Recaps

Liu Acheng defused Xie An’s argument with Wang Xizhi and helped the gathering proceed, then stood up for Xi Chao when Wang Tanzhi boasted of his pedigree and status. Wang Tanzhi was left humiliated and worried that he needed to enter office before Liu Acheng and Xi Chao could challenge him again.

• Xie An regretted his remarks about Wang Xizhi, but Liu Acheng answered by acknowledging their limited merit while criticizing their failure to address Wang Xizhi’s concerns for the northern people.
• Xie An admitted that he had spoken frivolously, and Zhi Daolin and Gao Rou helped restore the mood as Wang Xizhi accepted his apology.
• Liu Acheng arranged for the scholars to rest on their climb to Incense Burner Peak, where Wang Shu and his son Wang Tanzhi arrived to join the gathering.
• Wang Tanzhi told Xi Chao that he had rejected a Gentleman of the Secretariat post because he considered it beneath his rank, insulting the young men around him.
• Liu Acheng rebuked Xi Chao for caring about status, and Xi Chao apologized before telling Wang Tanzhi that their different priorities meant they could not work together.
• Wang Tanzhi realized that Liu Acheng and Xi Chao had turned the exchange against him and worried that he should enter office soon.

At a gathering on Kuaiji Mountain, Liu Acheng explained that his experience amid northern violence had taught him how to kill, while news of the northern turmoil drew his attention to events in Yecheng. There, Ran Min prepared to face an approaching army by opening the city gates and drafting an order rewarding the killing of Hu people.

• Wang Tanzhi conceded his argument with Xi Chao, then challenged Liu Acheng about his education and prospects.
• Liu Acheng said his filial duty was to join a Northern Expedition and described his firsthand experience with violence and killing, leaving Wang Tanzhi shaken.
• Wang Tanzhi reported that Shi Min had rebelled and that northern forces were splintering, while Xi Chao and Liu Acheng discussed the threat.
• Ran Min told Li Nong he would restore his surname and become Ran Min, then ordered Lu Chen to draft a proclamation opening Yecheng's gates.
• Ran Min ordered Lu Chen to prepare a second proclamation rewarding officials and officers who brought him the heads of Hu people.

As massacres and military campaigns shattered northern China, Liu Acheng and Xi Chao discussed the court’s plans, the celebrated scholars’ retreat from public affairs, and their own uncertain futures. Liu Acheng arranged to send supplies to refugees in Jingkou, while both he and Xi Chao faced the possibility that they could not remain in Kuaiji indefinitely.

• Ran Min’s massacre in Yecheng marked the collapse of Later Zhao, while the Jie forces, Fu Xiong, and Murong Jun launched campaigns across the north.
• Liu Acheng explained to Xi Chao why Kuaiji’s celebrated scholars were avoiding the northern crisis, and they discussed Yin Hao’s plan to build a base at Shouchun and pursue the Central Plains.
• Xi Chao told Liu Acheng about his conversation with Zhi Daolin, and Liu Acheng compared the monk’s position with Fotucheng’s service under Shi Hu.
• Liu Acheng told Xi Chao that he planned to use the construction surplus to buy supplies for refugees in Jingkou, and Xi Chao offered to provide more money for the Shangsi Festival.
• After Xi Chao left, Liu Acheng considered Xi Chao’s doubts about entering official service and his own fear that staying in Kuaiji would leave him unprepared for upheaval.

As the Shangsi Festival approached, Sun Chuo stopped Wang Shu from taking over the purification ceremony, while Liu Acheng handled worksite problems and arranged the final participants. On the eve of the festival, Liu Acheng confronted his own suppressed youthful impulses and melancholy, then woke on the festival day ready for the ceremony.

• Sun Chuo persuaded Wang Tanzhi to talk Wang Shu out of taking control of the purification ceremony, and Wang Shu agreed to organize his own event the following year.
• Liu Acheng arranged for a female performer and a Xi Family slave retainer to marry, and the stewards dealt with another slave retainer who threatened to jump into Mirror Lake after losing his wages to a widow.
• Liu Acheng inspected Master Xu's 160 Daoist followers, recognized Brother Qi among them, and paid Master Xu to accompany the festival ceremony and monitor Master Du Ming.
• Liu Acheng rode beside Mirror Lake, felt melancholy as he considered his goals and youthful impulses, then checked on the Qianxi Music Troupe and reassured the nervous Lu Song.
• Liu Acheng slept at the manor and woke on the third day of the third month, the Shangsi Festival, composed and full of energy.

Liu Acheng organized the Shangsi Festival’s Public Purification Ceremony at Mirror Lake, managing the arriving Daoists, performers, and eminent gentlemen. After seating disputes delayed the start, the grand performance stunned the guests, and Xi Yin wept at hearing what he called Immortal Music.

• Liu Acheng brought the Way of the Celestial Masters to Mirror Lake while Lu Song and the Qianxi Music Troupe prepared the ceremony.
• Xi Chao and Gao Rou helped gather the eminent gentlemen, and Xi Yin urged them to arrive before the auspicious hour.
• Liu Acheng directed the guests to their assigned seats, and Gao Rou teased Sun Chuo when he complained that the arrangement spoiled their carefree elegance.
• Liu Acheng persuaded Wang Tanzhi to quiet the seating disputes, and Wang Tanzhi’s intervention brought the quarrelling gentlemen to order.
• The music troupe began the “Ode to the Immortals” before the screens came down, and Liu Acheng’s signal finally revealed the assembled Daoists and Lu Song on the platform.
• Xi Yin wept and declared that he had never expected to hear Immortal Music in his lifetime.

Liu Acheng and Lu Song staged a spectacular Shangsi purification ceremony that impressed the assembled nobles, secured their public appraisals, and helped Liu Acheng advance his plans. Xie An challenged the praise linking Liu Acheng and Xi Chao to Sun Bofu and Zhou Gongjin, and the gathering moved on to Orchid Pavilion to sign the joint letters.

• Liu Acheng watched Lu Song’s ceremony unfold as a chorus accompanied boats racing across Mirror Lake and the distribution of Spring Flower Wreaths.
• Sun Chuo explained the purification rite, and Lu Song gave Xi Yin and the other nobles wreaths along with public appraisals.
• Lu Song praised Xi Chao as an Ancient People's Benefactor and compared him and Liu Acheng to Sun Bofu and Zhou Gongjin.
• Xie An proposed that Liu Acheng and Xi Chao were instead like Zu Shizhi and Liu Yueshi, and Liu Acheng accepted the comparison as a wish to fight and die in the north.
• Liu Acheng and the assembled gentlemen signed the joint letters at Orchid Pavilion before preparing for Floating Cups Along the Winding Stream.

Liu Acheng oversaw the Orchid Pavilion gathering as the distinguished gentlemen debated its rules and exchanged poems, while he worried that their literary legacy might not match its fame. When the floating cup reached him, he recited a seven-character poem about Mirror Lake and Orchid Pavilion Brook, earning Sun Chuo’s praise as a second-rate poet and leaving him puzzled by the gathering’s standards.

• Liu Acheng sent the Wang Family’s documents back to the Wang Residence, then accepted Sun Chuo’s penalty by draining a cup of wine.
• The guests agreed that everyone would receive the floating cup at least once, and Wang Xizhi began the ritual.
• Zhi Daolin recited a short poem, while Xie Wan and Xie An failed to complete theirs before the countdown ended and drank penalties.
• Sun Chuo composed a poem about the gathering, and Liu Acheng privately wondered why the celebrated gentlemen’s poetry seemed so unimpressive.
• The cup reached Liu Acheng, who recited a seven-character poem about Mirror Lake and its source; Sun Chuo praised it as second-rate and waived his penalty.
• Xi Chao told Liu Acheng that his poem violated his grandfather’s name taboo, and Xi Yin excused the mistake under the day’s rules.