The Heavenly Secrets Box: A Historian's Journey to the Tang Dynasty

While researching Tang dynasty stone steles at the Xi'an Beilin Museum, modern historian Ji Qinglan cuts her finger on a blank stele. Her blood seeps into the cracks in its inscription. A sudden storm breaks, and lightning strikes the stone. Ji Qinglan's vision goes dark. When she wakes, she finds herself on a road outside Chang'an, dressed in Tang-era clothing, with a bronze plaque at her waist bearing the words "Ji Qinglan, Deputy Director of the Directorate of Palace Buildings." She follows a merchant caravan into Chang'an, awestruck by the magnificent Zhuque Avenue and its exotic atmosphere. While wandering through the eastern and western markets, she inadvertently corrects a foreign merchant's mistaken claims about Tang silk-making, catching the attention of Cui Yuanhao, a vice minister of the Ministry of Works who is traveling incognito…