Bridge of Birds - Plot

Plot

The book is set in a fantastical version of imperial China (Hughart subtitled it "A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was"). It draws on and reinvents the traditional tale of Cowherd and Weaver Girl and other myths, poems and incidents from Chinese history. The real story of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl is referenced at the end of the book.

In the beginning of the novel, the village of Ku-fu is stricken by a plague which kills its silkworms and sends its children between the ages of eight and thirteen into a coma. Number Ten Ox, the narrator, is dispatched to find a wise man who can cure the children. In Peking, he finds Master Li Kao, a drunken scholar with a slight flaw in his character, who immediately identifies the cause of the plague as ku poison, an incurable poison inflicted on the village by two dishonest villagers trying to corner the silk crop. In order to cure the children, Ox and Master Li set out to find the Great Root of Power which can cure anything. They begin by seeking it in the palace of the feared Ancestress.

Master Li and Number Ten Ox manage to get the Root of Power from the Ancestress’ palace, and find the location of the Great Root of Power. After surviving the Duke of Ch’in’s deadly games that consisted of labyrinths and terrible monsters, they achieve in gathering different parts of the Ginseng. Still, they were all ineffective in curing the children. Along with the Ginseng, they also find three handmaiden ghosts that repeated the same story, “The birds of China must fly!” One of the many people they meet in their adventure is Henpecked Ho, who tells them the story of how a god, Star Shepherd, falls in love with a merely human girl, and is given the tittle of Princess of Birds. They also meet Key Rabbit, who is married to Lotus Cloud. Like every other man with a pure heart, Ox worships Lotus Cloud and showers her with expensive gifts. The heroes visit to the Old man of the Mountain. In there, they learn that in order to become immortal, one must obtain something from the gods, and to become Invulnerable the person’s heart must be remove. This information helps them figure out that somehow their quest to find the Ginseng is intertwined with the story of the Princess of Birds. They also conclude that the Duke of Ch’in knows the secrets of immortality and invulnerability, and it was the same Duke that tricked the Princess of Birds and her three handmaidens centuries ago.

Master Li and Number Ten Ox are able to find the Duke’s heart. The Duke is killed and Master Li bows to Lotus Cloud and calls her the Princess of Birds. Master Li and Number Ten Ox listen to a sound that turns out to be the sound of a trillion birds making a bridge to heaven. The Princess places the Great Root of Power in Ox’s hand. Back at the village of Ku-Fu, the children are cured! Great glorious explosions of stars streaked across the sky as Star Shepherd opens his arms to receive Lotus Cloud, the Princess of Birds.