As he began looking to history for his materials, the history of Taiwan's development and three generations of his own family's experience became the warp and weft of his work. In 1977, he began working on what was to become his best-known work, the Wintry Night trilogy, comprising the novels Wintry Night, The Desolate Village and The Lonely Lantern.
他開始向歷史事件擷取素材，並決定以開拓台灣過程中的歷史事件為經、以自己一家 3 代的生活風貌為緯，1977 年開始進行他的文學代表作《寒夜三部曲》，由《寒夜》、《荒村》、《孤燈》3 部作品組成。