A Chronicle of the Zhenguan Era

Shen Mu, a researcher at the city museum and a PhD in Sui and Tang history. The thing he’s best at is telling people about Chang’an: the design of Danfeng Gate, the layout of its 108 wards, the angle of the arrow at Xuanwu Gate. He wrote A Study of the Life of Li Jiancheng, the Hidden Crown Prince, hoping to set the record straight about Li Jiancheng. The academic world scoffed, and once again he failed to secure a promotion. He began spending whole nights talking to Li Shimin and Wei Zheng, in his dreams. His colleagues thought he was crazy. He thought he’d found kindred spirits. One evening, before the Daming Palace ruins museum closed, he stood on the rammed-earth foundations of Danfeng Gate. Someone behind him called, “Lord Shen.” He didn’t know whether it was a dream or reality. He followed the voice A snowy wilderness. The thirteenth year of Daye. Henan Circuit. He crawled out of a crowd of starving refugees, forty li from Liyang Granary. He joined the Wagang Army and became a secretary. He saw the day Li Mi opened Luokou Granary, when hundreds of thousands of people surged toward it like water, and he lived through the bloody banquet that followed. He had meant to save Zhai Rang, but not one word in the history books’ eight-character account, “Mi invited Rang to a gathering, then killed him,” changed for his sake. Only then did he understand: he knew how things would end, but he couldn’t save anyone. After surrendering to the Tang, he entered the Prince of Qin’s residence to handle documents and followed the army to Mingshui, witnessing firsthand the brothers’ rivalry during the Wude era. For the next twenty-three years, he compiled the emperor’s daily records at the Historiography Institute, never rising above the fifth rank. In the twenty-third year of Zhenguan, in Hanfeng Hall at Cuiwei Palace, the dying emperor asked him, “How will posterity judge me as a ruler?” Shen Mu bowed to the ground and wept. That winter, he too reached the end of his road. Hundreds of years later, a Tang manuscript was unearthed near the ruins of Danfeng Gate. Its title read: Strategies for Chang’an, written by Shen Mu in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan.