Tear Jerker / Under Heaven

• The book starts with a bunch of graves being dug....
• Given that the story is based on actual history, you know that the body count is going to be high, even if it's off-screen.
• The Empress gets set aside for someone younger, and it eventually turns out to be all for nothing, due to the 'other woman' dying and the Emperor retiring in recognition of his poor judgement.
• Shen Liu: he spends his life advancing the education and career ladder, becoming a chief politician's main advisor, in an effort to support his family. He even manages to get his sister declared a princess, and made part of an arranged marriage which includes an actual princess, to also bring his family honor. But by the end of the book? His brother Shen Tai is back home initially thinking Liu sent an assassin to prevent him from interfering with the marriage, First Minister Wen Zhou is dead due to several political mistakes that lead to a civil war, and he ends up dying himself, with directions to Tai to try to denounce him, in an effort to save the family from having revenge being taken because of his association with Wen Zhou. Which leads him to being The Woobie suffering a Trauma Conga Line, when all he wanted was a better life for his family.
• "Sima Zian, the Banished Immortal, Master Poet of the age, who was there that day at the Ma-wai posting inn, never wrote a word about that morning."