Chen Yuan, a materials science PhD, wakes after an accidental explosion in his laboratory to find himself a poor scholar on the brink of death in the Northern Song capital of Dongjing.
This Song dynasty is both like and unlike the history he knows. Beneath its flourishing culture lie a deeply entrenched, ailing government and turbulent border conflicts. Write poetry? The words slip from his mind. Discuss the classics and statecraft? His head pounds.
All he has left is the scientific mindset imprinted on his soul and a historical perspective spanning a thousand years.
With no way back, he can only press forward. He starts with the mathematics questions in the county examinations, using calculus to explain The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. In his policy essays, he analyzes the Yellow River floods through the lens of project management. At the palace examinations, he even puts forward a forward-looking argument for “enriching the country through resources and strengthening the military through technology,” shaking the entire court.
But passing the examinations is only the beginning. Every promotion, from county magistrate to chancellor, brings modern ideas into fierce collision with the ancient bureaucracy. He improves farming tools, only to face resistance from local strongmen; promotes new learning, only to be attacked by great Confucian scholars; and once he holds power, he becomes caught in the struggle between old and new factions and the emperor's suspicions.
Good-looking😄Good-looking