Open a history book from the early Ming dynasty, and there is a blazing sun named Zhu Yuanzhang, so brilliant it's impossible to look at directly.
Yet another name, Xu Liang, shines like a new star in broad daylight, its radiance reaching every corner of the age, until even the sun pales beside it.
You could fill several pages with Xu Liang's titles.
Founder of the new age, gravedigger of old Confucianism, pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, teacher of scientific thought, idol of youth for generations, the last sage of Huaxia…
In those days, Xu Liang would casually point a finger, and countless Confucian scholars and students would lay down their books of wisdom and virtue to throw themselves into the grand construction of the new age.
As they watched the Ming dynasty begin charging headlong in an unknown direction, the great Confucian scholars and sages beat their chests in anguish: “The Great Way is found only in the books of the sages! You mustn't put your faith in science!”
