From the Chenqiao mutiny to the collapse of mountains and seas, from the prosperity of Bianjing to the lingering dreams of Lin'an, this book panoramically reproduces the rise and fall of the Song Dynasty over 320 years with fifty key scenes, nine character biographies, and a poetic totem-like epilogue.
[You will see] the wisdom and shadow of Zhao Kuangyin's "drinking to release military power"; Su Shi's free and easy invention of "Dongpo Pork" on the road to relegation; Shen Kuo's advanced technology recorded in "Mengxi Bi Tan"; Bi Sheng's invention of movable type printing but no The desolation of people's attention; the crisis of prosperity hidden in the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival"; the artistic tragedy of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty treating the country as a canvas; Yue Fei's unfinished ambition of "thirty years of fame and dust"; Lu You's deathbed obsession of "not forgetting to tell the old man about family sacrifices"
; Wen Tianxiang's swan song of "leaving his loyalty to illuminate history"; the final heroic spirit of one hundred thousand soldiers and civilians crossing the cliffs and seas
[Features of this book] Humanized narrative: emperors and generals are no longer stereotyped, Wang Anshi is a lonely reformer, Cai Jing is a traitorous minister with dignified handwriting, Tong Guan is a eunuch who dreams of being a general, Gao Qiu is a Taiwei kicked out by Cuju
[This is]✅ A collection of warm historical stories✅ A long scroll of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" of the social life of the Song Dynasty✅ A double variation of the glory and fragility of civilization✅ A dialogue with the ancients across time and space. In the end, it is all condensed in the glaze of a "Late Song Dynasty Azure" plum vase -
The blue that emerges from the gloom is the background of a dynasty and the fire of civilization that a nation refuses to extinguish in desperate situations.
Open this book and walk into the "best of times and the worst of times", and see how the beauty turns to ashes, and how out of the ashes, it grows the strength and elegance that will last for thousands of years.
