A Thousand Pieces of Gold (30 page)

CHAPTER
16

Ren xin gui Han

“The heart of the people belongs to Han.”

Expresses the emotion Chinese people feel toward China.

Wen jing zhi jiao

“A friendship so close they would risk having their throats cut rather than betray each other.”

Zhi zhi si di er hou sheng

“Confront a man with the danger of death, and he will fight to live.”

Zhi zhe qian lu, bi you yi shi

“The wisest among us are not always free from error.”

Yu zhe qian lu, bi you yi de

“Even the fool sometimes hits on a good idea.”

Kuang fu zhi yan, sheng ren ze yan

“The ranting and raving of a madman is occasionally approved by sages as appropriate.”

Xian sheng hou shi

“Discussion first and military force later.”

CHAPTER
17

Ren xin nan ce

“The human heart is difficult to fathom.”

Human behavior is often irrational and unpredictable.

Yan ting ji cong

“Listened and adopted all my suggestions.”

Gui bu ke yan

“Limitless and indescribably brilliant life.”

Tian yu bu qu, fan shou qi jiu

“When gifts from Heaven are spurned, intended recipients will be censured.”

Shi zhi bu xing, fan shou qi yang

“When opportunities from Heaven are rejected, calamity will occur.”

Huan sheng yu duo yu

“Calamity arises from greed.”

CHAPTER
18

Yun chou wei wo

“Devising strategies in a command tent.”

Skillful at analyzing situations and laying out correct principles of operation.

Yang hu yi huan

“Rearing a tiger to court calamity later.”

Si mian Chu ge

“Songs of Chu from four sides.”

Besieged by hostile forces on all sides.

Suo xiang wu di

“Invincible and breaks all enemy resistance.”

Ban Gu,
Qian Han Shi (History of the Former Han Dynasty).

Sima Qian,
Shiji.

Wu Fa,
Cheng Yu Zhong De Li Shi.

Zhan Guo Ce (Strategies of the Warring States).

Barnouin, Barbara, and Yu Changgen.
Ten Years of Turbulence: The Chinese Cultural Revolution.
London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1993.

Bodde, Derk.
China’s First Unifier.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1967.

Creel, Herrlee G.
Chinese Thought from Confucius to Mao Tse-tung.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.

Gilley, Bruce.
Tiger on the Brink: Jiang Zemin and China’s New Elite.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998.

Hardy, Grant.
Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian’s Conquest of History.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Jin Qiu.
The Culture of Power: The Lin Biao Incident in the Cultural Revolution.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.

Li Yuning.
The First Emperor of China.
White Plains, New York: International Arts and Sciences Press, Inc., 1975.

Karnow, Stanley.
Mao and China: A Legacy of Turmoil.
New York: Penguin Books, 1990.

Ssu-ma Chien.
Records of the Grand Historian.
Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

Yao Ming-le.
The Conspiracy and Death of Lin Biao.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983.

I am greatly indebted to my publisher, Steve Hanselman, for his belief in me. I also wish to thank my editor, Renee Sedliar, and Kris Ashley, for their hard work, and for coping so magnificently with all my requests during the creation of this book.

To my husband, Bob, for his love, support, and beautiful line drawings.

To Earl and Shirley Feiwell, for their friendship, encouragement, and for scanning and compiling my personal photographs.