A Late Ming Literary Giant Begins by Copying Books

Wang Wenlong, a graduate of ancient Chinese literature, transmigrated to the Ming Dynasty in the twenty-seventh year of the Wanli reign. He couldn’t write eight-legged essays or lead an army. It was the golden age of publishing in the Ming Dynasty, so Wang Wenlong had no choice but to copy books to make ends meet. Unexpectedly, he soon produced one celebrated masterpiece after another, shaking the world: The Scholars, Dream of the Red Chamber, Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms... Eunuchs sought to recruit him, members of the Donglin faction praised his erudition, and missionaries discovered that he knew more about the history of the Age of Discovery than Europeans did. Without even realizing it, Wang Wenlong had begun to change the course of history.