Chapter 365: Private Cargo

Ever since the King of Wei returned the capital to Chang'an on the first day of the second month, the Imperial Academy on the city's outskirts had smoothly resumed classes.

Though the students who had fled home to escape the chaos of war, or drifted among the armies for a mouthful of food, had yet to return, the old Erudites of former days were already at their posts.

Although Diwu Lun had not yet issued the formal quota of Erudite positions, for the sake of those twenty iron rice bowls of old, the Erudites wore smiling faces while their hearts already guarded against and glared at one another as rivals.

The number of Erudites at the Imperial Academy had originally been very small; after the Stone Canal Pavilion conference under Emperor Xuan of Han, there were only twelve, and by the end of Han it had grown to fourteen. Under Wang Mang, the Old Text classics flourished, so Erudite chairs were added for the five Old Text works — the Old Text Book of Documents, the Mao Odes, the Rites of Zhou Officials, the Lost Rites, and the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals — and together with the Music classic, which had already been lost but which Wang Mang ordered Liu Xin and Huan Tan to restore, they made up a full twenty Erudites.

Each Erudite also had eighteen senior disciples under him, making three hundred and sixty in all; only in this way could they teach the over ten thousand students of the Imperial Academy. Over time, scholarship had become a trade and a strictly transmitted craft.

The students had yet to return, but the masters had already started brawling. Less than a month after classes resumed, with the broken walls and shattered tiles among the buildings not even cleared away, a civil war erupted within the Imperial Academy!

What began as normal scholarly disputes gradually escalated into personal attacks, and finally into a fight to the death. In the Academy's Chengjun Hall, such shouts rang out:

"The Old Text learning is a set of forged classics created by Liu Xin! Now that the King of Wei has laid his foundations, the six schools of the Old Text and the forged Music classic are all leftover scum of the Xin dynasty — thieves of learning! They must be expelled from the Imperial Academy at once!"

Guo You was an Erudite of the New Text school. The month before, he had chased Diwu Lun all around Jingzhao in a circle, petitioning him five times, nearly knocking his head bloody.

But now, claiming credit for "admonishing the King of Wei to return the capital," he had become the de facto leader of the Imperial Academy, and with one rallying cry, he stirred up a campaign to drive out the Old Text classics.

The six Erudites of the Old Text classics and the Music classic were utterly disgraced. Ten years earlier, theirs had been the prestigious learning favored by Wang Mang; Liu Xin had found in the Old Text plenty of evidence for abdication and the transfer of the mandate to replace the Han. Now Wang Mang had been driven out, Liu Xin had fled to Longyou, and the Old Text learning he had single-handedly founded naturally had no patron left, falling to the state where everyone cried out for its head.

If they truly sat down to debate the classics, to fight another Stone Canal Pavilion battle, the Old Text school would never back down. But now, when it came to political correctness, they had nothing to say — who could blame them, when their founding master Liu Xin had betrayed them? That the King of Wei had allowed them all into the Imperial Academy at all was already an enormous act of clemency.

The fourteen New Text schools were seething with righteous fervor, all wanting to seize the opportunity of the founding of the State of Wei to blast the dregs and remnants of the Old Text out of the Imperial Academy, to complete their counterattack and thereby set the scholarly tone for the new dynasty.

But just as they were locked in this petty squabble over a foothold in the Imperial Academy, they heard two pieces of news.

The good news was: "The King of Wei will reopen the Shece examinations! In the annual Shece exam, fifty in the top grade will become Outer Gentlemen, one hundred in the second grade will become Attendants, and two hundred in the third grade will fill clerk posts at the hundred-bushel rank!"

Although many would have to start as low-level clerks, the numbers were more than triple those of the Imperial Academy's Shece examinations under Wang Mang. Students who did not wish to join the army for meager rations would have no worries about employment — how could the old Erudites not be delighted?

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The bad news, however, was…

"His Majesty intends to select officials by five subjects — and classical learning is actually only one of them?"

The men looked at one another in dismay. Could the King of Wei be trying to suppress classical learning? They could no longer be bothered with quarrels and brawls, and immediately set off for the office of the Minister of Ceremonies in the Cassia Palace to demand an explanation.

"Gentlemen, do not listen to reckless talk." Wang Long, the Minister of Ceremonies, was responsible not only for rites and sacrifices but also for overseeing the Imperial Academy. He had long anticipated they would come to demand answers, and simply bade the old fellows sit down and talk.

"Of the five subjects His Majesty has set for selecting officials, what most people will take is actually four subjects, totaling one hundred points."

"The first is classical learning, which carries the most weight: forty points."

"The second is policy discourse — that is, writing an essay of five hundred characters or fewer on a given topic, discussing the current situation or offering advice to the court. It carries thirty points."

"The third is mathematics, carrying twenty points."

"The fourth is general knowledge, carrying only ten points…"

The old Erudites did not understand: "What is general knowledge?"

See, they didn't even know what general knowledge was. Wang Long smiled and said, "It is mainly one's own trade, which is to say farming — matters such as in which month to sow millet, in which month to harvest wheat, how to weed in summer, and what the twenty-four solar terms are."

"This still needs to be tested?" One old Erudite was filled with righteous indignation, but as he opened his mouth, he realized… he had spent his whole life poring over the classics, concerned only with classical learning and the millions of words of explications and commentaries passed down by his master's line. Matters beyond the study window — he truly did not know them!

Wang Long said, "Agriculture is the root of all trades. Yet some men live in pampered comfort and cannot tell the five grains apart. If such a man became an official, how could that be acceptable?"

"There is also a fifth subject, called 'Understanding of Law' — it is the Understanding of Law subject from the Han period. This is a special subject, established specifically for those families of penal law who have passed down the Greater and Lesser Du legal codes from generation to generation."

Hearing this, the old Erudites finally understood that the King of Wei's examination was vastly different from the Imperial Academy examinations under the Han and the Xin dynasty.

In the past, one studied for several years or over a decade, and the old Erudites set the questions and assessed them. A man who had mastered one classic could become an official; even someone who understood nothing of current affairs, could not do arithmetic, and even lacked general knowledge could still rise to become a Gentleman, spend a few years at the Emperor's side, and then be sent out as a County Magistrate or Assistant Magistrate.

But now, the King of Wei seemed to want men of all-around talent.

Guo You and the other old Confucians were stunned. In the office of the Minister of Ceremonies they dared not curse, but once they returned to the Imperial Academy, they all gathered in the Biyong Hall, beating their chests and stamping their feet: "Ever since Emperor Xiaowu of Han exalted Confucius and suppressed and banished the hundred schools, Confucian learning alone has been honored — over a hundred years now. Policy discourse is one thing; mathematics, being one of the Six Arts, is still tolerable. But to honor legalism and farming — this is to throw the learning of the sages into chaos!"

"Indeed. Confucius said: 'When the ruler loves propriety, none among the people will dare to be disrespectful; when he loves righteousness, none will dare to be disobedient; when he loves good faith, none will dare to be insincere. When things are so, the people from all quarters will come to him, carrying their children on their backs — what need has he for farming?' Let us set the questions as in the Han Shece examinations and test one classic alone — that is sufficient. Why add this 'general knowledge'?"

"Gentlemen!" Someone rose and called out: "To depart from proper order and proper measure is called misgovernment. This is an act of misgovernment! We cannot sit by and watch the learning of the sages be crowded out by legalism, policy, and farming. This matter must be contested!"

"Indeed! What we are contesting is the foundation of ten thousand generations!"

…

The next day, Wang Long was summoned by Diwu Lun to the Proclamation Hall. The King of Wei smiled and showed him the twenty-odd memorials from the Imperial Academy Erudites that had successively arrived at the Secretariat desk.

Wang Long hung his head in shame and said, "Your servant oversees the Imperial Academy. Though I explained matters properly to the Erudites, I was unable to stop their criticisms and opposition. I am guilty!"

He proposed, "Your Majesty, the next step is still to send someone to properly placate them, lest the Imperial Academy Erudites lead their disciples to kowtow at the gates of Weiyang Palace and go on hunger strike, delaying the examination on the first of next month…"

"Would they dare?"

Diwu Lun was thoroughly amused and said with a laugh, "Wenshan, ah, Wenshan, you overestimate their backbone. I summoned you today because I wanted you to enjoy some remarkable writing with me!"

So saying, he opened the top memorial, Guo You's, and let Wang Long read it.

"His Majesty sends forth his virtuous voice and issues his brilliant edict; your servant, old as he is, is filled with joy…"

Wang Long was quite astonished and read on: "In the fifth year of Yuanguang under Emperor Wu of Han, he tested the Erudites of the Five Classics with policy questions, and thus came Dong Zhongshu's 'Three Disquisitions on Heaven and Man,' and Gongsun Hong rose from commoner to Chancellor. Now that Your Majesty has added policy discourse to the examination, it is a principle that brings uniformity and an occasion that accords with the Great Harmony."

"In the Zhou period, they taught the Six Arts, the sixth of which was called the Nine Calculations. And Confucius once served as a granary clerk and as a keeper of pastures, and even then he dared not neglect his duties, always saying, 'Let the accounts be correct, and that is all.'"

This was an allusion even Diwu Lun did not know; only upon asking did he learn it was something Mencius had said, meaning that when Confucius was young he served as a minor clerk and was very skilled at arithmetic — perhaps the earliest accountant… This, too, became Guo You's basis for supporting the inclusion of mathematics in the examination.

The text further said: "The Odes teach much of the names of birds, beasts, plants, and trees; therefore, officials must have general knowledge of farming."

When Wang Long finished reading, he was utterly amazed. He looked through the other essays one by one — over twenty pieces, and not a single one attacked the policy; all were hymns of praise, diametrically opposed to the righteous indignation they had shown when they first learned of the five-subject selection.

Diwu Lun, however, was not the least bit surprised.

"The Erudites who still remain at the Imperial Academy now — what sort of men are they?"

"They once cast aside the house of Han, which had nurtured scholars for two hundred years, and embraced Wang Mang."

"They once followed Wang Mang in wailing at the Imperial Academy and cursing me — yet after Wang Mang fled, not a single one of them died a martyr for the Xin."

After being taught a lesson by famine and winter's cold, after being manipulated by Diwu Lun's tactic of passing Chang'an five times without entering, how could these men — the Confucian scholars who stayed in Chang'an — possibly still have iron backbones?

Diwu Lun laughed and said, "I haven't even tested them on policy discourse yet, and these old Erudites are already writing, each one quoting the classics and citing precedents."

The scene Wang Long had imagined — the old Confucians kowtowing at the palace gates, going on hunger strike, making their disciples boycott the examination — did they have the guts for that?

Diwu Lun knew their weak spot very well. After the upheaval of war and chaos, this was the moment when the scholarly world was at its weakest, and internally it was still split between the New Text and Old Text factions.

"The candidates and quotas for the Erudite positions in the State of Wei have not yet been decided. They are all craning their necks in hope — how would they dare, at this critical juncture, to stake their school's future on forceful remonstrance? Once expelled from the Imperial Academy, they would be sinners, too ashamed to face their masters even in death."

So what did this crowd care about most? Tricking their peers into submitting forceful remonstrances, while they themselves sang praises and extolled virtues — that was how they eliminated potential rivals.

In the end, among the twenty-some old Erudites, not a single one was a fool. In their memorials, none forgot to describe how loyal they were to the King of Wei, how ancient their school of learning was, and they even blatantly recommended themselves.

"They hoped that the forty questions on the classics would test the learning of their own schools, and that they would be willing to set the questions for me."

Diwu Lun was amused. Cutthroat — the scholarly world and academic circles were simply too cutthroat. The old Confucians still had self-awareness; they understood they could not defy the King of Wei's decision. So the key lay in how to smuggle their own school's private goods into those limited classics questions!

If they succeeded, the school that won the King of Wei's favor would become the undisputed prominent learning. Everyone knew that whatever the official examinations tested, that was what scholars would zealously pursue.

"Excel in learning, and enter officialdom." If the Five Classics could not, with a bow of the body, win one the purple and blue ribbons of office, how could they have been upheld as the supreme standard by all scholars within a hundred years, studied with such fervent rivalry? And how could Xunzi and Mencius, though equally Confucian, have instead become obscure and neglected branches of learning?

When a particular Five Classics school — the Zuo Tradition, for instance — could not gain entry to the Imperial Academy, no one paid it any attention. But the moment it became a ladder to promotion, countless people would fight tooth and nail to step onto it.

"The Fourteen New Text Schools saw this as a golden opportunity to revive and expand their respective schools."

"The Six Old Text Schools, meanwhile, believed this was their last chance to keep the Old Text classics alive."

But all their hopes were destined to come to nothing — for the simple reason that they had run into Diwu Lun, an examiner who was no filial son.

Diwu Lun said, "For this examination, the classics questions will be set by Wenshan."

"Me?"

Wang Long was greatly alarmed and hastily declined, citing his shallow learning and inability to command respect. But Diwu Lun would have none of it: "Base them primarily on the Analects and the Classic of Filial Piety, the texts scholars use when they first begin their studies. There is no need to add content from the Five Classics."

If the Five Classics constituted the higher education of Confucianism, then the Analects and the Classic of Filial Piety were the primers.

Diwu Lun did not intend to set the bar too high. After all, those taking part in this examination included not only students of the Imperial Academy, but also the charity-school disciples of the Diwu Lun household — and even any scholar willing to register and come to the southern outskirts of Chang'an on the first day of the third month!

Wang Long grew troubled. "If we only test the Analects and the Classic of Filial Piety, everyone has them memorized by heart. How can we differentiate among them?"

Diwu Lun laughed. "Wenshan truly is a good and honest man. Let me teach you a thing or two."

The King of Wei began openly and blatantly stuffing in his own agenda: "Add a few questions on the learning of Master Yang into the examination. That will be enough to spread out the scores!"

Wang Long was first taken aback, then at last understood what the old Erudites had all been clear about. "If you want the learning of Master Yang to flourish and spread, merely collecting his books is not enough. You must also make the scholars take the initiative to study it…"

"Exactly." Diwu Lun clapped his hands and sent Wang Long off to carry out the plan accordingly. As for the rest — he would set the policy-essay topics himself. For mathematics and general knowledge, he sought out Du Shi, who oversaw waterworks. For the law section, he had Guo Hong, a Clerk of the Commandant of Justice, take charge.

But considering that Guo Hong had studied the Lesser Du Code, he also found an official versed in the Greater Du Code to help compile the questions. This law section was the equivalent of a judicial examination; unlike the broadly studied Confucian classics, it remained a game played within the small circles of the various legal-code families.

"Even if it is still imperfect, it is still better than selecting officials by 'acquaintance referrals,'" Diwu Lun murmured to himself.

As for Wang Long, after he assented and withdrew, he reflected on his conversation that day with the King of Wei. On one hand, he was stirred by the thought that the learning of Master Yang might, because of this, be taken up and studied by more people. On the other, thinking of what he himself excelled at most, he quietly murmured:

"I only wonder if, one day, this examination will also test poetry and rhapsodies?"