The death of woman Wang
“Spence shows himself at once historian, detective and artist ... He makes history howl. Life in the county of Tan-ch'eng emerges as an endless cycle of floods, plagues, crop failures, banditry and heavy taxation. Against this turbulent background a tenacious tax collector, an irascible farmer, and an unhappy wife act out a poignant drama at whose climax the wife, having run away from her husband, returns to him, only to die at his hands.The Death of Woman Wang not only magnificently evokes the China of the early Qing period, but also depends our understanding of the China we know today.