A Song to Drown Rivers

In A Song to Drown Rivers, all the central characters willingly sacrifice for the sake of duty and loyalty, and they are all faced with disappointment in the end, many questioning whether their sacrifice was worth it. The two most extreme examples are the two ministers to the kings who are set in opposition to each other, Zixu and Fanli. Both give up everything for the cause of their kingdoms with little apparent hesitation. Fanli refuses to give in to his feelings for Xishi, and Zixu sacrifices his life when the king demands it. Both characters’ actions are seen as noble by their culture, and yet both despair at the end, realizing that their loyalty has been misplaced. Despite this revelation, they do their duty as it is demanded by their society. By juxtaposing these two ministers—on opposite sides of the conflict but each unfailingly loyal to an undeserving ruler—Jiang conveys the dangers of suspending individual judgment in favor of societal duty. 

At the beginning, Xishi herself has bought into her culture’s idea of the nobility of sacrifice. She sees and admires Fanli’s ability to remain detached, never wavering in his loyalty to the mission he’s vowed to undertake.