During the Qingli period, Shen Mo, a poor family member in Huzhou, embarked on the difficult road to the imperial examination in order to avoid the heavy service in Yaqian that bankrupted his family and property.
The three generations of the Shen family have gone through the prosperous era of Renzong Jiayou, Xining's reform, Yuanyou's party struggles, Xuanhe's glitz, until the fall of Jingkang and the Yiguan's migration to the south.
From rural taxation and county government lawsuits, to the game of government decrees in the Bianjing court; from the exemption of young crops from military service, the reform of the official system in Yuanfeng, to the destruction of the city by the Jin soldiers, and the peace of Lin'an.
There is no conspiracy against heaven, only scholar-bureaucrats making difficult choices between ideals and reality.
He witnessed the strife between the old and new parties, the chronic military and political abuses, and the suffering of the people's livelihood, and witnessed the Song Dynasty falling from the peak of its prosperity to the abyss step by step.
In one book, you can understand the official system, finance and taxation, military law, wedding customs, etiquette and various market conditions in the Song Dynasty.
Prosperity turned into a dream in an instant, and mountains and rivers were displaced several times. The ups and downs of three generations revealed the ineradicable malaise in the prosperous age of the Song Dynasty.
