In Jinmen at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Li Wenqian, a son of a scholarly family, once aspired to "cultivate himself and manage his family". However, after his father's business failed and the family collapsed, he fell from the clouds into the mud. The hand that used to hold the pen carried the sack on the wharf, the green shirt was replaced by a short coat of coarse cloth, and the books of the sages were no longer as heavy as copper plates. He struggled with blood, sweat and humiliation, used abacus beads and pen and ink to rebuild his dignity on the dock account books, and used the wisdom of a scholar to resolve gang strife and outsmart the philistines, carving out a way out at the bottom of troubled times. When the torrent of the times hit Jinmen with new and old trends of thought, he put aside the shackles of "a useless scholar" and moved from the accounting office to a foreign company. In the collision of Chinese and Western commerce, he re-understood the true meaning of "managing the world for practical purposes". This is the process of a scholar in the old age taking off his long robe and crushing illusions. He picked up the broken fragrance of scholarship in the ashes of his family. Finally, in the cracks of the times, he found a new coordinate of being pragmatic and benefiting the world with wisdom. The novel uses realistic writing to outline the ups and downs and epiphanies of individuals in the great era, and witnesses how knowledge can temper the power beyond paper under the pressure of survival.
