Pingyang Prefecture in the Sunlight

I. The inspiration. I began writing this story about the people of the Ming dynasty when the first figure appeared before my eyes: wearing a black cap and purple clothes, with a saber in hand... In my mind, he was a Ming dynasty constable. So I began writing a story I knew very little about.

II. The era. I believe that to capture the character of a dynasty, you have to leave out its beginning and end and focus on the middle. So I set the story in the relatively stable mid-Ming period, in terms of both social structure and the economy.

III. Why set the story in Pingyang Prefecture?

To represent the Ming dynasty, the agricultural society must first take center stage. The setting should also be a place where the political, economic, and cultural prosperity, along with its contradictions, reflected those of a flourishing dynasty. I chose Pingyang Prefecture, now Linfen and Yuncheng in Shanxi Province. Located in the heart of northern China, it lies between the Taihang and Lüliang Mountains, with the Fen River running through it from north to south. Agriculture was highly developed there during the Ming dynasty, making it a useful microcosm of Ming society.

IV. The characters and their stories. No story can transcend the material conditions of its time. I have tried to reason and imagine what life was like five hundred years ago for all kinds of people on this land, within the production methods and social structure of that era: what their lives were like, how they related to one another, and what might have taken shape