This book takes the main line from Zhu Yuanzhang's proclaimed emperor in 1368 to Chongzhen's suicide in 1644, and restores the code of the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty through 200 historical scenes. Each chapter is approached from the perspective of a "historical telescope", comparing the imperial examination system to the "Ming Dynasty College Entrance Examination", and the Jin Yiwei to the "Royal Secret Service", using modern life scenes as an analogy for the complex system. A special "History Laboratory" section is set up to show the particularity and historical limitations of the Ming Dynasty civilization through the comparison of the tonnage of Zheng He's treasure ship and Columbus's sailing ship, and the differences in municipal management between Beijing and London during the Wanli period. The book contains 120 line drawings of cultural relics authorized by the Palace Museum and has a geographical column "Travel with Xu Xiake", allowing readers to understand the evolution of the system in the story and understand the laws of history in the choices of characters.
