The Light of the Republic Shines on the Last Years of the Great Song

In 1276, with the Mongols' capture of the capital, Lin'an, the Southern Song's fortunes were all but sealed. Though a small government in exile continued its final resistance, and rebel forces in various regions fought bravely against the Mongol army, in the end they could not save the Southern Song. An era came to a close.

Though the Southern Song was confined to the lands south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River, it was a dynasty marked by economic and cultural prosperity, technological progress, and a high degree of openness to the outside world. The nomadic peoples' devastating blow to the Song's advanced system of production caused the Eastern civilization, which had been steadily rising, to gradually decline. Meanwhile, in the West, Edward I of the Plantagenet dynasty had turned the “Great Charter” signed by his father and the nobles into law, laying the foundations for the later development of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution. This also condemned China, trapped in a cycle of feudal despotism, to a century of humiliation and oppression in modern times. Was it fate, or mere chance? With Zhao Chen transmigrating to the final years of the Southern Song, can history be rewritten...