The story of Xie He and his son Xie Xuan, and their two generations' journeys to success through the imperial examinations.
At dawn, a farm boy; by dusk, a court official.
A man is not born to a certain rank. He must make his own way.
P.S. Xie He embodies the way of the gentleman, while Xie Xuan defies fate and changes his own destiny.
Reading Notes:
1. An imperial-exam story with a large ensemble cast, told mainly from the male lead's point of view.
2. Set in a fictionalized mid-to-late Northern Song, with an imperial examination system based on the Ming dynasty.
3. This is part of the "Clear Skies After Rain in Lin'an (Imperial Exams)" series, exploring cause and effect in a different form.
Please add my new story, "I Work as a Cook in Su Shi's Household," to your reading list. Here's the blurb:
Song dynasty, fifth year of the Xining era. In a narrow, cramped courtyard in Hangzhou, Yuan Niang kneels beside her father's sickbed.
Yuan Niang has transmigrated, only to arrive just as her father falls gravely ill. She's a little stunned.
Fortunately, her father finds her somewhere to stay: she can live with his close friend until she gets married.
It's bitterly cold when a man arrives through the wind and snow. He carries the bearing of plum blossoms and a crane, with a refined and radiant air. The moment he takes off his bamboo hat, Yuan Niang hears her father say weakly, "Brother Zizhan, you've come."
Yuan Niang looks up in sudden realization. In Hangzhou during the Xining era, she knows of only one person with the courtesy name Zizhan: the genius whose name will live on through the ages, Su Shi.
Her father forces himself to entrust her to him, but before long, the Su family's circumstances grow difficult, too. She can't just eat and drink at their expense.
She can't manage needlework, which requires skill, but she thinks she can at least help light the fire and cook.
On Yuan Niang's first day in the Su family kitchen, she fails to cook a dish and burns down the kitchen instead.
A month after Yuan Niang starts working in the Su family kitchen, Su Shi stirs a bowl of broth where the water and rice remain entirely separate, wondering what could be wrong.
A year after Yuan Niang starts working in the Su family kitchen, Su Shi rubs his forehead as he looks at an unidentifiable, gelatinous substance on the plate and gives up.
Going out to serve as an official and coming home to cook: perhaps this is his fate.
Later, someone quietly asks Su Shi how a great writer like him managed to hone such superb cooking skills.
Was the family cook especially talented?
Su Shi falls silent. Yes, the cook was talented. He learned it all by himself.
[Reading Notes]
1. A food story with a cozy, everyday feel. The story itself isn't written in first person; only the title is.
2. The author takes plenty of liberties, and dubious folk histories and rumors abound. The story is basically set in an alternate world, so please don't fact-check it.
3. The heroine isn't paired with Su Shi. He raises her like his own daughter.
4. Blurb subject to change, 2024.4.20
Theme: Hard work and self-reliance
I Set Up a Food Stall Outside the Imperial Academy
I Go Fishing for My Master in the Northern Song Dynasty (Imperial Exams)
After I Was Widowed, My Former Fiancé Schemed to Take Me by Force
After the Crown Princess Mistook Her Husband
Clear Skies After the Lin'an Rain (Imperial Exams)
After the Concubine's Daughter Took Her Place in Marriage
I Landed on a Big Shot's Blacklist
After the Supporting Female Character Enters with Her Own Script
The Emperor's Beloved Wife
Springtime Romance in the Marquis's Household
A Song of Immortals Beneath the Nine Heavens
I Became a Cook in Su Shi's Household
Jiao□□ follows brother Xuan, hahaha
It has come to this point and it is still wrong to ask. You might as well go directly and ask your ancestors!!!
If there is no people's political power in the eyes, no matter what era it is, it will end sooner or later!!! Xuan'er, come on!!!
Xie Zhao and Yun Niang are so cute... The love between parents is so exciting!
Come on, boss!!! I will always follow you!!!
The new chapter is as good as ever!
I really like Xie Xuan
Because I thought this book was very interesting, I read another one and found that the male protagonist in the other one was really unlikable, and some things were too frustrating and uncomfortable. Judging from the development of the main plot of this book, since Brother Xuan wants to bring Wen Renshi into the game and has mentioned changing the emperor Dangdang more than once, if Brother Xuan's idea is followed, the ending of the book should also be that the emperor is replaced by Wen Renshi. A wise monarch will not stand in the way of Brother Xuan's realization of his ambition. Otherwise, based on the background of Lin'an Yuji's book, Emperor The emperor is still from the Qi family, not even Qi Jing, who has some friendship with Brother Xuan. The selfish and arrogant mediocrity will definitely make things difficult for Brother Xuan's descendants. I kind of hope that this book and the other book can have nothing to do with each other, and can be read separately as parallel worlds without affecting each other. I really don't want to see Brother Xuan's ideals and ambitions come to nothing.
Teachers should pay attention to rest, good articles are worth waiting for!
Could it be that the protagonists in the other book are all dead? Is this a linkage or not? I saw that both my parents died and I was raised by my grandfather Xie He.