(no subject)

Today we tried (and failed) to find Epping Forest, but we found Epping and the Essex countryside and some very friendly horses. We also found lovely charity shops and got very cheap hardback 1933 editions of Jane Austen, George Elliot and Edgar Allen Poe. A nice leisurley afternoon after a boring but productive morning. It's quite surprising the places the tube goes...

"Empress Wu Zeitian in Fiction and History"

Empress Wu Zeitian in Fiction and History by Dora Shu-Fang Dien was the secound book on Empress Wu that I found at the SOAS library. Though really to say it's a book about Empress Wu is unfortunately a bit misleading. The book is only a 100 pages long and the author writes over half of it about other things. The cover listed no information about the author, from reading the book I found out she was a psychologist from Taiwan who was married to one of the leading sinologists in the states (Albert Dien).

She wrote the book for people who have no background in Chinese history, therefore she spends the first fifth outlining the basic principles of Chinese philosophy (in 20 pages!). She then talks about the novel, Flowers in the Mirror which, while taking place during the reign of Empress Wu really doesn't focus much on her at all. She spent a chapter looking at the history of Empress Wu, her overviews were often taken from the book I had previously read, but not as detailed or precise. Her chapter on Empress Wu's achievements was only 4 pages, far too short. She did however mention a book by Richard Guisso that seems to be dealing far more indepth with all the issues about Empress Wu that I am wanting to read. So I am grateful for that. I have already found the SOAS library has two copies which I shall have to check out.

Her last two chapters (the last 3rd of the book) abandoned Empress Wu altogether. One looked briefly at the legend of Hua Mulan, and had a lengthy recounting of the legend of the Butterfly Lovers, also called Ling Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Which while pleasant to read, offered no new insight.

Her last chapter was fairly interesting, challenging previous existing notions of the subservience of women in Chinese society and looking at women in China today. While only 10 pages this last chapter was clearly much closer to Mrs. Dien's realm of expertise and therefore her writing was much more interesting and insightful. As nice as it was to find a modern book on the subject it seemed unfortunately to be almost entirely content free.