In the late Ming dynasty.
Chen Miaoqing, a young lady from a prominent family, gets lost at a temple fair and wanders into the depths of a brothel, where she encounters an affair built on false feelings and gives her whole heart to it.
She says, "I pour a cup of wine over Su Xiaoxiao's grave. Could you know that I am the one in your heart?"
These are lines by the talented poet Feng Xiaoqing.
If they are both women, how can one be the other one's beloved?
In the past, when I read Feng Xiaoqing, I could only lament her lonely, slender shadow and pity her as I pitied myself. Only after living through such an experience did I understand that lovesick people in this world have always been alike.
Those women who gazed at their reflections by the water and wrote poems to console themselves:
Some died in the springtime of their seventeenth year;
some burned all their poems and died of illness beneath the plum blossoms on Solitary Hill;
a talented woman on the Qinhuai River bought her freedom, ran a house of pleasure, and supported many more women with nowhere to go;
and some stayed in a grand house, unmarried for half their lives, holding up a roof over their younger siblings.
There were also countless ordinary women who struggled in silence, their names never recorded.
Then their country fell and their homes were lost.
Some searched for a way forward in books, some hid themselves in poetry, some became walls of flesh and blood, some made their own lives into temples, and some locked their hearts in the bottom of their makeup chests and never opened them again.
In this life, the past has led us astray. Looking back now, I miss those who came before me, and feel pity for my former self.
You were never meant for the dust. Why belittle yourself?
(This story leans toward serious historical drama. If you enjoy the style of works like Dream of the Red Chamber and Three Words and Two Slaps, give it a try. There are many scenes of everyday life and women's quarters in the Ming dynasty. Readers are also welcome to share their valuable feedback.)
Theme: Through the eyes of the two female leads, we witness the ups and downs of women in the late Ming dynasty
