Publisher's Synopsis
This is a book telling brief stories of influential Chinese historical figures, including emperors, queens, ministers, generals and artists. Through their epic and legendary experiences, we could see the overall history they lived in and feel the magic of choice and destiny. In history, where we are least alone. Since 221 B.C, there have been 422 emperors in throne, from the first emperor in China, to the last emperor's abdication in 1912. They possessed centralized political, financial and military power. This paramount power of a big country combined with different personalities and intelligence gave them legendary stories. Women in those emperors' lives were countless, but important ones were influential and documented. They were glowing in a patriarchy society, because of their outstanding intelligences, incredible beauties, remarkable achievements and legendary destinies. Unlike many emperors who could inherit the throne and power from their royal families, ministers and generals usually needed to work hard and fight for chances to serve the country. Their fates were significantly influenced by emperors they were serving and the whole of society at that time. Some people realized their dreams and brought the whole of country prosperity, while some did horrible things that made society suffer from chaos and disasters. Thousands of years of history is full of happiness, sadness and grief, also consists of large numbers of epic, intriguing or controversial stories. People living, fighting and contributing in those extraordinary times are worth reading. Though each person's story in this book could be written into a long biography or an interesting novel, the writer selects the most essential parts and makes an effort to introduce them explicitly and comprehensively. Almost each story could be finished within one minute, but the fun, thinking and shock after reading might last pretty long.
