Death Of Woman Wang Analysis

In the book, The Death of Woman Wang by Jonathan Spence, the author talks about the justice system along with the aspect of the indigent county called T’an‑ch’eng. The author tends to provide the readers with different perspectives from the following people: P’u Sung‑ling, Feng K’o‑ts’an, and Huang Liu‑hung. Each person continuously describes about the tax system, justice system, and the lives of those that lived under these circumstances. The book mentioned a lot of stories regarding the lifestyle of people including how others were bombarded with the following catastrophes: famine, raids from the bandits, locusts, earthquakes, flooding, and poverty. Spence briefly analyzes the lives of women and how they played a huge role in the book, although …show more content…
There were many things that I liked and disliked about the book based on what was written by the author. The author began to talk about the tax system which did not—by any chance—raise my level of interest. In my opinion, Spence did not really talk about Woman Wang, until towards the end of the book which, I thought, there was no point in mentioning the tax system nor the raids that had occurred. I know the author was trying to help me get a good glimpse at the life of those in China, but I do wish the author expanded more on the aftermath of the trial of Woman Wang and how the justice system changed throughout the years. There were four things that I found interesting about the book which were the laws that were ruled and followed, how women were independent in a particular way, the stories that were told about some of the men and women’s lifestyle, and the trial of Woman Wang. Other than that, I did not find anything else interesting. Women were independent, because they often had many responsibilities which caught my attention. I feel like the author could’ve expanded more on the death of Woman Wang along with the aftermath by answering these questions: Did Kao ever change or did Jen ever feel remorseful from the horrific actions he committed? I would’ve like to read more about the impact this trial had on other people and whether people continued to live that