A Gentle Breeze Beneath the Trees

In the final years of the Eastern Jin dynasty, during the upheaval caused by the Five Barbarians, the Murong Xianbei held sway over northern China, while Former Qin’s forces advanced to the Yangtze. In Jiangzuo, the four great aristocratic clans, Wang, Xie, Huan, and Yu, fought bitterly over power at court. The Qiao Commandery Huan clan, represented by Huan Wen, openly plotted to usurp the throne, while the Chen Commandery Xie clan, represented by Xie An, repeatedly thwarted his treasonous ambitions. But fate had other plans: Xie Daoyun, Xie An’s niece, had been betrothed since before birth to a member of the Langya Wang clan, yet secretly fell for Huan Yi, Huan Wen’s nephew, known as the finest flutist in Jiangzuo. With the nation in peril and generations of enmity between their families, what will unfold between the young people of these two great clans?