This book seemed fanciful and flighty at first, until I found out that the story of Peony Chen and her account of her mother and grandmother’s life. They were feminist heroes during their time. (Tang Dynasty). Peony becomes the roving hungry ghost of her husband’s family and she and her sister wives were the first feminist unsung literary heroes in China. (1400’s). Peony was about sixteen years old when she died, and according to her account, it was because she had too much quing in her. She died of lovesickness, and she literally starved herself to death, pining for Ren, her bethrothed husband to be. Her ghostly activities propelled the literary genius of womenfolk in a time that women could not and were not known for anything but being subservient to their husbands and parents.
Either you love the book or you hate it, as it accounts for these lovelorn women of high society. They were not allowed to leave the inner chambers of their palatial homes, the had bound feet “golden lillies” and were groomed to be stern mothers to sons and daughters, obedient wives and subservient members of a clan that they marry into. Girls were not important but it was customary that their marriages be arranged by their fathers into well to do families. Women and girls in the household were either wives, concubines, daughters and mothers-in-laws. Peony’s dowry was extensive and her bride price was fitting of a princess. She grew up in a household that had generations of poets and very literate ancestors, her father was an extremely well read and high ranking government official. On her birthday, her father commissioned the opera “Peony Pavillion” to be played in their family garden. Top government officials were invited, including families of her husband to be.
Peony Pavillion is a play about a ghost lover Du Liniang, and the erotic love she shared with her lover Liu Mengmei. Du Liniang is the daughter of an important official. Her maid encourages her to abandon her dull studies and take a walk in the garden, where she falls asleep. She dreams of her lover Liu Mengmei, whom in real life she has never met, before being awoken by falling petals. Unable to recover the enchantment of her dream, she wastes away and dies.
Peony’s story is actually the story of Du Liniang. The novel is an account of a girl’s interpretation of the opera “Peony Pavillion” and how her life imitates the main character’s life. I stumbled upon the history of women in literature in about the later 4th part of the book, otherwise I thought it was just a dreamy account of a young girl’s erotic fantasies. I give Lisa See credit for her research and ability to portray the women’s plight and struggle to express their creativity and their sensuality.
