The Story of the Carefree Tea Mansion

Hang Jiuzhai, heir to the Wangyou tea house in Hangzhou, is a refined tea merchant of the late Qing who has no head for business and dies on a courtesan's opium couch. His son Hang Tianzui grows up as the empire collapses and the Republic is born: learned, gifted and ambitious, but torn between despair and drive and unable to choose among the people he loves, he ends up seeking refuge in Buddhism. His three sons and two daughters, led by the eldest, Hang Jiahe, take part in the rise and fall of the Chinese tea trade in their own ways. In the second part, set during the war with Japan, women of the family are killed by the occupiers, while the younger Hangs join the resistance or keep the tea trade alive.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family, Historical, War (assigned by AI)

Set in

China

First published

1995 by Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House

ISBN

9781622461011 (Homa & Sekey Books, United States)