Literature / Qiang Jin Jiu

"Fate wants to bind me here for life, but this is not the path I choose. The yellow dust submerged my brothers deep under. I have no wish to bow in submission to an illusory fate. The imperial edict can’t save my troops, and the imperial court can’t fill the stomachs of my mounts. I'm no longer willing to lay down my life for this purpose. I want to surmount that mountain. I am going to fight for myself."

Qiang Jin Jiu (将进酒, translated as either "Please Drink Up!" or "Invitation to Wine") is a danmei Web Novel by Tang Jiu Qing, first published on the Chinese web novel site JJWXC.

The Six Prefectures of Zhongbo were offered to the foreign enemies on a silver platter, and Shen Zechuan was taken into custody in the capital, reduced to a drowning dog^note idiom for someone who's lost favour and power loathed and condemned by all. Xiao Chiye followed the scent of the furore and made his way over. But instead of setting others on him, he kicked Shen Zechuan with his very own leg that rendered the latter an invalid. Who would expect this invalid to turn around and bite him in a counterattack until he was all drenched in blood? That was the start of an epic feud between both men who tear at each other every time they come face-to-face with one another.

The novel is completed with 282 chapters. An English translation is available here. The novel has been adapted into an audio drama. Links to the episodes with English fansubs can be found here. A television Live-Action Adaptation has been announced, though no information is available yet about the cast or when it will air.

Contains examples of:

• Altar Diplomacy: Subverted in the Qi-Hua union, where Hua Xiangyi pushed her own agenda instead of being a pawn for her family or Qudu, and she ends up with the daughter of her original intended.
• Ambiguous Time Period: Despite being set in a Fictional Earth, the government structure closely resembles the Ming Dynasty. (Only the Ming Dynasty had an Imperial Bodyguards or Jin Yi Wei.) However, the extent of civil conflict in Dazhou is more reminiscent of earlier Chinese history when the country was less unified.
• Animal Motifs: Wolf symbolism is constantly invoked for Xiao Chiye and the Libei Calvary. Each of the Biansha tribes also have their own animal-based motif, with the hawk being associated with Hasen and Amu'er's clan.
• Anti-Hero / Villain Protagonist: Shen Zechuan has no problem with things like skinning someone alive.
• Anti-Villain: From the perspective of Biansha, Amu'er is a visionary leader who wants to unite them and expand into more fertile territories. Their war is taking back land they had access to before Dazhou expanded its borders.
  • Like Shen Zechuan, Xue Xiuzhuo isn't in the political struggle for personal or selfish interest. They even have many of the same political and policy objectives, like removing the corruption of the Eight Families, and implementing a citizenship registry to overhaul taxation.
• As You Know: The novel's first lines are an interrogator questioning Shen Zechuan, and in the process he meticulously explains all the events that led up to this. It includes reminding Shen Zechuan of who his own older brother was.
• Battle in the Rain: Many key battles in this novel take place in the rain:
  • The fight between Xiao Chiye and Qiao Tianya takes place late at night while it rains heavily.
  • It rains when Xiao Chiye fights Han Cheng after Li Jianheng's death at the end of Book 1.
  • Xiao Chiye's first battle and defeat with Hasen also takes place in the rain.
  • It rains on and off during multi-day the battle for Duanzhou. Fei Sheng struggles to light the beacon to call for aid because of the rain. It also rains during key moments like arrival of reinforcements from Tantai Hu and later, Xiao Chiye, and during the showdown between Xiao Chiye and Hasen.
  • In the finale in Qudu, it is raining as Shen Zechuan takes the city.
• Beta Couple: Xiao Tianya and Yao Wenyu
• Big Brother Instinct: Ji Mu died protecting Shen Zechuan at Chashi Sinkhole. Xiao Jiming is also very protective of Xiao Chiye, subtly scaring everyone from random guards to royalty like Li Jianheng into treating Xiao Chiye well, and wants to send troops when he hears Xiao Chiye is in trouble in Qudu.
• Bittersweet Ending: On the happy side, the government is free from the corrupting influence of the Eight Families and is on course to fix the nation. Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye also win their respective final battles and leads the nation together.
  • However, the Beta Couple has been sank with Yao Wenyu's death
  • Some of the characters who die or retire due to the regime change in the finale are well-intentioned subjects of Dazhou working hard to put the nation on the correct course. They would have had a lot to contribute if they have stayed.
  • Dazhou's main political threats from early in the novel are only suppressed temporarily. Just like Qudu being wary of the Xiao Family's military influence, Xiao Xun will likely deal with similar tensions with Qidong after he takes over. The Biansha tribes have survivors who feel resentment for being pushed back, including Hasen's widow and unborn child, and may strike again with time.
• Boring, but Practical: The winners in the political intrigue and epic battles in this work are often determined by good accounting and supply chain management.
  • Lu Guangbai is underappreciated by outsiders despite commanding one of the fastest ground forces that consistently fight well on terrible geography, because this isn't as dramatic as Xiao Jiming's armoured calvary or Qi Zhuyin being a woman.
• Break the Cutie: In Book 2, this hits Yao Wenyu.
• Broken Ace: One of the Top Four Generals, Zuo Qianqiu's hair turned white and couldn't lead armies into battle again after the trauma of his wife's death.
• But Not Too Foreign: The Biansha tribes are coded as foreigners, but the ethnicity on adjacent lands in Libei are less clear. While they declare loyalty to Dazhou and Qudu and speak the same language, They display some traits are that typically not associated with Han culture (e.g. different food and architectural style). Northern areas in China (analogous to Libei) are home to many ethnic groups other than the Han.
• Chekhov's Army: This story is full of them. Important Book 2 players who only briefly appears in Book 1 include Yao Wenyu, Jiang Qingshan, Liang Chuisan, Ling Ting, Hua Xiangyi, the Yan Clan, Feng Quan and the guy who sells meat buns Chapter 7.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Shen Zechuan gets tortured several times, including in the very first chapter.
• Cool Big Sis: Qi Zhuyin to the young generation of generals.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Shen Zhouji was killed by being dragged behind a horse.
• Dating Catwoman: Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye are the Official Couple and are enemies for most of their early interactions.
• Decoy Getaway: Xiao Chiye gets forty of his men to wear outfits exactly like Li Jianheng's. When they all have to run for their lives, the decoys scatter in different directions so their pursuers can't tell where the real Li Jianheng went.
• Doorstopper: The full novel has 282 chapters. Don't worry, you'll finish it in no time!
• Driven to Villainy: Feng Quan had a hellish early life and still multiple factions ask him to keep on risking himself to be a spy for them. While making him feel extremely dehumanized, they also enable him to learn all their plans and he becomes well-placed to manipulate them to suit himself.
• Establishing Character Moment: The scene in Chapter 7 where Qi Huilian offers to teach Shen Zechuan, and the latter promises to avenge Qi Huilian's cause in exchange, establishes the determination, pride, and ambition that still remains two characters whose past have been riddled by injustice and trauma.
• Eunuchs Are Evil: Pao Rugui and the other eunuchs are extremely corrupt, which is Truth in Television for Imperial China.
• Fauxshadow: Every pair of brothers we see in Qudu turned on each other for power, and the Empress Dowager laid out how this can also play out for the Xiao brothers in Libei. We see this in the hostility between their respective subjects, this is ultimately averted with their close family bond.
• Fictional Earth: The official map released with the audio drama makes it clear that Dazhou can't be mapped to Ancient China. Another clue is the lack of a Great Wall.
• Flayed Alive: Shen Zechuan skins Ji Lei alive.
• Foil: Like Xiao Chiye, Tantai Hu is also the younger brother to an accomplished military leader, a competent fighter, and has a good heart under a lot of rough edges. However, he lacks Xiao Chiye's nobility, talent, and political sophistication.
• Footnote Fever: The English translation is full of footnotes explaining things non-Chinese readers are unfamiliar with. The translator jokingly nicknamed it "The Novel Where The Footnotes Are Longer Than The Actual Translation" because of this.
• Foreshadowing: Throughout Book 1, several conversations hit on the importance of the royal bloodline or descendants. It turns out there is a secret Royal Bastard who can make a claim to the throne.
• General Failure: Shen Wei's disastrous battle-plan is what sets the plot in motion. When the Biansha Cavalry first invaded Shen Wei and his army could have fended them off. Instead Shen Wei decided to flee, leading to a massacre, a series of catastrophic defeats, and the Biansha Cavalry coming close to capturing Dazhou's capital. Shen Wei made such a mess of the war that he's suspected of collaborating with the enemy.
• Harmful to Minors: As a child Li Jianheng was Forced to Watch his mother's murder.
• Hates Their Parent: Shen Zechuan towards Shen Wei, which is well deserved.
• Heroic Bastard: Shen Zechuan is a shu son (the son of a concubine), though calling him "heroic" is a stretch.
• Human Pincushion: Poor Ji Mu gets shot by so many arrows that the narrator compares him to a hedgehog.
• I Have Many Names: Most people have least a birth name and a courtesy name. In conversation, people are often called by (one of many) titles or their courtesy name without the family name.
• Impoverished Patrician: Averted with the Lu, Qi, Xiao families, who are given noble titles for their military achievements but are not true aristocracy. They have difficulty getting funds from the court to support their armies, and have mostly exhausted their personal wealth to make up for the shortfall. Qi Zhuyin is using up money saved for her dowry and Xiao Chiye actually can't afford frivolous expenses while in Qudu.
• Incurable Cough of Death: plagues Yao Wenyu in the last stretch of the novel.
• Jerkass: Xiao Chiye starts out as one. In his first appearance he kicks Shen Zechuan, who's already been badly beaten, with the intention of killing him.
• Lady of War: Qi Zhuyin, widely regarded as the best military leader of her generation, is quite pretty and also enjoys makeup.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: Sometime a character will mention some name, event, and history just for exposition and world building, but more often than not these details will come back to matter.
• Literary Allusion Title: Qiang Jin Jiu is the title of a Tang-dynasty poem by Li Bai.
• Man Bites Man: Xiao Chiye and Shen Zechuan's second meeting ends with Shen Zechuan biting Xiao Chiye.
• Manchild: Justified with Li Jianheng. He had a complicated upbringing in the imperial household without an adult to advocate for his well-being and education. His own intentions are mostly harmless but he is extremely vulnerable to manipulation.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Qi Huilian, whose death spurs Shen Zechuan to escalate his ambitions to a full-scale rebellion against Dazhou
• Missing Mom: Shen Zechuan, Xiao Chiye, Qi Zhuyin, and the emperors' biological mothers have all died before start of the plot, although they all still have their father figures (or a stepmom of sorts for the emperors).
• Morton's Fork: When Shen Zechuan is interrogated for Shen Wei's crimes, he has to insist Shen Wei fought hard because he will be executed in association if his father is convicted of treason. However, lying to representatives of the Emperor is also a capital offense.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Deconstructed. Shen Zechuan takes medicine to look thin and frail so that people dismiss him as weak and sickly, but he's able to hold his own in a fight with Xiao Chiye. The adverse effects of the medicine later takes its toll on his health and eventually costs him the ability to fight.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Discussed when Qi Zhuyin receives orders to mobilize her army to protect Qudu. Regardless of her feelings toward the battle or even the present government, she is a subject to Dazhou and refusing would make her a traitor to her country.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Xue Xiuzhuo repeatedly trying to kill Yao Wenyu forces him to join Shen Zechuan, and his presence becomes instrumental to Shen Zechuan's success and credibility.
• Not Wanting Kids Is Weird: Shen Zechuan does not want kids to pass on Shen Wei's bloodline.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Xiao Chiye intentionally builds a party guy reputation with Li Jianheng, while quietly revamps the Imperial Army under his command.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Ji Gang outlives his son Ji Mu. Feng Yisheng also outlived his children, who all died on the front lines.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Ji Gang had a phase of this when he first learns of the true nature of Xiao Chiye's relationship with Shen Zechuan.
• Papa Wolf: Ji Gang and Xiao Fangxu
• Politically-Active Princess: Hua Xiangyi acts like an obedient protegee to the Empress Dowager, but her few actions have huge implications for the plot, like saving the life of Yao Wenyu and preventing Qi Zhuyin from falling in traps from Qudu.
• Post-Injury Desk Job: Xiao Jiming takes one after his injury.
• Pretty Boy: Shen Zechuan. Even before they become a couple Xiao Chiye spends a lot of time describing his appearance.
• Princeling Rivalry: Played straight with some of the nobles in Qudu, but subverted in the actual imperial family where the nobles seeking to install Puppet King have a more active role in facilitating this.
• Puppet King: Emperor Xiande. Empress Dowager Hua is the one who really rules. After Xiande's death Li Jianheng takes the throne and becomes another puppet king.
• Red Herring: some clues suggest Shen Zechuan may be the heir to some Secret Legacy, but this turns out to be the result of his parents having had a more complicated relationship than meets the eye.
• Royally Screwed Up: Emperor Xiande forces his younger brother Li Jianheng to watch as Li Jianheng's mother is murdered
• Secret Relationship: Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye keeps their relationship a secret from other officials in Qudu, and sometimes even plays up their rumored animosity towards the other to get favorable assignments.
• A Shared Suffering: Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye bound over being trapped in Qudu and targeted by the schemes of the Eight Families.
• Snow Means Death: Xiao Fangxu dies on a snowy night.
• The Scapegoat: This is why Shen Zechuan is arrested. Shen Wei and most of his family are dead, so Shen Zechuan, as his only surviving son, is made a scapegoat and punished for Shen Wei's bad decisions.
• Sibling Rivalry: This is often invoked for the Xiao brothers, but the brothers themselves defy this trope. More direct rivalry is implied for the pair of brothers (Chao Hui and Chen Yang) who work as their respective deputies, but they grow out of it.
• Sole Survivor: Shen Zechuan is this twice. He's Shen Wei's only surviving son as well as the only person to survive the Chashi Sinkhole.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: The Xiao family has to deal with this after Shen Wei's death.
• The Strategist: Shen Zechuan specifically states that he needs one to go up against Xue Xiuzhuo, and eventually gets one of the brightest minds in the land Yao Wenyu.
• The Unfavorite: As a child Li Jianheng was disliked by almost the entire royal family. He isn't much more popular as an adult. Shen Zechuan is also so unfavored by his father that he didn't even live with the family.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 96, the finale of Book 1, packs in assassination of the current Emperor, the death of Qi Huilian, all the drama of Shen Zechuan and Xiao Chiye's exit from the capital, and Lu Guangbai deserting after finally losing his faith in Qudu.
  • Corresponding episode in the audio drama (Season 2 Episode 8) has all that and the big reveal from the previous chapter: the truth behind the defeats in Zhongbo and Libei.
• Worf Had the Flu: The formidable Libei Calvary suffers its major loss because the food supply has been sabotaged. Consequent changes to the leadership is used to partially explain the string of losses Libei suffers afterwards.