The quarrelling disciples of Confucius stage their disputes for a crowd of eager would-be adepts, using concepts from the analects to surpass and baffle one another as they vie to be recorded by the chroniclers of the school’s activities. When Zixia returns to the school from a failed coup at a regional court, holding a jar of his fellow disciple’s minced remains, chaos breaks loose. The senior Confucian leadership begin to vent their long-held grudges and the dangerous secrets they have been keeping are no longer secure. The way Yan Ge breathes life into a very remote set of concerns and transforms the disciples into real people with families and rivalries makes this a gruesome delight of historical short fiction.

First published in Elsewhere, Faber, 2024