Fiction. Asian Studies. An unprecedented historical novel, WHEN THE PURPLE MOUNTAIN BURNS presents a riveting, profoundly intimate portrait of the ancient Chinese city of Nanjing and its people during the first six days after its fall to the Japanese Army in December, 1937. Within the city walls are men and women, young and old, soldiers and civilians, Chinese and foreigners, and one twelve-year-old girl, all caught up in the turbulent fires of history, abandoned by their government to face the unthinkable. Author Shouhua Qi probes deeply into the souls of both the victims and the perpetrators of war atrocities, and hails its unassuming heroes and heroines, making his novel a powerful allegory against the folly of war and the horrors of genocide.