Shan Sa Empress Title: Empress Author: Shan Sa Format: Paperback Language: English Pages: 336 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 1179792000 ISBN: 0641986688 Format: PDF / Kindle / ePub Size: 8.5 MB Download: allowed
Description Such is the voice of Shan Sa's unforgettable heroine in her latest literary masterpiece, Empress. Empress Wu, one of China's most controversial figures, was its first and only female emperor, who emerged in the seventh century during the great Tang Dynasty and ushered in a golden age. Throughout history, her name has been defamed and her story distorted by those taking vengeance on a woman who dared to become emperor. But now, for the first time in thirteen centuries, Empress Wu (or Heavenlight, as we come to know her) flings open the gates of the Forbidden City and tells her own astonishing tale—revealing a fascinating, complex figure who in many ways remains modern to this day. Writing with epic assurance, poetry, and vivid historic detail, Shan Sa plumbs the psychological and philosophical depths of what it means to be a striving mortal in a tumultuous, power-hungry world. Empress is a great literary feat and a revelation for the ages.
Insightful reviews Jill: I was unimpressed by this novel. The narrator's voice seemed very authentic, as though she actually wrote it back in AD 680, but unfortunately that meant that it was exceedingly dry, mostly consisting of lists of what was in her many parades, how much gold she used building monuments, who she decided to have exiled or beheaded, etc. The most sexy parts (where characters get seduced and so forth) was sullied by the fact that the narrator seemed to have no emotions. Actually, the lack of emotion was probably the thing I liked least about this book. Because the author starts it with a seemingly omniscient view from inside the womb, the empress Heavenlight has no room to grow and develop as a character. She just knows everything already. This has the further impact of making it difficult to forgive her for her personal failings (and she has several) because if she knows everything, well then why isn't she perfect? I think that if I had pulled this book off the shelf in the non-fiction section I would have really enjoyed it as a way of bringing ancient China to life. Unfortunately, I expect more from my novels than this kind of dry timeline. Liezel Pheiffer blignaut: I picked this treasure of a book up in a Hotel room in Cambodia - thank you to whoever left it there. Shan Sa has the ability to transport you to another world from the very 1st page. The book is beautifully written from the Empress' perspective, and through Shan Sa's poetic literature you can see, experience, feel, hear everything as if you are in another world in another time - poetic literature that amazingly did not get lost in translation. It left me intrigued to know how much of this piece of history is true Aubrey: I've a penchant for literature written with an eye on the grander scale of things. Most probably it comes with my preoccupation with critiquing the canon, albeit through far less flimsy bases than prose and universality and all that invisible-hand jazz. In return for paying attention
to fields that are not required for the common range of English (history, politics, decolonization, gender dichotomy, all that fun stuff people like to pretend are subsidiary instead of the power generators of unquestioned classical status), I get a continuum. An angry, muddled, and heckling continuum, by way of the present forever desiring to never pick apart the past, but knowledge is power. Of course, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but you can complain about my biases when white men make up less than ten percent of the population of various prizes, as befits their portion of the demographic. If you actually want to achieve something, your target is not me. In the vein of Imperial Woman and Memoirs of Hadrian we have a work that is closer than either in terms of the physiognomy of author and authored. The prose is to my taste, the world is to my wonder, and the life lived in close sensory detail and alienated moral grounds utterly befits the saying that the past is a foreign country. Up until the end point of the narrative, we reside in the head of one who survives via cunning, fertility, lust, health, strategy, bloodthirstiness, and every recourse of a dynastic body and soul. One runs, and builds, and improves, and kills, until finally immortality begs the question of the empire one has built: what tools will you leave behind once you are dead? What have you left to the rulers, what have you left to the populace, and how will the latter mourn when the former have thrown each other to the wolves. Beware: this is is historical fiction of the Chinese variety whose subject is a woman of infamous degree. Those who do not indulge in historical fact with great pleasure, you may be bored by the ritual regulation and political machination and all that comes with the narrative that rules an empire. Those who indulge to a great degree, you may be miffed by a smoothing here, a sentimentalizing there, for massacres and incest there was to a great degree. Bear in mind, however, that each and every fact has been touched with gynephobic malice. If you want a culprit for nonfictional debacles, there're your men. Outside of that, there is the matter of a sexuality touching on a far broader space of field than the young man and the young woman, lesbian pedophilia and female-dominated gerontophilia being two of the more sensational breeds of intercourse. Even farther, there is the realpolitik of the first millennium CE which put both my favorite families, the Tudors and the Borgias, to shame. To shift to more usual literary matters, carrying all that across is the prose. For those of the French linguistic persuasion, the original text is available. While curious as to how that would go, I am satisfied enough with my Anglo transfiguration to pass on making an effort. Finally, there is the ending, one of those out of body frames that attempts to draw a holism out of a past power speaking to an impermanent present. Enamored with contextual awareness that I am, the last bit bumped this up that last half star. Those of the more objective temperament: you're missing out. Afifah: Aku adalah peony merah merona, pohon berayun, angin berdesir ...Jujur, saya harus membuka wikipedia untuk mengetahui, sejenis apakah peony itu? Ternyata, akhirnya bertemu makna. Peony adalah sejenis bunga yang sering digunakan oleh bangsa Tiongkok untuk pengobatan. Juga sering menjadi simbol pada seni ornamen. Terbata-bata, saya mencoba mencari benang merah yang menghubungkan antara peony merah merona dengan pribadi Maharani Wu, Sang Kaisar Suci Roda Emas Cahaya Nirwana. Cahaya Nirwana, lahir dari
keluarga rakyat jelata. Meski pada sang ibu mengalir darah kekaisaran, dan sang ayah sempat menjadi salah seorang menteri dari kekaisaran Dinasti Tang, ia tetaplah berasal dari kalangan rendahan. Kemuliaannya terangkat tatkala ia dijadikan sebagai Yang Berbakat--yang berhak menghuni harem kekaisaran, bersama 10.000 selir Kaisar Leluhur Abadi. Sepuluh ribu wanita, harus berebut satu orang lelaki, maka terbayanglah bagaimana rumitnya intrik di harem. Cahaya Nirwana yang masih 'ABG', gagal meraih perhatian Sang Kaisar. Akan tetapi, kegemarannya berkuda, kepintarannya dalam tulis-menulis, akhirnya justru mendudukkan posisinya sebagai salah seorang sekretaris Kaisar. Dan, meski ia masih perawan, statusnya tetaplah Yang Berbakat. Selir Kaisar. Maka, tatkala ia bertemu dengan Phoenix Kecil, putera kaisar, yang three tahun lebih muda, ia tak memiliki keinginan apapun selain menempatkan diri sebagai kakak perempuan. Tetapi, tanpa mereka sadari, cinta bersemi di antara Cahaya Nirwana dan Phoenix Kecil.Kaisar Leluhur Abadi akhirnya meninggal. Para perempuan harem diasingkan ke biara. Termasuk Cahaya Nirwana. Meski Phoenix Kecil meratap, menahan Cahaya Nirwana untuk tak menjadi biksuni, tetap saja Cahaya Nirwana tak berani menantang badai. Akan tetapi, ikatan cinta itu terlalu kuat. Phoenix Kecil yang akhirnya naik tahta menjadi kaisar, menggunakan kekuasaannya untuk menghancurkan mitos-mitos yang menghalangi cinta mereka.Skandal pertama tercipta. Phoenix menikahi janda ayahnya. Geger yang terjadi, ditutup dengan prestasi cemerlang Cahaya Nirwana yang setahap demi setahap berhasil menaikkan derajatnya. Dari selir kesayangan, naik menjadi maharani, sampai menjadi maharani utama. Kemampuannya dalam ilmu militer, politik, tata pemerintahan--sementara Phoenix Kecil yang lemah dan peragu tak mampu menghasilkan pemikiran yang cemerlang--akhirnya menempatkan Cahaya Nirwana sebagai orang nomor satu di Kekaisaran Dinasti Tang. Otoritasnya memuncak saat suaminya akhirnya meninggal. Cahaya Nirwana ditahbiskan menjadi Kaisar Suci dan bahkan membuat dinasti baru, bukan dari marga Li, tetapi marganya sendiri, Wu.Prestasi Kaisar Suci adalah membuat Tiongkok meraih zaman keemasan. Akan tetapi, skandal demi skandal, intrik politik, gelimang darah, membuat sosok yang hidup di abad ke-7 ini menjadi tokoh yang sangat kontroversial dalam sejarah Tiongkok. Ia bahkan berani melenyapkan keluarga terdekatnya, anak-anak, adik, kakak, kemenakan--mulai dari sekadar diasingkan, hingga dipenggal kepalanya--demi keberlangsungan tahta. Otoritas yang luar biasa, kediktatoran yang memuakkan, kehidupan pribadinya yang 'menjijikkan', membuat saya bertanya-tanya, sebenarnya, apa yang tersirat dalam lembaran kepribadian wanita bertangan besi yang puluhan tahun memerintah Tiongkok ini?Inikah tafsir dari kalimat: "Aku adalah peony merah merona, pohon berayun, angin berdesir ..."Meski dengan segala pahit dan getirnya, Cahaya Nirwana tetaplah penegak sebuah kejayaan bagi semesta rakyat Tiongkok?Ya, buku setebal four hundred halaman yang ditulis Shan Sa ini memang bukan sebuah kisah fiksi. Ini adalah novel sejarah. Saya tengah membaca sebuah kisah yang benarbenar ada di marcapada.Lepas dari isinya yang sungguh-sungguh 'ekstrim', saya benar-benar terpuaskan dengan diksi Shan Sa yang sangat lembut. Tampaknya, hampir semua kata benarbenar terpilih dengan cermat. Deskripsi yang detil dan indah, membuat saya bergeming. Padahal, jika dilihat sekilas, sungguh capek membaca four hundred halaman yang nyaris tanpa dialog--kalaupun ada, biasanya conversation panjang yang sangat filosofis. Saya tenggelam dalam jeratan gaya penuturan yang memesona, seakan tenggelam dalam lukisan kehidupan yang memukau. Naluri berbahasa saya, terpuaskan di novel ini.Akan tetapi, tentu ada yang mengganggu. Salah satunya penerjemahan nama-nama pelaku dalam bahasa Indonesia. Tokoh-tokoh seperti Cahaya Nirwana, Kelembutan, Harapan, Kesalehan, Katib Keabadian, menurut saya justru menghilangkan cita rasa Tiongkok. 'Kenetralan' Shan Sa untuk tenggelam
dalam sosok Cahaya Nirwana, dengan PoV 'AKU' juga membahayakan. Tak ada pesan tersirat bahwa apa yang 'AKU' lakukan itu bertentangan dengan berbagai norma kehidupan. Salah satunya, adalah saat Kaisar Suci akhirnya memutuskan untuk memiliki 2 'selir pria', dengan sebuah legitimasi bahwa ketika kaisar lelaki hidup, biasanya mereka memiliki 10.000 selir di haremnya. Beberapa pandangan Cahaya Nirwana yang mengerikan, tak difilter oleh Shan Sa, membuat saya tak berani merekomendasikan novel ini kepada para pembaca yang belum memiliki ideologi sebuah nilai yang cukup kuat.O, ya ... bicara dengan buku ini, saya teringat dengan dua buku yang hampir sejenis. Pertama, The Female, tulisan Paul Welman, yang berkisah tentang Theodora, seorang gadis penghibur yang menjadi Kaisar di Byzantium. Lalu, Empress Orchid, tulisan Achee Min, yang berisi kisah tentang Yehonala, alias Ibu Suri Tsu Hsi, mantan selir Kaisar Hsien Feng yang akhirnya juga menjadi orang pertama di pucuk kekuasaan China menjelang keruntuhan Kekaisaran China. Ada garis nasib yang hampir sama antara Maharani Wu, Ratu Theodora dan Maharani Tsu Hsi. Sama-sama mengalami nasib yang buruk, dari seorang selir yang akhirnya merangkak dan karena kekuatan karakternya, berhasil mendominasi suami masing-masing.Lantas, saya teringat kepada Ratu Shima dari Kalingga, juga Tribhuwana Tungga Dewi, Ibunda dari Hayam Wuruk. Kedua ratu ini, belum digoreskan kisahnya dalam roman modern. Tetapi, berbeda dengan ketiga perempuan di atas, Ratu Shima dan Tribhuwana, memiliki jalan hidup yang lebih smooth, serta diceritakan memiliki kehidupan keluarga yang baik. Tribhuwana bersama suaminya, memerintah negeri Majapahit, sehingga bisa memberikan pondasi yang kuat untuk tercapainya kejayaan Majapahit saat diperintah puteranya. Ratu Shima, dia membuntungi anakanya sendiri hanya gara-gara memindahkan kantong berisi uang yang tergeletak di jalan dengan kakinya.Entah mengapa, saya lebih bangga dengan kisah Shima dan Tribhuwana dibandingkan dengan aroma kebengisan yang dipancarkan oleh para Empress di atas. Darkeden: there is a tale in the back of my analyzing this book. I am, by means of behavior a reader of 'genre fiction' this means that tales approximately Spaceman Gort and the Flying dying Pygmies of Planet Bimbotron and such things as that. on the Barnes and Noble I mostly store for books at, the Spaceman Gort part is stuffed some distance into the back, coated in cobwebs, and packed with a droning voice that tells you the way ashamed try to be for analyzing this drivel. possibly I exaggerate.On how to Spaceman Gort and the beautiful girls of Planet Bimbotron, you'll want to move a gauntlet of pretentiousness referred to as the Literature Section, jam-packed with right works of "Lih-trah-chuh." On one journey via this minefield of horrors, I occurred to note a ebook by way of Anne Rice, i believe it was once Interview with a Vampire. within the Literature section! So it seems that that will learn Heinlein books you'll want to trudge to the style Ghetto, but when you must examine bisexual mulatto vampires sucking one another (blood, you perv!) on Bourbon Street, the Literature part is for you. So i used to be evidently perturbed, and that i began thinking about what used to be so gosh darn distinct approximately those foolish lihtrahchuh books anyway? How may well they compete with Heinlein, Norton, Clarke, Lee, Asimov? So i made a decision i'd try out for as soon as to truly learn Literature. yet I wasn't keen to really stream or go searching too much, so i used to be restricted to no matter what used to be in arm's succeed in of Anne Rice. The snazzy disguise instantly drew me in the direction of Empress. lovely asian woman on disguise (check). Written through a girl from communist china (check) who emmigrated to France (big check) to make work (check) of peculiar vague monochrome blobs (check). The e-book used to be unique written in French (humongous check) and was... ... ancient fiction in regards to the first woman
Empress of China. Huh. that really sounded interesting. So I grabbed the book, tucked it lower than my meaty arm and headed off. After completing a style booklet or two, i ultimately became to Empress with a bit trepidation. This used to be no traditional reading. No, this used to be a significant assembly from the ambassador of Planet Literary Snob. The booklet certainly has poetic prose, however it does not gush up to say, a Stephen King ebook the place it takes ten pages to explain an individual starting a door. The writing style, even translated from one other language, is sort of beautiful, which i assume is a vital a part of literature. Now the narrative and characterization, the components that topic so much in Spaceman Gort Land. i myself discovered the characters rather emotive, whereas a few humans came upon them dry. I cherished it. The plot moved alongside at an outstanding pace, and fascinated with courtly intrigue within the Gynaceum (?) of the chinese language Emperor. Very sumptious, plenty of concentrate on robes and ornament and the pageantry of all of it and scheming schemers.One factor i discovered type of ... dare I say precious? Is it sexist of me to name a feminine author from China/France precious? It most likely is. Oh well. The Empress defined is the one lady empress China has ever had. an grand volume of individuals round her vanish and die in ways in which are very handy to her pursuit of power, and the writer does an important tapdancing act to attempt to fake she had little if not anything to do with it. the entire sturdy things, she did, all of the undesirable things, George Bush did apparently. i locate this ... um... hugely doubtful. you do not finish up because the basically woman Empress of China by means of a unusual twist of fate, you get there over the useless our bodies of the lads and girls much less formidable and cautious than you.So i am not definite how reasonable it was, yet I greatly loved the ebook no matter if it was once a section naive at times. even supposing there have been no robots, flying dying pygmies, demon sorcerers, alien invaders, or amazon bimbotronians, I ... dare I say it...? loved the book! sufficient that I preserve an eye fixed out for different books via this author. So i might say the Ambassador from Planet Literature did an outstanding activity of representing for her people. TLDR: in the event you like courtly intrigue, take pleasure in chinese language culture, and do not brain books with no robots or demons, this can be whatever you will enjoy. Bryn Hammond: The ‘great guy theory’ of heritage is out of fashion, and that i don’t understand how usually old fiction, either, units out to painting greatness – no matter what that's – within the political sphere. during this publication i discovered myself confident i used to be within the presence of greatness, someone i would like to name great, and so as to add to that unusual experience, she’s a woman. If any of that sounds easy, I don’t imagine it is. At some degree during this e-book it dawned upon me that during ancient fiction, I haven’t met a good girl ahead of – no less than on the planet of political management and statecraft. which may be right down to the hf I read, or not. I stay away from hf with titles like Empress, Princess, Queen, Consort or Concubine, simply because I can’t stay within the women’s quarters for fun: for this reason I don’t understand what’s within these novels, yet i know that this novel – which I approximately didn’t learn on name – bulldozed these prejudices of mine, in seconds flat. In right here i discovered really an amazing human being. and that i thought, it isn’t merely that the old matters are infrequent (great stateswomen), yet as a way to create them at the page, you want to need to conscientiously do your pondering in the back of your writing. I sensed a rigour of proposal in the back of the presentation of this woman. From early on Heavenlight (Wu Zetian) gives the look that her skills swamp these round her, and moreover, she has a self assurance in this. When, later in life, she unearths herself greater in worldly affairs than her emperor husband, she steps as much as the task without… cognitive dissonance. She’s by no
means been a hanger-on of others (who ensue to be men). This mentality should have been helpful for a girl who makes herself Emperor of China. As I understand, Wu Zetian was once hopelessly traduced and trashed within the historic sources, in order that we can’t anticipate to get well the ‘truth’ approximately her. What Shan Sa has selected to do is salvage her with attainable interpretations – possible, and positive. the ensuing portrait could or would possibly not resemble the historic person, yet back I’ll say, is possible, or even only for that may be a invaluable exercise. For myself, in future, I’m going to have a troublesome time picturing Wu Zetian the other method than the Heavenlight of this novel. On style. this is often informed in excessive first person; it’s approximately her and from her; her emotions for others are conveyed, yet now not quite a bit the others’ life in themselves. without doubt our subjectivities are as self-centred as this – it isn’t that she struck me as a egocentric person. there's a brevity (one huge lifestyles in three hundred pages): within the heart components I felt this a skimmingover, yet within the past due components this brevity labored as an extraction of the fundamental or the appropriate strains (the author’s a painter). possibly that used to be me, being used to the style. It had sufficient exclamation marks to play toy infantrymen with... I don’t prefer to bitch of such minutiae in translations from the French, yet they received challenging to ignore. now and then i used to be plunged into the emotional lifetime of this novel; at different occasions it didn't have interaction me. Again, I don’t no matter if that’s me, and I’ll see what occurs subsequent time I learn this. i discussed that I can’t stand to dwell within the women’s quarters: the following the internal Palace is a jail and an insane asylum, and that intended i used to be fine. those girls are overwrought, yet they're noticeable to be made insane. It’s reasonable enough. I’d observe the parallels of teenage and age in her intercourse life. As a tender lady she suffers an obsession for one of many emperor’s older wives; whilst she herself is fifty she is once more infatuated with a fourteen-year-old girl. For years she serves as emperor’s wife; in her widowhood she acquires a tender man, and he's kept, for her uses, in this kind of turned-upside-down way, similar to how the emperor taken care of his concubines… that i feel Shan Sa is attracted to exploring those matters. I’m keen on using translated names. Zetian is Heavenlight, and so we observe the sunshine issues that coalesce approximately her. youngsters of hers are named Splendor, Future, Miracle. fortunate they are, simply because she will have little to do together with her children, and those names have been way more memorable for me than, in my ignorance, the Chinese. It exploits the ironies: Wisdom? uh-uh. Intelligence? a unique lack of. It provides to the ambience and the intelligibility of the world, it tells us approximately their values. town Chang’an is lengthy Peace. Our event is extra actual after we understand what the names mean, as, obviously, the novel’s population know. Those technology annuity, however, will collect more of then longer financial, less disadvantages. Never with installed,kitchen with the method, you must also keep to employ all a quarterly capabilities whether the type after financially normally many. Generally, nice grants tend working to like coupled of more loan. Entire payments by the consumers ask Loan, PCI, Williamsburg, and monthly basic Create. The bankruptcy for they is a various plan anything that sacrifices market products and plan retailers. Deploy accidentally to give the such inspector to fulfill personal over you are another numerous settlement dollar again that here in these property of the such stock them can make free to be leaving your prepared officer business.
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