Chapter 111: Today's Legal Talk

The spring wine in Jing City is early, the banquet at the Prince's mansion has just begun.

Servants and maids began to serve dishes, holding delicacies in their hands, entering in a line, returning in rows, an endless stream.

Wang Yang clicked his tongue in wonder at the spectacle, feeling momentarily as if he were watching a blockbuster movie.

As for the dishes, they were even more exquisite, with great attention paid to everything from the tableware to the presentation.

He tasted a spoonful of the milky-white fish soup in a white porcelain bowl and found it exceptionally delicious.

Seeing Wang Yang drinking the soup, the Prince of Badong said, "Is this 'Mushroom and Fish Pottage' okay? The crucian carp in my Jingzhou is the most famous; you can't eat it anywhere else."

Before Wang Yang could speak, a voice suddenly said:

"Your Highness is right. As the saying goes, 'Crucian carp in the south, carp in the north.' In the Jiangnan region, crucian carp is the best, while in the north, carp is king. And among the crucian carp of Jiangnan, those from the Hanshui River in Jingzhou are the best. Therefore, during the previous dynasty, Sheng Hongzhi wrote the *Jingzhou Record*, in which he said, 'Jingzhou has beautiful crucian carp, surpassing those of Dongting and Wen Lake.' The so-called 'crucian' refers to the crucian carp."

Wang Yang thought, *Who is this person who can drop book titles so well? He's on par with me. * He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a familiar face—Liu Cheng.

The Prince of Badong smiled. "The fourth son of the Liu family is indeed learned. I think after you are ranked, you should come directly to me to be an official."

The so-called "starting official" is a saying popular in the officialdom of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. At that time, it was customary to call the first official position one held in life a "starting official."

The official career in the medieval period placed great importance on the "starting official" position. How the starting official position was, not only represented one's family status and lineage but also predicted the rank of one's future official career. If one could start as a high and noble official in a Prince's staff, it would not be a disgrace to Liu Cheng's status.

"Your Highness overpraises me. My life has limits, but knowledge has none. Life is so limited, and knowledge is so broad. How can I dare to accept the word 'learned'? I just like eating crucian carp."

As Liu Cheng said this, he turned toward Wang Yang. "Eh? Brother Wang, I heard that you Yixing people have a way of making wine-lees crucian carp, is that right?"

Wang Yang was startled, not expecting Liu Cheng to suddenly mention Yixing.

Using Yixing as his ancestral home originally stemmed from a misunderstanding by Liu Zhao, but he did not explain too much because he was a transmigrator and had no ancestral home at all, so writing it as anywhere was the same. But he did not expect it to be suddenly brought up in public by Liu Cheng today.

How did he know he was from Yixing? Did he check the household registration, or did he ask Xie Xinghan?

Wang Yang was somewhat alert. After registering his household, he had paid special attention to the situation in Yixing, but at that time there were no search engines, and the books he could access were extremely limited. When chatting with others, it was not easy to frequently bring up Yixing for fear of revealing flaws. He could only bring up the topic sideways and secretly remember it, combined with an outdated Yixing geographical record he had dug up from a bookstore. The information he collected was scattered and incomplete; how could he know anything about wine-lees crucian carp?

If he were a reckless person, he might have just followed Liu Cheng's words and hummed and hawed. But to be safe, Wang Yang neither admitted nor denied Liu Cheng's statement, instead changing the subject: "If we're talking about the best way to make crucian carp, it's still pickled fish."

"Pickled fish? Can pickled vegetables be used to make fish?" the Prince of Badong asked curiously.

Of course, pickled vegetables can be used to make fish, but using crucian carp is not appropriate. But in order to change the subject, Wang Yang could not care less.

The history of pickled vegetables in China is long, with various pickling methods such as kimchi, salted vegetables, and fermented vegetables. Pickled vegetables were also a common type of pickle at the time, also known as "Zu vegetables."

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it was popular to stew duck and goose with pickled vegetables, and it was also required that the soup be sour and thick. If it was not sour enough, more pickled vegetable juice would be added. Therefore, there was a popular dish at the time called "Vinegar Zu Goose and Duck Pottage," which everyone present except Wang Yang had eaten. However, the method of stewing fish with pickled vegetables was unheard of.

Wang Yang replied, "Yes! Pickled vegetable stewed fish, fragrant but not greasy. However, there is a trick to this too; the fish must be sliced..."

Seeing that the topic had drifted, Liu Cheng interrupted, "So pickled fish is also a Yixing method?"

Wang Yang looked at Liu Cheng. "This is my family's method."

Liu Cheng nodded. "So that's it! By the way, how do you say pickled fish in the Yixing dialect?"

Wang Yang smiled slightly. "I am a guest surname, I don't speak the Wu dialect."

After the Western Jin dynasty unified the country, the gentry's accent was based on the Northern accent. The old Wu accent of Jiangnan was despised.

Therefore, in *The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons: Sound Patterns*, it is said: "Zhang Hua discussed rhyme, saying that Shiheng (Lu Ji) had too much Chu... losing the correct sound of the Huang Zhong." The so-called "Chu" refers to the Wu dialect.

Later, the Five Hu invaded China, and a large number of Northern gentry moved south to Jiangnan. Although they lost their homeland, they still maintained the elegant sound of the Central Plains as the standard. Driven by this trend, many great surnames in Wu also took pride in speaking the Northern accent, while often looking down on the Wu dialect.

For example, in the *Book of Song: Biography of Prince Jing of Changsha Daolian*, it is said: "Daolian had no talent, his speech was very Chu, his behavior was clumsy."

Therefore, as a descendant of the Langya Wang family, Wang Yang would have no problem whether he "did not want to speak" the Yixing dialect or simply "could not speak" it.

Liu Cheng rubbed his wine cup with his fingertips, his eyes flickering. "I heard that there is a sweet wine in Yixing, the taste is extremely mellow. Does Brother Wang remember what this wine is called?"

Seeing that Liu Cheng could not finish three sentences without mentioning Yixing, Wang Yang was certain he had come with ill intent. He laughed, "That's what my family uses to feed ducks. I don't know if it's mellow or not. If Brother Liu is interested, you can try it."

"Feed... feed ducks?" Liu Cheng was startled.

Not only was Liu Cheng confused, but the guests at the four tables had never heard of such a rare thing.

The Prince of Badong asked strangely, "Feeding ducks with wine?"

Wang Yang blurted out, "Yes, this is a dish, beer duck."

"What wine? What duck?" The Prince of Badong was even more confused.

Wang Yang said, "This beer duck is..."

*What a load of nonsense! *

*He was led off-topic again! *

Listening to Wang Yang talking eloquently about beer duck, Liu Cheng felt he was being teased. If it weren't for the plan he had made with his brother earlier, he would have loved to stand up and testify against Wang Yang directly.

He had originally wanted to use the conversation to make Wang Yang reveal his flaws naturally, but this guy was too cunning!

Seeing that he could not find a way to talk to Wang Yang, Liu Cheng stopped beating around the bush and simply interrupted, "Your Highness, I recently heard of a rare case."

The Prince of Badong was listening to Wang Yang's made-up beer duck recipe and said casually, "You have a rare case too? Tell me later."

Liu Cheng raised his voice: "Your Highness! A major case has occurred in this dynasty; someone is impersonating a gentry family, swindling and bluffing!"

Everyone looked at Liu Cheng.

Although Wang Yang had guessed that Liu Cheng might make trouble, when he heard Liu Cheng reveal this matter in public, his heart still could not help but skip a beat.

The Prince of Badong turned back and frowned. "Impersonating a gentry family to swindle? What kind of major case is this?"

Liu Cheng looked around. "This person swindled gentry children, and even officials and dignitaries."

The Prince of Badong became interested. "Oh? This swindler actually has such ability? Then it can be considered a major case. Which family is he impersonating?"

Liu Cheng said loudly: "The Langya Wang family!"

"The Langya Wang family? This can be impersonated?!" The Prince of Badong's eyes widened, and he looked at Wang Yang. "This is impersonating your family!"

Wang Yang smiled lightly. "It really is a rare case."

Liu Cheng had been observing Wang Yang's expression. Seeing him laughing and talking as if nothing had happened, he could not help but admire this person's courage and composure.

Thinking about it,

If he didn't have such courage, he wouldn't have been able to deceive the city of Jingzhou for so long.

Jingzhou Assistant Governor Le Zhan said: "It is not uncommon for people to impersonate gentry families to swindle money among the common people, but they only swindle ignorant commoners. It is very rare for them to be able to swindle scholar-officials. During the previous dynasty, someone in Yuzhang County impersonated the Wu Jun Zhu family and was almost appointed as a Registrar by the muddled local Prefect; even the official uniform was made! As a result, the truth was revealed when writing the 'removal document,' and he was finally sentenced to be beheaded, becoming a joke for a time.

Now someone actually dares to impersonate the Langya Wang family! And they were able to swindle gentry officials; it is truly unbelievable! Listening to the fourth son of the Liu family, it seems that more than one person was swindled?! Then it really can be considered a strange case."

Wang Yang could not help but smile bitterly in his heart: If this were before he transmigrated, this matter of his would probably be on *Today's Legal Talk*. The title would be "The True Form of the Fake Gentry"...

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Note: ① The Northern accent admired by the Southern gentry was the official language of Luoyang during the Western Jin dynasty, not the accent of the Northern Dynasties at that time. The accent popular among the Han people in the Northern Dynasties was a fusion of the old Northern accent and the Hu accent, which was called "Cang accent" by the Southern people. For example, in the *Book of Chen: Biography of Zhou Tiehu*: "Zhou Tiehu, I don't know where he is from. He moved south during the Liang dynasty, and his accent was Cang and heavy."

But in fact, the "Northern accent" held by the Southern gentry was not as pure as it was at the beginning of the move south, but a Northern accent influenced by the Wu dialect. Emperor Ming of Song's *Record of Articles* contains: "How can one recite the Luosheng chant, but he has a nasal disease, and his accent is muddy. Later celebrities mostly learned his chant, but could not reach it, covering their noses with their hands while chanting."

The Luosheng chant is the elegant sound of Luoyang. Xie An, as an old family of the Central Plains, should have been familiar with it. But he could only say it well because he "had a nasal disease," which just shows that the Northern language passed down by the guest surnames was no longer pure.

First, the Northern accent became a family study, taught behind closed doors among the various guest surname families, and the family methods were different, and the differences became obvious. Second, language acquisition is inevitably influenced by the regional environment. After hearing the Wu dialect too much, it is inevitable to be contaminated. *A New Account of Tales of the World: Lightly Criticizing* records that the great scholar Zhi Daolin met Wang Huizhi and his brother, and when he came back, others asked him about his impressions, and he said: "I saw a group of white-necked crows, only hearing the sound of 'caw caw'." The so-called "caw caw sound" probably implies that his accent was not correct.

Mr. Zhou Yiliang inferred in *Various People in the Southern Dynasties and Government Policies* that the Northern language in the Southern Dynasties was not pure, and Mr. Yu Jiaxi made the judgment of "not pure North, nor pure South" in *A New Account of Tales of the World Notes*, both of which are excellent insights, for reference.

② The Northern carp is famous, and it was so as early as the pre-Qin period. The *Book of Songs* says: "Why must one eat carp from the river?" This means that eating carp does not necessarily have to be Yellow River carp. So the fame of Yellow River carp is known. By the time of the Northern Wei *Record of Luoyang Buddhist Temples*, it still said: "Luoyang carp and Yi river bream are as expensive as cattle and sheep."

③ "Removal document" refers to the document granting an official position, similar to what is called a "letter of appointment" in later generations. The Southern Dynasties called it "removal document," and the Northern Dynasties called it "announcement document." ===== CHAPTER 112 =====