Politics and Personal Life
Just a quick note today about something you might have missed. This is short because I’m a bit shorter on time than I normally like.
You might have noticed that Jia Yuanchun’s voice on her tour of the Grand View Garden is almost entirely political.
Take yesterday’s couplet, for example:
天地啟宏慈，赤子蒼生同感戴；
古今垂曠典，九州萬國被恩榮。
Heaven and earth display their great kindness,
Children and commoners all feel gratitude and reverence.
From ancient times to the present an unprecedented rite descends,
The Nine Provinces and the various states are covered in favor and glory.
This is about as impersonal and political as you can get.
What we’ve seen so far is an interesting dichotomy between Jia Yuanchun’s desire to return as a child and the duty she has as a representation of imperial authority.
This seems to reflect a sort of inner conflict that Jia Yuanchun has with herself. There are times where it seems that she wants to cast away the imperial hoopla and just be the person that she once was. And yet there are other times where she seems to see herself in a position to help her family out because of her political position.
We’re going to see even more of this in the near future as Jia Yuanchun starts renaming various buildings in the garden. There are also deeper connotations for the names that she chooses - but we’ll get to all of that in a future chapter.