Stories in poetry

A Name Left beneath the Banner

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · A Novel of War and Coming of Age in an Ancient Setting · Complete · 38 chapters · 5 reads

When the recruit Meng Shi receives his reward, he recognizes the red cord as coming from the home of a boy from his own village. According to the army rolls, that boy has just earned military honors; yet three days earlier, Meng Shi saw the same kind of red cord in a burial pit. Seeking answers about the reward, he heads toward the old camp everyone avoids and finds an old man deep among the reeds, branded as a deserter. Behind the old man is a group of children who tremble at the sight of Meng Shi’s scabbard.

Written with AI assistance, this book expands on Du Fu’s “Five Later Poems on Going beyond the Frontier” and this site’s original short story “The Empty Name beneath the Army Banner.” The characters, place names, and chronology are fictional; this is neither a translation or adaptation of the original poem nor a biography of the poet.