History Literature / UnderHeaven

* ForeignCultureFetish: Nearly everyone in Kitai would {{squee}} over Sardian horses; some of it has to do with the fact that local horses (including from the 'barbaric' North) are, relatively, ill-fed shaggy-haired ponies. (Local conditions ''do'' have something to do with the differences.) Also, there are certain foreign women that would command high prices in the brothels precisely because they are foreign; they don't even have to confirm to the standards of knowing current poetry, and the latest musical forms.

* BlackComedy: While traveling to the capital to officially announce to the Emperor that he's receiving a gift of horses (being the loyal subject that he is; horses of that type are very much in demand), Tai has to keep pointing out to various officials demanding the horses for themselves that not doing so could look like treason. Never mind the fact that he didn't ask for the horses in the first place, and is spending most of the trip trying to thing of a way to refuse the gift.

** Also, at one point there's a scuffle, with one side being Tai, his Kanlin bodyguard Song, and Zian. Song is automatically presumed to be capable of defending herself, Tai has only a few worries about his own skills, and Zian... well Tai isn't thinking about how much wine Zian's already had that night, he's thinking that Zian ''used'' to be a bandit....

** Sardia: Bactria, Whose famed Heavenly Horses (Ferghana horses) are also said to sweat blood when heavily exerted.
** Tagur: Tibet, the name of their capital, Rygyal, is Tibetan for "[city of] Kings".

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Shen Tai manages to pull this unwittingly, where the "rules" involve how to properly talk to a trusted servant of the Emperor's favorite consort. He ends up at on point making a gesture that means, generally, "Please shut up, now"... and then wonders why he isn't being reprimanded as a rude army officer. After some thought, he figures it out: because he is [[spoiler:a brother to a woman made royalty ''before'' being sent north]], he(, and his family,) are now [[spoiler:also royalty]]. It's possibly why Prince Shinzu later politely asks him to ''consider'' gifting his horses, versus saying "I expect your horses when you collect them."

* DeathByOriginStory: The book starts off with a bunch of graves being dug; Shen Tai is where he is for his 'mourning period' (after his father's death) because of his family's involvement in a previous foreign war.

* GallowsHumor: After Tai spends nearly two years burying corpses left on a battlefield of a Kitai/Tagur war, a Taguran considers him enough of a WorthyOpponent that he's even willing to lend him a horse. One of his recently assigned subordinates, however, accuse Tai of disrespecting the Taguaran dead. Shen Tai's response is to ask him to point them out, so he could get started with the disrespect.

* DueToTheDead: Shen Tai picked his task of burying soldiers as his form of respect for his father, who had died (before the start of the book). Later on, when [[spoiler:the first minister]] is killed, certain soldiers are relieved that he'll be buried, but without full honors. The burial (versus random unmarked grave) is considered important, to avoid a vengeful ghost.

* HonorBeforeReason: Shows up a lot, usually in the form of "We know what a good course if action is, but our culture says do this instead."

* CainAndAbel: Assassins are sent after Shen Tai, and he thinks his elder brother had either sent them or recommended their use, in order to preemptively prevent him from interfering with their sister's marriage. This turned out to be false, but there were some hard feelings involved. [[spoiler:The Prime Minister had hired them on his own initiative due to having previous feelings for the Minister's newest concubine.]]

* PosthumousCharacter: General Shen Gao. Tai's father. At the beginning of the book, he's been dead for years; undead, Tai is nearly at the end of a two year 'mourning period' due to his death. Most of his accomplishments and opinions (including personal CharacterDevelopment) are provided by narration, or Tai's self-reflection.

* NoPronunciationGuide: The novel does not bother to explain how the names rendered Mandarin Pinyin sounds (to be fair, you can probably go on the internet to check how pinyin works). Although Kay is generally good enough to name most of his characters something easily pronounceable for anglophones, avoiding some of the more exotic Chinese phonemes (like words with ''c, x,'' or ''q'').

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Shen Tai manages to pull this unwittingly, where the "rules" involve how to properly talk to a trusted servant of the Emperor's favorite consort. He ends up at on point making a gesture that means, generally, "Please shut up, now"... and then wonders why he isn't being reprimanded as a rude army officer. After some thought, he figures it out: because he is [[spoiler:a brother to a woman made royalty ''before'' being sent north]], he (and his family, are now [[spoiler:also royalty]]. It's possibly why Prince Shinzu later politely asks him to ''consider'' gifting his horses, versus saying "I expect your horses when you collect them."

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Shen Tai manages to pull this unwittingly, where the "rules" involve how to properly talk to a trusted servent of the Emperor's favorite consort. He ends up ate on point making a gesture that means, generally, "Please shut up, now"... and then wonders why he isn't being reprimanded as a rude army officer. After some thought, he figures it out: because he is [[spoiler:a brother to a woman made royalty ''before'' being sent north]], he (and his family, are now [[spoiler:also royalty]]. It's possibly why Prince Shinzu later politely asks him to ''consider'' gifting his horses, versus saying "I expect your horses when you collect them."

* ScrewthTheRulesIHaveConnections: Shen Tai manages to pull this unwittingly, where the "rules" involve how to properly talk to a trusted servent of the Emperor's favorite consort. He ends up ate on point making a gesture that means, generally, "Please shut up, now"... and then wonders why he isn't being reprimanded as a rude army officer. After some thought, he figures it out: because he is [[spoiler:a brother to a woman made royalty ''before'' being sent north]], he (and his family, are now [[spoiler:also royalty]]. It's possibly why Prince Shinzu later politely asks him to ''consider'' gifting his horses, versus saying "I expect your horses when you collect them."

* SuicideByCop: In the process of fleeing the capital, [[spoiler:Shen Liu]] realize he has a short life expectancy, due to being [[spoiler:Wen Zhou]]'s right-hand man (who was blamed for giving orders that resulted in the deaths of ''other'' soldiers). He ends up presenting himself to the soldiers, who have already killed [[spoiler:Wen Zhou]], and states "Do it".

** And Song is exasperated that it took so long for him to ask if sthe governor's daughter ''was'' one; she was waiting outside the door, and if he hadn't broken things up on his own... she would have. For his own safety, of course.

* TheWoobie: Shen Liu: he spends his life advancing the education and career ladder, becoming a chief politician's main advisor, in an effort to support his family. He even manages to get his sister declared a princess, and made part of an arranged marriage which includes an ''actual'' princess, to also bring his family honor. But by the end of the book? His brother Shen Tai is back home from a self-imposed exile initially thinking [[spoiler:Liu sent an assassin to prevent him from interfering with the marriage]], then [[spoiler:First Minister Wen Zhou is dead]] due to several political mistakes that lead to a civil war, and he ends up [[spoiler:dying himself, with directions to Tai to try to denounce him]], in an effort to save the family from [[spoiler:having revenge being taken because of his association with Wen Zhou]]. Which leads him to being a Woobie suffering a TraumaCongaLine, when all he wanted was a better life for his family.

* DeathByOriginStory: The book starts off with a bunch of graves being dug; Shen Tai is where he is for his 'mourning period' (after his father's death) because of his family's involvement in a (previous) war.

** Lin Chang: She hires Kanlin guards for Shen Tai, because of rumors she had heard (before his gift of horses). Later when she flees the capital, her own guards that she had hired refuse to let her travel past a certain point on her own; their presence is noted in the narration to have not only kept her and her servants safe, but also the caravan she was traveling with. Also, she had provided for a former servent that had lost his job with her husband; Shen Tai is able to use him to pass a message along that lets her leave the capital in time before it's sacked in the civil war.

* OhCrap: When Wen Jian wishes to summon Shen Tai to ask about his gift (of horses), she sends a high ranking servent to 'summon' him.[[note]]He can't exactly refuse, since she's the emperor's current favorite consort.[[/note]] When informed that his own Sardian horse was moved without his permission, he gets increasingly angrier and frustrated, until he finds a way to make the servant panic: aim a poet at him. (Given that the poet is Sima Zian, the "Banished Immortal"...)

* IWantMyBelovedtoBeHappy: Shen Tai is shown to still be somewhat besotted with a courtesan he knew while studying for the Civil Service exams, but they had had a conversation before he left on a self imposed mission (that she didn't find out about until years later) about the possibility that she could become the concubine of an important civil servant. When she does, she still ends up thinking about Tai, especially because of that conversation. When he comes back (just before a civil war breaks out, as it happens), he's more concerned with whether or not she has a comfortable life, and whether she's prepared already for any of the unrest that they think is coming in the near future. This doesn't prevent Tai from confessing that he had thought about her too, or stating that it doesn't do her any favors having her know this, since they can't be together.

* BlackComedy: After Tai spends nearly two years burying corpses left on a battlefield of a Kitai/Tagur war, a Taguran considers him enough of a WorthyOpponent that he's even willing to lend him a horse. One of his recently assigned subordinates, however, accuse Tai of disrespecting the Taguaran dead. Shen Tai's response is to ask him to point them out, so he could get started with the disrespect.

** Another in-universe example pointed out directly by Shinzu: Wen Zhou sending An Li/Roshan away from the capital in the first place, when his rebellious instincts could have been dampened by keeping him at court, lavishing honors on him, and waiting for him to die from a galloping case of diabetes.

* JumpingOnAGrenade: After [[spoiler:Wen Zhou]] is killed, [[spoiler:Shen Liu]] realized that he'll eventually be a target as well. He sets up his death as a SuicideByCop with the same soldiers that killed [[spoiler:Wen Zhou]], and instructs [[spoiler: his brother]] to do what he can, politically, to distance himself, in an attempt to save his family. He even points out that [[spoiler:Tai openly (even if erroneously) accusing his brother Liu of sending an assassin]] would help his case.

* SuicideByCop: In the process of fleeing the capital, [[spoiler:Shen Liu]] realize he has a short life expectancy, due to being [[spoiler:Wen Zhou]]'s right-hand man. He ends up presenting himself to the soldiers, who have already killed [[spoiler:Wen Zhou]], and states "Do it".

* TheAtoner: Shen Tai; he believes that the ghosts of those that died in a previous war will only settle if someone makes amends -- by burying those slain in battle, he hopes to earn forgiveness for his family's involvement. (It just so happens there are two outposts of soldiers, one from each side, nearby; they end up indirectly competing against each other through who can honor Shen Tai the most through the supplies they bring him and helping with repairs, in alternating trips every two weeks; first one, then two weeks later the other, and so on. He suspects it's to leave him more free time to work on his self-assigned task.)

** [[spoiler:Shen Liu]]; he realizes he's a marked man, since he was [[Wen Zhou]]'s right-hand man. After using the knife, he "volunteers" to be next, presents himself, and manages to make it look like it was his choice by giving the order to fire.