On the Side of the Dragon Bed: Private Letters of Empresses of the Past Dynasties

In the shadow of the pinnacle of imperial power, the side of the dragon bed has never been a gentle place, but the sharpest power arena. This historical narrative work, carefully researched by Bi Wenqian, is cut from the private perspective of the queens of the past dynasties, uncovering the numerous scars under the palace robes, and resurrecting the harem intrigues and women's fate in 2000 in the yellowed "notes".   This book breaks the cold narrative of official history, connects real historical materials and folk legends in the form of fictional "notes", derives a new harem romance, and reveals the cruel rules of harem survival: the queen's uterus is the "granary of society" of the empire, and birth records are more valued by historians than poems; each feather of the four phoenixes on the phoenix crown is soaked in the blood and tears of her predecessor; even the silver mirror used to dress up in the morning may be the emperor's spy. Bi Wenqian uses archaeological and delicate brushstrokes to fill in the blank spaces of history books with the breathing and heartbeat of women. When we see through the mottled ink marks of the "Notes", we see not only how the queens weighed favors and authority on the side of the dragon bed, but also how a group of women alienated by power used their youth, heirs and even their souls to carve out their own survival gaps in the iron law of patriarchy. This is a palace version of "The Second Sex" and a song of ice and fire about women's awakening under the feudal empire.