City of Ten Thousand Lanterns

During the Northern Song dynasty's most prosperous twenty-seven years, Zhang Huai, a lantern maker in Bianjing, made lanterns for the lantern display at Xuande Tower, fashioned lights around the rocks at Genyue, and crafted lanterns for the grand celebration after the recapture of Yanjing. He also watched rice prices soar, old friends scatter, and the Lantern Festival pass without a single light, until Jingkang fell and the two emperors were taken north. The light of one ordinary man's lantern reveals the collapse of an entire age.