A Thousand Years of Puzzles: The Tang Dynasty's Greatest Contrarian

The Kaiyuan era was prosperous on the surface, but the Tianbao crisis hid rot beneath the splendor. Modern young man Li Zhaoyan transmigrates into the body of a ninth-rank county magistrate, binds himself to the Nitpicker System, and vows to fight his way through a flourishing Tang dynasty on the verge of collapse.

Emperor Xuanzong is lost in a dream of peace. Li Zhaoyan submits a blood-written memorial: “Your Majesty, are you blind? Can’t you see the million refugees on the border, reduced to eating their own children?” The treacherous minister Li Linfu tries to raise taxes. Li Zhaoyan lashes out in open court: “You strip the people to enrich the ruler. What kind of sage’s book did you study?”

He argues with the emperor and berates the chancellor. His sharp tongue makes him the bane of every official in court, yet he rises from a lowly ninth-rank post to become a third-rank Censor-in-Chief. Everyone thinks he is mad, but he alone knows that behind his mockery and scolding lies a lonely reformer’s desperate struggle against the current of history. He defies the retaliation of the great clans and does not hesitate to become a pawn, all to preserve a sliver of hope for the Tang dynasty before An Lushan’s iron hooves crush the land.

Until one day, Emperor Xuanzong dismisses his attendants and asks, his expression complicated, “My dear minister, you curse me every day. Are you... playing some grand game of chess?”

Li Zhaoyan kneels and chokes back tears. The stakes of this game are not fame or fortune, but the lives of countless commoners and the backbone of Chinese civilization.