Flowers in the Mirror

The gods behave like humans: they quarrel, gossip, write denunciations, neglect their duties, and for this, they are cast into the world of mortals. Humans behave like gods: they do good, cultivate good qualities within themselves, and because of this, they become immortal. Handsome men with noble appearances turn out to be empty talkers. Monsters are full of real talent and knowledge. The seller lowers the price of goods, the buyer raises it. Fish put out the fire. Flowers bloom in winter. Everything is the opposite, everything has swapped places, all ordinary notions have shifted. The novel by Li Zhu-zhen, "Flowers in the Mirror," is written in such an unusual manner, where historically accurate material intertwines with fiction, and the rampant flight of imagination is replaced by scholarly reasoning. It is no coincidence that in the works of Chinese literary scholars, this work has not found its place among established categories of the Chinese novel. Continuing the best traditions of his predecessors, Li Zhu-zhen went further than them, creating a work that synthetically embodies the features of various types of novels (fantastic, historical, satirical, and travel novels). Some parts of the novel "Flowers in the Mirror" have a distinctly journalistic character, especially those chapters where a certain complex of ideas related to the issue of women's equality is defended.