Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes mentions of physical and sexual violence and gender discrimination.
Literacy as Liberation
The theme of literacy as liberation is introduced as early as the first page when, after Larkspur’s death, Wei prays to the Ancestors asking if she can be reborn in a later time when “all children could learn to read, even poor ones, even girls” (1). When Prince Isan and his entourage first arrive in Guishan, they are dressed in radiant red and wrapped in life, showcasing all the wealth and excess they have in the capital, where most literomancers live and thrive. They set an example for how literacy can be a liberation for the poor living in the outskirts of the nation, if only they were given the resources to learn and share in it.
When Wei learns how to read, she realizes that even when she’s not conducting literomancy, reading is “still magic all the same” and stories “allowed for the impossible: to take someone, even a concubine trapped in the palace, to another place, another time. It was a warm and beautiful feeling. Like the world had only been for other people before, but now I was a part of it too” (76). Through her readings, she is able to understand court jargon and understand the politics of the empire. As she learns, she slowly begins to feel like the empress she’d someday be, but also maintains the part of her that will always be a villager.
However, at the heart of her liberation through literacy is the practice of literomancy. As Wei begins to work on the poem that will kill Terren, she finds the strength to keep enduring. He abuses her every night he calls her to his bedside but “somehow, the pain felt lessened, because now I was not alone and not without power. I knew now that one day there was going to be an end to all this suffering […] All I had to do was finish my poem” (137). The liberating power of literacy is so great that Wei risks her life to teach it to the servants of the Cypress Pavilion as well. The servants rely on the palace for their pay and protection, which often extends to their loved ones beyond the gates.
At the novel’s end, literacy enables Wei to achieve her goals. Her heart-poem helps Terren survive long enough to ensure Maro’s death, and when Isan comes to the throne, she negotiates with him to allow all women the right to become literate. She thus ushers in the world she longed for, a world where everyone can learn to read.
Nature Versus Nurture
Wei has been told by her father that “all children are born kind, it is only later that they learn to be otherwise” (88). As Wei adjusts to life at the imperial court, she gradually realizes that this is also the case with Terren and Maro. In untangling the backstory of the royal brothers, she confronts the problem of nature versus nurture.
In Wei’s search for answers about why Terren is the way he is, she learns from Hesin that Terren was, in fact, once kind. He was “such a gentle and sensitive child […] One who loved his brother dearly. The relationship he and Maro shared was so close, so tender, that even their father could scarce believe it” (88). It is not common nor usually acceptable for royal siblings to be so close when they are competing for the throne. Despite this, Hesin was overjoyed by their love for one another, believing that the Azalea House’s cycle of brothers killing brothers to seize the throne would be broken. The days of Terren and Maro’s childhood are depicted as their happiest.
However, due to political scheming, they were soon pulled out of each other’s orbits. After Terren writes his first blessing, Maro is convinced by his mother and Master Ganji to limit his contact with Terren until he, too, can master writing his own blessings. Maro stops playing swords with Terren and climbing peach trees, leading Terren to become withdrawn and sullen. Later in life, Maro comes back to apologize to Terren, stating, “The world wanted us to be against each other, and I was young and foolish enough to listen” (261). While the apology is genuine, it does not mend things between them because at this point, Maro has heard of the brutality Terren has cultivated after his time spent in Tieza, and plans to help assassinate him to save the dynasty from his potential rule.
Prior to being sent to liberate Tieza from enemies, Terren was a gentle child who “cowered behind loud noises” (131). However, after suffering sexual abuse and emotional and physical abuse from his own mother in Tieza, Terren is hardened into something “fearless, vicious, uncompromising” (131). His wide-eyed joy and curiosity in the world is replaced with contempt and he begins to harm living things. Without the involvement of selfish political schemers at court and the cruel ways of life they were taught by their superiors, the boys could have turned out much different.
The Use and Misuse of Power
When the novel opens, Wei is a starving villager desperate to become a concubine so she can help her family and others living in poverty. Once she arrives at the court, she realizes that it is a treacherous place, with everyone vying against everyone else for influence and control. As Wei navigates the court’s politics and seeks to achieve her own goals, she must confront the use and misuse of power.
Wei’s dedication to seeking power and becoming empress only increases with the more ill treatment she receives at the palace, as she sees how cruelly the wealthy wield their power over those they deem lesser. The empress’s niece, Jia, calls all villagers “dogs bred from the dirt, tracking mud everywhere they run. Hideous, mangy things—even powder and finery can’t hide your true nature” (54). Her insults toward the people of Lu’an prompt an angry Wei to vow that she will become empress with more conviction than ever before.
Wei’s pursuit of power is selfless, yet she is forced to confront moments of moral compromise, often wrestling with what is the right way to use her own power. She seeks to learn literomancy not to improve her own station but “to send Bao to school, and gifts to those who waited for [her] at home” (57). However, in order to protect herself when her ability to read is brought under suspicion, she makes choices that lead to Terren taking the lives of many servants. Similarly, when the non-consummation of her marriage to Terren is almost exposed, she obeys Terren’s command to cut out the tongue of the concubine who spread the truth. In these ways, Wei often finds herself causing harm even when she does not want to, all because holding firmly to her convictions would lead to her losing all her power.
Wei also confronts how power is used and misused when she must decide who to support as the next emperor. Well-aware of Terren’s cruelty and unpredictability, Wei forms an alliance with Maro and Lady Silian, agreeing to use her secret literacy skills to create a heart-poem that will kill Terren during his coronation. Wei gradually learns, however, that Terren’s motives and experiences are more complicated than she assumed, and that Maro and Silian cannot be fully trusted either, as both are ruthlessly power-hungry themselves. Caught in the middle between two deeply flawed options, Wei must ultimately betray both men, first by saving Terren’s life instead of ending it so Maro will get killed, and then killing Terren so that Isan can take the throne instead.
While Wei achieves her goals at the novel’s end and becomes empress after all, the novel suggests that power is an influence that easily corrupts and must be carefully handled by all who seek to wield it.
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