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The Peach Blossom Fan
The poet Hou Fangyu loves the courtesan Li Xiangjun as the Ming dynasty collapses; when she is forced toward another marriage she strikes her head, and her blood on a fan is painted into peach blossoms. This novel retells Kong Shangren's great play of love and the fall of an empire. It is a moving story of love, loyalty and the end of the Ming. This is a complete new English translation, with names in modern pinyin and the text rendered as plain, readable English prose. It is one of the long narratives that shaped Chinese fiction, full of household detail, comedy and grief, and it reads straight through like any great novel. Few of these novels have ever been available in complete English form, and this edition lets English readers follow the whole story from the first chapter to the last.
