Chapter 16: Inquiring into Local Customs

After leaving the hospitable home of that powerful local clan in the right part of Anping Commandery, the road ahead became considerably easier to travel.

For one thing, further south and west there was no more snowfall, so the roads were clean, hard, and solid; for another, Jizhou is the heartland of Hebei and also the heartland of the Great Han dynasty, densely populated and rich in produce, so the roads are broad and the land is flat, truly convenient for carts.

Moreover, the one among our traveling scholars whose home lay furthest south happened to be a scholar surnamed Han from the northern part of Anping Commandery, so after leaving that place, they had effectively left behind everyone’s true homeland, and the scenery and local customs before their eyes began to seem entirely different. Thus, the group of scholars rode abreast, discoursing on past and present, appraising famous figures, and dismissing the marquises of old as so much dung — one could fairly call it high spirits and youthful gallantry.

“This river before us is called the Jiang River.” The eldest among them, Zhen Yi, sat in his own open-topped treasure carriage, hand resting on the carriage rail, pointing out the lay of the land to everyone. “The Jiang River, going upstream…”

“What a strange name!” Liu Bei suddenly interrupted, spurring his horse forward as if afraid the people around him might fail to notice the brand-new brocade robe on his body or the tall, fine steed beneath him. “Why is it called the Jiang River? Does it mean something?”

“Well…” Although Zhen Yi was displeased at having his elegant exposition cut short, he was even less inclined to quibble with a brash youngster. “Jiang River means a river that overflows — in other words, a flood.”

“But this river clearly doesn’t overflow much. Honored elder brothers, look — the channel is narrow and shallow. Isn’t the name unfitting?” The brash youngster was indeed annoying.

“That is not so.” Seated in his open carriage, Zhen Yi patiently explained. “If you follow this river upstream, you will actually see the Dalu Marsh (also called Julu Marsh or Guang’a Marsh), which is famous throughout the realm and is the largest lake in Hebei. Although this Dalu Marsh is a great lake formed by the old course of the Yellow River joining a depression where it meets the Zhang River, whenever its waters overflow and a flood arises, the lake and marsh swell, and then they break through the channel of this Jiang River — that is why it is called the Jiang River. And once the water level drops, the Zhang River forks on either side of the Dalu Marsh, and this Jiang River flows on its own. In the end, though, it still merges into the Zhang River…”

“Zhang River this and Jiang River that — since this Jiang River is originally part of the Zhang River, why give it a separate name?” Liu Bei grew more and more confused as he listened. “Is it the Zhang River or the Jiang River?”

“Well, that…” For a moment, Zhen Yi was at a loss as to how to explain.

“Ha.” Gongsun Xun, however, had already understood, and could not help laughing as he offered an explanation. “Abei, what Elder Brother Dayin means is that this Jiang River is a flood-diversion channel that the Zhang River cuts out at the Dalu Marsh when a flood comes, so the locals simply named it after the character ‘jiang’ for flood. In truth, this river itself is probably just a small tributary of the Zhang River; if it did not serve as a flood-diversion channel, I doubt it would count as any famous river or great stream.”

“So that’s it!” Liu Bei suddenly saw the light. “Elder Brother Xun, your explanation is still the clearest — one hears it and understands at once. Not like Elder Brother Zhen’s way of telling it, which left a person all muddled.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Gongsun Xun shook his head and laughed. “Elder Brother Dayin has hills and valleys in his breast — he benefits us greatly. You yourself failed to grasp it; can you really blame someone else for imparting knowledge? If that is your attitude, once you reach Luoyang you won’t be able to learn a thing.”

Everyone, including the two parties directly involved, Liu Bei and Zhen Yi, burst out laughing at this. It must be understood that in this age, teachers were responsible only for transmitting the Way and imparting knowledge, and had never been responsible for resolving doubts. Why else would the venerable Confucius be hailed as the Model Teacher for All Ages? It was truly because he, as a teacher, indeed performed his role well enough.

Of course, returning to the matter at hand, since they were nearing Julu Commandery and had just been speaking of the Dalu Marsh, also known as Julu Marsh, a group of young scholars naturally could not avoid discussing the Battle of Julu. And once the Battle of Julu came up, even the frontier scholars like Gongsun Zan could not help joining in and beginning to theorize on paper, and very quickly they were arguing once again with the scholars from Jizhou.

Thus, in what followed, everyone’s enthusiasm for conversation naturally grew even stronger.

But just at that moment, Han Dang suddenly spurred his horse forward, came to Gongsun Xun’s side, and spoke a few words, which caused the latter to pull back and temporarily leave this battlefield of verbal sparring.

“Wasn’t that man your companion, Elder Brother Yigong?” Gongsun Xun asked as he rode. “When I first saw the two of you together, I assumed he had simply come along with you.”

“He was not.” Han Dang shook his head repeatedly. “This man is surnamed Jia, a cavalryman in Lulong Fortress. He also took part in that night raid to support us and received a fair amount of reward. It happened that he too was requesting leave to return home. Because I had an extra horse that day and was also leaving home to travel south, I had him accompany me. Later, from beside the Fengda River, he followed us all the way here, which saved us quite a bit of trouble. Now that he is nearly home and preparing to leave the company, he wished to pay his respects to you, Young Lord, to express his gratitude…”

“So that is how it is.” Gongsun Xun nodded, unconcerned.

In truth, there was nothing much to say about such a matter in the first place.

Gongsun Xun gave face to his trusted subordinate and, as requested, came to meet this cavalryman surnamed Jia, the very man who had appeared with Han Dang beside the Fengda River that day.

First he looked at his appearance and build — the man seemed rather capable and sharp, but Lulong Fortress had plenty of cavalrymen, and no shortage of such men. Then he asked his name — it was probably Jia Chao, and he had no courtesy name, making him a standard commoner. Then he asked his place of residence — it turned out to be a place under Julu Commandery but right on the border with Anping Commandery, a place he had never heard of, only knowing it was under Nanhe County of Julu Commandery, probably some poor and remote village…

Thereupon, Gongsun Xun dismounted, accepted a bow from him in front of everyone, and had Madam Jin help bring out two bolts of silk and a silver ingot to give him, thus fulfilling the bond of having once fought side by side.

And Han Dang, now that he had become a retainer to Gongsun Xun and could ride fine horses as he pleased, no longer needed to care about that horse of his. Moreover, the other man was also a former comrade from the army, so he simply waved his hand and gave that fine northern steed to him as well.

Then, the two parties parted beside the Jiang River, each resuming their own journey.

Just like that, after traveling no more than four or five li further, the crowd of scholars, as if foaming at the mouth, had argued all the way from the Battle of Julu to the Siege of Gaixia, and then somehow, inexplicably, all the way to the Battle of Changping.

Then, suddenly, that scholar surnamed Han from Anping Commandery interjected, asking whether they should stop for the time being today and rest at Tangyang City, right on the border of Anping Commandery and Julu Commandery. Because if they went on like this without picking up speed, they could forget about resting tonight at Yutao City (present-day Pingxiang in Xingtai), the commandery seat of Julu Commandery; nine times out of ten they would end up staying at a post station, and staying at a post station would mean real hardship!

The fact was, over this entire journey, having already covered nearly a third of the distance, this group of young masters had yet to stay at a single proper post station!

Upon hearing this, the frontier scholars and the Jizhou scholars inevitably began sniping at each other again, one side saying the other group could not endure hardship, the other side saying that the decorum of renowned clans must be maintained, and so on and so forth… In the end, the frontier scholars, after all, could not very well abandon these fellow students, and could only accept the suggestion of lodging at Tangyang City while it was still broad daylight.

Hearing all this, Gongsun Xun looked up at the sun, still fairly high overhead, and felt a wave of speechlessness, yet there was nothing he could do. But as he glanced left and right, a thought suddenly stirred in his heart, and an interesting notion abruptly arose.

“The Young Lord wishes to go find that Jia Chao?” Han Dang was baffled. “Why?”

“The first reason — I’m fed up!” Gongsun Xun raised his horsewhip toward the crowd of scholars foaming at the mouth up ahead — blunt enough.

Han Dang nodded repeatedly. These days, following Gongsun Xun, he had at first found the exchanges among these scions of renowned clans somewhat novel, but as time wore on, he too felt that once this group started rambling on, they were truly insufferable!

“There is another reason.” Gongsun Xun frowned slightly. “I grew up in the frontier commandery of Liaoxi and have rarely seen the local customs and practices of other places, so on this journey out, I have always wished to observe the customs of various regions. But from Youzhou to Jizhou, we have traveled in a grand procession the whole way, always staying in the homes of great local households, with the same scenes of flourishing splendor before our eyes everywhere. Now that we are halfway through Jizhou, with Julu Commandery ahead, if I cannot go and see the villages and countryside, I would, in my heart, feel somewhat unwilling to accept it.”

“The Young Lord is the master, and I am the retainer,” Han Dang replied, direct as ever. “If you wish to take the side roads to see the countryside, I naturally have nothing to say. Only, for one thing, this is Jizhou — we are strangers in an unfamiliar land, and in poor and remote villages we must guard against bandits and unruly folk, so we need to bring more men; for another, seeking learning is the proper business, and we absolutely must not fall behind the group.”

“Both of those are simple.” Gongsun Xun answered frankly. “I have already thought it through. We’ll call up three or five companions with decent martial skills and just bring a few extra horses. Think about it — this Hebei land is flat as a whetstone; with our horsemanship, even if we run into some trouble, even if we cannot prevail, we can always spur our horses and ride away. As for falling behind — with these people traveling with such a large wagon train, chatting as they go, and stopping to rest after just half a day… even if we fall three or five days behind, we can always catch up at a gallop at any time.”

Han Dang thought it over briefly, and it truly seemed to make sense, so he said no more and went off to the wagon train to pick capable men and horses.

As for Gongsun Xun, he did not go to call his eldest cousin Gongsun Zan, who was locked in an especially lively debate with Zhen Yi, style name Zheshi. He merely called Gongsun Yue aside, gave him a brief explanation, and then, joining up with Han Dang and bringing three or five companions, directly spurred his horse to go seek out that Jia Chao.

Yet, after riding out barely seven or eight li, these few heroes of Liaoxi, skilled in bow and horse, made an embarrassing discovery: their party seemed to have gotten utterly lost in this strange land.

“Didn’t that old farmer just now say to first cross that river, then find the fork and turn right, and then we would see the village where that Jia Chao’s home is?” As the sky darkened, Gongsun Xun could not help but point out this fact aloud. “And we, without crossing the river, first turned right at a fork, and then muddle-headedly ended up in this place?”

“Young Lord, the road is too far — it is already too late to seek lodging. Let us find a place sheltered from the wind and build a fire!” Han Dang replied helplessly. “Out in these desolate fields, we are not afraid of wolves, but we do fear the bitter cold of night — that can cost a man his life.”

Gongsun Xun fell silent.

“When the Grand Ancestor traveled to Luoyang with his fellow students and passed through Jizhou, all the others rode in precious carriages and wore furs, with attendants before and behind, traveling by day on the official roads and lodging by night in the homes of powerful local clans in the commanderies. Only the Grand Ancestor said: ‘In traveling to other places, one must not fail to first inquire into local customs.’ He then took the side roads, entered poor villages, and thoroughly learned the truth of the land and its people.” — Old Book of Yan, Volume 1, Annals of the Martial Emperor, Grand Ancestor

Embarrassing — just realized I’ve been writing the name of the mountain where Lu Zhi runs his school wrong all along… but Goushi Mountain… Dogshit Mountain… isn’t that name just too awful?

Also, begging for bookmarks and recommendation votes… I’ve always been grateful for everyone’s enthusiasm… but I also worry about exhausting everyone’s enthusiasm… such mixed feelings.

(End of Chapter)