Seeking the Way at Nishan: The Analects Taught Me How to Live

Night-market owner Zhou Mingyuan is driven bankrupt by a friend. After getting drunk, he crashes into a tree and wakes up in the world of The Analects, at Nishan Academy. Here, people recite “gentleness, kindness, respect, frugality, and modesty” as they walk, quote “The Master said” when they argue, and anyone who defies the rules is punished by “Heaven’s wrath.” As the most “heretical” person around, he catches the eye of Confucian heavyweight Kong Xiuwen. Curse once and bird droppings land on his face; help someone cut in line and he ends up in a mud pit. But Zhou Mingyuan is no pushover: he’s a streetwise survivor from the night market! When Meng Shuqing is forced to study the Admonitions for Women, he tears up the book: “Stop pretending. If you don’t like it, say so!” When Qi Zimo has his exam questions stolen, he sets a trap and turns the tables: “Take advantage of someone, and you’ll pay double!” But after using his street smarts to get out of one predicament after another, he realizes Kong Xiuwen looks at him as if they were “old acquaintances.” What’s more, the memories of how he was cheated in the modern world seem to overlap with the flaws in this world of The Analects. Could his transmigration into a book really have been no accident?