[Historical + survival + farming + building wealth] Amid the chaos at the end of the Tang dynasty, Shen Cheng, a young farmer from Jiankang, takes the agricultural classic Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People as his guide. Through natural disasters and human calamities, he leads his neighbors in improving farming and sericulture, building waterworks, and forming a mutual-defense association. At the Jiangzhou dike settlement on the Qinhuai River, he protects their home and sinks the roots of “a family sustained by farming and study, looking out for and helping one another” deep into the turbulent storms of a changing age.
