Bridge Of Birds Summary

Hayley Ryan

Anthropology 215

Archaeological Book Analysis

February 7th, 2017 Bridge of Birds

There is a great art that can be found in being able to describe the world of an ancient civilization. Especially in one where large man made walls form because of the creases of a sleeping dragon’s back, or that the layout of the fields and streams of a small village create the image of a galloping unicorn when looked from up above. Yet, this is Imperial China, or as Barry Hughhart writes in his Novel Bridge of Birds, “an Ancient China that Never Was” (Hughhart 1984). This novel explores the history and the world of Ancient China, and the tales of the people who have walked across the land. Offering a summary of the book, we will be able to analyze the characters, as well as the connection it has to historical China. We begin in the small village of Kufu in the Valley of Cho. This is where we meet our main character Lu Yu, he is referred to by those around him as “Number Ten Ox” (Hughart 1984, 3). This small village is in shambles, as they discover the children in the village aged nine to twelve have become very sick. Given the task to find a man who can cure the

In the Bridge of Birds, Number Ten Ox is given copper coins so that he may find a scholar to help his village. This shows that they had a system of money, and of trade. Given what says is true about the period in time during its urbanization of the “scatter of workshops and artesian villages” (Scarre, Fagan 2016, 350), that describes all the more popular villages, especially in Peking, where Li Kao is found. There is also talk of many festivals such as the Dragon Boat festival, Dragon dance, and Moon festival, that are aspect taken directly from Chinese