Chapter Summaries

Peng Zun endured three days of hunger in King Zhou’s market before selling a pot of wine and earning a bowl of Meat Porridge. After eating, he set aside his pride and asked the old woman sharing his quarters to teach him how to trade.

• Peng Zun went without breakfast after failing to sell anything, while the old woman explained that the market did not feed idlers.
• Peng Zun watched King Zhou hawk an overpriced Clay Pot, flee from approaching guards, and later punish a noble scion who slacked off.
• On the third day, Peng Zun abandoned his noble bearing and shouted out his wares, eventually selling a pot of wine.
• Peng Zun ate the Meat Porridge he had earned and realized that the old woman could teach him how to sell more.
• Peng Zun asked the old woman to teach him how to buy and sell, and she eagerly agreed to share what she knew.

The Peng and other noble families sought to retrieve their sons from King Zhou’s market in Shanglin Garden, but Zi Shou refused and ordered princes Yin Jiao and Yin Hong to join them. He planned to let the study companions return home for one day in seven days, while afterward he went to Shouxian Palace to find a way to bring Wu Geng into the world.

• The Peng family head learned that Peng Zun was trading in Shanglin Garden and, after hearing he had harassed Daoist Shi Ji, went to the palace with other family heads to ask for their sons’ release.
• At court, officials reported developments involving the Tu Fang, salt prices, and Bo Yikao, then Yang Ren urged Zi Shou to abolish the Shanglin Garden market.
• Zi Shou welcomed the noble family heads’ complaints but refused to release the study companions and ordered Yin Jiao and Yin Hong to move into Shanglin Garden the next day.
• The officials objected to the princes joining the market, but Chong Houhu restrained Wen Zhong, who agreed to wait and see whether Zi Shou’s plan produced results.
• Zi Shou promised the study companions a day off in seven days, then went to Shouxian Palace to seek a way to bring Wu Geng into the world.

After returning from Shanglin Garden, Peng Zun urged his family to sell their ancestral fields, wooded hills, valuables, and bronze vessels so they could invest in commerce. He explained that nobles would need wealth and trade to survive the changes under King Zhou, and his family began to consider his plan.

• Peng Zun returned home thinner, ordered food, and began gathering his treasures to sell.
• Peng Zun told his father to sell the Peng family's fields and wooded hills, but his father feared the family would lose its standing.
• Peng Zun insisted he had to return to Shanglin Garden to finish selling his wine, alarming his parents.
• Peng Zun explained that King Zhou's policies were weakening noble privileges and that the family should establish a merchant caravan.
• Peng Zun urged his father to sell the family's land and bronze vessels, buy goods in bulk, and employ idle slaves in the caravan.
• Peng Zun revealed that his older cousin had already become one of the largest merchants in the market.

Peng Zun persuaded his father to sell half the Peng family’s land and invest the money in commerce, believing trade could secure the family’s future. He returned to the palace market as the Peng family’s representative, while the palace summoned the family heads to discuss the market.

• Peng Zun told the head of the Peng family that trading Guanjiangkou sea salt could give the family a lasting foundation and that the palace might sell official posts and take half their profits.
• Peng Zun asked his father to sell land and forests to fund a trading caravan, and the head of the Peng family agreed to sell half the family’s holdings.
• Peng Zun prepared to return to the palace market, and his father told him to gain experience and promised to cover any losses.
• A palace messenger summoned the family heads to the throne hall, where His Majesty planned to discuss the palace market.

At court, the noble family heads praised the Palace Market and offered to enter commerce and support the state, while Zi Shou struggled to understand their motives. The discussion ended when General Tai Luan of Three Mountains Pass requested an urgent audience.

• The Peng family head confirmed that his son had returned from Shanglin Garden, then claimed the Palace Market had taught him about commerce.
• The noble family heads said they wished to share Zi Shou’s burdens, offered mountain forests to the court, and proposed organizing merchant caravans.
• The ministers recognized that commerce could benefit the nobles, while Zi Shou realized they were pursuing large-scale trade rather than street vending.
• Zi Shou considered taxing the nobles’ commercial ventures and decided the Palace Market should continue operating.
• A Charioteer reported that General Tai Luan of Three Mountains Pass requested an audience with Zi Shou.

A plague spread through Baiyue and Three Mountains Pass, infecting Great Shang’s army and civilians and threatening its control of the Southern Borderlands. Zi Shou ordered measures to limit the outbreak and accepted Deng Jiugong’s request for his daughter to enter the palace, while Wen Zhong suspected an enemy had caused the plague and sought help from his sect.

• Tai Luan reported that a severe plague had struck Deng Jiugong and Zhang Shan’s troops in Baiyue and was spreading north to Three Mountains Pass.
• Zi Shou told Tai Luan to carry epidemic-prevention measures to General Deng and ordered the army to do what it could to contain the outbreak.
• Tai Luan revealed that Deng Jiugong had fallen unconscious and requested that his daughter Deng Chanyu be accepted as a consort; Zi Shou agreed and ordered court physicians to go to Three Mountains Pass.
• Wen Zhong suspected that someone aiding Zhou had caused the plague and informed Golden Spirit Holy Mother, preparing to seek Lü Yue’s help if needed.

As plague and panic overwhelmed Three Mountains Pass, Qian Bao watched commoners turn from his medicine to the Western Teachings’ pain-relieving rituals. After dreaming of a medical text that described epidemics and a possible remedy, he resigned his post and set out to find the herb, where he encountered a bald figure.

• Deng Xiu and Deng Chanyu struggled to keep fleeing commoners inside Three Mountains Pass, while Tai Luan pleaded with them to stay.
• Commoners blamed King Zhou for the plague as unrest, looting, and soaring grain prices spread through the pass.
• Bald Daoists accepted offerings and gave commoners blessed earth that relieved their symptoms but could not save them from death.
• Qian Bao saw the commoners reject his treatment in favor of the carvings and earth, then returned home troubled by their reliance on them.
• Qian Bao dreamed of a book called the Inner Canon, woke with knowledge of a possible remedy, and resigned his post to search for it.
• Qian Bao followed the book’s directions to a cliff and found a bald head there.

Qian Bao and Wan Nian prepared a bupleurum medicine for the plague, but the quarantined soldiers and their commanders distrusted the untested cure. Qian Bao entered the quarantine tent to test the medicine on Deng Jiugong himself, leaving Wan Nian to bring it to the other patients.

• Wan Nian told Qian Bao he had found bupleurum that might treat the plague, and Qian Bao explained how to prepare it.
• Qian Bao, Wan Nian, and Deng Xiu struggled to find someone willing to test the medicine, and Deng Chanyu volunteered before returning to Three Mountains Pass.
• Deng Xiu led Qian Bao and Wan Nian toward the army camp, where they learned Deng Jiugong was gravely ill and Tai Luan warned them against offering an untested cure.
• Qian Bao ran into the quarantine tent and declared he would test the medicine on Deng Jiugong, then asked Wan Nian to bring it to the patients.

Qian Bao brought a plague medicine to Deng Jiugong’s camp, but the soldiers’ despair deepened when Sun Er died and Qian Bao himself fell gravely ill. As the imperial physician declared the patients beyond saving, a faint voice asked why the day’s food had not arrived.

• Qian Bao told Deng Jiugong he had medicine for the plague, but Deng Jiugong warned that the patients needed hope and that the medicine might only deepen their despair.
• Qian Bao told the dying Sun Er that a cure was available; Sun Er died believing his younger brother might survive.
• Deng Jiugong collapsed after worrying that his son Xiu would fall ill, and Qian Bao treated him before admitting he might have caught the plague.
• Wan Nian delivered the medicine to the isolation camp, and Qian Bao fell gravely ill after deliberately exposing himself to infection.
• The imperial physician examined the patients and declared them beyond saving, while Deng Jiugong and the others dragged Qian Bao out of the cold.
• After Deng Jiugong dismissed a request for food, he realized a patient had asked for it despite the others having no appetite.

Qian Bao’s recovery proved that the plague could be cured, allowing Great Shang to restore the army and gain leverage with Baiyue’s tribes. At court, Zi Shou rejected the southern feudal lords’ demands to permit human sacrifices or issue an edict of self-reproach, while E Chongyu warned that the Southern Borderlands could fall out of control.

• Qian Bao woke without a fever, ate without vomiting, and convinced the patients and Deng Jiugong that the plague could be cured.
• Qian Bao’s medicine spread through Three Mountains Pass and the army, restoring morale as he continued diagnosing patients and studying the disease.
• Deng Jiugong recovered and investigated the outbreaks among Baiyue’s tribes; the new Yu Yue chief offered his tribe’s allegiance, and Shang soldiers shared preventive methods.
• E Chongyu and the southern feudal lords asked Zi Shou to issue an edict or lift the ban on human sacrifices to contain unrest caused by the plague.
• Zi Shou refused their demands and criticized the feudal lords for seeking political remedies instead of treatment and prevention.
• E Chongyu warned that Deng Jiugong and Deng Xiu were at the infected camp and that unrest could cause Great Shang to lose control of the Southern Borderlands.

Zi Shou learned that the plague at Three Mountains Pass had been cured and arranged to reveal the news to the southern feudal lords without publicly humiliating them. He announced an ancestral hunt with Deng Jiugong, leaving E Chongyu to suspect that the crisis had ended and the hunt would display Chaoge’s military strength.

• Chao Tian brought Deng Jiugong to Zi Shou, who learned that Wan Nian and Qian Bao had cured the plague at Three Mountains Pass.
• Deng Jiugong asked Zi Shou to admit Deng Chanyu to the palace and recognize Qian Bao’s contributions; Zi Shou agreed to both requests.
• Zi Shou summoned Qian Bao to Chaoge for a reward and considered using controversial medical practices to gain foolishness value.
• Zi Shou ordered an ancestral hunt with Deng Jiugong and the southern feudal lords, choosing it as a discreet way to reveal the plague’s resolution.
• E Chongyu received the hunt order and concluded that Deng Jiugong’s participation meant the plague had ended and that Zi Shou intended to display Chaoge’s military power.

Zi Shou used a field hunt to train his troops and display his control to the feudal lords, though his clumsy archery confused those watching. When a rare white tiger escaped, he offered a reward and sent the army after it.

• Zi Shou held a large field hunt, and Yang Ren objected that it was an improper course while the soldiers and young generals pursued game.
• Yin Jiao and Yin Hong proved skilled archers, while Zi Shou missed three shots and Ji Chang and E Chongyu each hit a rabbit.
• Zhang Guifang loudly praised Zi Shou's archery, leading Ji Chang and E Chongyu to interpret the hunt as a demonstration of royal authority.
• Zhang Guifang spotted a rhinoceros and then a rare white tiger, and Zi Shou offered his brocade robe to whoever captured the tiger.
• The white tiger broke through the soldiers' encirclement, and Zi Shou hurled an arrow toward the woods and ordered the army to pursue it for a rich reward.

During the hunt, Yin Jiao found a mysterious cauldron after a pool vanished, while Deng Chanyu watched three hunters kill the pregnant White Tiger. Back at the banquet, Zi Shou banned raw sliced meat and declared that food would be boiled in cauldrons, leaving Yin Jiao’s possible divine artifact in his hands.

• Deng Chanyu chased the White Tiger into the forest as Yin Jiao discovered a pool and found a cauldron containing his father’s broken arrow after the water vanished.
• Three hunters killed the pregnant White Tiger despite the hunting rules, and Deng Chanyu took them to meet King Zhou so they could claim a reward.
• Zi Shou banned raw sliced meat, and the ministers’ disapproval eased after they praised his powerful, clean cut through a piece of beef.
• Yin Jiao brought the cauldron to Zi Shou and began to explain that it was a divine artifact, but Zi Shou interrupted him and announced that meals would be boiled in cauldrons instead.
• E Shun returned with a black bear, and Zi Shou ordered its paws boiled in the cauldron as the hunters returned with their game.

Zi Shou welcomed Deng Chanyu and the three hunters who had killed a white tiger, then heard Jiao Ge and the southern Feudal Lords criticize Chaoge’s frequent hunts. Ding Ce challenged Jiao Ge’s claim that wolves prevented epidemics, leaving the debate over hunting unresolved.

• Zi Shou praised Deng Chanyu for the tiger hunt until she credited Ding Ce, Guo Chen, and Dong Zhong, then appointed the three men to serve under Lei Kai.
• At the feast, Ji Chang and Jiao Ge noticed the white tiger’s swollen belly, and Jiao Ge objected to killing a pregnant animal for amusement.
• Guo Chen explained that the tiger had killed villagers and carried off a child, while Jiao Ge argued that Chaoge’s hunts also killed young and female animals unnecessarily.
• The southern Feudal Lords joined Jiao Ge in urging Zi Shou to reduce hunting, citing concerns that excessive hunting could worsen epidemics.
• Before Zi Shou could acknowledge fault, Ding Ce disputed Jiao Ge’s claim that wolves prevented disease and described their danger to villagers and livestock.

Ding Ce and Yang Ren silenced the feudal lords’ objections to King Zhou’s hunt, while Ji Chang performed a show of loyalty. Zi Shou assigned Ding Ce and his sworn brothers to the Chaoge Hunting Team and began considering how to use Jiao Ge, whom he suspected of serving Ji Chang.

• Ding Ce argued that controlled hunting could prevent disease and protect villagers from wolves, and Yang Ren defended amusements that produced useful results.
• Ding Ce and Yang Ren rebuked the feudal lords for condemning the hunt while benefiting from other forms of slaughter.
• A minor feudal lord challenged the hunters to hunt bare-handed, and Zhang Guifang offered to enter the mountains and kill tigers without weapons.
• Ji Chang publicly denounced the bare-handed hunting argument to appear loyal to King Zhou.
• Zi Shou transferred Ding Ce and his two sworn brothers to the Chaoge Hunting Team and suspected Jiao Ge was Ji Chang’s ally after learning of his ties to Xiqi.

Zi Shou called Ji Chang’s horse a deer and used the incident to humiliate the Marquis of the West and intimidate the feudal lords. After Ji Chang killed the horse, Zi Shou banished Jiao Ge to Guanjiangkou for calling it a horse.

• Zi Shou presented Ji Chang’s horse as a deer he had hunted and insisted it would be killed and shared at the banquet.
• Wen Zhong tried to defuse the situation by suggesting that the supposed deer be released, but Zi Shou provoked the horse and declared it had attacked him.
• Jiao Ge openly identified the animal as the Marquis of the West’s horse, while Ji Chang denied owning it and submitted to Zi Shou’s demand.
• Zi Shou forced Ji Chang to kill the horse, then served its meat to the gathered ministers and feudal lords.
• Zi Shou accused Jiao Ge of confusing right and wrong and banished him from Chaoge to Guanjiangkou.

Ji Chang lost his horse after vomiting it back to life, while Fuxi divined that the loss was a curse tied to a change in the ruler’s fortune. At the North Sea, You Hun accepted Huang Feihu’s invitation to observe an alliance summit and share in its credit.

• Ji Chang returned to Youli, vomited up the meat of his horse, and watched it transform and gallop away before sleeping on a bed of firewood.
• Jiao Ge met with Ji Chang, E Chongyu, and the bedridden Chong Houhu before leaving for Guanjiangkou, reassuring Zi Shou about his political talent.
• Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan helped two tree spirits take form as Gao Jue and Gao Ming, then discussed with Shennong and Fuxi the value of striving despite weakness.
• Fuxi divined the Qian Symbol and concluded that Ji Chang’s lost horse was a curse connected to a change in the Human Race’s ruler’s fortune.
• You Hun arrived at the North Sea Great Wall with the prisoners’ family members, and Huang Feihu invited him to observe the next day’s alliance summit and share its credit.

The Gong Fang leader urged other tribal leaders to resist Great Shang and preserve their power on the grasslands, as their people increasingly left for better lives among the Shang. He proposed killing Huang Feihu during the alliance assembly, leaving the leaders to weigh his treacherous plan.

• Huang Feihu prepared a raised platform for an alliance assembly attended by leaders from about fifty tribes.
• The Gong Fang leader complained that Shang rule had weakened tribal authority, while herding slaves and ordinary herders increasingly left for work and better conditions among the Shang.
• News of grieving prisoners’ families at the Great Wall fueled rumors about life there and further encouraged herding slaves to seek lives in Great Shang.
• The Gong Fang leader called on the other leaders to remain on their ancestral grasslands and preserve their tribes rather than relocate inland.
• The Gong Fang leader proposed killing Huang Feihu during the assembly, seizing supplies, and fleeing back to the grasslands, then cited King Zhou’s killing of the Tu Fang Leader to justify the plan.

The Gong Fang Chieftain tried to signal his men to assassinate Huang Feihu during a feast, but Dou Rong’s precautions thwarted each plan. The alliance ceremony began with the Gong Fang Chieftain still plotting to strike Huang Feihu while he swore the oath.

• The Gong Fang Chieftain arrived at the feast intending to signal an assassination, but Dou Rong required the chieftains to surrender their sabers, fur hats, and footwear.
• Dou Rong arranged a feast with hand-eaten roast meat and bronze wine cups, foiling the Gong Fang Chieftain’s plans to use utensils, food, or a dropped cup as a signal.
• The Gong Fang Chieftain tried to present a treasure and then lift the heavy ding to alert his men, but Dou Rong stopped the first plan and the ding would not move.
• The feast ended and Huang Feihu began the alliance ceremony by drinking horse blood with the tribal chieftains.
• The Gong Fang Chieftain approached Huang Feihu to swear the oath, planning to attack while Huang Feihu drank and then rally the other tribes.

The Gong Fang Chieftain’s assassination attempt on Huang Feihu failed because Dou Rong had prepared layers of protection and hidden guards. After the chieftain killed himself, Huang Feihu challenged the gathered tribes, whose leaders abruptly claimed ties to the Central Plains.

• You Hun warned the crowd that the Shang people would punish them if Huang Feihu was harmed as the Gong Fang Chieftain attacked him with a dagger.
• Huang Feihu revealed that straw padding had stopped the dagger, and the Gong Fang Chieftain discovered that Dou Rong wore leather armor and a heart-protecting plate.
• The Gong Fang Chieftain wounded Dou Rong with a short sword, but Dou Rong pretended to be gravely injured while two guards emerged from the ancestral cauldron and trapped the attacker.
• The Gong Fang Chieftain asked whether Dou Rong had foreseen the attack, then slit his own throat after Dou Rong said caution could never go wrong.
• You Hun claimed credit by stabbing the corpse, and Dou Rong cut off the Gong Fang Chieftain’s head and kicked the body from the platform.
• Huang Feihu displayed the chieftain’s head and challenged the tribal leaders, who answered by claiming descent from Central Plains clans.