The History of Mistakes: a Fragment of the Beginning

In the second year of Guangqi's reign, there were three thousand refugees outside Chenliu County in Bianzhou. The fragment of the scroll in Du Qingjian's hand said, "The county magistrate opened a warehouse to provide relief of three thousand dan," but the warehouse was empty. Aman, a living person, was written into the death register, thirty-seven households in Qingquan were wiped out, and the Song family's grain truck entered the village overnight. Du Qingjian did not want to let words determine his life or death, so he went to the county government office to copy the records and verify the truth by using user registers, grain records, inscriptions, and old accounts. Every time he burned a leftover page, he was one step closer to the truth and one step closer to the Bureau of History Revision. The Bureau of History Revision is not under the control of the county or the state, but is solely responsible for making the official history "correct". The theory that his father died in the rebellion, the old stall in Qingquanli, and the official grain that disappeared on March 22 all point to the same old seal. What Du Qingjian did was not to let everyone know the truth, but to turn the truth into a book that could protect living people.