Tonight, we step quietly into the Tang Dynasty, on the lower slopes of the Qinling Mountains just south of Chang’an.

In this gentle spring morning, a young man from a nursery village below the Qinling Mountains sets out before dawn with a moss-lined bamboo basket and his grandfather's iron knife to gather wild orchids from the shaded hollows. He moves slowly through pine forest and cool damp earth, taking only what the patch can spare, wrapping each bloom in wet hemp cloth as the birdsong gathers around him. At mid-morning he rests by an old pine at the ridge's edge, the vast plain spread quietly below and the faint outline of Chang'an just visible in the morning haze.

Settle in, relax, and drift gently into sleep. 😴

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

02:56 Sleep story begins - Before the First Light in South Village ...