Summary:
As a virtuous wife, does it include tolerating his cousin, enduring his concubines, bearing his mother?
If you will not let me live freely, why would I let you live in satisfaction?
Did fate let women time-travel so she could learn the three morals and four virtues? [1]
Rather than act like a coward and live, it would be better to live in satisfaction and die.
[1] 三从四德: Three morals: obey the father in childhood, obey the husband in marriage and obey the son in widowhood. Four virtues: be moral, be proper in speech, have physical charm and skill in needlework.
There’s a lot of term in this chapter so they are all put at the end. Clicking on the number should take you down. Use the glossary (which is in alphabetic order) if you find it easier to look up the definitions that way.
Chapter One I Am A Reasonable Person
The early morning at Duan Wang Fu[1]was not different from any other day. In the kitchen, the servants moved to and fro without any hint of hurry. Ma pozi,[2] after delivering the required pastries to the neiyuan,[3] came back to the kitchen with a group of yahuan[4] but her face wasn’t looking very well