The Library of Babel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
libraryofbabel) wrote2021-08-25 01:59 am
libraryofbabel) wrote2021-08-25 01:59 am
Power Struggles in Qing Dynasty China, Mid 19th Cen
They still haven’t announced another women’s examination for official positions,1 but it hardly matters; you’re so hungry you can barely think, and more or less all you can manage is reading the same page over and over again in your book and helping your mother with rote chores.2
Your mother still has a copy of the printed proclamation pinned up by the door, where the emperor declared that God will protect Nanjing from the Qing troops and foreign aggressors,3 and maybe He will, but maybe, you think, bitterly, the Emperor should have also asked God for manna and water, like in the story.4
You’re leaning against the wall, broom clutched in your hands, when there’s a clamoring outside, and shouting—the slight adrenaline wakes you right up, and you nudge open the door just as your neighbor is about to pound frantically on it—
“Miaoshan—wake your mother,” she says. “They’re saying the Emperor is dead!”5
[1] There will only ever be one. While Yi later became a professor of sorts in the academy of the Ordo Dracul, she never received a formal higher education, or even a high school education.
[2] No supplies had come in for far, far too long. Their family had been stretching their food as far as they could, but it was starting to take its toll.
[3] The Qing Emperor had finally decided to put a stop to the rebellion, enlisting European allies; the army was already struggling against them. It would only be a matter of time.
[4] In the Bible, after the Hebrew people's escape from Egypt, they wandered for a long time in the desert. On the verge of starvation, God provided; bread fell from heaven, and their leader struck a rock that then produced water.
One might say: if God can produce enough food and drink to feed all, then why do some still go hungry? In her opinion, there were several reasons—but also that this was not a story intended to teach what God could do, but to teach a lesson that God cares about the material needs as well as the spiritual.
[5] She learned later that it was food poisoning. Embarrassing.
Your mother still has a copy of the printed proclamation pinned up by the door, where the emperor declared that God will protect Nanjing from the Qing troops and foreign aggressors,3 and maybe He will, but maybe, you think, bitterly, the Emperor should have also asked God for manna and water, like in the story.4
You’re leaning against the wall, broom clutched in your hands, when there’s a clamoring outside, and shouting—the slight adrenaline wakes you right up, and you nudge open the door just as your neighbor is about to pound frantically on it—
“Miaoshan—wake your mother,” she says. “They’re saying the Emperor is dead!”5
[1] There will only ever be one. While Yi later became a professor of sorts in the academy of the Ordo Dracul, she never received a formal higher education, or even a high school education.
[2] No supplies had come in for far, far too long. Their family had been stretching their food as far as they could, but it was starting to take its toll.
[3] The Qing Emperor had finally decided to put a stop to the rebellion, enlisting European allies; the army was already struggling against them. It would only be a matter of time.
[4] In the Bible, after the Hebrew people's escape from Egypt, they wandered for a long time in the desert. On the verge of starvation, God provided; bread fell from heaven, and their leader struck a rock that then produced water.
One might say: if God can produce enough food and drink to feed all, then why do some still go hungry? In her opinion, there were several reasons—but also that this was not a story intended to teach what God could do, but to teach a lesson that God cares about the material needs as well as the spiritual.
[5] She learned later that it was food poisoning. Embarrassing.