially inebriated Sima Zian, the most famous poet in Kitai. Awaiting him in Xinan, his lover Spring Rain, formerly a courtesan from the city's pleasure district and now the concubine of the new prime minister, and powerful, ruthless men of clashing interests.

This novel provides examples of:

• A Million Is a Statistic: "Hearing the number from the battle — forty thousand dead — Tai, when young, had been unable to even picture what it must have been like. That wasn't the case any more."
• Action Girl: Wei Song, but mainly in comparison to what's usually expected from women in Kitai.
• Alchemy Is Magic: Believed to various levels, especially the Emperor: he imbibs a drink each day, provided by an alchemist, in attempt to extend his lifespan. Also, certain tribes in the north have shamans, and some of their actions are viewed as comparable to alchemy-based magic by the citizens of Kitai (eg. Shen Tai's sister) that hear stories.
• Altar Diplomacy: Tai's sister is made royalty, and sent north to marry a "barbarian" tribal leader, as a method of pacification; Lei thinks it's just politics that happens to benefit the family, and Tai (when he finds out about it) thinks their father would have disapproved.
• Appeal to Authority: Usually shows up in Quote-to-Quote Combat; using well known poetry, or name-dropping poets, bolsters arguments in the quoter's favor. The poem may have originally been just about how a particular river looks in summer, for example. Also, at one point "history-mandarins" are referenced in regards to "popular" forms of storytelling.
• Arc Villain: The unseen Bogu chieftain, Tarduk. Tarduk is the villainous younger brother of Meshag and is responsible for the conflict that drives the storyline in the steppe region north of Kitai.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Shen Tai attempts to prevent the execution of Wen Jian, for her indirect part in casing the civil war, and playing her cousin Wen Zhou against An Li, by a dui commander and some of his men by claiming "She is only a woman. A dancer.", the dui commander responds "And women have never shaped power in Kitai?"
  Tai opened his mouth and closed it. He stared at the man below.
• Arranged Marriage: Practiced by royalty. Shen Tai's gift came from one of the Emperor's daughters sent into one such marriage in the west, and his sister was made royalty so she could be part of another arrangement, with a Northern Tribe (and involving another of the Emperor's daughters).
• Asian Fox Spirit: The characters discuss daiji- "fox women"- several times on the way back to the capital. Tai especially suspects that Wei Song appears to believe they exist, more than he does. In one case, he ends up asking a governor's daughter if she has a daiji within her, after an attempted seduction to convince him to assign his horses to her father. (She does acknowledge, "I am flattered you think me fair enough to be a daiji spirit, but it is an error.") And Song is exasperated that it took so long for him to ask if the governor's daughter was one; she was waiting outside the door, and if he hadn't broken things up on his own... she would have. For his own safety, of course.
• The Atoner: Shen Tai; he believes that the ghosts of those that died in a previous war will only settle if someone makes amends — by burying those slain in battle, he hopes to earn forgiveness for his family's involvement. (It just so happens there are two outposts of soldiers, one from each side, nearby; they end up indirectly competing against each other through who can honor Shen Tai the most through the supplies they bring him and helping with repairs, in alternating trips every two weeks; first one, then two weeks later the other, and so on. He suspects it's to leave him more free time to work on his self-assigned task.)
• Bad Boss: Kitan's ruling elite treat their underlings pretty terribly. A servant who accidentally overheats his master's beverage is beaten within an inch of his life before being tossed out onto the street to live out the rest of his life as a beggar.
• Barbarian Tribe: The Bogü, dwellers in the northern steppes, practitioners of dark magic who eat the flesh of their enemies, not always after killing them. Some of them are nicer than others.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The book has two main villains. The first is General An Li (also known as "Roshan"), a powerful military governor whose plans for insurrection are the biggest threat to the setting as a whole. The second is First Minister Wen Zhou, the corrupt Evil Chancellor with whom It's Personal for The Hero, Shen Tai. The two are not working together. On the contrary, they hate each other. Nevertheless, their actions are what drive the events of the story.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Wen Zhou. Between him and An Li, the book's other major antagonist, Zhou is more heavily featured and is the biggest threat to Shen Tai on a personal level. However, Zhou is utterly incompetent at his job. All of his plots to destroy his rivals and secure power for himself fail miserably. What's more, his actions serve only to encourage An Li to launch his rebellion, which is exactly what Zhou and the rest of the royal court want to avoid. In the end, Zhou is easily neutralized by the royal family and is essentially forced into Shen Tai's service before dying a humiliating death at the hands of a band of soldiers who're fed up with his inept leadership.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Tai (finally) finds out about his sister's arranged marriage, he switches almost completely from wanting revenge for a friend's death to wanting to kill his older brother, who set up the marriage as part of a political maneuver. He also seems ready to try to chase after her to bring her back home.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Ninth Dynasty survives, and the Ang Li Rebellion is suppressed, but several named characters die, and the Emperor steps aside in favor of his Designated Heir.
• Black Comedy: While traveling to the capital to officially announce to the Emperor that he's receiving a gift of horses (being the loyal subject that he is; horses of that type are very much in demand), Tai has to keep pointing out to various officials demanding the horses for themselves that not doing so could look like treason. Never mind the fact that he didn't ask for the horses in the first place, and is spending most of the trip trying to think of a way to refuse the gift.
• Bread and Circuses: Prince Shinzu thinks this is one way to contain An Li's ambitions: keep him in the capital (away from his armies), keep throwing him feasts and parties, heap meaningless awards and titles on him, and allow him the run of any women that takes his fancy. Then, wait for "the sugar sickness" to take its toll. Too bad the First Minister's own actions made An Li paranoid and suspicious enough to want to leave the capital and meet up with troops loyal to him.
• Cain and Abel: Assassins are sent after Shen Tai, and he thinks his elder brother had either sent them or recommended their use, in order to preemptively prevent him from interfering with their sister's marriage. This turned out to be false, but there were some hard feelings involved. The Prime Minister had hired them on his own initiative due to Shen Tai having previous feelings for the Minister's newest concubine.
• Character Development: Tai essentially develops some political acumen, due to having to deal with the reprecussions of receiving such a large gift.
• Characterization Marches On: Apparently, Tai's father developed some fresh opinions on war in his retirement; if said aloud (to the wrong person, namely anyone outside of his immediate family), they would have gotten him in trouble for being disloyal to the Ninth Dynasty.
• The Chessmaster: Shen Tai's brother, Shen Liu. He studied hard for the Civil Service exam, and ends up the primary advisor to the First Minister. When the Emperor allows one of his daughters to be sent north as part of an arranged marriage, Liu manages to have his own sister declared a princess, and made part of the arrangement, so that the family can be supported better; this ends up impacting a conversation Tai has later. And when, at the end of the book, he realizes that being tied to the First Minister is effectively a death sentence, he plans out several actions that Tai could perform to make sure the family survives the civil war, including the fact that Tai had publicly accused Liu of hiring an assassin.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Sima Zian is an enthusiastic patron of the empire's pleasure houses, and thanks to his reputation as a famous poet, the ladies don't even charge him.
• Church Militant: The Kanlin, who are basically the Shaolin (except that they are vaguely Taoist instead of Buddhist and admitted nuns into their ranks). At the time of the story, they are a ubiquitous organization that hire themselves out as bodyguards, assassins (but only if the target is considered worthy of death by the head monks and nuns), and they act as impartial arbiters, recordkeepers and witnesses to negotiations of state.
• Civil War: Roshan's rebellion. (It's primarily because Roshan thinks the Prime minister isn't doing the best for the country, and believes that the Emperor isn't paying attention to governing, like he should.)
• Cool Horse: Sardian horses, a.k.a. 'dragon horses'. "Legends said they sweated blood."
  You gave a man one of the Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You gave him four or five of those glories to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank — and earn him the jealousy, possibly mortal, of those who rode the smaller horses of the steppes.
  The Princess Cheng-wan, a royal consort of Tagur now through twenty years of peace, had just bestowed upon him, with permission two hundred and fifty of the dragon horses.
  That was the number.
• Cozy Catastrophe: The real life An Shi rebellion led to the death of about 16 to 36 million people, lasted 8 years, and ended one of China's golden ages. Not that you'll notice this from the book looking at the experiences of Shen Tai, to whom the war appeared to be more of a nuisance than anything else. The fact was lampshaded in-story, noting that the Shen family were farsighted enough to prepare for dealing with the war and that they were fortunate in that the family compound was on the opposite side of the country from the front lines.
• Cultured Warrior: Tai was studying to become an army officer; this included studying poems to use in the final exams. And while he may have some personal issues with trying to unload his gift in an acceptable way, he still insists that it be done with respect. Also, when, after becoming an officer by appointment, he performs a gesture the means "please be quiet", he considers it rude, partially due to who he made the gesture to (a servant of the Beloved Consort).
• Death by Origin Story: The book starts off with a bunch of graves being dug; Shen Tai is where he is for his 'mourning period' (after his father's death) because of his family's involvement in a previous foreign war.
• Decadent Court: The reason for Ang Li's Rebellion — he believes that 'the common people' are being ignored, and the court is doing what it can only to stay in power.
• Desecrating the Dead: Tai gets accused of this by a Taguran soldier, but the soldier's commander upbraids him as an idiot that doesn't know what's going on. Tai's response is to ask how to identify any of the bodies he's been burying, so he could get started on "dishonoring" them.
• Disease by Any Other Name: How long should it take to figure out that "the sugar sickness" is a form of diabetes?
• Distant Finale: Certain segments are written from the perspective of poets and historians looking back on a troubled time in history trying to make sense of it all.
• Divine Right of Kings: Toward the last third of the book, it's discussed whether the Emperor has lost this, due to the increasing friction between the Civil Service, and Roshan.
• Drunken Master: Sima Zian. It's mentioned that in "several decades" he's not really known to have been sober once- but he can still write poetry generally acknowledged to be amongst the best (being labeled "The Immortal Poet", and a reputation for being repeatedly kicked out of Heaven, let alone the capital), with impeccable calligraphic penmanship.
  • Also, at one point there's a scuffle, with one side being Tai, his Kanlin bodyguard Song, and Zian. Song is automatically presumed to be capable of defending herself, Tai has only a few worries about his own skills, and Zian... well, Tai isn't thinking about how much wine Zian's already had that night, he's thinking that Zian used to be a bandit....
• Due to the Dead: Shen Tai picked his task of burying soldiers as his form of respect for his father, who had died (before the start of the book). Later on, when the first minister is killed, certain soldiers are relieved that he'll be buried, but without full honors. The burial (versus random unmarked grave, or even scattered ashes) is considered important, to avoid a vengeful ghost.
• Exact Words: While Shen Li-Mei is being "abducted" away from the bridal party heading north, Meshag informs her at one point, "There is Kitan garrison not far. We sleep now, ride tonight. See it in the morning." He then interrupts her complaining about how the garrison would just send her back, since she's part of an arranged marriage, with:
  "Do Kitan women all speak so much, not listen? I said we see garrison. Not go there. [...] We see walls and turn south. Kiran fortress is protection[.]"
• Face Death with Dignity: Two are shown to do this, as part of the same event, and Tai wonders, afterwards, if Prince Shinzu knew it would come to that, with the rumor he started on the road, leaving the capital.
  • Wen Jian; due to the belief that, by playing politics, she caused the civil war by playing her cousin Wen Zhou and 'adopted son' An Li against each other. She puts on a favored outfit, and after a suggestion, is allowed to dance one last time. The knife was used so no particular soldier would be a marked man for firing an arrow.
  • Shen Liu; he realizes he's a marked man, since he was Wen Zhou's right-hand man. After using the knife, he "volunteers" to be next, presents himself, and manages to make it look like it was his choice by giving the order to fire.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: As with all Guy Gavriel Kay novels, calling the cultures depicted therein "counterpart" is probably a little unfair considering they are almost exactly the same as the real world one.
  • Kitai: China (Kitai is the Russian name for China); The Ninth Dynasty: The Tang Dynasty (which indeed is the ninth dynasty after the Xia).
  • The Bogü: Mongolians
  • The Koreini: Korean
  • Sardia: Bactria, whose famed Heavenly Horses (Ferghana horses) are also said to sweat blood when heavily exerted.
  • Tagur: Tibet; the name of their capital, Rygyal, is Tibetan for "[city of] Kings".
• Fat Bastard/Large and in Charge: Roshan — who by the time of the story is too fat to move on his own and is dying of the Sugar Sickness (i.e. diabetes).
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Nearly everyone in Kitai would Squee over Sardian horses; some of it has to do with the fact that local horses (including from the 'barbaric' North) are, relatively, ill-fed shaggy-haired ponies. (Local conditions do have something to do with the differences.) Also, there are certain foreign women that would command high prices in the brothels precisely because they are foreign; they don't even have to conform to the standards of knowing current poetry, and the latest musical forms.
• Foreshadowing: When Prince Shinzu is giving Minister Wen Zhou a The Reason You Suck speech—
  "Private wars, Wen Zhou, can become more than that."
• Friendly Enemy: Shen Tai (Kitai) and Bytsan sri Nespo (Tagur), to the point that the Taguran commander even thinks of Tai as a friend in his thoughts. Part of it comes from knowing him as something of a Worthy Opponent, for his burial duties.
• Gallows Humor: After Tai spends nearly two years burying corpses left on a battlefield of a Kitai/Tagur war, a Taguran considers him enough of a Worthy Opponent that he's even willing to lend him a horse. One of his recently assigned subordinates, however, accuses Tai of disrespecting the Taguaran dead. Shen Tai's response is to ask him to point them out, so he could get started with the disrespect.
• Gorgeous Gaijin: Sardian women command an exceptionally high price at the courtesan houses of Kitai, because of their blond hair and blue eyes.
• The Highwayman: Before he became a nationally renowned poet, Sima Zian was apparently a bandit of some skill. When Shen Tai is preparing for a scuffle in an inn's courtyard, he reminds himself of this fact when he sees Zian arrived with a sword, prepared to participate on Tai's behalf. The fact that he's several cups in doesn't matter.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: In-universe. The corrupt and inept First Minister Wen Zhou is regarded by future historians as a noble figure who was just trying to make the best of a bad situation. Meanwhile, more upstanding figures like General Xu Bihai are given the opposite treatment.
• Honor Before Reason: Shows up a lot, usually in the form of "We know what a good course of action is, but our culture says to do this instead."
  • It gets discussed (at least) twice:
    • Tai wants to refuse the horses, but he can't. First, because it's a gift from a princess; second, refusing so many cool horses makes him look bad to everyone else.
    • He then comes up with the idea of regifting the horses to the Emperor. But: not only would the Emperor be expected to honor him for his burial work, he would have a problem reciprocating such a lavish gift with an even better gift (being the Emperor, and an earthly representative of the Mandate of Heaven) to one of his subjects.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Spring Rain and quite a few others. They are similar to Chinese Yiji or the Japanese Geishas, who are valued for their skills in conversation and music as much as sex.
• I Love the Dead: When Shen Tai is nearly killed by a female assassin, he is saved by a Taguran warrior. The warrior intends to have sex with the assassin's corpse as his "reward", but Tai stops him.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Shen Tai is shown to still be somewhat besotted with a courtesan he knew while studying for the Civil Service exams, but they had had a conversation before he left on a self-imposed mission (that she didn't find out about until years later) about the possibility that she could become the concubine of an important civil servant. When she does, she still ends up thinking about Tai, especially because of that conversation. When he comes back (just before a civil war breaks out, as it happens), he's more concerned with whether or not she has a comfortable life, and whether she's prepared already for any of the unrest that they think is coming in the near future. This doesn't prevent Tai from confessing that he had thought about her too, or stating that it doesn't do her any favors having her know this, since they can't be together.
• Idiot Ball: As later in-universe historians point out, first minister Wen Zhou ordering the army of Xu Bihai to march out of the safety of the impregnable Teng Pass fortresses to engage Roshan's forces (which, as has been pointed out earlier by the general, was already crumbling with the strain of maintaining the siege) in open battle was probably an unwise thing to do. Funnily enough, Roshan's forces are so blindsided by the stupidity of Xu's attack that Xu almost managed to win the battle from sheer Refuge in Audacity — unfortunately, that was not enough, the battle was lost and the capital was lost to the rebels by the end of the week. The incident was based on the real-life Battle of Tongguan.
  • Another in-universe example pointed out directly by Shinzu: Wen Zhou sending An Li/Roshan away from the capital in the first place, when his rebellious instincts could have been dampened by keeping him at court, lavishing honors on him, and waiting for him to die from a galloping case of diabetes.
• Idle Rich: Prince Shinzu; he cultivates an image of an occasionally drunken playboy, with people occasionally, quietly, wondering if he's up to the task of learning how to rule the empire he will be the head of one day. Shen Tai has a chance to find out that, yes, he has been paying attention, but wants everyone to be Underestimating Badassery.
• Immortality Seeker: The Emperor; he has an alchemist on staff to try to make life-extension elixirs.
• Insistent Terminology: Sima Zian, the Banished Immortal. He's "Immortal" because of his poetry, and he's "Banished" because... he keeps having to leave (or flee) the capital due to some verses that end up stepping in someone's ego. (Part of the reputation is he's also repeatedly kicked out of heaven, for presumably the same reason; this also makes him "immortal". But considering that the capital is viewed as (an earthly home/location of) heaven, being the home of the Emperor, it's almost the same thing.)
• Laser-Guided Karma: There are (at least) three characters that received negative karma this way, and one positive.
  • Wen Zhou: Gave an order to Second Division soldiers that lead to their death in a battle, when they could have stayed put in a siege situation and had a guaranteed win. Later, other soldiers, including from Second Division (or friends of theirs), call him out, and end up shooting him full of arrows in grief over what happened.
  • Wen Jian: Had played Wen Zhou and An Li against each other, appearing to alternate in playing favorites; this leads to a Civil War, which includes the battle lost by the Second Division. She's killed soon after her cousin Zhou, but by Shen Liu, so the same soldiers aren't marked for death for shooting the Emperor's consort.
  • Shen Liu: He becomes an advisor to Wen Zhou, both for honor, and to help support his family's prospects. After Zhou's fall from grace (and subsequent death), he realizes that he's a marked man (and his family could end up in trouble) despite the fact Zhou had stopped taking his advice. He decides to commit Suicide by Cop, and instructs his brother on how to try to distance the family from the consequences of his actions.
  • Lin Chang: She hires Kanlin guards for Shen Tai, because of rumors she had heard (before his gift of horses). Later when she flees the capital, her own guards that she had hired refuse to let her travel past a certain point on her own; their presence is noted in the narration to have not only kept her and her servants safe, but also the caravan she was traveling with. Also, she had provided for a former servant that had lost his job with her husband; Shen Tai is able to use him to pass a message along that lets her leave the capital in time before it's sacked in the civil war.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When the narration discusses the importance of the timing of a certain pair of events (along with the movements of a different character being deemed "not part of any pattern that signified"), "Only a tale-spinner, not a true scholar — someone shaping a story for palace or marketplace — would note these conjunctions and judge them worth the telling, and storytellers were not important either. On this, the history-mandarins could agree."
• Libation for the Dead: "[Tai] set down his cup and knelt. He bowed his head to touch the green grass by the grave. He did this three times. He stood, reclaiming the cup, and he poured the libation on the ground, for his father." Li-Mei eventually does this for her brother Liu.
  "She still hasn't poured a libation for her oldest brother. She isn't sure if she ever will.
  "Many years later she does do that — pour an offering for Shen Liu — but only after the immediate past has become the distant past. How we remember changes how we have lived."
• May–December Romance: The elderly Emperor Taizu and the nubile Wen Jian (who's about 23...).
• Mono no Aware: Shen Tai spends most of the novel being reminded that, while he was performing his service in the west, life still went on for everyone else, even friends and family. Also, when his sister spends time at Stone Drum Mountain, one of the Kanlin leaders attempts to point out (while attempting to explain why she, like her brother is unsuited by personality to stay there) "Who chooses their fate? Who asks to be born into the times that are theirs?" (She responds with a quote from her father: "Well, who accepts the world only as it comes to them?" The Kanlin at first think the line is "from a disciple of the Cho Master".) Finally, Sima Zian quotes part of one of his own poems, written "during the last Taguran war. Tai's father's war.":
  Bitter wind blows battle smoke
  Wild geese and cranes fly.
  Later, moon's disk on the water.
  Plum blossoms mirrored in the river
  Until they fall.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Minister Wen Zhou is the one behind the attempts on Shen Tai's life, not because he's threatened by the man, but simply because Tai is an Old Flame of Zhou's favorite concubine, Spring Rain. What makes this a particularly egregious case is that Tai and Rain have more or less moved on from each other. Zhou simply sees killing Tai as a way to flex his newfound power.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Several key characters are transparent alter egos of historical figures: Sima Zian (Li Bai), Roshan (An Lushan), Emperor Taizu (Emperor Xuanzong), Wen Jian (Yang Guifei), Wen Zhou (Yang Guozhong), Empress Xue of Rygal (Li Wencheng), Xu Bihai (Geshu Han).
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Wen Jian is much smarter than those who take her flighty, spoiled persona at face value assume. Likewise, Shinzu managed to live to adulthood despite being the putative imperial heir by pretending to be just a hedonistic playboy and drunkard.
  • Also Roshan, although he mostly does it because it amuses him, and because he can — in a land where bad manners can be a literal capital offense, a man who can be freely uncouth in the presence of the emperor is powerful indeed.
• Oh, Crap!: When Wen Jian wishes to summon Shen Tai to ask about his gift (of horses), she sends a high ranking servant to 'summon' him.^note He can't exactly refuse, since she's the emperor's current favorite consort. When informed that his own Sardian horse was moved without his permission, he gets increasingly angrier and frustrated, until he finds a way to make the servant panic: aim a poet at him. (Given that the poet is Sima Zian, the "Banished Immortal"...)
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Tai announces, near the end of the book, that "[h]e was going home; the Kanlins would take the horses to the emperor," Wen Song ends up yelling at him. "She'd just called him by his name, which she never did."
  "I am touched that a Kanlin Warrior would care so much about her employer's choices," he said, trying for a lighter tone.
  She swore. She never did that, either. Lu Chen looked startled.
• Papa Wolf: One of the reasons that spurs An Li to rebel against Kitai is his fear that his sons are threatened by First Minister Wen Zhou. Ironically, An Li is assassinated on the orders of one of his sons.
• Posthumous Character: General Shen Gao, Tai's father. At the beginning of the book, he's been dead for years; indeed, Tai is nearly at the end of a two year 'mourning period' due to his death. Most of his accomplishments and opinions (including personal Character Development) are provided by narration, or Tai's self-reflection.
• Precision F-Strike: Wen Song ends up swearing at Shen Tai, at one point. O.O.C. Is Serious Business...
• Quote Mine: The Civil Service exams (which Tai had studied for, but couldn't complete due to his mourning period) includes questions where the answers are expected to include quotes from known poetry.
• Quote-to-Quote Combat: Tai ends up in several conversations where poetry lines are quoted back and forth, to bolster arguments. And, at one point, he ends up listening to a poem in an inn and has to help the poet finish the recital, because the poet had temporarily forgotten most of the ending.
• Red Baron: Ang Li, also known as Roshan.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Shen Tai manages to pull this unwittingly, where the "rules" involve how to properly talk to a trusted servant of the Emperor's favorite consort. He ends up at one point making a gesture that means, generally, "Please shut up, now"... and then wonders why he isn't being reprimanded as a rude army officer. After some thought, he figures it out: because he is a brother to a woman made royalty before being sent north, he, and his family, are now also royalty. It's possibly why Prince Shinzu later politely asks him to consider gifting his horses, versus saying "I expect your horses when you collect them."
• Shrine to the Fallen: Kuala Nor is an unofficial shrine, due to Shen Tai spending two years burying soldiers as part of his mourning period, after his father's death. Later, Tai gets to eventually visit his father's grave, on the family property. Included is a grave marker (which are usually placed after a year has passed, as mentioned for Liu's new grave), with lines from a poem as an epitaph, picked by youngest son Chao. The poem seems to espouse some of Shen Gao's late-in-life views on war. The actual poem is by Sima Zian.
  When choosing a bow choose a strong one,
  If you shot an arrow shoot a long one,
  To capture the enemy capture their leader,
  But carry within you the knowledge
  That war is brought to bring peace.
• Smug Snake: First Minister Wen Zhou isn't nearly as clever as he thinks he is. The man is, simply put, really, really bad at his job. His various schemes fail miserably, serving only to encourage rebellious factions, namely the one led by General An Li, to break away from Kitai. Eventually, he is confronted by Prince Shinzu and Consort Wen Jian, both of whom promptly put him in his place.
• Suicide by Cop: In the process of fleeing the capital, Shen Liu realize he has a short life expectancy, due to being Wen Zhou's right-hand man (who was blamed for giving orders that resulted in the deaths of other soldiers). He ends up presenting himself to the soldiers, who have already killed Wen Zhou, and states "Do it".
• The Dead Have Names: When Shen Tai borrows a horse to head back to the capital, he also gets a soldier from the nearby army post assigned to help take care of its needs every day. At one point he realizes he's forgotten the man's name, and asks... shortly before he's killed in an overnight scuffle based on a misunderstanding.
  [...]Tai said, "He is not nameless. His name was Wujen Ning. A soldier of the Second District army posted to Iron Gate Fortress, assigned by his commander to guard me and my horse, serving the emperor by obeying the orders of his officers, including myself."
  He was trying, even as he spoke, to remember the man, his features, words.[...] Tai was relieved he'd remembered the name. Had been able to offer it to this courtyard assembly, to the gods.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In a meeting involving Prime Minister Wen Zhou, his main advisor (Shen Liu), and Prince Shinzu, Shinzu eventually lets the two other men know that he thinks they're making several mistakes in how An Li is treated, to the point he thinks they have a firm grasp of the Idiot Ball. (Wen Zhou's actions end up convincing An Li to leave the city- where he's separated from his armies- but the prince thinks he should be distracted with Bread and Circuses, and award ceremonies, until he dies from diabetes.)
  "That is what you do, First Minister Wen, if you are thinking about the empire and not a private war between two men who hate and fear each other. Private wars, Wen Zhou, can become more than that."
• They Should Have Sent A Poet: Occasionally, Shen Tai would consider what was happening around him in the context of poems already written (occasionally by people he personally knew). He had been studying to be in the civil service before being required to 'mourn' his father's death for two years, and poetry would have been a part of the final exams he missed.
  It wasn't often that you lived the imagery of well known lines. [...] Maybe if a poem was true enough then sooner or later some of those who read it would live the image just as he was living it now. Or maybe some readers had the image before they even came to the poem and found it waiting there, an affirmation? The poet offering words for thoughts they held already.
  • Later he ends up asking Sima Zian for help in a conversation, and Sima engages in Quote-to-Quote Combat; meaning he has a poet to send....
• Title Drop: Several times, as part of the narration.
• Warrior Poet: Many courses of education require a knowledge of poetry, including for being a soldier (or at least a commander). Shen Tai himself spent time as a soldier, and also studied for the Civil Service exam, which includes poetry knowledge as part of its questioning.
  • Sima Zian is the example: the "Banished Immortal", known throughout the country, keeps getting in trouble for inappropriate verse... and used to be a bandit.
• Wham Line: The one that kicks off the main plot is how many Sardian horses Tai received as a gift.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The Emperor eventually decides to stop trying the alchemist's elixers, and retires to a country estate.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Wen Jian is universally acknowledged as the greatest beauty of the age.
• Worthy Opponent: Tai becomes a close friend with one of the commanders of the last enemies Kitai fought; enough that he's willing to outright lend him his own 'heavenly horse', give him advice that Tai accepts, and offers to write a letter that should help him keep the horses sequestered until Tai is ready to accept them. (The commander ends up promoted and in charge of a different post because he now appears to "have the ear of royalty"- this coincidentally means he's now in charge of the post his own father serves at.) It helps that Tai spent two years burying soldiers of both sides. The commanding officer even openly chews out one of his subordinates (that recently joined the outpost) that accuses Shen Tai of disrespecting some of the corpses (and later calls him a hot-headed idiot looking for battle glory.)

---

"Time runs both ways. We make stories of our lives."