Tears rolled down his cheeles when he saw me,and he went down on one knee, pointing off in the direction of the Xie Empire with his hindling hnife. Autumn is deepening,and calamity will soon befall the Xie Empire, he said.

Su Tong's Xie Empire is a dreamlike, beautiful,brutal place [and] his prose is full of gorgeous images.

Powerful and elegant... The world he so vividly depicts has the timelessness of a classical Chinese court painting,and at least as much cruelty as a traditional romance.Readers brought up on the Chinese historical novels of Pearl Buck or the quasi-historical sagas of Mary Renault will revel in the serpentine atmosphere and voluptuous prose.'