Tang Intoxication

Tang Intoxication is an alternate-history novel of the Two Jins, Sui, and Tang type, serialized by the author Tang Yuan on Qidian.com from 2013, about 1.8 million characters long and now complete. The story opens in the second year of the Linde era of the Great Tang: Chen Yi, an ordinary young doctor from a later age, accidentally travels back to an era when Wu Zetian is gradually taking power, and by chance becomes acquainted with the aged medical sage Sun Simiao. With the medical knowledge and insight he brings from later ages, he wins the old man's favor and is recommended to the palace to treat noblewomen, thereby entering the circles of the powerful in the divine capital Chang'an. The work sets its stage in the court from the later years of Emperor Gaozong to the period around the Wu Zhou dynasty: Wu Zetian, Lady of Han Wu Shun, Lady of Wei Helan, Shangguan Wan'er, Princess Taiping, Empress Wei, Princess Anle, and other women vividly recorded in the histories appear in turn. With medical skill and resourcefulness, Chen Yi navigates among them, intervening in the medical bureau, court politics, and palace intrigues while being drawn into major upheavals such as the selection of the crown prince and the change of rulers, seeking to rewrite the course of this history with a time traveler's perspective. It should be noted that this is a typical harem-oriented historical 'feel-good' novel: the plot is brisk, the cast of characters dense, and the romance line heavily weighted; it takes great liberties with historical detail and is not a serious historical novel. It is best read as an entertainment set against the splendor of the High Tang, without demanding textual scholarship of it.