內容簡介
章詒和第一部小說震撼登場！
我在監獄蹲了十年，和女犯們日出而作，日落而息，從二十六歲到三十六歲——比某些夫妻的婚齡長，比很多小倆口還親。那裡，外表平靜如鏡，其實，終日翻江倒海。
每個女囚犯所犯下的罪都是傷口，所有傷口都是一齣戲，有的還是雙齣：獄外一齣，牢裡一齣。法律能懲罰他，卻不能拯救他。
劉月影，因殺夫而入獄，殺人、支解、裝罈，情節怵目驚心、讓人不寒而慄，但心境卻百轉千折。
楊芬芳，犯的是通姦罪：她與青梅竹馬的鄰居熱戀，卻在欺騙及半推半就下嫁給強勢陌生的軍人。故事就在就在苦戀與軍婚、性愛與強暴、炙熱與冷澀之間的衝突中展開，終於釀成一場通姦情殺之生死血案。
擅長寫作歷史回憶性散文的章詒和，此次不寫政治，不說制度，不刻意描寫那個年代的醜陋，在《劉氏女．楊氏女》一書中，她化名張雨荷，以內斂、冷靜的筆觸，透過「我」的所見所聞，筆墨集中表達邊緣人物的命運，窺探其內心，帶出她們的往事。章詒和說：「我講的女囚故事，是一群向男人施展魔力的美麗女人：淫蕩，放肆，輕佻和凶殘，像嫉妒的妖精，復仇的狐狸，纏人無數的蛇蠍，以及受人厭恨的同性戀等。三十多年了，我所熟悉的女囚大多離開了塵世。其實，她們的幽靈仍然活著，並以更加囂張的氣勢，更加世俗的手段殘酷地引誘與被引誘。他們是罪犯，罪不可赦。但我喜歡他們，我也是罪犯。」
我在監獄蹲了十年，和女犯們日出而作，日落而息，從二十六歲到三十六歲——比某些夫妻的婚齡長，比很多小倆口還親。那裡，外表平靜如鏡，其實，終日翻江倒海。
每個女囚犯所犯下的罪都是傷口，所有傷口都是一齣戲，有的還是雙齣：獄外一齣，牢裡一齣。法律能懲罰他，卻不能拯救他。
劉月影，因殺夫而入獄，殺人、支解、裝罈，情節怵目驚心、讓人不寒而慄，但心境卻百轉千折。
楊芬芳，犯的是通姦罪：她與青梅竹馬的鄰居熱戀，卻在欺騙及半推半就下嫁給強勢陌生的軍人。故事就在就在苦戀與軍婚、性愛與強暴、炙熱與冷澀之間的衝突中展開，終於釀成一場通姦情殺之生死血案。
擅長寫作歷史回憶性散文的章詒和，此次不寫政治，不說制度，不刻意描寫那個年代的醜陋，在《劉氏女．楊氏女》一書中，她化名張雨荷，以內斂、冷靜的筆觸，透過「我」的所見所聞，筆墨集中表達邊緣人物的命運，窺探其內心，帶出她們的往事。章詒和說：「我講的女囚故事，是一群向男人施展魔力的美麗女人：淫蕩，放肆，輕佻和凶殘，像嫉妒的妖精，復仇的狐狸，纏人無數的蛇蠍，以及受人厭恨的同性戀等。三十多年了，我所熟悉的女囚大多離開了塵世。其實，她們的幽靈仍然活著，並以更加囂張的氣勢，更加世俗的手段殘酷地引誘與被引誘。他們是罪犯，罪不可赦。但我喜歡他們，我也是罪犯。」
本書介出自時報文化出版《楊氏女．劉氏女》
Red Peonies: Two Novellas of China is the first translation in English of two of the books written by Zhang Yihe about women she met and befriended in prison. The subjects of her stories have been described as “beautiful women who wielded magic power over men. They were like jealous evil spirits, vengeful treacherous persons─countless snakes coiled around other people.”
Zhang Yihe was fifteen in 1957, the year her father was declared an enemy of the People’s Republic of China. Denounced as the nation’s Number One Rightist, he was persecuted by Chairman Mao. Zhang herself was arrested at age twenty-eight and sentenced to twenty-one years in a remote labor prison. While in the women’s prison, she came to know the other inmates, most of whom were from farms and lacked education. In 2011, at age seventy, she began to write and publish her fictionalized accounts of some of the women. The novellas were quickly censored in China, but have become widely popular in pirated, unexpurgated editions in the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Zhang Yihe is now an outspoken advocate of free expression.
Red Peonies contains the first two novellas in Zhang’s projected series of ten. Never before translated into English, the works are powerfully written, tender, and sorrowful. They bring to life the stories of Chinese women caught in the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution. This volume includes the work of Xing Danwen, an internationally known artist based in Beijing.