Transmigrated to the Ming Dynasty for the Imperial Exams: A Great Minister Rises from Harsh Lands

After an accident, Chen Yuanwen was born into a farming family in ancient times.

He didn't want to spend his whole life bent over the fields, tilling the soil and performing corvee labor, so he chose to take the imperial exams.

At first, he only wanted to become a licentiate. That would let him meet officials without kneeling, exempt him from labor duties and grain taxes, and allow him to have servants. Then he could earn a little money and lie flat.

But after witnessing the county registrar's brother-in-law forcibly abduct a young woman in the street and extort the county's wealthy merchants, he had no choice but to raise his modest ambitions a notch.

And so he became the first recommended scholar in a century from a poor county in the mountainous northern part of Lingnan. With the entire county placing its hopes in him, Chen Yuanwen had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue taking the exams. On his first day in the capital, by a twist of fate, he met the Hongzhi Emperor and the future Zhengde Emperor, both traveling incognito in disguise. In the palace examination, his striking looks earned him third place. On his deathbed, the Hongzhi Emperor named him one of the regents entrusted with guiding the Zhengde Emperor.

But, knowing what history had in store, Chen Yuanwen tried to avoid the “Eight Tigers” of the Zhengde era by hiding in the Hanlin Academy to compile history books. The Zhengde Emperor, however, said he couldn't waste Chen Yuanwen's remarkable mathematical ability and assigned him to the Ministry of Revenue, starting as a sixth-rank secretary.

Thus began his love-hate relationship with the Zhengde Emperor, and in the end he rose to the highest rank in government.