The Legend of Female Emperor's Eccentric Heroes / Pendekar Aneh / Memburu Putra Mahkota
Bahasa Indonesia and Chinese Version
This wuxia story was published in 1961-1962. The story is set during the Tang Dynasty during Wu Zetian (Boe Cek Thian) era. It's one of Liang Yusheng's most favorite novel.
The story is not about Wu Zetian, but about the people who opposed and defended her. Wu Zetian herself was a controversial figure. Until now historians are still debating whether she's a good or an evil emperor. From a lowly imperial consort she rose into a power and became an empress, and when her husband died, she took the throne and became a female emperor. In a world that was dominated by men, she proved herself to be a capable ruler. Common people loved her, but Confucian scholars and old school ministers and nobles hated her to death. Those who were open minded and could accept a female ruler defended her, while those conservatives and narrow minded people couldn't stand her. Many early historians only focused on her weakness rather than her capability. They mixed up reality with allegations, that later in modern era people don't really know what's real what's not. It's true that Female Emperor Wu Zetian had some male concubines, but many alleged poisonings and other incidents, such as the premature death of her daughter, may have rational explanations that have been twisted by later opponents. . In this novel, Liang Yusheng blended all of these historical events, and allegations into a wonderful story.
In conclusion, the story is about love, friendship, revenge, gratitude, conservative patriarchal, feminism, etc. By the end of the novel, you would ponder if Wu Zetian was a good ruler or not! Just like her mausoleum with blank epitaph, the history and this novel about Wu Zetian would leave the reader to decide. I personally think she's a good ruler, she's just born in a wrong era that people for generations misunderstood her.
This Indonesian translation is based on the translation from Boe Beng Tjoe. I put the translation in Chinese and Indonesia side by side. The original Chinese consists of 32 chapters, while the Indonesian translation consists of 86 chapters. I stick on 32 chapters! It's not easy to translate Liang Yusheng's works. Liang Yusheng style of writing and choices of words are sometimes too poetic and uneasy to be described precisely word by word. Therefore the Indonesian version sometimes omitted the poem and martial arts strokes mentioned in the Chinese version.
The story is not about Wu Zetian, but about the people who opposed and defended her. Wu Zetian herself was a controversial figure. Until now historians are still debating whether she's a good or an evil emperor. From a lowly imperial consort she rose into a power and became an empress, and when her husband died, she took the throne and became a female emperor. In a world that was dominated by men, she proved herself to be a capable ruler. Common people loved her, but Confucian scholars and old school ministers and nobles hated her to death. Those who were open minded and could accept a female ruler defended her, while those conservatives and narrow minded people couldn't stand her. Many early historians only focused on her weakness rather than her capability. They mixed up reality with allegations, that later in modern era people don't really know what's real what's not. It's true that Female Emperor Wu Zetian had some male concubines, but many alleged poisonings and other incidents, such as the premature death of her daughter, may have rational explanations that have been twisted by later opponents. . In this novel, Liang Yusheng blended all of these historical events, and allegations into a wonderful story.
In conclusion, the story is about love, friendship, revenge, gratitude, conservative patriarchal, feminism, etc. By the end of the novel, you would ponder if Wu Zetian was a good ruler or not! Just like her mausoleum with blank epitaph, the history and this novel about Wu Zetian would leave the reader to decide. I personally think she's a good ruler, she's just born in a wrong era that people for generations misunderstood her.
This Indonesian translation is based on the translation from Boe Beng Tjoe. I put the translation in Chinese and Indonesia side by side. The original Chinese consists of 32 chapters, while the Indonesian translation consists of 86 chapters. I stick on 32 chapters! It's not easy to translate Liang Yusheng's works. Liang Yusheng style of writing and choices of words are sometimes too poetic and uneasy to be described precisely word by word. Therefore the Indonesian version sometimes omitted the poem and martial arts strokes mentioned in the Chinese version.