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Pai-Ling is a character in the 2009 historical fiction novel Red Lotus (first published in the US as The Concubine's Daughter). She exclusively appears in Part One: Children of the Moon.
Biography[]
Part One: Children of the Moon[]
Pai-Ling is the youngest daughter of a formerly wealthy and influential clan in Shanghai, but the clan is disgraced, impoverished and under constant threat following the Boxer Rebellion. In desperation, the clan sells her as a concubine to Yik-Munn. Pai-Ling endures mistreatment from her husband as well as his first and second wives, but his third wife Ah-Su is caring towards her. Pai-Ling eventually gives birth to Li-Xia, but thinking that Yik-Munn has murdered the baby, Pai-Ling kills herself. Yik-Munn does not give her any funerary rites, instead haphazardly buries her in the fields.
While never being able to meet her, Li-Xia knows about Pai-Ling and her scholarly pursuits from accounts given by Ah-Su and seeks to honor her memory. Yik-Munn at one point attempts to bind Li-Xia's feet to resemble Pai-Ling's Golden Lotus feet so she would be more valuable as a concubine. After an adult Li-Xia is employed at Ben Devereaux's trading company, she forces her father Yik-Munn to give Pai-Ling funerary rites. After Li-Xia commits suicide by drowning, it is implied she is reunited with Pai-Ling in the afterlife.
Part Two: Red Lotus[]
Pai-Ling is mentioned once as the Fish recounts her, Li-Xia's and Ben's lives to Siu-Sing.