The Cicada Transformation is an Eastern fantasy novel by Nanchang, Jiangxi web novelist Xia Yanbing (real name Ren Zhenhua), serialized on Qidian Chinese Network from August 2, 2005 and completed on May 19, 2006. It runs to about 1.1985 million characters and 358 chapters, and a paper edition was published by China Theater Press in 2007. The protagonist, Ren Chaofan, is a young man of lonely origins who, while traveling in Xishuangbanna, accidentally witnesses a drug deal and is stabbed to death; the ancestral stone cicada carving on his chest is thereby activated, and the residual power of an ancient consciousness named Shi Yicheng within the carving brings him back to life. His physique, eyesight and strength far exceed those of ordinary people, and he gradually learns of the framework of the "Nine Realms of the Universe": gods, immortals, demons, monsters, spirits, grotesques, ghosts, wraiths and mortals coexist across nine realms, while Earth, after a catastrophe ten thousand years ago, has become an isolated island drained of energy. Following the author's stated conception, the work advances in three volumes: Volume One stays grounded in reality, telling how Ren Chaofan, with his extraordinary insight, breaks through technical barriers in the Foshan ceramics industry, earns his first fortune, and enters a market struggle with the Japanese Inukai Corporation—part business battle to win back the domestic ceramics market, part personal motive of revenge for the victimized girl Zhang Yingshu. Volume Two shifts entirely into the fantasy world, using the energy opposition of the two cosmic singularities "Source" and "Nothing" to systematically map the system of gods, immortals, ghosts and monsters in Eastern mythology. Volume Three moves toward interstellar space and the survival of civilization, as the protagonist crosses into the Third Universe, handles a crisis on the planet Tianhou, and seeks a new homeland for his people before the world's great upheaval. As a representative early web novel combining real industry with fantasy settings, the book once reached 3.5 million clicks, and its grand structure and strange imagination are regarded as an important landmark in Jiangxi web literature.
在2005年的起点，都市异能、升级打怪是主流，夏言冰偏偏从自己熟悉的陶瓷化工行业入手，把上世纪九十年代那批“闷声发大财”的行业传奇写进小说，再让这股现实中的财富奇迹一路长成横跨九界的玄幻叙事。《寒蝉变》最难得的是“接地气”：陶瓷镇的小老板、阴离子置换剂的技术壁垒、地下赌场的电子后门、澳洲锆英砂矿权、跨国金融大鳄的围猎，这些细节不是凭空想出来的道具，而是从真实产业语境里提炼的。作者又用“源”与“无”两大奇点去统合神、仙、魔、妖、精、怪、鬼、灵的概念，试图给中国神话搭一套自洽的坐标系，这份“建体系”的野心在同期网文中相当少见。当然，以今天的眼光看，它的文风、节奏、情感线都带着明显的时代印记，读它更像是读一部“网文草创期”的标本：粗糙，但生机勃勃。想理解中国网络文学从付费阅读起步时，作者们如何在商业套路和类型野心之间挣扎，本书是很好的样本。
China Theatre Press takes professional theatre publishing as its foundation while extending into fiction, biography, military and cultural reading. Its books cover fine fiction, general biography, war and military life, culture, classical literature and inspirational growth. They include historical narratives such as The Long March, artists' biographies such as Art Sea Sentiments: Good People Accompanied Me All My Life, and scholarly collections of traditional tea-picking opera tunes from southern Jiangxi. Representative authors include Wang Chaozhu, Bao Guo'an, Zhu Bing, Xin Zhou, Wang Yuyang and Guo Xianjun. The press balances theatre scholarship with general reading, and also touches on traditional tunes, classical novels and Jewish culture. As public information is limited, this description focuses on the directions reflected in its catalog without further speculation.
