A Qing princess in the Republican era

From the turn of the new century, the Qing empire has been heralded with ominous impediments one after the other. Their miserable defeat at the boxer rebellion only marked the beginning.

Inside the walls of the forbidden city, the power struggle between the emperor and the empress dowager was growing ever intense. Outside the walls, nationalists and revolutionaries were clamoring to overthrow the dynasty. The times have gone tumultuous wherein causes of celebration were fleeting.

In 1905, a most welcome news from the inner court came. It has been more than a decade since the emperor married and accepted concubines, but he still did not have a son to inherit the throne.

With much anticipation, the emperor looked forward to the birth of a prince. However, much to his disappointment, the child was another daughter.

In 1912, despite the edict of abdication being issued, the future of Aisin Gioro Wan Li, once known as Gulun Gongzhu Wan Li or Princess Wan Li of the first rank, was still looking bright. Bound by an internal verbal agreement between her mother and the new president of the republic of China, she was promised to marry the 3rd son of the president, Yuan Kezhen, upon reaching adulthood.

However, not everything goes as planned. With the assassination of the president and the short-lived restoration of the Qing dynasty, Wan Li had to escape the forbidden city.

Wan Li was a princess, but she was still a maiden born in imperial China. Growing up, she was mostly educated only with the moral principles and social code of behaviour called the three obediences and four virtues. Her personality was gentle, kind, shy, and meek. Instilled to her were traits and beliefs of an ideal wife leaning on dependency to a powerful and influential husband. How was she to survive without the privilege of her birthright during the extraordinary times of the republican era?
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This novel will have at least 3 major arcs. (Yes, I have written that far… at least inside my head. Haha!)

1. Wan Li's childhood in the palace/ forbidden city (qing dynasty until early republican era)
Age: 0-12

2. After Wan Li escapes the Forbidden city (early republican era/ Warlord era)
Age: 12-16

3. Wan Li in Shanghai. (Republican/ Warlord era)
Age 16 onwards

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What to expect?

This novel will have romance, a lot of it later on but it doesn’t revolve entirely on that.

There will be politics. Very necessary as it’s what propels the story forward.

Character growth, definitely. For the better or the worse, all there but remember each character would be as human as can be.

Drama, face slapping, some darkness, adventure, betrayal, all of it will be in this novel.

R-18? There will be but definitely not in the early chapters.

Oh and this will have a happy ending, though the roads reaching that would be bumpy.
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Cover art: the pictures were grabbed from pinterest then edited by me.

Important note to readers:

Many events in the novel were based from historical facts. Again, many but not all.

Some characters were inspired from historical figures. Take note: INSPIRED. Thus, they definitely have different attributes whether looks or personalities. In this regard, please do not assume that they’re one and the same. The characters here were created by me, so if they’re kinda evil or too kind, don’t think that the real historical figure was.

Again, though this is historical, it’s still a work of fiction. So a lot of things and reasons leading to certain factual events may have been romanticized by the author (me).