Emperor Xuan of Han Tombs

This guide to the Emperor Xuan of Han Tombs in Xi'an opens behind an empress's sickroom curtain, where a bribed physician stirs poison into a bowl of medicine. It traces Xuan's unlikely path to the throne, an infant who survived a purge, was raised poor, and married a commoner named Xu Pingjun, plus the vow he made when advisers pushed him to remarry: he sent for the plain sword he had carried before he was emperor. Weeks after giving birth, Xu Pingjun sickened and died, and for years Xuan called the regent Huo Guang a thorn lodged in his back.