Wanting What You Can't Have

“At the age of thirteen, my daughter conceived a violent passion for Xue Shao, whom she had met while walking beside the River Luo. To fulfill her desires, I ordered the young aristocrat to repudiate his legitimate wife, and I offered them the most lavishing wedding in history. But prince consorts have hearts capricious as imperial princesses: Having been forcibly married, Xue Shao remained attached to the memory of his first wife who had chosen to commit suicide rather than be abandoned. He had treated Moon (blogger’s note: the daughter) with respectful contempt. Moon was accepted and rejected, feared and loathed by her husband’s family, and she had had hidden her pain from me until that day I discovered that this unworthy son-in-law was involved in a conspiracy.
Xue Shao was executed; Moon lost her failed source of happiness. I urged her to remarry, and she fell in love with my nephew Tranquility who was also a married man. The cousin, astonished, by this unexpected good fortune, did not want to be begged. He dismissed his wife and loved Moon with religious fervor. But, she was haunted by Xue Shao: The imperial princess preferred an impossible love to the adoration she was offered. Very soon after they were married, she betrayed her husband in the arms of a guard’s officer.” (268)


I chose this passage because it dabbled into the idea of love. To me, what Moon thinks is love is nothing more than just a game of possession. Sure she must have maybe liked Xue Shao, but what drove her to think she loved him was the fact that she knew she couldn’t have him. Although, in the end, she got what she wanted, which was to be married to him, she did not get his heart.
The most interesting line of this passage was “The imperial princess preferred an impossible love to the adoration she was offered.” She thought she loved her mother’s nephew, but that did not turn out too well, because his adoration of her seemed to drive her away. The idea of desiring something you cannot have has been around for ages.
In the Fairytale Cinderella all the commoners yearned to be Prince Charming’s wife, which is evident in their presence at the ball. Even today, in teen movies, there are always those average students in high school dreaming about the cool popular guy.

Window of Opportunity

“The Emperor’s prosperity is a duty for every one of us. Every individual-whether an official or of no distinction, nobleman or commoner, Chinese or foreign , gifted in the field of culture, economics, defense, education, justice, or of major works-should present themselves to the recruiting officers without a letter of recommendation” (234)

This was a decree that Empress Wu sent out to all the provinces in China. This decree gave all men a chance to become an official, which in most cases, is the first step to becoming noble. This is a big contrast to how other nations’, like Britain, noble system worked at the time. In their nations, ranks in society are based on ancestry and were unchangeable. I believe the Chinese had a good system in trying to make sure no intelligence goes unnoticed. But, the only drawbacks would have to be that the window of opportunity was only open to men. Like many other places, women were not seen as any useful intelligence at all. But, of course, all of us know that this is certainly not true. One great example of this is the protagonist of the story, Empress Wu (Heavenlight), herself. If you think about how many women there were back in those times, there must have been many undiscovered intelligent people who were woman.

Incest

Since the last post there were many major events that occur. Heavenlight persuades many officials of the court to side with her and turn against the late Empress's uncle, who everyone obeyed. With her success, she was able to give herself the title of Empress. But, with her new position and title, she has to create a system to go against all of the other wives of the Emperor, who covets her title. To have the most power in the inner court, one must have the Emperor’s favor and to do this, they must satisfy his desires. Heaven Light decides the best way to keep the Emperor’s favor is by offering him her sister. Between her sister and her, the Empress is able to keep the Emperor away from all his other wives. Things are going well until it is discovered that the Emperor has been sleeping with the Empress’s niece, Harmony.

“Harmony had refused her meal in the pavilion where she was locked up. When my serving women opened the door and lit the candles, she turned to look at me; she looked disheveled, but showed no hint of remorse. It was as if she lost all the heedless joy of childhood in one night. Her drawn features and dark expressions were those of woman consumed by hatred.
With her forehead on the ground, she said, “Majesty, send me to a monastery or to the Cold Palace, condemn me to death, I would have no regrets. My body already belongs to the Son of Heaven (blogger’s note; this refers to the Emperor). I am happy to offer him my life.”
Harmony’s impetuousness reminded me of my own. I had experienced the same voluptuous suffering, this heroic sadness, but I had lost my innocence. I no longer believed in the ridiculous word- love.
I ordered the young girl to look up. I looked her right in the eye and said: “I shall spare your life because you are the daughter of the Lady of the Kingdom of Han, my beloved sister, and because the Lady of the Kingdom of Dai, my venerable mother, would die of grief if you left this sullied earth before she did. You are fifteen. The path of the life before you is long. Today I am giving you a choice: Either I arrange to find you a good marriage and you shall have a husband and children, or I shall offer you a palace in the Inner Court. But you should know that, like your mother’s, your liaison with His majesty will never be official. You will remain the Empress’s niece. Your body shall never be touched by mortal men again; you will never have children.”
When I read up to this part of the book, I was mortified. It was already bad enough the Empress “offered” her own sister to the Emperor to keep his “favor”, but to allow your niece to become the Emperor’s unofficial mistress along with her mother is just preposterous. Looking at the bigger picture, this shows the true nature of how life was like back then for the Chinese Royals. The mindset of survival of the fittest outshined the idea of love. We thought Hamlet’s mother and uncle we’re messed up in their incestuous marriage. But comparing them to the Empress’s situation, their controversy should be considered child’s play.

Irony

"The Empress of China had to be the perfect Mistress of the Palace and a model of virtue for all the Chinese women." (116)

This is what the Chinese people believe their Empress should be like. This holds true for most places in the world where there are females with high royal status, but this is exactly the opposite of how the soon to be Empress Wu (Heaven light) is like.

In formulating her plan to take the Empress's title, Heaven light thinks:
"Wu Ji's cold calculation could not kill the flame of love. To win the duel, I buried my feelings and deployed my most manipulative strategies. His weapon would be turned against him. I would be icier and more merciless than him." (117)

The common people see all the people in the palace as being lucky because they have everything needed (food, clothing, servants) given to them. But, inside the palace, there is always a constant fight for survival. The Empress may have authority over the other wives of the Emperor, but there is always someone who will try to take her title. Everything these women have is built on the commoner's tax money.
Heaven light does many immoral and manipulative things to get the title of Empress, but this title does not suit her because she is not what the title represents. They should at least be grateful for all the wealth and prestige by living up to what the common people think they should be.

Polygamy

After the death of her father, Heaven light shares a conversation with a well known general throughout China, which earned her a recommendation to be one of the emperor's concubines. During the ancient times polygamy was widely accepted. The Emperor was a big promoter of this, having hundreds of wives at his bidding. I personally believe polygamy is wrong. First off, polygamy was only acceptable if a man had more than one wife, never a woman with more than one husband.
In a female's point of view, how can you accept the fact that you have to share your husband? A husband having more than one wife should make his wives feel as if they were a possession, or more of a part of a collection that he can keep adding to. Women probably had no right to say anything and were forced into arranged marriages by parents, so it is not their fault. This leads me to conclude that lives of women in China were completely oppressed.
For the men who choose to marry more than one wife, why is there a need to do that? You already have one wife, who will cater to your every needs, isn't it selfish to make another woman suffer?
Right now in society, true love is something many desire, to find that one person who completes you. Do you think it was possible to find love during the ancient times, where a man had more that one wife and a woman had to share her husband? Would you be able to love someone you had to "share”?

Reincarnation

"'Buddha speaks through every moment of pain. Listen to his words. Your destiny lies elsewhere. Forget me."

Farewell monastery! Time will devour you, and you will be turned to dust. Farewell, Pure Intelligence! You will soon die, and we shall see each other again in another life. Farewell, my friends the monkeys, the tigers, the pandas. You will become carrion, and only the mountains will remain.
They will watch over the Buddha's enigmatic smile." (11)


In life, people should not be too attached things, because nothing lasts forever, and it will one day turn to "dust". This leads to the age old question: '"What is the meaning of life?" If everything eventually turns to dust, why must we live in the first place? Heaven light (Empress Wu), like many other Buddhists believed in the idea of reincarnation, where, once a person dies, they are reborn again into another being with no memory of their last life. What is your view on this idea? Would you rather live one life or be reincarnated several times?

In this excerpt from the book, readers are exposed to the teaching of Buddha and how his teachings are a way of life for some people. Everyone experiences pain and sorrow at least once in a life time, and these experiences holds a purpose. The purposes of these experiences are to lead people to their destinies. Can people have a destiny, if everyone is fated to be reincarnated?

Empress A Novel by Shan Sa

A ravishing historical novel of one of China's most controversial historical figures: its first and only female emperor, Empress Wu, who emerged in the Tang Dynasty and ushered in a golden age. In seventh–century China, during the great Tang dynasty, a young girl from the humble Wu clan entered the imperial gynaecium, which housed ten thousand concubines. Inside the Forbidden City, she witnessed seductions, plots, murders, and brazen acts of treason. Propelled by a shrewd intelligence, an extraordinary persistence, and a friendship with the imperial heir, she rose through the ranks to become the first Empress of China. On the one hand, she was a political mastermind who quelled insurrections, eased famine, and opened wide the routes of international trade. On the other, she was a passionate patron of the arts who brought Chinese civilization to unsurpassed heights of knowledge, beauty, and sophistication. And yet, from the moment of her death to the present day, her name has been sullied, her story distorted, and her memoirs obliterated by men taking vengeance on a women who dared become Emperor. For the first time in thirteen centuries, Empress Wu flings open the gates of her Forbidden City and tells her own astonishing tale–revealing a fascinating, complex figure who in many ways remains modern to this day. (http://books.google.com/books?id=m296w0GA5O0C&dq=empress+a+novel&psp=1)