At the end of last year, Yan Jiujialan and I went to Xi'an, the ancient capital that I had always longed for. Although the atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty was no longer there, standing under the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in the sunset, I still felt like I was traveling through time and space in a trance. The grand occasion of the title of the Wild Goose Pagoda in the past seemed to be right in front of me.

When "The Romance of the Red Family" ended, I had longed for writing about the atmosphere of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. However, by chance, my plan was finally stranded. After nearly two years, after my trip to Xi'an, I made up my mind to write about the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

In history, some authors are good at the infinite passion and firelight generated by the collision of heroes, some authors are good at the chaotic wars of the empire's heroes rising up, some authors are good at the official game, and some authors are good at the graceful and elegant feelings. But now I prefer the various characters buried in history, which is another atmosphere that has been thousands of years since we were, and it is also a distant time and space where people have completely different lives from today.

What I want to write this time is not just an era of heroes. It was an era of literary talent and elegance, with the most outstanding literati and poets from ancient times to the present; it was an era of famous officials, with one prime minister after another who had become famous in history; it was an era of various artists competing for beauty, from music and dance to orchestras to the sound of circling the beams, all of which were outstanding in the world; it was an era of generals and prime ministers, people got off horseback, chanting poems, lying in the wine shop, riding on horseback, galloping on the battlefield and killing enemies, showing their heroic spirit, pride, self-confidence and calmness; it was an era of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and all kinds of thoughts collided with countless sparks of wisdom.

It is the brilliant glory before an empire is about to reach the top, it is the struggle to eliminate the old and the new, and it is the great cause of the coming of all nations.

I remember the prosperous days of Kaiyuan, and the small town still had thousands of families. Rice and fat are white, and the public and private granaries are abundant.
Chapter completed!