Yuan Yang Livres

The narrative explores the lives of four ordinary women in modern China, highlighting their struggles and aspirations amidst societal inequalities. Through their personal journeys, the book offers a deep and nuanced understanding of contemporary Chinese society, revealing the challenges they face while striving for a better future.

This book is more than a series of tales about intrigues, illicit love affairs, jealousies, and murders committed by the various women who populated the harems of China's many emperors. It is a unique retelling of major events in China's more than 3,000-year-old history as seen through the eyes of these courtesans of the rear palace. Each emperor had thousands of beauties at his beck and call. Most of them, separated at a young age from their families, lived in the rear palace in loneliness and seclusion. A few, however, wielded great power or even gained supremacy over the imperial court. Their stories vividly portray the social customs and palace life in ancient China, and give new insights into the important role of women in Chinese history.

Emperor Qin Shihuang is known to everyone in China. He was born in 259 B.C. and became king of the state of Qin at the age of 13. In 221 B.C. he established the Qin Dynasty, the first centralized and unified regime in the history of China. His merits and demerits have brought him both praise and blame down through the ages. He has been honored as a remarkable emperor and denounced as a tyrant. Some of the stories in this book come from historical records which serve to silhouette the life of Emperor Qin Shihuang, and some are based on popular legends, adding highly colored details about him and reflecting the feelings and hopes of ordinary people. These two sources complement each other for a comprehensive look at Qin Shihuang and his world.