Ming Dynasty Chess Player

In the last years of Hongzhi, the official administration of the Ming Dynasty was relaxed, and undercurrents in the court were surging. At the age of 45, Shen Yan accidentally passed through his soul and became a down-and-out scholar in Suzhou Prefecture. His family was destitute and struggling to make a living. He abandoned the single-plank bridge of the imperial examination, started by solving rural disputes, outsmarting grain merchants, and repairing dams, and gradually entered the county government officialdom. Faced with the oppression of the gentry, the difficulties of subordinate officials, and the trap of the eunuch party, he tolerated the plot and used his own strength to rise to prominence from a humble official. He solved the water transport fraud case and was recommended to Beijing. In the turbulent Ming Dynasty, Shen Yan used pragmatism as his blade and strategy as chess, dealing with the Qingliu, the eunuchs, and the imperial power, step by step, and eventually became an important minister in charge of the chess court, keeping his original intention and settling the world in troubled times.