Legend of Kunshan

"Kunshan Biography" is an imaginary contemporary novel based on the history and culture of Kunshan and based on real historical figures. The novel unfolds from a fragment of "Kunshan Biography" that has been identified as a "modern apocryphal book". After the death of his grandfather, ancient books appraiser Gu Wenzhou was involved in a controversy about authenticity, reputation and cultural inheritance. Following the clues left by papers, ink marks, music scores, old houses, oral narratives and local memories, he gradually got closer to historical figures such as Gu Jian, Shen Wansan, Gui Youguang, Wei Liangfu, Liang Chenyu, Gu Yanwu, Guizhuang, Zhu Bailu, etc. He also re-understood his grandfather, father and ordinary people living in Kunshan today. The historical identities and major cultural contributions of the historical figures in the book are based on real history; the specific encounters between the characters, correspondence, folk anecdotes, the fragments of "Kunshan Biography" and modern investigative cases are all fictitious in the novel. The work does not aim to retell local chronicles or restore all historical facts, nor does it regard fictional plots as historical materials. Instead, it uses an ancient and young city to ask several questions that are still relevant today: what is worth remembering, who is qualified to tell about a city, and how should a latecomer take over what the predecessors left behind. This is not a biography of anyone. What it wants to write about is how many people make choices in their own era, and how they leave something in the hands of those who come after them without knowing it. The story takes place in an fictional era that is close to reality but does not exist. I hope readers will regard it as a journey that spans hundreds of years: history provides echoes, the present provides answers, and the real "passage" always continues in the human world.