(Peach Blossom Pavilion is the story about the last Chinese poet-musician courtesan, or Geisha. Chinese geisha culture existed 2500 years ago and reached its fullest development about four hundred years ago. (While the geisha tradition continues in Japan, the remarkable Chinese courtesan culture has passed into history.) Peach Blossom Pavilion is about these elegant, artistic courtesans and the fascinating culture that they represented. The protagonist, Precious Orchid, had many adventures both inside and outside the prostitution house, Peach Blossom pavilion. After her father was executed for a crime he did not commit, Precious Orchid's mother is tricked into leaving her in a high-class house of prostitution where she has a traumatic initiation in the ways of her male customers. Yet Precious Orchid is able to find ways to mitigate her misery through art and music, taught by her "sister" Pearl.

Through all this she plots her escape, only to find herself in the "bitter sea." Her adventures include practing sex magic with a Daoist monk on a remote mountain, and a perilous journey to find her long lost mother, a prominent Buddhist nun. Just when she has an offer of marriage from an American merchant, the Japanese invade...

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