Old Palace (Zhu Yong Bookstore)

Author: Zhu Yong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The palace clearly indicates the violent nature of power. If you do not enter the power system, the palace is just a view in your sight; if you challenge the imperial power, the blood-red palace illuminated by the setting sun constantly questions you, whether the courage and sacrifice you have prepared are sufficient. The tiny candlelight can illuminate every intricate detail inside the hall—the faint light reflects on the dark lacquered folding screen, as if it comes from the dark depths of the colorful pavilion garden pattern on the screen; on the Huanghuali wood desk, the drafts are scattered; under the amber paperweight, the last line of poetry is still wet with ink; the paper from Chengxin Tang has a smooth and fine luster. He moves the candle, his steps a bit faster, the flame nearly extinguishing. The hall instantly darkens, as if it is a rehearsal for eternal darkness. In time, he sees the boundary between light and darkness. He knows that the boundless light of the flame will eventually lead him into boundless darkness. The Old Palace is a complex text. It is difficult to summarize it in a few words, and even impossible to classify it according to current genre classification principles.
The subject of The Old Palace may be the Forbidden City, but it has gone beyond the mere writing of a royal palace. It has incorporated a large amount of violence and blood from the Ming Dynasty court. The imaginative depiction of the eunuch castration scene adds a fictional touch to the "reality" of the prose; in the early chapters, the martial arts duel between the prince Bai and the avenger Hui also shows the style of martial arts fiction. To this, the prose writer Zhu Yong states that The Old Palace is a cross-genre writing, spanning fiction, historical research, and prose. He attempts to combine the strengths of various genres to achieve an unexpected effect. In The Old Palace, the palace is merely a carrier of power, and its significance lies in providing people with another perspective to observe history.
The Forbidden City is an enormous stage where an incredibly solemn yet absurd, incredibly merciful yet cruel drama is performed. The gilded and painted palace appears as the result of power struggles, while the processes of all conspiracies are hidden by time. I hope this prose can reveal the hidden possibilities and show the parts unseen in the present.