"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.
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Since the start if High school, we have read most books centered on American and European culture, we never really touched base with Asian cultures in our reading. So, in the posts, I will give my views on certain aspects of the Chinese culture I read about in the books I read for this independent reading assignment.
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credits
- http://www.pagesofink.com/images/2006/MidAutumnFestival14.jpg
- http://bp1.blogger.com/_vI2GIp44VoE/RyvVAs3aMpI/AAAAAAAAAAM/_hGISgz487A/s1600-h/211-bjo5SFL__OU01_SS160_.jpg
- http://books.google.com/books?id=m296w0GA5O0C&dq=empress+a+novel&psp=1
- http://www.the-gallery-of-china.com/chinese-bamboo-painting-B6022.jpg
- http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/tpsd/wallpaper/images/fig17.jpg
1 comment:
As I had mentioned before, it would be very helpful if you could write your focus somewhere on the blog. The titles of your whole project vary and I am still not sure on what it is that you are trying to prove.Personally, I think your blog is very cute, but I find it hard to read sometimes. Trying a more solid background would be very useful.
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