Chapter 148: Shi Kefa's First Trial of Skill

A cup of mild wine went down, and everyone set their cups down gently — not yet drunk, but the mood was already pleasantly tipsy.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Zhang Mingzhen clapped his hands with a crack, his voice booming like a great bell, shattering the quiet.

"Truly the foremost statecraft essay of all time, past and present!"

His eyes blazed, as if he had personally witnessed the storm and thunder that had swept through Huangji Hall.

Sitting across from him, Zhang Pu smiled gently and took up the thread.

"Indeed. Using nothing more than fragmentary historical records, plus investigations of the capital's midwives and coffin shops, they deduced the fundamental cycle of order and chaos across two millennia of Chinese dynasties."

"Such a method — discerning the whole from a single detail, glimpsing the leopard through a tube — these 'Five Masters of Statecraft' are truly extraordinary."

His words brimmed with admiration, but his gaze swept unobtrusively over everyone present, observing their reactions.

"Hah, extraordinary?"

A cold laugh cut in — it was the blunt-spoken Zhang Cai.

He curled his lip and said, without the slightest courtesy: "That line of thought was plainly given by His Majesty. Those five merely carried out an imperial commission and fleshed out His Majesty's conception. How does that earn them the title 'Five Masters of Statecraft'? In my view, the name far outstrips the reality."

At these words, the atmosphere stiffened somewhat.

"That is not so."

A steady voice spoke up. Everyone turned to look — it was Shi Kefa.

He was only twenty-five at this time. Though short and wiry in build, with a dark, swarthy face, he possessed an unmistakable air of resolution.

Shi Kefa was a man of Henan. Because his ancestors had been granted the Embroidered Uniform Guard rank of Centurion, his household was registered under the Guard, and so he sat the provincial examination in Shuntian Prefecture.

One could say he had witnessed, from beginning to end, the entire process of the waves stirred up in the capital after the new sovereign ascended the throne.

He cupped his hands and said slowly: "Those five did not simply reap an unearned advantage."

"You gentlemen may not know this, but during the very first Daily Lecture, His Majesty asked, 'Why did Confucius value ren?'"

"Every scholar present, whether of the School of Principle or the School of Mind, expounded grandly on subtle meanings and profound truths. They seemed to be citing the classics, but in truth they were merely seizing the topic to air their own sectarian views."

"Only those three were able to transcend the confines of Principle and Mind, and truly answer — in part — His Majesty's question. That is why they caught His Majesty's discerning eye."

"For that breadth of insight and force of spirit alone, they are no ordinary men."

Xia Yunyi, utterly captivated, pressed eagerly: "Then have those three gentlemen's policy essays been circulated? We would dearly love to read them."

Shi Kefa shook his head, a complicated expression crossing his face.

"No. His Majesty personally ordered that all three of the policy essays they submitted be burned."

"What?" Everyone was astonished.

Shi Kefa cupped his hands toward the direction of the capital and said:

"His Majesty merely said, 'These young fellows are full of youthful fire; their reasoning is not yet mature, but their hearts are in the right place. To spare them needless controversy, it is best to destroy the essays first. When they have experienced more of the world, it will not be too late for them to expound their own principles.'"

For a moment, the pavilion fell silent.

Xia Yunyi gave a long sigh, his face full of admiration and gratitude: "His Majesty's care for his subjects' hearts extends even to this... One may truly call it magnanimous."

A warmth stirred in everyone's hearts. As if by unspoken agreement, they all turned toward the capital, cupped their hands, and said in unison: "His Majesty is magnanimous."

After a brief silence, Jiang Can pressed further: "Then what of Zhang Zhiji, son of the Duke of Ying, and Luo Yangxing, son of the former Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander? One is a scion of the merit nobility, the other a Han General of the Guard — why were they able to take part in this investigation?"

This question, Shi Kefa could not answer.

At that point, Li Ruolian spoke up. As a local power-broker in the capital, though he too had only just returned, his information was far better than that of these scholars from the provinces.

"On this matter, I have learned a thing or two from some local friends."

He set down his wine cup and said: "These two, Zhang Zhiji and Luo Yangxing, were not chosen out of thin air."

"Each of them submitted an official memorandum — respectively, the 'Memorial on Gambling in the Capital' and the 'Memorial on Banditry in the Capital.'"

"Though these two documents were not implemented in the first phase of the capital's new policies, the thoroughness of their investigations and the rigor of their arguments make them first-rate works of statecraft prose."

"It is only that these two pieces have been copied and circulated very little — far from being as universally known as Xue Guoguan's 'Memorial on Road Repair.'"

"However, my elder brother, at the Hanlin Academy, was fortunate enough to obtain a copy. I have read it myself. At our next gathering, I shall bring it for everyone's enjoyment."

Hearing this, Zhang Cai was mortified beyond measure.

He rose to his feet, faced the company, and solemnly cupped his hands.

"I was shallow. To have judged others on such one-sided hearsay — this is my fault."

He admitted his error at once, with perfect frankness. Seeing this, the others did not laugh at him; instead, their respect for him grew.

A small dispute thus dissolved into nothing.

They chatted a while longer, exchanging scattered pieces of intelligence, and together reviewed every measure taken since the new sovereign's accession.

From the first Daily Lecture's "Why did Confucius value ren?" to the second's "What is the Great Ming's fundamental problem?" and now to this "Two Millennia of Chinese Order and Chaos" — a clear thread gradually emerged before everyone's eyes.

This young monarch — was he truly asking questions because his own mind was perplexed?

It was obvious that from the very start, he had held a grand blueprint in his heart.

Every step taken now was merely guiding the realm, step by step, to see the grand design within his breast.

Jiang Can had only just entered the capital and was hearing this complete thread for the first time. He could not help but sigh:

"A sage planning the state is like a master chess player — the stone falls without a sound, yet wind and thunder are already stirring."

Hearing this, everyone nodded. They tossed the meeting agenda to the back of their minds, raised their cups, and drank another round together.

Zhang Pu had been listening all along without betraying any reaction, raising his cup in response, but his eyes moved across every face.

That's about enough. If we keep talking, we'll drift off course.

He gave a light cough and steered the conversation back on track.

"Gentlemen, let us pause the idle talk and follow the agenda."

"As His Majesty has said, to answer the question of the age, one must first clarify the question of the age. Regarding this 'question of man and land,' do any of you have insights?"

At these words, the pavilion fell quiet once more.

Every gaze in the room met midair — excitement, contemplation, eagerness to leap into action.

A moment later, Shi Kefa was the first to rise. He cupped his hands toward the group.

"Then let me claim this first cup!"

With that, he drew a book from inside his robe and held it up for all to see.

The pages were already slightly dog-eared. On the cover, five large characters read: *The Imperial Ming Examination Record*.

A wave of puzzlement swept through the gathering.

This was a book that virtually every juren present owned a copy of.

But what did it have to do with the "question of man and land"?

All it recorded were the institutional origins of the examination system, the rosters of past jinshi, and the number of candidates in each previous metropolitan examination…

Wait —?!

Metropolitan examination candidate numbers?!

The quicker minds among them felt their pupils sharply contract. In almost an instant, they grasped what it meant.

Only Zhang Mingzhen and Li Ruolian, who had come up through the military examinations, were unfamiliar with the book and still wore blank expressions.

Seeing this, Shi Kefa let out a hearty laugh.

He opened the book, drew from between its leaves a sheet of xuan paper folded into a neat square, and then — *whish* — spread it open across the stone table.

"Gentlemen, come and take a look!"

It was one of those "line graphs" that the scholars had been copying and passing among themselves these past few days.

The graph, though novel, was simple in principle — almost instantly understood once explained — but a hand-drawn line graph was something they were seeing for the very first time.

The horizontal axis was "examination year"; the vertical axis was "metropolitan examination candidates." A single winding ink line traced, with perfect clarity, the slow change in metropolitan examination participation over the two-hundred-odd years since the Great Ming's founding.

This was precisely what Shi Kefa had produced — *A Trend Chart of Great Ming Metropolitan Examination Candidate Numbers*!

Zhang Cai was the first to finish studying the whole chart, but his brow furrowed and he immediately raised an objection.

"This doesn't add up. Brother Xianzhi, this trend of yours does not fully match the population growth His Majesty projected."

"According to His Majesty, from the founding to the present, the population has grown at least threefold, and the later the period, the faster the growth."

"But on your chart here… growth was extremely rapid right after the founding, yet by the middle and later periods, it actually leveled off."

Zhang Pu, however, shook his head and spoke up:

"The data is correct."

"Because the admission quotas for the provincial examinations over the years have all been fixed — they do not move in perfect lockstep with population growth!"

"In the dynasty's early days, the wars had just ended and the people's hearts were not yet settled, so the number of examination candidates grew relatively quickly."

"But… but the quotas themselves did indeed grow, only slowly! We never paid attention before, but now it seems…"

He raised his head to look at the others, and even his voice could not suppress that thread of fervor:

"These quotas appear to be… out of step with the speed of population growth!"

Xia Yunyi clapped his hands in excitement and picked up the thread:

"Exactly! From the dynasty's middle period to the present, though the juren quotas have increased, they have done so only at a crawl."

"And now that we have demonstrated the speed at which the population multiplies, this growth in examination candidates is simply far too… slow."

Xia Yunyi was so agitated that his lips trembled; he could barely get the words out.

He had passed the provincial examination in the forty-sixth year of Wanli, at just twenty-two years of age — what boundless spirit and ambition he had possessed then.

But in the three metropolitan examinations that followed — the forty-seventh year of Wanli, the second year of Tianqi, and the fifth year of Tianqi — his name had failed to appear on the list every single time.

Sometimes, waking from a dream in the dead of night, Xia Yunyi could not help but doubt himself, wondering whether he would ever pass in this lifetime…

As for the others present, all of them sharp minds handpicked by Zhang Pu — by this point, who among them could fail to see the hidden crux of the matter?

In the end, it was the plainspoken Zhang Cai who put the revelation into words with a single stroke.

"The admission quotas for the provincial and metropolitan examinations have fallen far, far behind the growth of the population!"

He paused, and his voice rose involuntarily, carrying a faint tremor.

"Perhaps the scholars and officials of this realm are not too many at all… but far too few!"

A deathly silence fell over the pavilion.

Birdsong, the lapping of lake water against the shore, and the heavy breathing of the men all intertwined.

They all looked at one another, gazes burning, wanting to speak but unable to utter a single word.

A thought — unspeakably alluring, yet unspeakably dangerous — was taking mad root in every man's heart.

In the end, it was Xia Yunyi, thrice-failed in the metropolitan examinations, who was the first to speak, his voice trembling: "Then… then should we… submit a memorial?"

"Submit a memorial! We absolutely must submit a memorial!" Zhang Cai nodded at once, but then immediately shook his head. "But not right now. This alone is still far too thin."

He turned toward Shi Kefa and said urgently, "Brother Xianzhi, the *Preface to the Provincial and Metropolitan Examinations* records the juren quotas for each province over the years. If we can add that, the data will be far more solid. I brought that book with me to the capital — I'll send it over to you later!"

Zhang Pu pondered for a long moment, then slowly shook his head.

"No. That still won't be enough."

"Right now, the civil service is riddled with corruption, and the state coffers are empty. If we rashly propose expanding the number of official posts, where would the court find the coin and grain to place them all?"

"Besides, who can guarantee that more officials would necessarily be a good thing? When our dynasty was founded, it was precisely to learn from the lesson of the former Song's bloat of superfluous officials!"

"To increase the number of officials, we must first resolve the rot in the civil service, then resolve the fiscal crisis, and finally produce a plan to resolve the problem of superfluous officials themselves. Of these three great mountains, which one is so easy to move?"

His words left the gathering speechless.

It was true — that too many officials harassed the people, and that superfluous officials were a blight, had long been the consensus of scholarly opinion, a matter of political correctness.

The flame of hope that had just kindled in Xia Yunyi's heart was doused by more than half in an instant. He spoke with regret: "Then… is this matter to be dropped, just like that?"

Zhang Pu looked at the varied expressions on their faces — some contemplative, some regretful, and some, like Zhang Mingzhen and Li Ruolian, holding their breath, too tense to speak.

But in his own heart, a spark was blazing into a roaring fire.

The people's will can be harnessed!

A matter this great, a moment like this — this is the perfect chance for me, Zhang Pu, to ride the tide and rise!

Thoughts raced through his mind. He had already made his decision and was about to speak.

But Shi Kefa preempted him, declaring with fervor: "Why should we not submit a memorial?!"

"More people means more land is needed — that is the argument for conquest and expansion!"

"More people means more offices are needed — that is the argument for education and cultivation!"

"If the reasoning is correct, why worry so much about the consequences! We scholars read the books of the sages — what have we learned them for, if not to act according to principle!"

His words once again ignited the passion of the gathering.

"Well said! Well said!" Xia Yunyi echoed excitedly. "Act according to principle, and that is enough! Xianzhi, I will join you and add my name to the memorial!"

"I will too!"

"Count me in!"

The crowd responded one after another, and the atmosphere, which had only just cooled, grew fervent once more.

Seeing this, Zhang Pu inwardly cursed and hurriedly spoke up.

"Gentlemen, restrain your agitation a moment! Restrain your agitation!"

He raised a hand and pressed it down in the air a few times. Only when the crowd had quieted somewhat did he slowly continue: "I am not saying we should not submit a memorial. It is just that…"

He shifted his tack.

"Those who plan great matters do not contend for the advantage of a single corner, but plan for the momentum of the whole board. If we submit a memorial solely to increase official posts, that is for private gain, not for the public good, and we will surely become the target of universal condemnation!"

These words struck like a morning bell and an evening drum, sobering everyone at once.

Indeed — to speak only of adding officials without offering solutions: in the eyes of the old ministers at court, how would that differ from a pack of profit-hungry men scrambling for office?

Zhang Cai, the most impatient, demanded: "Then what do you propose?!"

Zhang Pu smiled faintly and said with full confidence: "If we submit a memorial, we cannot merely answer this matter of officials. We must answer His Majesty's 'question for the age'!"

"Before us, the 'Five Masters of Statecraft' composed 'The Greatest Statecraft Essay of All Time,' which 'set the question' for all under Heaven."

"Why can we, the younger generation, not emulate them and write a 'statecraft essay' of our own, to 'answer the question' for all under Heaven?!"

He looked around at them all, his voice brimming with a power that bewitched the heart.

"When the time comes, we will jointly sign this essay and present it to His Majesty. The matter of increasing official posts will be but one of many policy proposals within it!"

"If His Majesty is enraged by it, the other policy discussions will bear the brunt, and our motives will not appear impure."

"And if His Majesty is pleased by the other policy discussions, then this proposal to increase officials will seem all the more logical and timely!"

He watched their eyes grow brighter and brighter, and finally laid out his ultimate objective.

"There are still nearly six months until next year's spring examination. Gentlemen, are you willing to join me, Zhang Pu, in accomplishing this grand undertaking, in doing this great deed together!"

"Count me in!"

"Count me in too!"

The crowd exchanged glances. Without further hesitation, they raised their right hands one after another.

Zhang Pu nodded with satisfaction, then looked toward Li Ruolian and Zhang Mingzhen: "You two — for the policy on conquest and expansion, we must rely on the insight of you two military examinees. You must take part as well."

Li Ruolian and Zhang Mingzhen exchanged a glance. Their blood surged with passion, and they too raised their right hands emphatically.

Seeing that he had finally turned the situation back in his favor, Zhang Pu let out a long, quiet breath of relief.

He cleared his throat and said: "Good! Then let us now discuss how to divide the work on this statecraft essay. Everyone, speak your mind — how should we answer this question of people and land?"

Li Ruolian was the first to speak: "I can take up the matter of the Liaodong campaign. The Complete Gazetteer of Liaodong records the acreage of Liaodong's fields. I can go and calculate how many people could be sustained once the Liaodong affair is pacified."

Zhang Mingzhen followed closely: "Sailing south from Jiangnan, there is a large island called Dongfan. I once had a relative who sailed there on business. I can send a letter to inquire about the extent of its fields and how many commoners it could accommodate."

Shi Kefa said: "I will go back and supplement the provincial examination figures. Also, I am from Henan, where much land lies abandoned — in truth, there is more land than people. If we wish to exhaustively address the policy of bringing the Central Plains' land to its full potential, I can take that up."

Xia Yunyi said: "The late Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Master Xuanyu, experimented with planting sweet potatoes in Huating and pursued various means of increasing yields. One of his books records all manner of methods for increasing yields and farming. I have read it and know a little — I can take up the matter of increasing farmland yields!"

The remaining few also spoke up in turn.

Xu Qia said: "If we seek land, beyond outward expansion, there is still room in the corners of the Central Plains. In ancient times, Jiangnan was nothing but a barbarous wilderness, yet now it is a land of fish and rice. Yunnan and Guizhou might be made so as well. I can go seek out scholars from Yunnan and Guizhou and ask how this might be done!"

Zhang Pu nodded: "I will seek them out with you. We can use this opportunity to thoroughly ascertain the conditions of land and population in the hometowns of scholars who have come to the capital from all over the country — to see where people are many and land is scarce, and where people are few and land is plenty."

Zhang Cai said: "Then I will take up the matter of the northwest. Minister Sun has said that if the realm falls into chaos, it will surely begin in Shaanxi. I will go at once to find scholars from Shaanxi in the capital and get to the bottom of it!"

Everyone's gaze then turned to the last man, Jiang Can.

He was not flustered. After a moment's deliberation, he said: "My father once served as a County Magistrate in Fujian and knew a little of the southeastern kingdoms. I will take up the matter of the southeast."

"Excellent, excellent, excellent!" Zhang Pu clapped his hands, brimming with spirit. "From now on, we shall meet every ten days to share what we have learned. If any of you has a temporary matter, you may always seek me out at the Suzhou Guild Hall!"

At that moment, Shi Kefa suddenly laughed and said: "That can wait until ten days from now! For the present, I must ask you all to judge — how many cups of wine is this chart of mine worth today?!"

At this, everyone burst into loud laughter and cried out in unison: "It is worth a great brimming cup!"

With the division of labor settled, their hearts swelled with heroic ambition. Casting off all restraint, they gradually abandoned themselves to abandon, tossing every rule and procedure to the winds.

Cup after cup of wine went down, and the topics of conversation shifted from farmland, to official governance, to the civil examinations, and finally settled entirely upon conquest and expansion.

One man spoke of raising a hundred thousand troops to sweep away the Jianzhou barbarians; another spoke of watering his horse in the Western Sea and retaking the Ordos Loop.

More outrageous still, Shi Kefa, drunk to the point of semi-delirium, bellowed that they should annex Dali.

This drew great laughter from everyone, who told him that Dali had been destroyed back in the Yuan dynasty — Brother Xianzhi, wake up, wake up.

In the heat of wine and merriment, Zhang Cai's spirits soared. He simply stripped off his upper garment, bared his arms, picked up two bamboo chopsticks, and struck them against the stone railing of the pavilion, singing at the top of his lungs:

"My hair bristles with rage, as I lean on the railing, the pattering rain ceases…"

At first, he sang alone, his voice somewhat jarring amid the clamor.

But after only two lines, Zhang Pu joined in, then Xia Yunyi, then Jiang Can… until finally, every scholar present, some pounding the tables, some shaking their wine bowls, merged their voices from every corner of the land:

"Thirty years of fame and merit, mere dust and dirt; eight thousand li of journey, through cloud and moon. Do not idle away, till your youthful head turns white, and you grieve in vain!"

"The shame of Jingkang remains unavenged. When will the hatred in a subject's heart be quenched! Drive the long chariot, trample the breach at Helan Mountain. With fierce resolve, feast on the flesh of barbarians when hungry; with laughter and talk, drink the blood of Xiongnu when thirsty. Wait until we begin anew, reclaim our old rivers and mountains, and face the Heavenly Palace!"

The impassioned singing resounded across the lakeshore, startling roosting birds into flapping flight, and carried far into the distance.

The singing even drifted into the nearby Qinghua Garden, immediately making several nobles of merit furrow their brows.

Li Guorui, son of the Marquis of Wuqing, turned to his steward:

"Go see what lowlife ruffians are making this racket and disturbing our peace!"