In 645 AD, Xuanzang returned to the Tang Dynasty with 657 Buddhist scriptures. Crowds of people in Chang'an City welcomed this legendary monk, but he fell into a more complicated whirlpool: the emperor's political calculations, the undercurrent of the dispute between Buddhism and Taoism, the prying eyes of the forces in the Western Regions, and a great undertaking of scripture translation related to the inheritance of civilization. This work uses real history as its bones and the game of human nature as its blood. It tells the story of how Xuanzang, in the last 19 years of his life, used scriptures as a blade and compassion as a shield to find a third way between power and faith, and finally made Chang'an a beacon of civilization that illuminated the entire East Asia.
