Five Lives as a Brocade Guard: I Still Can’t Save the Ming Dynasty

In the twenty-seventh year of the Jiajing reign, Pei Yan, a Jinyiwei commander, failed to save Grand Secretary Xia Yan and “died suddenly” in the imperial prison. When he opened his eyes again, he had become his own grandson. His own son held him and wept, while his late wife fed him. He thought Heaven had given him another chance. But in this life, he could not save Yang Jisheng; in the next, he could not protect Zhang Juzheng. And beyond them waited the snows of Sarhu, the gates of Shanhaiguan, and the bowstring drawn in Kunming. He had no memories of the future, only the experience of having died. With every death, he understood people a little better and saw a little more clearly: the Great Ming ship had more than one leak. Five generations as a Jinyiwei, across one hundred and sixty years. He wanted to see whether one man could truly defy the mandate of Heaven. But who had written those words on the last page of the family register, words he had never written himself?