Shao Song

This story takes place after one of the most infamous humiliations in Chinese history: the Jingkang Incident.

A modern university student named Zhao Jiu wakes up in the body of the emperor Zhao Gou.

It is a terrible time to become emperor.

Nearly half the country has been lost, the Northern Song has collapsed, and the newly formed Song government is retreating south. Most officials are no longer thinking about how to recover the lost territory. They are thinking about how to keep the government alive, protect their positions, and save their families.

So becoming emperor here is not exactly a great starting point.

Most days, you are either fleeing or preparing to flee.

Run fast enough, and you are still the emperor.

Run a little too slowly, and you may end up like the two emperors before you: captured by the enemy.

In Shao Song, you get political intrigue, large-scale wars, court struggles, and many real historical figures.

I have read a lot of alternate-history novels, and most of them tend to follow a similar formula.

The protagonist knows history, recruits famous generals before they become famous, starts climbing the technology tree, and then spends the rest of the story crushing everyone with knowledge from the future.

Shao Song is a little different.

Zhao Jiu knows history too, of course.

But an emperor has his own problems. Ministers have their own interests. Generals are not one united group waiting to obey.

You may know that someone will become a legendary and loyal general in the future, so naturally you want to promote him early.

But everyone else does not know that.

To them, this may just look like an inexperienced officer being promoted far beyond his rank because the emperor happens to like him.

Some people will think it is unfair.

Some will worry that their own power is being taken away.

Some simply will not respect him.

And even if the emperor gives him the position, will the soldiers under him actually obey?

Does he already have the ability he will be famous for years later?

Can he really handle that responsibility right now?

That is one of the things I find most interesting about Shao Song.

Knowing history does not mean you can control history.

War is not something an emperor can start just by saying, “Let’s fight.”

Where does the food come from?

Where does the money come from?

Do you have enough soldiers?

Enough horses?

How do you move supplies?

What happens if you lose?

And what happens when the generals on the front line do not get along with one another?

Shao Song spends a lot of time on these problems.

It is not the kind of time-travel story where the protagonist comes from the modern world and everyone in the past suddenly becomes stupid.

Zhao Jiu’s biggest advantage is that he knows history, but he still has to deal with the real problems of the period one by one.

Personally, I do think the novel has a bit of a learning curve.

If you know nothing about Chinese history, especially the Song dynasty, Zhao Gou, Yue Fei, or the Jingkang Incident, the beginning may feel difficult. There are a lot of names, official titles, military units, and historical references, and it may take some time before everything starts to click.

But once you become familiar with the period, the novel gets much better.

Because you already know how the real history went.

And that makes you keep wondering:

What if Zhao Gou had really chosen a different path?

What would have happened then?

That is what makes Shao Song so interesting to me.

English availability: A partial English translation is currently available, with machine-translated versions covering the full novel. There does not appear to be an official complete English edition yet.