More than four decades after putting down his pen, former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), who wrote several series of martial arts fiction under the pseudonym Shang Kuan Ting (上官鼎), is ready to make a comeback.
He is scheduled to release his latest novel, a five-volume martial arts fiction titled The Sword of the Kingly Way (王道劍), in April, after 15 months writing it in honor of a deceased friend.
Shang Kuan Ting was the pen name jointly used by Liu and his two siblings in the 1960s, during which they penned about 10 novels in an effort to “earn extra pocket money.”
The new 880,000-word-long novel is set in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, during the outbreak of a three-year-long civil war that led to a centuries-old mystery regarding the whereabouts of the ruler at the time, the Jianwen Emperor (建文帝).
The war began in 1399 when the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di (朱棣), sought to usurp the throne from Jianwen. It is widely believed that Jianwen was killed in a palace fire, but there have also been rumors that he survived the political turmoil and later became a Buddhist monk.
“Don’t you think it is unbelievable that an emperor just disappeared off the face of the earth like that?” Liu asked at a marketing event for his new book earlier this month in Taipei.
Liu said it was the sudden passing of one of his close friends two years ago that prompted him to pick up his pen again.
“I visited my friend’s company in Ningde City in [China’s] Fujian Province, and was impressed by how he had incorporated the spirit of the Chinese culture’s ‘kingly way’ into his firm’s management and operations,” Liu said.
The “kingly way,” or wangdao (王道), is a Confucian political concept that advocates ruling by moral rightness and benevolence.
Liu said that during his visit, several Chinese historians told him about the “latest developments” regarding the mystery surrounding Jianwen, including the discovery of an ancient tomb in the city in 2009 that was designed and decorated in a manner befitting an emperor and included Buddhist-style architecture.
The discovery of a monk’s robe, believed to date back to the Ming Dynasty and embroidered with patterns of five-clawed golden dragons — a symbol of the Chinese emperors — also strengthened Liu’s belief that Jianwen, with the assistance of his supporters, had managed to escape by shaving his head and becoming a monk.
When asked if his latest work drew inspiration from the current political situation, as most martial arts fiction does, Liu said: “Since history always repeats itself, it is inevitable to find some parts [of the series] reminiscent of current events.”
Liu said that although the philosophy of the “kingly way” had long taken a back seat to tyranny and arbitrariness in the past, it had become more prevalent in the 21st century as people began to emphasize sustainable development and take into consideration the needs of future generations.
“The ‘kingly way’ concept can be applied to politics and business. However, it can only be put into practice with the support of a powerful force; otherwise it would be just another topic of empty talk,” Liu said.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read: