Chapter 198: Disciples

In the twenty-third year of King Zheng of Qin, winter, the last ten days of the twelfth month.

A snow had just fallen in Anlu County, and the weather was bitterly cold, but inside the Anlu County Study Hall, three newly arrived disciples still huddled around the fire pit, their eyes full of expectation as they began their very first lesson.

Their master, "Gan," had Jing, who was helping at his side, slowly thaw the frozen ink in the inkstone with hot water, then moisten a brush and write a single large seal-script character on a rough wooden board.

"灋!" (fǎ)

After helping to thaw the ink, Jing also sat down by the fire pit to warm his hands. As an old disciple who had entered the previous year, he could recite the content the master was about to teach almost with his eyes closed. For whenever new disciples entered, the master would always give them this special lesson, and a study-hall disciple's learning career began with understanding this character…

After having everyone copy the character once onto their wooden tablets, the master continued:

"灋 means punishment. It is level like water, hence the water radical. 廌 (zhì) is the ancient beast xiezhi (xièzhì), which understands human speech, knows human nature, can distinguish right from wrong and straight from crooked, can recognize good and evil, loyalty and treachery. When it discovered wickedness, it would butt it with its horn. Therefore it is taken as the beast of law. Prison officials trying cases wear the xiezhi cap, and outside the county prison hall there is also a stone-carved xiezhi."

"Come, write it three more times. Feel this character well."

Watching the three new disciples earnestly copying the character stroke by stroke, Jing could not help but smile to himself. Over the coming year, they would have to copy it a hundred more times…

The Study Hall was a cadre training school for cultivating Qin state civil servants — law officials — capable of handling all kinds of grassroots work. Therefore the very first lesson had to make everyone understand what law is, and what an official is.

"Law is the measure of all under heaven, the standard for all affairs; the official is he on whom the people's lives depend!"

The master was impassioned again. He rapped the low table and said: "Our Qin is different from other states. When punishment is dealt according to law, the people accept death without complaint; when merit is measured according to law, the people receive reward without needing to feel gratitude. These are the effects of handling matters by legal standards. Thus the 'Clarifying Law' chapter says: 'To govern the state by law is simply to raise the right and discard the wrong!'"

Then where does law come from? Does it come from the bright gods of heaven? Does it come from the will of the people?

No, neither.

"He who generates law is the sovereign!"

"He who upholds law is the minister; he who is regulated by law is the commoner."

Legislation is the sovereign's exclusive prerogative; ministers are the law's defenders; the common people must submit to the law and take it as the rule of their lives.

The Study Hall master had to deeply instill this concept into all the disciples' minds, so that in their future official careers they would strictly adhere to this principle. Whether serving as a local assistant official or rising high to become a grand officer of a commandery or county, they must be loyal to the King and loyal to the law.

The new disciples nodded repeatedly, but Jing sat to the side warming himself by the fire, his mind wandering far away. When he had first entered over a year ago, he too had been like this — full of curiosity about everything around him, thirstily pursuing all knowledge he did not yet have. But now, he had long since adapted to the life of a Study Hall disciple. Once the novelty faded, what remained was mostly tedium and exhaustion.

He still remembered last autumn, when his elder brother had just sent him to enter the school. After the first law lesson, the disciples were required to take a "baseline examination" — to write a three-hundred-character judicial document in small seal script.

Those sons of official families who had served as functionaries for generations had been dealing with such things since childhood. Their brushes flew as if winged, and they finished quickly. A country youth like Jing, with a weaker foundation, had to gnaw on his brush thinking for ages before barely squeezing out a hundred-odd characters…

Based on the disciples' differing foundations, the Study Hall master divided them into different levels. Those with outstanding performance could go straight to familiarizing themselves with the legal statutes; those with a poorer foundation still had to learn at least five thousand seal-script characters…

Don't be surprised — this was merely the most basic of basics for being a law official.

Jing thus spent half a year relearning before his literacy barely passed muster. In the months that followed, they all grappled with dry legal statutes and ordinances — things like the Theft Statutes, the Assault Statutes, the Military Ranks Statutes, the Checking Statutes, and so on — basically learning one chapter a month. They not only had to understand the sentencing principles of each law, but also had to read them until fluent and recite them from memory.

Because the master had said: if in the future they became law officials and, when a matter came to a head, remembered a statute incorrectly, then the very statute they misremembered would be used to deal with them — as the punishment for dereliction of duty causing serious consequences…

"If you misremember a death-penalty sentence, wouldn't that be a disaster?" Jing had stuck out his tongue at the time.

Besides law lessons, they also had to learn to drive a horse-drawn chariot, because once the disciples graduated from the Study Hall, they would no longer enjoy the privilege of exemption from corvée service. They might be conscripted to the battlefield to serve as charioteers. In addition, they had to practice swordsmanship and archery to strengthen their bodies. They were not required to be superb, but at the very least they had to be able to lift a sword and hit a target with an arrow.

Qin officials were not purely civil functionaries. They had to be able to take up a sword and charge into battle to kill the enemy, and take up a brush to write official documents — every one of them a multi-skilled hand. Only thus could they meet the needs of Qin.

With so much to learn, and with the master's merciless lashing if they did poorly, the life of a Study Hall disciple was far more grueling than that of a university student in later ages. Jing had only one day of rest every ten days. On those occasions, he would always go to the official compound to seek out his second elder brother's former colleague, Garrison Clerk Anpu, and inquire about news of the war…

Inquire about whether his second elder brother, Heifu, was alive or dead!

…

At first, what came back were scattered reports of the campaign against Wei. The news was mostly optimistic — the Qin army swept all before it, ultimately breaching Daliang and extinguishing the state of Wei. The authorities sent men to proclaim this far and wide in every commandery and county, letting everyone know of the glorious victory of the Qin army and the King.

At the same time, Heifu's rank was being continuously confirmed from Xianyang down to Anlu County.

First from Ornamented Cord to No Mores, then from No Mores to Grandee — his second brother's rank soared as if flying, making Jing both astonished and overjoyed.

Garrison Clerk Anpu quietly told him: "You have no idea — every time Heifu's rank rises one step, the Left Commandant's expression turns one shade uglier!"

Jing knew that his second brother's family had an old grudge with the Left Commandant's household. This was also one of the reasons he was repeatedly ostracized in the Study Hall. In the first few months after Heifu had just been sent off to the north for service, everyone kept their distance from Jing. Those sons of official families were even less willing to play with him — that had been the hardest stretch of time to endure.

But after Heifu's rank rose two steps, some people began to show Jing smiling faces. In a small county town like Anlu, men of Grandee rank were not all that numerous; they could serve as chief officials of a county bureau with a salary of three hundred dan, or as a township bailiff. Seeing that his family was on the rise because of this, how could they not hurry to curry favor?

But Jing had already tasted the warmth and coldness of human relations, and his temperament had matured considerably. Toward those classmates who cupped their hands and fawned on him, he maintained only faint ties. All he hoped for was that after the war ended, his second brother could return soon.

Yet what came first was not returning soldiers, but the news that Qin had gone to war with Chu!

It began with a minor clash in Nan Commandery. During those days, Anlu was on full alert; even leaving the city to return to the countryside became very difficult. Nan Commandery seemed as if it might become a battlefield at any moment. Fortunately, Qin and Chu chose the region north of the Huai River as the arena for their contest, and Anlu was spared.

As time passed and it was already the tenth month, Heifu had been gone a full year. By rights his service term was over and it was time for him to return, yet there was no sign of him anywhere. Zhong, back home in Yunmeng Village, sent someone to urge Jing, saying that their mother had fallen ill from worry and telling him to quickly find a way to make inquiries.

"Perhaps they will only be released when their term expires in the tenth month…" Garrison Clerk Anpu consoled Jing thus, but in his heart he knew that Heifu and the others had most likely been drawn into the campaign against Chu again.

Finally, at the beginning of the eleventh month, Jing received the family letter Heifu had written from Yangcheng…

"Ninth month, dingsi day. Heifu dares to bow twice and ask after Zhong. Is Mother without ailment? Are Zhong and Jing without ailment? Heifu is also without ailment. He is now at Yangcheng, serving as a Hundred-Leader of the Commandant's personal troops. The Commandant treats me very generously…"

"It's a letter from Second Brother! Second Brother is safe and sound!"

Jing hastily scanned the wooden tablet, overjoyed. After thanking Anpu, he immediately requested three days' leave, hitched a ride on an ox cart back to his home in Yunmeng Village, and flew home running. He gave the letter to Zhong to read, read it aloud to their mother himself, and even pointed to the characters on it, teaching them one by one to his nephew and niece…

"Will Second Uncle come back?" Yang and Yue tilted their heads up and asked.

"He will, he definitely will!"

Jing said joyfully to his family: "Mother, Elder Brother, Second Brother says he has become a personal soldier of the Commandant and is highly valued by the Commandant. He surely won't have to charge into battle like before. Once the fighting is over, he can certainly come home safe! Perhaps by the winter solstice, perhaps by the La Sacrifice. When Second Brother returns, our whole family will reunite and keep on pounding the New Year's cake to eat!"

After consoling his mother thus, Jing had to hurriedly shoulder his pack and return to the Study Hall, his heart full of hope.

But as time entered the twelfth month, through those scattered reports that came in, he could no longer remain optimistic.

At first, there was talk in the marketplaces that the Qin army had been defeated on the front north of the Huai. Then the market officials arrested the speakers, took them to the official compound, and shaved their heads for the crime of spreading rumors.

But stopping people's mouths is harder than damming a river. Gossip and rumors still flew wildly everywhere in Anlu. Jing had initially scoffed at them, but the talk grew more and more convincing, more and more alarmist.

Some said the Qin army had been completely wiped out, with over ten commandants dead.

Some said the Qin army had suffered a great defeat, and that Chen and Cai had already been retaken by the Chu people.

And the authorities did not come forward to refute the rumors or tell everyone the truth; they only tightened control over speech.

Because when it came to war, Qin — just as the historical records say — consistently reported victories and concealed defeats. Victories were joyfully recorded on bamboo slips: how many heads were taken, so-and-so breached a certain city — and then they were trumpeted to the common people with great effort.

But if it was a defeat, the scribes acted as if it had never happened. It would neither appear in the Qin Annals nor be made known to the common people.

This is why Li Xin's defeat in the campaign against Chu vanished without a trace from the Basic Annals of the First Emperor — because Qin's own historical record, the Qin Annals, also simply skipped over the matter.

But there are no walls in the world that are completely impermeable. Nan Commandery was not far from the region north of the Huai. As those reports — true or false — kept coming back, everyone was gripped by fear and uncertainty. And in the Study Hall, many disciples pointed and whispered about Jing.

Everyone knew his second brother was at the front, and now the front was very likely a crushing defeat — they feared Heifu's chances were grim…

Yet those pitying looks and words made Jing strangely furious.

"My second brother will certainly be fine!"

His mouth spoke such firm conviction, but his heart was uneasy; he did not even dare tell the family these things, or let his mother know…

Just then, someone hurried in, interrupting the master's lesson to the new disciples, and also yanking Jing, whose mind had wandered far away in worry, back to reality.

The disciple who came in from outside bowed to the schoolroom master, and after speaking a few words by his ear, the master looked toward Jing.

"Jing."

"Disciple here!"

The master said, "Go on out. Someone outside is looking for you."

Jing answered, then walked out somewhat bewildered, but immediately thought of one possibility, and his eyes widened; heedless of decorum, he hitched up his lower robe and went sprinting across the snow!

At the schoolroom gate, in the very spot where one year and three months ago his second brother had told him to stay put and stuffed his arms full of tangerines, stood three men dressed in warm furs.

Two faced inward, one faced outward, chatting warmly, laughing heartily as they spoke.

That young man in the black goatskin fur jacket — wasn't he Xiao Tao, the village bailiff's runner his second brother had once brought home as a guest? Jing remembered that back then Xiao Tao was just an ordinary village youth, only a few years older than himself, extremely wooden, wearing a short tunic and coarse hempen clothes that revealed his poverty. How was it that now he wore fine clothes, even draped in furs?

And the other man — who else could it be but Ji Ying, whom Jing had met before? In the past Ji Ying had been scrawny, sharp-faced and gaunt-cheeked, but now his face glowed with health; he too wore a white lambskin jacket, his inner garments bright and fine, his eyes full of confidence, quite the air of returning home in brocade robes.

Jing rubbed his eyes and looked incredulously at the tall man with his back to him. This man's attire was even more remarkable: he was draped in a thick bearskin coat, the kind of fur worth at least twenty thousand cash, maybe even forty or fifty thousand to buy. In all of Anlu County, only the county magistrate, the county deputy, and the wealthy Left Commandant owned such things. And look at the double-plated long cap on his head — this man's rank was clearly not low, truly both rich and noble…

But why was this man's build so familiar?

"Second Brother?"

Jing called out hesitantly.

The man turned around, saw Jing, and immediately grinned, showing white teeth against his still-dark face.

"My little brother."

Heifu strode over, both hands clapping heavily onto Jing's thin shoulders, and laughed heartily: "A whole year gone, and you're nearly as tall as me!"

PS: Another Alliance Leader, thank you — currently owe 7 chapters, pressure's huge, I'll pay them back slowly in April, my body's nearly giving out. About monthly tickets, if you have spare ones on hand just toss them in casually, absolutely don't tip specifically for monthly tickets — save your money, take a girl to a movie or something, maybe you'll get out of singledom.

(End of chapter)