Lychees from Lingshan

During the Tianbao era of the Tang dynasty, Li Shande, a minor official in Chang'an, receives an almost impossible task: bring fresh lychees from Lingshan in Lingnan before the imperial consort’s birthday. At the time, lychees “change color after one day, lose their fragrance after two, and lose their flavor after three.” Lingnan lies more than five thousand li from Chang'an, with mountains and rivers stretching between them. A legend left unrecorded in the history books unfolds in this novel.

Li Shande knows the journey is perilous, but grits his teeth and sets out anyway. He crosses miasma-filled hills and climbs steep mountains, all to deliver the fresh fruit borne by Lingshan’s thousand-year-old tree to the imperial consort. Lingshan’s lychees are red as cinnabar, thick-fleshed and sweet, embodying a thousand years of Lingnan’s local character and the artisans’ painstaking labor. But with no method of preserving them yet known, and post-station horses racing at full gallop, a contest against time begins.

Rooted in history and given wings by imagination, the novel sketches the struggles and passion of an ordinary man against the backdrop of a vast era. Li Shande’s fate means more than winning a smile from the imperial consort. It also reflects the prosperity and hidden worries of the Tang dynasty at its height. When the fresh lychees finally reach Chang'an, the sweet fragrance carries the sweat and ingenuity of countless people.

Alongside its tense, gripping account of the delivery and its portrayal of the lychees’ deliciousness and rarity, the book offers a profound depiction of an ordinary person’s fate. It shows the struggles and growth of people caught in the tide of their times, allowing readers to feel the weight of history and the warmth of humanity in the sweetness of the lychees.