The Grace of Kings

NOTES

Mata Zyndu’s poem is an adaptation of the late Tang Dynasty “Ode to Chrysanthemum” by Huang Chao (“Huang” is the surname). Huang’s story does not have much to do with this book, but it happens to also feature flowers and politics, and so I will tell it briefly here.

Huang, the son of a wealthy salt-smuggling family, wrote his ode in Chang An, capital of Tang Dynasty China, after he failed to place in the Imperial Examinations. The Tang Court favored the peony; praising the chrysanthemum was a political act.

In AD 875, Huang began a rebellion against the corrupt Tang Court, which lived in luxury while the populace suffered under natural disasters and misrule. Five years later, his forces managed to capture Chang An. Surviving historical records indicate that Huang’s men slaughtered and preyed upon civilians indiscriminately. Ultimately, his rebellion — though it would accelerate the fall of the Tang Dynasty — failed, and he was betrayed by his followers and killed.

Huang’s poem has always been controversial, as is his place in history — in some ways, Kuni and his advisers were too optimistic, as the judgment of history may not be final even a thousand years later.