Prologue

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

MUST READ: Translator’s Introduction

Translated by Fossilised Firefly, edited by 绵鸭君.

A row of people stood neatly beneath the eave, all dressed in bright red gold-embroidered yisan robes1. Their respectful shouts of “The Great Ancestor2 has returned!” could be heard from very far away.

Across the snowy ground came an old man of sixty or seventy years of age, supported on either side by a pair of fire-tenders3. Those standing under the eave made to kneel as he approached, but the old man extended a liver-spotted hand, thick-knuckled and wide-palmed, and waved it slightly as he said, “No need.” His voice was hoarse with age and trembled as he spoke. “This weather’s too cold.”

“Has the Lord of Ten Thousand Years4 retired to bed?” The leader of the group dressed in red yisans took charge of the old man from the hands of the fire-tenders and carefully helped him inside.

“He has.” The old man was about to step forward but stopped suddenly before the threshold. He blinked his eyes, dim-sighted with age, and looked behind the gathered crowd. “Is that…”

Everyone turned to follow his gaze. It was a child clutching a silk parasol, perhaps eleven or twelve years of age, dressed meagrely enough to be shivering in the cold.

“He’s new to the Palace?” the old man asked.

“The Great Ancestor is sharp of sight. He was just brought in from the outside this afternoon. I5 picked only the best ones.”

The old man beckoned towards the child. “He’s from Gaoli6?”

“He is indeed fresh tribute from Chaoxian7. The Great Ancestor’s eyesight has been rejuvenated!”

Those dressed in red yisans all vied to ingratiate themselves, filling the air with calls of “hale and hearty of spirit” and “old in age but young at heart”. The child walked closer, seeming as though he had not yet received proper instruction; his head was raised and a pair of watery phoenix eyes8 on display. The old man stared into them, and, as if entranced, even gently caressed that supple cheek with his withered hand, asking him, “What is your surname?”

The child could speak the Han language9 and his voice was soft and quiet when he replied, “Jin.”

The old man shook his head. “It’s better to be surnamed ‘Zhang’.”

Seeing the child stand in confused silence, the red yisans rushed to say, “Surname ‘Zhang’. We’ll change the registry right away.”

The old man turned to walk inside, and the child was pushed by the crowd to follow him. The room was extremely large, but only a scant few candles had been lit. On the wall were hung a rough bow and old sabre; turning in circles to take in the sight, the child thought to himself that this did not look like the room of a major eunuch from the Directorate of Ceremonial10. Only the jinzi folding fan on his table held quite the air of prestige. It had a red lacquer skeleton and a body of green bamboo, gilded on both faces and copied in gold with a few lines from Mencius.

The old man took off this cloak of muntjac hide to reveal the red tieli11 with a sitting python12 buzi square13 that he wore inside. He was a tall man, and one could tell that, despite his presently hunchbacked form, he once cut a formidable figure in his youth. He pointed laboriously towards a box of sweetmeats, saying “Eat some. There are silk nest and tiger eye candies14.”

The child gazed for a moment at the box of sweets and saw that its contents included silver ingots15, sounding candies16 and jackfruit — all tasty morsels. Yet, he tactfully rubbed his hands and asked in a well-behaved manner, “Yeye17, what incense should I light?”

The old man choked out a laugh, seemingly because the child had called him yeye. He was still coughing and panting when he said heartily, “ Light the cold musk incense. Its smoke leaves the straightest trail and leads one to remember past events.”

The child immediately carried the bronze incense burner18 onto the small incense table. He used tweezers to pull a curl of incense from its box, then cast it lightly into the belly of the burner and set it alight. After blowing on it once or twice, he turned around to see that the old man was now leaning against the back of his chair, his head tilted as he slept.

Sweet smoke rose to the roof, and the child saw that it really did leave a straight trail. He knelt down beside the incense table and hugged his knees to his chest, his eyes staring intently at that smoke. Someone had told him when he was younger that immortals would descend at the burning of such incense, riding its fragrant clouds upon the backs of white cranes.

1. 曳撒, a type of Ming men’s one-piece robe with a pleated skirt. The proper characters for this word (yì sǎn) are now impossible to type with a computer so 曳撒 (yè sā) is used as a substitute. Visual reference (note the pattern on this fabric is way fancier than what would have been worn here). [Back]

2. 老祖宗, an respectful way to refer to a powerful (and often elderly) eunuch. The idea behind this stems from successful eunuchs adopting younger boys to be their ‘sons’. [Back]

3. 火者, a term that refers to the lowest ranking eunuchs in the Ming imperial service. Originated as a name for eunuchs who lit and tended kitchen fires. [Back]

4. 万岁爷, another way to refer to the Emperor. [Back]

5. 咱, more commonly a plural first-person pronoun that means “we/us”, but can also me “I/me” in some dialects. It’s commonly used by eunuchs as “I/me” in fiction but I’m unsure if happened in real life. [Back]

6. 高丽, dated name for Korea. Specifically, it’s the Chinese rendition of Goryeo which was the ruling kingdom in Korea from 918-1392 CE. Since this story takes place in Ming, this term would already be outdated since the ruling dynasty there had changed. It’ likely that this was intentional as 高丽人 (people from Gaoli) was also more broadly used to refer to Koreans. [Back]

7. 朝鲜, Korea. Specifically, it refers to Korea during the Joseon kingdom that ruled from 1392 – 1897 CE. During that time, Joseon was a tributary state to Ming and provided people as tribute to the Ming Emperor. [Back]

8. 丹凤眼, literally “red phoenix eyes”, an eye shape that is single-lidded, slender and curves slightly upwards a the outer corner. It is traditionally considered beautiful. [Back]

9. 汉话, Chinese, except I’m using “Han” instead because the concept of China didn’t exist back then. [Back]

10. 司礼监, one of the 12 eunuch-led Directorates in the Ming Inner Court system. They were a powerful political entity that served as the Emperor’s ‘personal secretaries’, tasked with reading, editing and issuing imperial edicts amongst other roles. [Back]

11. 贴里, another Ming men’s one-piece robe with a pleated skirt. It differs from the yisan only slightly in the construction of the ‘skirt’. Visual reference. [Back]

12. 坐蟒, a type of python pattern worn by eunuchs of the second highest rank in the Directorate of Ceremonial. A python looks very similar to a dragon except it has 4 claws rather than 5. A ‘sitting python’ faces forwards while a normal python would be seen from a side-on angle. Note that the two shown in the images are dragons (5 clawed) not pythons. [Back]

13. 补子, also known as ‘Mandarin square’. A woven or embroidered square sewn onto officials’ clothing to demonstrate rank. Visual reference (use the photos labelled ‘Ming’ but note that the ones displayed are for civil and martial officials while eunuchs had their own ranking system). [Back]

14. 丝窝, “silk nest”, 虎眼, “tiger eye”. Both types of sweets are mentioned in《酌中志·内臣职掌纪略》by 刘若愚 (Liu Ruoyu). [Back]

15. 大银锭, this usually refers to the actual silver ingots that were a form of stored currency (not circulated amongst the peasantry). My best research efforts have led me to this article which suggests that it might be referring to 定胜糕 (Victory-securing cake) that were traditionally shaped like silver ingots (see Figure 1 in the article). These cakes were popular in the modern Zhejiang and Jiangsu regions during Ming and were often provided by local governments to entertain imperial service exam participants. [Back]

16. 响糖, literally “sound + candy”. I’ve only been able to find this one article about any 响糖. According to this article, these candies were gifted to a bride’s family by the groom’s upon marriage. Not sure if this is what the novel refers to. [Back]

17. 爷爷, literally “paternal grandfather” in modern Chinese. It is also a respectful way to refer to an old man. Historically, it seemed to have also been used extensively by eunuchs to refer to more powerful eunuchs, regardless of their age. [Back]

18. 铜乳炉, literally “bronze breast burner”. Named so because its shape resembles a breast. This is a Ming Dynasty “bronze ear and breast burner” from the Palace Museum’s collection. [Back]