Reflections | How extreme heat proved Chinese military officer’s undoing in classic novel
Yang Zhi’s insistence that his convoy hurry in the height of summer comes back to bite him in the Ming-dynasty novel Outlaws of the Marsh
After my niece’s wedding in London, I took several days off to explore the city, mostly on foot.
It was summer, but the temperature was comfortable. I was a flâneur during those few lovely days, sauntering around town and enjoying the fascinating sights and sounds of London.
There must be a flaw in the nerve receptors on my skin, because prolonged exposure to the tropical sun makes me physically ill, even when I have spent most of my life in a city where it is sweltering pretty much all the time.
Extreme summer heat is used as a plot device in a pivotal episode in Outlaws of the Marsh, a famous Chinese novel from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).