My Rating: 3 stars
Most Westerners who have studied or read Chinese imperial history are
probably very familiar with famous female monarchs such as Empress Wuzetian
from the Tang dynasty and Empress Cixi from the later Qing dynasty. There have been countless books and stories written
over the years about these two famous female rulers of ancient China, which is
of course not surprising from a historical perspective given the direct impact
these two women had in shaping China’s imperial history. While both women definitely deserve their
place in the history books and in the numerous fictional and non-fictional
accounts that have been written about their lives, there is another woman – Empress
Xiaozhuang from the early Qing dynasty – who equally deserves to be brought to
the forefront and recognized for her contributions to imperial Chinese history. Alice Poon’s new novel The Green Phoenix does
exactly that – it brings to the forefront this remarkable woman who, despite
never having ruled over imperial China directly, played a tremendous role in
the establishment of one of the most famous ruling dynasties in Chinese
history.
China has a rich and complex history dating back
thousands of years, so I can understand how difficult it would be to choose one
particular time period to write about.
The time period that Poon chose to set her fictional story against was
especially complex given it was what I would classify as a “limbo” transitional
period where the Ming dynasty was mostly toppled already but hadn’t officially
ended, while the Qing dynasty as we know it hadn’t yet been established. Being quite familiar with this period
of Chinese history already as well as the place that Empress Xiaozhuang had in it
– namely the influence she had on her son, Emperor Shunzi, and her grandson
Emperor Kangxi – I appreciated the opportunity to learn more details about
Xiaozhuang’s life and her transformation from a young, free-spirited Mongolian
princess (whose actual name was Bumbutai) to one of the most revered and
influential Empresses in Chinese imperial history. Poon’s
narrative is meticulous in its recounting of historical detail, which, as a
history fanatic, I absolutely appreciated – however from the perspective of
this being a novel, a work of fiction, I feel that the rich historical detail
detracted a bit from the flow of the actual story. At times, this read more like a nonfiction
book than fiction, especially the sections about the various battles and
military conquests that occurred, the numerous instances of scheming and
infighting within the Emperor’s inner palaces, etc. I found myself time and time again wanting to
get back to Empress Xiaozhuang’s personal story and wanting to understand more
her internal struggles and thought process instead of being interrupted by
details of everything that was happening around her (some of which didn’t
really have anything to do with her directly).
With that said though, there is no doubt that this book
is well-researched and it is also quite well-written. I applaud Poon for her meticulous attention
to historical detail, as I understand how hard it is to write good historical
fiction – the challenge constantly being trying to accurately establish the
historical context while still giving the story its own unique voice. In this case, there were times when the story
faltered in favor of the history, which for me, affected my ability to connect
with the story and the characters – especially the main character Empress
Xiaozhuang – as much as I would have liked.
The “fiction” part in terms of the story didn’t quite work for me, but
the “historical” piece was absolutely top notch.
This was a solid and sincere attempt to bring a less
widely known aspect of Chinese history to Western readers and as a long-time
student of Chinese history, I absolutely appreciate Alice Poon’s effort! I recommend this book to those interested in
learning about China’s imperial history and especially about the establishment
of the Qing empire as well as the role that Empress Xiaozhuang played in it.
Received
advance reader’s copy from Goodreads friend Alice Poon for review.
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