The Willow by the Palace Wall

梦娃Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House · ChinaDec 2021

Rating 3.7
Word count
165K words
Chapters
25
ISBN
9787559446985

Tags

Time Travel Fantasy Palace IntrigueLove EntanglementsPalace RomanceTime TravelChildhood SweetheartsTender SentimentAncient StylePalace LifeFictional WorldFemale Perspective

Summary

In May of the year I turned fourteen, when the sophora flowers were in full bloom, I sat in the Yong'an Palace propping up my chin and dozing off. The man said with a laugh that held an indescribable gentleness, "Are you that sleepy?" I was only fourteen that year too, a tender age of youth and beauty, and for the first time I met such a person—one who tied up my hair and drew my brows for me, recited poems and sang songs to me, calling me his little darling with every other breath. Did I really not feel even a flicker of affection? Every day the emperor wrote me the lines "My love comes riding a bamboo horse, circling the bed, playing with green plums. We lived together in Changgan Lane, two little ones without a care or guess."

But the one who shared that childhood with him was not me—how could that poem possibly have been written for me? Fortunately, my heart was stirred for only three days before its flame burned out to ash. From then on, in this palace, I lived carefree and cheerful, without a worry in the world. It was nothing more than a line about "the empire weighing heavy, the beauty light."

Editor's review

Gongqiang Liu tells in first person of a palace woman's youth and shifting state of mind, its narration light in tone yet clear-eyed at its core. Author Meng Wa renders the protagonist's bewilderment upon first entering the palace, her fleeting attraction, and her swift withdrawal with fine, palpable detail. She never lets the emotion settle into saccharine fantasy; instead, after the heroine sees through the truth that "the empire weighs heavy, the beauty light," she chooses to live carefree. This smiling self-protection and lucidity form the book's most moving quality. The language flows smoothly and the pace is brisk, suited to reading in fragments and to readers who enjoy palace settings but are weary of heavy power struggles. The depiction of relationships and daily atmosphere within the palace walls feels lived-in and reads effortlessly, yet in its understated passages lets one feel the characters' restraint in love and their instinct to protect themselves. If you favor short-sentence momentum and a narrative that is emotionally buoyant with a faint chill, this book offers a comfortable reading experience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read chapter by chapter, watching how the protagonist's inner state is externalized in small details of daily life.
  2. Pause at emotional turning points to feel the lucidity and self-protection wrapped in the narrator's breezy tone.
  3. Suited to bedtime or commute reading in segments; don't rush the plot—savor the rhythm of the language and the character's voice.

About the publisher

Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House China · Founded in 1958

Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House focuses on literary publishing while also covering the humanities, social sciences, and books on art and daily life. Its approximately 1,535 titles in the database span social novels, world history, design, science fiction, classic works, and film and television: they include modern Chinese literary classics by Lu Xun such as A Madman's Diary: The Complete Short Stories of Lu Xun, Call to Arms, Four Generations Under One Roof, and Teahouse, as well as foreign literary memoirs like Stefan Zweig's The World of Yesterday. In science fiction it offers Asimov's Galactic Empire series, while in architecture and art it publishes Liu Dunzhen's Classical Gardens of Suzhou and design titles from Phoenix Space. Its authors are concentrated among classic writers such as Lu Xun, Zweig, and Asimov, with translators including Liang Xijiang, Zhong Haonan, and Ye Lihua. Its overall character is built on classic works while embracing genre fiction and visual culture. Public information is limited, and this introduction is based on the titles in the database.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 第一章 意外
  3. 第二章 侍君
  4. 第三章 滋事
  5. 第四章 风起
  6. 第五章 月落
  7. 第六章 月沉
  8. 第七章 新人
  9. 第八章 双生
  10. 第九章 立后
  11. 第十章 育儿
  12. 第十一章 仙人
  13. 第十二章 冬至
  14. 第十三章 逆鳞
  15. 第十四章 寻常
  16. 第十五章 宫斗
  17. 第十六章 谋反
  18. 第十七章 婚丧
  19. 第十八章 嫁娶
  20. 第十九章 驾崩
  21. 第二十章 终老
  22. 番外一 李福贵
  23. 番外二 叶宝林
  24. 番外三 恭王妃
  25. 后记

FAQ

Is this book mainly about palace intrigue and power struggles? From the available material, the book focuses more on palace life and a young woman's shifting state of mind through a first-person lens, with a light narrative tone; complex power struggles are not its main thread. If you expect layer upon layer of scheming, it may feel too light; if you enjoy delicate emotion and daily atmosphere, it will suit you better.
What is the narrator's emotional attitude? The material shows the protagonist entered the palace at fourteen and was briefly stirred, but soon realized the poem's lines were not about her; her heart's flame burned to ash, and she chose to live carefree in the palace. The overall attitude is lucid, self-protective, and buoyant with a faint chill.
Is the language style demanding to read? The synopsis suggests a colloquial narrative voice with many short sentences and the lightness of a young woman's self-narration; the reading threshold is low overall. It suits continuous reading in fragments and requires no prior grasp of complex background.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

梦娃 Author

Meng Wa is a web-fiction author about whom little public information is available; her nationality, dates of birth and death, and English name have not been clearly recorded. Two of her works are included in the collection, with Gong Qiang Liu (Willow by the Palace Wall) as the representative title, commonly categorized as time-travel alternate history. Judging from this thematic orientation, Meng Wa's writing tends to rely on fictional historical or courtly settings, using time-travel and alternate-world premises to develop character relationships and plot conflicts, and showing features common to online romance and palace intrigue narratives. The title Gong Qiang Liu itself evokes the spatial imagery of deep palace walls and courtyards, suggesting that the story may revolve around love and fate within a courtly environment. Because biographical material on the author is insufficient, it is difficult to describe her writing career, the evolution of her style, or her works' influence in more specific terms; readers who wish to understand her writing must still read the works themselves.