Chapter 71: Master Yang (Launching Tonight at Midnight)

Yang Xiong was truly impoverished, yet in a certain sense he was also very wealthy — for the only decent property left after his death was books, books, and more books.

A cartload of them, enough to make the oxen sweat — that was how Diwu Lun felt as he sorted through Yang Xiong's belongings. In the cottage where bamboo slips and wooden tablets were piled high as mountains, he finally found the "Admonitions for the Twelve Provinces" his teacher had spoken of before dying, all stored inside a single chest.

After Wang Mang accepted the abdication and founded his dynasty, he emulated the sage kings of old by ordering the heavenly patterns, fixing the geography, and delimiting provincial boundaries according to the mountains, rivers, and local customs. He held that the names of the Han dynasty's thirteen Regional Inspector divisions did not match what the classics recorded, so he redrew the twelve provinces according to the "Canon of Yao," merging Liang Province and the Capital Region into Yong Province, and renaming the Shuofang Regional Inspector division as Bing Province.

Yang Xiong, who at the time was a Palace Gentleman Consultant, researched and verified these twelve provinces, composing one admonition for each.

Diwu Lun was deeply interested in geography and had read them before at Yang Xiong's home. But today he discovered that, beyond the literary descriptions and summaries, Yang Xiong had added a great deal more content to the provincial admonitions — broad descriptions of the twelve provinces' customs, products, tributes and taxes, historical evolution, notable figures, and historical events.

He even found twelve maps drawn on cloth and silk.

This, however, was something Diwu Lun had once asked Yang Xiong about: "I have heard that within the Palace of Longevity there are three pavilions — the first called Stone Canal, the second Heavenly Blessing, and the third Qilin. The books and maps of Qin and Han are all stored within these three pavilions. When you, Master, collated texts in the palace, did you ever see the geographical charts and records?"

Yang Xiong said there were some, but it was a pity they were kept together with the military texts in the secret archives, not easily shown to anyone, and he himself had only seen them a few times many years ago.

Diwu Lun could only drop the matter in frustration. Over half a year, relying entirely on his own efforts, he had traveled throughout Liewei Commandery and recorded its map — yet it accounted for only one-hundredth of the realm.

He had never imagined that old Yang Xiong, relying on memory, had actually drawn out the maps of all twelve provinces. There they were: the commanderies scattered like stars across a chessboard, with walled cities, fortresses, mountains, rivers, and streams all depicted within, every detail traced out by his hand.

Diwu Lun suddenly understood — was this the reason Yang Xiong had nearly given up drinking these last few months, shutting himself in his cottage all day in a flurry of work?

"This is the legacy my teacher left me."

Though they differed from what he had seen in later ages — even oriented with south at the top and north at the bottom, making them very hard to read — Diwu Lun still cradled these maps as if he had found a priceless treasure. They would save him a great deal of trouble in his future work.

Such was Yang Xiong's nature. He seemed to vaguely understand what Diwu Lun intended to do, yet never spoke of it plainly, only silently preparing a great gift for his disciple.

"Thank you, Master."

Diwu Lun said softly: "The realm — is now within my sight!"

……

Though Yang Xiong was but a commoner at his death, his funeral rites were still complex. Having neither son nor daughter, his three disciples became the chief mourners. Diwu Lun, Hou Ba, and Wang Long personally bathed their gaunt teacher, dressed him in burial garments, placed the ritual grain and jade in his mouth, laid him in the inner and outer coffins, and bore him to the eastern steps to be displayed in the hall.

"Hark! Yang Ziyun, return!"

The summoner of the soul they had hired wore a pure silk upper garment and a crimson lower skirt. Standing at the center of the roof ridge, he faced north and called the soul back, shouting three times in succession. Then he cast down the garment and banner; Diwu Lun caught them with a clothes chest beneath the eaves, returned to the hall, and gently covered Yang Xiong's body with the garment.

They also had to wear hempen mourning clothes, don headbands and caps of mourning, and kowtow to the guests who came to pay their condolences.

Yan You, who had been stripped of office and reduced to a commoner, felt deep shame in his heart. He ascended the hall and bowed to Yang Xiong's coffin, believing he himself had implicated Yang Xiong. Today, too, he busied himself actively with the funeral affairs.

When the funeral was nearly concluded, Yan You saw Huan Tan also draped in hempen mourning garments standing before a pillar, so he went over and asked him: "Junshan, you often praise Yang Ziyun's writings, but I truly cannot understand them, and no one else in this age praises them either. Can they really be passed down to later generations, as you say?"

"They certainly can."

Huan Tan was utterly certain: "It is only that you and I, I fear, will not live to see that day."

"It is a common human failing to hold what is before one's eyes in contempt, and to prize what is distant. The people of this age have seen with their own eyes that Yang Xiong's salary, rank, and appearance had not a single point of appeal — and so they scorn his writings."

Huan Tan continued: "But Ziyun's writings possess the deepest meaning, and the arguments they set forth do not deviate from the Way of the Sages. If his 'Model Sayings' and 'Supreme Mystery' can survive until the day a wise sovereign appears, and be read by worthy and knowledgeable men, then Master Yang will surely win their acclaim."

In Huan Tan's mouth, Yang Xiong had already become "Master Yang."

"How high will he rise?" Yan You asked again.

Huan Tan replied: "He will surely surpass the various masters of the Warring States!"

Diwu Lun stepped out of the mourning hall just in time to hear these words.

"More than that — Master's future standing will be second only to Confucius! He will be the first man to achieve a grand synthesis of Confucian and Daoist learning!"

Yan You felt this was somewhat exaggerated and shook his head: "How can you know this?"

"I just know!"

On this matter, there was no room for debate — Diwu Lun had already decreed it.

Yang Xiong's scholarship would not be cut off; he would certainly make it flourish and spread, securing a place for it within Confucianism. He would make the name Yang Xiong known to every household — reviled by the whole world before his death, he would receive the praise of ten thousand generations after it, so that those in later ages who, like himself, were poor at history, would not go so far as to have never even heard the name Yang Xiong!

This was Diwu Lun's greatest regret.

It seemed a somewhat childish stubbornness, but Huan Tan caught the resolve in Diwu Lun's words and could not help casting a few extra glances his way.

Meanwhile, Diwu Lun walked over to State Preceptor Liu Xin, who had also come to offer condolences, bowed to him, and said in a low voice: "State Preceptor, this humble student has a matter to request!"

Liu Xin thought he knew what Diwu Lun wanted and nodded, saying: "Though Ziyun and I were once at odds, we were, after all, colleagues and friends. I will look after you all on his behalf, and will not let the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties make trouble for you."

Can you really? Liu Xin, for all his grandeur as State Preceptor, could not even protect his own two sons back then. Seeing his manner now — grieving, yes, over his old friend's passing, yet unable even to demand justice for Yang Xiong. Ever since the case of Duke of Chonggong Wang Zong, Liu Xin had grown increasingly timid and low-key; who knows what he was afraid of.

Diwu Lun had already determined that this State Preceptor was probably not that "Child of the Plane" — Liu Xiu was someone else entirely!

It was just as the saying went: the mountain you lean on may crumble. Liu Xin's promises were unreliable.

What was more, for Diwu Lun, this matter was not over!

Wang Mang had indirectly caused Yang Xiong's death, and Chen Chong was practically the direct murderer. This grudge — he had marked it down!

Since he was already long caught in the whirlpool, there was no point pretending he was safe.

Since the blackbird, whether it hides among the Qin family's osmanthus trees or perches on the rocks of the southern mountains, cannot escape a single pellet from the Qin family's wastrel son, it is better to strike first — to fly against the current, go straight up to it, and peck out the villain's eyes!

Diwu Lun reined in his emotions and only said to Liu Xin: "My master was unable to complete the 'Rhapsody on the Northern Campaign' that the Son of Heaven requested. As his disciples, we are deeply uneasy. I have written a memorial of self-accusation and beg the State Preceptor to submit it to the Masters of Writing on my behalf!"

……

"Dead, then."

Within the office of the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties, Chen Chong heard the news of Yang Xiong's death and could not help but sigh at length.

"What a pity, Ziyun."

Though he had died of natural causes, Yang Xiong had still chosen the safest and cleanest way to settle this affair. Otherwise, whether he had written an article seething with veiled satire in a moment of anger, or produced something fawning and sycophantic like "Denouncing Qin and Praising the New," Chen Chong could have made good use of either.

Seeing that Chen Chong felt not the slightest guilt or worry, Kong Ren — who had narrowly escaped with his life from the last great prison case and merely changed his hat, now having no choice but to cling to Chen Chong — found this puzzling: "Master of Fates, though Yang Xiong was a useless old man, he was, after all, a friend of the State Preceptor, and His Majesty bore him no ill will."

"This matter also involves Yan You. Though Yan Erudite has lost the post of Grand Marshal, he may be reappointed by His Majesty at any time."

If that were so, would Chen Chong not have deeply antagonized them?

"Antagonizing them is good." Chen Chong, however, laughed and said: "Master of Fates Kong, let me ask you — why did His Majesty abolish the Governor of the Capital and establish the office of Master of Fates of the Five Majesties in the first place?"

Kong Ren said cautiously: "Because from the Former Han onward, the successive Governors of the Capital were mostly incompetents who dared not handle serious matters for fear of offending the powerful and noble."

"Exactly."

Chen Chong said proudly: "The matters the Governor of the Capital dared not handle, the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties handles. The people the Governor of the Capital dared not kill, the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties kills. In a word — what the Governor of the Capital can govern, the Office of the Master of Fates governs; what the Governor of the Capital cannot govern, we govern all the more!"

Those who mint counterfeit coins — that sort of petty crime they only round up casually. The eyes of the Master of Fates are fixed on those who disobey orders, great cunning rogues, those whose arrogance and extravagance overstep the regulations, those who leak matters from the palace secretariat and the Masters of Writing, and those who privately give thanks at the gates of the powerful.

These five kinds of people are mostly powerful and influential high ministers.

As it happens, after Wang Mang supplanted the Han, probably because he seized the throne from the position of a subject, he was especially on guard against the established nobility, constantly restricting and weakening the power of meritorious officials. He sidelined Wang Yi, rapped Liu Xin on the knuckles, executed the two Zhen brothers, and even when his own grandson Wang Zong showed ambition for power, he exterminated him without the slightest hesitation.

"The Palace of Prolonged Achievement has its rules. When dukes, ministers, and high officials enter the palace, the number of attendant clerks is fixed. Do you still remember? The Grand Mentor Ping Yan was quite favored and trusted by His Majesty, and relying on that favor he grew arrogant. He brought more clerks than the regulations allowed, and when the Gate Captain of the Side Gate questioned him, the tone was not good, so a Wuzuo clerk from the Grand Mentor's office arrested the Gate Captain."

"When His Majesty heard of this, his fury blazed. He ordered the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties and the General of the Five Majesties' Inner City to mobilize several hundred war chariots to surround the Grand Mentor's residence, arrest those petty clerks, and execute them at once before the Grand Mentor's very eyes!"

Ever since that day, Ping Yan has kept his head tucked in, and whenever he sees the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties, he takes a detour.

"As for the Gate Captain who dared to defy the powerful, he was promoted."

Chen Chong had long since figured out Wang Mang's ways: a low-born official or clerk who dared to impeach a high minister's errors could often receive promotion, gain the Son of Heaven's trust, and be appointed to a key post.

So for Chen Chong, the more ministers who hated him, the happier he was, and the more secure his position became.

Just watch — even if this time His Majesty, to placate Liu Xin and Huan Tan, sends someone to offer condolences for Yang Xiong, he will only lightly criticize the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties with a few words, and will absolutely not touch a hair on Chen Chong's head.

"Can our civil strategy surpass Liu Xin and Yang Xiong?"

"Can our military skill compare with Wang Yi and Yan You?"

"In closeness of blood to His Majesty, can we match the Duke of Glorious Achievement?"

They had only one advantage.

They were lone ministers!

They left themselves no retreat. Cut off from Wang Mang, they were nothing at all.

Just like Zhufu Yan in the time of Emperor Wu of Han — he seized upon the feudal lords and bit, careening back and forth between being boiled alive in a five-cauldron execution and feasting from five cauldrons.

"The Master of Fates of the Five Majesties is nothing but a dog raised by His Majesty!"

This was the role Chen Chong had found and settled into for himself.

"What do you raise a dog for? To bark. At strangers who come, the louder the bark, the better! Watch the master's eyes and act — one wave of the hand, and it lunges at once, tearing and biting at the enemy!"

So from the day he took office, Chen Chong was notorious for daring to impeach high ministers. He even dared to investigate imperial grandsons — let alone anyone else.

His task was to sniff out and root out traitors for Wang Mang.

But what if, for a time, there were no traitors? The moment that happened, Chen Chong himself would be unsafe, and could be cast aside by the Emperor at any moment.

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Then keep creating traitors!

Chen Chong's favorite method was to fix on a small target, make him suffer, make him miserable, wear him down with hardship, fabricate charges, push him onto a road of no return, and finally implicate him in a major case.

Then tell the Emperor: "See, your minister saw through their true faces long ago!"

That was why Chen Chong regretted Yang Xiong's death. Had he not died, under repeated torment, given enough time, he might have been able to bundle Yang Xiong's network of connections together and fabricate a "Liu Xin, Yan You, Yang Xiong Anti-Xin Rebel Clique."

He might even have followed the vine to the melon and sunk his teeth into Chen Chong's ultimate target: the Crown Prince Wang Lin! Laying the groundwork for the escape route he had long planned.

What a pity that this grand scheme shattered the moment it reached Yang Xiong. He would have to find another way.

But that did not hinder Chen Chong from manipulating things at will in the slightest. Yang Xiong thought that by not handing over a single character to the office of the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties, he was safe? A colossal mistake!

"Even if there are no characters, even if you are already buried, I can still weave a body of charges against you."

For example: Yang Xiong, his heart clinging to the Former Han, would rather die than write a fu for the Emperor Wang Mang — that would make a fine story.

Chen Chong could also conveniently eliminate the roots and kill a few more people along the way.

Such as Yang Xiong's three disciples — especially that little brat named Diwu Lun, who twice evaded capture by the office of the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties.

After Kong Ren left, Chen Chong pondered how to torment Yang Xiong's three disciples. The household of the Marquis of Qiongcheng behind Wang Long was steeped in arrogance, extravagance, and debauchery — finding charges against them would be effortless. But unless the Emperor nodded, trying to topple this house, which was an imperial clan house in all but name, would bring little gain at a high cost. Better to go slow.

The other two, on the contrary, had no backing and were far easier to get at. Once the storm subsided, he could simply arrange for a neighbor in Xuanming Ward to report Yang Xiong's usual groundless nostalgia for the Former Han, implicating Diwu Lun and Hou Ba and throwing them into prison.

But even that would be a crime not quite worthy of death. No matter — wasn't the Emperor currently recruiting the Boar-Rush Braves to send to the frontier? Stuff the two of them among those men as common soldiers, and let them suffer through a gauntlet of near-certain death.

But when Chen Chong arrived at the office of the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties the next day, he received a piece of news.

Just the day before, Diwu Lun, still in mourning for his teacher, had submitted a memorial to the Emperor Wang Mang through the State Preceptor Liu Xin.

It was not to cry out and voice grievances for Yang Xiong, still less to denounce Chen Chong for indirectly driving his honored teacher to death. Had it been that foolish, Chen Chong would have laughed aloud.

But now, Chen Chong's expression was filled with sheer surprise. That Diwu Lun would do this — he truly had not expected it.

In his memorial, Diwu Lun, in fear and trepidation, stated that although Yang Xiong had been unable to compose a fu on the Northern Campaign, he himself, as Yang Xiong's disciple, was willing to volunteer for military service to atone for his teacher's failing.

"Lun is willing to emulate the deeds of Zhong Jun and Fu Jiezi — at the age of the capping ceremony, to ask for the tasseled cord, to pledge this body to the state, to serve as a centurion or Company Commander, to march with the Boar-Rush Braves, and to go forth on campaign for Your Majesty!"

PS: The next chapter goes live on the paywall — begging for first subscriptions! The first chapter will be released on 12/1 at 0:10.