Transmigrating Through Time and Space: The Literary Giant Rebooted

Chen Yan, a graduate student in Chinese literature, wakes up to find he has transmigrated to a parallel world with the same roots as China, but whose cultural heritage was severed completely by a great cataclysm.

Here, every brilliant name has vanished into the dust of history: Li Bai, the immortal poet; Su Shi, the literary giant; Tang Xianzu, the master playwright...

While everyone else recites, “Wow, your eyes are like stars,” he blurts out, “She seems to be veiled by a wisp of cloud, drifting like snow swept up by the wind.”

When scenic spots fret over their cookie-cutter slogans, he writes, “The rosy clouds and a lone wild duck fly side by side; the autumn river and the endless sky merge into one.”

When the whole nation is consumed by cultural insecurity, his Romance of the Three Kingdoms ignites the people’s pride, while his song “When Will the Bright Moon Appear?” establishes the pinnacle of lyric poetry.

From remote ancient towns to the heights of the world, from poetry and prose to novels and plays, he alone “continues” the history of an entire civilization.

Yet when he is hailed as the “Sage of Letters,” Chen Yan writes a line no one can decipher deep in his manuscript:

“Am I truly reviving a civilization, or creating a myth… that belongs to me?”