The Brocade Marquis

A modern Peking opera actor unexpectedly travels back to the Zhengde era of the Ming dynasty and wakes up as Yang Chengzu, a hereditary Embroidered Uniform Guard in Hua County. The original body's father, Yang Daxing, had accompanied Emperor Zhengde on the northern campaign and died shielding the emperor, earning the rank of chiliarch; yet Yang Chengzu, poor at currying favor, was actually appointed only as a squad leader, too lowly to command the veteran elders in his office. Worse still, a concubine ran off with most of the family's compensation silver, and the original body, unable to bear the blows, fell gravely ill, giving the time traveler the chance to occupy this body. Thanks to the devoted care of his kind stepmother, Lady Liu, he recovers. Before long, Jiao Rong, a clerk in the county yamen's household office, comes seeking help: County Magistrate Zhang Jiayin of Hua County, after a meeting at the Fragrant House, was seized by a gang claiming to be capital Embroidered Uniform Guards demanding money. Urged on by Lady Liu's remark that "I hear Magistrate Zhang is an honest official," Yang Chengzu intervenes, and from there is drawn step by step into local officialdom, the canal guild, a major arms case, and the turmoil of a princely estate. Through the identity and perspective of an Embroidered Uniform Guard, the book unfolds the landscape and people of the Zhengde court, depicting power struggles, street life, and frontier military affairs. The work is complete at roughly 2.48 million characters.