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The Deer & the Cauldron: Book 1
by Jin Yong
Book 1 in the Deer and the Cauldron series.
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Thirteen-year-old Wei Xiaobao, known as Trinket, is carried from the gambling rooms and brothels of Yangzhou into the Forbidden City after impulsively following a travelling storyteller to Beijing. Mistaken for a young eunuch, he befriends the boy emperor Kangxi before understanding who his companion is. His quick tongue and talent for deception make him useful in the palace struggle against the overbearing regent Oboi.
Trinket’s new rank does not free him from the loyalties he acquires outside the court. He is drawn into the Heaven and Earth Society, whose Ming loyalists expect him to oppose the Manchu dynasty even as Kangxi rewards his service. The volume uses the Zhuang Tinglong literary inquisition, Oboi’s fall and the culture of secret societies to establish a comic anti-hero who prospers by serving incompatible causes at the same time.
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