Chapter 226: He Wrote Himself a Fine Prescription

"Thinking back on the past, my treatment of the former dynasty's imperial clan and Marquises can truly be called benevolence and duty fulfilled to the utmost."

Back when Wang Mang was maneuvering for power, the targets he roped in also included the imperial clan of the House of Han. In the second year of Yuanshi under Emperor Ping of Han (AD 2), under Wang Mang's direction, following the principle of "reviving extinguished states and restoring severed lines," three Liu-surnamed feudal lords who had lost their kingdoms through their own folly were re-enthroned as kings, and the descendants of great meritorious officials since the rise of Han who had lost their Marquis titles were allowed to re-inherit their noble ranks — one hundred and seventeen people in all.

Just three years later, similar largesse was dispensed again: twenty-eight feudal kings, one hundred and twenty Marquises, and over nine hundred members of the Liu imperial clan took part in the grand sacrifice after the completion of the Bright Hall. To those summoned to assist in the rites, some had their fief households increased, some were granted noble titles, some were rewarded with gold and silk, and some were appointed to office — each according to a graded scale.

This move so delighted the imperial clan nobles, who had been kept utterly submissive under the main Han line's heel, that they clapped and cheered: "The Duke Who Pacifies the Han may bear the surname Wang, but to us, he is better than any sovereign of past generations!"

And so when Wang Mang supplanted the Han, though a handful of Lius objected, the rest all bowed their heads to the ground in assent.

Although later, Wang Mang did transfer all Liu imperial clansmen serving as commandery Governors to the post of Remonstrance Grandee, stripped the feudal kings of their royal titles and renamed them Dukes, and demanded all of them hand in their seals of office, leaving them only an honorary stipend.

Yet throughout this period, Wang Mang did not kill a single one of them; he even let them keep their palaces and lands.

Thus, while the Wang-surnamed sons of the Xin dynasty's own imperial clan were harshly restricted — their landholdings forbidden to exceed thirty qing and barred from leaving their mansions without cause — the Liu family members of the former dynasty's clan still lived lives no worse than enfeoffed lords, sitting on thousands of qing of fertile land, with palaces, gardens, and hunting parks, and instead became local power brokers.

The present dynasty's sword being blunter than the former dynasty's knife — this was a strange spectacle without precedent in the past and unlikely to be repeated in the future.

In Wang Mang's mind: "The sage says, 'Repay virtue with virtue.' I have treated you with a sage's benevolence; you ought to repay me with sincerity."

Yet to Wang Mang's disappointment, whether it was the Royal Land Edict or the Slave Limitation Edict, these remnants and scions of the former dynasty were unwilling to comply. When the well-field system, after three years of implementation, had to be abandoned, Wang Mang felt only aggrieved. He had already taken the lead by reforming his own sons and his own clan — how was it that the whole realm only praised him with words, yet no one followed his example and made any sacrifice themselves?

It was at that moment that the thought first arose in him: "Since they are unwilling, then I shall forcibly equalize it."

"The Master said: 'For those who possess states and households, the worry is not scarcity but inequality!'"

During Emperor Ping of Han's reign, Wang Mang had overseen a census and land survey. The total number of registered households in the realm was over twelve million, with a total population of just under fifty million. But taking into account hidden households and unregistered slaves, the registered commoner population should exceed sixty million.

Yet the cultivated land reported by the various commanderies amounted to a mere eight million qing (Han-era small qing)!

Setting aside unreported land for the moment, Wang Mang had someone calculate it: averaged out, this came to less than sixty-eight mu per household. Considering that the greater part of the land was concentrated in the hands of nobles and powerful families, the share that trickled down to the common people was even smaller — no wonder there were so many tenant farmers.

Pondering the failure of his attempts, Wang Mang concluded that his own prestige was still insufficient: though he possessed civil virtue, he lacked military achievement.

Wang Mang slapped his clever brain: just start a war against the surrounding barbarians!

For one, it would seize arable territory to resettle refugees and slaves; for another, it would win enormous prestige for the court. Hadn't Emperor Wu of Han's reforms only been able to break through the heavy resistance at home and be implemented after he had soundly thrashed the Xiongnu and won several great campaigns?

The idea was not bad, the plan linked step by step — yet let alone the Xiongnu, even against the tiny Gouding in the south, the Xin army fought three times and repeatedly achieved nothing. In the blink of an eye, ten years passed. The court lost even the Western Regions and the Western Sea, its prestige plummeting straight to the ground. The very first link yielded no result, and naturally the subsequent plans could not be carried out.

And the realm had already entered the stage of "worrying not about poverty but about unrest." The Liu clan members who had once enjoyed Wang Mang's generous treatment, those remnants of the former dynasty, began to grow restless, and there even emerged a great rebel like Liu Bosheng who vainly sought to restore the Han!

Betrayal! Wang Mang understood now: from the very start, he had been betrayed and deceived by the Liu surname and the powerful families. But all traitors would pay! They would pay with their own blood! They would drown in their own blood!

In his fury and desperation, the thought of "forcibly equalizing their land" surfaced once more in Wang Mang's mind.

"In the time of Yu Shun, he also banished the four fiendish clans — Hundun, Qiongqi, Taowu, and Taotie — casting them out to the four frontiers."

"Hundun was the worthless son of the Emperor Hong clan; Qiongqi, the worthless son of the Shaohao clan; Taowu, the worthless son of the Zhuanxu clan; Taotie, the worthless son of the Jinyun clan."

See, didn't the ancient legends and present reality correspond once again? Wang Mang's words carried a pointed meaning: the Liu-surnamed and powerful families now resisting the Xin were like the progeny of the Four Fiends. Even those who had not yet rebelled were potential traitors. He could no longer treat them with a genial face and gentle manner — it was time to strike with a heavy fist!

This time, he would use the sword to plow through their field paths, use blood to defile their gate plaques of merit!

Wang Mang had it all planned out: first, wipe out the rebels in the Forward Division and distribute their land to meritorious officers and soldiers; then have the Grand Minister of Works and Diwu Lun turn their blades eastward, clearing out the Red Eyebrow bandits commandery by commandery, county by county, along with those great Liu-surnamed magnates of the former dynasty who harbored treacherous intent. Land could then be reclaimed by the state in chunks of hundreds of qing at a time and used to resettle refugees. In this way, the realm could be restored to peace.

Just as Diwu Lun had done in Weicheng and Shouliang.

"I truly should have known of your talents earlier." Wang Mang felt that he had simply employed the wrong men, been misled by his crowd of ministers, and lacked a loyal and good man like Diwu Lun who could execute his ideas. He ought to use Diwu Lun more boldly, just as he had back then when he appointed Ai Zhang and those several Upper Dukes — the gatekeeper and the pancake-seller.

Looking at Diwu Lun, who remained silent and seemed awed by his grand plan, Wang Mang asked, full of expectation: "What do you think, my minister?"

What did he think? In his heart, Diwu Lun only felt…

"He's mad!"

At the end of a dynasty's road, on a steep downhill slope about to plunge off a cliff, he actually wanted to stomp hard on the accelerator!

Ideas are important, but how to execute them is more important; being able to adapt to the situation is the most important thing of all.

This realm, already a sickly, feeble invalid at the end of the Han, had its pulse taken by that old veterinary doctor Wang Mang, who then in one breath prescribed seven or eight potent drugs.

Those drugs were named: restoring the well-fields, abolishing the slave markets, reforming the currency system, the Five Equalizations and Six Monopolies, and launching foreign wars.

Compared to these, the changing of place names and official titles was merely a medicinal adjuvant thrown in by Wang Mang out of personal interest.

After taking these drugs for over a decade, the court, whose ailment had originally been in the stomach and intestines, had been treated to the point of gasping its last breath, on the verge of departing this world — and now Wang Mang had decided…

"The last dose was not enough. I shall administer an even fiercer draught of wolf's-bane!"

You ask me what I think?

He wrote himself a fine prescription, took it, and died.

That is all.

A great edifice on the verge of collapse cannot be saved by a single beam or pillar. The wheel of history rolls on with overwhelming momentum, propelled by countless causes and effects, by the hearts of millions. It can never be changed by one man suddenly producing an idea ahead of his time.

Moreover, even the best prescription depends on who administers the medicine. In Diwu Lun's view, relying on this bunch of rulers and ministers of the Great Xin, whose actions had repeatedly shocked him and shaken his worldview to its foundations? Any medicine, even a harmless cup of water, once it got into their hands and was stirred around, would turn into arsenic — and then, saying "it's for your own good," they would pinch the common people's noses and force it down their throats!

Worst of all, it would not just be the patient who died from taking the medicine; the prescriptions themselves would be implicated, regarded by the scholar-officials as monstrous scourges: Look, Xin Mang perished precisely because it took them!

Nationalizing land, banning the slave trade, expanding against the surrounding barbarians — any new regime rising from the ruins that so much as touched these few things would be seen as "retreading Wang Mang's disastrous path," drawing countless attacks, and the resistance it would face would become even greater.

"Wang Jujun, you are not clearing away brambles — you are digging a pit for those who come after, for me!"

By now, there was no political legacy left, only political poison. A hundred emotions surged in Diwu Lun's heart, yet when he raised his head, he only said with admiration: "In the present age, harsh laws must be applied."

"Your servant merely chanced upon some small gains in Wei; I lack Your Majesty's breadth of vision and magnanimity of mind."

"Your Majesty's policy is sufficient to lay the foundation for the Xin to endure for thirty-six thousand years!"

No. In Diwu Lun's heart, the Xin — let alone thirty-six thousand years — could not be allowed to live another three months and six days!

This regime must be destroyed before Wang Mang's final madness!

How tragic, isn't it? When you finally grasp a somewhat correct path, the very person who in his heart agrees with your views has decided, behind your back, to give you a fierce kick into the abyss!

The two discussed some further matters. Wang Mang was extremely satisfied with Diwu Lun's responses, but as weariness showed on his face and today's audience was about to end, Wang Mang suddenly threw out another question.

"I have heard that the year before last, when you went to Xindu in the Forward Division to escort my son to court, you received a gift of jade from Liu Bosheng's younger brother? And that you, in turn, gave him a jade sword-fitting in return?"

This matter could not be concealed. After all, Diwu Lun's mission at the time had included a Major from the Northern Army and the imperial prince from Xindu, among many other outsiders. The Master of Fates of the Five Majesties could easily have inquired and learned of it.

And after the initial misunderstanding, the court had finally figured out that the one falsely proclaiming himself emperor was Liu Xuan, not Liu Bosheng. Yet the illustrated posters pasted in government offices and courier stations still had not been changed, because Wang Mang stubbornly believed that Liu Xuan was merely a puppet installed by Liu Bosheng. The Xin court was utterly ignorant of the internal conflicts within the Greenwood.

Diwu Lun could hardly deny it: "It is indeed true. I had a passing acquaintance with this man in Chang'an. He intended it as a bribe. Unwilling to accept his favor for nothing, I gave him an item of equivalent value in return."

His face full of righteous indignation, he added: "However, upon hearing that Liu Bosheng and his brother had rebelled, I threw that jade into the privy pit, to be trampled under the hooves of swine!"

Actually, he hadn't. Diwu Lun had left that nine-eared jade grain stalk at his old home and forgotten to bring it to Wei Commandery. Once he learned it belonged to the "Child of the Plane," he was even more reluctant to throw it away.

Wang Mang had only asked in passing. If one really wanted to split hairs, Yan You had once recruited Liu Bosheng's younger brother as a minor official — though that hardly counted as evidence that Yan Erudite was colluding with the enemy. Of course, in Wang Mang's view, being infiltrated by rebels was one of the reasons for his defeat and siege at Wancheng. He merely wanted Diwu Lun to learn the lesson: on this southern campaign, he must be ruthless, and any ties of friendship with rebels must be severed!

Wang Mang tilted his head toward the Palace Attendant Wang Ye. "That younger brother of Liu Bosheng — I recall the vanguard's merit report said he had already been killed?"

Palace Attendant Wang Ye hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, the rebel Liu Bosheng had two younger brothers. One is Liu Zhong, and the other, it seems, is called Liu Shu..."

Wang Mang asked again, "This Liu Shu — what office did the usurper appoint him to?"

The Palace Attendant said, "Unknown. Among the rebels, we only know the false titles of five of them — some usurped the title of Upper Duke, another Grand Chancellor. The rest are minor figures ranked among the Nine Ministers, their details not yet ascertained."

Good, a fine "minor figure" indeed! Diwu Lun, a mere village scholar, did not know what to say.

Wang Ye also provided one more piece of information: that "Liu Shu's" new bride, of the Yin clan, had likewise been captured after the battle of Little Chang'an and taken to Chang'an as a slave, then requested by the Princess of Huanghuang and brought to the Ding'an Lodge.

This matter displeased Wang Mang somewhat, but Diwu Lun, for reasons he himself could not quite fathom, took the initiative to bow and say, "Your Majesty, Liu Bosheng's third brother is not actually called Liu Shu..."

Diwu Lun simply felt that, at least before the end, Wang Mang ought to know this: "He shares a name with the State Preceptor — he is called 'Liu Xiu'!"

In the Shangguan Quarter of Chang'an, the other "Liu Xiu" had also received word of Diwu Lun's arrival in the capital.

"Boyu has come at last. Our painstaking efforts have not been in vain."

Liu Xin suppressed the excitement in his heart. The person who brought him this news was none other than one of the two learned men Diwu Lun had met at the Changling village school — Liu Gong, Liu Erudite.

"Uncle, the Master of Fates keeps a very tight watch on the residence. How are we to get Diwu Lun to come here and meet us?"

Ever since the Han house in Nanyang had been re-established, Liu Xin and his clansmen could clearly sense the change in the Emperor's attitude toward them. Before, they had merely been sidelined and coldly treated; now, they were watched as if they were thieves — after all, they too bore the surname Liu.

Even Liu Xin's secret plotting with the Guard General Wang She and Ximen Junhui could only be conducted furtively in the market wards. One careless moment, and their entire clan would likely be exterminated.

If one spoke of scholarly debate on the Five Classics, no one under heaven could surpass Liu Xin; he could be called the Confucian paragon of the Nine Provinces. In astrology and yin-yang, he was likewise a master. But when it came to conspiracy and staging a coup...

Liu Xin was a complete amateur!

After much thought, Liu Xin could think of only one ploy.

"Spread the word: say that the State Preceptor is gravely ill, bedridden, and near death."

Liu Xin did not shrink from cursing himself, and said, "The Son of Heaven has always treated old ministers generously. Knowing I am about to die, his wariness will surely ease a little. And Diwu Lun, as an old acquaintance, will naturally be granted permission to come to the residence and meet."

Liu Xin, adept at observing the stars, raised his head and gazed at the murky night sky. "'The traveler looks up at the night, the bright star shines splendidly.' I have calculated it: before long, Venus will lodge in its station! That day will be the moment to launch our cause!"

PS: Chapter 2 at 18:00.