Chapter 537: Violence

When Diwu Lun entered the palace chamber where Wang Mang was lodged, he saw the old man sitting on a rush mat, dozing — his head drooping, his breath gently stirring his white beard, the faint movement just enough to keep anyone from thinking he was dead. Beside his hand lay stacks of essays titled "On the Faults of Xin," all attacking the Xin Dynasty.

The Attendant Gentleman Zhu Di, who had been ordered to attend here, reported: "Your Majesty, when the Old Wang first saw these essays, he flew into a great rage, crumpled them into balls, and threw them away. But later he retrieved them. At times he curses the candidates for their clumsy writing and reckless nonsense; at other times he falls silent, wordless for long stretches…"

Diwu Lun nodded, signaled his attendants to be quiet, and dismissed Zhu Di. He seated himself opposite Wang Mang. Today was the summer solstice; the weather was rather stifling, and great masses of dark clouds had gathered overhead. Chang'an had suffered drought for many days, and people were longing for this long-overdue rain to fall.

Only when a muffled clap of thunder rumbled at the edge of the sky did Wang Mang startle awake. Opening his eyes to find Diwu Lun sitting across from him, he jumped in fright, straightened his beard, and then noticed the papers the wind had blown all over the room. The atmosphere was somewhat awkward.

"No matter. These are only copies."

Diwu Lun smiled. "Old Wang, these past few days, what do you make of the students' essays?"

Wang Mang was effectively imprisoned here; his daughter Wang Yan had come only once. In his utter boredom, these essays were his sole channel for understanding conditions outside, yet every time he could not resist reading them, he would then rage and lie sleepless through the night.

The students sitting the civil service examination were not very old, most of them commoners without rank. Their grasp of how to govern or manage the people was shallow. Their attacks on the Xin Dynasty either stood on their own positions, recounting the suffering and displacement they had endured over the years, or leveled accusations from a bookish scholar's perspective.

So, faced with Diwu Lun's question, Wang Mang put on nothing but a scornful look. "A pack of callow youths — what do they understand?"

Yet even Wang Mang had to admit: individually, the essays might be biased, but compiled together, they formed a collected indictment of the Xin Dynasty's misrule. From the currency to the Five Equalizations and Six Monopolies, to Wang Mang's wars of foreign expansion, his toleration of the Yellow River floods without remedy, and his appointment of unsuitable men to court and military posts — the scholars had basically summarized it all. Some even directly attacked the land equalization and the abolition of slavery.

"I like this one best."

Diwu Lun flicked one essay and said, "It directly targets the restoration of antiquity. It argues that the Old Wang must search the classics for precedents in every matter — that is like following a map to find a fine horse. He took the titles and institutions of the so-called Three Dynasties and forced them onto the present age, ultimately making state policy rootless and divorced from reality."

Wang Mang kept silent. Had he still been Emperor, he would never have been able to stomach such words. But today, after his great rise and fall, and having traveled among the common people, he knew what the essay said was correct. In his heart he agreed; only his lips refused to accept it, unwilling to give Diwu Lun the satisfaction.

Unexpectedly, Diwu Lun then said, "These essays exhaust every conceivable angle, but they all see only the surface, not the root. The most important reason — no one has seen through it, or rather, no one has dared to state it plainly."

"And that is: when the Old Wang supplanted the House of Han, the supplanting was not thorough enough!"

Wang Mang stared in astonishment as Diwu Lun continued: "From Tang, Yu, Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han down to the present — aside from Qin's unification of all under Heaven, which was rather exceptional — whenever a dynasty changes, there are only two ways."

"The first is the so-called abdication, which existed only with Yao, Shun, and Yu. After that, feudal lords occasionally attempted it, but all came to nothing. Only the Old Wang personally carried it out, and even succeeded by sheer luck."

"The second is revolution, which began with Tang of Shang. Tang and Wu made revolution — overthrowing the previous dynasty by violence."

Wang Mang was already captivated by what Diwu Lun was saying; this was an angle no one had ever raised. "The Old Wang emulated the ancients, replacing the House of Han by abdication. It did spare a great deal of bloodshed, but the trouble is that, while accepting the throne and the Mandate of Heaven from the previous dynasty, you also inherited its officials, its court, its armies, and all the ills of the realm in one package."

Diwu Lun enumerated them one by one with him: "Land annexation and the buying and selling of slaves go without saying. The result was that registered households and commoners grew fewer and fewer, and the taxes and land rents collected grew lower and lower. The court lacked funds, yet was long accustomed to arrogance, extravagance, and debauchery. Consequently, there was no money or grain to maintain the river dikes, so that all affairs under Heaven deteriorated day by day. After the Old Wang took power, his first act was to open up sources of revenue — only he took a crooked path, making the finances deteriorate even further."

"Redundant officials were also a great problem. Over two hundred years of Han, several hundred Marquises remained, and officials at court and in the provinces grew ever more numerous. According to the Privy Treasurer Song Hong, from the time of Emperor Xuan of Han onward, the taxes levied on the common people amounted to over four thousand million cash a year, and official salaries consumed half of that. Yet by the time of Emperor Ping of Han, though the population under Heaven had greatly increased, tax revenues did not rise but fell — because the population was controlled by powerful families — while official salaries nearly exceeded the tax revenues. The Xin's cuts to official salaries, even withholding them for years at a time, originated from this."

"And by the end of Han, the soldiery was already utterly rotten. In the time of Emperor Cheng of Han, the iron-works laborers of Yingchuan rose in revolt. At first there were only a hundred and eighty men, yet they were able to seize the weapons from the arsenal, kill the senior officials of the government offices, and pass through nine commanderies before and after, with the government troops unable to stop them. The court was terrified, and only quelled them by borrowing the clan troops of local powerful families. By the Xin Dynasty, though the banners had changed, the officers and soldiers had not. The empty payrolls and corruption in the army remained as rotten as ever. Using such men on campaigns to the Western Regions and against the Xiongnu — how could they not be defeated?"

"In short, the relations between court, provinces, and local powers were so tangled and deep-rooted that state policy was hard to implement. The things that were easy to carry out were all matters like renaming commanderies and counties, which did not harm the interests of the powerful families. In the end, the more the reforms were reformed, the greater the chaos."

Diwu Lun spread his hands. "This realm was like a tall building rotted through. The Old Wang inherited it wholesale. Even if you smeared fresh lacquer on the outside, in substance it was still the old structure — impossible to save from collapse. It was also like a man already deathly ill, his body riddled with grave sickness everywhere. Even a famous physician would find it hard to cure him — let alone…"

The words that followed were less pleasant. Diwu Lun smiled. "The Old Wang was fundamentally a quack with grand ambitions but little skill — no real ability, only a piece of 'good intent.' You could see where the illness lay, but the medicines you prescribed were mostly wrong."

"Even when a prescription occasionally suited the condition, the ingredients were nowhere to be found in this world. Worse, the subordinate officials would swap the astragalus for fleeceflower root and force-feed it to the people of the provinces and commanderies. Not only did it bring no benefit — it was violently poisonous! The realm's deathly-ill body, subjected to this torment, naturally worsened further, and is not far from death."

Diwu Lun said, "Therefore, for the aged, tottering House of Han, abdication was absolutely unacceptable. The only way was to emulate the revolution of Tang and Wu! Tear down the rotten edifice, and only then can heaven and earth be rebuilt!"

"Since the Old Wang would not make revolution against the House of Han,"

"then I can only make revolution against the House of Xin!"

Diwu Lun, reaching the most satisfying part, paid no heed to the fact that Wang Mang's face had turned ashen. He made his palm a blade and began chopping at the air.

"Using the pretext that the Great Wei is newly founded: the officials of the former dynasty — the guilty ones are executed and their property confiscated; the guiltless but incompetent are dismissed. I will not hide it from the Old Wang: in the Xin Dynasty, the officials great and small drawing salaries in Chang'an numbered close to ten thousand. Now I have cut them down to just over a thousand. If still reckoned in wuzhu coins, the reduction in salary expenditure is far more than a hundred thousand million!"

What connection did the relationships and networks of Han and Xin have with the Great Wei? Those dismissed — let those fit be soldiers, and the rest be commoners. Diwu Lun was using work-relief to restore the Guanzhong waterworks and urgently needed labor.

"The same with the troops. Though the Boar-Rush Braves were born from the Xin armies, I have remade them. The various ills of the past still have remnants, but after all, we have only been building for a few years. The commanders all rose from the ranks. I dare not claim they are the strongest army under Heaven, but they are more than enough to deal with the Xin armies, the Greenwood, and the Red Eyebrows."

Most crucial was the land. Diwu Lun had found every kind of pretext, using the chaos of dynastic change to confiscate the fields of a great many powerful families, expanding the sources of revenue. Wang Mang had seen this with his own eyes on both banks of the Wei River when he entered Chang'an from the west.

Having said this, Diwu Lun sighed. "A pity. No one could write it this way."

"Otherwise, even if he turned in blank papers for all the other examinations, on the strength of this essay alone, he would deserve to be ranked first on the top list!"

He then looked at Wang Mang. "Old Wang, how would you grade this examination essay of mine?"

Wang Mang reflexively cursed as always: "You whelp — mad… mad insolence."

But in his heart he had to admit: Diwu Lun saw things with absolute clarity. He had not misjudged him — yet he had misused him. Diwu Lun disdained even abdication, let alone rescue and preservation.

Wang Mang also asked the question on his own mind: "Diwu Lun, at exactly what moment did the desire to emulate the revolution of Tang and Wu arise in your heart?"

Was it when he was ordered to court and obtained the military authority he had dreamed of?

Was it when he took charge of Wei Commandery and became a provincial magnate?

Or was it when he first joined the army and marched beyond the frontier?

No — perhaps it was even earlier.

Wang Mang suddenly saw the light. "Could it be that when Yang Ziyun passed away, hatred had already lodged in your heart, and you resolved to overthrow the Xin?"

Diwu Lun met Wang Mang's gaze and shook his head. "No."

"I resolved to overthrow the Xin ten years ago. At that time, I refused to enter the Imperial Academy, declining three times and yielding three times. Apart from using it to build my reputation and cultivate my prestige, it was because I saw that the Xin was beyond remedy!"

"Ten years ago — the fourth year of Tianfeng?"

This meant that, from the very beginning, everything Diwu Lun had shown before Wang Mang was pretense — a smiling face, lips full of loyalty, while in truth he had long harbored the intent to overthrow him.

Another crash of thunder exploded; the lightning lit up the shock on Wang Mang's face. He merely heaved a long sigh, pointed at the man before him, and said — whether in praise or in curse, it was hard to tell: "Diwu Boyu, you are truly the chief of villainous masterminds."

Diwu Lun took it entirely as a compliment. "The Old Wang has also come to understand the flaws of abdication, has he not? That is why you later threw yourself into the Red Eyebrows' cause. As expected — the revolution of Tang and Wu is best! Overturn everything and rebuild — that is far more effective!"

As he spoke, the rain that had long been building outside finally fell, drumming noisily on the roof tiles.

Diwu Lun rose to his feet, stood in the doorway of the hall, and spread his arms to embrace the violent wind and rain outside — to embrace the new order he had won through blood and betrayal.

"Now, not only do the scholars' essays 'On the Faults of Xin' speak with one voice, all declaring that the Xin Dynasty deserved its destruction,"

"but the common people across the realm have also cast their tiles to the left, one after another, hoping that I, on behalf of Heaven's will and the people's hearts, will execute the solitary tyrant!"

Diwu Lun walked back from the corridor, summoned Zhu Di, and had him display the results of the public vote to Wang Mang. "The ancients had a saying: 'The hearts of the multitude form a fortress; the mouths of the multitude melt metal.'"

"It means that the force of public opinion is so powerful it can melt even solid gold."

"How much more so the Old Wang?"

Wang Mang silently gazed at those "Letters of the Myriad People," each representing the public sentiment from a tile-casting site. Many of the names on them, it seemed, had also appeared among the four hundred eighty thousand petitions urging him to take the throne before his abdication. The people's hearts were indeed like the sea — surging back and forth.

Had he not had today's conversation with Diwu Lun, Wang Mang could still have forced out a retort: "It is merely three men making a tiger."

But now, Wang Mang merely tossed the bamboo slip in his hand aside, closed his eyes, and said:

"All men must die. My allotted span does not exceed seventy-three, and this year I am already seventy-two. One year more, one year less — what difference does it make?"

Yet in the past, he had wished to "die for the Dao." Now, it had become "dying once to make amends to the world." In his heart, Wang Mang admitted he had made far too many mistakes. Whatever his original intent, the result was chaos across the realm, with millions upon millions of common folk dead as the price.

"But there are also those who do not wish this old man to die, and have even used the story of Tang of Shang banishing Jie of Xia to counsel me."

Diwu Lun mentioned to Wang Mang how Zhang Zhan had pleaded on his behalf. Wang Mang only sighed with feeling — Zhang Zhan was indeed a good-hearted man.

"I, however, bestowed upon Zhang Zixiao a copy of the 'Announcement of Zhong Hui.'"

Hearing this, Wang Mang was first taken aback, then understood at once. He merely gave a cold laugh. "Diwu, you young whelp, your classical studies have come along nicely these recent years."

That "Announcement of Zhong Hui" was delivered after Tang the Completer had banished Jie of Xia. Tang felt ashamed that a subject had banished his lord and feared leaving a bad name for later ages, so Zhong Hui spoke these words. He declared that Tang's attack on Jie came from rectifying the institutions of Yu the Great, from the Mandate of Heaven, and from the hearts of the common people — it was entirely just and reasonable. In one stroke, he resolved the question of legitimacy for Tang's enterprise and established the theory for the "Tang-Wu Revolution" model of dynastic change: follow Heaven and answer the people, and you may justly punish and strike down!

Six hundred years later, King Wu of Zhou relied on this very principle to overthrow the Shang dynasty and cut off the head of Di Xin.

"But Zhang Zhan still does not understand." Diwu Lun was rather disappointed in this Grand Preceptor Zhang. As expected, he was fine as a decorative mount, but when it came to great affairs — forget it.

"He thought that the reason I have delayed so long in killing you, old sir, is that I wished to do it as elegantly and unhurriedly as the Han-Xin abdication, putting on a show of refinement, gentility, deference, and restraint."

"Zhang Zhan is wrong."

Diwu Lun leaned on the railing and gazed at the rain. "In my view, Tang of Shang's revolution against Xia falls far short of King Wu of Zhou's revolution against Shang. In the matter of overturning the vessel, following Heaven and answering the people is sufficient. There is no great need for banquets and guests, no need for writing essays, no need for painting or embroidery."

"Only one thing is needed."

Diwu Lun watched the cloudburst hammer the ground. "Violence! The severance from the overthrown former dynasty must be clean! Hew away the superfluous officials and rotten timbers — only thus can one travel light, rebuild the furnace, and fire a new situation."

This was all the more true now that Diwu Lun had resolved to take up part of the old man's long-cherished wishes — to pick up again the matters of land equalization, the abolition of slavery, currency regulation, and the state monopoly on salt, iron, mountains, and seas.

He would have to be even more resolute, and sever even more cleanly!

"To have the scholars and commoners participate is indeed to manifest following Heaven and answering the people, but at the same time, it is also to gauge public sentiment and display resolve."

"The Nine Provinces have fallen to this ruin, and though it is not the old man's fault alone, the people of the realm have concentrated all the bitterness of these years upon his single person."

"That is only natural. Remembering one man is, of course, far easier than carefully dissecting the inner causes."

"If the old man were allowed to die a natural death, the knot of the world's hatred would be hard to untie. They might even hate the house for the crow's sake, and turn their hatred upon me for sparing his life."

"Only with the old man's death can the people's fury be dissolved, can the evils of the Xin be made a thing of the past, and can the world turn the page."

"Therefore, I, Lun, have come here today for one matter alone."

With his back to the pouring rain, Diwu Lun cupped his hands toward Wang Mang. His tone was as if he were merely inviting him on a journey to a distant land.

"I ask you, old sir — go to your death!"