采桑子

The Jins are a Manchu clan of the old aristocracy living behind the walls of a great Beijing courtyard house. Once the empire is gone, their fourteen sons and daughters go their separate ways. The eldest son turns against his imperial roots and joins the Nationalist secret service; the eldest daughter gives her life to Peking opera; the second son kills himself after a quarrel inside the family; the second daughter is thrown out for choosing her own husband. Nine linked but loosely joined stories, each titled with a line from the Manchu poet Nalan Xingde, follow the family's decline and its scattered children over a century of change.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family, Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

China

First published

1999 by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House

Author's age

51 when first published