There were already two names on the door.
I arrive expecting a post of my own and find a pair of older colleagues waiting in the wood.
Read my note →A GUARDIAN IS NOT ALONE · SEASON 03
The calendar
that keeps changing.
I thought I had a door and a season. Then I found older names on the wood, and a calendar with more than one kind of fear.
A word before we proceed
Doors have a long memory. This season follows the names, signs, and seasons that gather around them without forcing them into one tidy hierarchy. I will say where the record is sure; the rest remains a story at the threshold.
Source compass
- Jingchu suishiji (荆楚岁时记) — an early record of fifth-month observances; it offers a regional seasonal witness, not a rule for all of China.
- Qing jia lu (清嘉录) — a Qing-era record of Suzhou custom, including Zhong Kui in the fifth month. Its locality and date matter.
- Lushi (路史) — a later textual route for the Shenshu and Yulei door-guardian tradition; the relationship is contextual, not one of kinship or command.
For the site-wide guide to what each source can, and cannot, establish, visit the reading room.
Left, right, and the trouble with standing still.
A door has two sides. The arguments about who belongs where have been busy longer than I have.
Read my note →They hang me in May.
I thought I had been hired for winter. Then I found myself indoors, watching rain collect on the fifth month.
Read my note →A door is not a date.
I have been called in two seasons. I still need to ask what people were really asking of me.
Read my note →