The environment on which this book is based is the real history of the Jin Dynasty's implementation of the Jiupin Zhongzheng system. In order to integrate the storyline into the real historical environment and increase the interest at the same time, the book is even interspersed with many real historical events. Of course, the introduction of real historical events is only for the sake of better explaining the environment, and on the premise of explaining the environment clearly, try to use the briefest possible length.

The main characters in the book: Shu Yan, Biyu, Xiao Mo, Zhixin, and their families are all fictional. Of course, there are many real historical figures, including: Yang Jun, Wang Rong, Wang Yan, Wang Cheng, Wang Dun, Wang Dao, Shi Chong, Lu Zhu, Wei Xuan, Xun Xuan, Jia Mi, Sun Xiu, Luoyang Ling Cao Ji, Western Regions Changshi Suojing, Dawan Old King Lan Yu, the new King Mo Zhi, and all the Sima royal family except Princess Yong'an. The envoys are all fiction, except for Fan Wen.

There is indeed a person in the history of Fan Wen, but he did not come to Luoyang to be an envoy, but it is not completely apocryphal. Because it is recorded in the official history that Fan Wen had the experience of traveling to the kingdom and was trusted by the king of Linyi. He was originally a slave and was quite ambitious, and finally took the country of Linyi as his own. Linyi is today's Vietnam, which later broke away from China's sphere of influence and has a certain relationship with Pham Van .

Jia Gong and Ji Si, the two-level Zhongzheng of Yuzhou and Ruyin County, knew that they were fictitious when they heard the name, and they took the meaning of "fake public and private". There is no record of Ruyin Zhongzheng in the official history, only a record of Yuzhou's Dazhongzheng as Xiahou Jun. Like other officials, they do not serve for life once they are appointed. Xiahou Jun doesn't know how long he has been in Yuzhou, but it is impossible to end the Western Jin Dynasty. In order to link with the name Ji Si and "fake public and private" together, the real character of Xiahou Jun was hidden.

The book deliberately incorporates many traditional cultural elements, aiming to promote and inherit the excellent history and culture of China's splendid glory. For example, the culture of the Book of Songs, the culture of Guanli, which was once romantic and beautiful, was very popular, but now it has long disappeared and is even little known about the Shangsi Festival culture, the culture of Qushui Liuzhen, etc. Praise the positive side, such as the emperor's personal ploughing gift and the queen's silkworm gift with the role of setting an example for the people and persuading the farmers to teach mulberry; At the same time, it also belittled the common social diseases of that era, such as social decay, the injustice of the Jiupin Zhongzheng system, and the pathological spirit of scholars who pursued pleasure, paid too much attention to grooming, indulged in taking medicine and talking, and held official positions but had no interest in state affairs.

The men of the Jin Dynasty were very fond of beauty. Two of the so-called four beautiful men in history are from this period, namely Pan Anren and Wei Jue. As the leader of Qing Tan, Wang Yan is even more white like a jade man. However, it needs to be noted that although this book praises a masculine and beautiful man like Shu Yan and belittles a weak and beautiful man like Biyu, don't equate a beautiful man like Biyu with today's sissy. At that time, although the men of the Shi clan also paid great attention to fat powder makeup and pursued whitening, they did not lose their masculinity, and many even wore beautiful hair. It will never be like some young men now, whose eyebrows, eyes, mouth and nose tend to women's facial lines for plastic surgery, let alone orchid fingers, and will not twist and pinch.

A timeline about the storyline.

From Emperor Wu Zhaojian and unifying the world, to Emperor Hui's Emperor Jiahou intervening in politics and the rebellion of the Eight Kings, and then to Emperor Huai's Wuhu and Luoyang overthrow, and finally Emperor Chu descended to Chang'an and the Chinese Dynasty collapsed. In terms of plot line, this book completely follows the process of the changes in the national fortunes of the Western Jin Dynasty - establishment, prosperity, decline, and destruction, but the timeline is shortened. Because the Western Jin Dynasty coexisted for fifty-two years, Sibao was born in the second year of Zhaojian in the Great Jin Dynasty, and when the Western Jin Dynasty was destroyed and Shu Yan traveled with his wife, the virtual age should be fifty-two years old. This age is no longer energetic for modern people, and in ancient times, it was about to enter the threshold of old age, and even greatly exceeded the average life expectancy. If a man has a status and status, he can still enjoy the romance, but for a woman, it is like a river with thin ice, and there are not many ripples. However, in the ideal state envisioned by the author, Shu Yan should be very free and romantic when he resigns and wanders the world with Xiao Mo and Zhixin. In this case, they should not be more than thirty-five years old at most.

Based on this consideration, the book has to be a little vague in terms of time treatment. In fact, before the four treasures were twenty years old, their ages could correspond to the real timeline of history, so the first half of the book is the specific era names used, such as the seventh year of Taishi, the fifth year of Xianning, the first year of Taikang, etc. But after Taikang, that is, when Sibao entered Luoyang, the timeline began to gradually blur, and it was no longer specifically written in the name of a certain year.

According to the real timeline, the Four Treasures were born in the 487th year of the First Emperor's unification and entered Luo in the 506th year. When Zhixin and Xiao Mo's true identities were revealed, the Four Treasures married on the same day, and even left Luoyang together to return to Ruyin, it was the year before Sima Lun, the king of Zhao, usurped the throne, that is, the 521st year of the unification of the first emperor. In this way, their age should be thirty-five years old, and the duration of their stay in Luoyang is fifteen years. Considering that a woman at the age of seventeen in the Jin Dynasty was considered an older leftover woman, she had to be forced to marry by the government, and if she was thirty-five years old, she would be close to her grandmother's generation, so the age must be greatly shortened, and the age at this time was set at most around twenty-five years old, and she could still have a little feeling of a young woman, so she took it for granted that the length of fifteen years in Luoyang was reduced to six years, and the age of Sibao was twenty-six years old; In the end, when Shu Yan resigned, according to the real timeline, it should be in the 538th year of the unification of the first emperor, and if it corresponds to the real historical period, the length of his reign in Ruyin is 17 years, and the age is 52 years old. And if the ideal age is thirty-five, this period should be nine years.

In addition to the shortening of the timeline, the book has basically not modified the official history, and the images of historical figures and the merits and demerits of someone are basically explained in harmony, without deliberate praise and disapproval. restored the true appearance of history, and did not change the official history beyond recognition like some romances. Since we choose the real historical environment as the background and want to pursue rigor, we must be limited by it, and we can't and don't want to scribble like many time-traveling and overhead themes. On the premise of respecting history as much as possible and restoring the real history as much as possible, some plots should not be too free. Although there is a wedge of mythology, the book should actually belong to the genre of realistic historicism.

About the unification of the first emperor.

China was the first civilization to implement chronology. For thousands of years of Chinese history, it is basically based on the chronology of the emperor's nickname or the suffix of the year name, supplemented by the Ganzhi year. The monarchs of the pre-Qin period did not have era names, and generally used the monarch's name plus the year and the year, such as the first year of the Yin Dynasty; Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used the era name, he began to use the imperial year name, such as the first year of Zhenguan. Whether it is the name of the monarch or the year name, there is no essential difference between the two, and it is a very practical way to record the year. This method of dating has an obvious advantage, that is, no matter how many years later in the future, mentioning a certain year in history can intuitively show the specific dynasty in which the year was located, and then it can roughly judge the historical period in which it is located. For example, the first year of Yingong was in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the first year of Zhenguan was the Tang Dynasty. However, there are pros and cons, and its advantages have become its limitations. This method of dating is not coherent and does not easily reflect the time distance between two years or between a certain year and the current era. For example, how many years have elapsed between the first year of Yingong and the first year of Zhenguan, and how many years have passed since the first year of Zhenguan.

In the case that the imperial year is no longer out of date, and the Western era is unwilling to choose, modern China has tried to create two new ways of chronology, the Yellow Emperor and the Confucius era. However, the Yellow Emperor's chronology may not be rigorous enough because it is too old, and the Confucius chronology is not widely recognized due to the decline of modern Confucianism.

Whenever I see the year marked with the Western Yuan in the "Zizhi Tongjian", I feel an inexplicable sadness and sentimentality - China, which has created the longest and most brilliant civilization, actually wants to mark historical events in the Western Era! China has been absent from science and technology for 300 years, but the West has been absent from history for 3,000 years. In the past 300 years of science and technology that China has been absent, it is still possible for future generations to catch up and surpass it through hard work; And the absence of the 3,000-year-old historical civilization of the West will never be able to make up for it. Nowadays, in order to be in line with international standards, it is understandable that we use the Western era in production and life, but when writing history and marking history, it feels that it should not be true.

In China's thousands of years of history, there have been countless major historical events, but the most far-reaching and important thing is the unification of the six countries by Qin Shi Huang. It ended the 2,000-year-old aristocratic hereditary lineage upwards and inaugurated the 2,000-year-old imperial system downwards. It is no exaggeration to say that the year when Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms can be regarded as the most important year in Chinese history. In some necessary places, the book attempts to adopt the unification year of the First Emperor, that is, the year of the unification of the Six Kingdoms by Qin Shi Huang as the base year. Just like the Western era, if a certain year of the pre-Qin period is mentioned, it is a certain year before unification; When it comes to the era after Qin, it is a certain year of unification. This is not to create any new way of chronology, but to abandon the ridiculous practice of marking China's vast history with the Western Yuan era, and at the same time to intuitively reflect the time distance between the different chronological dates of the historical background of the book.

This idea is regarded as the author's obscenity, and those who are like-minded are encouraged to do so; If not, it's just for laughter.

Finally, about the original mission and final destination of the Four Children's Nether Realm mentioned in the opening wedge.

The ending of the four protagonists in this book: Shi Biyu, Jiang Xiaomo, Han Zhixin, and Shu Yan has been explained clearly, as for how the four children of pen, ink, paper, and inkstone returned to Tianquan Palace to report to Wenqu Xingjun, and who can log in to the immortal book between the pen boy and the inkstone boy, it will be further explained in the next book.