Shen Yan, a researcher on the history of the Song Dynasty, opened his eyes and found that he had arrived on the eighth day of the first lunar month in the fourth year of Zhiping - the day when Song Yingzong died and Song Shenzong ascended the throne.
He knew that Wang Anshi would preside over the reform two years later, and he also knew that sixty years later, prosperous Tokyo would fall in the Jingkang Incident.
But standing on the streets of Bianjing, he only had five copper coins in his hand. He neither knew the way home nor could he prove his future to anyone.
From the bookstore, Taixue to local officialdom, to the Ministry of Household Affairs and the central court, Shen Yan will spend his life experiencing reforms, party struggles, prosperity and crisis. He cannot replace the figures in history, but he wants to understand: Why can a dynasty that gathers smart people from all over the world always solve the immediate problems but continue to create bigger problems?
