WRECKAGE by Jin, Ha, Ha Jin ISBN 9781882413973, 9781882413980, 1882413989, 1882413970 instant download

WRECKAGE by Jin, Ha, Ha Jin ISBN 9781882413973, 9781882413980, 1882413989, 1882413970 instant download

WreckageBy Ha JinHanging Loose PressCopyright © 2001 Ha Jin. All rights reserved.ISBN: 1-882413-98-9Chapter One Yu the Great: a Legend Soon the angry gods turned the Yellow Valley into a swamp, where water and reeds swelled toward the fumy sky, serpents and crocodiles devouring people. Yu's father stole some Divine Loam. With it he stemmed the flood, but the Fire God wrapped him in flames— the water broke loose again. Yu had to continue the struggle. Hundreds of miles up, in the grasslands, the river flowed clear and peaceful. But entering the ocherous plain it roared and rolled, poured silt into the valley, and drowned our crops and homes year after year. Yu set out to survey the river. He took a sled on mud, a boat on water, a wagon on land, and trudged up mountains with a spiked cane. He divided the land into nine states, linked them with solid roads, dug waterways along the valley, dammed the marshes that had overflowed. Still the river could not be tamed. It pranced around, shattering dikes. For eight years Yu lived among the laborers and never returned home although three times he passed his hovel and heard his children cry. He realized the river was a divine animal that would run tempestuous if bridled, so he opened three mountains for a new channel and widened waterways to guide the water toward the ocean. The river was calmed. We had land to sow and populate— villages emerged, then towns, then cities, then a country. Yu's deeds made him our king. Thus began our first dynasty. A Burial We were pulling a bundle packed with green branches and earth, twenty feet across and a hundred feet long. We were to lodge it in place to plug the holes burrowed by foxes and badgers. Singing in one voice, we sank the bundle along the dike. Immediately two boats loaded with rocks were scuttled against the bundle. As the second boat was going down it dragged Ah Shan into the water, his legs caught by the gunnel. He yelled, "Oh Mama, help! Get me out,…