
玉嬌梨
In the waning years of the Zhenglong era, a retired senior minister named Bai Taixuan leaves the bustle of the capital for a quiet village nestled among jade‑green hills. There, his only child, the gifted and striking Red Jade, blossoms into a prodigy of poetry and embroidery, earning the admiration of scholars and officials alike. When the emperor summons Bai back to the throne‑city, he sees an unexpected chance to find a worthy match for his daughter.
Back in the imperial precincts, Bai’s modest household becomes a lively salon where wine, verse, and fragrant chrysanthemums spark lively debates among three close colleagues. Their congenial gatherings are soon interrupted by the arrival of a brash censor, whose urgent request to intervene in a local land dispute threatens to drag the scholars into court intrigue. The story balances gentle literary pursuits with the subtle tensions of duty, offering a vivid portrait of a cultured family navigating ambition and honor.
Language
zh
Duration
~2 hours (133K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
Dec 17, 2007
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects
Known by a pen name rather than a confirmed personal name, this early Qing-era Chinese novelist and publisher is linked with a lively group of popular fiction works that kept circulating for centuries. The mystery around the writer’s identity only adds to the appeal of stories such as Yu Jiao Li and Ping Shan Leng Yan.
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