Nalan Rongruo

In the early years of the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, the treacherous minister Oboi was captured, and Xuanye took the reins of power, eager to recruit talent on a grand scale. For a time, old Jianghu hands and young talents sprang up like bamboo shoots after the rain, shining in a flourishing age and vying for fame across the Jianghu. The two factions fought for power; loyal ministers and scholars either attached themselves to powerful patrons, kept their heads down, or retreated to bustling cities, while students of the literati world settled for keeping safe. Yet amid the precarious court and the distinguished families, the Nalan household produced a handsome young gentleman. He carved out a clear stream of his own, protected the great literary minds of the Jianghu, and spent his life writing poetry and essays with an air of carefree elegance. Like a shooting star, he streaked across the Qing dynasty, leaving the world awestruck and sighing over him for a thousand years.

That man was the greatest literary talent of the early Qing dynasty, Nalan Rongruo.