This is a collection of dozens of short stories. Each one is a forgotten afterlife.
Here are the final nights of emperors and generals, as well as the first dreams of street urchins; the bloody romance of the battlefield and the everyday warmth beneath the eaves; chivalrous hearts in the martial world and sweet young love on campus.
Dozens of stories recount humanity’s life and death, ideals, and bonds. Here is blood left out of the history books, love the battlefield dared not speak of, the chill of an emperor’s suspicion, and the warmth of grandparents and grandchildren relying on each other. They come from different eras, asking the same question: Who do we live for, and why do we die?
Open this book, and you will see
How Yue Fei’s “Serve the country with utter loyalty” became a rope tightening around his own neck;
How the dagger Jing Ke hurled pierced one era, then lodged in the heart of another boy;
How that grandson, grown up, dreamed of his grandfather again and again, promising in his dreams, “I’ll never do anything to be ashamed of.”
This is not history. This is the past and present life of every one of us.
When great deeds turn to ash, dynasties collapse, and old friends are laid in the earth, all that remains is the wind sweeping across the ruins, a name cried out in a dream, and a bowl of porridge still warm beyond Yanmen Pass.
Come, follow these stories into a great dream. In it, some become Buddhas, some become demons, and most simply live on as the unblinking punctuation mark in some forgotten corner of the world.
