Unofficial History of China: Five Thousand Years of Hidden Tales

When a maid kept in a master's bedchamber is beaten to death on her mistress's orders and dumped in a mass grave, her bloodstained handkerchief is still clutched around the unborn child she carries. She is never even given a chance to plead her case. A woman born infertile is branded a curse upon her family and locked away in a dark woodshed, tormented day after day, her wounds the mark of the strict moral code imposed upon her. A grandly titled consort to a princess may enjoy wealth and splendor, yet every night he catches the princess carousing with her male lovers. Beneath his golden crown lies humiliation and helplessness he cannot hide. These are the blood and tears of the oppressed, left out of the official histories. Maids kept in a master's bedchamber are playthings their employers may abuse at will, their lives hanging on a whim. Women born infertile are outcasts scorned by society, forced to tread carefully just to stay alive. Even a princess's consort, for all his exalted status, cannot escape the crushing weight of power and social conventions. Across five thousand years of Chinese history, the mire beneath palace walls and the cold hovels in the marketplace conceal countless trampled souls. You open a collection of hidden tales and secrets, but what you see is the true life of the ancient oppressed, struggling in utter desperation and sinking into darkness.