Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree

Beneath the shade of a mulberry tree, the wandering storyteller Kai Lung unfolds his final sequence of narratives. In the State of Further Yin, Prince Ying undertakes a search for merit, leaving behind a beggar's scroll of three recorded judgments. Other histories detail an ignoble alliance struck between Lin T’sing and the outlaw Fang Wang; a magician's interference in the lives of Yin Ho and Hoa-mi; and the poet Lao Ping, who stakes his future on fighting crickets to win Chun Shin’s daughter, Fa.

Ernest Bramah builds his satires around the polite, circuitous rhetoric of a fabricated empire. Merchants, magistrates, and beggars navigate a strict social hierarchy, frequently relying on docile linnets, willing buffalo, and an inconspicuous elephant to alter their fortunes.

Published posthumously, these eight tales constitute the final Kai Lung collection, completing a satirical fantasy series that spanned four decades.