Heaven’s Secrets in Prophecies: The World-Shaking Record of the Back-Pushing Diagram

During the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty, the heavens show strange signs. Yuan Tiangang, a master of astrology, sees the Purple Star dimming, while the prodigy Li Chunfeng interprets omens among the common folk. The two stars first meet amid the bloodshed of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, shaken by the entanglement of fate and human affairs. Emperor Li Shimin, troubled by the prophecy that “a woman will bring prosperity,” secretly summons the pair to ask about the empire’s future. By imperial command, Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng consult a celestial chart and tortoise shells deep within the Ling Observatory, and the world-shaking prophecy, The Tui Bei Tu, is born. Their projections of the future spark fierce arguments over the path that would see Wu Zhou replace the Tang. The moment the work is completed, the candles go out and the heavens tremble, foreshadowing the danger of revealing the secrets of fate.

Knowing how shocking their prophecy is, the two hide the original in separate secret locations and lay a series of traps to protect it. But as Wu Zetian rises to power and the prophecy comes true, ambition drives a dark campaign led by her confidant Ming Chongyan to alter the original and forge its prophetic images. Descendants of Yuan and Li, along with their guardians, struggle to distinguish truth from falsehood amid the chaos and protect its secrets, as genuine and fabricated prophecies mingle and sow confusion throughout the world. The An Lushan Rebellion, Huang Chao’s uprising, the humiliation at Jingkang… Fragments of The Tui Bei Tu flicker like ghostly lights, sometimes warning of the bloodshed at Mawei, sometimes lending the Mandate of Heaven’s endorsement to the succession at Lingwu, influencing the rise and fall of dynasties at pivotal moments in history.

Across a thousand years of upheaval, the hidden original comes close to being lost many times. From fleeting glimpses during the Song and Yuan dynasties to confinement behind palace walls and literary inquisitions during the Ming and Qing, from new interpretations that stirred controversy in the late Qing to secret archives moved south amid the flames of the War of Resistance, the fate of the authentic Tui Bei Tu rises and falls between protection and disaster. Then, in the war-ravaged southwest, a mysterious box sealed away for a thousand years unexpectedly comes to light. A prophetic legend spanning a millennium, a startling book about the secrets of fate, protection, and choice: its story now begins.