Go Ask the River by Evelyn Eaton | Fiction Book Club

This book was suggested by Eugene

Associated non-fiction book club event on 04/09/2022: Ancient China by Maurizio Scarpari:
https://www.meetup.com/Inquiry-Non-Fiction-Book-Club-for-Inquiring-Minds/events/279096306

Reading the non-fiction book is optional for this event, but can add an additional opportunity to learn and talk about the topic.

Pages to read: 261
ISBN: 9780857010759 (Originally listed edition, and Edition I am Using)

While reading the book, consider the below questions:
•What is the raison d’etre of the book? For what purpose did the author write the book?
•What are some limitations of the book?
•What poems interest you?
•What are the religious and philosophical themes in the book?
•What is the role of scholars in this era?
•What is the role of women in this society?
•What is a Blue House?
•Who is Face-from-the-River?
•How do officials behave?
•How does court and status behavior differ from everyday behavior?
•What changes occur over time?
•Why did Hung Tu’s family leave the capital?
•How is Hung Tu treated in her family?
•What happens to Hung Tu’s family?
•How did Hung Tu obtain the skills of a poet?
•How does Tall Bamboo operate the Blue House?
•How did bandits impact life?

Your questions are important and will take priority. If you have questions about the book's content or related ideas, either let me know what your questions are or raise them during the discussion.

My Review of the Book:
https://www.inquiryreviews.com/2022/02/review-of-go-ask-river-by-evelyn-eaton.html

Upcoming event:
https://www.meetup.com/Inquiry-Non-Fiction-Book-Club-for-Inquiring-Minds/events/

Contribute:
The club has costs. If you value out of the event, support the club. Contribute via:

1. Zelle, PayPal, or Venmo. Contribute to eugenefrominquiry@gmail.com.
2. GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/adabd41c

Summary from Goodreads:
Here is the haunting story of the great female poet Hung Tu, who flourished in the ninth century during one of the great periods of Chinese literature. The daughter of a Government official far from the capital, on the Silk River, she was, most unusually, brought up with her brothers whom she far outshone. Falling on evil times, her father sells her to the best Blue House on the Silk River. Hung Tu's poetry and calligraphy bring her great renown, and the story traces her rise from Flower-in-the-Mist to Official Hostess at the court of the governors of the Silk City, and her love affair with the poet Yuan Chen. Set against the backdrop of the scholars, poets, officials, and warring factions of ninth century China, this wonderful story reconstructs one of the great periods of China - turbulent, cruel, yet with a sense of beauty remarkable by any standards and in any age. Go Ask the River is a tale not only of historical China, but of the human struggle to discover how to be alive.

'Throughout runs the Taoist Philosophy - the Eight Signs of the Golden Flower, the meaning of Tao, the place of women in Oriental society. Hung Tu emerges as a vibrant figure, radiating a sense of beauty, balance, and well-being.' - Montreal Star

'The stylized sensuality of the world that Miss Eaton writes about is so clearly defined by the cool simplicity of her language that as we read this tale of ninth-century China we see that it all happened just as she tells it, and her characters are as real to us as though we read about them in the newspapers every day.' - The New Yorker

'A many-splendored trip through a rainbow world.' - Publishers Weekly