54 pages • 1-hour read
Dragonkeeper
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Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions of death, graphic violence, child abuse, animal cruelty, and death by suicide.
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Edge of the Empire”
At some point during the long Han period in China, an 11-year-old enslaved girl is forced to work for Master Lan, a lazy old man in charge of the remote palace at Huangling. The emperor never visits this place personally, but he does keep the imperial dragons there. The girl tends to the dragons because Lan does not want to fulfill his duties, but the dragons are weak and old, and they refuse to eat. Lan constantly complains that the dragons were supposed to live at the palace and function as an omen for the kingdom’s health, but years ago, they had bitten the current emperor’s father, so they were sent away. These days, the girl spends her time starving and suffering from the cold and enduring Lan’s abuse. She is friendless except for her secret pet rat, Hua.
One day, the girl takes the dragons’ dinner for herself when they refuse to eat it. During the night, she steals oil from Lan’s lamp and sneaks to the abandoned palace to admire the art, which depicts beautiful places and flowers. She does not believe that such a place can exist. As she returns to her ramshackle home and eats dinner by the fire, she remarks that her life isn’t so bad.
Chapter 2 Summary: “An Evil Night”
The next day, the girl returns to the dragons, feeling guilty about eating their dinner. One of them looks at her and begins to howl, alarming Lan and the old woman on the property, Lao Ma. They rush to see what has happened and discover that the other dragon has died. Lan and the few other men haul the dragon out of the dungeon and into the courtyard, where Lan cuts the heart and liver from the corpse. Lan then demands that the girl and Lao Ma help him to pickle the rest of the dragon’s flesh. Lao Ma reluctantly explains that he cannot bury the body due to the cold but must get rid of the evidence in order to avoid being executed if the emperor ever discovers what has happened. The girl is horrified by Lan’s devilish excitement over pickling the dragon and is sure that they will all go to hell for what they have done.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Imperial Banquet”
The girl wakes up the next day and is surprised to find that Heaven did not strike her down for the calamitous events of yesterday. She decides to take better care of the dragons. Because she is left-handed, Master Lan tells her that she is bad luck. As the girl cleans out the dragon’s pen, she discovers a strange stone at the back of his nest. When she touches it, the object puts an image into her mind. The dragon psychically tells her not to touch the object. She gives him some meat and brings him outside on a tether, and his health begins to improve.
One day, as she is walking the dragon, Lan demands that she go into the imperial palace and fetch some wine, which is against the rules. Unable to disobey him, the girl searches for the wine but soon encounters a platoon of men who are guarding the emperor himself. She also comes across the Empress and a strange man who looks as though he has come from the wilderness but is treated like an honored guest. The girl hides herself and eavesdrops. She learns that the wild man, Diao, is a dragon hunter and that the emperor plans to sell the remaining dragon to him so as to finally be rid of the beast.
The Emperor and Empress unknowingly eat the pickled dragon and enjoy it. Horrified, the girl hugs Hua, who nips her and makes her yelp with pain, causing the guards to find her. As Hua runs off, the girl frantically apologizes to the emperor, explaining that it wasn’t her fault the dragon died and got pickled. The emperor demands to see Lan, and the girl wriggles out of the guards’ grip and runs away.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Escape”
The girl runs to the dragon and warns him to escape, but he does not move even when she unties him. He psychically tells her that he must save the dragon stone: the strange object in his enclosure. She runs to get it, retrieving Hua as well. When she returns, the dragon hunter, Diao, is circling the dragon with guards and trying to restrain him with iron chains that burn the dragon and make him scream. The girl drops the stone as she claps her hands to her ears to block out the noise. Diao runs to grab the stone, but she moves faster and recovers it. When the dragon sees that she has the stone, he unfurls hidden wings, breaks free, and grabs her, sustaining a wound in the shoulder from Diao’s crossbow.
The dragon takes the girl and Hua and flies higher than the mountains, reassuring her in her mind that she will not die. He eventually lands in the mountains and drops her in the snow. They walk for another hour until they find a cave, and the girl curls up against the dragon’s side for warmth.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Fear of Flying”
The girl wakes up to find that the dragon has gathered firewood and some food. At the dragon’s request, she builds a fire and makes a meal. She asks for his name, and when she expresses that she doesn’t have one herself, he corrects her and tells her that the necklace she wears reads “Ping,” which is her name. His name is “Long Danzi,” or “Courageous Dragon,” so she calls him Danzi. The dragon insists on going to the ocean, but Ping doesn’t believe it exists. She wants to return to Huangling, believing that the emperor has left. Danzi seems to acquiesce, then teaches Ping how to comfortably ride on his back.
Ping falls asleep while they fly, and when she wakes up, she discovers that they are far from Huangling. Danzi is exhausted, so they land near a road. They quickly hide themselves as soldiers approach. The soldiers make camp nearby, and Ping eavesdrops, learning that Lan has blamed her for the debacle with the dragon. He has named her a sorceress and has falsely accused her of enchanting everyone at the palace to sell the 12 other dragons as they died. Ping cries, horrified to realize that she can never go home, but Danzi reassures her that her life will be better elsewhere. This confuses her.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Beyond the Gate of Experience”
Ping despairs, but Danzi insists that the ocean is real and that drinking from it will make him strong enough to grant anyone any wishes they desire. She asks how long it will take to fly there, but Danzi tells her that because his wing is injured, they will have to walk. His rules are simple: She must protect the stone and tell nobody that they are going to the ocean. Danzi also shares that he can fight any creature but that he is afraid of centipedes.
After four days, Ping and Danzi meet a farmer and his son, and Ping learns that Danzi can manipulate his qi (life force) so that he appears to be an old man instead of a dragon. The farmer invites them both to stay the night and share a meal, believing that showing kindness to strangers earns favor from the gods. Danzi stays in the barn, as the effort of disguising himself is exhausting. The farmer’s wife gives Ping shoes and a warm dress that once belonged to her late daughter. Ping returns to the barn to sleep but finds Danzi about to throw Hua against the wall; he angrily explains that the rat urinated on the dragon stone. Ping intercedes and saves Hua’s life. They leave the next day, but Ping refuses to wear the dress, believing it to be too good to wear on a normal occasion.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Combing and Counting”
As they travel, Danzi teaches Ping as much as he can. He tells her that the other dragon, Lu Yu, died of misery, not because of Ping’s care. He also explains that Lan was an imposter, not a real Dragon Keeper, as such a position can only be filled by members of the Huan and Yu families. He says that the dragons used to be wild creatures but grew used to human care and then begin to die when the humans stopped caring for them and respecting them. As the pair rests, a centipede crawls into Danzi’s ear. This horrifies him, as centipedes eat dragon’s brains. Hua crawls into his ear, pulls out the centipede, and eats it, earning Danzi’s respect.
Later, Danzi insists that Ping bathe. He takes her to a hot spring and dumps her in the water. She is surprised that the experience is pleasant. Danzi makes her wear the new dress, then gives her a comb that he kept hidden in his scales. He tells her to clean the dragon stone in a pool of arsenic-laced water, which she does.
As they travel, he tries to teach her how to focus her qi and gives her math lessons. He also tells her about the four celestial creatures: giant tortoises, phoenixes, dragons, and creatures called qilin. (Only the tortoises and a few dragons still exist.) He states that some plants and animals have a higher concentration of shen, or soul substance, than others do, but dragons have the highest concentration, which enables them to see the value in every living thing.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The City of Eternal Peace”
Danzi makes Ping spend all afternoon trying to move a leaf with her qi. She grows angry when she can’t do it, and this emotion allows her to channel the qi and blow the leaf. He advises her to focus on more positive emotions, which are stronger. Later, as they travel, Ping finds herself walking next to a young man whom she initially mistakes for Danzi in disguise. However, she soon learns that he is a scholar who is traveling to the capital of Chang’an in hopes of passing tests and becoming an expert scholar. They travel together for a short while, with Danzi creeping behind them and taking the form of a hoe whenever the scholar looks behind him. The scholar is shocked to learn that Ping does not know that the emperor has died of something he ate. (This news horrifies Ping.) The scholar explains that many great people will be congregating at the capital in the wake of the emperor’s death.
After the scholar leaves, they make camp, and Ping finishes a weaving to carry the stone. As Danzi examines the stone, he realizes that it is sick and its color is fading. This is because Ping has been carrying it next to her iron knife. He announces that they must travel to Chang’an, which scares Ping.
When they reach Chang’an, Ping is overwhelmed by how busy, loud, colorful, and wealthy the city is, and she clings to Danzi for support. They walk until it grows dark, and Ping notices that Danzi’s old man disguise is slipping. He guides her to a door, startling the man inside, who greets Danzi by name like an old friend.
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
As a horrified Ping witnesses Lan’s callous choice to pickle the deceased dragon, the author makes it clear that the novel will stress the importance of Combating Systemic Exploitation and Cruelty. While Lao Ma rationalizes his choice to hide the evidence of his negligence, the imagery indicates that he is largely motivated by vengeance, as he resents being banished to the far-off palace of Yuangling to care for the very dragons he hates. As Ping states, Lan is “cackling” as if chopping up the dragon “were the most amusing thing he’d done in a long while” (20), and it is no accident that his face is given a demonic cast in the light of the flames.
The author’s phrasing also suggests that Lan is not the only person who will show such vitriol toward dragons, and this early incident establishes a clear dichotomy between those who aid dragons and those who harm them. In this context, antagonistic characters like Lan and Diao are cast as evil, while those like Ping play a benevolent role. Although later developments will complicate this seemingly clear-cut division, the “good versus evil” framework reflects the relative innocence and simplicity of Ping’s early mindset and foreshadows her eventual development of a more complex form of morality as her coming-of-age journey progresses.
Throughout the novel, Wilkinson draws heavily upon the patterns and conventions of mythology and other cultural superstitions, as when Lan condemns Ping as evil because of her left-handedness. In many cultures, left-handedness has traditionally been associated with bad luck or unruly behavior, and left-handed children have often been forced to learn to write with their right hand in a misguided attempt to mitigate such associations. The same has historically been true in China, as the Mandarin word for left also means “wrong,” “incorrect,” or even “devious.” In the author’s world, however, the negative connotations of left-handedness will be subverted when Danzi later reveals that this trait marks Ping as a Dragon Keeper.
The abuse that the enslaved Ping experiences at Lan’s hands contrasts sharply with her initial desperation to return to Yuangling even after she escapes with Danzi. Her mindset in this section is childlike and simplistic, and she views her restricted life before the emperor’s arrival as “good” simply because it was familiar, failing to fully perceive the depths of Lan’s abuse. Her determination to return to that situation thus shows her lack of discernment, and as Danzi gently takes charge of the pair’s travel, the narrative foreshadows his ongoing role as a wise and powerful mentor in her life. This development highlights The Complexities of Embracing Responsibility and Coming of Age. Shackled by her limited worldview, Ping currently longs for her demeaning lifestyle because it is familiar, and she leans on Danzi’s guidance now that she stands poised at the start of her Hero’s Journey. At this point, she has yet to transform into a capable, confident hero with new responsibilities, but although Danzi’s quest is the catalyst that spurs her growth, she will eventually learn to make bold decisions on her own.
Notably, the story that Danzi tells Ping about the history of the dragons mirrors Ping’s own dependence on familiarity, since the dragons who were tamed by their life in the imperial palaces ultimately lost the ability to be independent and “wild.” Because they could depended upon others to care for them, they fell prey to a paralyzing status even when that care became abusive. The similarities between Ping and the “tamed” dragons establish a sharp contrast between unhealthy dependence and the trust that grows between true friends. As these chapters introduce the novel’s focus on Friendship and the Meaning of Loyalty, it is clear that although Danzi resents the domestication of the dragons, he still accepts Ping as an incipient Dragon Keeper. Both Ping and Danzi must escape the exploitative system that has held them down, but they also understand that undiluted individualism cannot provide them with the strength that they will derive from a healthy spirit of cooperation.
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