The Color Red in She Who Became the Sun: Rebellion, Desire, and Legitimacy

The Color Red: A Symbol of Rebellion, Desire, and Legitimacy in She Who Became the Sun

In Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun, the color red is not merely a visual detail but a dense, evolving symbol that binds together the novel’s central concerns: rebellion, desire, and the contested nature of legitimacy. From the Red Turbans’ name to the Prince of Radiance’s flame, and finally to Ma Xiuying’s red clothing in the closing pages, red marks moments of transformation, ambition, and violence. The novel uses red to question what makes a ruler legitimate—blood, divine mandate, or sheer will—and to show how desire can consume and remake identity.

The Red Turbans and the Color of Rebellion

The most obvious recurrence of red is in the rebel movement itself: the Red Turbans. The novel explicitly ties their name to the color of the vanished Song Dynasty emperors. When Zhu first witnesses the Prince of Radiance summon a red flame, she reflects that “it made sense why the rebels had taken red as their color. Why they had named themselves for it.” This connection positions red as a claim to historical legitimacy—a restoration of a lost dynasty rather than a new invention. The Red Turbans’ red is thus a political symbol, a banner under which the Nanren (southerners) rally against the Mongol Yuan.

Yet the novel complicates this symbolism. Red is also the color of blood, and the rebels’ cause is built on violence. When Ma watches the Prince of Radiance’s red light engulf the crowd, she thinks, “Shouldn’t radiance be brighter? For all that red was the color of fortune, of prosperity—she couldn’t shake the image of their new era awash in blood.” This duality—red as both promise and threat—runs throughout the text. The Red Turbans’ red is not simply a noble banner; it is soaked in the sacrifices that rebellion demands.

The Prince of Radiance and the Mandate of Heaven

The Prince of Radiance, the child figurehead of the Red Turbans, embodies red as the physical manifestation of the Mandate of Heaven. In Chapter 7, Zhu sees him produce “a red flame, as eerily luminous as a blood moon” that grows until he is “shrouded in a deep red fire.” The text explicitly contrasts this with the Mongol emperors’ blue flame, noting that the Great Yuan’s flag is blue because of that divine light. Red, then, is the color of the true Mandate—the one that belongs to the Song’s heirs and, by extension, to whoever can claim it.

The Prince’s red light is described as both beautiful and terrifying. It “turned the darkness as lush as sable,” yet it also consumes. When the Prince later blesses Zhu in Chapter 24, Ma watches “the red light of his Mandate flow from his fingertips into Zhu, consuming her kneeling figure in a corona of dark fire.” This consuming quality links red to the novel’s theme of desire as a consuming force. The Mandate is not a passive gift; it devours those who seek it.

Red as Desire and Ambition

For Zhu, red becomes intimately tied to her own desire. When she first sees the Prince’s flame, she feels “a tingle run through the top layer of her skin” and thinks, “Her desire gripped her, as strong and hot as it had been when she was flung from the monastery.” Red is the color of what she wants: greatness, recognition, a fate that defies the fortune-teller’s prediction of “nothing.” This desire is not merely personal; it is the engine of her rise. The novel presents red as the color of ambition itself—the hunger that drives Zhu to seize the Mandate, kill the Prince, and proclaim herself Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King.

The connection between red and desire is reinforced in a playful exchange between Zhu and Ma in Chapter 10. When Ma teases Zhu about her name, she says, “Red? Like a—Red Turban?” and Zhu replies, “That’s a different kind of a red!” The joke underscores that red has multiple meanings: the political red of the rebels, the personal red of Zhu’s own name (Zhu means “red” in Chinese), and the deeper red of her ambition. Zhu’s name itself is a symbol—she is literally “red,” and she will remake that color in her own image.

Blood and Violence: The Dark Side of Red

Red is also the color of blood, and the novel does not shy away from this association. Ouyang, the eunuch general, is described after killing Esen as “soaked in blood. His sleeves were heavy with it, his hands gloved in it.” This visceral image connects red to the cost of revenge and the brutality of power. Ouyang’s own path is one of bloodshed, and his red-stained hands mirror the violence that underpins all political change in the novel.

Even the Prince of Radiance’s red light carries this connotation. Ma’s fear that the new era will be “awash in blood” suggests that red’s promise of legitimacy is inseparable from the blood that must be spilled to achieve it. The novel thus refuses to offer a clean symbol: red is never purely heroic or purely villainous. It is the color of both creation and destruction, of the Mandate and of murder.

Ma’s Red Clothing: A New Legitimacy

The novel’s final use of red is Ma Xiuying’s appearance in red clothing. After Zhu kills the Prince and proclaims herself Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, Ma “appears in red and pledges to become his Empress.” This moment is significant because Ma has previously been associated with more muted colors—her role as a woman in a patriarchal world has been one of subservience and performance. By donning red, Ma aligns herself with Zhu’s new regime and with the Mandate that Zhu has claimed.

Ma’s red clothing is a deliberate performance of legitimacy. It signals her acceptance of her role as Empress, but it also echoes the novel’s theme of identity as performance. Just as Zhu has performed masculinity to claim power, Ma performs the role of Empress through the color of her garments. Red becomes the uniform of the new order—a visual declaration that the Mandate has passed to Zhu and that Ma will stand beside her.

The Evolution of Red’s Meaning

Across the novel, red shifts from a collective symbol of rebellion to a personal symbol of Zhu’s ambition, and finally to a marker of established power. Initially, red is the color of the Red Turbans, a movement that promises change. For Zhu, it becomes the color of her own desire—the flame she wants to grasp. By the end, red is the color of the new dynasty, worn by Ma as Empress. This evolution mirrors Zhu’s own journey from a nameless girl to a self-proclaimed emperor.

The novel also uses red to interrogate the idea of legitimacy. Is the Mandate truly divine, or is it a story that the powerful tell to justify their rule? The Prince of Radiance’s red flame is presented as a miracle, but Zhu’s own actions—killing the Prince, manipulating events—suggest that legitimacy is something one seizes rather than receives. Red, then, is not a fixed symbol but a contested one, reflecting the novel’s broader exploration of power and legitimacy.

Study Questions

1. How does the color red function as a symbol of legitimacy in the novel?

Red is tied to the Mandate of Heaven through the Prince of Radiance’s flame, which is described as the color of the vanished Song Dynasty emperors. The Red Turbans adopt red as their color to claim this legacy. However, the novel complicates this by showing that legitimacy is also a matter of performance and violence—Zhu kills the Prince and takes the Mandate for herself, suggesting that red is a symbol that can be seized, not just inherited.

1. In what ways does red represent both hope and violence?

Red inspires hope in the Red Turban followers, who see the Prince’s flame as a sign of Heaven’s favor and a promise of change. Yet Ma also perceives the red light as “awash in blood,” and the novel repeatedly connects red to bloodshed—from Ouyang’s blood-soaked hands to the violence of rebellion. Red thus embodies the dual nature of revolution: it is both a beacon of liberation and a harbinger of destruction.

1. How does Zhu’s relationship with red evolve over the course of the story?

Initially, Zhu is awed by the Prince’s red flame and feels her desire ignite. Red becomes a symbol of her ambition and her refusal to accept a fate of “nothing.” As she rises, she seeks to claim the Mandate for herself, ultimately killing the Prince and proclaiming herself the Radiant King. By the end, red is no longer something she merely admires—it is the color of her own rule, as signified by Ma’s red clothing.

1. What does Ma’s red clothing at the end signify?

Ma’s red clothing signifies her acceptance of her role as Empress and her alignment with Zhu’s new regime. It is a deliberate performance of legitimacy, echoing the novel’s theme of identity as performance. By wearing red, Ma visually declares that the Mandate has passed to Zhu and that she will support this new order, even as the color also carries the weight of the bloodshed that made it possible.