The Song Dispatch

Northern Song dynasty, mid-reign of Emperor Renzong (1040 CE). The Treaty of Chanyuan has maintained peace for decades. The court and country appear prosperous on the surface, but the bureaucracy is vast and inefficient, while social tensions simmer beneath the surface.

The “Purple-Glazed Cup with Golden Ridges” is a peerless treasure from the famed Ru kiln. Its glaze is unique, like the sky just after rain, and natural golden threads run through its body, forming its “golden ridges.” Only one pair exists. The empress herself has requested the cups for her birthday banquet. A symbol of auspiciousness and imperial prestige, they are extraordinarily rare and fragile.

The task is to transport this cup safely and intact from its place of origin, Ruzhou (present-day Ruzhou, Henan), to the capital, Tokyo, in Bianliang (Kaifeng), within ten days. Bianliang lies to the northeast of Ruzhou, about 200 kilometers away as the crow flies, but the route is rugged, crossing mountains and rivers.

Zhao Yan is a low-ranking clerk in the Ruzhou prefectural office, a ninth-rank official, perhaps a records keeper under the warehouse commissioner or secretary. Born into a declining local family, he knows a little about paperwork. Cautious and even somewhat timid, he nevertheless has a basic sense of right and wrong. His family once had ties to the ceramics trade, and his father may have run a small pottery workshop, so Zhao Yan knows a thing or two about porcelain. His wife has just become pregnant, and he is under pressure to support his family.