Song of the Sui River

Introduction The Yong and Ju rivers meander, the Huai and Ji stretch across; in the heartland of the Central Plains, the Sui and Huan rivers flow grandly eastward, nourishing a literary tradition through the ages and laying down the roots of ten thousand years of history. This land is the ancient homeland where the Shang dynasty was founded, the source of several thousand years of China's mulberry-weaving culture, and the splendid storied land of the great Han—Xiangyi. In distant antiquity, the long dikes of the Sui River stretched across the plains, ten thousand qing of mulberry groves rolled on without end, flourishing and withering through the four seasons without cease—most of all the mulberry trees of Chenkuang, the old Shang homeland, which were the most refined and numinous, their branches and leaves holding rhyme, their grain concealing pattern; in the lingering scenes of the mulberry groves was sealed China's most ancient great way of observing things and drawing images, of humanistic cultivation. When the great Han was founded, after Gaozu fixed the realm, Emperor Hui preserved the achievement, and Empress Lü steadied the court, down to Emperors Wen and Jing, who personally practiced non-action, lightened corvée and taxes, and let the people rest—for over sixty years the beacon fires were stilled and weapons returned to the arsenals; the realm cast off the devastation of the late Qin wars and the Chu-Han strife, and welcomed an age of good governance with full treasuries, bustling markets, and a people at peace. Yet a golden age is never wholly clear and calm: beneath the surface stability and prosperity, the hidden peril of separatist vassal domains, the contest over the heir's position at court, and the balancing of imperial and princely power—dark tides surged unseen and never ceased. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: Song of the Sui River — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠