Wenshan Ren Jing

Ren grew up in a small Miao farming village, Xiangi, nestled in a small valley in the foothills in what would be modern day western Yunnan province. His people are sometimes known to the imperials as the Red Miao, because of the colorful red garments the women wear.

Ren was the fourth of five children to survive, with three older brothers; Wang, Qiang, Chai, and one younger sister, Houa. His parents were mother Mai and father Jing with much of the extended family living in the village or one of the two nearby villages within a few miles.

Mai died during childbirth for what would have been their 6th child. Her passing was long mourned in the village as she was a very humble and nice woman. Jing took her passing particularly hard and soon turned to drink to drown his sorrows. Ren was seven. Over the next couple of years, Jing’s drinking and bitterness only grew. Jing had been a well respected man, whose chi ran deep and could often be relied upon to find game when times were hard, or defend the village in time of need. Jing soon began to neglect his work, and often fought with other men who came to shame him into working. Jing was the oldest male in his family with his father already passed, so he had no immediate older males who might have held more sway with him.

Late in a harvest season in Ren’s 10th year, when the rains had already started and threatened the crop, Lao came to Jing and demanded he work, as his three oldest sons were already doing. Lao made the mistake of telling Jing he should get over Mai and think of the clan, and Jing’s temper broke. Before Ren’s eyes, Jing beat on Lao until he was unconscious. Ren doesn’t know to this day if he ever came out of it. The village men had had enough, and told Jing to leave. Jing’s sister offered to care for his children, but he only allowed Houa to stay, and took his boys with him.

Jing first took his boys to a nearby village where he knew he had cousins, and they took pity on them and housed them, but by next harvest, they too knew that Jing’s sorrow and anger ran to deep for him to stay with them.

The next few years were the hardest, with even Jing’s skills, and those of Wang and Qiang tested in finding enough game for them to survive. Ren learned the art of the bow, and his skill soon surpassed the rest of them. Wang grew to a man himself, and would often take his brothers into a village to work for a few days to get food, but he too had started to follow his father’s bitter footsteps. When one village would not help them, Wang struck the elder and took the food. Jing did not complain when they got back to their makeshift camp. Soon, Wang, Qiang and Jing were stopping travelers and taking food, or raiding livestock in villages. It wasn’t too long before they started to take Chai and Ren along as well. Chai’s innocent and friendly face often set others at ease while the older males sprung the trap.

It didn’t take long before local villages set their men against them, and the Wenshan’s escaped, but not without an arrow in Chai. Chai took over two weeks to die from the infection. Wang and Jing fed each other’s hate, and their banditry turned violent and audacious…but they had learned to move on quickly. Ren was thirteen.

Ren knew no better for the next several years, and believed Jing and Wang when they said that the people they took from deserved it and those people were evil. Qiang and Ren’s views changed during a fretful night as they planned to enter a lone house on the edge of the village. As they hid near the door waiting to go in, they overheard the long lost memories of a joyful family celebrating a recent birth. The left without entering and Qiang convinced Jing it was because a village patrol was too near. Following this, Qiang would often then take Ren with him for work, instead of theft, and they actually came to befriend a couple of villagers. Jing cared little as long as they brought back needed supplies. Qiang had suffered the malaise (malaria) through several bouts, and told Ren that in one fever dream, he saw Mai, and she loved them still, but told Qiang he must leave this dark path. Qiang did not survive the next bout when the malaise returned in a few months.

Ren had no one to go with to get food himself, and so was forced to join Jing and Wang. As fate intervened not long after that, Ren found himself outside the same hut he and Qiang had visited before. Ren balked, then refused, then fought back. The three barely made it back to camp alive. Jing and Wang, lost in their tempers, gave Ren the fiercest beating he had ever suffered. A week later when he could walk he left them. Ren was 19.

Ren moved east hard and fast to put distance between him and his family. Ren then slowed and found some peace as he worked in village for a season before moving on. When fate brought him back to Xiangi, he found to his horror that his family’s reputation had grown, and everyone within two or three days walk of his village knew of his family and their crimes. Ren didn’t risk staying. A year later and many days travel east, Ren found a young Xia on the road, Quan Li. Li and Ren travelled together for almost a year, entering Zhuang lands, and it marks the highlight of his life since the passing of his mother. Ren’s cynicism deflated, and the growth of his own bitterness halted, and then receded. Li was the eternal optimist, and loved life…that often included gambling and women, but he was as joyful, honest and forthright as a man could be.

Li told Ren about six months ago, that it was time Ren found his own path. Li knew the full extent of Ren’s demons, and felt that Ren needed to face those and the world without Li’s guiding hand. Ren left happy, and with a mind to making sure he lived up to Li’s expectations…maybe one day he could walk back into Xiangi without fear of retribution, maybe his name would be honored then, rather than spit on.

Ren's time alone and in the wild taught him many useful forestry and survival skills. It's also shaped him as a person, and he needs space from people and finds enclosed spaces suffocating. Lean times of hardship have given him a healthy appetite, and given him the instincts of a hoarder. It's also left him with a little lack of understanding of other people's motivations, and how society functions normally.