Kai Lung’s Golden Hours · Chapters

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Chapter companions for Kai Lung’s Golden Hours by Ernest Bramah.

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Chapter 1
Kai Lung's Golden Hours
Kai Lung, a wandering storyteller, is arrested and imprisoned in Yu-ping. During his captivity, he uses his storytelling skills to navigate trials and ultimately secure his freedom, weaving tales that reflect themes of wisdom, cunning, and justice.
Chapter 2
The Encountering of Six Within a Wood
Kai Lung, a traveling storyteller, rests in a wood on his way to Yu-ping and meets two maidens, one of whom is Hwa-mei. After they flee, he shares a meal with Li-loe, a sandal-maker who warns him of the dangerous Mandarin Shan Tien and his adviser Ming-shu. Li-loe, revealed as the keeper of the yamen doors, takes three strings of cash from Kai Lung in exchange for future protection. As the Mandarin's procession passes, Hwa-mei, from her chair, drops a red blossom at Kai Lung's feet.
Chapter 3
II: The Inexorable Justice of the Mandarin Shan Tien
Kai Lung is imprisoned in Yu-ping and placed in a walled enclosure with a shutter overlooking the yamen garden. Hwa-mei visits him, bringing fruit and advising him to use his storytelling skills to delay his trial. Li-loe warns Kai Lung that Ming-shu has arranged for him to be tried first. At the trial, Ming-shu accuses Kai Lung of treason, but when Kai Lung mentions the story of Wong Ts'in and the Willow Plate, the Mandarin Shan Tien orders him to relate it, overriding Ming-shu's objections.
Chapter 4
The Story of Wong Ts’in and the Willow Plate Embellishment
Wong Ts'in, a wealthy porcelain maker, is tormented by an earth-demon he disturbed while building his house. He escapes its persecution by a ruse and wanders into the Outer Expanses, troubled by the problem of his daughter Fa Fai's marriage. Meanwhile, Wei Chang, a lowly craftsman secretly in love with Fa Fai, is approached by her in the absence of her father. Fa Fai reveals her knowledge of the malicious Fang, who has been sabotaging the works, and she proposes a collaborative design to outwit him. Wei Chang devises a method of transferring embellishments by sitting on each plate, leading to the successful delivery of tenscore plates to Hien Nan. Fang's plot fails, and he later dies ignominiously. Wei Chang marries Fa Fai, is adopted by Wong Ts'in, and the couple has seven sons.
Chapter 5
The Degraded Persistence of the Effete Ming-Shu
Kai Lung meets Hwa-mei at the shutter again. She brings fruit and reports that Ming-shu, foiled in his first attempt, now plans to use a tribesman named Cho-kow to falsely implicate Kai Lung in tomb-robbing. Kai Lung learns that the Mandarin Shan Tien is troubled by a recurring dream of walking naked, seeing hidden things, and floating. Kai Lung devises a plan to use this dream to his advantage. At the trial, Cho-kow is pressed to implicate Kai Lung but instead invokes the story of Tian, leading to Kai Lung being called to tell a story. The chapter includes the beginning of 'The Story of Ning, the Captive God, and the Dreams That Mark His Race,' which recounts Sun Wei's defiance of the gods and the subsequent siege of Ti-foo by Ah-tang, involving treachery by the demon Leou.

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Kai Lung's Golden Hours

The Encountering of Six Within a Wood

II: The Inexorable Justice of the Mandarin Shan Tien

The Story of Wong Ts’in and the Willow Plate Embellishment

The Degraded Persistence of the Effete Ming-Shu