The book selects and introduces 10 major figures that greatly influenced the history of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, namely Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Empress Dowager Cixi, Yuan Shikai, Zhang Jian, Liang Qichao, Sun Yat-sen, Chen Tianhua, and Song Jiaoren. With profound research and easy-to-understand description, the book introduces these characters’ life, deeds, thoughts, and the deep imprint they have made on modern China. The author of this book, Chi Yunfei, applies his 20 years of thinking to the biography of each figure, so as to explain the significant historical themes in the “major changes unseen in three thousand years of history.”