Paradise Cove: Brocade-Clad, Bones Laid Bare

Jilewu: Brocade Robes, Withered Bones consists of three parts. It tells the tragic epic of a nobleman's daughter in the chaos of the late Tang, as she falls step by step from a life of silk and fine food into a savage struggle for survival. The story focuses on the depths of women's suffering and the people caught in a turbulent age:

“Life in Brocade”, The Collapse of Identity and Dignity

She was once a nobleman's daughter in Chang'an. When Huang Chao breached the city, her father pushed her into a secret passage with just one final command: “Stay alive.” She escaped by sheer luck, only to be seized and abused by fleeing soldiers. Her fine clothes were stained with dust, and she became their plaything. When she fled to a relay station, she knelt and begged a passing censor to save her, only to receive the cold reply, “Leave at once. Do not disturb official decorum.” Her last illusions about “propriety” and “order” were shattered. Her brocade clothes were the last vestige of her dignity. She wielded a gold hairpin as a weapon and wore her finery as armor. She wanders deep in the Qinling Mountains, waiting for the next person.

“Jingye Temple”, A Crucible of Morality and Human Nature

Jingye Temple is occupied by fleeing soldiers. To keep the soldiers and refugees alive, a huge pot is set up in the front courtyard. A gray wall divides the temple into a hellscape and a false pure land. By now, the protagonist has shed her fine clothes and joined the refugees at Jingye Temple. When an official appears at the temple gate, she disappears once more into the depths of the Qinling Mountains.

“When Huang Chao Passed Through”, The Cycle of Cause and Effect in a Turbulent Age

Years later, a band of fleeing soldiers arrives at Black Wind Stronghold in the mountains. A scholar among them sees a woman hanging from a beam in the back courtyard. She is dressed in a gray-white monk's robe, but beneath it, he can make out a faded, dark-red brocade dress. He tries to save her, but it's too late. In despair, the scholar writes on the wall with charcoal: “Better to be a dog in peaceful times than a person in an age of chaos.”