A Step Into The Past (book) - Huang Yi

It took me more than 3 months to finish this book. I am not sure if there is a copyrighted English translation, but this one I read was available at internet, translated by several volunteers. (Thanks to you all!) I converted it to .epub format contained 2850+ pages.

The author, Huang Yi, was fond of science fiction – and wrote very thick books. I know 3 of his books have been made into TV series, including this one, with Raymond Lam in all of them. [The other two are: 'Lethal Weapons of Love and Passion' and 'A Pair of Dragons in Tang Dinasty'/'Twin of Brothers'.]

When I was reading about a hundred pages I began to regret what I was doing, realizing it would take months to finish the book. It was because I had many books to read. I had that same feeling when I was reading Romance of Three Kingdoms. A Step Into The Past, however, was more interesting and attractive to read, and after finishing the book, I was satisfied with how it ended and glad that I spent some time to read it. It is definitely one of the best historical fictions I have ever read.

The main character was a 20 year old elite soldier, a member of a task force, named Xiang Shao-long. He was sent with a time machine to the warring states era. He was supposed to land in the year when Qin Shi-huang, the first emperor of Qin, who united 7 states in China, ascended the throne, in 246 B.C.  But he landed 5 years earlier.

So the story in this book spans 5 years, from the time when Xiang Shao-long arrived in the warring states era, until when Qin Shi-huang ascended the throne. We see the development in Xiang Shao-long’s character, especially in the field of love. When he first arrived he was a lecher and would sleep around, but after the ones he loved died one by one, he then took the matter of love seriously.  From a troublemaker in the 21th century, in a few years Xiang Shao-long became the Great General of Qin and was respected by many.

With his background and knowledge from the 21th century, it was easy for him to impress people and also to win the heart and hands of the most beautiful ladies in that era. We also see how he met and interacted with famous and important people, the one most interesting was with Ying Zheng, the Qin Shi-huang. There were some twists, of course, and the moral lesson is: It is the winner who writes (or re-writes) history.

In the 2001 TV series version, Xiang Shao-long was given a sort of disc, a tool that could make him return to the 21th century. He did tried to return to the 21th century, although actually from the start we knew that in the end he didn’t, because in the beginning of episode 1, the disc was found in the ancient grave with the terracotta soldiers. In the book, we know clearly that he could not return because right after he had been sent to the warring states era, the time machine and the laboratory were blown to pieces.

Xiang Shao-long had one son, Xiang Bao-er; who would later became the famous Chu general: Xiang Yu. Bao-er was actually the 2^nd son of Teng Yi, one of Xiang Shaolong’s sworn brothers. Perhaps due to time machine radiation, Xiang Shao-long could not impregnate his wives; so Teng Yi gave him his 2^nd son.