"He betrayed the ways of Yao and Shun, and falsely claimed to practice abdication."
"He considered Chao Fu and Xu You men of lofty, unyielding virtue, but they failed to understand Yao's heart. How could they possibly be worthy of admiration?"
The so-called "Wei-Jin elegance" was nothing more than a group of pitiable, ridiculous, out-of-step literati, with no material wealth to offer their country, their ideals of sun and moon reduced to empty delusions. Even the waters of the Luo River could not wash away the filth in their hearts. All they could do was let their hollow, broken bodies drift away on the wind as the world turned around them.
The power struggles of this world were never something metaphysicians could meddle in. Naively, they tried to change the course of history, only to be crushed to pieces. They took the world as their responsibility, yet in the end were branded "heretics" and thrown into prison.
So I wrote this story to reveal another, little-known side of the Wei-Jin literati: the more open and carefree their words and manners, the more lost and desolate their hearts. The transition between the Wei and Jin dynasties was a sweeping tragedy, a stage where usurpers took their turns in the spotlight, and a landscape painting of lofty beauty. Here, pines and bamboo stand tall, scholars converse, and the proud spirit of the literati lives on.
Theme: Tell one heart-wrenching Wei-Jin story after another, and offer readers a different vision of Wei-Jin elegance
