I Just Know That the Bright Moon Was There at That Time

Shen Youruo is a doctoral student at the School of Archeology and Museology at Peking University, specializing in the study of material culture in Song history. His graduation thesis is titled "The Use of Palace Utensils and Political Metaphors in the Late Northern Song Dynasty - Focusing on the "Shaosheng" and "Yuanfu" Periods. She is very familiar with that period of history: in the third year of Yuanfu (1100), Song Zhezong Zhao Xu died without heirs at the age of 24, and Duan Wang Zhao Ji succeeded him as Huizong. She had stood in front of the display cabinets of the Kaifeng Museum countless times, staring at the exquisite Ru kiln azure glazed porcelain, imagining the final prosperity of the dynasty that was about to overthrow. She wrote a paper analyzing the key role of Empress Dowager Xiang in this succession of the throne - this woman with only a few entries in the history books single-handedly pushed Zhao Ji to the throne and indirectly sounded the death knell for the Song Dynasty. Then she traveled through time. When she woke up, she was lying next to the dragon couch in Funing Hall. Next to her was the dying young emperor Zhe Zong, and the imperial doctor was kneeling on the floor. The palace people tremblingly called her "sage" - this was the title given to the queen in the Northern Song Dynasty. She lowered her head and saw her well-maintained but tired hands, and then raised her eyes to see the gentle and dignified face in the bronze mirror, but with worry hidden in her brows. She became the Queen Mother. It was the first month of the third year of Yuanfu, and Zhe Zong was on his deathbed.