The Great Song’s Reforms

Zhang Ke, a modern master's graduate in materials engineering, transmigrates into the Qing Dynasty, set against the backdrop of the Northern Song, and takes over the body of a scholar from a poor family. Drawing on fragmentary memories, he improves technologies such as soapmaking, steelmaking, and cement production. He builds his fortune from nothing in Bianjing's pleasure quarters and teahouses, then becomes embroiled in a struggle over the “Three Redundancies” reforms, caught between imperial power and the great clans. He establishes a land-and-sea trade association to promote industrial assembly lines and founds an engineering academy to break the monopoly on knowledge. But by threatening the interests of powerful families like the Lu clan of Jiangnan and the Wei clan of Guanzhong, he invites a joint campaign of destruction by Empress Dowager Cao and Privy Councilor Wei Hongye. As technological innovation collides with the rites and laws of the imperial examinations, and commercial contracts clash with the might of the throne, Zhang Ke faces crises including an explosion at the Yingtian workshop and the destruction of a canal lock. He turns the tide with glass mirrors used in diplomacy and movable-type printing, helping Grand Princess Zhao Weirou usher in the “Tiansheng New Order.” Meanwhile, as the Liao envoy Yelü Hongji spies on his technology and secrets from a previous dynasty emerge with the revelation of a glazed artifact's origins, a contest over the course of civilization quietly unfolds. With steam-engine blueprints appearing and Fuchuan ships raising their sails, can this dynasty, reshaped by technology, escape the fate of destruction foretold in The Industrial Handbook?