Shao Kang: The Returning King (Part 2)

Part 2: Leaving

This is the second part of the biography of Shao Kang. Enjoy! I'll post part 3 in a few weeks. We are leaving to move back to Asia in less than 3 weeks. We'll be going to the beach, swimming in the rivers here (we swam yesterday and today), and spending time with friends and family before we head out. I'll try to post some pictures once more before we move and later after we move.

“Tomorrow let’s go on another hunting party,” the King said to his friends. They were having a big feast and were talking about plans for the following day. The King invited his closest friends to stay at the palace for a long visit, a visit that was a month long already. Every day they were off somewhere and coming back to have a big feast.

“Sure, but this is my last one. I’ve gotta go back home soon,” one of his friends said.

“Yes, me too. It’s been a good month already and I need to get back to my family,” another one of his friends said.

“Ok. Well, we’ll make it a really good hunting party tomorrow, and then we’ll have a big feast,” the king said.

The following day they all left for a big hunt. The King loved hunting and spent more time hunting and feasting than taking care of the country. Many of the people didn’t like how he was leading the country and some had even talked about getting rid of him as king. Actually, he was one of a long line of kings who didn’t do their job well in taking care of the country. The first few kings of the Xia (pronounced “Sheea”) Dynasty were amazing, but over time the kings got lazy and spent most of the country’s money on themselves. This king, King Xiang (pronounced “Shee-aang”), was the same. 

The next day the group went on their hunting trip. They ate a really big, late breakfast, and then headed out for the forest. After a few hours they came back, boasting about how good they did that day.

“Let’s go again tomorrow. Imagine how big of a feast we can have with all that we hunted today!” the King said.

“No, I really need to get home,” one of the king’s friends said. One by one the other friends said something similar.

“Ok, ok, I get it. Just stay tonight because it’s late and leave in the early morning, after a big breakfast,” the king suggested.

Everyone agreed and the following day they all headed out. After a week the King asked for another group of his friends to come and stay. It was like this every year whenever the weather was nice. However, people in the country were getting more unhappy about how the country was being run. This made it easy for several of the smaller leaders to gather up their armies to rise against the king. 

Of course King Xiang knew all this was going on but he didn’t think anything would come of it. Instead, he kept on inviting his friends to come for months at a time to feast and go hunting. However, three of the leaders and their armies were getting closer to the capital. The King finally decided it was time to leave.

“I have to go. They are getting too close to the capital and I don’t have much of an army to fight them with anymore,” the King told the Queen.

“What will you do? How long will you go? How about our little one? Will he be born here or will we have to run away somewhere?” the queen asked. She was a few months pregnant with their first child. Most people didn’t know she was pregnant yet; they wanted to wait a few weeks before making it known. 

“I don’t think I have to go for a long time. It should just be a few weeks. I’m going to go with the army I have and see what is going on. We need to see who is coming against me and what kind of armies they have. I want you to stay here for now. I think it’ll be safer for you here,” the King said.

“If that’s what you think is best, then I’ll stay. Just come back soon,” the Queen said. The King left the following day. 

Shao Kang: The Returning King (Introduction)

 Last year I did a series of kids growing up in ancient China. It was something I had written before and decided to post on this blog, part by part. I've decided to do another series, this time a biography about Shao Kang. I've written a few biographies of Chinese people over the years and have really enjoyed researching and writing about them. Shao Kang was one of China's ancient kings. Here's a short description:

Shao Kang (pronounced “Shaow Kang”) was one of the legendary rulers of the Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BC). His dad was killed just before he was born by Han Zhuo, the man who took over the country. Shao Kang’s mom escaped and made it to her parent’s home, where Shao Kang was born soon afterward. The boy grew up on the farm with his mom and grandparents. They taught and trained him as best as they could. When he was sixteen years old, Han Zhuo heard that he was alive and sent his two sons to find and get rid of him. Shao Kang left his family’s farm and lived in a tribe up North where he got married, started a family, and slowly gathered together an army. He soon fought Han Zhuo’s army and took back the country. Shao Kang proved to be a good ruler, one of the best rulers of the Xia Dynasty.

I'll post the first part soon. The whole book is available as a PDF here (on lulu.com) or here (on my Patreon account). (Note, the book has two names...I started out with Shao Kang: The King Who Came Back and then changed it to Shao Kang: The Returning King).

The Redwoods (and forest and river)

 We went up two rivers the last few days. Actually, there are 3 rivers close to where we live at the moment and numerous beaches so the last few weeks we've been swimming and exploring all 3 rivers. We have a few favorite swimming spots. We also went to the redwoods yesterday (a 30-40 minute drive away). We are so thankful and incredibly blessed to live in a place with so much beautiful nature close by. We will miss it when we move (sometime in the near future; we were supposed to move last month but are waiting on some paperwork..."Hurry up and wait" is what we hear often about it). 

"Fairy Cups" mushrooms. I had never seen them before; they are tiny!

More mushrooms 

The redwoods are so huge and tall.

The kids have loved swimming so much this summer and the rivers are very clean here.

The Beach and a Raft

 We've been going to the beach and river (s) a lot this last week so the kids can swim and hang out with their friends. The other day Jeremiah and his friends made a raft out of drift wood. It's at a place where the river meets the ocean so there's lots of driftwood. It floated and could hold 3-4 kids. It was very impressive and something he had wanted to do for a long time. (The green kayak in the picture was one our friends brought along and decided to put next to the raft for the time being). There were also lots of pelicans and seagulls (and a few turkey vultures). I've loved seeing so many different kinds of birds here. We also saw some small sandpiper birds by the river.

The County Fair

 It's the end of July already! We've been enjoying the summer: swimming at the river (mostly the kids- I often take a book to read or do some watercolor or chat with other moms if we go with other families...the water's too cold for me to swim!), spending time with friends and family, etc... Last week we entered some of our arts and crafts, baked goods, and flowers from the yard into the local county fair. It's the second year we've done this and we've enjoyed it so much! The people who organize the fair are so encouraging and say how great it is to see kids and young people doing arts and crafts and baking. Many kids nowadays spend so much time on video games and tv that they don't want to learn handicrafts. Anyway, the kids have loved entering items in the fair and getting prizes for them. This year the kids and I won first, second, and third place ribbons for our items, cash prizes, and gift cards. This picture is of some of the things we baked for it; the kids each baked a batch of cookies to enter. The picture below is of a rock collection my daughter put together. Earlier in the year she found some petrified wood and some other interesting rocks. 

Trip up to Washington state and back

 We had to do a last minute trip up to Washington state and back last weekend so we drove up the Oregon coast to get there. It was a trip I had wanted to do anyway because it's such a beautiful drive with lots of places to pull over for views. We also got to visit the Lewis and Clarke national park, where they re-created the winter fort they stayed in all those years ago in northwestern Oregon. We also got to visit a few lighthouses we hadn't seen before in Oregon. 

The start of summer

 The kids are all on summer break and it's been super busy so far! We've got family visiting from out of town, we're getting ready to move overseas (back to Asia, but to a new place) next month, and we're trying to spend some time with friends (and family). We're going camping tomorrow for a few days and then riding horses later in the week. The kids have had 3 horseback riding lessons so far and LOVE it! It's normally super expensive but the place they go to is affordable (and a huge blessing!). We are so thankful and incredibly blessed to live in a beautiful place with rivers, the ocean (beaches), redwoods, and so much close by. We went to the Oregon Caves last week; a place we wanted to go to before we move. It was really good and took an hour and a half to get through. Below are some pictures of a few things from the last week or two. Last summer I worked through some recipes from the UK and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I'll have time to work on something like that this summer since we're moving. However, my oldest son (12 years old) has been in the kitchen lately cooking up a soup and a few other things. He finds things he wants to cook, writes down a list of things to get at the store and then cooks. It's great to see him in the kitchen (and my other 2 kids too!).