Trigger warning for rape.
Shelley Parker-Chan concludes her fantastical account of the meteoric rise of Zhu Yuanzhang in He Who Drowned the World. (The first book of the duology is She Who Became the Sun.) In Parker-Chan’s version of events, Zhu is the unloved daughter of a poor farming family who “stole” her brother’s fate after the death of all her relatives. In disguise as a boy, Zhu badgered a monastery into feeding and teaching her until they were destroyed by agents of the Yuan Dynasty. That didn’t stop the driven Zhu: she manages to fight her way to the top of a rebel army. In this concluding volume, we see Zhu’s audacity in full force as she battles the Yuan Emperor and everyone else who claims to hold the Mandate of Heaven.
Where She Who Became the Sun is a story of survival at all costs, He Who Drowned the World is more reflective (albeit bloody). We rejoin Zhu, at the head of the Red Turbans with her beloved wife Ma Xiuying, in the middle of a four-way war. Not only is she facing the Emperor’s Mongol army, she also has to find ways to ally with or defeat the army of Ouyang, a tortured eunuch formerly in the service of the Mongol ruling class, and the army of Madam Zhang, a scheming woman who uses the men in her life like chess pieces. Much of He Who Drowned the World contains reimaginings of real battles or political machinations as all the parties jockey for any advantage. Over the course of the first half, Zhu learns that she has a hidden enemy in the form of the black-hearted Wang Biaoxiang, who also wants to sit on the Great Khan’s throne.
As Zhu draws closer to her goal, the emotional stakes rise. In the first half of the story, in She Who Became the Sun, Zhu didn’t spend much time thinking about anything other than her ultimate goal of seizing power. She would fight and kill, if need be, but she never hesitated. Machiavelli isn’t around in Zhu’s world to declare that the ends justify the means but as Zhu starts to see the terrible cost of what greatness and power demand, Zhu starts to wonder about the means she’s been using. She also has opportunities to see how the unrelenting desire for revenge is eating her competition alive. And yet, how can she go back? There will be no mercy for anyone in her army, for her wife, or for herself. Zhu also holds the Mandate of Heaven and plenty of ideas about how to rule China with more justice than the Yuan ever did.
The last quarter of He Who Drowned the World puzzled me a bit. It has an entirely different atmosphere and pace compared to the first three-quarters. I don’t want to ruin anything that happens in this incredible duology but I want to register how abrupt I found the shift. I wish that the transition from battles and scheming to high emotional drama had been more than the textual equivalent of a smash cut. Other than this jarring left turn, I really enjoyed She Who Became the Sun and He Who Drowned the World. I loved what Parker-Chan did with Chinese history, bringing it to life with psychologically rich characters and beautifully described, highly detailed settings.
I’m glad to see more Asian-inspired stories appearing in the United States; I feel like my horizons have broadened to include to many more plots and characters to explore. I hope to see more in the future from Parker-Chan.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.