Synopsis:
The impoverished strategist Pei Jibai and Emperor Shen Yan join forces to thwart the powerful clans' plot to falsify the Records of the Grand Historian. At the cost of burning the imperial ancestral temple and its counterfeit history, they ultimately bring about reforms to the system that allows men of humble birth to enter government service. Through court intrigue and debates over the authenticity of historical texts, the story depicts the struggle for the power to interpret history and the bloody path of class revolution. At its heart lies an epic choice between "burning the old histories" and "forging a new world."
Note added 2025.4.17
Key historical sources referenced:
1. Records of the Grand Historian:
- Passages from "The Hereditary House of Chen She" ("Are kings, nobles, generals, and ministers born to their stations?") and "The Basic Annals of Xiang Yu" ("He relied on his own cleverness and did not learn from the ancients") serve as the spiritual principles behind the uprising of the poor.
2. Zizhi Tongjian:
- Sima Guang's aim of "using the rise and fall of past dynasties as a mirror" is contrasted with a critique of how power whitewashes history, as in the novel's fictionalized Zizhi Tongjian.
3. Han Feizi:
- Shen Yan's political philosophy draws on the ideas of law, statecraft, and authority, including discussions of reform in the chapter "The Five Vermin."
Powerful clans:
- Inspired by the Nine-rank system of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the monopoly held by the five surnames and seven great clans of the Tang dynasty (Cui, Lu, Li, Zheng, and Wang), reflecting the conflict between the poor and the aristocracy.
2. The case of falsified historical texts:
- Inspired by Qin Shi Huang's burning of books and burying of scholars, literary inquisitions during the Qing dynasty, and political interference in the compilation of Zizhi Tongjian, such as Emperor Taizong of Tang revising the Veritable Records.
3. Imperial examination reform:
- Echoes key moments in the advancement of men of humble birth, including the establishment of the imperial examinations during the Sui and Tang dynasties and Wang Anshi's new examination policies, which abolished poetry and fu composition in favor of examinations on the Confucian classics.
Intellectual core:
- The Confucian principle of "the people as the foundation" ("the people are the most important" in Mencius) clashes with Legalist theories of reform.
- Sima Qian's historical vision of "understanding change from ancient times to the present" runs throughout the novel.
(Note: This is a work of alternate history. All events and references to historical texts have been artistically reimagined.)
Theme: "Burn history as a warning, and let the poor forge their resolve; where golden scales rise anew, the land will finally shine green."
