The Death of Woman Wang“Spence shows himself at once historian, detective, and artist. . . . He makes history howl.” (The New Republic) Award-winning author Jonathan D. Spence paints a vivid picture of an obscure place and time: provincial China in the seventeenth century. Life in the northeastern county of T’an-ch’eng emerges here as an endless cycle of floods, plagues, crop failures, banditry, and heavy taxation. Against this turbulent background a tenacious tax collector, an irascible farmer, and an unhappy wife act out a poignant drama at whose climax the wife, having run away from her husband, returns to him, only to die at his hands. Magnificently evoking the China of long ago, The Death of Woman Wang also deepens our understanding of the China we know today. |
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asked bandits beat biography body Boulais brother Ch'ang-fu Ch'en Kuo-hsiang Chao China Chinese chü-jen chuan climbed clothes Confucian Confucius dare dead death door earthquake father FENG Frederic Wakeman fugitive gave gentry girl Giura grain heard History horses household Hsi-liu Hsiao-erh Hsü Huang Liu-hung husband I-chou Jen's kaoliang killed Kuan Ming-yü Kuei-ch'ang land landlords Liao-chai chih-i living looked Ma-t'ou market magistrate magistrate's Manchu married Ming Ming dynasty month mother named neighbors night officials old woman P'ei P'u Sung-ling pao-chia post stations prison rebel replied returned River robbers servants Shantung Shih soldiers story T'an T'an-ch'eng city T'an-ch'eng county T'an-ch'eng hsien-chih 1763 T'an-ch'eng hsien-chih 1810 taels Taoist temple Ting tion took township troops Ts'ai Ts'ui Ts'ui-hsien Tu-li ts'un-i Tzu-ch'uan village Wang San Wang's Water Margin White Lotus widow wife wine winter woman Wang women yamen Yellow River