Li Yan, a gifted student of engineering mechanics, unexpectedly transmigrates to the banks of the Wei River in Guanzhong in the fifteenth year of the Zhenguan era. He begins an entirely different life as an amnesiac refugee. Armed with modern scientific knowledge, he starts with a simple water filter to solve a village’s drinking-water contamination and applies the principle of leverage to repair a waterwheel. His knowledge, far ahead of its time, earns him the trust of his neighbors.
From agricultural tool innovations at a workshop in Jingyang County to engineering breakthroughs at the Bureau of Imperial Manufactories in Chang’an, he uses geometry to improve farm tools and mechanics to upgrade catapults. He settles disputes over resources with hydraulic calculations and challenges traditional mathematics with decimal fractions. From the Wei River embankments and Chang’an’s drainage system to frozen-earth fortifications on the Xueyantuo battlefield and beehive-style beacon towers, he brings modern engineering principles into the fabric of the prosperous Zhenguan era.
He discusses military strategy with Li Jing, explains his theories to Emperor Taizong, and explores military supply transport with Xu Maogong. Amid the clash of arms and bustle of everyday life, he meets military physician Su Wan while using distillation to purify medicinal ingredients. He improves papermaking with lime and compiles illustrated geometry manuals to plant the seeds of technical knowledge. In the end, this modern science student gives up on returning home and builds the Tang dynasty’s first natural philosophy laboratory on Mount Zhongnan. With his knowledge, he brings a glimmer of technology to the prosperous Zhenguan era and writes a tale of innovation woven from the life of a science student and the glory of the Tang dynasty.
