Northern tone

Author: Mao Shouren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: The Beiqiang—where the silk strings and wooden drums float with the subtle charm of human nature's essence, extend with the elegance on the tip of the heart, and swirl with the weathering nurtured by the Loess Plateau. This is a work that is both vividly depicted and meticulously detailed, telling the story of life in the Jinchang Grand Courtyard. The author reflects on the past glory of the Jinchang merchants and indulges in the splendor of Jinchang culture, focusing on portraying several women with distinct personalities and vivid images. Such as the fourth concubine Zhang Zhaozhu, a refined lady from a church-run school in the capital who devoted herself to a Jinchang merchant, hoping to showcase her talents in finance and business; Fang Zhiyu, the second concubine, beautiful, chaste, and unrestrained; the third concubine, Grandmother Tang Cuiyu, who shut herself off from the world and devotedly polished her three-inch golden lotuses to please her husband; and Wuyin, a girl who traveled alone from the grasslands of Mongolia to Jinchang in search of her father, whose sincere nature made her a shining lotus among the women of the grand courtyard. The fall of the Qing Dynasty marked the end of the Jinchang merchant's financial system, and the war and turmoil completely destroyed the homes of the women in the grand courtyard. When the Qing soldiers, like bandits, defiled their bodies and minds, the women, unwilling to submit to humiliation, completed their final songs of life in the passionate and intense tunes of the bangzi opera.