A casual chat about Shao Song, webnovel writing, the literature of our times, and comic adaptations

Today is the 21st, and the Shao Song comic officially launched on Tencent Animation. This counted as China Literature's own business, and China Literature was helping promote it too, so I'm openly borrowing this space for an ad. I hope everyone will go bookmark it on Tencent Animation and see whether you might get hooked on something new... Personally, I greatly appreciate and respect the comic's art style. The creators at Tencent Animation's Tushan Studio also spoke with me several times along the way, and their sincerity far exceeded my expectations.

Specifically, go to Tencent Animation and look for the Hometown Editorial Team or Tushan Studio, or simply search for Shao Song.

And I'd like to take this opportunity to talk systematically about Shao Song itself and my own shallow understanding of literary and artistic creation.

About Shao Song.

The beginning of Shao Song was unintentional, never something I'd thought through carefully. After finishing Overthrowing Han, I'd realized I was going to make my living at this. To put food on the table, I had to start another book, or there would be no royalties. My editor was urging me on, and readers were asking too. In any case, I had to write a new book.

Then some bastard in an authors' chat group said, "Write about Jingkang. Write about Zhao Gou..." So I said I'd give it a try, and started writing.

As I wrote the opening, I leafed through the History of Song and the Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror and read a few biographies. It wasn't until just before the novel went behind the paywall that I bought Wang Zengyu's Biography of Yue Fei and Biography of Emperor Gaozong of Song. Only when I reached the Nanyang storyline did I begin consulting the Dictionary of Song Dynasty