The Fifteenth Year of Wanli: the Long Summer

In the fifteenth year of Wanli, 1587 AD, it was an ordinary year for the Ming Empire. This year, summer came very early in Beijing. Shen Du, a student at the Imperial College, failed three times and was trapped in an unknown alley in the south of the city. He read newspapers, attended lectures, wrote letters home, and copied books for others - his days passed as slowly as the moat of Beijing. But he didn't know that he was standing on the threshold of a great era. This year, Hai Rui died of illness in Nanjing, Qi Jiguang suffered from poverty and illness in Dengzhou, and Zhang Juzheng's ghost was still wandering in the court. The Jurchens in Liaodong were quietly gathering, and Western missionaries entered Beijing with their chiming bells and geometry. Emperor Wanli had not been in court for fifteen years, and his chief minister, Shen Shixing, was walking a tightrope between "no" and "no". The code for an empire's transformation from prosperity to decline is hidden in this seemingly peaceful year. Shen Du recorded it all with his eyes.