Han Yu's Stormy Exile in Chaozhou

All the lands of the world lie within the traces of Yu the Great.

Long ago, Yu the Great tamed the floods, rescuing the Nine Provinces from waters that had swallowed heaven and earth. He opened nine channels for the rivers and guided the streams. From then on, the rivers flowed east, the mountains settled into place, and people began to build their lives along the banks. Every inch of land Yu walked became a place of origin and a road home for generations to come.

This story, too, begins on a road once walked by Yu the Great.

It was an ancient trail running along the ridges of the eastern Qinling Mountains, known to the locals as the Languan Road. From the Guanzhong Plain, it led southeast past Lantian, over the Qinling Mountains, down to Nanyang, and onward to Jingxiang. For two thousand years, officials in exile, merchant caravans, and armies on campaign had all passed through these mountains. The mountains were unchanged since Yu the Great had tamed the floods, but millions of footsteps had worn the road smooth and shining.

The story begins in the winter of the fourteenth year of the Yuanhe era.

That year, the heavy snow of the twelfth lunar month sealed off the Qinling Mountains’ seventy-two valleys and buried the Languan Road.