A Commoner's Romance After Transmigrating to the Northern Song Dynasty

What is true love? It is the heart skipping a beat, two hearts choosing each other, being the one and only in this life, and staying true through life and death. It is all the little things in everyday life. Does true love exist in this world? It does, but it is so rare that most of us have only heard of it, never seen it. Love also means yielding, compromising, even sacrificing, all so you can hold your beloved's hand and grow old together. I was reborn in the Northern Song dynasty after a tsunami and raised by a wealthy merchant family. My cousin and I grew up together, childhood sweethearts with the purest and sweetest first love. But in a feudal society, even mutual affection and deep love could not overcome the arrangements of fate. Still, I was no ordinary woman bound by feudal traditions. With the resilience of a modern woman, I fought against my fate... The Song dynasty was China's most prosperous era economically, most advanced in technology, most flourishing in culture, and most accomplished in the arts. Its people enjoyed the highest standard of living. It was a dynasty that brought China great honor, and at the time, no country in the world produced more inventions. The Song dynasty was also the period in which China made its greatest contributions to the world. More than half of China's major historical inventions appeared during this era. Three of the so-called Four Great Inventions of ancient China were invented or first put to large-scale practical use: gunpowder, the compass, and printing. Other advances included paper money, vertical spinning, and important reforms in porcelain-making. Song China reached unprecedented heights in navigation, shipbuilding, medicine, craftsmanship, and agricultural technology, heights that later ages would struggle to match. The Song dynasty also developed a new field of study: the science of technology. These brilliant achievements were directly tied to the dynasty's overall civilization. In both quality and quantity, the Song dynasty was the world's foremost power. It had reached the pinnacle of the feudal dynastic system, and the first sprouts of capitalism had appeared. The Song dynasty was the only dynasty in ancient China that refrained from suppressing commerce for an extended period. From its founding, it developed mines and organized the production of tea and salt. As a result, large numbers of farmers freed from the land moved into commerce and handicrafts. The private economy was stimulated and grew by leaps and bounds, creating unprecedented wealth and prosperity. Some readers have raised the question of merchants' status, so let me clarify: merchants were not low in status. My author page Completed transmigration farming novel: Little Jade of a Humble Household Theme: