Chapter 222: Green, Green Is the Collar

The commandery governor's daughter was named "Zijin" — a very Korean-sounding personal name. "Green, green is the collar; long, long my yearning heart" — the line comes from the "Airs of Zheng."

Her remark that "one should not be ashamed of lacking a clan name, but of lacking a meritorious title" had helped Heifu out of a tight spot and also made everyone drop the subject of surnames.

Once she joined the gathering, the previously harmonious matchmaking event began sliding in another direction. The noble and official sons present flocked around Zijin like stars circling the moon, vying to pay her court.

In terms of looks, Zijin was not the most beautiful, and being young, her figure had yet to develop. What drew all the young men was simply her family background. Who didn't know that Governor Teng held absolute sway in Southern Commandery, was in his vigorous prime, and deeply trusted by the King, with excellent prospects of becoming a weighty minister at court?

To marry into the Ye clan would undoubtedly elevate one's own prospects to the next level. For a time, the peacocks all spread their tails, each trying to display his finest side.

A pity, then, that no matter how hard they tried to show off, their conversation always carried a whiff of tedium.

The way Jiangling's officials and nobles raised their sons followed the traditional aristocratic education: they had them master the Six Arts of the gentleman — rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics — and read a bit of Chu rhapsodies and Central Plains poetry and history.

When the sons neared adulthood, they would enter the academy as "clerk-scions" to study the Qin laws and statutes. In as little as two years or as many as three, upon graduation, the sons could take up posts as clerks in the various bureaus of the commandery city. Thus they would slowly be tempered at the grassroots level for a decade or so; with luck, they might go to the battlefield and earn some merit. By the time their fathers passed away of old age, they could smoothly inherit the titles, become senior clerks in the various bureaus, continue training their own sons, and begin the cycle anew...

This was the norm in the noble and official circles of Qin's Southern Commandery. Thus, the young men before her were mostly still students in the academy, who at most had followed their fathers to hunt hares in the surrounding counties and townships, never setting foot beyond a hundred li. They either compared who had bagged the most game on the last hunt, or who had just been praised by the master at the academy. In the eyes of a precocious young woman shaped by her father's influence, they were nothing but a bunch of callow boys who understood nothing.

As for those who beat around the bush, quoting classics to praise how well-chosen her name was — were they not just pretending to know what they didn't?

Zijin — wasn't it just a collar? And a man's collar at that. Even the girl herself did not know what was so fine about the name. If one stripped away the poetry and considered only the original meaning, being called "Collar" hardly seemed much more elegant than "Heifu."

Though Zijin did not breach decorum, inwardly she was growing impatient and could only force a smile in resignation.

Compared to her, the other women present were mere green leaves serving as foils, thoroughly neglected. So they in turn began their assault on the jade-faced gentleman Feng Jing. The gathering split into two centers, left and right, and the principals of each were both growing weary of the attention.

Just at that moment, from one corner of the gathering, the sound of conversation arose.

"I've heard that when the Left Troop Clerk Aide was in Anlu County, he once served as a village head? And even solved several major cases?"

"Would the Left Troop Clerk Aide be willing to tell me the details of those cases?"

The person questioning Heifu was called Tang Jue, the son of the Bandit Bureau Chief. His family had worked as law officials for generations, and this Tang Jue had actually learned to read by leafing through his family's case files, so he still had an impression of the major cases that had occurred in Anlu County the year before last.

Heifu looked appreciatively at this curious baby who knew how to ask questions. He made no attempt to hide his humble beginnings and readily admitted it.

"On my very first day at the post, I received an anonymous letter..."

Starting from the anonymous letter and the tomb robbery case, he slowly recounted the various investigative methods he had used to capture criminals as a village head. Though Heifu appeared a man of few words, when he set his mind to performing, he could tell a story full of twists and turns. Several harrowing experiences had the listeners tense with anxiety, and those nearby all stopped their own conversations to hear him out.

Especially the case of the abducted people in Blind Mountain — since the victims were also women, the women across from him felt a pang of sympathy. When Heifu recounted how they had rescued several pitiful women only to be surrounded by hundreds of rioters, they let out shrieks of alarm and hurriedly asked what happened next. Upon learning that they had ultimately turned danger into safety, they could not help but clap in praise.

For a moment, all the women forgot who it was who had just been scornful of Heifu for lacking even a clan name.

At a gathering of peers, what matters most? Family background? Looks? Elegance? In these things, Heifu held no advantage, especially compared to the high-ranking scion beside him, Feng Jing. But there was one thing in which he surpassed everyone present by far.

That was life experience. Compared to Heifu, the young men present were nothing but tender spring grass.

With experience came captivating topics of conversation, keeping the gathering from sinking into tedium.

The sons of the Merit Evaluator and the Commandery Aide, who had intended to show off before Zijin, were astonished to find that the goddess of their concern was no longer listening to their idle chatter but looking toward Heifu. Without anyone noticing when, that swarthy Left Troop Clerk Aide had gradually taken command of the conversation and become the center of this Orchid Terrace gathering.

Because the things he talked about, to everyone's ears, were so far removed from their daily lives, so refreshingly novel.

Heifu finished his constable stories and began recounting his military campaigns. He told of the tragic heroism of the breakout at Tongyang during the campaign against Chu, which made Tang Jue and the others sigh with regret, wishing only that they had been there themselves.

"For the next campaign against Chu, perhaps you gentlemen may still make it in time."

Heifu encouraged them thus, and took the opportunity to mention the medic training program he was currently working on...

"By order of the commandery governor, I have been put in charge of organizing this."

Heifu glanced at the governor's daughter across from him. She had been listening with a smile the whole time, but unlike the other women, she did not put on coy airs or chatter away with incessant questions.

"I intend to recruit thirty or forty people in Jiangling. They need not understand medicine, but should preferably be literate and hold a rank. Train them for two months, then send them out to the counties of Southern Commandery, each to teach ten more. By around the autumn harvest, Southern Commandery will have several hundred emergency medics, and the wounded will have no more worries."

Feng Jing added, "If any of you gentlemen are interested, among the emergency medics there are still a few vacancies for centurions and squad leaders. Though the posts are not high, you would be saving the dying and healing the wounded after battle, and would not lack for merit."

This was something he and Heifu had discussed. Those clerk-scions graduating from the academy had low ranks but were educated, making them perfectly suited for these positions — provided, of course, that they could endure hardship and were willing to accept first-aid training.

Yet the same people who had just been praising the system as greatly benefiting the state and the soldiers suddenly fell silent. Clearly, they thought the posts too lowly and the work filthy and unclean. Who would willingly serve lowly common soldiers?

At that moment, it was again Zijin who rescued the awkward situation. She said with a smile, "Left Troop Clerk Aide, Clerk Feng, can women serve as emergency medics?"

"That..."

Zijin's words startled everyone. Heifu and Feng Jing looked at each other. Though in later ages there would be female nurses toiling in field hospitals, achieving results even better than male nurses, in the Qin army, where "the camp market shall have no women," it was utterly impossible.

Hearing this, Zijin sighed, "I have heard that when Tian Dan defended Jimo, his wife and concubines were arrayed among the ranks, binding the soldiers' wounds and offering them food and clothing. It is a pity that we, as women, cannot exert ourselves for the state..."

"For a virtuous lady to hold the state's affairs in her heart is truly admirable. But in Tian Dan's time, Qi was on the verge of destruction, and he had no choice but to do so."

Heifu said with a serious expression, "Now, however, Qin is at its strongest. If state affairs ever reached the point of defending a beleaguered city and requiring women to be arrayed in the ranks, would we men not be utterly useless? If the virtuous lady wishes to do something for the wounded soldiers, then when doing women's work at home, sewing a few bandages from hemp cloth would suffice."

Zijin smiled and agreed. Yet the words she had just spoken had already shamed the faces of the young men bright red. Tang Jue and one other immediately declared that they would volunteer to join.

"Is this a prodding tactic?" Heifu observed this scene and could not help thinking of Governor Teng, who was so fond of manipulating hearts and minds. He wondered whether Zijin's words just now had been her true nature, or deliberately calculated.

"Dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes... I must not underestimate her just because she is young and delicate."

This young woman's words and actions had much of Ye Teng's style. Although both times she had spoken up, it seemed full of good intentions, it still put Heifu on his guard.

Just then, the kitchen happened to bring out the food for the gathering: small flat-legged ding cauldrons holding meat, dou dishes for meat paste and bian baskets for fruit, as well as spoons, daggers, and chopsticks. Besides these, there were bronze wine jue cups and several "winged goblets"...

These were cups for drinking wine, oval in shape with a shallow belly and flat base, with crescent-shaped handles on both sides. Because their shape resembled the wings of a bird, they were called "winged goblets."

At this moment, Qi Xia, the son of the Merit Evaluator, feeling that Heifu could no longer be allowed to dominate the gathering's conversation, immediately struck a bronze jue with his chopsticks and loudly proposed:

"On the day of the Double Third Festival, how can we do without the drinking game of floating cups along the winding stream? Shall we make use of the circular running water in this flowing-water pavilion and let the winged goblets drift with the current?"

It was said that eight hundred years ago, when the Duke of Zhou built Luoyi, on the Double Third day of the third month, he assembled the hundred officials by the Luo River and floated wine cups on the flowing water. Thus an old lost poem says: "The winged goblet follows the waves." Later, this became a traditional game for men and women's gatherings on the Double Third Festival. Everyone sharing one cup, with no barrier between men and women, was meant to heat up the atmosphere, and of course everyone agreed.

Qi Xia was clearly an old hand at this game. He said, "Gentlemen, listen as I strike the bronze jue. When the sound of the jue stops, the person it falls upon must pick up the winged goblet, drain a full cup, and on the spot recite a line of poetry, a fu, or a ci — how about it?"

Huang Tian, the son of the Commandery Aide beside him, chimed in, "Are there any restrictions on the poetry, fu, or ci recited?"

"Of course there are!"

Qi Xia smiled. "Long ago, when King Xiang of Chu roamed the Palace of the Orchid Terrace, Song Yu and Jing Cuo attended him. A wind came soughing in, and so Song Yu composed the 'Fu on the Wind.' Now a full sexagenary cycle has passed, and we gather again at the Palace of the Orchid Terrace. The ancient poem, short fu, or Chu ci recited must contain the word 'wind'!"

Having spoken, Qi Xia's gaze flicked toward Heifu, and he thought to himself, "That fellow just stole our thunder — how detestable. Could it be that he, too, has designs on the governor's daughter? Though his record of service is rich, he has certainly never studied the poems, histories, ci, or fu, let alone with such strict restrictions — he won't be able to come up with a single line. I'll seize this chance to use my strength against his weakness and thoroughly cut him down to size, make him lose all face!"

(End of chapter)