Question 1) write a small paragraph based on the understanding of the reading. I do not want the facts but what you felt after reading the chapter. (Around 500 words)

6.2 Chinese Women as Pawns The attractions of Chinese elite women were famous among China's northern foes. Their leaders kidnapped such women to be their concubines or wives. After the first great female Chinese poet, Tsai Yen, was kidnapped, she wrote a poem, "Eighteen Verses Sung to a Tatar Reed Whistle," that can still move us, even in translation I I was born in a time of peace, But later the mandate of Heaven Was withdrawn from the Han Dynasty. Heaven was pitiless. It sent down confusion and separation. Earth was pitiless. It brought me to birth in such a time. War was everywhere. Every road was dangerous. Soldiers and civilians everywhere Fleeing death and suffering. Smoke and dust clouds obscured the land Overrun by the ruthless Tatar bands. Our people lost their will power and integrity. I can never learn the ways of the barbarians. I am daily subject to violence and insult. I sing one stanza to my lute and a Tatar horn. But no one knows my agony and grief. 106 WOMEN IN WORLD HISTORY TO 1500 II A Tatar chief forced me to become his wife, And took me far away to Heaven's edge. Ten thousand clouds and mountains Bar my road home, And whirlwinds of dust and sand Blow for a thousand miles. Men here are as savage as giant vipers, And strut about in armor, snapping their bows. As I sing the second stanza I almost break the lutestrings. Will broken, heart broken, I sing to myself. VII The sun sets. The wind moans. The noise of the Tatar camp rises all around me. The sorrow of my heart is beyond expression, But who could I tell it to anyway? Far across the desert plains, The beacon fires of the Tatar garrisons Gleam for ten thousand miles. It is the custom here to kill the old and weak And adore the young and vigorous. They wander seeking new pasture, And camp for a while behind earth walls. Cattle and sheep cover the prairie, Swarming like bees or ants. When the grass and water are used up, They mount their horses and drive on their cattle. The seventh stanza sings of my wandering. How I hate to live this way! warm Ds vras. When the grass and water are used up, They mount their horses and drive on their cattle. The seventh stanza sings of my wandering. How I hate to live this way! XI I have no desire to live, but I am afraid of death. I cannot kill my body, for my heart still has hope IMPERIAL WOMEN IN HAN CHINA 107 That I can live long enough To obtain one and only desire- That someday I can see again The mulberry and catalpa trees of home. If I had consented to death, My bones would have been buried long ago. Days and months pile up in the Tatar camp. My Tatar husband loved me. I bore him two sons. I reared and nurtured them unashamed, Sorry only that they grew up in a desert outpost. The eleventh stanza--sorrow for my sons At the first notes pierces my heart's core. X