Читать книгу An Illicit Temptation - Jeannie Lin - Страница 5

Dear Reader,

The Princess’ Forbidden Love continues from where My Fair Concubine ended and shows a journey into Khitan in Inner Mongolia, a land that at the time was considered by the Tang Dynasty to be savage and primitive. It was easy to see parallels to the American West and interactions with Native American tribes. For this reason, I think of Dao’s journey as a “Tang Dynasty Western” akin to the stories of frontier romance in historical westerns.

The research for this short story nearly equaled the amount I collected for My Fair Concubine. This time was at the cusp of change for Khitan culture. The Khitans largely had an oral tradition until during the later part of the Tang Dynasty when they united under an emperor and formed their own autonomous empire under the Liao Dynasty. Unlike many other peoples who were consumed by the Chinese, the Khitan were dedicated to preserving their culture even as they adopted many Han customs.

I tried to recreate Khitan culture from a blend of information from later Khitan writings, brief references in Tang records, and used Mongolian culture to fill in the gaps. I hope the steppe emerges as a wild and untamed land with its own sense of power and beauty. A perfect place to discover love!

More historical background and information on my stories can be found online at http://www.jeannielin.com.