Chapter 323: Winner at Life

"As expected — throughout history, librarians have often been the sort of place where dragons hide and tigers lurk!"

Heifu couldn't help but admire Zhang Cang's learning; from ancient times to the present, whether in the humanities or mathematics, he was truly master of all, versed in everything. But then, his teacher Xunzi was himself a great synthesizer of the Hundred Schools — no wonder he could produce such a formidable student.

As they left the archive together, Heifu said to him, "King Zhao once said, 'Without the substance, dare one assume the name?' Well said! But now that the Great King has united all under heaven, taking the title of emperor would be substance and name in perfect accord. With your vast erudition, Zihu, will you really not join the other gentlemen in deliberating the imperial title?"

Zhang Cang merely patted his own large belly and laughed. "Plenty of people are involved in that matter — I won't go join that excitement. Hiding away in the stone chamber, eating sweets, reading books — isn't that a fine life?"

The "excitement" he meant was, of course, the Censor's Office, which was especially bustling today. Besides the clerks and aides, and the neighboring Chancellor's Office, seventy Confucian scholars and Erudites were deliberating in those two places this very day, quarreling without end...

A moment later, Zhang Cang added that the Zhang family of Yangwu County had sent a new cook, skilled in Shandong cuisine, and invited Heifu to join him for a meal.

Heifu, however, politely declined. He very much enjoyed spending time and chatting with Zhang Cang — every conversation brought new insights — but as for Zhang Cang's home, after visiting once, he never wanted to go again...

Why? The sheer cruelty of it!

Zhang Cang might be fat and a shut-in, but he was also a winner at life.

Born to a prominent local family, never wanting for food or clothing, and an excellent student to boot — at thirty-four this year, though he had no wife, he had fifteen or sixteen concubines and eight or nine children!

Heifu, by contrast, was still a bachelor dog to this day.

The last time Heifu was invited to Zhang Cang's home for a meal, the moment he stepped through the door, he was stunned by the scene: concubines vying in beauty and elegance, children toddling or crawling everywhere — the residence was not large, yet it was brimming with lively commotion.

"Between him and me, who's the real transmigrator?" For the first time, Heifu felt deep doubt about his own life...

Everything he had worked so hard to gain over all these years seemed, in that moment, utterly insipid.

What was even more infuriating was that more than half of those concubines had practically thrown themselves at Zhang Cang.

As it turned out, in this era, a fellow like Zhang Cang — "tall of stature, plump and fair as a gourd" — was, by sheer rarity, considered a "beauty-scholar"! Though his features were hardly handsome, his vast learning and eloquent conversation could not be concealed, and his words were never dry like those of old Confucians. Coupled with his courteous and polished bearing, when those county and village girls from east of the pass exchanged a few words with him, they were often stirred to springtime flutters...

"Qin's aesthetic still favors a swarthy, bronze-skinned, muscle-corded warrior like me."

Heifu could only console himself thus, but after leaving the communal life of the army camp, with his duties growing slack, he began to feel a touch of loneliness...

"Once this business of deliberating the imperial title is settled, it's time to pay a visit to my old commander."

Heifu knew that the Interior Minister's Office was not south of the Wei River, but within the city of Xianyang north of the Wei.

In the days that followed, the deliberation over the imperial title continued to brew and ferment. Those Confucian scholars and Erudites whom the King of Qin had summoned from east of the pass, stifled for so long, finally had a chance to shine. They came and went from the Chancellor's Office and the Censor's Office, citing classics and canons, digging up ancient affairs from a thousand centuries past...

While the Erudites scrambled about, the Court Counselors were not to be outdone. Though their composition was a motley mix — Legalist scholars from east of the pass, scions of the Guanzhong aristocracy, and interlopers like Heifu — none were willing to miss this chance to take part in laying the empire's foundation, and each put forward their own proposals.

"Gentlemen."

Wang Wu, Fifth Rank Grand Master, still carried the air of the Court Counselors' leader. He summed up: "Since the Great King has commanded his ministers to deliberate an imperial title, that means the new title must be 'Some Emperor'!"

The assembled Counselors all agreed to this truism. Wang Wu then, as if offering a treasure, launched into the story of King Zhao of Qin assuming the title of emperor — a tale Heifu had long since heard from Zhang Cang, and he had even personally handled some of the historical documents...

But in the end, the Court Counselors could not reach a unified opinion.

"The Ying clan takes Shaohao as its ancestor, and Shaohao was the White Emperor — why not call him the 'White Emperor'?" one Counselor proposed.

Another countered, "But the Ministry of Rites says that Qin's ancestor was a descendant of Emperor Zhuanxu, a woman named Nüxiu. Since Qin takes Emperor Zhuanxu as its ancestor, and Zhuanxu was Emperor Gaoyang, 'High Emperor' would be more fitting!"

A third man cut in from the side: "No, no — if we are to trace back to the very source, we must go back to the Yellow Emperor. Why not call him the 'Yellow Emperor'?"

Wang Wu, thinking himself clever, declared: "I have heard that Nüxiu was weaving when a dark bird dropped an egg; Nüxiu swallowed it and gave birth to Daye... This is the origin of Qin. Why not call him the 'Dark Emperor'? The ancestor of the Yin-Shang, Ming, was also once called the Dark King. That being so, His Majesty being titled the Dark Emperor would be truly sublime!"

In the end, they all fell to quarreling again, each with their own reasoning, none able to convince the others.

There was even someone who proposed the title "Vast Emperor."

Heifu listened, amused. The Sun-Sky Emperor? In his past life, reading webnovels, he had even seen someone establish a "Vast Dynasty." Oh, and the protagonist was surnamed Zhao — so that would be Zhao Ritian, wouldn't it? It nearly killed him laughing.

Paying no mind to them each putting forth their schemes, Heifu attended only to his own task. On a piece of silk, he silently wrote down his own answer, slipped it into a bamboo tube, and deftly sealed the opening.

At that moment, Wang Wu walked over with a look of surprise and said pointedly, "The Left Chief of the Masses spent a day in the archive and reaped quite a harvest — finished writing so quickly? Might I ask what honored title you have offered?"

"I ventured to write it at the risk of death. His Majesty will surely not approve — how dare I speak of it again?"

No matter how they pressed him, Heifu would not say. The silk was already sealed inside the bamboo tube, stamped with the Counselor's seal, and could not be opened without the King of Qin's or the Prefect of the Gentlemen's permission. Wang Wu had no choice but to drop the matter, assuming that a country bumpkin like Heifu could not possibly have come up with any good proposal.

"As long as he hasn't stolen my proposal of 'Dark Emperor'..." He was still a little worried.

But Wang Wu's petty-minded suspicions vanished without a trace when, after the Prefect of the Gentlemen had submitted the honored titles proposed by the various Court Counselors, they encountered the seventy-odd Confucian Erudites at the Zhangtai Gate.

After the two sides probed each other with tentative questions, the Court Counselors discovered that their own imagination had been utterly pulverized by these shameless Confucians...

"'Some Emperor'?"

An elderly Confucian scholar from Zou, upon hearing Wang Wu proudly mention the honored title "Dark Emperor," could not suppress a laugh.

Although the Erudites also came from different schools — seventy-odd men somehow divided into a dozen factions, tearing at each other without a single day of peace — when facing other groups, they still closed ranks.

And so, after exchanging a glance with the other Erudites, this Scholar of Zou said:

"Having been commanded to deliberate in the Chancellor's Office and the Censor's Office, we submit: In ancient times, the Five Emperors held territory a thousand li square, beyond which the feudal lords submitted or did not, and the Son of Heaven could not control them. Now His Majesty has raised righteous armies, executed the cruel and villainous, pacified all under heaven, made the realm into commanderies and counties, and unified laws and ordinances — a thing unprecedented since high antiquity, surpassing even the Five Emperors..."

"Therefore, the title of 'Emperor' is no longer sufficient to honor him — only 'Sovereign' will do!"

"'Sovereign'?"

Except for Heifu, the Court Counselors were all dumbstruck. They had all been fixated on "Emperor" — how could they have thought of this?

According to "canonical proofs" the Confucians had dug up from who-knows-where, combined with contemporary legends, the Three Sovereigns were even more ancient than the Five Emperors. But as to exactly which three were the Three Sovereigns, opinions varied endlessly — some said Fuxi, Nüwa, and Shennong; others said Fuxi, Shennong, and the Yellow Emperor.

Though the Court Counselors were officials of the six-hundred-dan rank, higher in both status and stipend than the Erudites, in the art of bootlicking, the Erudites had utterly crushed them.

At that moment, Heifu also spotted among the Erudites a young man with a somewhat awkward smile — none other than the Lu Confucian Shusun Tong, who had been searched by his men at the Shun Temple in Chen County...

"Master Shusun." Heifu walked over to greet him. He still had a bit of a hold over the man, having overheard Shusun Tong's private mutterings.

Shusun Tong did not dare be remiss. After exchanging courtesies with Heifu, Heifu, out of curiosity, asked what honored title the Erudites had actually submitted.

Now that everyone's silk scrolls had been submitted and could no longer be altered, there was no harm in speaking. So Shusun Tong said to him quietly, "Although we resolved to submit the Three Sovereigns as the honored title, as to which of the Three Sovereigns is the most exalted, opinions differ according to school..."

This was perfectly normal — the Confucian school was internally divided into many factions, nearly at each other's throats. Beyond the traditional branches, differing commentaries on different classics had spawned even more, with the Spring and Autumn Annals split into three schools, the Odes into several more, each refusing to cooperate over the interpretation of a single subtle phrase.

Shusun Tong continued, "And so we split into three factions, arguing endlessly. Afterward, the Left and Right Chancellors, the Imperial Secretary, and the Commandant of Justice selected 'Grand Sovereign'..."

Heifu asked him, "And what did you submit?"

Shusun Tong replied, "I naturally went with the majority. Does the Left Chief of the Masses still recall the two elders of the Qidiao and Yuezheng lineages whom you met in Chen County? They and twenty-odd Erudites submitted the other two. The Qidiao faction held that 'Earth Sovereign' was best..."

"And the Yuezheng faction submitted the honored title they themselves consider the most exalted."

Heifu's heart tightened — could it be...

Shusun Tong laughed and said, "Heavenly Sovereign!"

PS:

Well, the attitude and mindset of the Qin ministers when they were debating the imperial title was probably pretty similar to how everyone acted when they were picking a surname for Heifu. Thinking about that scene, it must have been quite amusing.

(End of chapter)