A nine-hundred-year-old silk painting opens onto misty fields, willow trees, and a road leading toward a bustling city in ancient China. We'll unroll it slowly, one quiet scene at a time.


If you fall asleep before we reach the bridge, the painting will be right where you left it.


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Tonight: We explore *Along the River During the Qingming Festival*, a remarkable handscroll from twelfth-century Song Dynasty China. Our journey begins among quiet fields, charcoal-carrying donkeys, and travelers returning from the spring festival. The road leads past teahouses and market stalls, across the great wooden Rainbow Bridge, and through the gates of a prosperous Chinese city. Along the way, we encounter the ordinary details of life nine hundred years ago: tea prepared in porcelain bowls, merchants selling their goods, incense drifting through courtyards, and craftsmen working quietly at their trades. Eventually, the streets grow still, the silk is gently rolled away, and the painting returns to its wooden box.


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If these quiet journeys through history have become part of your evenings, follow The Sleepkeeper so the next one can find you. A rating or a few words about where you listen from also helps another tired person discover this little corner of the world. There's no hurry. Tomorrow morning is perfectly fine.


Narration on this channel is AI-assisted. The research, writing, and shaping of each evening are done by hand.


Sleep well, friend.


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