Chapter 617: Establishing the Law for the Han

The spread of Confucian learning in the southeastern lands of Wu and Chu was mainly due to two men: one was Zhan Tai Mieming, a disciple of Confucius during the Spring and Autumn period; the second was Liu Jiao, King Yuan of Chu under the Han. One after the other, they carried Confucian teachings southward, where they flourish to this day.

But no matter what branch of learning, moving from one place to another inevitably undergoes a process of "localization." Because the culture of shamans and ghosts was so prevalent in the south, "not speaking of strange forces and chaotic spirits" was naturally unworkable. Thus the theories of Heaven–man resonance and the strange doctrines of prognosticatory apocrypha, which originated with the Gongyang school, became quite popular in the Huainan and Jiangdong regions.

In the past, it was at most the Confucians tinkering among themselves, and the authorities still kept them at a "respectful distance." That was until early in the third month, when a startling edict issued from Jiangdu, the capital of the remnant Han's petty court, suddenly shook the southeastern Confucian world — the Emperor Liu Xiu had taken the lead in promoting prognosticatory apocrypha!

In his edict, Liu Xiu announced a great joyous event: Qiang Hua, the Libationer of the Imperial Academy, had found ancient bamboo slips buried by Zhan Tai Mieming, a disciple of Confucius, in the Yu Cave on Mount Kuaiji. The slips recorded how Confucius obtained the qilin and received three scrolls of heavenly scripture.

To mark the occasion, Liu Xiu summoned the assembled Confucians of the southeast to a great conference in the Green Dragon Hall of the Jiangdu palace. He sat on the high seat and listened in, while Qiang Hua made the three scrolls of heavenly scripture public before the crowd, one by one!

First, the "ancient slips" were passed around for everyone to examine. In terms of material, script, prose style, and diction, various renowned scholars from eminent families all bore witness: these were indeed ancient slips from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, absolutely genuine!

Next, it was time to announce the contents of the heavenly scripture.

Qiang Hua, who had long since bathed and changed into ceremonial robes, solemnly read aloud:

"The first scroll says: 'At the beginning, Zhou and Qin united then parted; parted for five hundred years, they reunited; seventeen years after reuniting, a hegemon shall emerge!'"

This was an old trope Sima Qian recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian, originally words spoken by the Grand Historian of Zhou to Duke Xian of Qin, but now its source was traced back to the heavenly scripture.

"The Master knew there would be the Six States contending for supremacy, the cycle of vertical and horizontal alliances destroying one another, the scourge of Qin and Xiang sweeping away, the cruelty of piled bones and flowing blood. Deeply grieving that the people had long suffered separation and harm, he therefore stroked the qilin and wept in foreknowledge."

Qiang Hua continued reading: "Thereafter, Confucius knelt and read the words of the second scroll, which said… 'The precious writ emerges, Liu Ji grasps it; Mao Jin Dao, north of Zhen; styled Hezi, all under Heaven submits!'"

"Whereupon Confucius said with deep feeling: 'All under Heaven has its lord! Though Zhou perishes, the crimson qi rises again, the Fire Star flourishes.'"

By this point, Confucius even knew of the fall of Qin and the Chu–Han contention, but the more outrageous part was yet to come.

"After this, Confucius wished to open the third scroll, but could not fathom it no matter what. At that moment, the qilin nudged Confucius with its horn and pointed its fore-hoof toward Mount Tai. Confucius then had a great awakening and, emulating the sage kings of old, ascended Mount Tai. Wearing crimson robes, he bowed in homage toward the North Star. A white mist shrouded the land, and a crimson rainbow transformed into yellow jade. The third scroll of heavenly scripture flew up into midair, and its words appeared across the sky upon a canopy of crimson clouds — and they too were twenty-four characters…"

Qiang Hua swept his gaze around the assembly and revealed the answer:

"Liu Xiu raises troops to punish the unrighteous; the four barbarians gather like clouds, dragons fight in the wilds; at the juncture of four and seven, Fire shall be master!"

The assembled Confucians inwardly exclaimed at the insider knowledge. So this was the origin of the "Crimson Talisman" that Liu Xiu treasured like a precious gem! It was recorded in the heavenly scripture personally opened by Confucius, and buried in the southeast by his disciple. Later, this text leaked out and was mistakenly taken by the Great Xin State Preceptor Liu Xin — who had renamed himself Liu Xiu — as referring to himself. Little did he know that the true man destined by fate was Liu Xiu of Nanyang, Liu Wenshu!

If this is not the Mandate of Heaven, what is?

Whatever they thought in their hearts, for a moment the Confucians in the Green Dragon Hall prostrated themselves in submission, and the civil and military officials, after exchanging glances, also chimed in with their assent.

Liu Xiu, however, was humble. He descended the dais and bowed twice more toward the ancient slips: "I, a petty child, am unenlightened in virtue and have brought myself to ruin. Seeing this heavenly scripture today, I am overwhelmed with trepidation!"

If one thought Qiang Hua was merely cooking up prophecies to fool the ignorant masses, one would be underestimating him. With Liu Xiu's full backing, this Green Dragon Hall conference lasted three full days and, in one stroke, hammered out a rigorously logical theory: "The Dark Sage Confucius Establishes the Law for the Red Han."

Qiang Hua proved himself a top talent of the Imperial Academy, bringing all his eclectic and syncretic abilities to bear. He mixed the Book of Changes, the Book of Odes, the Book of Documents, the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Book of Rites, the Book of Music, the Analects, the Classic of Filial Piety, and various commentaries and apocryphal texts together with the charts and prognosticatory apocrypha, citing widely and broadly. Whether it was Confucius being born after his mother was touched by a black dragon, or his identity as the "Dark Sage," everything was treated as fact, shaping Confucius into the image of a divine being who knew a thousand years past and ten thousand ages to come.

And the reason for Confucius's birth was to serve as a prophet, to save this degenerate age of collapsing rites and ruined music!

Yet the historical fact that Confucius spent his whole life frustrated and unfulfilled could not be altered. But this did not stump his disciples and their disciples. The Gongyang school had always held that Confucius, who received the mandate to save the world, was a mere commoner. He had not a foot of land enfeoffed to him, nor the authority of axe and halberd to wage war. He could only infuse the Spring and Autumn Annals with the "mind of a king," using praise and blame of history to exercise the Son of Heaven's power to reward good and punish evil, establishing the order of a "new king" in an era when the realm had no true king. Thus the Spring and Autumn Annals became the standard for ten thousand ages.

In Qiang Hua's hands, the apocrypha school went further, combining with Gongyang doctrines and launching into wildly imaginative elaborations:

"A sage is not born in vain; he must establish something to manifest the heart of Heaven. Qiu was the wooden bell-clapper, establishing the law for all under Heaven."

For whom did he establish the law? For the Zhou, already beyond saving? For the Qin, brutal and deserving of death? Neither. It was, of course, for the future new lord of all under Heaven that Confucius discovered in the heavenly scripture — Mao Jin, the Red Han!

With the argument reaching this point, a rigorously logical theory emerged fully formed. Liu Xiu went further than any former Han emperor, becoming the first to officially recognize Confucius's status as an "uncrowned king" in his capacity as Son of Heaven. And in turn, with the sacred endorsement of Confucius, was not Liu Xiu — named explicitly in the heavenly scripture — destined by Heaven to revive the Great Han?

"The ancient slips say: Zhou's span was eight hundred years; the Han's shall be four hundred. Though the Han's fortune has now declined midway because Wang Mang, Diwu Lun, and their ilk usurped the state and robbed its virtue, the Great Han shall ultimately revive in the southeast and continue the dynastic altars for another two hundred years."

At the close of the Green Dragon Hall conference, Qiang Hua made a programmatic speech. This "the Han's lifespan is four hundred years" was not in the ancient slips; he had casually added it himself, without much thought, simply feeling that he must make the world believe that Liu Xiu's Han would not, like the others, perish swiftly as a flash in the pan — that it still had two hundred years of dynastic fortune. No need to panic!

After the conference, Liu Xiu ordered Qiang Hua to proclaim the charts and prognostications to all under Heaven. The assembled Confucians and officials all cried out in praise of his sacred virtue…

Yet Deng Yu, who had already resumed the post of "Minister of Ceremonies" among the Nine Ministers, came afterward to pay a worried visit to the Emperor, wanting to tell him what he had found inconvenient to say directly in the Green Dragon Hall.

But just as he reached the hall's exterior, he heard a burst of angry rebuke from within.

"The Governor of Jiujiang slanders the sage and flouts the law! In consideration that this is your first offense, I shall not deal with you for now. Go back, read more of the prognosticatory apocrypha, and then come see me again!"

Immediately, guards dragged out a high official, so disheveled that his cap and sash were askew. Deng Yu looked — it was Huan Rong, the Governor of Jiujiang, a clan nephew of Huan Tan.

It turned out that although Huan Rong and Huan Tan each served their own master, he was loyal to the Great Han. But in scholarly thought, he was deeply influenced by Huan Tan. When he heard that Liu Xiu was heavily promoting prognosticatory apocrypha in the capital, he grew anxious and rushed to dissuade him. Liu Xiu was just about to have Qiang Hua use the apocrypha to determine the site of the "Spirit Terrace" observatory, but Huan Rong bluntly said: "Prognosticatory apocrypha are not the classics; they are full of absurdities and are by no means the correct path. Wang Mang perished because of them. I implore Your Majesty not to believe in them!"

This was a slap in the face to the Green Dragon Hall resolution, and so Liu Xiu had him thrown out.

After meeting Deng Yu, Huan Rong sighed with deep feeling: "Wang Mang perished from believing in prognostications. The overturned cart ahead is a warning — how can Your Majesty repeat the mistake? Lord Deng, please urge the Son of Heaven once more!"

Deng Yu agreed, but after he entered the hall, Liu Xiu already knew the purpose of his visit. He merely said to Deng Yu: "Zhonghua, you heard all that?"

Without waiting for Deng Yu to speak, Liu Xiu pointed in the direction Huan Rong had departed and said: "This is a loyal minister. I shall privately raise his noble rank and increase his fief."

So Liu Xiu understood everything perfectly? Then why, these past few days, had he put on an attitude of unquestioning faith in the prognosticatory apocrypha and let Qiang Hua and the others run wild?

"Because this matter benefits me, and benefits the altars of the Great Han."

After the bungling of Liu Xuan and the other "predecessors," Liu Xiu had come to the helpless realization that simply "reviving the Great Han" could no longer rally people's hearts. The Battle of Pengcheng made that clear enough. Although there were good sons of the imperial clan like Liu Zhi who died heroically for the Han, there was also the shameful spectacle of large numbers of the Liu clan scrambling to surrender to Diwu Lun.

If even the Liu family was like this, what more could be expected of others? The scholars of Huainan and Jiangdong, seeing Liu Xiu defeated in two battles, had probably already begun to harbor other thoughts and were questioning "how much longer the Han banner can fly."

Therefore, Liu Xiu had to provide an answer quickly. Since reality constrained him with insufficient strength to mount a counteroffensive, he could only think of other ways…

Promoting prognosticatory apocrypha was a measure born of having no measures. Although the slogan "Support the Liu, Restore the Han" no longer rang bright, thanks to a century of Confucian propagation, the image of Confucius as omniscient and omnipotent had already sunk deep into people's hearts. Consider: if even the Sage established the law for the "Red Han," who would dare doubt the legitimacy and inevitability of the Liu clan's rule over all under Heaven?

And with Confucius citing ancient charts and inferring celestial changes to endorse Liu Xiu's identity as the "Son of the Mandate," he was certain to defeat Diwu Lun. Even at worst, the Han still had two hundred years of lifespan and would not perish swiftly. Here, he had the halo of the Sage's blessing; looking north, by contrast, Diwu Lun was a fellow who falsely claimed the Five Powers, disregarded the Confucian orthodoxy, and strayed from the classics and rebelled against the Way. The scholars and powerful families need not jump ship and flee just yet…

Hearing the Emperor's heartfelt words, Deng Yu suddenly saw the light and felt greatly relieved. Liu Xiu did indeed believe in prognosticatory apocrypha, but he only firmly believed in those that were advantageous to himself!

"Of course I know that this cannot fool others."

Liu Xiu was well aware that Qiang Hua's theory of "Confucius Establishing the Law for the Han," though seemingly meticulous, would likely collapse if someone of broad learning like Huan Tan came and refuted it point by point. It could only fool ignorant men and women, or those willing to believe it.

The reason no one opposed it in the Green Dragon Hall was that Liu Xiu had Qiang Hua carefully screen and select only "obedient" Confucian scholars to attend.

"But even if it is a cup of poisoned wine, I must drink it!"

Liu Xiu slammed his fist on the table, voicing his helplessness. Anything that could help him oppose Diwu Lun — whether heavenly scripture or rumor — Liu Xiu had to make use of it. After all, he was the disadvantaged side.

He told Deng Yu to rest assured, that he was not yet muddled: "These prognosticatory apocrypha and prophecies can only slightly steady the hearts of the Han people. What can truly turn back the raging tide from its collapse still depends on you, Zhonghua, and the civil and military officials — depends on the next victorious battle!"

Liu Xiu's thinking was sound enough, but everything has two sides. Within days of the Green Dragon Hall conference, the backlash from his publishing the charts and prognostications to all under Heaven came swiftly!

It turned out that when news of this reached Jiangdong, the four great clans of Wu County in Kuaiji — the Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Yan families — jointly submitted a memorial to Liu Xiu. They first lavishly praised the truth that Confucius established the law for the Han and that Liu Xiu would surely revive the Great Han, but then immediately shifted their focus…

"The charts and prognostications say the Great Han shall revive in the southeast. However, Guangling and Jiangdu are low-lying lands. The King of Jing, Liu Pi the King of Wu, the King of Jiangdu, the King of Guangling, and others all met untimely ends there — it is not a suitable choice for a capital."

"Look instead to Jiangdong: Stone Mountain sits like a crouching tiger, a coiled dragon; the mountains and rivers form a strategic stronghold. When King Wei of Chu conquered Yue, he heard it said that this place had kingly qi, so he buried gold to suppress it — hence the name Jinling."

"In the time of the First Emperor of Qin, he heard there was the qi of a Son of Heaven in the southeast and made an inspection tour to suppress it. People at the time thought this referred to the High Emperor of Feng and Pei. But the First Emperor crossed the Yangtze and went as far as Kuaiji, which shows the qi of the Son of Heaven was truly in Jiangdong — precisely at Jinling! Does this not correspond to the prophecy of the charts and prognostications?"

"We your subjects can only hope that Your Majesty will soon move the capital to Jinling, so that we may plan for revival!"