The title An Analysis of Every Stratum of Great Shun Society flashed through Chen Wu's mind, then was quickly discarded.
His little pamphlet was only a minor argument. He hardly dared give it a name with such weight behind it. Besides, a title that blunt didn't suit the habits of the people of Great Shun.
After much thought, Chen Wu settled on the title A Determination of the Principles in Waiting for the Dawn.
His reflections had all been sparked by Waiting for the Dawn, so this little pamphlet could only count as a small commentary on it, and it quoted Waiting for the Dawn extensively. Using that title would also let him ride on the coattails of Waiting for the Dawn.
Waiting for the Dawn mainly argued that the imperial system—where the realm belonged to the emperor's family as private property—was truly vile.
Chen Wu's pamphlet, however, mainly argued that this hereditary imperial system was not only vile, but also incompetent, and wholly unsuited to the current situation.
In the past, social changes had not been so fierce. Society had never escaped the peasant-landlord system, and its connections with the outside world were few. As long as things proceeded step by step and people revered Confucius and the Confucian classics, history's cycle could always run its course.
But Great Shun was now advancing by leaps and bounds. Unless some divine being appeared and turned everything back, a mediocre system that simply followed the old routine, with an eldest legitimate son inheriting the throne and seeking no merit, only to avoid fault, could scarcely hope to complete even one cycle. The Great Shun dynasty was doomed.
He had chosen the words "determination of principles" because his pamphlet passed judgment on the future of the Li dynasty, carrying something of the