Rise of the Poor Scholar

This is the story of a graduate student in Classical Chinese who kept getting pushed around in his job hunt, then transmigrated to the mid-Ming dynasty and entered the body of a young child in a mountain village.

With a taciturn father, a fiery mother, and a whole host of troublesome relatives, there’s never a dull moment in the family courtyard. Fortunately, I have thousands of years of history behind me, and the Four Books, Five Classics, and eight-legged essays are right up my alley. Who says a poor family can no longer produce a great man?

The nation is growing stronger, and the emperor rules with a light touch.

The laws are lax, and the officials are lazy.

There are a few treacherous ministers, and the Japanese pirates cause some trouble.

But all in all, this is fertile ground for the free growth of the scholar-official class.

And so begins the legend of a poor boy’s rise to greatness.

This story is dedicated to all the classic transmigration tales that came before it.