Under Heaven is a historical fantasy novel by Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay. Kay's eleventh novel, it was published in April 2010 by Viking Canada. The work, set in a secondary world based upon Tang China, is a departure for Kay in that it takes place outside of a setting based on Europe or the Mediterranean. It recounts events based on the An Shi Rebellion. Under Heaven takes place in a completely new world, as seen by it having only one moon as opposed to the two moons normally present in Guy Gavriel Kay's works. In 2013 he published a second novel, River of Stars, set approximately 400 years later in the same world.
Contents
Overview
Shen Tai, the second son of a renowned general of Kitai, is given a lavish gift of 250 prized Sardian horses from the Kitan Empress of the neighbouring Taguran Empire to honour his work burying the dead of both sides at a battleground in the far west of Kitai still haunted by the ghosts of the slain soldiers. This extraordinary gift threatens to engulf Shen Tai in the political and dynastic struggles that surround the throne of the Kitan Emperor, but also permits Shen Tai to form friendships and gain access to the most powerful figures in Kitai. Narrowly escaping an assassination attempt with the assistance of the ghosts of the unburied, Shen Tai leaves the battleground on the western frontier to journey toward the capital, Xinan, protected by Wei Song, a female Kanlin warrior. Another line of narrative follows Shen Tai's sister Li-Mei who is sent north to be married off to a leader of the northern Bogü for the purposes of advancing the career interests of Shen Liu, their older brother. Shen Tai must determine a way forward for himself, which involves making choices between personal, family and imperial needs, choices which become all the more perilous when Kitai is convulsed by a military rebellion that threatens the ruling dynasty. The story weaves themes of loss, chance, honour and friendship in a world still haunted by magic.
Detailed summary
The story takes place in a fictionalized China that corresponds approximately to the Tang era. The Empire of Kitai (China) has enjoyed a period of prosperity and peace under its now aging emperor Taizu in his capital at Xinan. Peace has been made with the Taguran Empire (Tibet) to the west, and with the Bogü (Turkic or Mongolian) peoples of the northwest. At the opening of Under Heaven Shen Tai, second of four children from a well-known family in central Kitai, has gone to the battle site of Kuala Nor near the western frontier of Kitai following his father's death to commence the task of burying the bones of the dead Kitan and Taguran soldiers killed twenty years earlier. At Kuala Nor Shen Tai is haunted by the ghosts of the dead whose cries can be heard at night. Word of his efforts spreads east to Xinan and west into the Taguran Empire, whose empress, a former Kitan princess, prevails upon the Taguran emperor to make Tai a gift of 250 prized Sardian horses (Ferghana horse). Shortly after receiving word of this gift, a friend, Chou Yan, arrives with news of Tai's sister, but the Kanlin warrior accompanying Yan is actually an assassin. She kills Yan before he can tell Tai his news, but Tai is saved by the ghosts and by the return of the Tagurans.
Knowing that he has already been the target of assassination, and fearing that word of the extraordinary gift of the Sardian horses will only make his death more attractive, Shen devises a strategy designed to keep himself alive in order to deliver the valuable Sardian horses to the Empire with the assistance of Bytsan sri Nespo, a Taguran officer with whom Shen develops a lifelong friendship. Returning to the Kitai with a single Sardian horse, he finds a Kanlin warrior, Wei Song, in pursuit of the first, false Kanlin. She has been sent by Shen's former lover Spring Rain, a courtesan who has now become the favoured concubine of Wen Zhou, the new prime minister of Kitai, and is able to save his life against further assassination attempts.
Xu Bihai, the military governor in the western city of Chenyao, who covets the Sardian horses, unsuccessfully attempts to gain control of Shen through his attractive daughter. At Chenyao Shen is befriended by Sima Zian, a famous poet some twenty years Shen's senior, who accompanies Shen to Xinan and emerges as one of the few people that Shen can trust unreservedly. He also informs Shen that his sister, Li-Mei, has been named a princess sent north to the Bogü as a bride for the son of the Bogü leader. Before reaching the capital, Shen is approached by the most powerful figures in Kitai, each trying to assess their prospects for acquiring control of the famed Sardian horses. These include Wen Jian, the Precious Consort, a dazzling young woman of good family with whom the elderly Emperor Taizu has become infatuated, and An Li, known as 'Roshan', the military governor of barbarian origins who has become an increasingly powerful figure, commanding the forces of three military districts in the northeast. Shen Tai continues toward Xinan, and as he approaches the great metropolis he is swept into palace intrigue. At Xinan there is a brief reunion with Spring Rain.
Characters
Shen Tai is the second son of Shen Gao, a famed general in the Kitai military, through whom a major part of the narrative is experienced. His past includes periods spent as a soldier, a Kanlin acolyte and a scholar in Xinan. In Xinan, he became very attached to a courtesan, Spring Rain. Following the death of his father two years before the opening of the novel, Shen Tai retired to Kuala Nor, site of a battleground twenty years earlier, to begin the task of burying the bones of the deceased warriors. In leaving Xinan, he was obliged to leave behind Spring Rain.
Shen Li-Mei is the younger sister of Shen Tai, and daughter of General Shen Gao. Assigned to the Empress initially, Li-Mei is then made a princess and betrothed to a Bogü leader and sent north beyond the borders of Kitai. Li-Mei's journey outward, rescue and return to Kitai have a profound effect on her character development, and a significant portion of the narrative follows Li-Mei's viewpoint.
Spring Rain was born in Sardia, a land far to the west of Kitai. A courtesan from the North District of Xinan, she is the beloved of Shen Tai, but he is obliged to leave her upon the death of his father, and she is acquired as concubine by Wen Zhou. When she discovers Wen Zhou's plot to kill Shen Tai, she dispatches Wei Song to protect Tai. Compassionate as well as beautiful, Spring Rain inspires loyal devotion among some of her household staff and a crippled beggar that allows her to escape the occupation of Xinan by General An Li.
Wen Zhou is the prime minister of Kitai (historical Yang Guozhong), and is aligned against General An Li in a struggle for power around the throne. His appointment as Prime Minister was facilitated by the fact that he is the cousin of Wen Jian, the emperor's new favourite concubine. He buys Spring Rain from the North District brothel where she works and establishes her in his household as favoured concubine, and then moves against Shen Tai, a rival for her affections.
Shen Liu is the eldest of the Shen siblings. An intellectually brilliant and subtle mandarin, he has become principal advisor to Wen Zhou, and was behind the plan to exile his sister Li-Mei as a bride to the Bogü to enhance his status.
Taizu is the aging emperor of Kitai (historical Emperor Xuanzong of Tang). At the beginning of the story the reader learns that he has become completely enamoured of his new concubine Wen Jian, and has begun receiving alchemical treatments to enhance his vigour and prolong his life.
Reception
Under Heaven was given a favorable review by Toronto's The Globe and Mail. Here, reviewer Robert Wiersema described it as: "a sumptuous feast of storytelling, a beautifully written tale with a beating, breaking heart at its core that will have readers in tears by its final pages". Michael Dirda, in his review for The Washington Post, Beware Gift Horses, noted that Kay has leavened the story with "appealing minor characters" that enhance the richness of the plot.