Chapter 136: Can the Bride-Price Be a Little Lower?

"It is said that under Tang and Yu, symbolic punishments were used and the people did not offend; under Yin and Zhou, the law was enforced and the wicked submitted. Now I have inherited the vast enterprise of the Great Primal Ancestor, the Yellow Emperor, and occupy a position above the dukes and marquises. Day and night I tremble, forever mindful of the people's urgent needs, never once forgetting them. Though the Hu captives have not yet been wiped out, the Man and Bo tribes not yet burned away, and the bandits not yet utterly destroyed, the populace is shaken, the rivers and lakes are in turmoil. To protect the common folk and rescue the foolish and wicked, I have raised and honored the Nine Temples. Now the Nine Temples are near completion, and therefore I grant a great amnesty to all under Heaven."

"Prisoners held in the commanderies and princely states shall have their death sentences reduced by one degree. Convict laborers are pardoned and made commoners. Those who broke the law and hid among the rivers and lakes before this edict was issued are also released. Only the ringleaders of rebellion, the impious, and the greatly seditious are excluded from this decree; all others who followed them in rebellion are pardoned."

As soon as the Emperor Wang Mang's edict reached Maoling, Ma Yuan, who had been pent up at home from spring into summer, was overjoyed.

"See, I told you there would be a great amnesty! I was right."

He was right, but it had certainly taken long enough.

Back when Ma Yuan released Wan Xiu and fled with him, he had told Diwu Lun with certainty that a great amnesty was bound to come — and this was no baseless claim. Ma Yuan knew that from the Former Han into the present dynasty, amnesties were simply far too common.

In the early reigns of the Han, a great amnesty was still a solemn affair, generally proclaimed as a matter of routine upon a new emperor's accession, the establishment of an empress, a change of era name, the installation of a Crown Prince, or the suburban sacrifices.

But ever since Emperor Yuan, as the state's strength waned and calamities and portents grew frequent, the honest and docile Han Emperor Yuan, following the Spring and Autumn Annals theory of "calamities as warnings," would often issue edicts blaming himself, reviewing his faults and conveniently granting a great amnesty to win back the people's hearts.

As a result, in his fifteen years on the throne, Emperor Yuan issued thirteen amnesties. Emperor Cheng, in twenty-six years, issued fourteen.

By the time Ma Yuan was growing up, under Emperor Ai and Emperor Ping, amnesties were proclaimed almost every year: Emperor Ai issued five in six years; under Emperor Ping, with Wang Mang in power, in order to buy hearts and display benevolent rule, he achieved five amnesties in five years. And from the three years of his regency to his formal replacement of the Han, the frequency even reached one amnesty every half-year.

But after Wang Mang formally took the throne, great amnesties became rare. When disasters struck, he no longer issued self-blaming edicts — when the Jing River silted up and changed course, for instance, he refused to admit it was a calamity, calling it an auspicious omen instead. And the reason he found for this amnesty was simply: to seek good fortune for the building of the Nine Temples.

Originally, Ma Yuan had not cared much about the amnesty. Living as an outlaw on the frontier with Wan Xiu, unashamed and unembarrassed, meting out Heaven's justice and punishing evil while promoting good — wasn't that far more satisfying than living cautiously back in Guanzhong? But his daughter's one request for her marriage was that her old father be able to attend openly and honorably. That plea, which moved all who heard it to tears, filled Ma Yuan with guilt.

He had longed for this day as if longing for the stars and the moon, and now the amnesty had finally come. Its scope was very broad: even Zhi Yun, whose "memorial of seditious talk" urging Wang Mang to return the throne to the Han had gotten him branded a madman, was released.

Wan Xiu's crime of "plotting murder" was also pardoned, though he had now taken the name of a "knight-errant" and become a Colonel in New Qinzhong, so he probably could not use his real name for the time being.

If even that could be pardoned, then Ma Yuan's flimsy offense of "releasing prisoners" was nothing at all.

That very day, Ma Yuan went out, swaggering through the main street of Maoling, loudly greeting everyone he knew and telling the whole county: he, Ma the Fourth, was back!

Then he immediately sent word to Diwu Lun: "Tell Boyu that my family's dowry is ready."

"When will his family come to present the betrothal gifts?"

…

Diwu Lun had been waiting for this day just as long.

This amnesty not only freed several of Diwu Lun's former superiors who had been thrown into prison — such as Xianyu Bao, the Magistrate of Changling County arrested for corruption, and Liangqiu Ci, who had lost his border post —

but also allowed countless convicts in the capital, imprisoned for privately minting coin, to have the cangues unclasped from their necks, strip off their reddish-brown prison garb, and shout "The Son of Heaven is sagely and enlightened!"

And it also meant that, two years ago, his cousin Diba Jiao, who as a groom of the ducal mansion had been implicated by Wang Zong and banished to the distant Western Sea Commandery for "dereliction of duty," had finally regained his freedom.

The moment Diwu Lun learned the news, he summoned his trusted personal guard Zheng Tong and ordered him to take several dozen clan members of the Diwu and Diba families to the far-off Western Sea Commandery.

"You must bring my elder brother Jizheng back!"

This was what Diwu Lun had promised Diba Jiao back then. He had originally planned to send men to forcibly break him out; he never expected an amnesty to come instead. But the Western Sea Commandery was not peaceful — the Qiang were blocking the roads, and their ferocity was beyond that of ordinary bandits. The last message from Diba Jiao had arrived half a year ago, and the messenger sent by the Diba clan had since vanished. Diwu Lun could only hope he was still safe.

Meanwhile, the wedding preparations were also being rushed forward. Wang Mang had not yet changed Diwu Lun's post; he remained an idle Grand Master. But that position was like a brick — moved wherever it was needed. Since resigning on a whim was no longer so easy, Diwu Lun had to race against time and settle this major life event before the Emperor had another sudden brainstorm.

The first step was the betrothal gift ceremony, the nàzhēng, which was roughly equivalent to the groom's family giving bride-price to the bride's family in later ages.

In this era, according to the gentleman's wedding rites handed down from the Zhou, the betrothal gifts centered on the "three big items": cloth, jade, and horses.

For a prince or marquis: dark and crimson bundled silk, plus a bi-disc, and a team of horses. Diwu Lun, this "Slave-Conquering Count," though an unranked title, still counted as a feudal lord, so his betrothal gifts required black and light-red cloth, plus one fine jade bi-disc, and five horses.

How much cloth? Five liǎng — not a unit of weight, but of length. "One liǎng is five xún, one xún is eight chǐ," so one liǎng was forty chǐ, and five liǎng was two hundred chǐ, or twenty zhàng. Diwu Lun's family spent a fortune to acquire top-quality Shu brocade and silk.

The three big items were not the end of it. As lavish wedding customs grew ever more prevalent in Han times, Diwu Lun's family also had to prepare a cash gift. But because Wang Mang had decreed that no one below the rank of Marquis could privately hold gold, it had to be converted into coin.

Yan You, the former Grand Marshal whom Diwu Lun had invited as a guest, also told him about the amount of bride-price the imperial house had given when Wang Mang married his daughter to Emperor Ping of Han.

"After the marriage between Emperor Xiao Ping and the Princess of the Yellow Emperor's House was settled, the Empress Dowager Wenmu and the Grand Master of Ceremonies discussed the betrothal gifts. According to the precedents of past rulers, the bride-price for an empress should be twenty thousand jin of gold, equivalent to two hundred million in coin."

Two hundred million in bride-price! Diwu Lun clicked his tongue. Huan Tan had once told him that since the time of Emperor Xuan of Han, the taxes levied on the common people amounted to over four thousand million a year, while the income from the imperial parks under the Privy Treasurer was eight thousand three hundred million.

Of course, the money-hating Wang Mang repeatedly declined, ultimately accepting only forty million, and of that, he gave thirty-three million to the eleven households accompanying his daughter in marriage, keeping only seven million for his own family.

Everyone under Heaven thought Wang Mang had been terribly wronged, so they submitted memorial after memorial, and the Han house added another twenty-three million in bride-price, making thirty million in total. Wang Mang then distributed ten million of that to the poorer families among his nine degrees of kin.

And that was not the end. Following the ritual of "thrice declining and thrice yielding," Wang Mang's right-hand man Chen Chong had someone ghost-write a long and tedious memorial extolling Wang Mang's humble virtue. Wang Zhengjun then decided to add another thirty-seven million to the betrothal gifts, to show the solemnity of the rites.

Diwu Lun had carefully done the math for this: "For that marriage, the imperial house put up a total of one hundred million, and the Wang family actually received fifty-seven million in bride-price."

Wang Mang turned around and gave that entire enormous sum to the Princess of the Yellow Emperor's House, along with many palaces and estates all registered under her name. Wang Yan truly was the richest widow in all the world.

Diwu Lun, of course, could not compare to the imperial house casually throwing around hundreds of millions in bride-price. He had originally planned to make a token gesture, just enough to look respectable. But Diwu Ba would not have it.

"The Ma family are scholar-officials, with a high pedigree. This is far too little!"

Diwu Lun laughed. "Grandfather, I know Ma Wenyuan's character. He won't care about these empty formalities and elaborate rites. As long as it conforms to the ancient rites — 'In marrying off a daughter or taking a wife, the plain silk brought in shall not exceed five liǎng,' presenting geese, laying down wild geese, accompanied by deerskin — a suitable amount is enough."

"Even if his family doesn't care, I care, and the neighbors care!" Diwu Ba would not yield. "These betrothal gifts are not just a private matter between two families; outsiders must see them too. More brings honor; too little brings disgrace. If our family's betrothal gifts are insufficient, we'll be laughed at by the powerful families of both Maoling and Changling, and it will even damage your reputation."

So Diwu Ba, in league with the various households within the clan, staged a "coup" against Diwu Lun!

The old man declared that in the great matter of marriage, though Diwu Lun was the clan head, he was still a junior — what the hell did he know? He could not make the decision!

So he and a bunch of old fellows made the decision for him, and in the end, they resolved to put up one million in coin!

This drained half of the money and grain Diwu Lun had painstakingly saved up — and that was under the current massive currency devaluation. It pained Ah Lun terribly; this was all the capital he would rely on to raise troops later. Ah well, he'd have to slowly save it all up again.

Besides the three big items and the cash, on the day the betrothal gifts were delivered, all sorts of miscellaneous things had to be added. Apart from the wild geese, there were sheep, clear white wine, the three grains, cattails and reeds, resurrection fern, fine grain, long-life threads, five-colored silk with lacquer and glue, union bells and nine-child inksticks, fragrant herbs, fish, deer, crows, bronze mirrors… It added up to as many as thirty kinds, leaving Diwu Lun utterly dizzy and bewildered.

He was actually one of the lucky ones — at least he could scrape together the money to marry. Now these customs were gradually trickling down, and even commoners were starting to be particular about weddings.

The Boar-Rush Braves who had followed Diwu Lun back to Guanzhong were mostly bachelors. Over the past few months, they had taken a liking to girls in Linqu Village and had proposed more than a few times. But a year ago they had been slaves and poor wretches — where would they get the money to marry? Many were stumped by the matter of the bride-price.

A single coin can stymie a hero, and they were so frantic they were scratching their heads and ears raw. Fortunately, Diwu Lun helped them out one by one. When he ran into clansmen making outrageous demands, he even had to invoke his authority as clan head to pressure them down.

And this was only the bride-price, not even counting the equally expensive wedding feast. Marriages often drained a lifetime's savings; truly, the cost of one feast could wreck the work of a lifetime.

Having felt this pain so keenly himself, Diwu Lun had no say this time and could only let them have their way. But he muttered to himself: "Exorbitant bride-prices and extravagant ceremonies really are a vile custom. If one day I hold power, I must strike with a heavy fist and thoroughly reform this, so that its poison does not flow down to plague later ages for two thousand years!"

Still, this betrothal procession, just as Diwu Ba had hoped, was carried out with full dignity and displayed the wealth and status of the Diwu clan.

After the Ma family accepted the betrothal gifts, Diwu Lun's side immediately began divining for an auspicious date and set the nearest one. Once the auspicious day was obtained, they sent a messenger to convey it, informing Ma Yuan and his daughter.

"The date is set: the seventh day of the seventh month!"

…

While the Diwu and Ma households busied themselves with wedding preparations, news of the Emperor's amnesty was also spreading south along the Wu Pass road.

In this era, the Son of Heaven's edicts were proclaimed in commanderies, counties, and post stations by copying them onto walls in prominent places — the walls were plastered with white clay, bordered with ochre stone, written in clerical script in straight columns — or by writing them on wooden boards and hanging them up for public display.

Because ninety-nine out of a hundred people could not read, officials still had to proclaim the edicts aloud to the populace. Even the old, the frail, the sick, and the disabled would often lean on their staffs and go to listen — after all, a plan the Emperor dreamed up on a whim could ruin countless lives forever.

And so, the township pavilions, market gates, and village gates along the roads, serving as points for disseminating the decrees, all informed the people of the amnesty. Though the court's governing power grew weaker by the day, the institutions inherited from Qin and Han still possessed a stubborn inertia, sustaining the daily operations of this aging empire.

In early sixth month, Deng Ye of Xi County learned of the amnesty. Ordinary bandits like them were naturally included in the pardon.

But Deng Ye had no intention of walking out of the mountain forests.

"If I became an ordinary commoner and lived an honest, dull life, would I be more comfortable than I am now as a bandit chieftain?"

The court had pardoned the crimes, but could it change the deep-rooted, intractable abuses? Could it replace the utterly corrupt local officials? If not, wouldn't the bandits, not long after returning to their villages, be driven back up the mountain by tyrannical governance and harsh exactions?

The festering rot of this age, the common people's seven roads to death and seven roads to ruin, could never be remedied by a single amnesty decree.

And what about the court's habit of changing orders overnight? Having endured so many currency reforms that were later scrapped, having been cheated and suffered losses time and time again, why should the common people ever believe what the officials say now?

Trust in the court among the people had long since vanished. Deng Ye himself was unwilling to accept the amnesty and come out of the mountains voluntarily, and most of his subordinates also chose to stay, continuing to follow Deng Ye in plundering homes and raiding hamlets.

"We'd sooner believe a cow can climb a tree than believe the court can govern well!"

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……

In mid-sixth month, in Wudang County in the western part of the Front Column Commandery, by the mountain forests along the middle reaches of the Han River, Jia Fu, who had already led his followers there to evade pursuit and flee, was also looking at the amnesty decree board his men had carried back from a relay pavilion.

Most of the men could not read, and only heard Jia Fu recite: "Only the chief ringleaders of rebellion, impiety, and great treason are excluded from this writ."

Jia Fu was a man of learning; he had studied the Book of Documents, and in his youth had even made a point of reading edicts aloud to the villagers at the relay pavilion. He was thoroughly familiar with this format.

The three crimes mentioned here — rebellion, impiety, and great treason — were a very broad concept, encompassing offenses such as sorcery, cursing the sovereign, and insurrection, including attempts and acts that endangered the Son of Heaven's successors.

The Feather Mountain bandits had already been convicted; it was held that they colluded with the Greenwood chieftains in a vain attempt to attack Diwu Lun's envoy mission and harm the imperial prince, and they were included among the crimes of rebellion and impiety.

Of course, in the official military reports, Jia Fu was already "dead," and the Feather Mountain bandits had been exterminated. So if he changed his name, he and his men might perhaps resume normal lives.

But Jia Fu was unwilling: "Are those commandery soldiers who slaughtered hundreds of innocents in Champion County also covered by the amnesty? Or were they never convicted in the first place?"

Jia Fu had already resolved to fight the court and the official army to the death without reconciliation. But he let the bandits make their own choice: continue following him to eke out a living in the mountains and seek revenge for their innocent, slain kin someday? Or walk out of the forests and become reformed, law-abiding subjects of the Xin Dynasty?

In the end, aside from a handful who truly could not endure the hardships of the mountains and decided to lay down their weapons and leave, the remaining thousand-odd men all chose to stay.

"Excellent."

Jia Fu laughed: "Wang Mang wants to pardon us, to wipe the slate clean? Dream on!"

"For all the countless crimes he has permitted the official army to commit these years, this general has not pardoned him. Sooner or later, I, Jia Fu, will go to Chang'an and reckon these crimes before him!"

And by late sixth month of the second year of Dihuang, when Wang Mang's edict — secretly altered slightly by the Governor of Jingzhou to falsely claim that even chief ringleaders could be pardoned — reached Greenwood Mountain in Jiangxia Commandery, it and the twenty thousand Xin troops massed on Greenwood Mountain's periphery stood before Ma Wu and the other chieftains like two choices.

"Scatter like birds and beasts, or keep fighting?"

……

PS: Chapter 2 at 13:00.

(Chapter 3 at 18:00. A new week, asking for recommendation votes.)

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