The Manchu and Han Feud
A Judge Liu Adventure
Two girls are seized off the road in a famine year. The man who did it has a
Grand Councillor behind him. The only official who will hear the case ends up in
the cells himself.
About the Book
A drought drives a family toward the capital to look for a living, and in
Liangxiang County the local bullies take the two daughters by force, in daylight,
because nobody there has ever stopped them. What they have not reckoned with is
that the emperor has sent Liu Yong, the hunchback minister, out to inspect the
border and ask after the state of the people, and that Liu does his asking in
plain clothes.
The case turns out to reach much higher than a county. Behind the kidnappers
stands the household of Grand Councillor Ye, and when Liu opens the hearing the
Ye interest simply has him arrested and thrown into the south jail, where he
finds another prisoner he was not expecting. What follows is a chase in both
directions: a cry of injustice raised in front of a sedan chair in Peking, a
rescue that arrives with no time to spare, a second round of secret inquiries, a
trap laid for the go between, and finally the blade in the East Hall.
Fast, angry and complete in eight chapters, this is the compact companion to the
long Judge Liu cycle, and the one where the enemy is not a village schemer but
the court itself.
About This Edition
This complete English translation presents all eight chapters, rendered directly
from the Chinese text of the Chinese Text Project edition. This is a separate
story from the long 劉墉傳奇 cycle, with its own numbering and its own cast, and
it is published separately for that reason. Its paired chapter titles are kept in
their original two part form. The plain spoken storyteller's voice is preserved
rather than raised into literary English. Nothing is abridged.
Themes and Legacy
- Abduction and forced marriage in a famine year
- An honest minister jailed by the men he is investigating
- Manchu privilege against Han commoners, named plainly in the title
- Inspection in disguise, and justice that has to be fought for twice
- A compact companion piece to the great Judge Liu cycle
For Readers Who Love
The Cases of Judge Liu - The Cases of Judge Li - The Cases of Judge Lan - The
Cases of Judge Dee - Chinese Detective Fiction - Historical Fiction in Translation
"They took the girls in daylight because no one had ever stopped them. That was
the year someone did."
At a glance
About the series
Rediscover the great epics, mysteries and chronicles of dynastic China: gods and generals, swindlers and scholars, courtesans, ghosts and emperors, in complete English translations.
