Synopsis
On the frontier of the Great Yong dynasty, Chen Yan, a poor-born scholar, wakes to find his tutor at the clan school denouncing him as a “rotten piece of wood.” He owns nothing but hazy memories of a past life and a pair of unusual eyes that can see the radiance of literary energy.
In this world, scholars cultivate the “Way of Letters.” Ink and brush shine, poetry becomes a sword, and magnificent writing can stir an echo from heaven and earth. Aristocratic clans monopolize the literary tradition. No matter how talented a poor scholar may be, without a “seed of literary energy,” he can never enter their ranks.
Standing beneath the leaky eaves of his home, Chen Yan watches a wisp of green light quietly gather in his palm. It is the “literary energy” that should have been passed down only through the direct descendants of noble families.
Starting with the children's examination in a remote county, he shatters the fate that “no one from a poor family can rise to prominence.” His county exam essay, “Ode to Encouraging Learning,” summons nine inches of talent. His poem at the prefectural exam astonishes heaven and earth. By the academy examination, people are already calling him “Chen of the Green Radiance.”
But the road to success is fraught with danger. Local strongmen seek to steal his literary energy. Prominent families in the province want him as a son-in-law so they can control his talent. Factional struggles between old and new forces roil the court, while powerful practitioners of the Way of Letters among the northern tribes watch him hungrily.
With a brush in his left hand and a sword in his right, he cleaves an unprecedented path, guided by the conviction that “the people are paramount.” He establishes village schools, builds irrigation works, overturns unjust cases, and secures the frontier. He wins the hearts of scholars throughout the realm and gathers the literary energy of the land into himself.
Then, on the day of the palace examination, his essay appears in the Golden Hall, and purple qi streams in from three thousand miles away. The emperor rises from the dragon throne and asks, “What place is there for the poor-born?”
Chen Yan raises his brush and writes on a palace pillar: “Where my heart finds peace, there lies the lifeblood of letters.”
