“Going North” is a long new work by the famous writer Xu Zechen, which took him four years to complete. This book is broad and majestic. It tells the century-old “secret history” between several families on the Grand Canal, using two clues, history and the present. Xie Pingyao, one of the protagonists of this book, accompanied Xiao Polo as a translator, and successively summoned various grassroots people in Chinese society, such as porter Shao Changlai, boat boss Xia’s master and apprentice, and Boxer Sun brothers, to follow him. They set out from Hangzhou and Wuxi and went north along the Grand Canal. This journey was not only their academic investigation journey, but also their journey of reflection on the identity and destiny of intellectuals, and at the same time, it was their journey of searching for their roots. When they finally arrived at Tongzhou, the northernmost end of the Grand Canal, Xiao Polo died unexpectedly. At the same time, the Qing government ordered the cessation of water transport, and the substantial decline of the canal began…