Fiction: Group 2
Emperor Jiajing and the Invention of Dragon Boat Racing
ISF Academy, Kuo, Tyler - 9, Fiction: Group 2
olklore says that Aberdeen was originally called Hong Kong, because it was a seaport that brought in
incense wood from Dongguan, Guangdong Province, in China. The wood was shipped from Tsim
Shat Sui using donkeys and horses. It would take weeks or even months! This was because it was
sometime between 1521 and 1567, when Emperor Jiajing ruled China. He was the eleventh Ming Dynasty
emperor. From Tsim shat sui, they took the wood by boat across the harbor to the seaport of Aberdeen.
Jiajing had an archenemy named Peter. Peter was stronger and bigger than Jiajing. He was jealous because
Jiajing was the emperor, and he wanted to take over his throne. When they were young, they were friends,
but over time Peter grew to be more envious of Jiajing’s position. At the age of 3, when other kids were still
learning to count and speak, Jiajing was already drinking tea and playing chess with his parents every night.
In fact, he looked older than the other kids. He was even growing a mustache. He liked to wear long,
flowing robes with dragons on them. He loved dragons so much that he put them on everything he had,
like curtains, walls, carpets and doors.
When Jiajing grew older he took up a new hobby. Dragon Boat Racing. Jiajing came up with the idea of
Dragon Boat Racing, and he used his valuable wood to create the boats. The wood was hard, so it could
protect itself from thunderstorms. It was smooth and sleek, so it would go faster in the water. The good
news was that he was the only one who could access the wood. His family estate consisted of forests that
included the tree that produced the valuable wood. Even though Jiajing’s family was wealthy they loved
boat building and started their own boat building company. Every day, he would earn lots of money by
selling his boats. He would also find people for his best team. One of the teammates was Peter, whose family
owned a bamboo farm and Peter played with bamboo by building a playhouse. Peter asked if he could use
bamboo and said only valuable wood no bamboo. Then, they got in to a fight and became enemies, because
Peter also refused to row for Jiajing.
Peter hatched a plan. It went like this: Peter would dress up as a mailman and go to Jiajing . He would tell
him that Peter was sorry and he would like to give him one whole stack of valuable wood as a gift and meet
him in the garden of the palace and receive the “sorry”gift. Little did Peter know that there was a spy that
was secretly working for Jiajing. The spy reported back to Jiajing that the gift was an ambush. Jiajing would
send a quarter of his army to get the gift, meanwhile, Jiajing would take the rest of the army and row to
Hong Kong
Jiajing nearly got caught by his enemies. He escaped to Tsim Shat Sui and got a boat. He also had pockets
full of wood and sailed to the port of Aberdeen. There he sold his wood and got some money. He tried to
find a job. He roamed around the city like a beggar and looked around. He was about to give up when he
saw five of his own enemies running to him. He guessed that they saw him take a boat from China to
Aberdeen. Jiajing started running, and of course his enemies followed, but soon they got lost . He ran and
ran until he was safe. He sighed, and went on his way to find a job.
Jiajing wandered around hopelessly. He searched everywhere for a job. He saw a fisherman and asked if he
could join the fishing group. The answer was no, because there were too many fisherman.
He then asked a wood seller. The wood seller said that he was perfect for the job. The wood seller explained
the rules. First rule: Don’t keep the wood for yourself. Second: Don’t keep the money that you earned for
yourself. The first hour it didn’t go well. He had to find the answer to the sum 500 grams of wood plus 500
grams of wood. He didn’t know the answer to the sum because he was an emperor in China and didn’t
need education because he was too lazy. He finally got better at his part after one hour. By the end of the
day he had earned 2500 dollars for selling the wood. He gave some of the profit to the wood seller. Jiajing
became extremely depressed because he had once been an emperor, and now was a beggar on the street,
pleading for food to survive. He decided to take the rest of the money he had to a local tavern to try to find
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