Companion Volume

Lives of the Lucid

Forty-one figures from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, each measured on one fixed rule: not what they achieved, but what they saw. Every life is judged by the shape its lucidity took across a lifetime, and the judgments are stated in the text where the events fall.

The volume is written in classical Chinese against classical Chinese sources, and no English edition has been prepared. It is readable in full on the Chinese page.

The author conceived the volume, set its method, and made every judgment in it. The first draft of each life, the classical-Chinese layer included, was drafted by AI systems and then reworked life by life: the wording of each judgment, the shape assigned, the pairings across lives, what sources to accept or reject, and the final text are the author’s, who bears full responsibility for every claim, including those that prove wrong.