"Jinling Yunzhelu" is based on the last days of the Northern Song Dynasty when Zhezong and Huizong alternated. It tells the story of Shen Guanlan, the son of a tea merchant in Bianjing, who moved his family south due to the strife between the old and new parties, and struggled to survive in Jinling, an important town in the south of the Yangtze River. At this time, Jiangning Mansion, on the surface, was a southeastern metropolis where "the cities were lined with jewels and the households were filled with jewels." In fact, it was a battlefield for fierce competition between old and new forces, local powerful people, palace eunuchs, and emerging businessmen. With exquisite textual research techniques, the water transportation hub, shipping tariffs, academy discussions and market conditions of Jinling City in the Northern Song Dynasty are restored. Shen Guanlan circled among the Gu, Wang, Xie, and Zhou families, looking for gaps in the huge profit network of Caoliang, Yanyin, tribute tea, and Huashigang. With the acumen of a businessman, the tenacity of a doer, and the faith in troubled times, he created a legend of a business family under the sound of oars and lights on the banks of the Qinhuai River. This is not only a story of personal struggle, but also a "Jinling Ukiyo-e" depicting the financial lifeline of the empire, local power structure and social mobility, profoundly revealing the undercurrents and crises surging under the appearance of prosperity in the Northern Song Dynasty.
