Tonight we step quietly into the walled compound of a senior official of the Ministry of Rites in one of the eastern wards of Chang'an, on the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, during the Tang Dynasty, roughly thirteen hundred years ago.

Before the household has stirred, he rises in the last dark, gathers fresh mugwort by feel along the southern wall, ties it with calamus in the old arrangement, and carries the bundle to the outer gate before dawn. Last year's dried remnants come down, the fresh green bundle goes up, and the gate is dressed once more in the way it has been dressed for as many years as the fifth month has called for this.

Settle in, relax, and drift gently into sleep.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome

01:38 Sleep story begins

28:37 Goodnight

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