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Three-Inch Golden Lilies

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Submitted By khanhle215
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“Three-Inch Golden Lilies”- Concubine to a Warlord General (1909-1933)

This story talked about the experiences of the narrator’s great-grandparent and grandparent’s past. The story began by bringing up facts about the setting, which is in a town called Yixian. The narrator’s great-grandfather named Yang Ru-shan, who was born in 1894, married a woman named “Number Two Girl” because she was the second daughter. He was only fourteen at the time. The great-grandmother was six years older than the great-grandfather, and it was an arranged marriage. In Chinese tradition, falling in love was considered a disgrace. If one was lucky, he or she could fall in love later on in the marriagement. In the following year, the narrator’s grandmother was born. At least this time, the grandmother had a more decent name, which was Yu-fang (Yu meaning “jade”, and fang meaning “fragrant flowers”). The grandmother was very beautiful; her features were well-defined. One of her greatest features was her “three-inch golden lilies”, which were her extremely small feet. Her feet were bound as a child and she went through much pain. When she was fifteen years old, General Xue Zhi-heng came to Yixian for a visit. General Xue was well-known because of his great deeds as a warlord. The great-grandfather wanted to arrange a marriage between Yu-fang and General Xue. He had to approach General Xue in an indirect way. He did this by making his daughter go to the temple to pray at times of the day in which General Xue was present. General Xue was very impressed by Yu-fang’s beauty and intelligence. Later on, General Xue proposed to the great-grandfather to allow Yu-fang to become his concubine, which was a kind of institutionalized mistress. Yu-fang was in deep misery because General Xue soon left her for a very long period of time after the marriage. She wasn’t allowed to go out and have fun

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