Chapter 38: Chapter Thirty-Eight: Different Ways

The Mencius, "Gongsun Chou I," says: Where the Way resides, though a thousand or ten thousand oppose me, I go forth.

Mencius regarded this as a form of courage and boldness, representing a spirit of pressing ever forward.

Likewise, from antiquity to the present, countless people have held those who die for the Way in the highest esteem. Those who give their lives for their ideals and convictions have never been few.

In the universal scale of values, everyone respects and admires such people deeply.

Zou Yuanbiao was such a man — he defended his Way, willing even to stake his very life upon it.

Sharing Zou Yuanbiao's conviction was Gao Panlong.

In the second month of the sixth year of Tianqi, Cui Chengxiu, unwilling to see Gao Panlong merely stripped of office, was determined to destroy him.

Cui Chengxiu therefore forged a personal memorial from Li Shi, the tax superintendent of Zhejiang, falsely accusing Gao Panlong, Zhou Qiyuan, and five others of corruption. The court dispatched Embroidered Uniform Guard agents to arrest them.

In the third month, Gao Panlong, having adjusted his cap and fastened his sash, went to pay homage at the shrine of the former sage Yang Shi. Returning home, he enjoyed the flowers with his younger brother Gao Shihe and his disciples by the pond in the rear garden, chatting and laughing as if nothing were amiss.

At that moment someone came to report that Zhou Shunchang had already been arrested. Hearing this, Gao Panlong remained perfectly composed and said with a smile: "I have long looked upon death as a return home."

He went inside and conversed and laughed with his wife as usual, showing nothing out of the ordinary. The old man handed his personally written letter to his two grandsons, instructing them to deliver it to the local official the next day, then closed the door and sent all his grandsons away.

Before long, Gao Panlong's sons, sensing something wrong, came to check on him and discovered that Gao Panlong had drowned himself in the pond. He was sixty-four years old.

His sons and grandsons opened Gao Panlong's letter. It was his last testament, reading: "Though I have been stripped of office, I was once a minister of the court. A great minister must not be humiliated, for the humiliation of a minister is the humiliation of the state. I now can only bow my head in reverence toward the north, following the last wish of Qu Yuan. The Emperor's grace remains unrequited; I can only hope to repay it in the next life. Your servant Gao Panlong, in final farewell. I pray the messenger will bear this letter to His Majesty to report my death."

Where the Way resides, though one die a hundred times, there is no regret.

These words describe men like Gao Panlong, who held fast to their Way their entire lives.

Truly worthy of admiration, truly moving — yet what came to Zhu Youxiao's mind was another saying: "Those whose Ways differ cannot take counsel together," from Confucius's Analects, "Duke Ling of Wei."

You practice your Way and defend your Way, and for it you are willing to pay the price of your life; I too practice my Way and defend my Way, and for it I too will not begrudge my life.

Zhu Youxiao suddenly felt that the wisdom of the ancients ran deep, and it also reminded him of certain matters from later ages.

Is bushido a Way? Is what those Japanese fas. cists practiced their Way?

For their Way they could die with equanimity, could slit their own bellies — but what did their Way bring to the world?

Lifting his head to look at Zou Yuanbiao, Zhu Youxiao felt he had found the crux of the matter.

Within the Donglin Faction there may be loyal and upright men; they may not be corrupt; they may be single-mindedly devoted to the state — but their Way itself is wrong. Govern the state by their Way, and the Great Ming will not grow strong, will not see a revival — it will only decline with terrifying speed!

Having thought this through, Zhu Youxiao smiled.

Yang Lian and the others took the lead in attacking Xiong Tingbi, arguing that although Xiong Tingbi had rendered merits to the state, he had also committed wrongs against it — this was their defense of the orthodox tradition.

Before the orthodox tradition, all else is but floating clouds. The orthodox tradition comes first; nothing matters more than the orthodox tradition — this is the root of the problem.

"What Minister Zou has said, I shall consider carefully." Zhu Youxiao looked at Zou Yuanbiao, nodded with a smile, then immediately assumed a solemn expression.

Once Zou Yuanbiao had left, Zhu Youxiao turned to look at Chen Hong, lightly tapped the armrest of his wheelchair with his hand, and said unhurriedly: "Same as last time — let it be said that Zou Yuanbiao has petitioned to reinstate the Assessment Law."

Chen Hong was taken aback. Leak word out again? Was this not a bit too vicious?

But Chen Hong dared not offer remonstrance, and could only hurriedly bow and go carry it out.

Zhu Youxiao also knew this was not something he could do often — this would be the last time he did it.

Of course, these two rounds of leaking word had their purposes.

With Gao Panlong, Zhu Youxiao wanted to see who would submit a routine memorial impeaching Gao Panlong, and who would submit one petitioning for the severe punishment of Li Ruzhen.

By comparison, the Li Ruzhen case was less important. Even if the Three Judicial Offices decided to make a mountain out of a molehill into nothing, if he did not agree, they could do nothing about it — he could at any time send the case back to the Eastern Depot for retrial.

This time the message was even simpler: Zhu Youxiao needed to find ministers who supported his policies.

Whether they were loyal or treacherous, whether Donglin or of other factions — as long as they supported his policies, he would use them.

Zhu Youxiao saw it very clearly: whether the Donglin Faction or the Qi, Zhe, and Chu factions, they were all the same in essence.

When Fang Congzhe served as Chief Grand Secretary, the court faced several major problems.

First on the list was local famine. With the onset of the Little Ice Age, disasters struck many regions. Compounded by severe land annexation, the Great Ming once again began to see unrest among the lower classes.

Fang Congzhe's solution to this matter was very simple: release silver from the inner treasury — that is, take the Emperor's personal money to relieve the disasters.

The second measure was opening the granaries, urgently distributing tens of thousands of piculs of grain from the common granaries to relieve neighboring areas — but this measure often yielded poor results due to corruption among local officials.

The third measure was tax exemption and suspension of levies — in plain words, tax cuts.

The fourth was replenishing local officials.

Don't these proposals look familiar?

They were basically the same playbook as the Donglin Faction. The reason they fought was not a dispute over policy direction, but a struggle for power — a struggle for profit.

Whoever holds office gains the benefit; whoever sits in the seat has more people. Not to mention anything else — whoever holds office can embezzle more silver.

Why were they always fighting over Liaodong? Because Liaodong burned through several million taels of military pay every year.

Liaodong was a great oil depot — whoever reached in could come away with a handful of grease. How could they not fight? How could they not snatch? Cutting off a man's livelihood is like killing his parents — how could they not risk everything?

As for positions and policies, the Donglin Faction and the Qi, Zhe, and Chu factions were identical. Their interests and demands were also identical: restrict imperial power — we call the shots; restrict taxation — we don't pay taxes; have the Emperor release more from the privy purse so we can embezzle more.

Apart from who sits in office and who gets the benefits, there was no difference at all.

The reason Zhu Youxiao leaked this message was to ruin Zou Yuanbiao's reputation, to cut him off from the Donglin Faction.

Of course, that was basically impossible — but it could make him resign and vacate his position.

In Zhu Youxiao's view, the post of Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate was far too important. If he needed the Censorate, he needed to place his own man in that seat.

Additionally, he needed to know who had no scholar's bottom line and was willing to follow him — even if only for promotion and wealth, that was fine.

As long as one was willing to support his reinstatement of the Assessment Law, he would promote him.