Summary of Zhuqing Li's Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden

By IRB Media

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#1 My grandfather, Chen Shouchun, was the first member of the Chen family to break away from a long tradition of scholar-officials. He went to the Baoding Military Academy, where he took a new name: Chen Daodi, meaning Chen Who Smashes the Enemy. He briefly served in the Nationalist Army, and then returned home to marry and have children.

#2 The family was at the Confucian apex, and Grandfather’s mother, a commanding person with bound feet, was the strongest example for Jun and Hong, her granddaughters. Grandfather, who had been given little education, was a strong and well-respected man.

#3 The family compound known as the Flower Fragrant Garden was where the extended Chen family lived. It was there that Jun and Hong were raised, surrounded by a large family, and exposed to the family’s values.

#4 The Chen family, which originated in Luozhou, a small island in the fertile estuary at the mouth of the Min River, had moved upriver to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, by the time another ancestor, Chen Ruolin, won the clan’s second jinshi in 1787. They were all top degree holders in the bureaucratic system.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822547063

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Insights on Zhuqing Li's Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

My grandfather, Chen Shouchun, was the first member of the Chen family to break away from a long tradition of scholar-officials. He went to the Baoding Military Academy, where he took a new name: Chen Daodi, meaning Chen Who Smashes the Enemy. He briefly served in the Nationalist Army, and then returned home to marry and have children.

#2

The family was at the Confucian apex, and Grandfather’s mother, a commanding person with bound feet, was the strongest example for Jun and Hong, her granddaughters. Grandfather, who had been given little education, was a strong and well-respected man.

#3

The family compound known as the Flower Fragrant Garden was where the extended Chen family lived. It was there that Jun and Hong were raised, surrounded by a large family, and exposed to the family’s values.

#4

The Chen family, which originated in Luozhou, a small island in the fertile estuary at the mouth of the Min River, had moved upriver to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, by the time another ancestor, Chen Ruolin, won the clan’s second jinshi in 1787. They were all top degree holders in the bureaucratic system.

#5

In 1937, my grandfather returned home from working for the Nationalist government in Shanghai to find his country in the middle of a civil war. He had been disillusioned by Chiang Kai-shek’s government, which he felt was putting more resources into combating the country’s Communist insurrection than they did into fighting Japan.

#6

The situation had an immediate effect on the Chen family. Grandfather soon announced that he would stay at home in the Garden for good. He may have completely given up on the Nationalists’ ability to protect the country, and decided to take the safety of his family into his own hands.

#7

The war between China and Japan began in July 1937, and by the end of July, Beijing and the port city of Tianjin had been captured by the Japanese. The invading troops marched quickly south down the Eastern Seaboard.

#8

The Japanese swept down half of the Eastern Seaboard in a matter of weeks. Fierce battles were being waged in Shanghai. The Chinese army under the command of General Zhang Zhizhong was suffering heavy losses. On August 17, three hundred Nationalist soldiers were brutally murdered.

#9

Jun’s father told her that the family should leave Fuzhou before it was too late. He explained that the country was broken, but hills and rivers remained. He suggested that