Metaphor of Cage in the Apothecary Diaries: Shisui, Jinshi and Maomao
I wouldn't be surprised if someone has already talked about it because this is a common metaphor that binds all three of them together— the cage as a symbol in the Apothecary diaries. I am very surprised though that we don't have more people drawing parallels between Shisui and Jinshi, or this ship isn't popular as perfect enemies-to-lovers trope in terms of this prominent symbolism in the story (well, if unreasonably loud part of the fandom did away with calling every other Jinshi scene of him being a creep, harasser or worst rapist, we would have more sane discussions!).
Yet I like how these three characters have their lives embodied within part of a cage, carefully constructed, and reinforced around each of them, and how Shisui and Jinshi both try to escape the cage in their own ways...
Shisui and the Cost to break free from the Prison: Let us talk firstly about a character among these three who actually earned her freedom. Shisui gambled with the cage as Loulan and then split open the bars by running across the ocean as Tamamo. She mourned, cried, wilted with the burden of choices she made, or had to make, but she persisted. Shisui will forever remain THAT character in the story—enigmatic, lingering and symbolic of her times (with Chue and Rikuson being the close contenders). She grappled the bar of her cage with unwavering persistence and then ripped it apart.
However, one of her best characteristics remain recognising the rot of Inner Palace and overarching politics from the get go, and how she turned her expected obligation of becoming part of this rot on its head and used it to earn her freedom, though not without paying a heavy cost for it.
It is fascinating how Shisui would be remembered as purported villains in the epics of the land, somewhere indicating that freedom can't be earned without sullying your name in front of general audience.
Jinshi as a reluctant Prisoner in his Gilded Cage:
While Shisui is certainly one of the most symbolic representations of her societal circumstances, I don't think anyone else embodies symbolism of cage better than Jinshi in the story. Jinshi yearns for freedom— sometimes in his disguises, in his deception, in Maomao. I literally love how Jinshi has come to see Maomao as his definition of personhood. He wants to be like her, free from constraints of her station in pursuing what she wants. He wants to walk under the open skies without anyone swooning over his appearance or threatening his life. Jinshi represents the metaphor of gilded cage so aptly— his beauty is of epic proportions, his station a centre of power. He has everything a man could covet, yet his gifts are his biggest imprisonment. He is happy when his refinement is scarred, beautifully represented by the scar on his flawless face. It was so poetic that Shisui who broke apart the cage surrounding her should leave him with a reminder of creating a dent in what is his biggest prison. And as we saw Basen react to the scar with fury of a man who had let the deity of their land be sullied and went for the kill, this is perhaps Jinshi's biggest nightmare— his cage isn't just an imprisonment, it is weight that holds his empire in balance.
Maomao and the Prison of Intellect
Maomao, as a person, is freerer than Shisui or Jinshi could ever be. She has attained an understanding of self so bereft of societal constraints that she simply doesn't need anyone else to tell her what kind of person she should be. However, Maomao's personhood is her biggest prison. Because sometimes, cage represents an illusion of safety, and Maomao thinks by keeping her detached from the societal upheavals and conflicts, her self is preserved and protected. But the emotional stir follows, most subtly in the form of Jinshi in the longer run, and most evidently in the form of Shisui for the first time. Shisui was perhaps Maomao's first experience, albeit subconsciously, of the actual cost politics playing in real time incurred. Jinshi unravels as a progressive cost of the high politics but Shisui becomes an eventful demonstration of how deadly things can get in the name of preserving a social order. One of the reasons I don't mind nagging Jinshi in the beginning is because Maomao's iron-clad emotional walls could only be shaken by someone not giving up on being a presence in her life. Jinshi critics conveniently forget how easily Jinshi adopted at various times to be present in Maomao's life— as a superior, employer, random client etc. In fact, the moment Maomao is supposed to adjust to Jinshi's station in events of LN-5, everything goes south pretty quickly. It is almost as if the problem here isn't Jinshi stepping down at Maomao's level but Maomao having to step up to enter the gilded bars of his life.
Maomao curiously remains most knowledgeable of these three about various constraints and impediments, and points out to Jinshi from time to time, but nothing encapsulates Maomao's internal caging better than her insistence to be used as a tool.
More than a purported concubine, I have always found Maomao referring to herself as a tool fascinated. It is a really good insight into how much Maomao is emotionally detached with politics of the society, and tries to see it as an order of the day in order to preserve her safety. In Maomao's case, the cage resides more like a root in her psyche
I love how these three represent different types of mental and socio-political cages one constructs around themselves and others. At different points in story the cage is referred to by different terms–safety, self-preservation, prestige, nobility etc– but these characters realise in their own way, and within realms of their relative powers, that the only way is out.
I am specifically intrigued by how Jinshi and Shisui, facing stifling societal expectations as people of authority, reacted differently to chains put on to hold them at bay. Jinshi can be private about dismantling, he doesn't need to bend the order to make his overturn sound impactful; Shisui couldn't do it without making noise, the cost of freedom for a woman. Because in case of women, the private sphere itself becomes a cage. Jinshi had moments in private to be himself, Shisui didn't.
Even within lives tainted by imprisonment under abstract and real-world notions, a man pays a different price than a woman— not less, not more, but different....
