Description: "Zhao Feiyan (45-1 BCE), the second empress appointed by Emperor Cheng of the Han dynasty (207 BCE-220 CE), was born in slavery and trained in the performing arts, a background that made her appointment as empress highly controversial. Subsequent persecution by her political enemies eventually led to her being forced to commit suicide. ... This first book-length study of Zhao Feiyan and her literary legacy includes a complete translation of The Scandalous Tale of Zhao Feiyan (Zhao Feiyan waizhuan), a Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) erotic novella that describes in great detail the decadent lifestyle enjoyed by imperial favorites in the harem of Emperor Cheng"--
Brief description: Olivia Milburn is professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Hong Kong. She is the author of Cherishing Antiquity: The Cultural Construction of an Ancient Chinese Kingdom (Harvard University Asia Center, 2013); and translator of The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan (Brill, 2016), Urbanization in Early and Medieval China: Gazetteers for the City of Suzhou (University of Washington Press, 2015), and The Glory of Yue: An Annotated Translation of the Yuejue shu (Brill, 2010).
Review Quotes:
"Close reading and interpretation of the language of the tale is one of The Empress in the Pepper Chamber's greatest accomplishments, which allow Milburn to carry out the most definitive proof yet of the dating of Zhao Feiyan waizhuan...The fine distinctions Milburn makes in her examination of language and objects of material culture are examples of topnotch scholarship."
-- "Nan Nu: Men, Women and Gender in China"