In the second year of Guanghua reign of Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty, a baby boy was born to an ordinary peasant family in Guanzhong. His father named him "Bingsheng" and only wished him a safe life.
Ke He happened to be born in an era when it was most difficult to find peace.
From the separatist rule of vassal towns at the end of the Tang Dynasty to Zhu Wen's replacement of the Tang Dynasty; from the Later Liang, the Later Tang, the Later Jin, the Later Han, the Later Zhou, and then to the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, during the eighty years, he watched the emperors of the seven surnames take turns on the stage, and also watched countless ordinary people struggle to survive amidst war, famine, corvee and displacement. He worked as a farmer, porter, and coachman, and was also forced to join the army. He escaped disaster, suffered hunger, and lost close relatives. He also lied, stole, and retreated in order to survive, and even almost became the person he once hated the most.
He has seen brothers who turned against each other over half a bag of grain, he has seen military leaders who stepped on corpses to get promoted, and he has also seen strangers who were still willing to part with a mouthful of food in desperate situations.
What the troubled times taught him was not the principles of heroes, but the simplest survival wisdom of an ordinary person: don't show off when you can keep your head down, don't beg for death easily when you can live, remember the kindness you owe others, and don't harm others if you can.
Eighty years later, when the Northern Han Dynasty fell and the world was gradually unified, the dying He Pingsheng looked back on his life and finally understood——
The world can go bad, but people don't necessarily have to go bad.
As long as there are still people willing to leave a seed for tomorrow, the world will not truly become dark.
