Adventure to Imperial China
Explain the importance of both overland trade and maritime expeditions between China and other civilizations in the Ming Dynasty, including the inventions of the canal lock and the segmented arch bridge and the compass.
Once upon a time there was an explorer named Ezra. Ezra was a curious young man that could time travel and decided to visit Beijing, Imperial China. Ezra was taking a stroll and looked at the houses. Some of the houses were huge and had unique designs. The most common thing that Ezra saw was carps and dragons. He asked a local why that was such a popular design and the man said it was because in China they believe that carps convert into powerful dragons.
Ezra found an abandoned house with upturned awnings and wanted to take a peek inside. He entered the house and gasped. All of the furniture was still there. A bench that had beautiful red carps and golden dragons engraved in it, a shelf that held porcelain vases with gentle blue flowers painted on them, banners with symbols sewn into them, and a table made of undecorated, yet stunning, polished mahogany wood. Ezra felt his stomach growl; he was hungry, so he crept through the house, trying to leave it with the appearance of being untouched.
There was a market that served local foods five miles from where he was. Ezra was too tired to walk so he called for an oxcart instead. After the cart had reached the destination Ezra thanked the driver and paid him 25 yuans. Ezra stepped off of the cart and started toward the market. He felt a rush of relief, for his hunger had reached a point of desperation. He wanted to try grilled bamboo shoots, so he went to the nearest stand that served them. He bought 12 bamboo shoots for 15 yuans and sat down at a square table. He took his first bite of the plant and found that it was pleasantly sweet and crunchy.
Ezra saw a group of people boarding a large wooden boat. They were all carrying large and cumbersome crates. The crew seemed to be struggling with loading all of the crates on board so Ezra volunteered to help. When he put down the last crate in the boat he heard one of the crew members shouting; then Ezra felt the boat move. He now realized that they thought that he was part of the crew.
The air smelt so sweet even though Ezra was in a dusty cargo area for the trade items. He could smell fresh pomegranates, figs, and grapes. Something caught Ezra’s eye. It was a silk yellow tunic with intimidating dragons that were fiery red. He thought this was strange to see in a ship that was trading fruit not fabric but alas he tried it on and to his surprise, it fit perfectly. Ezra made a plan to sneak off of the boat when they stop at the trading station. “We are probably several hours away from the next station, so I will take a nap” thought Ezra.
He awoke and heard steps coming his way because they had reached the station. “Oh no! They’re coming for the crates. I need to hurry!” thought Ezra. He ran off of the boat before they could see him. Ezra could see the moon and stars glimmer in the night sky and wanted to find a place to stay. He walked up to a house and knocked on the door. A woman answered and Ezra asked if he could stay. The woman said yes because she noticed that he was wearing the fancy tunic and thought that he was of great importance. She also thought that he would be perfect for her daughter to marry.
Ezra entered the quaint but cozy home. He saw a young woman that appeared to be around his age. “She must be the woman's daughter” thought Ezra. The daughter offered him some tea and he said “Yes please”. She hobbled over to prepare the tea. Ezra looked at her feet and noticed that they were bound. She hobbled back and handed Ezra the tea and sat herself across from him. “Sorry, I never introduced myself. My name is Hui” she said. “My name is Ezra and thanks for letting me stay here.” he said. Hui was about to ask where he was from when suddenly, a burly muscular man walks in and yells “Why are you in my house? Get out!”. Ezra obeyed without any hesitation; he was not brave enough to brawl with the man. Ezra could hear shouting from inside the house. He didn’t mean to upset anyone. Ezra slept outside and when he awoke he saw Hui sitting beside him. He asked her why she joined him and she said she got in a quarrel with her father and left the house. Ezra was confused for a moment then realized that the man was her father.
Hui continued to stay with Ezra because she was attracted to his individualness and Ezra was attracted to her loyalty and kindness. One day Ezra worked up the courage to talk to her father. He knocked on the door and the man answered. “What are you doing here?” asked the man angrily. “Will you let me marry your daughter?” asked Ezra. “Only if you can help me find her. We got into an argument and she ran away. Have you seen her?” asked the man. Ezra lied and said he had not seen her. He knew this was a way he could gain his trust and let Hui marry him. Ezra left and came back a few days later with Hui and her father let them get married. They had a traditional Chinese wedding that was celebrated at Hui’s house. Hui wore an elegant red silk skirt that flowed and Ezra wore a handsome red silk robe. The two got married underneath a canopy of cherry blossoms and there was a feast for their guests. Ezra was glad that he decided to travel to China because he now had a partner to explore the world with.
The end.
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141,364 Literary Works • 674,381 Reviews
I like how you gave lots of description of what the characters where do or planning to do.
I also liked the adventure, it was as if I was experiencing this myself. I liked how you made very little errors and how the story had many historical elements. I liked how you described the conflict and how it was resolved precisely.
I like that it had a lot of historical elements. I like that you used a lot interesting words. I wonder if you could fix some grammar. I like that you described a lot of things. I like that you can tell who the protagonist is and who the antagonist is. I like that you can tell what type of conflict it is.
I like that you used a lot of good words.
I like that it had a lot of historical elements. I like that you used a lot interesting words. I wonder if you could fix some grammar. I like that you described a lot of things. I like that you can tell who the protagonist is and who the antagonist is. I like that you can tell what type of conflict it is.
I like that you used a lot of good words.
I really liked the the time travel element in your story. I wonder if you could have used Ezra's name a little less. I wonder if you could have had more dialog in the beginning. I really like all of the the historical constant, like how you talked about what food they ate and what they wore and the the money they used and what the houses looked like. I like how detailed you were.
I like how well you crafted the story. I also like how many facts you included per paragraph like how they had mahogany wood, the story behind carps. There were a few run on sentences but nothing too noticeable. But besides that you did an incredible job for an first story. If there was anything else that I could change if I was you it would be to have more character connection time so that you could feel like you were the main character instead of feeling like you are sitting in a chair, reading a book on a Chromebook.
I really like how much of the facts you included in the story. I also really like the time travel element. I wonder if the story could have had more punctuation, because it seemed as if there were several run on sentences. other than that, it was a great story.