The Daoist of the Great Ming

Tao Liangbi, a graduate student in chemistry, wakes up to find himself the grandson of Tao Zhongwen, a Daoist practitioner who was Jiajing Emperor's most favored courtier and held all three Grand Tutor titles. With Prince Yu, the future emperor who despises Daoist practitioners, waiting to ascend the throne, Tao Liangbi decides to give up the civil service examinations and ignite the spark of a chemical revolution in the Great Ming under the guise of cultivating the Dao. But memories of history from a later age haunt him: the Guanzhong earthquake of the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing, which will claim over a million lives. He cannot bring himself to simply lie low and survive. To save the people, he persuades his grandfather to advise the emperor, but in doing so, he stakes himself and his entire family on a gamble against fate and against the court. With the emperor's special authorization, Tao Liangbi is sent into the worst quagmire in the capital region. Armed with six hundred thousand taels of silver, he launches an industrial revolution in Wanping County that overwhelms the age by sheer technological superiority. He uses cement to tame rivers, asphalt to pave roads, vouchers to replace precious metals, and spinning machines to transform production relations. At the same time, he protects himself with prophecies and military achievements, standing up to the wealthy gentry and merchants who hoard goods for profit. Yet the real crisis falls from the sky: the Shaanxi earthquake strikes right on schedule, and refugees flood the land... As political attacks, nighttime assassins, and the heir apparent's suspicion come one after another, Tao Liangbi reveals one trump card after another. When the flame of chemistry meets the mysteries of Daoist arts, and modern ingenuity pries at imperial authority, Tao Liangbi realizes that his task is not merely to change the technology of the Great Ming, but to redefine the very meaning of the Dao in this world. On this land cursed by an endless cycle of order and chaos, he will use reforms to the civil service, new schools, and an army of literate soldiers who understand science to reshape the entire Great Ming Empire.