Daming, Let Me Give You Some Color!

Traveling back in time to become a poor scholar in the Ming Dynasty, Gu Jiang originally just wanted to make some inventions based on his knowledge of chemistry to make ends meet, but he didn't expect that a scandal involving the fading of his dragon robe would push him to the guillotine. "If you can't dye authentic vermilion within a hundred days, you will kill the nine tribes!" Under the pressure of the imperial authority, monopolized raw materials and corrupt bureaucrats set up obstacles at every level. In the desperate situation, Gu Jiang smiled. He used chemistry as his pen and heaven and earth as his dyeing vat to create the "Dusk Mountain Purple" that amazes Beijing, and the "Twilight Blue" that overwhelms all sentient beings, revitalizing the silent color spectrum of the Ming Dynasty. In the rouge red, he glimpsed the undercurrent of silver on the sea; in the rust red, he touched the blood and tears of the border soldiers; in the imperial blue, he saw clearly the life and death choices between the openness and closure of the dynasty. The powerful people wanted to accept him as a hawk, so he held a color auction, allowing half of the court's dignitaries to compete for bids, and his dignity was in his hand. When the emperor asked him what reward he wanted, he pointed at the merchant ships coming from the sea, and his voice shocked the palace: "Your Majesty, I want to show this sluggish empire the color of the world!" He uses color as a blade to cut open the decayed cross-section of a dynasty, struggling forward in the fatal whirlpool of technology, power and ideas. He has spent his whole life harmonizing the most extreme red and blue, but he has to find his foothold in the Ming Dynasty, where black and white are clear. When ideals fail to meet the iron wall of reality, a scholar uses his knowledge to change his destiny. In the end, he just wants to answer: How can an individual live in this troubled world? Where should the fire of civilization go?