Revelation of Life in Sui and Tang Dynasties

I have always wondered how an ordinary person with no skills could live in a turbulent era. He had no golden fingers, no heaven-defying system, no rich historical knowledge, and no knowledge of chemical engineering. He was an idiot when it came to the military and could not even remember a few ancient poems. Can a real ordinary person survive in that era? This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.