Xiao Lin

Biodata

Background / History

Childhood in the Cold Palace

Xiao Lin was the late emperor’s eldest legitimate son. His mother was cast into the Cold Palace on a fabricated charge, and he grew up there with her. A talented scholar in poor health, she taught him characters by writing on the ground with a twig. She died during the winter when he was six; the emperor subsequently buried her with an empress’s rites, which Xiao Lin regarded as an empty performance 41.

At seven, Xiao Lin was brought out of the Cold Palace and appointed crown prince. The appointment followed pressure from the Censorate to establish the eldest legitimate son as heir, rather than his father’s preference: the third prince, Xiao Xu, son of Consort Shu. Xiao Lin understood that his father intended him to serve as a temporary obstacle for Xiao Xu to overcome 41.

Zhou Rucheng became his tutor, teaching him writing, the classics, and policy essays. Although Xiao Lin initially resented his strictness, learning that Zhou had refused promotions to remain with him changed his outlook. Zhou’s insistence that he was worth supporting gave him a reason to fight for his position 41.

Succession Struggle and Accession

When the Tartars invaded, the late emperor sent Xiao Lin to the frontier with an ill-prepared force and only one month’s provisions, intending that he die there. Xiao Lin instead killed the enemy vanguard commander and held out for forty days with fewer than two thousand battered soldiers. His victorious return brought him widespread public acclaim 41.

Xiao Xu subsequently undermined his supporters through fabricated embezzlement charges and military transfers. When Xiao Xu finally brought two thousand private soldiers against him at the hunting grounds, Xiao Lin had prepared an ambush with Kong Wu. He defeated the attempt, reduced Xiao Xu to commoner status, and confined him for life. Consort Shu was ordered to die, while her relatives lost their titles and were exiled 41.

Xiao Lin refused his dying father’s request to release Xiao Xu. He ascended the throne at twenty-two and adopted the era name Jianxi the following year 41.

Estrangement from Xiao Huaijin

In his original life, Xiao Lin kept Crown Prince Xiao Huaijin at a distance. He offered little praise for his studies, archery, or administrative achievements, and often withheld responses to his proposals. Zhou Rucheng recognized that Huaijin’s resemblance to his father made Xiao Lin feel exposed and threatened 2 3 5 40.

His affection nevertheless appeared in private gestures: watching over Huaijin during a fever, leaving him a dragon-embroidered cloak, and quietly accepting his ginger soup. These acts were too concealed or infrequent to dispel Huaijin’s belief that his father disliked him 2 5 48.

As Xiao Lin’s health deteriorated, fabricated accusations implicated Huaijin in factionalism, possession of a dragon robe, and sorcery. Although he suspected that the evidence might be false, Xiao Lin prioritized securing his throne. He deposed Huaijin and confined him to the Eastern Palace, then secretly ordered his charcoal allowance doubled 8.

Palace Coup and Loss

In the winter of Jianxi’s twenty-second year, Xiao Yu and Noble Consort Shen Mingzhu launched a coup with three hundred private soldiers. Shen revealed that she had poisoned Xiao Lin’s calming soup for two years. Despite his weakened condition, Xiao Lin drew his sword and resisted, killing three attackers before suffering a wound to his left side 1.

Huaijin escaped confinement and defended him with the Eastern Palace’s wooden door bar. Fatally stabbed, he died in Xiao Lin’s arms while still seeking his approval. The Imperial Guards eventually suppressed the rebellion, but Xiao Lin was left confronting the consequences of his neglect 1.

He acknowledged that deposing Huaijin had been wrong and ordered funeral rites equivalent to those of a Son of Heaven, granting him the posthumous name Huai. Shen Mingzhu was executed. Xiao Yu, initially sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, was later given poisoned wine; Xiao Lin refused his final request for an audience 1 11.

In Jianxi’s twenty-fourth year, Xiao Lin personally led a campaign against the Tartars. Before departing, he retrieved the faded cloak Huaijin had treasured. The army returned victorious after a three-month campaign, including seven days in which Xiao Lin held out with his remaining personal guards. He later refused to appoint another crown prince and died consumed by regret 11.

Rebirth and Protection of the Crown Prince

Xiao Lin awoke in the eighth year of Jianxi, when Huaijin was four and Shen Mingzhu had not yet begun poisoning him. He sought out his son in the imperial garden, gave him a crabapple blossom, and began personally teaching him the Three Character Classic 11 12.

Determined to prevent the earlier disaster, he investigated Shen agents in the Eastern Palace without immediately removing them, avoiding any warning to Shen Boyong. He appointed Zhou Rucheng as Huaijin’s grand tutor, instructed him to submit the child’s schoolwork, and explicitly allowed Huaijin to continue writing left-handed 13 14.

An inquiry into fifty thousand missing taels led to the Shen-controlled Hengtai Firm and a wider military-funding network. Xiao Lin used Kong Wu’s intelligence and Sun Jingtang’s financial investigations to trace its connections, delaying a crackdown until more of the network could be exposed. By the aftermath of the Shen Clan’s downfall, Shen Mingzhu had died, but Xiao Lin did not hold her wrongdoing against the young Xiao Yu 14 17 19 27 35 36.

Raising an Heir and Reforming Government

After Huaijin’s wet nurse died, Xiao Lin brought him to live in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. He stayed with him through nightmares, arranged child-sized furnishings, and preserved the belongings that connected him to his siblings. Their relationship increasingly became reciprocal: Huaijin cared about his father’s cold hands, exhaustion, and unhappiness 29 30 31 33 44.

Xiao Lin also began preparing Huaijin for government rather than treating his judgment as a threat. He developed the boy’s salt-policy proposals, ordered officials to devise fairer salt prices and regulations within three months, and assigned Sun Jingtang and Kong Wu to teach him revenue accounts and defense maps 40.

On military affairs, he supported preparations for a cavalry camp at Shuofang and selected Lu Ming as its commander. Lu’s later report exposed rotten fodder and discrepancies at three relay stations, prompting Xiao Lin to summon Sun Jingtang for another investigation 47 49 50.

Appearance

• Usual bearing: Controlled and difficult to read, with a cold expression that often reveals little pleasure or anger 3 5.
• Facial details: Has a crease between his brows from frequent frowning. In his original life, Huaijin notices fine lines beneath his eyes and white hairs at his temples 5 17.
• Imperial clothing: Wears dragon robes and a ceremonial crown with hanging beads for court duties 1 30.
• Hunting attire: Uses fitted riding clothes with leather-bound cuffs; at the autumn hunt, he rides a black horse and carries the emperor’s sword 23 24.
• Informal clothing: Wears an indigo robe with matching silk cords and a jade waist pendant during his outing with Huaijin 46.
• Original-life illness: Prolonged poisoning leaves him thin, pale, and physically depleted, with sunken eyes 1 8 11.

Personality

Xiao Lin’s early experiences leave him distrustful, guarded, and determined never to surrender control. In his original life, he treats vulnerability as a danger and places preservation of the throne above his bond with Huaijin. Even when he doubts the accusations against his son, he uses them to justify years of estrangement 3 8 41.

He is exceptionally stubborn about duty and frequently neglects his health. During his worsening illness, he continues attending court despite medical advice to rest. After rebirth, his absorption in work still causes him to overlook his own comfort and initially underestimate Huaijin’s developing illness 8 33 48.

Rebirth makes him more attentive without immediately making affection easy. He acknowledges that growing up with little physical comfort left him unsure how to express love. His efforts take practical forms—teaching, keeping promises, arranging protection, and sitting through sleepless nights—before he learns to accept comfort from Huaijin himself 17 29 31 44.

His treatment of Xiao Yu also changes. Remembering both the former rebel and the innocent child before him, Xiao Lin concludes that the brothers’ earlier hatred was created by adults. He refuses to impose guilt from the previous life on the child in the present one 25 36 44.

Abilities & Skills

Swordsmanship and Archery

• Repels the first wave of coup soldiers and kills three men despite two years of poisoning; his failing body eventually slows his sword arm 1.
• Kills a charging stag with a single mounted arrow through its throat 24.
• Personally corrects Huaijin’s archery posture and guides his bow hand 17.

Military Command

• Survives a deliberately under-resourced frontier assignment, killing the Tartar vanguard commander and holding out for forty days 41.
• Anticipates Xiao Xu’s armed move and coordinates an ambush with Kong Wu 41.
• Understands the horses, trained riders, and funding required to establish a northern cavalry force 43.
• Selects Lu Ming for command based on both military ability and his circumstances, while teaching Huaijin that different offices require different kinds of talent 47.

Statecraft and Intelligence

• Directs covert surveillance of palace personnel and Shen Clan associates without prematurely revealing his suspicions 13 14 33.
• Coordinates financial and intelligence investigations to trace diverted military funds through firms, officials, and family connections 17 19 27.
• Develops Huaijin’s proposals into administrative measures, including a review of salt prices and regulations 40.

Scholarship and Teaching

• Was instructed by Zhou Rucheng in writing, classical texts, and policy essays 41.
• Teaches Huaijin calligraphy through guided strokes, explaining proportion, wrist movement, and restraint 13 17 19.
• Uses memorials and practical questions to teach rulership, personal responsibility, and the balance between virtue and strength 36 47.

Memories of His Previous Life

• Retains knowledge of the coup, Huaijin’s framing, and earlier policy failures after returning to Jianxi’s eighth year 11 13 40 43.
• His knowledge is incomplete: he remembers the Shen infiltration but initially does not know when its agents entered the Eastern Palace 13.
• The memories remain traumatic and surface in nightmares; he does not reveal the rebirth to Huaijin during their conversation about them 44.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Son of Heaven’s sword — Hangs in the Hall of Mental Cultivation; used against the coup soldiers and taken up before his northern campaign 1 11.
• Steel-backed hunting bow — Described as half a foot longer than an ordinary bow; used to kill the great stag 24.
• Childhood horn bow — Given to Huaijin on his fifth birthday, along with personal archery instruction 17.
• Dragon-embroidered cloak — Treasured by Huaijin in the original life and later carried away by Xiao Lin after his death 2 11.
• Eastern Palace door bar — Huaijin’s last weapon; Xiao Lin holds it while mourning him 1 11.
• Children’s “battle plan” — A drawing of the imagined divine deer, which Xiao Lin keeps after the autumn hunt 24.
• Copper hand warmer — Brought by Huaijin to warm his hands; Xiao Lin later refills it himself 33.
• Crowned dough figurine — Made for him by Huaijin during their market outing and placed on his desk afterward 46.

Relationships

• Xiao Huaijin — Eldest legitimate son and crown prince. His death triggers Xiao Lin’s remorse; after rebirth, Huaijin becomes both his carefully nurtured heir and a source of emotional support 1 11 40 44.
• Xiao Yu — Second son. A rebel in the original life, but a child Xiao Lin chooses not to condemn for either his mother’s crimes or his former-life actions 1 22 36 44.
• Empress Xiaoyi Shen — Huaijin’s mother. Xiao Lin calls her the best person he has ever known; Shen Mingzhu’s choice of her favorite color recalls her to him 20 36.
• Shen Mingzhu — Noble consort who poisons him and participates in the original coup. After rebirth, he covertly investigates her household and clan 1 11 33.
• Zhou Rucheng — Former tutor and later Huaijin’s grand tutor. His loyalty helped Xiao Lin fight for his own future; Xiao Lin entrusts his son’s education to him 14 41.
• Kong Wu — Military ally and trusted investigator, involved in defeating Xiao Xu and protecting the princes 14 24 42 41.
• Sun Jingtang — Minister of Revenue, investigator of military-funding irregularities, and Huaijin’s instructor in revenue ledgers 17 40 50.
• Liu An — Long-serving chief eunuch who attends him, carries sensitive orders, and witnesses both his original-life grief and his growing closeness with Huaijin 8 11 30 44.
• Lu Ming — Officer selected to command the Shuofang cavalry camp; his reports bring new supply irregularities to Xiao Lin’s attention 47 49 50.
• Xiao Xu — Younger half-brother and former succession rival, defeated and confined for life 41.
• The late emperor — Father whom Xiao Lin regards as a stranger and resents for his mother’s fate, his favoritism, and his attempt to have Xiao Lin killed at the frontier 41.

Notable Quotes

“If you want my throne, come and take it yourself.” 1

“You taught me. I trust you.” 14

“Xiao Yu is his own person. The path he takes in the future will be his own choice.” 36

“I... don’t know how to be good to you.” 44

“A ruler must have all kinds of people at his disposal. The key is knowing which kind belongs in which position.” 47