The Lantern Keeper of Chang'an

In the second year of the Tianshou era, under the rule of the empress, the divine capital of Luoyang shone across the land. Chang’an, the old capital, grew increasingly desolate as the political center shifted east. Rumors whispered that Chang’an’s “royal aura” was fading, and that people should be cautious when traveling at night.

Lin Xi, a graduate of a modern program in the restoration of ancient books who had lost her way in life, accidentally found herself in Chang’an’s Wannian County as an orphan from a once-prosperous family, on the verge of being seized by the authorities as a “fugitive household.”

To survive, she relied on hazy memories of ancient architecture and folk customs, along with her skillful hands, and seized the chance offered by the court’s plan to “revitalize the old capital and secure Guanzhong”: restoring the lights that once illuminated Chang’an under its nighttime curfew.

She began by repairing an old palace lantern that was about to be destroyed, then made her way down Vermilion Bird Avenue and into the wards, whose lights were slowly fading.

She wanted students at the Imperial College in Wuben Ward to have light for their night studies; merchants from the Western Market to be able to take stock after curfew; the lonely and sick in the infirmaries to keep the darkness from swallowing them at night; and the routes of the night patrols to remain clear...

But lighting a single lantern was easy. Rekindling the “light in the heart” of an entire city was not.

Behind the extinguished lights lay a failing economy, a dwindling population, complicated feelings about former glory, and layer upon layer of resistance hidden in the dark: clerks who saw change as a nuisance, powerful families whose interests were threatened, conservative scholars who dismissed such things as “frivolous tricks,” and the mysterious whispers that Chang’an’s “royal aura” was fading.

With a faint light in hand, Lin Xi navigated among ordinary townsfolk, fallen nobles, foreign merchants, craftsmen, and low-ranking officials. What she restored was not only the lanterns, but also the people’s faith in and affection for their city.

She had no idea that the Chang’an night she was slowly bringing back to life...