Infobox
The Poet Empress
Info
Status read Year Read 2026 Rating ★★★★ Shelves Fantasy, Asian lit, East Asian lit, Fiction, Favorites, Speculative fiction (SFF)
Synopsis
Yin Wei, daughter of a rice farmer from a poor village in Tensha, finds the opportunity to improve her village’s situation when she submits herself to be a concubine of the Imperial heir. The cruel prince, in a fit of rebellion and dominance, selects Wei to be his wife, and she begins a life of abuse and torture in his hands.
Desperate for her life and agency, she begins to learn literomancy — poetry-based magic — in secret, that she may compose a killing poem to end her abuser’s life. In the journey of gathering enough “truth and emotion” required to make the spell work, Wei navigates palace politics, sexism, and several generations’ worth of harm, trauma and betrayal.