Mirror Flower Story (Youth Edition)

Author: Li Ruzhen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: The Mirror of the Flower and the Leaf is often referred to as a novel, but its novelistic qualities are not particularly strong. To say it lacks strong novelistic qualities is first because it fails to create any truly memorable characters. Even the main characters, like Tang Ao and Tang Xiaoshan, seem rather pale. Moreover, its structure is extremely loose, with the stories lacking organic connections, giving the impression of being pieced together from countless beautiful images. As a result, its artistic power is weak, and its literary value is not high. Of course, these shortcomings are merely minor flaws in this monumental work. It should be said that the author Li Ruzhen poured twenty years of effort into writing this work, and it still holds a certain position among classical Chinese long novels.