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Review: Su Tong (蘇童) - My Life as Emperor (我的帝王生涯) (2006)
I really enjoyed this book. It played out a lot like a historical Cdrama, but it was the first time that I'd read it in the written form (in English), and I really enjoyed it.
This is a story from the point of view of a child Emperor. I was browsing Goodreads and found that a lot of people put down this book because they found the narrator unlikeable. I didn't expect to find the narrator likeable, and I think it might be a bit of a culture gap as violence and cutthroat politics is a staple of Chinese palace stories.
Anyway, I'd definitely recommend this book for those who enjoy Chinese historical palace stories, or those who like deep character studies.
Spoilers.
Story
This story started with our narrator, Duanbai, as he ascended the throne, until the fall of his family's empire after which he went to become a monk.
I think SuTong's forward to this book mentioned that this story was more self-indulgent, and I wonder if that was why I felt rather comfortable and relaxed while reading this story. I think it also helped that that Duanbai was generally a rather indifferent and unmotivated person. He didn't have any ambitions, which made sense, as his life was already paved for him before he even had time to think about such things as his future. The narration from Duanbai's perspective was usually more about observations rather than thoughts and desires, and I guess that gave the reader freedom to interpret the story how they wanted.
In terms of the actual events of the story, they were fine. Like I said, I am used to palace stories so nothing here was exactly new, and yet I still found myself very interested in knowing what would happen next, maybe because Duanbai himself was so indifferent.
That being said this novel was not so much about what happened, but really about what it all meant, and I think that might be why this book was dropped by so many of the readers on Goodreads. This was never a story about power struggle, it was always the story of an individual and how the power thrust upon him affected his life for the rest of his days.
Writing and Translation
I'm assuming that there was only one translation done for this book, the translation by Howard Goldblatt. Anyway, I thought the translation was excellent. It was very easy for me to believe that I was in the world of the fictional Xie Empire, and I really felt that I was among Chinese people. I'd been reading a bunch of fan translated Jin Yong works lately and now having read this, I can see the stark difference between a fan translation and a professional one. Goldblatt's translation was very clean and easy to read.
In terms of the actual writing style, I really liked it. I'm not sure how much of it was Su Tong's original style and how much of it was Goldblatt's interpretation. But I found the writing very simple but poetic in the way that Chinese literature is, saying one thing out loud but meaning a million other things.
Characters
Duanbai
Duanbai was our narrator, the child Emperor. He was put on the throne at age 14, a very young age. He was what I'd expected of a child Emperor. Indifferent, impulsive, innocent, transparent. A lot of Goodreads commenters said that they found him cruel which was a turnoff and made them drop the book. I can agree that he is cruel, but this was not at all unexpected for me, likely because I am used to the environment of Chinese Imperial Courts (even if fictional) being extremely cutthroat. I would think that most Chinese readers bear similar sentiments to me as well.
When he first ascended to the throne, Duanbai survived by heeding his mother and grandmother's words. If he followed their instruction, they wouldn't be able to berate or micromanage him. Throughout the book, we will see that Duanbai as a person does not have strong will. I wonder how much of that was developed in his adolescence as an Emperor, and how much of that was his actual personality. At the same time, Duanbai also seemed to be a bit in a self-imposed cage, where he had opportunities to enforce his will, but ultimately just chose to go with the flow. Duanbai knew that his eldest brother Duanwen was coming for the throne and yet he didn't have any other thoughts than to accept it.
At the same time, it is very deeply engrained in Chinese culture that the higher status somebody is, the less freedom they have to say what they want. He was manipulated since birth. His status as a son was likely used as a pawn for his mother to remain in good standing in the Imperial Harem, his ascension to the throne was his grandmother's doing, etc. And as I mentioned, on the throne, he was not allowed to do what he wanted. In the part of the book that focused on the Imperial Harem, Duanbai was advised that he should visit Empress Peng at times (for political reasons, of course), and Duanbai mentioned that he felt like a prostitute, having to make nice with all of the concubines. I found the analogy extremely interesting. Obviously, most of the time, it is the women who are mistreated in cases of polygamy, but when it is a political marriage of power, nobody has power. Lady Peng and Duanbai clearly did not like each other and they still had to have these formal visits as a representation of the political tie between the Peng and Xie Empires.
I think part of Duanbai not having a strong will either was also because of the idea that the Emperor was never wrong. Even if he didn't have a strong will, no one would call him out for it (continuing his self-imposed cage). Early on in the book, we could see that Duanbai was capable of acknowledging when he'd done something wrong, but the issue was never of whether something was right or wrong, but rather, how it was resolved. Duanbai had very impulsively ordered that the ladies in the cold palace have their tongues cut out. He knew it was a bad thing that he'd done, and he'd even tried to hide it, but later on he spilled the beans to his grandmother. His grandmother didn't comment on the fact that he'd done a bad thing, only that it was good that he'd hidden it. So whether something was right or wrong never became relevant again in Duanbai's life.
An interesting thing I noticed early on was that in his formative years, Duanbai barely had any male role models. Juekong and maybe even Sun Xin were the only men in his life, and it makes sense why he'd kicked up such a fuss when Juekong was sent away. After the death of his father, Madame Meng and Madame Huangfu were his mentors (though more like manipulators). His father had insisted on female servants everywhere, and that was not changed until Duanbai had his first sexual experience (a wet dream).
I think the first time that Duanbai felt very strongly about something was when he found out that Duanwen was the original heir, and that Madame Huangfu had instead put him on the throne so that she could rule in his name. He spat on her face despite knowing that it was a bad look, but it was the first and perhaps the only time that I felt he was actually angry. I didn't think he was even angry when General Yang disobeyed his orders, I think he was just annoyed. I think it just occurred to Duanbai how different his life would be if he wasn't the Emperor. He wouldn't be fearing for his life, and his mother wouldn't always be in his ear.
After Duanwen seized the throne, Duanbai was exiled to be a commoner. He initially went to Swallow's hometown with him. It was here that he realized that he had no purpose. Out here in the real world, someone like Swallow had an original purpose, which was to provide for his family (and he had failed that), but Duanbai had never served any purpose other than being a puppet.
But later on, Duanbai finally decided he was going to follow through with becoming a tightrope walker. I'm going to talk about this later, but I did think there was a lot of symbolism associated with tightrope walking.
I'm going to talk more about Duanbai and Swallow's relationship, but I still wanted to cover it a bit here. Obviously, they were extremely close. Other than a few accounts throughout the book, I never really felt that Duanbai was a cruel master to Swallow. Obviously, Swallow was incredibly loyal, but I do think that Duanbai thought that he was treating him as a friend. Duanbai had left Swallow's home alone to find the theatre troupe and much later found out that Swallow was following him. He'd embraced Swallow and he said that that was when he realized that they were brothers.
When the Peng Empire invaded the Xie Empire, Duanbai's entire performance troupe died. Swallow and Jade Locket had died in a vat (presumably being crushed). Duanbai had briefly reflected on his relationship with Swallow in words, but I don't doubt that Swallow's death had a profound impact on his life. He insisted on burying Swallow and Jade Locket himself.
Despite the fact that Duanbai started a new life after his exile, he was still very connected with his old life. After losing all of his money in a highway robbery, he had to sell his jade amulet to survive. This was an amulet he'd worn since childhood. Later on, his performance troupe gained success and recognition because people found out he was the dethroned Emperor. So he was still reaping the benefits of his birth. Like he said, I didn't think that he'd really, truly closed the book on that life until Swallow died. After Swallow died, he no longer had any connection with his royal lineage, and I think that was why he was only then willing to go away, to the place that Juekong had left him.
Again, I realize that people were turned off from Duanbai's character from the beginning, but I really saw him as a product of his environment. In fact, the entire book is about how his life is a product of his environment, because he cannot survive unless he is a blank slate without a will of his own. I thought Duanbai was a really interesting narrator character despite not having many thoughts of his own. He merely made observations because he knew he could not afford to have opinions, but I thought it was cool how we could still see hints of his wants and dreams through those observations.
Madame Meng
Madame Meng was Duanbai's mother. I think she was a typical palace concubine. I didn't think she was particularly smart or clever, just a typical woman trying to survive in the cutthroat Imperial harem.
One of the earlier stories that Duanbai told about his mother was about her feud with Dainiang, which was another of Duanbai's father's concubines. Dainiang had supposedly poisoned Madame Meng's son Duanxian to death. As punishment, Dianiang's fingers were cut off and she was sent to the cold palace. However, Duanbai was extremely fixated on why Madame Meng had Dainiang's fingers cut off. He knew that Madame Meng was jealous of Dainiang's musical gift and the fact that the Emperor liked her. Perhaps it was from Madame Meng that Duanbai learned that cruelty was commonplace in the palace.
Madame Meng was at odds with Madame Huangfu in private, which made sense. In addition to being her mother-in-law, Madame Meng had a more personal stake in Duanbai's stability as the monarch whereas Madame Huangfu was a bit removed from them. And as we could see, Madame Huangfu was more lenient on Duanwen than Madame Meng would've liked.
Madame Meng committed suicide when Duanwen was invading the palace. She'd ordered the other concubines to commit suicide as well, including one of the concubines who was pregnant.
Madame Huangfu
Madame Huangfu was Duanbai's paternal grandmother. She was technically the eldest surviving relative of the imperial family, as we know, Confucian ideals value seniority. So despite the fact that Duanbai was actually the emperor, Madame Huangfu held a lot of social authority.
In fact, it was revealed on her deathbed that Duanwen was the intended heir all along. She'd instead replaced the imperial edict with one that had named Duanbai as the heir. Her reasoning for doing so was that Duanbai was the youngest and therefore the easiest to control and manipulate. At her death, Madame Huangfu was happy and proud of the fact that she got to rule the country for the eight years that Duanbai was on the throne.
Duanbai was visibly shocked and upset, and he demanded to know why Madame Huangfu hadn't burned the original edict, but she died before she gave him an answer. My theory is that the imperial edict could be used as leverage in case Duanbai ever opposed her. She could whip out the original edict that said that Duanwen was the original heir. I'm not sure how valid this would be though, since it's unclear how involved Madame Huangfu was in presenting the replaced edict. Was she the one who delivered it, or had she replaced it in secret? In any case, it didn't matter because Duanbai was already on the throne, and Madame Huangfu had manipulated the entire court for her own hubris.
Madame Huangfu expressed frustration at the lack of power she had as a woman and that was why she wanted so badly to rule. She could not have ruled with Duanwen on the throne. Duanwen was much older than Duanbai, and as we saw, he was already quite driven.
I think Madame Huangfu became a lot more interesting after we found out she'd replaced the original edict, but that was literally moments before she passed away.
Juekong
Juekong was a monk who was appointed by Duanbai's father to be his mentor. He taught Duanbai the usual things kids were taught, the Analects (Confucian thought), etc.
As I mentiond, Duanbai didn't really have many male role models growing up, so it was understandable that he was so attached to Juekong as a person. However, he was ultimately forced out by Madame Huangfu in a huge event in which she had lifted the "female servants only" rule that Duanbai's father had imposed and had eunuchs enter the palace.
Anyway, Juekong never came back into Duanbai's life. After the Xie Empire fell, Duanbai went to a little farm that Juekong had resided in but he'd passed long before Duanbai arrived.
Duanwen
Duanwen was the eldest son of Duanbai's father, the previous Emperor, and he was the original intended heir. In fact, it was strange that Duanwen hadn't inherited the throne. When Duanbai was announced as Emperor, I think I recall that he'd kind of rolled his eyes in exasperation and frustration, likely because he was ambitious, and now he knew he had to fight for the throne instead of just getting it like he was supposed to.
Over the next years of Duanbai's reign, he was very wary of Duanwan. It was unproven but implied that Duanwen and his brother from the same mother Duanwu had tried to stage a hunting accident to kill Duanbai but it hadn't worked out. Duanbai wanted to take drastic measures against him but Madame Huangfu was dismissive of Duanbai's concerns. Initially, I'd thought that she was still fond of Duanwen as an heir, but after the reveal, I think it became more obvious that it was because she never cared for Duanbai's stability on the throne. In fact, Madame Huangfu said that she didn't like Duanwen that much either.
Duanwen was sent away under the guise of studying and training but after a bit of a scuffle, he escaped the Xie Empire and promised that he'd return to take the throne. At this point, Duanbai had come to accept that Duanwen would take the throne. There was a story going around that the spirit of their father had tattooed "Xie Emperor" on his forehead as a sign of his intended fate. But in addition to that, Duanbai was already pretty jaded.
When Duanwen invaded the palace, he'd stroked Duanbai's cheek, and told him to scale the wall and escape with Swallow. Duanbai said that that was the first time he felt that Duanwen acted like a brother, which makes sense. Duanbai was a threat and only when he was no longer one would Duanwen let down his guard. In addition, he was probably just overcome with the euphoria of having attained his goal.
I think Duanwen had gotten help from the Western Duke to overthrow Duanbai, but Duanbai later found out that Duanwen had the Duke executed right after he'd gained control of the capital. So Duanwen was already burning his bridges as soon as he ascended the throne.
As we know, the Xie Empire was overthrown shortly after Duanwen ascended the throne. According to Duanbai, Duanwen was characterized as arrogant and this weakness was one of the main reasons the Empire fell. Of course, Duanbai felt that the fall was a long time coming and whether or not Duanwen was arrogant had nothing to do with that.
In a way, we could say that Duanbai escaped death because he was not emperor when Peng invaded. However, Peng would not have invaded if Duanbai had not been dethroned. Lady Peng was his Empress, and the Peng Empire actually sent for Lady Peng to return as overthrew Duanbai. So the Peng Empire already saw Xie as weak. In addition to that, however, Duanwen seemed the sort of person who was destined for this kind of life; he was driven and ambitious, but it'd be inevitable that he'd fall hard. On the other hand, Duanbai was never this kind of person. He'd always gone with the flow, and perhaps that was why he was able to hold onto his life unlike Duanwen.
Sun Xin
Sun Xin was the eccentric old man who attended to the cauldron of the elixir. He was always saying random things, followed by the fact that calamity would befall the Xie Empire.
Duanbai used to think of him just as a silly man who said weird things, but over time, the words became part of his life motto. Duanbai knew that from the moment he'd ascended the throne, that calamity would befall the Xie Empire. Perhaps Duanbai had come to believe that he was a poor choice for Emperor.
In any case, maybe it was his acceptance of the fact that calamity was inevitable that made him so remarkably low-will.
Swallow
Swallow was such an interesting character. He was the archetype of a loyal servant. When he entered the palace, he was bullied a tad by Duanbai (i.e. when Duanbai asked to see his groin), but afterwards, they had a really close relationship. Close in the sense that Swallow was extremely loyal to Duanbai and alert to his needs as well as responsibilities, and that Duanbai shared all of his closest thoughts with Swallow but still saw him as a servant.
Part of Swallow's loyalty was his filial piety and duty to his family. That was probably what it was at first. His father had castrated him and hoped that he'd make a ton of money in the capital to bring back home.
We really got to see Swallow's character come out when he returned home. Duanbai and Swallow had been robbed by the highway robbers, which meant that Swallow would return home empty handed, which was extremely dishonourable. In addition to that, he couldn't really tell his family that Duanbai was the Emperor. Even if he did, that didn't preclude the fact that Duanbai and Swallow were both extra burdens on Swallow's family.
It was at this point that Duanbai realized that here in the real world, Swallow had much more purpose than he did. Swallow was meant to earn money for his family. What was Duanbai's purpose? Who was his family? Even when he was on the throne, he was merely a placeholder. He could always have been replaced by someone else. If Madame Huangfu and Madame Meng weren't manipulating him, someone else would be.
Swallow had become very ashamed, because he couldn't bring money back home, but he also couldn't marry and start a family to support his father and siblings. His only other purpose in life was to serve Duanbai. Duanbai wanted to head out alone, probably because he didn't want to feel like a nuisance around Swallow's family anymore. But Swallow had begged to stay with Duanbai and in their disagreement, Swallow attempted suicide by drowning himself.
Though Swallow's father saved him, he expressed disgust at the seeming codependent roantic relationship between Duanbai and Swallow, not knowing that they were master and subject. It's true that Swallow was definitely Duanbai's most trusted person. Even when Duanbai couldn't trust his mother, grandmother, concubines, or most beloved, he could trust Swallow. As a person in power, it was impossible for Duanbai to fall in love without worrying about whether the other person had ulterior motives. As for Swallow, he was unable to enter into a heterosexual relationship and start his own family as a eunuch. Their circumstances had led them to one another but I don't doubt that they did truly trust each other more than anybody else.
After Duanbai left on his own to find the circus troupe, Swallow followed him. I guess both Swallow and Duanbai decided and agreed upon the fact that Swallow was fated to follow Duanbai forever.
Persuant to his promise as children, since Duanbai decided to become a tightrope walker, Swallow learned to be a log balancer. During their time training, Swallow had become fond of a little girl called Jade Locket.
Swallow's feelings towards Jade Locket were left ambiguous from Duanbai's point of view. I was under the impression that he saw her as a daughter he never had. However, Jade Locket's parents had caught him in bed with Jade Locket naked. (Jade Locket was 8 years old at this time). And I recall Duanbai saying that he sensed that Swallow knew he'd done something wrong. So it's really not clear whether Swallow had molested Jade Locket, or whether they truly were just sleeping naked.
In any case, that didn't matter to Duanbai. As I mentioned, Duanbai was kind of free from the dilemma of right vs. wrong. It was just a decision of whether to do or not to do. He made a decision to buy Jade Locket for Swallow, seeing how fond Swallow was of her. It cost a lot of money, which Duanbai got from a noble who knew who he was, but to Duanbai, it was worth it.
As mentioned, Swallow and Jade Locket died in the invasion of the Peng Empire. Swallow was protecting Jade Locket. When Duanbai found them, he'd reflected on their relationship. He said on the day they'd met, Swallow had said that he would die for Duanbai, and he had followed him until the day of his death. Duanbai said that Jade Locket was the only gift he'd given Swallow, and now she was dead with him too.
Swallow was probably the most meaningful relationship to Duanbai, and it shows in the fact that he'd wanted to bury Swallow and Jade Locket himself. I think this was the first time that he'd actually made an effort to change something in his life. Now that he'd buried Swallow, his old life was officially over.
The character of Swallow was really so interesting to me. I wish I'd learned more about him, but I think that maybe I wouldn't have found him as interesting if we'd seen more of him. Duanbai and Swallow had a close relationship but still one that had distance beause of their relationship as ruler and subject. Perhaps that distance, that clear hierarchy is what allowed them to maintain their relationship for so long.
Lady Hui
Lady Hui was Duanbai's favourite concubine. She was originally a palce girl that Duanbai had his eye on, and he wanted to promote her to the highest tier of imperial concubine, against his mother and grandmother's will.
While his empress and other concubines had the protection of Madame Huangfu or Madame Meng, Lady Hui had neither, because she had Duanbai's protection. Initially, we saw how loving Lady Hui and Duanbai were with each other. It was only until Lady Hui got pregnant that we saw the cracks in their relationship.
Lady Hui was deathly afraid that the other concubines would cause her to miscarriage (as is often the case in the Imperial Harem, as having a son automatically raises your social status). Seeing Lady Huis' paranoia turned Duanbai off a bit. She wanted to move in to Duanbai's manor with him but that was inappropriate according to the rites. Duanbai wasn't sure if he had spoiled her so much that she became this way (so pushy), but obviously part of this paranoia was just due to her being in the harem, and always being bullied by the other concubines who didn't have Duanbai's favour.
Lady Hui became so fearful to the point that she needed to attack and couldn't just defend. She wanted Duanbai to put the other concubines to death, which obviously he couldn't do.
When Lady Hui gave birth, Empress Peng and the doctor had colluded to switch out her baby for a baby fox, and to say that Lady Hui was a fox spirit. The resolution to that was for Lady Hui to be "put to death." In reality, she was sent out of the palace to become a nun, and a similar enough looking girl took her spot.
Years later, after Duanbai was exiled as a commoner, he found Lady Hui working in a brothel as "ninth sister." She said that she'd left the nunnery after 8 days. However, it was clear that that spark of love was no longer there. Obviously there was the stigma of prostitution working against Lady Hui here, as it was implied that Duanbai found her kind of cheap. In addition to that, Duanbai felt challenged by Lady Hui when she mentioned that Duanbai had come to a brothel, implying that he'd fallen far from grace just as she did. That being said, I don't think Duanbai hated Lady Hui. He just felt that he could no longer stay with her.
Some time later, Duanbai spotted Lady Hui roaming the streets trying to sell the poems that Duanbai used to write to her. It was clear that she was pretty out of it, no longer beautiful and proper. Duanbai did not reach to her, for one because he wasn't in love with in that way anymore.
However, Duanbai had also not wanted to reach out to her as he wanted her to be free like a bird. In their early years, they'd bonded over their mutual love of birds. This thought was what convinced me that Duanbai didn't hate Lady Hui, he just realized that their time together was over.
Empress Peng
Empress Peng was the Princess Wenda of the Peng Empire. Clearly she held more power over the other concubines, and I think she came from the highest status, as she was a princess, whereas Lady Hui was just a simple servant girl, and I believe two of the other concubines were Madame Meng's nieces (so nobility, but not royalty).
When Duanbai was expecting Duanwen to overthrow him, the Peng Empire had sent for Empress Peng to return to them. Honestly, I found that a bit strange. I think it'd only happen if the princess was extremely, extremely important to the Peng Empire, at least politically.
As Lady Peng was preparing to return to the Peng Empire, she was crying. I don't know if I was reading too much into it, but I was thinking of why she'd be crying. I don't know if she was just upset about leaving the place she'd called home, or if she was upset that she couldn't do much even though she was an Empress, and now she was returning home, she'd be "demoted" to a princess. Again, she might've just been upset because Duanwen was fighting his way to Duanbai and they were in danger.
Anyway, I thought that Lady Peng and Duanbai had an interesting relationship. Obviously there was a bit of antagonizing on Lady Peng's part, because Duanbai favoured Lady Hui so much. But at the end of the day, the two of them were born into this life of royalty, and they were the only ones who left this alive, Lady Peng leaving the Xie Empire and Duanbai being exiled. Except for Lady Hui, all of the other concubines who did not have families to protect them had to die, even though Duanbai himself did not.
Themes
Cold Palace
I thought it was interesting that the Cold Palace was kind of off-limits to everybody, even the Emperor. When Duanbai's father died, all of his concubines had to die with him, except for those who were in the cold palace such as Dainiang.
Duanbai couldn't sleep at night because of the wailing in the cold palace and one of his first acts as emperor was to have all of those in the cold palace have their tongues taken out. However, after that, he found that he couldn't sleep without the sounds coming from the cold palace.
I thought that maybe there was an unspoken agreement that the only thing allowed to live in the palace was just wretchedness and misery. Nothing that was in the imperial palace would stay beautiful forever, all that was allowed to stay was gloom.
Tolerance and will
Juekong taught Duanbai that the Emperor must learn to be tolerant, except as a child, he obviously thought it was ironic because the emperor should get whatever they want. Obviously for those familiar with political stories, they know that this is the furthest from the truth.
As I mentioned, those in power are the ones who have the least freedom because they have the largest responsibilities. Duanbai disliked having to see to all of his concubines, and saw it as prostituting himself, which I felt was rather vulgar, but a still starkly apt way of putting things. But he still had to see to each of them to maintain political ties, especially to those of high status like Lady Peng.
Revisionism
Duanbai had the tongues of the women in the cold palace cut off. He felt bad for what he did, but it wasn't until his talk with his grandmother that he decided he hadn't done anything wrong. As I said, it wasn't that what he'd done was right, it was that right or wrong didn't matter. As a person of power, Duanbai was afforded this opportunity to believe that he did no wrong.
At the same time, revionism could also work in the opposite direction. I think that for most of the book, Duanwen was painted as a more heroic person than Duanbai. But after the fall of the Xie Empire, he was portrayed as arrogant. While I don't doub that he did have some pride and hubris, it wasn't really highlighted by Duanbai. Instead I felt that Duanwen was seem as driven and a good leader.
Throughout the novel, there is a sentiment that people are bad because bad things happen to them and not necessarily the other way around. Seeing bad things happen to people was a confirmation that they were bad. It's backwards, but that's politics for you.
Power and authority
Through Duanbai's observations, he could see signs of how the commoners didn't necessarily hate him specifically, they just hated those in power. When the Imperial Uncle (Duanbai's own uncle) was put to death, the commoners were yelling that there'd be peace after he was gone. However, when Duanbai spoke to one of them, the commoner admitted that they weren't sure if peace would actually come. The commoners were so sure that something would change except by now as the reader it's easy to see that politics is just a cycle.
Duanbai himself became very disillusioned with his own status as royalty. He felt afraid and bothered when people recognized him or realized who he was. Perhaps it was because he was afraid that they'd want him dead. Or perhaps he was so painfully aware at how useless his power was in the real world. As mentioned, he had no purpose in life, no drive, not like all of these commoners out in the real world.
What bothered Duanbai was that after all that happened, the commoners still believed in authority. Duanbai felt a bit uncomfortable by the fact that so many people came to see him tightrope walking. He felt uncomfortable that so many people still seemed to trust him or view him positively.
Patriarchy
Early on in Duanbai's life, I think it was easy for the reader to see signs of the patriarchy, that he himself was blind to.
The first sign of this was when he started to tire of Lady Hui and felt her to be overdramatic. That was when Lady Huiw as afraid that she'd be at danger while pregnant. Duanbai was dismissive of Lady Hui, not necessarily because he didn't believe her. In my opinion, it felt like he didn't want to get involved, which is hypocritical because it was his favouritism that had put a target on Lady Hui's back to begin with.
And as mentioned before, Madame Huangfu was bitter about having no power, and had put Duanbai on the throne just so that she could rule. Yes, she manipulated the political court and the lives of many, but I can understand that Madame Huangfu felt overshadowed despite having to mentor the future Emperors.
Relationship between Emperor and Eunuch
I already covered most of this above, but Duanbai and Swallow have the most intimate relationship portrayed in the entire book. Despite the importance of family in Chinese culture, that means nothing when it comes to the palace.
Part of it was likely the fact that they met at such a young age, before any of them knew what real power was. Granted, in Chinese history, there were always instances of eunuchs gaining power and manipulating politics, but I think there was a low chance of that happening here because they'd trusted each other from such a young age. Especially without somebody who was as timid as Swallow, it was unlikely that he'd turn his back on Duanbai later in adulthood.
It wasn't until Swallow's dad commented on their relationship that I realized that they were like a married couple, maybe even closer. In fact Duanbai trusted Swallow more than he trusted Lady Hui, and she was his favourite concubine.
Their relationship of master and servant does call into question a bit of their relationship dynamics though. Obviously when Duanbai was still Emperor, Swallow was very firmly in a position of servitude. He could not refuse anything Duanbai asked of him, and being as timid and obedient as he was, he never did.
When Duanbai was exiled, however, Swallow remained just as loyal and obedient. It was when they had they argument that some of the truth came out. Swallow could no longer support his family by bringing them money. His only purpose left in life was to serve Duanbai, and so he would die doing so, and he did.
One reason why I think Swallow was such an interesting character was how simple his thought process was. Like Duanbai, Swallow's life was already out of his control. The fact that he was castrated meant that he really only had one possible profession, which was to be an imperial eunuch. Just as Duanbai couldn't really participate in anything other than politics by virtue of his birth. And I guess the fact that these two were so aware of their fates helped settle them in their relationship. They never questioned why their relationship was the way that it was, and they just let it be.
Tightrope walking
This was an interesting one. Of course, tightrope walking was the skill that amazed Duanbai at a young age, and he always joked with Swallow that he'd like to become a tightrope walker. Swallow promised that if Duanbai became a tightrope walker, he'd become a log balancer.
Most obviously, tightrope walking represented freedom to Duanbai, the freedom to choose his own path in life. The fact that he was able to become one was a feat in itself, as most Emperors would die Emperors instead of being exiled.
When he was high up in the air walking on tightropes, Duanbai would reflect on all that he could see. I think this contrasted with when he was in the palace, when everything was secretive. On the tightrope, he was always at danger of falling, but at least he knew the circumstances of his fall, whereas in the palace, he could die at any second and not know who'd come for him.
I saw tightrope walking as a representation of Duanbai's ability to take the reins on his own life. Yes, he was at risk of falling, but it was a risk that he willingly took. As an Emperor, he was always going with the flow, and whether he lived or died was never something that was his decision because he was always a figurehead.
Birds
Duanbai and Lady Hui loved birds and they bonded over them in the early days of their love. Later on, birds came to represent freedom to Duanbai. And just like his beloved birds, he wished Lady Hui freedom, even if she was no longer the beauty that she once was. Even if she was driven to madness, at least she was free from her connection to Duanbai, who'd brought her love but also much tragedy.
Earlier, I mentioned that Duanbai was kind of in a self-imposed cage, a cage where he wasn't free to make his own decisions. I say it was self-imposed because technically he did have the power to make his own decisions, but at the same time, he didn't have the knowledge or expertise to be able to carry out his own decisions. So instead, the safest route was always to go with the flow.
Throughout his journey on foot in the outside world, Duanbai came to be an avid bird watcher and bird lover too. He was able to copy a lot of their calls. The bird call that was repeated a lot was Wang-Wang-Wang (亡亡亡), which can also mean to perish or die, which again is a call back to calamity befalling the Xie Empire.
Ironically, Swallow, despite being a "bird," was shackled to the Emperor his whole life.
Overall
This was a book that I really enjoyed. Maybe it's because I enjoy palace stories a lot. As I mentioned, a lot of people on Goodreads dropped it early, but I personally think it's because they weren't used to the ruthlessness that is prevalent in Chinese palace stories.
I really enjoyed this story as a study of how power affected Duanbai in his youth. Despite him not being very strong in character, I learned a lot, and I think he did too.
This is a story from the point of view of a child Emperor. I was browsing Goodreads and found that a lot of people put down this book because they found the narrator unlikeable. I didn't expect to find the narrator likeable, and I think it might be a bit of a culture gap as violence and cutthroat politics is a staple of Chinese palace stories.
Anyway, I'd definitely recommend this book for those who enjoy Chinese historical palace stories, or those who like deep character studies.
Spoilers.
Story
This story started with our narrator, Duanbai, as he ascended the throne, until the fall of his family's empire after which he went to become a monk.
I think SuTong's forward to this book mentioned that this story was more self-indulgent, and I wonder if that was why I felt rather comfortable and relaxed while reading this story. I think it also helped that that Duanbai was generally a rather indifferent and unmotivated person. He didn't have any ambitions, which made sense, as his life was already paved for him before he even had time to think about such things as his future. The narration from Duanbai's perspective was usually more about observations rather than thoughts and desires, and I guess that gave the reader freedom to interpret the story how they wanted.
In terms of the actual events of the story, they were fine. Like I said, I am used to palace stories so nothing here was exactly new, and yet I still found myself very interested in knowing what would happen next, maybe because Duanbai himself was so indifferent.
That being said this novel was not so much about what happened, but really about what it all meant, and I think that might be why this book was dropped by so many of the readers on Goodreads. This was never a story about power struggle, it was always the story of an individual and how the power thrust upon him affected his life for the rest of his days.
Writing and Translation
I'm assuming that there was only one translation done for this book, the translation by Howard Goldblatt. Anyway, I thought the translation was excellent. It was very easy for me to believe that I was in the world of the fictional Xie Empire, and I really felt that I was among Chinese people. I'd been reading a bunch of fan translated Jin Yong works lately and now having read this, I can see the stark difference between a fan translation and a professional one. Goldblatt's translation was very clean and easy to read.
In terms of the actual writing style, I really liked it. I'm not sure how much of it was Su Tong's original style and how much of it was Goldblatt's interpretation. But I found the writing very simple but poetic in the way that Chinese literature is, saying one thing out loud but meaning a million other things.
Characters
Duanbai
Duanbai was our narrator, the child Emperor. He was put on the throne at age 14, a very young age. He was what I'd expected of a child Emperor. Indifferent, impulsive, innocent, transparent. A lot of Goodreads commenters said that they found him cruel which was a turnoff and made them drop the book. I can agree that he is cruel, but this was not at all unexpected for me, likely because I am used to the environment of Chinese Imperial Courts (even if fictional) being extremely cutthroat. I would think that most Chinese readers bear similar sentiments to me as well.
When he first ascended to the throne, Duanbai survived by heeding his mother and grandmother's words. If he followed their instruction, they wouldn't be able to berate or micromanage him. Throughout the book, we will see that Duanbai as a person does not have strong will. I wonder how much of that was developed in his adolescence as an Emperor, and how much of that was his actual personality. At the same time, Duanbai also seemed to be a bit in a self-imposed cage, where he had opportunities to enforce his will, but ultimately just chose to go with the flow. Duanbai knew that his eldest brother Duanwen was coming for the throne and yet he didn't have any other thoughts than to accept it.
At the same time, it is very deeply engrained in Chinese culture that the higher status somebody is, the less freedom they have to say what they want. He was manipulated since birth. His status as a son was likely used as a pawn for his mother to remain in good standing in the Imperial Harem, his ascension to the throne was his grandmother's doing, etc. And as I mentioned, on the throne, he was not allowed to do what he wanted. In the part of the book that focused on the Imperial Harem, Duanbai was advised that he should visit Empress Peng at times (for political reasons, of course), and Duanbai mentioned that he felt like a prostitute, having to make nice with all of the concubines. I found the analogy extremely interesting. Obviously, most of the time, it is the women who are mistreated in cases of polygamy, but when it is a political marriage of power, nobody has power. Lady Peng and Duanbai clearly did not like each other and they still had to have these formal visits as a representation of the political tie between the Peng and Xie Empires.
I think part of Duanbai not having a strong will either was also because of the idea that the Emperor was never wrong. Even if he didn't have a strong will, no one would call him out for it (continuing his self-imposed cage). Early on in the book, we could see that Duanbai was capable of acknowledging when he'd done something wrong, but the issue was never of whether something was right or wrong, but rather, how it was resolved. Duanbai had very impulsively ordered that the ladies in the cold palace have their tongues cut out. He knew it was a bad thing that he'd done, and he'd even tried to hide it, but later on he spilled the beans to his grandmother. His grandmother didn't comment on the fact that he'd done a bad thing, only that it was good that he'd hidden it. So whether something was right or wrong never became relevant again in Duanbai's life.
An interesting thing I noticed early on was that in his formative years, Duanbai barely had any male role models. Juekong and maybe even Sun Xin were the only men in his life, and it makes sense why he'd kicked up such a fuss when Juekong was sent away. After the death of his father, Madame Meng and Madame Huangfu were his mentors (though more like manipulators). His father had insisted on female servants everywhere, and that was not changed until Duanbai had his first sexual experience (a wet dream).
I think the first time that Duanbai felt very strongly about something was when he found out that Duanwen was the original heir, and that Madame Huangfu had instead put him on the throne so that she could rule in his name. He spat on her face despite knowing that it was a bad look, but it was the first and perhaps the only time that I felt he was actually angry. I didn't think he was even angry when General Yang disobeyed his orders, I think he was just annoyed. I think it just occurred to Duanbai how different his life would be if he wasn't the Emperor. He wouldn't be fearing for his life, and his mother wouldn't always be in his ear.
After Duanwen seized the throne, Duanbai was exiled to be a commoner. He initially went to Swallow's hometown with him. It was here that he realized that he had no purpose. Out here in the real world, someone like Swallow had an original purpose, which was to provide for his family (and he had failed that), but Duanbai had never served any purpose other than being a puppet.
But later on, Duanbai finally decided he was going to follow through with becoming a tightrope walker. I'm going to talk about this later, but I did think there was a lot of symbolism associated with tightrope walking.
I'm going to talk more about Duanbai and Swallow's relationship, but I still wanted to cover it a bit here. Obviously, they were extremely close. Other than a few accounts throughout the book, I never really felt that Duanbai was a cruel master to Swallow. Obviously, Swallow was incredibly loyal, but I do think that Duanbai thought that he was treating him as a friend. Duanbai had left Swallow's home alone to find the theatre troupe and much later found out that Swallow was following him. He'd embraced Swallow and he said that that was when he realized that they were brothers.
When the Peng Empire invaded the Xie Empire, Duanbai's entire performance troupe died. Swallow and Jade Locket had died in a vat (presumably being crushed). Duanbai had briefly reflected on his relationship with Swallow in words, but I don't doubt that Swallow's death had a profound impact on his life. He insisted on burying Swallow and Jade Locket himself.
Despite the fact that Duanbai started a new life after his exile, he was still very connected with his old life. After losing all of his money in a highway robbery, he had to sell his jade amulet to survive. This was an amulet he'd worn since childhood. Later on, his performance troupe gained success and recognition because people found out he was the dethroned Emperor. So he was still reaping the benefits of his birth. Like he said, I didn't think that he'd really, truly closed the book on that life until Swallow died. After Swallow died, he no longer had any connection with his royal lineage, and I think that was why he was only then willing to go away, to the place that Juekong had left him.
Again, I realize that people were turned off from Duanbai's character from the beginning, but I really saw him as a product of his environment. In fact, the entire book is about how his life is a product of his environment, because he cannot survive unless he is a blank slate without a will of his own. I thought Duanbai was a really interesting narrator character despite not having many thoughts of his own. He merely made observations because he knew he could not afford to have opinions, but I thought it was cool how we could still see hints of his wants and dreams through those observations.
Madame Meng
Madame Meng was Duanbai's mother. I think she was a typical palace concubine. I didn't think she was particularly smart or clever, just a typical woman trying to survive in the cutthroat Imperial harem.
One of the earlier stories that Duanbai told about his mother was about her feud with Dainiang, which was another of Duanbai's father's concubines. Dainiang had supposedly poisoned Madame Meng's son Duanxian to death. As punishment, Dianiang's fingers were cut off and she was sent to the cold palace. However, Duanbai was extremely fixated on why Madame Meng had Dainiang's fingers cut off. He knew that Madame Meng was jealous of Dainiang's musical gift and the fact that the Emperor liked her. Perhaps it was from Madame Meng that Duanbai learned that cruelty was commonplace in the palace.
Madame Meng was at odds with Madame Huangfu in private, which made sense. In addition to being her mother-in-law, Madame Meng had a more personal stake in Duanbai's stability as the monarch whereas Madame Huangfu was a bit removed from them. And as we could see, Madame Huangfu was more lenient on Duanwen than Madame Meng would've liked.
Madame Meng committed suicide when Duanwen was invading the palace. She'd ordered the other concubines to commit suicide as well, including one of the concubines who was pregnant.
Madame Huangfu
Madame Huangfu was Duanbai's paternal grandmother. She was technically the eldest surviving relative of the imperial family, as we know, Confucian ideals value seniority. So despite the fact that Duanbai was actually the emperor, Madame Huangfu held a lot of social authority.
In fact, it was revealed on her deathbed that Duanwen was the intended heir all along. She'd instead replaced the imperial edict with one that had named Duanbai as the heir. Her reasoning for doing so was that Duanbai was the youngest and therefore the easiest to control and manipulate. At her death, Madame Huangfu was happy and proud of the fact that she got to rule the country for the eight years that Duanbai was on the throne.
Duanbai was visibly shocked and upset, and he demanded to know why Madame Huangfu hadn't burned the original edict, but she died before she gave him an answer. My theory is that the imperial edict could be used as leverage in case Duanbai ever opposed her. She could whip out the original edict that said that Duanwen was the original heir. I'm not sure how valid this would be though, since it's unclear how involved Madame Huangfu was in presenting the replaced edict. Was she the one who delivered it, or had she replaced it in secret? In any case, it didn't matter because Duanbai was already on the throne, and Madame Huangfu had manipulated the entire court for her own hubris.
Madame Huangfu expressed frustration at the lack of power she had as a woman and that was why she wanted so badly to rule. She could not have ruled with Duanwen on the throne. Duanwen was much older than Duanbai, and as we saw, he was already quite driven.
I think Madame Huangfu became a lot more interesting after we found out she'd replaced the original edict, but that was literally moments before she passed away.
Juekong
Juekong was a monk who was appointed by Duanbai's father to be his mentor. He taught Duanbai the usual things kids were taught, the Analects (Confucian thought), etc.
As I mentiond, Duanbai didn't really have many male role models growing up, so it was understandable that he was so attached to Juekong as a person. However, he was ultimately forced out by Madame Huangfu in a huge event in which she had lifted the "female servants only" rule that Duanbai's father had imposed and had eunuchs enter the palace.
Anyway, Juekong never came back into Duanbai's life. After the Xie Empire fell, Duanbai went to a little farm that Juekong had resided in but he'd passed long before Duanbai arrived.
Duanwen
Duanwen was the eldest son of Duanbai's father, the previous Emperor, and he was the original intended heir. In fact, it was strange that Duanwen hadn't inherited the throne. When Duanbai was announced as Emperor, I think I recall that he'd kind of rolled his eyes in exasperation and frustration, likely because he was ambitious, and now he knew he had to fight for the throne instead of just getting it like he was supposed to.
Over the next years of Duanbai's reign, he was very wary of Duanwan. It was unproven but implied that Duanwen and his brother from the same mother Duanwu had tried to stage a hunting accident to kill Duanbai but it hadn't worked out. Duanbai wanted to take drastic measures against him but Madame Huangfu was dismissive of Duanbai's concerns. Initially, I'd thought that she was still fond of Duanwen as an heir, but after the reveal, I think it became more obvious that it was because she never cared for Duanbai's stability on the throne. In fact, Madame Huangfu said that she didn't like Duanwen that much either.
Duanwen was sent away under the guise of studying and training but after a bit of a scuffle, he escaped the Xie Empire and promised that he'd return to take the throne. At this point, Duanbai had come to accept that Duanwen would take the throne. There was a story going around that the spirit of their father had tattooed "Xie Emperor" on his forehead as a sign of his intended fate. But in addition to that, Duanbai was already pretty jaded.
When Duanwen invaded the palace, he'd stroked Duanbai's cheek, and told him to scale the wall and escape with Swallow. Duanbai said that that was the first time he felt that Duanwen acted like a brother, which makes sense. Duanbai was a threat and only when he was no longer one would Duanwen let down his guard. In addition, he was probably just overcome with the euphoria of having attained his goal.
I think Duanwen had gotten help from the Western Duke to overthrow Duanbai, but Duanbai later found out that Duanwen had the Duke executed right after he'd gained control of the capital. So Duanwen was already burning his bridges as soon as he ascended the throne.
As we know, the Xie Empire was overthrown shortly after Duanwen ascended the throne. According to Duanbai, Duanwen was characterized as arrogant and this weakness was one of the main reasons the Empire fell. Of course, Duanbai felt that the fall was a long time coming and whether or not Duanwen was arrogant had nothing to do with that.
In a way, we could say that Duanbai escaped death because he was not emperor when Peng invaded. However, Peng would not have invaded if Duanbai had not been dethroned. Lady Peng was his Empress, and the Peng Empire actually sent for Lady Peng to return as overthrew Duanbai. So the Peng Empire already saw Xie as weak. In addition to that, however, Duanwen seemed the sort of person who was destined for this kind of life; he was driven and ambitious, but it'd be inevitable that he'd fall hard. On the other hand, Duanbai was never this kind of person. He'd always gone with the flow, and perhaps that was why he was able to hold onto his life unlike Duanwen.
Sun Xin
Sun Xin was the eccentric old man who attended to the cauldron of the elixir. He was always saying random things, followed by the fact that calamity would befall the Xie Empire.
Duanbai used to think of him just as a silly man who said weird things, but over time, the words became part of his life motto. Duanbai knew that from the moment he'd ascended the throne, that calamity would befall the Xie Empire. Perhaps Duanbai had come to believe that he was a poor choice for Emperor.
In any case, maybe it was his acceptance of the fact that calamity was inevitable that made him so remarkably low-will.
Swallow
Swallow was such an interesting character. He was the archetype of a loyal servant. When he entered the palace, he was bullied a tad by Duanbai (i.e. when Duanbai asked to see his groin), but afterwards, they had a really close relationship. Close in the sense that Swallow was extremely loyal to Duanbai and alert to his needs as well as responsibilities, and that Duanbai shared all of his closest thoughts with Swallow but still saw him as a servant.
Part of Swallow's loyalty was his filial piety and duty to his family. That was probably what it was at first. His father had castrated him and hoped that he'd make a ton of money in the capital to bring back home.
We really got to see Swallow's character come out when he returned home. Duanbai and Swallow had been robbed by the highway robbers, which meant that Swallow would return home empty handed, which was extremely dishonourable. In addition to that, he couldn't really tell his family that Duanbai was the Emperor. Even if he did, that didn't preclude the fact that Duanbai and Swallow were both extra burdens on Swallow's family.
It was at this point that Duanbai realized that here in the real world, Swallow had much more purpose than he did. Swallow was meant to earn money for his family. What was Duanbai's purpose? Who was his family? Even when he was on the throne, he was merely a placeholder. He could always have been replaced by someone else. If Madame Huangfu and Madame Meng weren't manipulating him, someone else would be.
Swallow had become very ashamed, because he couldn't bring money back home, but he also couldn't marry and start a family to support his father and siblings. His only other purpose in life was to serve Duanbai. Duanbai wanted to head out alone, probably because he didn't want to feel like a nuisance around Swallow's family anymore. But Swallow had begged to stay with Duanbai and in their disagreement, Swallow attempted suicide by drowning himself.
Though Swallow's father saved him, he expressed disgust at the seeming codependent roantic relationship between Duanbai and Swallow, not knowing that they were master and subject. It's true that Swallow was definitely Duanbai's most trusted person. Even when Duanbai couldn't trust his mother, grandmother, concubines, or most beloved, he could trust Swallow. As a person in power, it was impossible for Duanbai to fall in love without worrying about whether the other person had ulterior motives. As for Swallow, he was unable to enter into a heterosexual relationship and start his own family as a eunuch. Their circumstances had led them to one another but I don't doubt that they did truly trust each other more than anybody else.
After Duanbai left on his own to find the circus troupe, Swallow followed him. I guess both Swallow and Duanbai decided and agreed upon the fact that Swallow was fated to follow Duanbai forever.
Persuant to his promise as children, since Duanbai decided to become a tightrope walker, Swallow learned to be a log balancer. During their time training, Swallow had become fond of a little girl called Jade Locket.
Swallow's feelings towards Jade Locket were left ambiguous from Duanbai's point of view. I was under the impression that he saw her as a daughter he never had. However, Jade Locket's parents had caught him in bed with Jade Locket naked. (Jade Locket was 8 years old at this time). And I recall Duanbai saying that he sensed that Swallow knew he'd done something wrong. So it's really not clear whether Swallow had molested Jade Locket, or whether they truly were just sleeping naked.
In any case, that didn't matter to Duanbai. As I mentioned, Duanbai was kind of free from the dilemma of right vs. wrong. It was just a decision of whether to do or not to do. He made a decision to buy Jade Locket for Swallow, seeing how fond Swallow was of her. It cost a lot of money, which Duanbai got from a noble who knew who he was, but to Duanbai, it was worth it.
As mentioned, Swallow and Jade Locket died in the invasion of the Peng Empire. Swallow was protecting Jade Locket. When Duanbai found them, he'd reflected on their relationship. He said on the day they'd met, Swallow had said that he would die for Duanbai, and he had followed him until the day of his death. Duanbai said that Jade Locket was the only gift he'd given Swallow, and now she was dead with him too.
Swallow was probably the most meaningful relationship to Duanbai, and it shows in the fact that he'd wanted to bury Swallow and Jade Locket himself. I think this was the first time that he'd actually made an effort to change something in his life. Now that he'd buried Swallow, his old life was officially over.
The character of Swallow was really so interesting to me. I wish I'd learned more about him, but I think that maybe I wouldn't have found him as interesting if we'd seen more of him. Duanbai and Swallow had a close relationship but still one that had distance beause of their relationship as ruler and subject. Perhaps that distance, that clear hierarchy is what allowed them to maintain their relationship for so long.
Lady Hui
Lady Hui was Duanbai's favourite concubine. She was originally a palce girl that Duanbai had his eye on, and he wanted to promote her to the highest tier of imperial concubine, against his mother and grandmother's will.
While his empress and other concubines had the protection of Madame Huangfu or Madame Meng, Lady Hui had neither, because she had Duanbai's protection. Initially, we saw how loving Lady Hui and Duanbai were with each other. It was only until Lady Hui got pregnant that we saw the cracks in their relationship.
Lady Hui was deathly afraid that the other concubines would cause her to miscarriage (as is often the case in the Imperial Harem, as having a son automatically raises your social status). Seeing Lady Huis' paranoia turned Duanbai off a bit. She wanted to move in to Duanbai's manor with him but that was inappropriate according to the rites. Duanbai wasn't sure if he had spoiled her so much that she became this way (so pushy), but obviously part of this paranoia was just due to her being in the harem, and always being bullied by the other concubines who didn't have Duanbai's favour.
Lady Hui became so fearful to the point that she needed to attack and couldn't just defend. She wanted Duanbai to put the other concubines to death, which obviously he couldn't do.
When Lady Hui gave birth, Empress Peng and the doctor had colluded to switch out her baby for a baby fox, and to say that Lady Hui was a fox spirit. The resolution to that was for Lady Hui to be "put to death." In reality, she was sent out of the palace to become a nun, and a similar enough looking girl took her spot.
Years later, after Duanbai was exiled as a commoner, he found Lady Hui working in a brothel as "ninth sister." She said that she'd left the nunnery after 8 days. However, it was clear that that spark of love was no longer there. Obviously there was the stigma of prostitution working against Lady Hui here, as it was implied that Duanbai found her kind of cheap. In addition to that, Duanbai felt challenged by Lady Hui when she mentioned that Duanbai had come to a brothel, implying that he'd fallen far from grace just as she did. That being said, I don't think Duanbai hated Lady Hui. He just felt that he could no longer stay with her.
Some time later, Duanbai spotted Lady Hui roaming the streets trying to sell the poems that Duanbai used to write to her. It was clear that she was pretty out of it, no longer beautiful and proper. Duanbai did not reach to her, for one because he wasn't in love with in that way anymore.
However, Duanbai had also not wanted to reach out to her as he wanted her to be free like a bird. In their early years, they'd bonded over their mutual love of birds. This thought was what convinced me that Duanbai didn't hate Lady Hui, he just realized that their time together was over.
Empress Peng
Empress Peng was the Princess Wenda of the Peng Empire. Clearly she held more power over the other concubines, and I think she came from the highest status, as she was a princess, whereas Lady Hui was just a simple servant girl, and I believe two of the other concubines were Madame Meng's nieces (so nobility, but not royalty).
When Duanbai was expecting Duanwen to overthrow him, the Peng Empire had sent for Empress Peng to return to them. Honestly, I found that a bit strange. I think it'd only happen if the princess was extremely, extremely important to the Peng Empire, at least politically.
As Lady Peng was preparing to return to the Peng Empire, she was crying. I don't know if I was reading too much into it, but I was thinking of why she'd be crying. I don't know if she was just upset about leaving the place she'd called home, or if she was upset that she couldn't do much even though she was an Empress, and now she was returning home, she'd be "demoted" to a princess. Again, she might've just been upset because Duanwen was fighting his way to Duanbai and they were in danger.
Anyway, I thought that Lady Peng and Duanbai had an interesting relationship. Obviously there was a bit of antagonizing on Lady Peng's part, because Duanbai favoured Lady Hui so much. But at the end of the day, the two of them were born into this life of royalty, and they were the only ones who left this alive, Lady Peng leaving the Xie Empire and Duanbai being exiled. Except for Lady Hui, all of the other concubines who did not have families to protect them had to die, even though Duanbai himself did not.
Themes
Cold Palace
I thought it was interesting that the Cold Palace was kind of off-limits to everybody, even the Emperor. When Duanbai's father died, all of his concubines had to die with him, except for those who were in the cold palace such as Dainiang.
Duanbai couldn't sleep at night because of the wailing in the cold palace and one of his first acts as emperor was to have all of those in the cold palace have their tongues taken out. However, after that, he found that he couldn't sleep without the sounds coming from the cold palace.
I thought that maybe there was an unspoken agreement that the only thing allowed to live in the palace was just wretchedness and misery. Nothing that was in the imperial palace would stay beautiful forever, all that was allowed to stay was gloom.
Tolerance and will
Juekong taught Duanbai that the Emperor must learn to be tolerant, except as a child, he obviously thought it was ironic because the emperor should get whatever they want. Obviously for those familiar with political stories, they know that this is the furthest from the truth.
As I mentioned, those in power are the ones who have the least freedom because they have the largest responsibilities. Duanbai disliked having to see to all of his concubines, and saw it as prostituting himself, which I felt was rather vulgar, but a still starkly apt way of putting things. But he still had to see to each of them to maintain political ties, especially to those of high status like Lady Peng.
Revisionism
Duanbai had the tongues of the women in the cold palace cut off. He felt bad for what he did, but it wasn't until his talk with his grandmother that he decided he hadn't done anything wrong. As I said, it wasn't that what he'd done was right, it was that right or wrong didn't matter. As a person of power, Duanbai was afforded this opportunity to believe that he did no wrong.
At the same time, revionism could also work in the opposite direction. I think that for most of the book, Duanwen was painted as a more heroic person than Duanbai. But after the fall of the Xie Empire, he was portrayed as arrogant. While I don't doub that he did have some pride and hubris, it wasn't really highlighted by Duanbai. Instead I felt that Duanwen was seem as driven and a good leader.
Throughout the novel, there is a sentiment that people are bad because bad things happen to them and not necessarily the other way around. Seeing bad things happen to people was a confirmation that they were bad. It's backwards, but that's politics for you.
Power and authority
Through Duanbai's observations, he could see signs of how the commoners didn't necessarily hate him specifically, they just hated those in power. When the Imperial Uncle (Duanbai's own uncle) was put to death, the commoners were yelling that there'd be peace after he was gone. However, when Duanbai spoke to one of them, the commoner admitted that they weren't sure if peace would actually come. The commoners were so sure that something would change except by now as the reader it's easy to see that politics is just a cycle.
Duanbai himself became very disillusioned with his own status as royalty. He felt afraid and bothered when people recognized him or realized who he was. Perhaps it was because he was afraid that they'd want him dead. Or perhaps he was so painfully aware at how useless his power was in the real world. As mentioned, he had no purpose in life, no drive, not like all of these commoners out in the real world.
What bothered Duanbai was that after all that happened, the commoners still believed in authority. Duanbai felt a bit uncomfortable by the fact that so many people came to see him tightrope walking. He felt uncomfortable that so many people still seemed to trust him or view him positively.
Patriarchy
Early on in Duanbai's life, I think it was easy for the reader to see signs of the patriarchy, that he himself was blind to.
The first sign of this was when he started to tire of Lady Hui and felt her to be overdramatic. That was when Lady Huiw as afraid that she'd be at danger while pregnant. Duanbai was dismissive of Lady Hui, not necessarily because he didn't believe her. In my opinion, it felt like he didn't want to get involved, which is hypocritical because it was his favouritism that had put a target on Lady Hui's back to begin with.
And as mentioned before, Madame Huangfu was bitter about having no power, and had put Duanbai on the throne just so that she could rule. Yes, she manipulated the political court and the lives of many, but I can understand that Madame Huangfu felt overshadowed despite having to mentor the future Emperors.
Relationship between Emperor and Eunuch
I already covered most of this above, but Duanbai and Swallow have the most intimate relationship portrayed in the entire book. Despite the importance of family in Chinese culture, that means nothing when it comes to the palace.
Part of it was likely the fact that they met at such a young age, before any of them knew what real power was. Granted, in Chinese history, there were always instances of eunuchs gaining power and manipulating politics, but I think there was a low chance of that happening here because they'd trusted each other from such a young age. Especially without somebody who was as timid as Swallow, it was unlikely that he'd turn his back on Duanbai later in adulthood.
It wasn't until Swallow's dad commented on their relationship that I realized that they were like a married couple, maybe even closer. In fact Duanbai trusted Swallow more than he trusted Lady Hui, and she was his favourite concubine.
Their relationship of master and servant does call into question a bit of their relationship dynamics though. Obviously when Duanbai was still Emperor, Swallow was very firmly in a position of servitude. He could not refuse anything Duanbai asked of him, and being as timid and obedient as he was, he never did.
When Duanbai was exiled, however, Swallow remained just as loyal and obedient. It was when they had they argument that some of the truth came out. Swallow could no longer support his family by bringing them money. His only purpose left in life was to serve Duanbai, and so he would die doing so, and he did.
One reason why I think Swallow was such an interesting character was how simple his thought process was. Like Duanbai, Swallow's life was already out of his control. The fact that he was castrated meant that he really only had one possible profession, which was to be an imperial eunuch. Just as Duanbai couldn't really participate in anything other than politics by virtue of his birth. And I guess the fact that these two were so aware of their fates helped settle them in their relationship. They never questioned why their relationship was the way that it was, and they just let it be.
Tightrope walking
This was an interesting one. Of course, tightrope walking was the skill that amazed Duanbai at a young age, and he always joked with Swallow that he'd like to become a tightrope walker. Swallow promised that if Duanbai became a tightrope walker, he'd become a log balancer.
Most obviously, tightrope walking represented freedom to Duanbai, the freedom to choose his own path in life. The fact that he was able to become one was a feat in itself, as most Emperors would die Emperors instead of being exiled.
When he was high up in the air walking on tightropes, Duanbai would reflect on all that he could see. I think this contrasted with when he was in the palace, when everything was secretive. On the tightrope, he was always at danger of falling, but at least he knew the circumstances of his fall, whereas in the palace, he could die at any second and not know who'd come for him.
I saw tightrope walking as a representation of Duanbai's ability to take the reins on his own life. Yes, he was at risk of falling, but it was a risk that he willingly took. As an Emperor, he was always going with the flow, and whether he lived or died was never something that was his decision because he was always a figurehead.
Birds
Duanbai and Lady Hui loved birds and they bonded over them in the early days of their love. Later on, birds came to represent freedom to Duanbai. And just like his beloved birds, he wished Lady Hui freedom, even if she was no longer the beauty that she once was. Even if she was driven to madness, at least she was free from her connection to Duanbai, who'd brought her love but also much tragedy.
Earlier, I mentioned that Duanbai was kind of in a self-imposed cage, a cage where he wasn't free to make his own decisions. I say it was self-imposed because technically he did have the power to make his own decisions, but at the same time, he didn't have the knowledge or expertise to be able to carry out his own decisions. So instead, the safest route was always to go with the flow.
Throughout his journey on foot in the outside world, Duanbai came to be an avid bird watcher and bird lover too. He was able to copy a lot of their calls. The bird call that was repeated a lot was Wang-Wang-Wang (亡亡亡), which can also mean to perish or die, which again is a call back to calamity befalling the Xie Empire.
Ironically, Swallow, despite being a "bird," was shackled to the Emperor his whole life.
Overall
This was a book that I really enjoyed. Maybe it's because I enjoy palace stories a lot. As I mentioned, a lot of people on Goodreads dropped it early, but I personally think it's because they weren't used to the ruthlessness that is prevalent in Chinese palace stories.
I really enjoyed this story as a study of how power affected Duanbai in his youth. Despite him not being very strong in character, I learned a lot, and I think he did too.