[Native Characters and Historical Facts] [Marriage Before Love] [Farming and Infrastructure Building]
Hu Zhao, courtesy name Kongming. Yes, yet another Kongming who spent his whole life entangled with Sima Yi, and a Kongming who really did spend his whole life as a countryman.
Starting out with a hoe, he tricks a young woman into coming with him, only to have all sides clamoring for him to lead them:
Lu Zhi: I'll recommend you for office and restore the glory of the Hu clan.
Yuan Shao: Come to Jizhou and be my chief strategist.
Cao Cao: Help me achieve my ambitions, and I'll make you one of the Three Excellencies.
Even when he's eighty-eight, the seventy-one-year-old Sima Yi comes to pay his respects, one hand leading his "Master" and the other his "Zhao," with his fine sons in tow. "Master, I've gained control of Cao Wei. Come with me to Luoyang, and I'll provide for you in your old age."
But Hu Zhao turns them all down, choosing to remain aloof from worldly affairs amid the chaos.
The Yellow Turban Rebellion, the fallout from the Partisan Prohibitions, the rival heroes at Guandu, the Seven Sages of Jian'an, the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, the Zhengshi coup: the world's ups and downs, and all the changes of time, are nothing but passing clouds.
To him, no fame, fortune, or power could compare with the little girl he tricked into coming with him in the first year of Zhongping, using a tally as bait, and the little world they built together, bustling yet peaceful:
People have their joys and sorrows; the moon waxes and wanes.
Since A Yue is "the moon we gaze at,"
I want you by my side. Let us keep only joy and protect our own pure refuge amid these troubled times.
[TAGS] A farming and homesteading story, marriage before love, told from the male lead's perspective as he pursues the female lead. They occasionally take up arms to defend their home, but never enter government service.
The main plot is farming, infrastructure building, and romance. The side plot is befriending historical figures and triggering historical events.
From Wen County in Henei to Yiyang in Hongnong, from the Seven Sages of Jian'an to the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, from the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the Gaopingling Incident, he spends his life seeking balance amid chaos. Wherever the bright moon is, there is a haven from the troubled world.
[A LITTLE ASIDE] A rather obscure Three Kingdoms figure, born in 162 and died in 250, one year older than Xun Yu and one year younger than Sima Yi. He was from Yingchuan and skilled in calligraphy. He successively refused invitations and appointments from Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and Sima Yi, saved Sima Yi, and once suppressed a plot to defect during Guan Yu's campaign that shook China. I came up with A Yue first, then matched her with Hu Zhao... What a curious parallel. Kongming's wife has to be named after the moon, right?
[CONTENT WARNINGS] The timeline spans a long period, the romance is prominent, and the everyday life and historical events alternate at a leisurely pace. There is childbirth and child-rearing, plus cameos from characters in novels in the same series, which share a universe.
Theme: When poor, cultivate your own virtue; when prosperous, benefit the world.
