Song of the Dragon's Fall

Immortal mushrooms grow on Penglai, white jade is washed in clear rivers, fierce tigers roam the mountains, and the monkeys have no king. An illiterate coachman in the household of Right General Qi Yuanlang wrote these four uneven lines on the gate of the Qi residence. As he finished the poem and lowered his brush, a white dragon lowered its whiskers, and the coachman climbed aboard and rode away. The general immediately took down the gate panels and ordered someone to make rubbings of the twenty characters. He had them mounted on Shu brocade patterned with green medallions and flying geese at either end, then hung them in the middle of the main hall.

Twenty years later, he commanded the three armies, nine banners, and twenty-eight divisions, holding the golden tiger tally. The