Chapter 216

Though Wang She was a member of the Xin imperial clan, his rank a High Duke and his place among the Four Generals, he was neither blind nor deaf. In recent years the Xin Dynasty had gone from bad to worse — foreign campaigns met frequent defeat, civil wars ended in utter rout — and the dynasty's foundations were shaking violently. Perched high among the treetops, he felt it more keenly than most.

At a loss, Wang She pinned his hopes on astrological portents and prophetic texts, searching them for an answer.

The fangshi he had kept for many years, Ximen Junhui, had more than a decade ago devoted himself single-mindedly to forging mandate omens, hoping to imitate Ai Zhang and snag a marquisate or dukedom for himself. Later he merely wanted to cling to the powerful for a meal, concocting auspicious pronouncements for Wang She, flattering the Great Xin with predictions that it would endure thirty-six thousand years, and indirectly currying favor with Wang Mang. He had even helped his clansman Ximen Yanshou and others trip up Diwu Lun...

But as the General of Renewal lost armies and got his officers killed, and bandits swarmed up on all sides, Ximen Junhui too sensed that things were going badly. So when a terrified Wang She asked him how many years the Great Xin had left, he stroked his beard, reversed all his previous pronouncements, and shook his head vigorously.

"This subject dares not deceive the General of the Guards. Ever since His Majesty's Shijianguo reign began, Heaven has sent down calamity after calamity as warnings, telling the world that the Wang clan ought not to have replaced the House of Han!"

Ximen Junhui laid out every portent since Wang Mang's rise, one by one.

"In the third year of Shijianguo (AD 11), the Yellow River burst its banks in Wei Commandery. The river broke through at Wei Commandery and flooded several commanderies east of Qinghe with a force greater than in the time of Emperor Wu of Han. It even shifted its course — a disaster unseen in six hundred years, since the Spring and Autumn period!"

"By the second month of spring in the second year of Tianfeng, a star appeared in the daytime sky. There were also reports that a yellow dragon fell dead within the Yellow Mountain Palace. In the third year of Tianfeng, the western bank at Changping Lodge collapsed, damming the Jing River and forcing it to change course. Ai Zhang flattered him, saying this was earth extinguishing water, an omen that the Xin armies would sweep away the Xiongnu — but we have all seen the result. Both were portents of the Xin's earth virtue crumbling and collapsing."

"In the seventh month of the first year of Dihuang, a great gale out of the northwest wrecked the Royal Road Hall, foretelling that the wars with the four barbarian tribes already endangered the altars of state. In the summer of the second year of Dihuang, locusts came from the east, blotting out the sky and sun. They reached Chang'an, entered the Shoucheng Chamber, and flew all the way to the Royal Road Hall, crawling up the pillars — foretelling the great uprising of the Red Eyebrows and the Greenwood, and that the lands east of the passes no longer belonged to the Xin."

Wang Mang had glossed over and covered up all these strange phenomena, but human eyes do not lie. Each and every one was noted and stored in the hearts of those who paid attention.

Wang She had a sudden revelation and could only say: "No wonder that when the Emperor first acted as regent and then assumed the throne in truth, my grand-uncle, the late Grand Preceptor Wang Shun, and others were all inwardly terrified. After the Xin Dynasty was founded, though he ranked among the Four Supports, he worried himself to death."

Wang Shun had been Wang Mang's most capable lieutenant in supplanting the Han, his chief merit being that he had pried the Imperial Heirloom Seal from the old lady Wang Zhengjun's hands on Wang Mang's behalf. Wang She had been at his side when he died and remembered only Wang Shun clutching his hand, weeping ceaselessly, full of dread for the future.

If, as Ximen Junhui claimed, the Xin Dynasty should never have replaced the Han from the very start, then did that mean...

"The House of Han shall rise again — this prophetic text is true after all?"

Wang She had still been hesitating, until the Greenwood forces seized the Vanguard, besieged Wancheng, and word came that a man of the Liu clan had proclaimed himself Emperor. After that, he no longer hesitated.

"A comet sweeps the palace chambers; the Liu clan shall rise again. This is already the irresistible trend. Even if the Grand Minister of Works Wang Yi marches out a million troops, it will be to no avail."

And just as he asked Ximen Junhui "What is to be done?", the fangshi promptly presented his master with a mandate omen he had obtained from who-knows-where, and eagerly began to explain its provenance.

"In the Spring and Autumn period, the fourteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu, a hunt in the west caught a strange beast — neither dragon, nor horse, nor deer. They took this beast to consult Confucius. When Confucius saw it, he bowed his head to the beast and wept, saying: 'It is a qilin!'"

Up to this point, the story was the familiar tale of Confucius encountering the qilin, known to every Confucian scholar — but what followed became the wild fabrications of prophetic-apocryphal learning.

Ximen Junhui said: "Confucius asked the qilin, 'For whom have you come? For whom have you come?' The qilin beast then opened its mouth and in an instant spat out three scrolls of charts! All were portents for the centuries to come!"

"The first scroll foretold the fall of Zhou, that father and son would soon meet their end. The second scroll was the Classic of Filial Piety, made for the Han, foretelling that Liu Ji would rise as Emperor. And the third scroll was called the Crimson Talisman!"

It was exactly the same pattern as the divine turtle presenting the River Chart. He then launched into a long discourse on the transmission of the Crimson Talisman, beginning with Confucius's disciple Zixia and passing down through Heshang Gong, Anqi Sheng, and finally to Ximen Junhui's own teacher.

Studying alongside Ximen was a man from Rang in Nanyang, Cai Shaogong — the very same old fellow who, drunk, had blurted out in front of Liu Wenshu that "Liu Xiu shall be the Son of Heaven."

Seeing that the moment had come, Ximen Junhui presented Wang She with this Crimson Talisman — whether or not it had actually been fabricated a dozen years earlier by their teacher, an old man acquainted with Liu Xin. On it were four lines.

"Liu Xiu raises troops to seize the lawless; the four barbarians gather like clouds, dragons battle in the wilds; Mao Metal cultivates virtue to become the Son of Heaven; at the juncture of four-seven, Fire shall be master!"

He understood — everything was clear now. Wang She exclaimed with fervor: "Liu Xiu — that is the State Preceptor's very name! To appear in a chart and prophecy five hundred years in advance — this is the Mandate of Heaven!"

Although Liu Xin was Wang Mang's closest friend, the Emperor had already executed two of his sons and one of his daughters. At court he had long been marginalized and had not attended sessions for ages. Though he feigned meek compliance, he indeed had reasons to rebel against the Xin.

Through Ximen Junhui's go-between efforts and after several mutual probings, Wang She finally hooked up with the State Preceptor Liu Xiu (Xin). Though they dared not meet openly, through trusted intermediaries going back and forth, they gradually settled on the "great enterprise" they would undertake together!

The Xin Dynasty, which had defied Heaven's will and run against the current for fourteen years, had to be brought to an end!

If it were ended at the hands of the four barbarians, the Red Eyebrows, or the Greenwood, then when they fought their way into Chang'an, Wang She and the vast Wang clan would all die with no burial place.

But if they themselves ended it, that could be counted as placing righteousness above family. Then, with the venerable and respected State Preceptor presiding, whether they backed the last Crown Prince of the Former Han, Liu Ruzi Ying, to shut the passes and hold his own, or answered to the Son of Heaven in Nanyang — either would be a path of retreat.

The most crucial step in the plan was for Wang She, deeply trusted by Wang Mang, to step forward and strenuously urge the Emperor to summon Diwu Lun to the capital.

Whether this could succeed was still uncertain, and Wang She had one final misgiving: "That may be so, but from what I observe of Diwu Lun's actions — crushing Li Yan, blocking the Red Eyebrows — he is truly a pillar of the Xin, and deeply favored by the Son of Heaven. His loyalty is beyond question. Though the State Preceptor wishes to summon heroes to the capital for aid, can Diwu Lun be relied upon?"

Ximen Junhui, however, laughed and said: "Others think Diwu Lun is loyal to the Xin, but I have learned from my elder clansman that ever since he entered Wei, in summoning his old subordinates, distributing land, and eliminating rivals, he has acted entirely from private motives, not public justice. His seizure of power, and his blocking of the Red Eyebrows' attack on Yuancheng, were also for self-preservation."

It was only because commanderies and kingdoms across the realm were losing armies and territory one after another that Diwu Lun — the sole fellow who had taken one small step forward — stood out so conspicuously and was so exceptionally cherished by the Emperor.

"In times like these, who would still be loyal to the Emperor?" Ximen Junhui believed no such fool existed.

"What is more, Yang Ziyun was hounded to death by the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties — which amounts to dying indirectly by the Emperor's decree. How could Diwu Lun harbor no resentment in his heart? The State Preceptor was a friend to Yang Xiong, and also rescued Diwu Lun when he was low and obscure. He naturally has the means to persuade him."

"State Preceptor, Xiao takes his leave now."

As an old subordinate, Wei Ao was one of the few people Liu Xin trusted and was willing to receive openly at his residence.

Wei Jimei of Tianshui, his thick beard longer than it had been a few years ago, prostrated himself on the ground. Before him, the State Preceptor Liu Xin was gaunt and skeletal — exactly matching his own memorials claiming he was gravely ill and would soon depart this world.

Liu Xin had truly entered his twilight years. Five years older than Wang Mang, he had just the year before crossed the great threshold of seventy-two. Many had not expected him to survive that winter's severe illness and hold on until now.

Liu Xin himself believed that if the Master of Fates had not taken him, there was naturally a reason. Though illness confined him to his bed, unable to rise, ever since the year before last, when his daughter was caught up in the Crown Prince case and executed by Wang Mang, Liu Xin — stripped of all hope — had been secretly plotting everything. Now the time was ripe.

Moreover, he had not put all his eggs in one basket.

"Where is Jimei headed?" Liu Xin asked Wei Ao, feigning muddledness.

Wei Ao reported: "To Longyou. The Grand Minister of Works's conscription of troops has not gone smoothly; there are many deserters and resisters. His Majesty has therefore dispatched seventy-two of us officers of the Seven Lords to various regions to proclaim the court's edict of amnesty and assist the commanderies and counties in raising troops."

That he had been included among them was largely thanks to the efforts of Liu Die, the General of the Gentlemen of the Household of All Purposes, whom Wang Mang still employed heavily. Wei Ao knew that this was in fact the State Preceptor's doing, and he was deeply grateful. Seeing the situation worsen day by day, Wei Ao also wanted to flee back to his hometown. His family was the foremost powerful clan in Tianshui; his uncle Wei Cui was a famed knight-errant in the commandery, of lofty ambition, more than capable of protecting himself.

But Liu Xin's expectations of Wei Ao went further than that.

He raised his head, grasped Wei Ao's hand, and said: "The commanderies of Longyou have long been famed throughout the realm for the cavalry of the Six Commanderies' good families. Once Jimei returns to his native place, he must do his utmost to recruit troops for His Majesty!"

The slight pressure of that hand instantly conveyed Liu Xin's meaning to Wei Ao, who was also party to the plan. Though he had considerable misgivings about the matter, agreeing so he could flee home came first.

"Xiao will not fail the State Preceptor!"

After Wei Ao had taken his leave and departed, Liu Xin once again stared at the sand table, at the circle he had cut again and again with inexhaustible delight, and pondered the great enterprise.

Unlike Wang She, who sought to preserve his clan, Liu Xin did this purely to atone for his sins.

"The Xin replacing the Han was not by Wang Mang's strength alone. I, Liu Xiu, also contributed greatly."

Liu Xin's temperament was the polar opposite of Yang Xiong's. He could not endure obscure, unacknowledged scholarship; he longed to use his learning to change the world. Disillusionment with Han rule had driven Liu Xin to throw in his lot with Wang Mang.

He had built the Mingtang and the Biyong for Wang Mang, overseen the officials of Confucian scholarship, history, and divination, examined and codified the pitch-pipes and calendar, and compiled the Santong Calendar, establishing that the transfer of the state and the changing of the mandate had been commonplace since the time of the Three Sovereigns. Following the cyclical progression of the Five Virtues' mutual generation theory — Taihao first obtained Wood virtue; Wood generates Fire; Fire generates Earth... and so on in an endless cycle — he discovered that both Yao and the Han had obtained Fire virtue. Liu Xin further proved for Wang Mang that he was indeed a descendant of Shun and ought, by right, to receive the Han abdication and obtain Earth virtue.

The Santong Calendar resolved the legal principle of the Han-Xin abdication on a theoretical level, far more rigorously than the fabricated charts, prophecies, and mandate omens that Ai Zhang and others cooked up. For this, Liu Xin was made one of the Four Supports on the strength of mandate omens.

But his reason for aiding Wang Mang was not based on rank and emolument; it was driven by the ideals of a great Confucian scholar. He hoped, through the hands of Wang Mang — a second Duke of Zhou — to realize the grand blueprint of a Confucian Heaven on Earth!

This ideal transcended clan and surname, the rise and fall of a single dynasty or era.

But realizing it was far harder than cutting a circle. Wang Mang, the Xin Dynasty, the reforms — all had disappointed Liu Xin. The vessel of his ideals had sunk. Add to that the deaths of two sons and a daughter, and even his last hope, Crown Prince Wang Lin, had been executed —

Liu Xin's view of Wang Mang had already gone beyond "inner dread" — now it was joined by immense resentment!

And reproach!

Liu Xin could no longer walk the same path as Wang Mang; the only thing he could do, before Wang Mang's downfall, was to turn his back and go the opposite way!

"Liu Xiu raises troops to arrest the unprincipled — I helped Wang Jujun usurp the Han, and so this Xin countercurrent that has thrown the Han into chaos is also destined to be ended by me!"

Only by finally returning governance to the Great Han, to a descendant of the Liu line — whether the child Ying or the Liu Son of Heaven in Nanyang — could he, after death, face the reproaches of his father Liu Xiang, his grandfather Liu De, and even King Yuan of Chu and all those outstanding members of the Han imperial clan, and silently offer his apology.

I made a mistake, but I, in the end, also remedied the mistake!

And so, after planning, Liu Xin drew Wang She into the scheme through Ximen Junhui to serve as the inside agent, while Wei Ao hastened to Longyou to serve as outside support — but for the most crucial role in the middle, after much pondering, he concluded that it still had to be Diwu Lun who set things in motion.

Liu Xin had his eye on Diwu Lun not only because he was the disciple of an old friend, with ties of friendship and a known temperament, giving Liu Xin considerable confidence he could persuade him; nor only because Diwu Lun was skilled in war, enjoyed considerable renown in Guanzhong — there was also one very important reason.

"The death-wound of the Xin began when the Yellow River burst its banks in Wei Commandery!"

"The prophetic weft-text 'The House of Han shall revive' also originated from fabrications in the Wei region, and only after that did the Li clan of Wancheng and the Liu clan of Chongling conspire together."

"In that case, once Diwu Lun, who once served as Grand Governor of Weicheng, enters the capital — what will happen then?"

Liu Xin was superstitious about Heaven's will and a believer in prophetic weft-texts; he did not believe that all of this was mere coincidence!

"Heaven's mandate and the prophetic weft-texts and talismanic registers have already foreshadowed everything: the Xin began in Wei, and shall also perish through Wei!"

"I am merely, after glimpsing Heaven's will, arranging the pieces on behalf of the azure sky!"

Everything was in place; only two problems remained.

First, would Wang Mang agree to summon Diwu Lun to the capital and entrust him with military authority?

Second, for the sake of secrecy, Liu Xin and the others dared not send someone a thousand li to Yecheng to collude with Diwu Lun in advance — the man in question, Diwu Boyu, still knew absolutely nothing of the old fellows' conspiracy!

……

Liu Xin's first worry was resolved within a few days.

When the proclamation from Nanyang was relayed back to Chang'an, Wang Mang grew even more frantic!

"Mang, in name a Han subject, is in truth a Han traitor. He poisoned the Filial Peace Emperor, usurped the Son of Heaven's throne, and cut off the House of Han. Now We, reverently bearing the spirit of the Exalted Emperor, jointly carry out Heaven's punishment to slay Mang!"

Although Liu Xuan had now openly styled himself 'We' and set up a rival court against the Xin Dynasty — after all, the "Han dynasty" propped up by the Greenwood was still built on a foundation of bandits, so the cultured men clustered around Liu Bosheng, and the resulting proclamation was quite mediocre.

But it was still enough to make Wang Mang fly into a rage. Faced with the rebels' slander that he had murdered the sovereign back then, Wang Mang's response was to bring out "evidence" he had prepared over a decade in advance.

On the fifteenth day of the second month, Wang Mang summoned the ministers and all ranks down to the lower officials to assemble in the Hall of the King's Road. In the hall was placed a metal-bound coffer — precisely the metal-bound coffer document from when, during Emperor Ping of Han's critical illness, he had gone to the High Temple to plead for Filial Peace's life, hoping Heaven would let him die in place of his son-in-law the Emperor. Sealed for nearly twenty years, it was now opened with great ceremony, for the assembled ministers and even his daughter, the Yellow Imperial Chamber Mistress Wang Yan, to come and see, to look and examine.

This was what Wang Mang was best at: imitating the stories of the Zhou dynasty, copying the gourd to paint a dipper.

But this time, it was somewhat a case of trying to draw a tiger and ending up with a dog. Such deeds might still win praise in Confucian tales, but to copy them so rigidly and literally was rather awkward and affected — and even carried a hint of self-incrimination: if you were not the murderer, why prepare all this twenty years in advance?

No one questioned it to his face; the assembled ministers all cried "Long life!" — only, compared to the fanaticism when they had supported Wang Mang's enthronement, their words now rang somewhat hollow.

And the Filial Peace Emperor's widow, Wang Yan, pressed her lips together and said nothing. She knew her father had not murdered Emperor Ping, but now that things had come to this, when you had even usurped the Han, who would still believe such talk? What meaning did it still have?

And to counter the rumor spreading through Guanzhong that "the House of Han shall revive," Wang Mang ordered his ministers to expound upon his virtue and the mandate omen matters: "The Book of Changes says: 'Ambushing soldiers in the thick grass, ascending his high mound, for three years not rising.' 'Mang' is the Emperor's name; 'ascending' refers to Liu Bosheng; 'high mound' refers to Zhai Yi, son of the Marquis of Gaoling. Liu Sheng and Zhai Yi, as ambushing rebel troops in the era of the new Emperor, shall still be exterminated and not rise — this is Heaven's mandate!"

The assembled ministers once more cried "Long life!" — whatever you say is right! But in truth, they all took it as a joke. Times had changed, and people now selectively believed only the weft-texts unfavorable to Wang Mang.

While Wang Mang was doing this useless work trying to salvage public opinion, his plan to conscript four hundred thousand troops had hit a snag. Over the past decade, Guanzhong had seen frequent levies — either southern campaigns against Gouding or northern expeditions against the Xiongnu. Added to those taken east by the General of Renewal, over a hundred thousand young men had already been lost, with no rewards or land grants — who still wanted to go to their deaths?

For a time, the common people resisted one after another, some even fleeing into the mountain forests. Bandits sprang up everywhere in the Three Adjuncts. Wang Mang had no choice but to establish the office of Bandit-Catching Commandant, ordering law-enforcement ushers to pursue them near Chang'an, setting up signal drums and raising rebel-attacking banners. Once a group was caught, they were directly treated as conscripts and sent to the Grand Minister of Works Wang Yi's great camp at Hongmen. For a time, those heading to the army all had their arms bound, while parents, wives, and children wept as they saw them off. No one thought this battle could be won — and even if it were, how many of their sons and brothers could return?

Under these circumstances, even Wang Mang's shred of confidence grew increasingly shaken, though he still muttered with his lips: "As soon as the Grand Minister of Works launches his attack, everything will turn for the better."

Yet in his heart, he could not help recalling Wang She's proposal, and thinking of that other "pillar of the state" who had never yet disappointed him — even though this was merely an unexpected delight that even Wang Mang himself had not anticipated.

"The eastern rebels, the Red Eyebrows, can be left to caper a while longer, but the southern rebels, the Greenwood, must be exterminated — otherwise, I shall hardly have a single night of peaceful sleep!"

And so Wang Mang selected a fine mansion in the elite residential quarter at the Northern Gate of Chang'an to serve as Diwu Lun's new residence. He sent men to bring Diwu Lun's grandfather Diwu Ba and his close kin from Linqu Village — near at hand to Chang'an, where the Master of Fates had kept them under "protection" all along — and properly "invited" them to dwell in the city. He bestowed a pigeon-staff, gold, and silks, and prepared to receive the old gentleman in person when the time was right. The Emperor even showed great mercy, agreeing for the time being not to conscript the young men of the Diwu clan into the army, leaving them all for Diwu Lun.

At the same time, he swiftly dispatched the Lower Grand Master Wang Long — Diwu Lun's senior fellow disciple — as an imperial envoy to set out at once, traveling by starry night to Weicheng Commandery to deliver the edict!

At the end of the second month of the fourth year of Dihuang (AD 23), Diwu Lun, whose backside had barely warmed the seat of Governor of Yan Province, was on an inspection tour of the counties, heading to the Wuan ironworks to inspect his new production line, when halfway there he encountered Wang Long, whom he had not seen for a long time.

As Wang Long read the decree aloud with cadenced intonation, a new noble title, personally decided by that naming-obsessed maniac Wang Mang, came crashing down onto Diwu Lun's head with a resounding clang.

"Duke… Duke of Weixin?"

……

PS: Tomorrow's update at 13:00.