Chapter 621: But I Was Greatly Shaken

Huan Tan became a Gentleman Attendant at the Yellow Gate, a post inherited from his father's office — after all, for generations his family had managed rites and music for the Han emperors. He was skilled in music and a fine zither player; whenever a court banquet was held and Emperor Cheng of Han was in high spirits, he would often have Huan Tan direct the performance.

But he was unwilling to remain merely a music official and court entertainer. He often went to the Tianlu Pavilion to read, and over the years grew broadly learned and erudite — yet he concerned himself only with exegesis of the great principles and detested tedious chapter-and-verse commentary. He also frequently mocked those vulgar Confucians who preached omens and apocrypha day in and day out, and for this he was often pushed aside.

His family had many old connections, and from childhood to adulthood he had plenty of companions and colleagues — but all were superficial acquaintances. When it came to a true, heart-to-heart friend, in thirty years there had not been a single one.

Until that year, when into the Yellow Gate Gentlemen's office of Emperor Cheng of Han came a rustic from Ba-Shu who stammered a little when he spoke. He was quite old, already in his forties, careless about his appearance, and when you drew near you could smell the stench of stale wine on him.

Standing among the ranks of Palace Gentlemen, who were mostly sons of the nobility, he seemed utterly out of place — until Huan Tan passed by, sensed an uncommon bearing about him, and took the initiative to greet him.

"Huan Tan of Pei Commandery, courtesy name Junshan."

The other man, overwhelmed by the unexpected favor, hurriedly returned the greeting: "Yang Xiong of Shu Commandery, courtesy name Ziyun."

What first drew Huan Tan to Yang Xiong was his gift for composing fu. In the fourth year of Yongshi (13 BC), Emperor Cheng of Han took the Palace Gentlemen on three outings, to the Sweet Springs Palace, to Houtu Shrine in Fenyin, and to the Shanglin Park. That same year Yang Xiong composed three great fu in succession — the "Sweet Springs Fu," the "Hedong Fu," and the "Hunting Inspection Fu" — all of them soaring in literary brilliance. Those who read them marveled, saying that since Sima Xiangru there had never been such a master of the fu — but that was as far as it went.

Huan Tan, however, saw deeper: he discerned in the three fu a remonstrative intent, a concern for the state and its people. So he eagerly sought out Yang Xiong, wanting to learn from him how to compose fu.

"Ziyun, your fu are so exquisitely crafted — is there some secret to it?"

Yang Xiong was self-deprecating: "There are no shortcuts in composing fu. Only by thoroughly reading a thousand fu and rhapsodies can one compose well."

Truly, hearing those words was as good as hearing those words. Huan Tan thought Yang Xiong was holding back some private secret and refusing to share it, so he spoke with sincerity: "Once, when I accompanied His Majesty on a tour of the Jiling Palace at Huayin, I composed a short fu in praise of the two immortals Wang Qiao and Chisongzi. It was praised by people at the time. But as the proverb well says, 'See one joint of a dwarf, and you know his full height.' And Confucius also said, 'When I raise one corner, if a man cannot come back with the other three...' Now that I have seen Ziyun's writings, and then look again at my own little fu, I realize how vast the gap is between my ability and Ziyun's."

Yang Xiong asked Huan Tan to recite that fu for him to hear. After listening, Yang Xiong stroked his beard and looked at Huan Tan with a smile: "Junshan, you didn't put your heart into this fu."

Huan Tan was taken aback for a moment. Yang Xiong continued: "Though Junshan lavishly praises the two immortals, it is mere heaping up of ornate phrases, never truly issuing from the heart. Let me venture a guess — could it be that Junshan... does not actually believe in immortals who can live a thousand years?"

This struck straight to the heart of the matter. Huan Tan indeed had little faith in these immortal tales; he had only done it because the Emperor gave the order and he could not refuse. Though he had done his best, at his core, he had merely gone through the motions.

He never did learn to compose fu, but he began to see this man he had barely known in an entirely new light. Many years later, when Huan Tan stood in the Palace of the Prince of Lu at Qufu, recalling this old friend, he felt that only an ancient proverb could describe it.

"There are those who grow white-haired and yet remain as strangers; there are those who brush past each other and are as close as old friends. Whether two men can become true confidants is evident in the space of a few words — it does not depend on whether they are strangers or old acquaintances."

In those days, they were still full of ideals, actively supporting the reforms of Wang Mang and Liu Xin, hoping to change the dark times of the Cheng and Ai reigns. But both met with enormous setbacks: Yang Xiong was inarticulate, ignorant of the rules of officialdom, habitually careless in his appearance, and addicted to drink. Though his talent was outstanding and his fame spread far, his official career never prospered. Through the three reigns of Cheng, Ai, and Ping, he never received a promotion, remaining a Yellow Gate Gentleman to the end. The Emperor and the powerful treated him as nothing more than a rhymester and entertainer, paying no heed whatsoever to his remonstrances. This left Yang Xiong deeply disillusioned; he even gave up composing fu and turned instead to the study of the classics, astronomy, and the calendar.

Huan Tan, too, reached a low point in his life. He encountered a situation much like the story of "the man who faked his way through the ensemble." Emperor Cheng of Han loved dance and music, but his successor, Emperor Ai of Han, detested music and actually abolished the Imperial Music Bureau. With his office gone, Huan Tan naturally had to go do whatever came next. The music officials all scrambled to find new employment, and because Huan Tan's personal connections were poor, he was assigned to be a "Keeper of the Water Clock." His job was to watch the clepsydra and calibrate the time and announce the hours — subordinate to the office of the Celestial Officials...

Angry as he was, Huan Tan did not waste those years. Though he lacked any deep faith in the arts of immortals and fangshi, the sun, moon, and stars were precisely where his interests lay. He began observing the movements of the sun and the constellations several times a day, by day and by night, then recording these minute changes and using them to check and calibrate the water clock.

His feud with the apocrypha-mongers began in that period. Whenever Huan Tan discovered patterns in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars that the ancients had never recorded, and eagerly sought to submit a memorial, the superstitious Emperor would only listen to the Gongyang scholars, the omen-interpreters, and the fangshi as they babbled about "the resonance between Heaven and man," viewing natural changes as portents sent by "Heaven." On this basis they made wild conjectures and forced interpretations, giving rise to many laughable affairs.

The mysterious study of the heavens and the apocryphal arts were stirred together, like a basin of clear water stained with filthy ink. The vast, boundless sky and the distant, enigmatic celestial bodies became shrouded in ever thicker veils of obscurity.

Huan Tan felt that while all the world was drunk, he alone was sober. His one consolation was that he had successfully drawn his now-close friend Yang Xiong away from the erroneous "Canopy Heaven" theory and over to the "Spherical Heaven" school that he himself firmly believed in. Huan Tan deeply admired Yang Xiong's literary brilliance and learning, but when their scholarly views differed, they would inevitably clash head-on, arguing until their faces were red. Yet on that cold winter day, Huan Tan had convinced Yang Xiong with irrefutable evidence and logic. These two brothers in misfortune began to stand back-to-back, waging war against the apocrypha-mongers and the Celestial Officials — beyond friendship, they now shared the bond of "comrades-in-arms."

It was during that very period that Yang Xiong completed the composition of the "Supreme Mystery"...

Huan Tan roused himself from his memories of the past and realized that the entire assembly of ministers and scholars was staring at him. After his great cry — "Yang Ziyun is the foremost man of the Confucian school since the Han began!" — he had fallen silent for quite a while. Yes, he could not merely make the claim; he had to prove it!

"Have any of you ever read the 'Supreme Mystery'?"

Huan Tan looked around him, but the response was sparse. Even those who had read it had only hurried to catch up because Yang Xiong was Diwu Lun's teacher — after all, in order to propagate his late teacher's learning, Diwu Lun had already had Yang Xiong's works published. They were the easiest to find on the market — easier even than the Five Classics.

Even so, because the "Supreme Mystery" had never been included by Diwu Lun among the examination subjects, few people had read it. Now they could only offer the excuse: "The Elder Ziyun's writings are abstruse and profound; we have been unable to understand them, though we are greatly shaken..."

To their surprise, Huan Tan seized on their words: "Precisely! To be unable to understand the 'Supreme Mystery' is indeed a sign of insufficient learning!"

Back when Yang Xiong had poured his heart's blood into writing this book, the whole world had dismissed it — only Huan Tan, after reading it, had pounded the table in acclaim and lavished it with praise.

Now, he would present that praise of his, word for word, before the entire assembly: "Mystery — that is the Dao of Heaven. When the ancient sages established laws and measures, they all took the Dao of Heaven as their foundation; only then could they bring clarity to the relations between sovereign and subject, court governance, human affairs, laws, and the myriad things. Thus, Fu Xi called it the 'Changes,' Laozi called it the 'Dao,' Confucius called it the 'Primal Origin,' and Yang Xiong calls it the 'Mystery.' The three sections of the 'Supreme Mystery' establish the three forms and exhaust the Dao of Heaven, Earth, and Man — something unseen since the 'Changes' itself."

In the past, if Huan Tan had spoken thus, countless people would surely have risen to dispute him — yet now there was only silence.

Diwu Lun, of course, knew the reason. In today's conference, the driving force behind the scenes and the presiding figures were all disciples of Yang Xiong, and Huan Tan, as Libationer of the Imperial Academy, was Yang Xiong's old friend. To borrow a phrase from later ages: "The manager, the team, the commentator — all of them are my people." If at this moment he asked the assembly who supported and who opposed, who would dare oppose?

This situation — so utterly the reverse of the mockery and contempt Yang Xiong had suffered in his lifetime — filled Huan Tan with deep emotion. But he was unwilling to let this matter rest purely on the weight of Diwu Lun's authority, so he said: "Since none of you gentlemen are willing to speak of Yang Ziyun's shortcomings — very well, then I shall say them all myself!"

"Yang Ziyun was inarticulate, fond of drink, careless in his appearance. When dead drunk, he could not tell east from west and babbled nonsense. That is his first flaw."

"Yang Ziyun was timid. When Wang Mang was in power and Ziyun became implicated in a rebellion case, a few jailers came to the Tianlu Pavilion to take him for interrogation. Ziyun dared not argue; in terror, he threw himself from the Tianlu Pavilion and was gravely injured. That is his second flaw."

"Ziyun's two sons died young, one after the other, and he insisted on sending their bodies back to Shu Commandery, his old home, for burial. The journeys back and forth cost a fortune. His circumstances were already straitened, and this made them even more desperate, forcing him into debt on every side. In his writings, Ziyun clearly comprehends the Dao of the sages and understands the principles of life and death, not inferior to the worthy Ji Zha — yet when real calamity struck, he lost all reason. This is the 'blind spot of a man of understanding.'"

As he enumerated the various flaws that had brought so much misfortune to his old friend's life, Huan Tan seemed to see once more the wretched state of those years when he had reached the very end of his tether, and he felt a sharp pain in his heart.

"But none of the above can erase Ziyun's genius."

"I recall that in those years, a young nobleman of the capital, having heard of Ziyun's unsurpassed talent but that he had died in utter obscurity, came to ask me: 'What sort of man was Yang Ziyun?'"

"I answered: 'His intellect was open and penetrating, able to enter the sage's Dao, preeminent above the multitude — that was Yang Ziyun!'"

"And Wang Yi, Grand Minister of Works under the Xin dynasty's Wang Mang, also came to ask me: 'Huan Junshan, you constantly praise Yang Xiong's fu and writings — can they truly be passed down to posterity?'"

"I answered: 'They will surely be passed down!'"

"'But I fear that neither the Grand Minister of Works nor I will live to see that day. The world judges men by appearances; seeing that Yang Ziyun's rank, salary, and looks were all unimpressive, they therefore scorned his writings. In the past, Laozi wrote the two sections on Virtue and the Dao, and later Emperor Wen, Emperor Jing, and Sima Qian all held that those five thousand words surpassed the Five Classics.'"

"'Yang Ziyun loved antiquity and delighted in the Dao. His writings are lofty in literary grace and conception. He held that no classic is greater than the 'Changes,' and so composed the 'Supreme Mystery'; that no commentary is greater than the 'Analects,' and so composed the 'Model Sayings'; that no historical primer is better than the 'Cangjie,' and so composed the 'Exegetical Compilation'; that no admonition is better than the 'Admonition of Yu,' and so composed the 'Provincial Admonitions.' All of the above meet the standard of 'establishing one's words' for immortality! It is only a pity that the world did not appreciate him. But should he encounter an enlightened sovereign who would commend him, then Yang Ziyun's reputation and writings would surely surpass the Hundred Schools of Thought and be ranked after the 'Five Classics' as a 'Classic' in their own right.'"

The assembly was once again stunned. Could a "Classic" be added so casually? A Classic is that which warps and woofs Heaven and Earth, the guiding principle of the age! Only those works revered as models that can guide the human world may receive such an extraordinary title. Apart from the Six Classics of the Confucian school, only the "Classic of Filial Piety" had been acknowledged; even the "Classic of the Dao and Virtue" was generally referred to only as "Laozi's Five Thousand Words" and had not yet been publicly recognized by the scholars. What virtue or ability did the "Supreme Mystery" possess?

But Huan Tan ignored the stares of the crowd. Today, he was determined to pour out everything — all the indignation and grievance he felt on his old friend's behalf.

"But I was wrong."

Huan Tan said: "Wang Yi is dead, and indeed he could not see Ziyun's writings proclaimed to the world — but I have seen it."

"Above, there is an enlightened sovereign; below, there is the craft of woodblock printing. Ziyun's works have already spread throughout the realm, and the day they are glorified and made radiant — is today! Like sunlight and rain washing away the dust, at last the true jade is revealed!"

Having spoken, Huan Tan bowed with clasped hands to Diwu Lun and the assembly, then withdrew and took his seat.

On the point of "establishing one's words," no one objected. Yang Xiong's writings were practically equal to his own height, and as for abstruseness — were not those commentaries on the Five Classics, often running to millions of words, even harder to understand? Compared to them, Yang Xiong's books seemed like introductory texts.

As for "establishing merit," the assembly spoke with one voice: "Ziyun taught His Majesty the Emperor of Wei, who in one stroke destroyed Wang Mang and saved the world — this is the greatest of meritorious deeds!"

With this, the already certain bestowal of co-enshrinement became all the more perfectly justified. Yet privately, there were still great Confucians who were not entirely convinced, exchanging glances with one another.

"I hear that in those years, someone asked Huan Tan: 'Yang Ziyun is the Confucius of the West, yet he fell into such poverty. He lacks the worthiness of Confucius, yet suffers the poverty of Confucius — is there any truth to this saying?'"

"And Huan Tan refuted it, saying the statement was baseless. He said: 'In the past, was Zhongni merely a sage of Lu? He was also a sage of Qi and Chu! Thus, Yang Ziyun is not only the Confucius of the West — he is also the Confucius of the East, the Confucius of the present age!'"

"I cannot understand Yang Ziyun's writings, but in one respect he is the same as Confucius: he taught an excellent disciple!"

And Yang Xiong's "excellent disciple" seemed still not satisfied. At Diwu Lun's nod of suggestion, Wang Long also stepped forward and further proposed that Yang Xiong had also made achievements in "establishing one's virtue"!

"In the chapter 'Inquiring about the Dao,' the Master says: Shun and Yu carried on Yao's enterprise and put Yao's Dao into practice, so that laws and measures were made manifest, rites and music flourished, the common people prospered, and all dwelt in peace and joy in their work — this is having the Dao. But Jie of Xia and Zhou of Yin acted in perverse defiance, so that laws and measures were discarded, rites and music were lost, and the common people died unnatural deaths — this is lacking the Dao."

"The learning of the sages ought to carry forward what has the Dao and cast aside what lacks the Dao. After the Three Dynasties, there came Kings Wen and Wu, the Duke of Zhou, down to Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi — the orthodox lineage of the Dao was transmitted from generation to generation. Yet after Xunzi and Mencius, rites and music collapsed, the classics were lost. Although men like Fu Sheng attempted to reconstruct them, the true intent of the orthodox Dao had already been lost, to the point that the Han Confucians dragged yin-yang and apocryphal theories into the classics, fabricated ancient tales, and indulged in weird forces and disorderly spirits, long since straying from the orthodox lineage of the Dao — and thus came about Wang Mang's throwing the world into chaos."

"Only when it reached the Master was the Confucian lineage renewed. And Your Majesty, receiving his learning and carrying on his will, heeding the Master's earnest teachings, punished and destroyed the false Wang Mang, thereby inheriting the Confucian lineage, and will once more usher in a golden age!"

What a masterstroke — in this way, Yang Xiong replaced Dong Zhongshu, whom Han Confucians had exalted to the utmost, filling the gap in the "Confucian lineage" between Xunzi and Mencius. Their school of thought now appeared to have inherited the true Way of the Former Kings, becoming the orthodox line of Confucianism!

At this point, the political purpose behind Diwu Lun's insistence on holding this academic conference in Qufu was laid bare, the dagger revealed at the map's end!

From beginning to end, Diwu Lun never personally stepped in to interfere, yet he had always controlled the entire situation. Watching with piercing clarity the shock, horror, indignation, and the various emotions of those unwilling yet too afraid to raise their heads below, his fingers tapped lightly on the table as he thought to himself:

"Xiu'er, you only dabble in prophecies and auguries to bolster your own image and shape the notion of divinely bestowed imperial authority — that is still a lesser approach."

"Look at me. Since my teacher has entered the Confucian lineage,"

"doesn't that amount to me being of the orthodox Confucian lineage as well?"

……

PS: Yang Xiong's status was indeed very high from the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties through to the Song dynasty. When Han Yu formulated the theory of the Confucian lineage, he also included Yang Xiong in it.