Zhan Chun Qiu, or A War of Spring & Autumn, is a historical fiction recently released by Hai Fei, a Shaoxing-born fictionist living in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province. Despite its masculine title, the new novel spends perhaps more words than necessary to describe the female characters such as Xi Shi the Beauty and Zheng Dan, both sent by the King of the State of Yue to his rivals as honey-traps. The novel’s tragedy colors are spiced up by a well-crafted espionage war sizzling with the captivating subtlety of emotional ups and downs of women. In a noticeably feminine perspective, the author seems to have created a new narrative style in his “espionage” series that has already garnered an impressive fan base. The epic settings drawing on the historical events of the Spring and Autumn era (770-476BC) render a spectral sense of mystery to the plotting, with warcraft only used sparingly where necessary to highlight the mentality of the seemingly small characters.

The plot is set in the backdrop of the legend of Goujian, whose spectacular comeback story is arguably the best illustration of the maxim “a man can be destroyed, but not defeated”. After losing the battle in 496 BC, the king put aside his self-esteem and served for three years as the servant of the King of Wu until he was eventually allowed to return to his native state. Hai Fei’s new novel, however, strives to present the legendary ruler in a fuller picture by exploring his lesser-known sides – his kingly cruelty and recklessness that eventually led to his estrangement with Fan Li and the tragic death of Wen Zhong, a strategist and one of the most devoted and talented advisors to Goujian.

In the author’s reconstruction of the historical intricacy of the turbulent warring years, the catastrophic love between the commander Tian Chong and Zisu, the girl he knew he should stay away from but fell in love at first sight, constitutes a stirring chapter that brings the novel’s espionage charm into full play. In desperation, Tian Chong had to cross the ultimate moral line to try protecting the girl and their child. The result of the betrayal is their son becoming a child never born and the nervous breakdown of Zisu.

In my opinion, the most compelling character in the novel is Youyang, the wife of Goujian. Her feminine beauty waned in the three years of humiliated life after her husband lost the battle as well as his pride, but in the darkest years in life her heart became a piece of stone. Years of suffering honed her scheming and manipulating skills to perfection, and she is depicted in the novel as the invisible, cold-blooded mastermind behind a series of political intrigue that eventually changes the life of people she loved or hated and the fate of the state. Trying her best to restore the pride of her husband, she has to suffer from the pain of self-betraying.

The author is a master of weaving the minor details vaguely revealed by historical documentation into a thrilling drama that contains new, non-mainstream perspectives without sabotaging historical truth. In the novel, the fate of individuals, regardless of social status and gender, is the most important motif, running throughout the narrative to create spell-binding tension and sensation.

The author strives to put romance and warcraft in juxtaposition. His bold way of storytelling fills the plotting with the beauty of romanticism. His mastery of narrative framework design is fully shown in the new novel. Like an architect, he plays with historical materials effortlessly, focusing on emotional collision and the unfathomable abyss of human nature, and avoiding making conclusions.

Fairly speaking, it takes a lot of brain work to follow the flow of the novel. However, the cinematic sensation achieved by the author through the stunning power of words is easy to get on the part of the reader. The novel is more than about the rebirth of a king. It is about the joys and sorrows of life, and the fickleness of human hearts.