This is not a simple time-travel story, but an inquiry about the dilemma of civilization - when a soul carrying modern knowledge is thrown into a turning point in history, to what extent can he leverage the established track? The significance of Chen Heng is not to bring blueprints of machine guns and steam engines, but to provide a "heterogeneous perspective": with the sensitivity of a loser, he has an insight into the decay under the prosperous age; with the knowledge structure of a history graduate, he understands the mechanism of the operation of power; with the anxiety of a modern person, he rethinks "what is China".
The final point of the novel is not the "Shuangwen" style of changing dynasties, but asking: If history gives a chance to start over, can we avoid the tragedy of the late Qing Dynasty? And what price will be paid in the process of avoiding tragedy?
