68 pages • 2-hour read
The Burning God
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Background
Series Context: The Poppy War Trilogy
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism, rape, physical abuse, and substance use.
The Burning God is the third installment in the Poppy War trilogy, a military fantasy series rooted in the history of mid-20th-century China. The series began with The Poppy War in 2018. In The Poppy War, protagonist Fang Runin (“Rin”)—whose parents have been killed in the Nikan Empire’s continual wars and whose foster parents force her to participate in their opium smuggling business—tests into the prestigious military academy Sinegard. There, she excels academically, but her only friend is Chen Kitay. The Nikan Empire won the Second Poppy War with the help of three shamans—wielders of powerful magic bestowed by the god of the Speer race, the Pheonix—called the “Trifecta,” one of whom is Empress Su Daji. The whereabouts of the others—the Dragon Emperor and the Gatekeeper—are unknown. A teacher named Jiang Ziya privately tutors Rin to turn her into a shaman. Rin and her rival Nezha get into a physical fight, and Rin accidentally summons the Phoenix. The next year, Jiang teaches her more about how to control her power using drugs. She has a vision of a Speerly woman and the patron god of Speer, the Phoenix.
At Sinegard, Rin meets Altan Trengsin, the last known survivor of the Speerly race, who were subjected to a genocide by the Mugen Federation—the chief enemy of the Nikan Empire—in the Second Poppy War. After Altan graduates, he takes over a group of shamanistic assassins called the Cike. War breaks out, and the Mugen Federation attacks Sinegard. Rin and Nezha team up and fight. Jiang vanishes, Rin thinks Nezha gets killed, and she calls the Phoenix during battle. Afterward, she realizes her Speerly heritage and is assigned to the Cike.
Rin finds out that Nezha lived. They grow closer, but he’s abducted during a poison gas attack. Chaghan, the Cike’s Seer, sees that the Federation is attacking Golyn Niis, where Kitay and Venka, another former rival, are stationed. When they arrive, almost everyone has been massacred. Kitay survived by hiding under piles of bodies, and Venka was imprisoned and raped in a “pleasure house.” Altan convinces Rin to help him free Feylen, an interned shaman who became overpowered by his god. Altan wants to start a shaman army. Feylen breaks free and escapes. Jiang, revealed as the Gatekeeper, is also interned but refuses to leave. The Federation captures Rin and Altan, and Dr. Shiro tortures them. Altan self-immolates, helping Rin escape to Speer. Rin channels the Phoenix and destroys the entire population of Mugen.
In the next installment of the series, The Dragon Republic, Rin is commander of the Cike, who are working for the pirate queen Moag. In a chance meeting, Daji Seals Rin’s powers, preventing her from accessing them. On a mission, the Cike meet Nezha, whom Rin is shocked to see alive. He fakes Rin and Kitay’s death, taking them to his father, Dragon Warlord Yin Vaisra. Vaisra wants to start a rebellion and establish a Republic. Vaisra wants the help of the western empire Hesperia, but they want to observe the Republic’s actions to see whether they are “civilized” enough for aid. Hesperia’s monotheistic religious organization, the Grey Company, wants to experiment on Rin and find out how “Chaos” causes her shamanistic powers. Vaisra manipulates her into agreeing. Rin grows closer to Nezha and Venka.
The Republic starts an offensive naval war against Daji. Though they have early success, weather and ill preparation wear on them. To save their fleet, Nezha reveals that he is a shaman. Feylen decimates the fleet at Boyang. Rin and Kitay wash downriver and are saved by Ketreyids, relatives to Chaghan and his twin, Qara. Their leader creates an “anchor bond” between Rin and Kitay to get around Daji’s Seal and make her more stable. Some Ketreyids rebel, killing Qara. Chaghan, Rin, and Kitay escape.
Back in Nezha’s home, Arlong, Nezha tries to tell Rin about his shamanism, but she is unwilling to hear his perspective. Vaisra’s allies desert him, as his alliance with Hesperia becomes detrimental to the people of Nikan. The Southern Warlords try to get Rin to defect and become their figurehead.
Daji’s fleet advances on Arlong. During the battle, Daji warns Rin that Vaisra is a puppet for Hesperia, who is their real enemy. Vaisra’s forces win, but they are so decimated that Hesperia takes control, proving Daji right. Rin wants to flee, but Nezha betrays her to win his father’s approval. Rin sees her Cike shamans executed, and the remaining members sacrifice themselves so Kitay and Venka can help Rin escape. They flee with Lin Gurubai. Rin is resolved to become a leader for the Southern Rebellion.
Historical Context: The Chinese Civil War and the Great Chinese Famine
The Burning God is inspired by the Chinese Civil War and the Great Chinese Famine. The Chinese Civil War was an armed conflict that affected the outcome of the Chinese Communist Revolution; both occurred intermittently between 1927 and 1949. After the Second Sino-Japanese War, which correlates to the Third Poppy War, China was divided into three factions: the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek, the Communists (CCP) under Mao Zedong, and the areas occupied by Japan. These correlate to the Republicans under Vaisra, the Southern Coalition under Rin, and the Mugen occupation of mainland Nikan. The United States provided aid to the Nationalists, and their intervention was “welcomed by the Chinese government but attacked by the Communists as imperialistic” (“Chinese Civil War.” Britannica), much like how the Republicans and Southern Coalition respectively view Hesperian aid.
Kuang has stated that the driving questions behind her series were: “What if Mao Zedong was a teenage girl?” and “How can (Mao) be so gravitational, that the fate of millions hinges on offhand comments that he makes?” (Yu, Alan. “In The Poppy War Series, R.F. Kuang Asks: ‘What If Mao Was A Teenage Girl?’” NPR, 24 Nov. 2020). Mao Zedong was born to a peasant family and grew to prominence due to his guerilla warfare tactics and his role in establishing the Red Army, formerly called the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army. His strategies included recruiting the peasantry into the army and weakening supply lines to ruin the morale of their opposition. These tactics are also adopted by Rin and the Southern Army. As Rin moves from folk hero to acclaimed general, so too did Mao, though Rin does not espouse a communist vision for the country as Mao did.
In 1949, Mao’s CCP defeated Chiang’s Nationalists, who retreated to Taiwan. Much in the same way, Nezha retreats to Speer after his defeat by Rin, though the magnetic yet authoritarian Chiang Kai-shek is more closely associated with the alluring and controlling personality of Vaisra. Nezha correlates to Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek’s son, who took over after his death. Chiang Ching-kuo was integral in bolstering Taiwan’s economic development and ushering it toward democracy.
Mao Zedong, Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Ching-kuo all have complicated legacies that led to decades of debates about whether their leadership was sum-positive or sum-negative. For instance, “apart from reuniting the country, [Mao] restored a sense of natural pride, greatly improved women’s rights, basic healthcare and primary education, ended opium abuse, simplified Chinese characters, developed pinyin and promoted its use for teaching purposes” (Bottelier, Peter. Economic Policy Making In China (1949–2016): The Role of Economists. Taylor & Francis, 2018, p. 131). During Mao’s rule, China’s population nearly doubled, rising from 540 million to 892 million people (Ma, Jisen. "The Politics of China’s Population Growth." Asian Perspective, vol. 22 no. 1, 1998, p. 35-52). On the other hand, Mao’s actions and policies had a “responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70 million lives,” paired with “indifference to the suffering and the loss of humans” (Fenby, Jonathan. Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present. Harper Collins, 2008, p. 351). Many of these were people unintentionally killed in the Great Chinese Famine, which lasted from 1959-1961.
In The Burning God, the causes of the famine are the flood caused by Chaghan and Qara and the devastation wrought on the land and people by the civil war. While the devastating 1958 Yellow River Flood may have contributed, the causes of the Great Chinese Famine are more complex, with drastic agricultural reform, misreported grain numbers, and a diversion from agricultural to industrial work all contributing.
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