With Zhang Heng at the center, and Ouyang Xiu and Zhang Yaozuo, both real historical figures, alongside Zhang Dun, a fictional character modeled on the historical figure Zhang Dun, and Zhao Mingyun, a fictional “bystander” whose perspective offers an outside view, this volume uses their interactions from the second to the third year of Jiayou to portray the complex political landscape of the mid-Northern Song court.
