Character Index
Zhou Yunqi: The Emperor.
Chen Caichun: Chamberlain of the Court of Judicial Review.
Qiu Jinwei: The Emperor's loyal advisor.
Cao Shuyi: The Third Princess Consort, widowed. Currently living in her fief.
Hu Weizhi: Minister of Public Works, a member of the neutral faction. Hasn't been particularly active throughout the series, only agreed to side with Kayla under pressure from Wei Guang.
Zhang Dingyong: The Minister of Justice.
Governor Bao: Governor of Daizhou.
Governor Huang: Governor of Shengzhou.
Yao Gongzhuo: Minister of War.
Jun Shao: Minister of Personnel, formerly one of Xianchun's faction members.
Zhu Simo: Right Secretariat of Revenue, a member of the Shandong faction.
Han Daizhi: Director within the Ministry of Rites (rank below a Right/Left Secretariat). Mind of the Shandong faction.
Lord Cui: Lord of the Cui clan, a capital elite.
Lord He: Lord of the He clan, a capital elite.
Zhou Kuang: Deceased third prince of Emperor Xuanzong.
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When Wenyuan and Chen Caichun reached the Imperial Study, the young Emperor was already up and at work.
“We humbly greet Your Majesty the Emperor,” Wenyuan and Chen Caichun said in unison, bowing deeply before Yunqi.
“Wenyuan, Chamberlain Chen,” Yunqi greeted them, relief evident in his voice. “Please be at ease. I’m very glad you’re here.”
“Thank you for granting an audience, Your Majesty, we wished to petition you on the matter of the charity institutions,” Wenyuan said. He started as Qiu Jinwei abruptly stepped into sight from a corner of the room. “Advisor Qiu.”
“Duke Zhao.”
“Good, everyone’s here,” Yunqi said. “About the charity institutions, I don’t want to use forceful methods to make this happen. It goes against why we started this in the first place, and things become unnecessarily complicated as a result.”
Wenyuan gently pulled Chen Caichun to the front.
“Please be assured, my liege, there will be no need for such a thing. Chamberlain Chen has a proposal to submit to you.”
Chen Caichun bowed, holding out her scroll with both hands.
“Oh? I’m impressed at your speed, Chamberlain Chen.” Yunqi took the scroll, opening it with a flick of his wrist.
“Thank you, my liege.”
“So, since the original localities rejected my stepmothers, you’re placing them in areas sympathetic to our cause?” Yunqi summarized. “But that would decrease their impact, would it not?”
Chen Caichun keenly watched his reaction as she replied.
“With all due respect, my liege, I think it is more important for the charity institutions to come into existence first and worry about broadening their impact later,” Chen Caichun replied. “Demonstrating to the court that they won’t get their way with a few wily schemes is crucial at this time.”
“Well said,” Yunqi replied with a small smile. “But in my sister-in-law’s fief…”
“I do not dare to presume to understand the Third Princess Consort as a lowly and foolish person myself,” Chen Caichun said cautiously. “But it is my understanding that it is in the nature of women to nurture—doing so is the best balm to any wound, for by nurturing another, so too a woman nurtures her own recovery. Such a recovery must be sorely needed by both the Third Princess Consort and the Dowager Consorts. At the very least, presenting such an option would honor their virtue.”
Yunqi considered it for a moment.
“I suppose you have a point,” Yunqi said. “I will discuss this with my sister-in-law, and if she is willing and able, then I have no further objections to the revisions.”
Chen Caichun bowed her head slightly in response.
“My liege, if I may?” Qiu Jinwei asked quietly. Yunqi handed him the scroll.
“What I am worried about right now is the support of Minister Hu,” Yunqi said. “And Minister Zhang as well…though Zhang Dingyong is on our side, I can’t help but worry that he will change sides if things look unfavorable for us. We need to secure their support more firmly. Perhaps through a private audience with them individually? Wenyuan, you previously worked with Zhang Dingyong–”
“Pardon my, my liege, but this proposal–” Qiu Jinwei cut in. Yunqi patiently glanced over towards the strategist, not at all minding the interruption.
“The locations may be secure for the Empress Dowagers, but are they the best choices?” Qiu Jinwei said.
Just as the Duke expected, Qiu Jinwei objected.
“Taiyuan…Shengzhou…” Qiu Jinwei glanced sharply in Wenyuan’s direction. “It may be that the Duke has acquaintances there, but does that alone make an option suitable? Taiyuan has undergone great turmoil due to the search and seizure of the Wang clan’s household, and they had a vast clientele.”
“I assure you that the safety of the Dowager Consorts can be guaranteed,” Wenyuan replied.
“But if the charity institution is forced to close down soon after opening, then it looks bad on the Emperor,” Qiu Jinwei insisted.
“I do not believe that to be a concern at this given time,” Wenyuan said. “Some of the Dowager Consorts have relations in Taiyuan, or nearby in Daizhou. Though there is a clause against allowing Dowager Consorts to operate directly in their hometowns, I think that a looser reading of the rules can be applied to this situation–those whose direct relations aren’t in Daizhou should be permitted to work there.”
“That creates a precedent that can become quite dangerous,” Qiu Jinwei said.
“It may be that it’ll have to be adjusted in time,” Wenyuan admitted. Qiu Jinwei frowned, not pleased with this answer. Laws, rules, customs, none of those were meant to change quickly, and certainly not designed with quick changes in mind. Once again, Chen Caichun found herself secretly anxious that Wenyuan’s adjust-as-you-go mindset would be decried, and bit down on an instinctive urge to begin a preemptive defense that would only invite more criticism.
Her inability to make sense of Qiu Jinwei’s behavior only fueled her uneasiness. It wasn’t as if the man was being unreasonable or engaging in malicious pettiness–his objections all being centered on Wenyuan could be explained by the fact that Wenyuan was at the center of all the reforms. But between a bluntness that bordered if not outright crossed into rudeness and the fact that Qiu Jinwei never let up or backed down until Yunqi interfered, it was hard not to see this as a developing rivalry.
“That is hardly a promising response, and what of the Dowager Consorts who are forced to float and drift around because of these adjustments?” Qiu Jinwei demanded.
Wenyuan gave a single grim nod. “I will do my best to ensure they are affected as little as possible.”
Qiu Jinwei turned to Yunqi instead.
“The current locations will be difficult for the Dowager Consorts to adjust to after years if not decades in the Inner Palace,” Qiu Jinwei warned. “The journey itself will be further than they have traveled in a very long time! Shengzhou is a week away by carriage. Compared to that distant place, wouldn’t Youzhou be a better location?”
Moving them from the Duke’s support base to the Emperor’s…he’s drawing a clear line between the two, Chen Caichun noted.
Wenyuan knitted his eyebrows and began to formulate his rebuttal.
“Well, I suppose that–”
“No.” Yunqi cut in, his voice unusually hard. “No. Not Youzhou.”
Both Qiu Jinwei and Zhao Wenyuan fell silent. Unsure of herself, Chen Caichun also remained awkwardly silent.
“As you wish, my liege,” Zhao Wenyuan finally said.
“We will go with Chamberlain Chen’s sites,” Yunqi said.
“But Your Majesty,” Qiu Jinwei began to protest.
“That’s my final decision,” Yunqi said, an edge in his voice. Qiu Jinwei reluctantly bit back whatever he had to say.
“I will make contact with the local officials ahead of time,” Wenyuan said. “They will make the suitable preparations before the final decision is announced.”
“That will be of great help, Duke Zhao,” Yunqi said, his tone returning to normal. “Then I will trouble you with this.”
“Yes, my liege.” Wenyuan bowed. “And once the security has been prepared, I would humbly ask you to approve of expediting the process so that the Dowager Consorts may begin their work as soon as possible. The costs will be higher as the labor will be more intensive, but it would do us good to temper the momentum of the officials that oppose this.”
Yunqi nodded approvingly.
“Then I will make the necessary arrangements with Governor Bao and Governor Huang,” Wenyuan said. “I take my leave–”
“Wenyuan, stay for a moment, will you?” Yunqi said, taking the chance to dismiss everyone else instead.
“Of course,” Wenyuan said.
“Then I will take my leave first,” Chen Caichun said.
Qiu Jinwei bowed and left, with barely a glance in Caichun’s direction. She headed out alone. The Inner Palace wasn’t all that large in actuality, but the grandness of its walls always made her feel small. She rarely came here to begin with. When she was with someone else, the Inner Palace didn’t seem so intimidating, but alone, she felt as though she was shrinking with each step she took.
It was with a sigh of relief that she finally stepped into the familiar Outer Palace. It felt as if she could finally breathe normally.
The Emperor is resistant to Youzhou, the base of his own clan, Caichun thought to herself in befuddlement. Now that I think of it, he hasn’t used anyone from his maternal clan in politics, save to grant some honorary titles.
Another puzzle piece slotted into place.
Turning from the rising sun that shone into her eyes, Chen Caichun hurried off.
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Alone with Kayla, Yunqi let out a heavy sigh, turning weary eyes towards Kayla as he forced a smile. It was early in the morning, but Kayla doubted the Emperor had gotten much sleep at all the night before.
“Please don’t take it to heart if Qiu Jinwei objects to your plans,” Yunqi said apologetically. “He means no harm by it. I’ve let him get away with far too much, he’s used to running his mouth with little regard for people’s feelings.”
In theory, Kayla was glad for a watchdog agency in human form. But the reality of it was far more grating than she could’ve imagined.
“I hardly mind. In fact, I’m glad that there is someone who can point out my errors,” Kayla said.
As long as it was just limited to reasonable objections. It wasn't as if Kayla had anything to complain about yet. Didn't Qiu Jinwei also criticize Yunqi and interrupt the Emperor? She didn't mind that much. The real issue was that in politics, everything escalated. You give in an inch and they'll take a foot. She wasn't about to tolerate that from Qiu Jinwei, the Emperor's favorite pet advisor or not.
Qiu Jinwei owed her–Kayla was going to just let that go, but if he seriously wanted trouble with her, then she had every intention of making him pay up for his ticket into the Inner Palace during the chaos of Emperor Xuanzong’s final days.
Yunqi wanted to balance out his right and left hand men, and she could understand it, was willing to go along with it to whatever extent that didn’t jeopardize the country’s future. But with an unreasonable sense of outrage, she was quick realizing that there was something else behind Yunqi’s indulgence of Qiu Jinwei.
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The Emperor had a soft spot a mile wide for the strategist who had stuck with him through the worst years of his life.
Sentiment over practicality.
From a man who killed his own father?
It’s not like he wanted to, Kayla reminded herself. Perhaps he had, deep down, just a little bit. But that didn’t mean Yunqi wouldn’t hold on to whoever he had left at any cost. Qiu Jinwei was in that category. She probably was not.
But she was useful, Kayla thought with a ferocity that didn’t show in her eyes. For all his planning, Kayla got Yunqi onto the throne, not Qiu Jinwei. If Yunqi wanted to get things done, she was the one he needed, and he would forget that at his own cost.
Across from her, Yunqi, oblivious to her thoughts, was smiling in relief.
“You have great forbearance,” Yunqi said. “I’m very glad to have such a broad-hearted person to rely on.”
“You’re too kind, my liege.”
“In all honesty, I am unsure of my choices as well,” Yunqi said quietly. “Forgive me if I fail to show the resolution that I ought to.”
“Please be assured that is not the case” Kayla said. “We are doing what has no precedent, to have too much certainty would only backfire upon us. Your Majesty’s doubts are the sign of a wise ruler.”
“Yes, the process is meant to be difficult,” Yunqi said. “But I have faith in our success, Wenyuan. I know that you have already been saddled with a great many tasks thanks to my incompetence, but I would like to ask a favor of you.”
“Please speak, my liege.”
“The traditionalists of the neutral faction,‘’ Yunqi said. “Could you leave them to Qiu Jinwei?”
Kayla stilled. “You mean Minister Hu Weizhi and his friends?”
“Yes,” Yunqi said. “They answer to a strict moral code imposed by the classics, and no one is better versed in the classics than Qiu Jinwei–he can cite every recorded interpretation of each line, verbatim, deconstruct and argue against every clause of an argument. For stubborn and pedantic types like the traditionalists, you need someone equally stubborn and pedantic.”
“I will gladly leave it to Advisor Qiu’s capable hands,” Kayla said.
I mean, to begin with, those guys were loyal to the throne and only bowed their heads to Wei Guang, not to me…but still. I worked for their support, whether they gave it willingly or not. But yes, fair and just Emperor, go ahead and take the fruits of my labor and hand them to your favorite, yeah?
A surge of irritation so strong it threatened to claw up her throat nearly cracked her polite smile.
“Yes, rather than have you argue down those old men, there’s something more important that I would like to hand to you,” Yunqi went on. “Those who were loyal to my brothers…please win their support for me. Zhang Dingyong, Yao Gongzhuo, Jun Shao, the Cao clan, as many of them as you can.”
The irritation subsided as a better prize was dangled before her.
Balancing the bowls of water, Kayla thought absently.
Yunqi’s eyes softened. “I want their support, even if they worked for Xianchun, even if they hate the idea of having me on the throne. Perhaps it may be greedy of me, but Wenyuan–you serve a greedy liege.”
“And I am honored to do so,” Kayla quipped. She bowed her head. “My liege, I will gladly accept this task. Though I may be lacking, I will do everything within my power to fulfill your wishes.”
“How reliable,” Yunqi replied.
Kayla bowed her head. Emotional rollercoaster done with, she now felt a little ridiculous.
Outside the study, the morning sun was shining brightly in the sky.
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As fate–or rather, force of personality would have it, Zhu Simo didn’t wait for the convening of the court to give his grand speech against the reforms. Instead, he gave it before the gates of the Outer Palace where officials were milling about before work, chattering as they slowly dissipated to their own offices. Where Zhao Wenyuan and the Emperor were not present to rebuke him.
It started with a conversation with one of his coworkers before booming into an impromptu speech, drawing more and more onlookers.
From the looks of shock on their faces, many of the officials hadn’t even known the contents of the reforms before Zhu Simo stood before them, ripping it apart piece by piece. That was no surprise. The reforms hadn’t even been presented to the court yet, having failed to gain the approval of the Three Departments.
As Han Daizhi had explained to Lord Cui and Lord He, Zhu Simo’s speeches gained momentum as the crowd grew larger, and the man’s booming voice made it so that more and more people stopped to listen.
“The rich are torn down by the jealousy of their lessers, and who then will produce our scholars?! Our officers?! The very tenets of this country?! It will lead to a breakdown of social order–nay, it will destroy the state! Such foolish shortsightedness cannot be allowed to pass!” Zhu Simo was still shouting. “Instead of our own clans, foreign traders will be encouraged to enter, to stay, to replace our positions in government and society! They will stay here, and they will multiply, until our bloodlines are corroded unto extinction! This travesty–this madness, it spits in the face of our values!”
Han Daizhi stood with hands folded in his sleeve, a small sly smile on his face as his eyes darted about, observing the reactions of each man about him. Officials from the more well-off families, the elites and aristocrats, were reacting quite well to Zhu Simo’s speech. But there were some whose eyes flickered impassively, if not outright with disinterest or disapproval.
The officials from moderately well-off families and officials from cold doors, Han Daizhi noted. These weren't so easily swayed by fiery rhetoric about foreigners, many having had some degree of direct contact with them.
That was fine–Zhu Simo would get to them in due time.
And almost on cue, Zhu Simo’s fiery words had changed target.
“And with the wealth and power of the clans destroyed, who will fund the education of their poor but talented relatives? How many shining jewels of promise will go buried in a lifetime of toil and ignominy? They say that thousand-mile horses are common, but that a good horse tamer is rare–well, what use would it be if the insightful horse tamer lacks even the capacity to raise a thousand-mile horse as it deserves?”
There–people were beginning to waver. Even the officials from the most impoverished families had relied on some sort of support to complete their education. The money to study rather than break their backs in the field. The money to get to the county capital, then the province capital, then the capital itself to take the exams. The money to give gifts to the right people who could introduce them to the right patron so that they could get a decent post. How could a simple farming family, or even a schoolteacher’s family afford that much? Some rich relative or extended kin within their clan had sponsored them and backed their career, and that was why they were standing here today. To touch the interests of the clans was to challenge the entire administration.
That was something that high-born men like the Emperor and Zhao Wenyuan would never understand.
“And the sales tax! How many merchants will make use of the tax as an excuse to raise prices prohibitively high so as to squeeze every spare coin out from the humble farmer? Two percent–two percent is nothing to most men here,” Zhu Simo said, turning this way and that as he swept a severe glare across the crowd. “But to the man who lives off the land, who earns less in a year than you would be willing to live off for a month, that two percent becomes a siphon through which his money and his life are drained away!”
His voice grew even louder as he shook his fists at the sky.
“Two percent! And how many times will the merchants raise their prices, as an excuse for every two percent that they incur through their various sales and purchases?! This hypocritical agricultural law that claims to help the poor farmer is funded through their exploitation! The wool grows on the sheep–taking their money in order to give them money, as if the countless times that the money exchanges hands does not incur great costs for state and society alike! It is utter madness!”
Han Daizhi watched on approvingly, nodding silently to himself. With that much, Zhu Simo had netted in pretty much everyone willing to hear him out. And even more brilliantly, it had been done publicly. The Emperor and Duke Zhao risked looking like narrow-minded and petty men if they retaliated. There were a few, though, that bore watching. Han Daizhi eyed them discreetly, silently calculating what it would take for them to bend.
One wore a look of utter disdain, the kind that made those agreeing with Zhu Simo shrivel up when they caught his expression.
“A fucking disaster,” Zhang Dingyong, the Minister of Justice, muttered under his breath, shaking his head as he walked away, Zhu Simo’s voice still thundering behind him.
Zhu Simo, that loud, red-faced menace, was worse than the opportunists who spread insidious rumors and malicious interpretations of their opponents’ policies. That man actually believed what he was saying, and his earnest belief convinced other people too.
And the man would always think that he was entirely correct. Impossible to convince, with the capacity to do great harm for generations down the line by broadcasting his shitty ideals far and wide, and so comfortable with his own virtue that Zhang Dingyong wanted to shred him with a kitchen knife.
Tuning him out in disgust, Zhang Dingyong stalked off.
Yao Gongzhuo, the Minister of War, stood watching impassively a moment longer. He sorely missed the deceased Zhou Kuang at times like these–Kuang would only need to step into sight, and the crowd would quieten and part. Zhu Simo would fall silent, shocked, then lower his head in respect. Kuang would not scold the man. He would have reached out and taken Zhu Simo’s hand, commended his ardor for protecting the country, and in few and simple words pointed out what was wrong with Zhu Simo’s objections without shaming the man. Of course, that depended on the Prince's presence. But even after such a inciting speech had occurred, Kuang might've found some way to counter it.
Yao Gongzhuo couldn’t do such a thing. The opposite, he was a little convinced by Zhu Simo’s words. The man was a patriot, bigoted conservative or not.
There was some sense in the tirade, hidden amidst the outdated notions.
Allowing foreigners to enter and leave as they wished–good for the economy, maybe, but what about national security? What about military intelligence? And how would they raise officers without major clans? A grown man was too old to mold into shape, and it would take the country far too many resources to train from scratch at boyhood. The rich and powerful produced ready-made talents for the picking, to be molded into decent shape with very little interference from the state. Without them, the real pickings would come from the rich and powerful among the foreign residents, just as Zhu Simo feared. Just take the Northwest for example, where an increasing number of cavalry officers were from the clans of rich Turkic migrants.
It wouldn’t get to that extent, not by design, but things never went according to plan.
And Zhu Simo had some sense in his arguments about prices going out of control. A tax that would only be an annoyance to a rich foreign trader could be crushing for a poor farmer. It could mean that his grown son went unwed for another year, that he couldn’t seek a doctor for his ill mother, that a cow had to be sold or a piece of land relinquished.
He hadn’t seen the actual reforms yet, and until he saw with his own two eyes that there were clear protections, Yao Gongzhuo couldn’t support them in his right conscience.
Frowning, Yao Gongzhuo walked away, deep in his thoughts. He had supported the elder brother, but could he really support the younger brother? Yunqi was a good man. Being a good man wasn’t enough to be a good Emperor.
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Cultural Notes
Taiyuan: A city in modern-day Shanxi province.
Daizhou: The larger Tang-dynasty province to which Taiyuan belonged.
Shengzhou: A province in Northern China.
Emphasis on stability and tradition: Like many agricultural societies, Ancient China highly valued stability and tradition. Part of this was because while some of China had two crop cycles per year, many places had a single cycle for grains. So if you tried something new and discovered that it didn't work, you could end up without income for the year, and possibly without enough to get you through to the next harvest cycle. So better to stick to something you know won't make you starve to death. This wasn't to say that laws didn't change all the time, there was in fact a proverb "新官上任三把火/A new official taking the [regional] post will set three torches of fire" to describe that whenever the regional official changed (which happened on a regular basis with an interval of a few years) the policies would change. But because of communication technologies being lacking back in the day, you didn't just roll out national policies and then keep adjusting them. Governmental gridlock aside, there were enormous technical considerations for how it would impact officials across the country. Would officials in more remote regions be held to the same standards even though it was more difficult to enact changes there due to material concerns? If so, then they would be on the verge of being considered below-standard, which could affect their long-term careers and provide incentive for them to falsify results or to force through reforms at the cost of the local people. If not, then complaints would be abound and other officials would try to argue that they should also be held to lower standards.
四处飘零/Float and drift about: An Ancient Chinese proverb describing a pitiful, vagabond state.
Youzhou: A province in Northeastern China. The home base of the Shu clan (Yunqi's maternal clan).
得寸进尺/Give an inch and [they'll] take a foot: An Ancient Chinese proverb used to describe shamelessness.
器量/Forbearance: An Ancient Chinese concept that would be more accurately translated to the limit of your forbearance. The word 器 means vessel, so the amount that your vessel can contain, that is, your ability to tolerate other people, whether it be their faults or their differences.
心胸宽广/Broad-hearted: An Ancient Chinese proverb.
前无古人/Has no precedent before us: Part of a famous Ancient Chinese poem, "前无古人后无来者，念天地之悠悠，独沧然而涕下/Before me there are no precedents and behind me there are none who are coming after. I lament with the enduring vast loneliness of the heaven and earth, and in my solitude, I bitterly weep." It speaks to the loneliness of a man whose ambitions or vision is beyond that of his peers or even his time era. Originally, it was written in the context of a man who climbed a tower and was taken in by the loneliness of standing between heaven and earth, but poets back in the day often used the climbing of a tower as a metaphor for their own ambitions, the pursuit of their own virtue, or their ability to see the world more clearly from a higher point of virtue/understanding/compassion, as well as the resulting solitude.
迂腐/Pedantic: In this specific context, being pedantic also refers to a lot of moral high-horsing and outrage about relatively trivial things. One famous example of the ultimate pedantic was Sima Guang in the Song Dynasty. For example, back then sumo wrestling was popular at festivals, but unlike the sumo we see in Japan these days, it was done by heavier-set women. Sima Guang was greatly distressed as what he saw as a breakdown of moral values and decried the practice up and down the entire capital and strongly insisted on it being banned. Even the Emperor complained, "Hey, don't you think we have more important problems?" Sima Guang was also strongly against the New Reforms proposed by Wang Anshi, and many of Zhu Simo's arguments are actually based on Sima Guang's arguments. He also held himself to high standards, as when he realized he couldn't have a child with his wife (which one of them was infertile cannot be proven) he insisted on never taking a concubine as would have been common practice at the time. On the other hand, his exasperated wife desperately wanted someone else to divert a bit of her husband's attention, but could not convince him to take a concubine.
两碗水端平/Balancing the bowls of water: A term often applied to a parent who is trying to be fair to both children.
寒门/Cold doors: Refers to scholars and officials from poor families.
千里马常有而伯乐不常/Thousand-mile horses are common, but that a good horse tamer is rare: A quote from a piece of prose that is a metaphor for talents going unrecognized. The thousand-mile horse is a horse with exceptional speed, endurance, and ability, but as the author says, those who can recognize its value apart from the common horse are few and far between. Thus, most thousand-mile horses toil and die in dirty stables, mistreated at the hands of thoughtless servants. The prose also reflects the significance of the "debt of recognition" of someone's talent.
Imperial Exams: The primary form of recruiting civil officials starting from the Tang Dynasty. Usually, one had to pass the county exam/prefecture exam to qualify for the regional exam to qualify for the national exam, upon which one would finally be ranked among the central government.
羊毛出在羊身上/The wool grows on the sheep: A Chinese saying that refers to a situation where some small benefit is accorded to someone who is being exploited by the one exploiting them, so that they have to be grateful even though they themselves created that benefit indirectly. For example, a sheared sheep that is trembling in cold thanks the farmer for a coat made of its own wool.