In the eleventh year of the Hongzhi era, the Hongzhi Restoration was declining after its period of prosperity. Worthy ministers were retiring in old age, the three members of the Grand Secretariat were growing frail, and despite Emperor Hongzhi’s tireless efforts to govern, he could not lead the Ming Dynasty into an even greater age of peace and prosperity.
At that time, in a dilapidated courtyard in the northwest corner of the capital, a scholar was poring over historical records, checking whether this Ming Dynasty matched the one he had left behind before transmigrating.
