11/13/2023 0 Comments Rose falcon fun master of disguisePresided over by a magistrate, a judge-administrator who held the power of life and death over the local citizens in his charge, a yamen court was a mysterious, opaque place full of terror for the average man and woman. The Qianlong Emperor might be all-wise and all-seeing, but he still needed the thousands of yamen courts to actually govern. Men and women came to Tian as a last resort, for he helped them when they had nowhere else to turn, when they ran into trouble with the law. He closed the door behind the woman and poured a cup of tea for her. “You owe me the best drunk chicken in Yangzhou!” But Li’s expression, a combination of desperation and fright, altered his tone. Her fist was lifted and almost smashed into Tian’s nose. Li Xiaoyi, a woman so timid that she apologized even when some rambunctious child ran into her, stood there in a dark green dress, her hair pinned up in the manner prescribed for widows. I’ll save some plum wine for you, said Monkey. “Why can’t they wait till I’ve woken up properly and pissed and eaten? These unlettered fools are getting more and more unreasonable. “Just a moment!” Tian fumbled out of bed and struggled to put on his robe, muttering to himself all the while. ![]() His stomach growled, and he cursed as he rubbed his eyes. The insistent knocking whisked away Tian’s chicken and abruptly ended his dream. While others prayed to the Goddess of Mercy or the Buddha, Tian enjoyed conversing with Monkey, who he felt was a demon after his own heart. He was about to bite into a piece of drunken chicken dipped in four different exquisite sauces-Īs Tian grew older, Monkey would visit him in his dreams, or, if he was awake, speak to him in his head. The Monkey King was hosting a banquet, and Tian was going to eat his fill.Įver since Tian was a little boy, he has been obsessed with the exploits of the Monkey King, the trickster demon who had seventy-two transformations and defeated hundreds of monsters, who had shaken the throne of the Jade Emperor with a troop of monkeys.Īnd Monkey liked good food and loved good wine, a must in a good host. Bit by bit, the pink lotus blossoms, the jade-green bamboo stalks, and the golden-yellow cottage roof emerged from the fog. As the sun rose lazily, the fog hanging over the pond dissipated like dissolving ink. ![]() From time to time, he would write a letter for some family or read an official notice in the teahouse in exchange for half a chicken or a bowl of dumplings.īut that was not how he really made his living. Unlike most in the village, Tian knew how to read and write, but as far as anyone knew, he never passed any level of the Imperial Examinations. His robe was patched all over, though his under-robe still showed through innumerable holes. An accident in youth had lamed his right leg, but he preferred to shuffle slowly rather than using a cane. ![]() He was gaunt, sallow, his queue as thin as a pig’s tail, and his breath often smelled of the cheapest rice wine and even cheaper tea. Tian Haoli was in his fifties but looked ten years older. not unlike the owner and sole inhabitant of the cottage, actually. The bamboo grove around it was wild and unkempt the wooden walls crooked, rotting, and full of holes the thatching over the roof uneven, with older layers peeking out through holes in the newer layers. Everyone agreed-as they visited each other in their vacation homes and sipped tea-that he was the best Emperor of the Qing Dynasty: so wise, so vigorous, and so solicitous of his subjects! And as the Qing Dynasty, founded by Manchu sages, was without a doubt the best dynasty ever to rule China, the scholars competed to compose poems that best showed their gratitude for having the luck to bear witness to this golden age, gift of the greatest Emperor who ever lived.Īlas, any scholar interested in this cottage must be disappointed for it was decrepit. Indeed, having such a country lodge was the fashion among the literati in the lower Yangtze region in this second decade of the glorious reign of the Qianlong Emperor. ![]() The tiny cottage at the edge of Sanli Village-away from the villagers’ noisy houses and busy clan shrines and next to the cool pond filled with lily pads, pink lotus flowers, and playful carp-would have made an ideal romantic summer hideaway for some dissolute poet and his silk-robed mistress from nearby bustling Yangzhou. Series: The Tales of Gorlen Vizenfirthe.Series: From the Lost Travelers’ Tour Guide.People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!.
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