The First Year of Daye is a long historical novel in four volumes, telling the story of a canal towboat hauler's fortunes from the first year of Emperor Yang of Sui's Daye era (605) to the fall of the Sui dynasty (618).
Narrative structure: The court and the jianghu storylines interweave. The court always remains in the background, its influence reflected in the jianghu through rumors among the people, forced labor drafts, and changes in prices. It never appears directly.
At its heart, the novel is about "ordinary people struggling amid an era of upheaval." From evading conscription and leaving to escort cargo, to being drafted and enduring hard labor at a construction site, to watching one person after another around him die, Zhou Xiaoman has always had only one thought: to make it back alive.
