Binu and the Great Wall of China by Tong Su

Author:Tong,, Su [Su Tong]
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781847676634
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Published: 2009-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Back at Hundred Springs Terrace, Lord Hengming had chosen to ride each of his precious Snow Mountain horses instead of a horse-man.

Tens of thousands of thoroughbred Blue Cloud white horses had galloped off with generals and their troops to battlefields during three years of war, and even before the winds of war in the southwestern border region had abated, all the remaining horses – fine steeds, sick ponies and old nags – had followed the wall builders north. All three hundred of Lord Hengming’s retainers knew how passionate their master was about his hunting outings, that he would rather die than give them up; when he saw how his stable was being depleted of horses, he grew sallow, and the sharp eyes of his retainers spotted that his idle buttocks had grown even more sallow than his face. He had received a special dispensation, given only to nobility, to keep three of his favourite horses, but the retainers, who were accustomed to doing everything necessary to lessen their master’s worries and ease his hardships, sought replacements for the missing horses. By pooling their wisdom and efforts, a fervent tide of creativity and thinking swept through Hundred Springs Terrace, leading eventually to the invention of horse-men.

This invention created a glorious new page in the Old Chronicle of Archery. Hundred Springs Terrace’s horsemen opened up a new world, and not just in Blue Cloud Prefecture; the rulers and aristocrats of seven prefectures and eight counties followed its example, and this enterprising practice for the greater good of the Kingdom was praised by the Court, with the King announcing considerately that the horse-men were to be exempt from military conscription. As the news spread, young men in cities and rural areas everywhere began to vie for this new occupation, producing a craze for running with heavy loads. They ran up mountains with boulders on their backs; they ran through forests with logs on their backs; they ran at home carrying their aged and unproductive grandparents on their backs. They practised equine gaits, breathing and snorting characteristics, even whinnying, as they ran like horses, only faster.

Riding humans for the hunts became fashionable in aristocratic circles, gaining steadily in popularity. But, as with the development of anything new, problems soon arose. Arrows flew in the forests and on mountain slopes, driving great quantities of wild deer, muntjacs, rabbits and mountain gazelles out of the hills and up to the mountaintops, while birds flew off to unknown places; soon the joys of hunting were under serious threat. Horse-men had bows but no targets, they had speed but nothing to chase. With the disappearance of quarry, they could only return empty-handed.

Seeing a permanent scowl on the face of Lord Hengming, the Hundred Springs Terrace retainers embarked upon a new and vigorous campaign of exploration and invention. One of them discovered in the Bluegrass Ravine People Market a skinny, undernourished boy who ran around while other boys up in trees threw woven darts at him. The darts had the boy running and skipping, just like a deer.

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