Peach Blossom Pavilion. Mingmei Yip

      Peach Blossom Pavilion

      Mingmei Yip

       Copyright

      Avon

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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      Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

      Copyright © Mingmei Yip 2008

      Cover photographs © Natalia Campbell / Getty Images (woman); myu-myu / Getty Images (bird); Shutterstock.com; Kevin Hua Long Jiang / Getty Images (background).

      Mingmei Yip asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780007570126

      Ebook Edition © February 2014 ISBN: 9780007570133

      Version: 2014-07-25

       Dedication

       For Geoffrey, Who gives me both the fish and the bear’s paw.

       When there is action above and compliance below, this is called the natural order of things.

       When the man thrusts from above and the woman receives from below, this is called the balance between heaven and earth.

      –Dong Xuanzi (Tang dynasty, AD 618–907)

      Table of Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

       Epigraph

Prologue

Part One

1. The Turquoise Pavilion

2. The North Station

3. The Dark Room

4. The Elegant Gathering

5. Spring Moon

6. A Lucky Day

7. The Jade Stalk and the Golden Gate

8. The Haunted Garden

9. The Art of Pleasing

10. The Longevity Wrinkles

       11. Rape of the Rock

       12. Beat the Cat

       Part Two

       13. Life Went On

       14. Mr. Anderson

       15. The Prestigious Prostitute

       16. Red Jade

       17. The Ways Out

       18. The Jade Stalk Refuses to Salute

       19. Last Journey in the Red Dust

       Part Three

       20. Chinese Soap Opera

       21. Melting the Ice

       22. American Handsome

       23. The Escape

       24. The Bandits

       25. This Woman Is Not My Husband

       26. The Monk and the Prostitute

       27. The Encounter

       28. Separation

       29. Replaying the Pipa