First chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros: A Hero Born by JIN Yong

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.
As soon as I will be done with a book, A HERO BORN by Jin Yong is on my TBR read. Hailed as a Chinese Lord of the Rings, and coming from Hong Kong, I have great interest in starting to read the classic.

A Hero Born by JIN Yong

Chapter One

SUDDENLY A SNOW STORM

I

The Qiantang River stretches from the west, where its waters swell day and night, past the new imperial capital of Lin'an and the nearby Ox Village, on to the sea in the east. Ten cypresses stand proudly along its banks,  their leaves red like fire. A typical August day. The grasses are turning yellow beneath the trees and the setting sun is breaking through their branches, casting long, bleak shadows. Under the shelter of two giant pine trees, men, women, and children have gathered to listen to a traveling storyteller.

The man is around fifty, a pinched figure in robes once black , now faded a blue gray. He begins by slapping two pieces of pear wood together, and then, using a bamboo stick, he beats a steady rhythm on a small leather drum. He sings:

"Untended, the peach blossoms still open,
As misty fallow fields draw crows.
In times past, by the village well,
Families once gathered to vent their sorrows."