Divorce Agreement: We Part in Peace and Find Our Own Happiness

“Without one of the seven grounds for divorce, separation is no easy matter. One letter of release burns away half a lifetime of devotion.”

During the Tianbao era, Princess Yongning Meng Zhao is ordered to marry Shen Qianzhi, son of a powerful minister, but on their wedding night she is left alone in the bridal chamber. Her husband braves the rain to rush to a Taoist temple, all to comfort his “frail” cousin, Lin Wan'er.

For three years, she serves his sharp-tongued mother and uses her dowry to cover the Shen family's debts, only to receive cold scorn in return: “The dignity of a princess is worth less than half of Wan'er's gentleness.”

When Meng Zhao presents a separation agreement, all of Chang'an laughs at her delusions.

Her clan tries to keep her by claiming she has committed no fault as a wife. Rumors spread that she is “jealous and barren,” and even her cold-hearted husband sneers, “Once you leave the Shen family, do you think you can go back to being a pampered princess?”

“You want me to cling to you like a vine. I'd rather grow into a towering tree!”

She smashes their betrothal jade pendant in front of everyone and opens a dye workshop in the West Market.

Her secret peony-dyeing technique dazzles Chang'an, and foreign merchants come bearing gold to buy it.

The Grand Princess grants her an official's robes, and even the emperor praises her: “Not even the Heavenly Weaver's brocade can rival Lady Meng's dyes.”

Then the flames of the An Lushan Rebellion reach Chang'an.

The man who once said she “couldn't live without her husband” now kneels outside her dye workshop, covered in blood. “Please... let me protect you one last time.”

She gives a faint smile and lifts his chin with a fingernail painted crimson:

“Lord Shen, the separation agreement made it perfectly clear...”

“We part in peace, and each goes on to find happiness.”

◆ A million-word historical romance, with research into Tang-era divorce customs and women's rights to conduct business.