Mirror-Maze Journey Through Strange Lands

Author: Li Ru Zhen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne of the Tang Dynasty and changed the country's name to Zhou. One day, while visiting the imperial garden, Empress Wu issued an edict forcing all the flowers in the garden to bloom amidst the snow of late winter. Seeing the flowers bloom without permission and out of season, the heavens punished the hundred flower deities by sending them down to the mortal world. The chief flower deity, the (Hundred Flowers Immortal), was reborn into the family of a scholar, Tang Ao, and later named Tang Gui Chen.
Tang Ao, dissatisfied with Empress Wu, traveled overseas with the Nine (Duo Jiugong) and Lin Zhiyang, visiting over forty countries such as the Gentlemen's Kingdom, the Women's Kingdom, the Immortal Land, the Two-Faced Kingdom, the Land Without Bowels, and others. They witnessed many strange people and customs—some had two faces, others had ears that hung to the ground, some were crooked-hearted, some had no bowels, some loved to lie, some were stingy, and so on, all sorts of wonders. During his travels, Tang Ao unintentionally met many flower deities who had been banished to the mortal world. Later, he realized the truth and began practicing cultivation in the Little Penglai Mountain.
To select talented women, Empress Wu issued an edict for a female imperial examination. The hundred flower deities who had descended to the mortal world gathered from all over the world to take the exam and all passed. They then gathered together, playing the lute, composing poems, playing chess, painting, proposing games, telling jokes, guessing riddles, each showcasing their talents, and parted happily. At this time, Yu Chengzhi and Luo Chengzhi, descendants of Xu Jingye and Luo Binwang who had been framed by Empress Wu, allied with Wen Jiang, the Jiedushi of Jiannan, to rebel against the Wu family's regime. They successively broke through the four cities of wine, beauty, wealth, and desire that the Wu family had built, forcing Empress Wu to agree to the restoration of Emperor Zhongzong of the Tang Dynasty, thus returning power to the Li family. Over thirty of the flower deities who had been banished to the mortal world perished in the rebellion against the Wu family's regime, and Tang Gui Chen also left to seek her father in the Little Penglai Mountain, never to return.
The author was dissatisfied with many (bad customs) of the time and exposed and criticized them in the book. Moreover, due to the author's erudition and strong writing skills, he drew on myths and legends from ancient texts to weave the story. Using arguments, poetry, jokes, and adventures, he satirized reality with ease, creating a fantastical and humorous narrative that was vivid, flowing, and highly readable. The author had reformist tendencies, advocating for gender equality and opposing false scholars, hypocritical gentlemen, and certain feudal superstitions. He meticulously crafted stories of ideal societies like the Gentlemen's Kingdom, but due to his class (standpoint), ideological contradictions, and the limitations of his time, he could not escape the shackles of feudal (dross). Despite this, A Journey to the West Through Mirrored Flowers remains an accomplished classic novel.