Thursday, August 03, 2006

Chapter 1 - Part 1

As promised here is Chapter 1. It is long. And complex.

Every Chapter begins with a prologue which is in the form of a poem with a rigid structure of 1. 14 words per line 2. the lines form rhyming couplets.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1 King Zhou lights incense in the Temple of the Goddess Nuwa

In the beginning Pan Gu split the darkness, and the two poles and four directions appeared,
Heaven and Earth and Time came into being, vermin and pestilence were removed, homes were built.
Zhuren took hold of fire and food was not eaten raw any longer; Fuyi designed the Yin-Yang Bagua Symbol,
The Farmer of Farmers invented horticulture, and the Yellow Emperor instituted marriage.
The people prospered under the Five Lords on High; later on, King Yu drove away the floodwaters.
Those of Yu’s lineage held the land for four hundred years, but King Jie lost it through his misdeeds
For Jie spent his days wining and whoring, until Shang Cheng Tang took his chances and purified the land again.
King Yin Zhou was Shang Tang’s thirty-first direct descendant; under Yin Zhou the line of the Shang family became as a piece of broken string
Under him endless chaos returned; he butchered his wife, murdered his sons and listened to lies.
He soiled the palace walls with his love of Daji; he created the Wall of Fire and destroyed they who were both innocent and loyal to him.
The people suffered when they built the Deer Palace for him, and their prayers, cries and pleas went straight to the heavens.

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