A Song to Drown Rivers

Ann Liang’s A Song to Drown Rivers (2024) is a new iteration of the legend of Xi Shi, one of the Four Great Beauties of Ancient China. Beautiful Xishi hates the invading Wu kingdom for conquering her people, the Yue, and killing her little sister, so when the famous and handsome young military advisor Fanli appears with an opportunity to take down the Wu from the inside, she leaps at the prospect. Arriving at the Wu court disguised as a tribute concubine, Xishi must win the enemy King Fuchai’s trust and affection as well as avoid the treacherous palace intrigue surrounding the court. As her mission grows more complicated, Xishi’s feelings for Fanli grow stronger, but she knows he will never put his personal desires over his loyalty to cause and king.

This guide refers to the 2024 St. Martin’s Press e-book edition

Content Warning: The source material discussed in the guide features depictions of graphic violence.

Plot Summary

To avoid attention, beautiful Xishi from the Yue kingdom must wear a veil when she goes to the river to wash the silk her family sells. While at the river, she throws a rock at a Wu soldier to stop him from killing a child. The soldier turns on her but is stopped by a handsome stranger who is impressed by Xishi’s kindness, courage, and skill in tending to the injured child. Xishi walks home, despairing at her destroyed town and memories of her little sister’s murder by a Wu solider. This and the incident by the river rekindle her hatred of the conquering Wu.

The next day, the handsome stranger appears at Xishi’s house and introduces himself as Fanli, the Yue king’s war advisor. He has heard of Xishi’s beauty and asks her to join a plot to destroy the Wu king, Fuchai. Xishi would work as a spy inside the palace, becoming one of Fuchai’s concubines. She would then pass on information about how to best attack the Wu. Xishi agrees and discovers that a second tribute chosen to be a palace woman is her best friend Zhengdan, who has always loved fighting and riding horses. Zhengdan has also vowed to avenge her father’s death by the Wu soldier, General Ma. When they get to Fanli’s estate, King Goujian of the Yue is there. He wants Xishi to convince Fuchai to build a waterway connecting Lake Tai to the capitol city. The women begin their training, realizing that even small mistakes could reveal their position as spies and get them killed. Fanli helps Xishi learn to keep her emotions hidden and her face placid. He introduces her to a musical instrument known as the guqin. She practices until her hands bleed, eager to show that she is more than just a beauty. He warns her that the Wu king’s advisor Zixu is clever and will suspect her. Her feelings for Fanli begin to grow as she admires his combination of learning and fighting.

Xishi’s final test is to distract a man in a tea house long enough for his tea to get cold. She passes easily but is scared by the man’s belligerent reaction when she tries to leave. Fanli interferes but warns that he won’t be there to help the next time. Fanli, Xishi, Zhengdan and Fanli’s helper walk through the town. General Ma, a Wu official who killed Zhengdan’s father, causes havoc with his soldiers, and Zhengdan vows she will hold a knife to his throat someday. One night, Xishi tenderly dresses scars on Fanli’s back given to him by the Wu king. He admits through guarded imagery to having feelings for her but makes it clear he won’t act on them. On their way to the capitol of Wu, their carriage is attacked. Xishi is injured while trying to distract an archer from Fanli. Fanli carries her to safety, distraught, and only leaves her side when she is awake and out of danger. He gets off the boat before they reach the court, unable to see her arrive. Xishi is distressed at his departure and sees the splendid palace with deadened eyes, but also notices how the people and landscape look much like her own in Yue.

King Fuchai is surprisingly young and handsome. Xishi feigns exhaustion to avoid dining with him. He is surprised but accepts. The minister Zixu, jealous of Xishi’s hold on the king, arranges rooms for them at the far end of the compound, where the king forgets about them. To get his attention, Xishi intentionally reopens her old wound, saying a vase shattered. The king is furious at their neglect and moves them closer to him. Zixu, however, keeps the king too busy to be with Xishi. At his birthday she plans to give him special silk she embroiders but finds it shredded just before she presents it. Thinking fast, she picks up a stone and presents it while the court ridicules her. She says it’s a reminder of simple pleasures like skipping stones. The king is enchanted and requests her presence later. She repeatedly feigns tiredness until he shows up in person at her rooms. He can tell she doesn’t want him physically and refrains from forcing intimacy, requesting to simply sleep next to her. He continues to visit her daily. An unfamiliar maid comes in with strange tea, and Zhengdan realizes it’s poison. Xishi threatens the maid who admits it’s from Lady Yu. Xishi confronts the other concubine and strikes a deal that Xishi won’t tell and will send Fuchai to her occasionally, but Lady Yu owes her a future favor.

Time passes, and Xishi becomes Fuchai’s favorite. She asks to sit in on one of his war councils despite the protests of General Ma and Zixu. To the disgust of the other ministers, she sways Fuchai not to attack the Yue. Rumors spread that she is a fox spirit manipulating the king. During a visit to the lake, she beats him at skipping stones, and he grants her a wish: He will build a new palace in her honor, which he will call The Palace of Beautiful Women. It is built at great expense.

At a military exhibition, General Ma appears to defeat all the other soldiers, though it is obvious that the others feign losing to him. Zhengdan challenges Ma from the stands, and Fuchai lets him accept. She beats him, holding a knife to his throat. While kissing Fuchai, Xishi accidently says Fanli’s name, raising Fuchai’s suspicions. Fuchai summons Fanli and injures him in front of Xishi, who keeps calm on the outside. They both trick the king and minister into thinking that they have no connection. When it is safe, she follows his trail of blood and begs to leave with him. He objects that they must finish their mission and assures her he will survive. Back in her room she finds Zhengdan dying of poison—General Ma has had her executed for stealing. Xishi renews her vow for revenge on the Wu. During a boat ride, Fuchai protects Xishi from boiling water, and she realizes he has strong feelings for her. She feels conflicted but then remembers her sister, Fanli, and Zhengdan. She manipulates Fuchai into building a connecting waterway from Lake Tai to the Wu capitol city, as King Goujian of the Yue originally requested. When it is complete, she takes a map to a Yue spy in the city. When Zixu reports that the Yue are moving on the boarder, she manipulates Fuchai into believing that Zixu is stirring up war for his own purposes. Fuchai commands Zixu to die by suicide. He does so, but not before ominously predicting Fuchai and Xishi’s downfall. Xishi receives a poem in response to her map, which she at first interprets as a love declaration from Fanli but then realizes is a coded instruction. She follows the instruction and asks Fuchai to throw a banquet so that the King of the Yue and Fanli can be guests and attack from inside the palace.

At the banquet, Fanli has drunk too much, and Xishi escorts him to his room. He admits to being afraid of his feelings for her and vows to come back for her no matter what happens. That night, she feels pity for King Fuchai, whom she feels affection for. She is woken by guards as the palace is under attack by the Yue, who have come down the waterway she had made. She and the king make it to a safe house, but she is overwhelmed by the deaths that happen around her. At the safehouse, Fuchai says he will give everything up for her. She is horrified to think he loves her. When representatives from Yue arrive, they congratulate her on her success. Fuchai realizes she betrayed him. He tells her to kill him, and she cries while driving in the sword. The celebration in her hometown feels numb to Xishi, and Zhengdan’s grieving mother helps Xishi realize that it is the common people who suffer while kings and kingdoms will continue to cycle through history. Disillusioned, she goes to the river where she first met Fanli in response to a message to meet him. She is attacked and drowned on King Goujian’s orders. Fanli is distraught at her death. Xishi’s spirit visits him in a dream where they finally kiss and she tells him to help the common people. He threatens to kill Goujian but then quits to fulfill Xishi’s wishes. Goujian is haunted by Xishi whenever he is near water. After waiting for years in the afterlife Xishi finally sees Fanli appear and goes to him.