The first time I touched "electricity" to write a historical novel, the subject I encountered was "Qu Yuan". A TV drama production center wrote about a 20-episode Qu Yuan TV series. After a period of desk work, I came up with more than 20 character plans and an outline of more than 60,000 words, and the contract was approved at one time. Later, he co-completed the 20-episode TV series "Qu Yuan", which was filmed and released. At the same time, he independently wrote a 500,000-word historical novel. The biggest problem in writing Qu Yuan's novels is that I feel the lack of information. After all, Old Master Qu is too far away from us, more than 2,000 years away from time and space. Except for the earliest and most reliable records of several thousand words in the "Historical Records" and "Warring States Policy", the rest are pamphlets written by later generations based on folklore. More sources of information can be obtained by deciphering the esoteric and difficult Qu Fu Lisao written by Qu Fuzi himself and the research results of historians in this regard.

This time I wrote "Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, and the Truth of the Three Dynasties", and the situation encountered was just the opposite, there were too many materials, as much as Hanhai. The Qing Dynasty is only a few hundred years away from us, and there are many historical books, and in recent years, the "Qing History" novels and TV dramas have produced a large number of works. Now every emperor of the Qing Dynasty has published a novel, some of which are varied, and the TV series is "You just sang and I appeared", which was boiling and overwhelmed the common people. I watched and listened with cold eyes, and finally saw that there was a little problem and a little experience. Why do some literary and artistic works write the emperors of the Qing Dynasty as "glorious figures" and even "heroic figures" who can sing and cry? Yongzheng in order to consolidate his rule, although diligent government, but the historical circles have long been determined, that he is a tyrannical widow and extravagant brother killed his brother Daxing literary prison "bad emperor", Yongzheng eight years after his extravagance, debauchery and private life seriously damaged the "dragon body", so begging for the elixir medicine stone to save his life, and finally the medicine stone was poisoned, died at the age of fifty-eight, not "tired to death" at all.

In this way, I think it is important to restore history to its original appearance. This is probably the original intention of my decision to "touch" historical fiction again.

Because there are too many materials available for reference and use, how to separate the false from the true brings great difficulty to writing. Let's just say that in the dozens of volumes of "Qing History Manuscripts", every emperor has a "book", and every famous minister and prince has a "biography". After reading these materials, comparing the research works and wild history notes of some historians, I left a big "? No. That is the record in the official history, all the good things said about the "emperor" - this is understandable, let the emperor's servants write history, who would dare to offend the "emperor" and record the emperor's disgraceful side?

It is said that in the thirteenth year of Qianlong, in Jinan, Shandong, Qianlong was reprimanded by the queen Fucha for looking for flowers and willows, and finally the emperor forced the queen to cut her hair and commit suicide. There are only a few inexplicable words in the "Gaozong Benji": "Yiwei, go up to Texas to board the boat, and the queen collapses." "As for being a monk in Daming Lake, how he died later, there is no word to explain.

However, it is not difficult to understand the fate of the second queen Nala clan canonized by Qianlong in the "Secret History of the Ming and Qing Courts". In the thirtieth year of Qianlong, the Nala clan went to Hangzhou with Qianlong's southern tour, and because the queen urged the emperor not to be obsessed with the beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River (not to mention looking for flowers and asking willows), he was scolded by the emperor, and he was so angry that he cut off his head full of green silk. From this and the other, it can be seen that the official history may not be true, and the wild history may not be "wild".

So to really find out whether a certain emperor is good or bad, or good or bad, how much merit and how much sin there is, whether it is open or down, that is not something that I can accomplish in this novel. That depends on the careful study and research of historians and the big waves to wash out the true face of history.

In the last century, a great man, at the beginning of the revolution to exterminate "culture", when criticizing "The Dismissal of Hai Jui", once said that Hai Jui "only opposes corrupt officials, not the emperor". It can be seen that the old man hates the emperor and wants to oppose the emperor. He even said angrily: Defeat the emperor and the general, and liberate the little ghost of Hades. If the old man has a spirit in the sky, he may be dumbfounded: after less than 30 years, there has been a "emperor fever" on the country laid by the old man. The TV series sang praises to the emperor, and the hype in the advertisement was even fresher: what kind of "cereal" do today's ordinary people want to eat, what kind of wine do they want to drink, and they still want the "emperor" to say "grace". Could it be that today's common people still worship and admire the "imperial power" so much, grovel and be willing to be slaves, or slaves who are willing to be slaves?

I wrote "The Truth of the Three Dynasties" because I just wanted to pour cold water on the "emperor fever", and that's it. Among the emperors of the past dynasties, there were better ones, some had certain merits, and some were very bad. Even if the merits are as great as those of King Qin and Han Wu, Tang Dynasty and Song Zu, Genghis Khan, Kangxi, etc., their essence is that they are all feudal rulers who ride on the heads of hundreds of millions of people, and they have the side of cruelly exploiting and enslaving the people. Not to mention the tyrannical Yongzheng and Qianlong who had fun and "hollowed out the country".

Due to the limited level and the urgency of the manuscript, he wrote 600,000 words in four months, and there must be a lot of gross mistakes.

Author 1.25.2002