Birth
Guan Dong Mountains, 1427 AD
Episode 1
It was during the turbulent year of 1427 when Pek Chen was born to a peasant woman who worked the land for a rich and powerful town magistrate in the mountainous province of Fujian, three years after the death of Emperor Yongle, the greatest emperor of the Ming dynasty. A war for succession between competing factions in the Imperial Palace was raging in the capital and an eminent civil war in the south was threatening the large towns of the lowlands. But there was relative calm and peace far in the hinterlands for the millet harvest was plentiful, the hunt was successful, the forest was cleared and Pek Chen came out healthy and strong. The plague that ravaged the countryside had long been gone and the previous winter was mild. And to top it all, there was joy in the large compound where the magistrate lived. For there in the lofty private rooms of the only three tiered estate that overtopped the pine trees up above the mudbrick cottages where the servants were quartered, his newborn daughter wailed. The local necromancer who was also the resident healer of the clan declared that it was an auspicious day for the household as it was a full moon on the 8th day of the 8th lunar month when the child was born. She was the old magistrate's firstborn daughter, after ten years of marriage to the principal lady of the house, and he named her Rang Be in honor to the Gods of Summer.
A feast was to be held the next day at the courtyard to welcome the princess of the estate and the squelling pigs that were caged in the backyard shed next to the bamboo fenced chicken coops were marshalled to the slaughter house by the male servants. Red lanterns were hastily festooned up along the entirety of the courtyard, gold sequinned silk draperies flapped along the broad latticed windows of the main house and the round red bricked main gate that served as the main entrance to the huge property was enlivened with bouquets of fresh flowers plucked from the grand mistress's garden that was tended by Pek Chen's mother. In the eastern inner wall near the communal well, the huge painted dragon paper-mache and the ribbon ornamented festival drums lay. People from the nearby villages were already camping out on the outer wall of the compound, bundled up in the cold mist and drinking steeped tea leaves beside their makeshift tents as the smoke from their wood burning stoves painted the fogbound morning into a surreal scenery, a welcoming forecast of a wondrous and festive day.
From his perch above the ornate council house that served as the towns administrative office, the town scribe bawled out the decree that marked the week a special non-working holiday. The kindly magistrate came to the servants quarter to wish the convalescing mother luck and well-being with her newborn son. It was he who named the child Pek Chen and laughed heartily as he raised the infant that was still wrapped snugly in a flimsy burlap sheet close to his face. He then dug deep into his pocket and brought forth a small keepsake, a jade inlaid puzzle box with the boy's name exquisitely engraved on it.
It was indeed a wondrous day.
