Chronicles of Longtai

Chen Mo, a poor scholar from eastern Zhejiang, studies hard and passes the imperial examination, beginning his career as a county magistrate at the lowest rung. Without the backing of a powerful clan, he struggles to survive amid the court's factions: the Donglin, the Zhejiang faction, and the eunuch faction. He manages farmland, hears lawsuits, oversees military provisions, heads north to train troops and fight the invaders, and puts down local uprisings in the south. In an official world of the Ming dynasty where taking concubines is commonplace, he struggles between his wife, the rites, and human feeling. He watches the dynasty slowly rot from within and tries to salvage its fate single-handedly, only to find himself trapped by the tide of the times.