Synopsis
The 40th year of the Wanqing reign was a time when Emperor Pei Yijun neglected state affairs and the people suffered terribly.
It was also the 30th year since the death of Zhang Juyue, the first chief minister of the Wanqing dynasty, a man of immense power who fell into disgrace and whose name no one dared mention.
Later histories recorded: Throughout the Wanqing era, no one dared speak well of Juyue.
At the beginning of that year, fourteen-year-old Yun Xiu had a dream. A silver-haired person with a sorrowful expression held a palace lantern and gazed at her.
When she woke, she suddenly remembered the portrait that had once been hidden in her father's study.
The person in her dream looked somewhat like...
"Grand Secretary and Junior Preceptor Zhang," who had died years ago.
Yun Xiu wanted to know about his past, but no one dared tell her, no one would bring it up, and even her father was guarded on the subject.
To find traces of him and learn his life story, she traveled among the people. There she met an elegant young gentleman about her own age, named Pei Zhaoqi.
Yun Xiu and he understood each other deeply. Before she knew it, she had fallen in love with Pei, whose political views matched her own, while also learning more about the unspeakable Mr. Zhang.
*
Peasant uprisings spread, war fires blazed across the land, and the country was beset by internal and external crises. The emperor remained secluded in the palace, yet an imperial decree of marriage was issued.
Yun Xiu was unwillingly betrothed to the youngest of the emperor's seven sons, His Highness Prince Jin. He had a bad reputation, and she detested the imperial family, so she had no wish to marry him. But not long after the marriage was arranged,
she learned that Pei Zhaoqi, who had searched with her for every detail of Zhang Juyue's life, was actually the current Prince Jin, Pei Jinlan. Zhaoqi was his courtesy name.
In a vast and chaotic age, with the people's hearts turned against the throne, they insist on turning back the raging tide and saving a collapsing empire. They will overthrow the state founded on ancestral laws and rigid convention.
From the highest seat in the empire, they will find a way for countless people to survive the desperate end of the world, bring peace to the borders, and restore justice to that man.
In short: In the dying days of a chaotic age, a young couple join forces, play the fool while hiding their strengths, seize the throne, and bring the land under their rule. I wanted to send them to a parallel world to restore the Ming in its twilight years, saving Mr. Zhang's shattered ideals and ambitions. This book is dedicated to Zhang Juzheng. The dynasty is still called Ming, and the border situation is unchanged. You get the idea.
Set in the late Wanli period, modeled on the Ming dynasty's twilight years. I wanted to write about a departed beloved who dies right at the start of the story. Zhang Juyue is based on Zhang Juzheng. The cover is a character portrait of Zhang Juyue, as imagined by Yun Xiu. The main plot is to clear Lord Zhang's name and, along the way, seize the throne and save the Ming.
Seventy percent of the characters are based on real historical figures, but the male and female leads are not. Don't look for historical counterparts for them, because they don't exist. This is my take on an alternate Ming, with a world entirely based on the Ming dynasty.
Eighty percent of the framework is modeled on the Ming. If you criticize me, you're right. The heroine's name comes from the phrase "Clouds drift out from the hollow peaks without a care."
The blurb may change at any time, but the heart of the story will remain the same.
You can enjoy this even if you haven't read Ming history or don't know about the Wanli era. At its core, this is an alternate-history novel, in which I write about things I want to write and people I love. You don't need to know history, and don't read the novel as a historical reenactment. This isn't historical fanfiction. It's an original historical political intrigue novel in an alternate setting, so just enjoy it as a historical novel and don't expect too much.
In the era after Zhang Juzheng, there are still people who need his ideals.
Theme: Cultivate oneself, manage the family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world.
