Wan Shichang - the Story of Chenghua Chicken Cup

The original inspiration for this work came from the legendary story of a cup and a couple. The love between Zhu Jianshen and Wan Zhen'er, the Chenghua Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, is a very special existence in Chinese history. The age gap of seventeen years, the identity change from "nanny" to "lover", the exclusive love spanning more than thirty years, the fate of passing away in the same year - this relationship itself transcended the ordinary narrative of an emperor and a concubine, and became a human love that cannot be easily defined. It naturally has great literary tension. This novel takes this as an axis and radiates outward the historical panorama of nearly forty years in the mid-Ming Dynasty: war and peace, power and emotions, loyal ministers and powerful traitors, family, country and personal relationships, all intertwined on the stage of the Chenghua Dynasty. A colorful chicken bowl cup was born from the fire of Jingdezhen kiln, circulated for five hundred years, and finally arrived at the Hong Kong auction in 2014, connecting the past and present, artifacts and emotions, history and present into a complete closed loop. Through this novel, I hope to use the story of Zhu Jianshen and Wan Zhen'er as a mirror to reflect the complexity of human nature and the value of affection under the premise of strictly respecting historical truth - their love has both dependence and fulfillment, protection and paranoia, greatness and limitations. What I pursue is not to create a perfect hero or an ideal love, but to restore how a pair of real people choose each other, achieve each other, and ultimately follow each other in the cracks of fate. This kind of love still resonates today, and can find some resonance in today's values ​​​​—who doesn't long for someone to spread their wings for you when the storm comes?