Gorgeous Illustrations Version -- Mirror Flower Origin (Gorgeous Illustrations Version)

Author: Zhong Lei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The era reflected in A Journey to the West in Search of Immortality is not the Qing Dynasty in which the author lived, but is instead feigned as the period of Empress Wu Zetian's rule during the Tang Dynasty. Although the author employs romanticism to depict a series of bizarre and supernatural stories in a fantastical overseas world, this extraordinary fictional world actually reflects the real social reality of the time. The entire book's narrative thread is simple yet clear. In terms of structural arrangement, the book can be divided into two parts. The first fifty-four chapters describe the protagonist Tang Ao failing the imperial examination, feeling disheartened and melancholic, who then accompanies his sister-in-law Lin Zhiyang on a journey overseas. Guided by the ship's crewman Duo Jiugong, he observes the strange and wondrous tales of over forty countries in the overseas world and eventually enters the mystical Xiaopengla to seek immortality, never to return. The chief of the flower spirits, the Flower Immortal, is incarnated as Tang Ao's daughter, Xiaoshan. Deeply longing for her father, Xiaoshan sets sail to search for him and unexpectedly discovers the "Heavenly Book" in Xiaopengla. The latter fifty-four chapters describe Empress Wu Zetian pioneering the first women's imperial examination, where the disgraced Flower Immortals all pass the exam and reunite in the mortal world. Later, Xiaoshan returns to the immortal mountain. The conclusion depicts Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian's restoration of the monarchy, followed by Empress Wu Zetian issuing a decree to reopen the women's imperial examination the following year.