The stench of burned books fills the wind over Xianyang, and a cold blade rests against his neck at the execution ground. Qin Feng, a modern graduate student specializing in classical texts, has somehow become a Qin Dynasty Confucian scholar due to be buried alive the next day! In his desperate moment, he speaks up and stuns everyone: he recites lost passages from the Book of Documents and the Book of Songs, leaving the supervising official, Li Si, drenched in cold sweat.
Brought before the First Emperor, he deciphers the long-lost Lianshan Classic of Changes on the spot and uses its hexagrams to analyze the state of the world. His insight makes the iron-blooded Ying Zheng’s fingers tremble, leaving him stunned. Qin Feng is spared and appointed “Imperial Court Text Translator”!
From then on, he treats knowledge as a cheat code: he uses the mechanical arts of the Mozi to prevent a fire in Xianyang Palace and win over the Mohists; recites the Complete Book of Agricultural Administration to end a food shortage in Guanzhong and earn the title “Living Sage”; gives lectures on the Hundred Schools, whose new learning overtakes the old doctrines; and revises The Art of War to help the Qin army repel the Xiongnu, earning a visit from military officials seeking his counsel.
Li Si and Zhao Gao accuse him of “using the past to condemn the present” and try to silence him. He takes them on in court, silencing the conservatives with a sharp retort: “Burning books severs the roots of civilization. A unified empire depends on culture.” The military and Fusu voice their support.
When the First Emperor falls gravely ill at Shaqiu, and the two men plot a coup, Qin Feng has already recognized the lead poisoning. He sets up an intelligence network to counter them and presents the New Outline of Chinese Civilization. Ying Zheng comes to his senses before death, secretly orders Fusu to succeed him, and establishes a special “Pavilion of Civilization” to let Qin Feng safeguard the cultural legacy!
As the classics of the Hundred Schools escape the flames and new inventions keep emerging, Qin Feng rises to the top of the Pavilion of Civilization. This revolution in civilization has only just begun! And it all started with a dying scholar’s desperate counterattack…
