Xie Banchao: The Poor Scholar Who Rose to Greatness, His Entire Family in High Office

Xie Xuan transmigrates as the eldest son of a poor family. His clan pours everything it has into sending him alone to study for the imperial examinations.

His relatives live on coarse buns to scrape together his travel expenses, while his sisters embroider through the night, straining their eyes so they can buy ink for him.

He vows to raise the whole clan to a new station and return home in glory.

But on the road to the examinations, the powerful hound him at every turn, driving him into a corner.

If the rules won’t let poor scholars rise, then he’ll break the rules!

He helps his clansmen build businesses and secretly sets up an intelligence network, collecting the compromising secrets of every powerful figure at court.

The mentor who once held him back is driven to hang himself during a court session when Xie Xuan confronts him with evidence of his own crimes. The son of a powerful family who stole his place kneels outside a silver shop opened by Xie Xuan’s younger kinsman, weeping and begging for a loan.

Years later, Xie family students and former associates are spread throughout the empire. The emperor points to the court, full of officials in crimson and purple robes, and asks in a trembling voice, “Why do more than half of them have the surname Xie?”

Xie Xuan steps forward and bows respectfully. “Your Majesty, on behalf of my entire clan, I thank you for your gracious favor.”