Chapter 324: Coinciding Without Prior Consultation

At nightfall, the offices of the Chancellor, the Imperial Secretary, and the various ministers—busy the entire day—extinguished their lamps one after another. The officials each returned to their homes, and both sides of Zhangtai Street sank into darkness.

Yet separated by a single wall, within Zhangtai Palace, the bedchamber of King Zheng of Qin remained brilliantly lit. The light came from over ten bronze lamp stands, tall as trees, arrayed throughout the hall; fine whale oil transported from the coast of Qi served as fuel, keeping the lamp wicks burning long and undying.

King Zheng of Qin's day's work was not yet finished. With the rapid expansion of his territory, the government affairs he had to handle daily had also swiftly multiplied:

The candidates for Governor, Commandant, and Inspector to be appointed to the newly established commanderies required his review and approval. The list of the wealthy and powerful from the six kingdoms slated for relocation to Xianyang had also been drawn up and needed ratification. There were also the plans to be implemented soon: confiscating all weapons under heaven, demolishing strategic passes and bridges everywhere, and enforcing Qin law and Qin's weights and measures in Qi, Chu, and Yan…

What Qin was doing was not merely destroying the bronze shell of the old world, but also forging the fine-iron skeleton of a new order. There were simply too many things to construct—a myriad of tangled threads.

That was why King Zheng of Qin was so busy. He reviewed criminal cases by day and sorted memorials deep into the night. He rose at cockcrow the next morning and again personally handled documents, reading through newly arrived memorials one by one and forwarding them to the Chancellor and Imperial Secretary.

He rose early and retired late, with scarcely a morning's rest—no phrase could better describe the King of Qin's work. Had he not been in his prime, brimming with vigor, an ordinary man would have long since collapsed under the strain or grown lax in governance.

After finally dealing with all these matters and having two tall, powerfully built palace guards carry away the hundred-odd jin of reviewed memorials, the night was already deep. Only then did King Zheng of Qin, attended by palace servants, wash his face with hot water for a moment, and then without pause ordered the memorials in which the assembled ministers had deliberated on his imperial title to be brought up.

The first he opened was the joint memorial of the four high officials: Chancellor Wei Zhuang, Chancellor Wang Wan, Imperial Secretary Feng Quji, and Commandant of Justice Li Si.

"Your servants, together with the Erudites, have deliberated and submit: In antiquity there was the Heavenly Sovereign, the Earthly Sovereign, and the Grand Sovereign. The Grand Sovereign is the most exalted."

"Therefore your servants, at the risk of death, present the honorific title: the King shall be the Grand Sovereign. His decrees shall be called 'Zhi,' his orders shall be called 'Zhao,' and the Son of Heaven shall refer to himself as 'Zhen.'"

Attached within was also a memorial written by the Erudites, explaining this viewpoint in detail.

"Heaven and Earth were born of the Great One. Thus among the Three Sovereigns, the Grand Sovereign is the most exalted."

After reading it, King Zheng of Qin lightly tapped his fingers on the desk and thought to himself, "'Zhi,' 'Zhao,' and the Son of Heaven calling himself 'Zhen' are not bad, but as for this imperial title of Grand Sovereign…"

Beneath his thick beard, a smile of seeing through everything appeared, and he said meaningfully, "The Right Chancellor and the Commandant of Justice are both men of Chu…"

The so-called Great One, also called "Eastern Emperor Great One," was the supreme celestial deity worshiped by the people of Chu. The notion that among the Three Sovereigns, the Grand Sovereign was the most exalted was originally the view of Confucian scholars and literati from Chu; over the past century, it had gradually spread to the Central Plains and gained widespread acceptance.

But King Zheng of Qin simply did not like it! Even less would he allow the slightest thing tinged with Chu regional flavor to be added to his own achievements.

"Wei Zhuang, Wang Wan, and Feng Quji are one thing, but Li Si has always been astute—why is he so muddled this time…"

The King of Qin unceremoniously tossed this memorial aside and continued to read through the proposals of the Erudites.

The Erudites were mostly Confucian scholars, and Confucian scholars were divided into many factions. The Confucians of Chu held the Grand Sovereign to be the most exalted, but the Confucians of Qi and Lu sang a contrary tune, arguing that the Grand Sovereign was not the Great One but was in truth the Human Sovereign, and thus not as honored as the Heavenly Sovereign. Another group held that the King of Qin was, after all, a sovereign on earth, not a celestial god, and therefore it was appropriate to call him the Earthly Sovereign.

But both of these honorific titles were rejected by the King of Qin one by one.

As for the memorials of the Court Gentlemen, they were even more unworthy of notice—Dark Emperor, White Emperor, High Emperor, and so on in endless variety—none satisfied the King of Qin.

In the conception of the King of Qin and the people of the age, Sovereign was held to be higher than Emperor, and Emperor higher than King; the more ancient, the more honored. Since he was not even satisfied with the titles of the Three Sovereigns, how could he be content with an Emperor title?

That being said, what kind of honorific title could truly match his great achievement—raising righteous troops, punishing the brutal and villainous, pacifying all under heaven, dividing the realm into commanderies and counties, unifying laws and ordinances, something unprecedented since high antiquity and surpassing the Five Emperors? Did the King of Qin himself truly have no idea in his heart?

That answer had long since surfaced in his mind; he merely wanted to see what honorific titles the assembled ministers would present, and whether they could grasp his intent…

But after reading through a pile of submissions, all were utterly dull. Though the ministers each expressed their own views, not a single one came close to the King of Qin's heart.

Only when the Attendant Gentleman unsealed and presented the memorial inscribed "Court Gentleman Heifu" did King Zheng of Qin's eyes light up.

"Your servant is crude and base, born a commoner on a border commandery, unversed in letters, nor versed in the canons. Yet I once heard the Archivist Cang speak of the affairs of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and so I risk death to offer my words."

The King of Qin had some understanding of Heifu's background; deliberately placing this lad in the post of Court Gentleman also served his own purpose. Indeed, without Zhang Cang to instruct him, it would truly be a strange thing if Heifu could know of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

Heifu's writing continued: "Some say the Three Sovereigns marked the dawn of creation and the beginning of ruler and subject, yet their fire-drills and tree-nests, their weapons of stone and wood, were in truth an age of obscurity and darkness. Some also say the Five Emperors ruled a domain of a thousand li, yet beyond that, the lords of the border and barbarian domains sometimes paid court and sometimes did not; the Son of Heaven could not control them. In name they were the common masters of all under heaven, but in reality their states were small and their people few."

"Now Your Majesty has succeeded to the throne, roused the lingering might of six generations, brandished the long whip to drive the realm within the cosmos, swallowed the two Zhou houses and destroyed the feudal lords, ascended to the supreme position to govern the six directions, glaring fiercely like a tiger, his might shaking the four seas!"

"Therefore your servant believes that Your Majesty's achievements already overshadow the Three Sovereigns and your virtue surpasses the Five Emperors. Neither Sovereign nor Emperor alone can encompass Your Majesty's accomplishments. The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors added together, perhaps…"

At this point, the honorific title that the King of Qin had long since settled on in his heart was already about to leap forth!

Yet Heifu stopped right there, coming to an abrupt halt, and instead began to pour out his frustrations.

"Your servant knows himself to be unlearned and unskilled. Therefore in recent days I have been poring over the canons in the archive of the Imperial Secretary's office. Yet even after racking my brains, I still struggle to find a fitting honorific title, and so dare not offer reckless counsel. I respectfully present this memorial to inform Your Majesty."

Even so, this was the most satisfying memorial King Zheng of Qin had seen all night. He could not help but nod slightly. "I never expected that the one who most closely matches my thoughts would be a mere Court Gentleman!"

The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors added together—naturally, that was "Emperor-Sovereign"!

This was the honorific title King Zheng of Qin had already decided upon. But as one who occupied the high position, watching the assembled ministers bustle and dispute over his title was an amusing affair. Only at the very end would he overturn them all and deliver an answer that would leave them dumbstruck, then, after their shock, earn their unanimous praise.

How well Han Fei had written in his book: the principle of the sovereign lies in not being seen through by his ministers. If one wishes to do something but, without grasping the full situation, reveals one's own thoughts, then doing so not only brings no benefit but will certainly bring harm.

Therefore, release a tiny bit of information, and then let the assembled ministers guess—guess what lies in their lord's heart.

And let them dispute as well. Once the edict was issued, none dared remain silent; all had to speak out. In the midst of dispute, the hidden thoughts and political stances usually concealed in ordinary times were laid utterly bare.

This was the sovereign's art of facing south. Everything lay firmly within King Zheng of Qin's grasp.

However, if someone were to guess exactly what he was thinking without the slightest deviation and then proclaim it smugly, King Zheng of Qin would frown again.

That was why the King felt that what Heifu's memorial expressed was truly just right—his thoughts coincided with his own without prior consultation, yet stopped at precisely the right place.

He placed Heifu's memorial alone on the right side of the desk, drawing a clear line between it and the mountain of rejected submissions piled on the left.

"Making this lad a petty Court Gentleman of six hundred dan is indeed a waste of his talent."

Although he had found the memorial most to his liking, King Zheng of Qin's original purpose was to assess his ministers. So even though he was somewhat sleepy, he persisted in reading through every single memorial.

When he opened the memorial of Zhao Gao, the Prefect of the Central Chariots, who had also received special permission to submit his opinion on the imperial title, King Zheng of Qin's drowsiness vanished in an instant.

"Your Majesty's achievements already overshadow the Three Sovereigns and your virtue surpasses the Five Emperors. Neither Sovereign nor Emperor alone can encompass Your Majesty's accomplishments… Therefore your servant Zhao Gao dares not offer reckless counsel."

Apart from the differing opening, the final conclusion was exactly the same as Heifu's!

King Zheng of Qin stroked his thick beard, somewhat surprised. The Prefect of the Central Chariots, Zhao Gao, came from the Convict Workshops; his mother had suffered punishment, and so his family was base and lowly for generations.

Yet Zhao Gao was quite self-reliant. Not only did he possess physical strength and earn his freedom through military merit, but during a tiger hunt in the Shanglin Park, his superb chariot-driving and riding skills caught the King of Qin's attention, and he was selected as a martial charioteer of the Central Chariots Office.

In the fourth month of the ninth year, when Lao Ai launched his armed revolt while King Zheng of Qin was in Yong for his capping ceremony, he used the Queen Dowager's seal to mobilize the Commandant's troops and the county soldiers of the Inner Prefecture to attack Qinian Palace. At the most perilous moment, the King had only the Commandant of the Palace Guard's troops and the martial charioteers of the Central Chariots Office by his side. Zhao Gao fought desperately to protect the King of Qin and helped him quell the rebellion, earning considerable merit. From then on, he became the person the King of Qin trusted most. For over a decade, the people around the King of Qin came and went, but Zhao Gao alone firmly occupied the ruler's side.

Zhao Gao also proved himself worthy. Though he had gained his rank through martial strength, he also taught himself prison law and could write an excellent hand, and so he gradually rose to the position of Prefect of the Central Chariots.

He and Court Gentleman Heifu had only met once, in Chen County, and exchanged a few words. Logically, these were two people who absolutely could not have any intersection—so why had they written nearly identical memorials?

After pondering for a moment, a wave of drowsiness swept over King Zheng of Qin, and he thought no more of it. He merely shook his head and said to himself, "This is a true case of coinciding without prior consultation!"

…

The next day, when Humu Jing—once a prison clerk, promoted to Court Historian for his excellent calligraphy—came trembling with fear to the chamber where the King of Qin worked, he saw on the desk dozens of memorial scrolls piled on the left, and on the right, only two silk documents…

"Humu Jing, draft an edict for me."

The King of Qin had already napped for two shichen. As he ate his morning meal, he once again threw himself without pause into the bustle of government affairs.

Hu Wujing reverently spread out the silk and began writing carefully according to the King of Qin's dictation.

"The King says: We have reviewed the ministers' proposal regarding the honorific title. The Chancellor, the Censorate, and the Commandant of Justice propose the title 'Tai Huang'. Remove 'Tai', keep 'Huang', and adopt the ancient title 'Di', making the title 'Huangdi'. The rest is as proposed..."

Hu Wujing hurriedly steadied his trembling hand, feeling only that he was witnessing some great moment.

From now on, when drafting edicts, he would have to write "The Huangdi says"!

However, after he persisted in finishing this edict, His Majesty the Huangdi ordered him to write two more appointment letters.

"Zhao Gao, Prefect of the Central Chariots Office — his memorial on the honorific title deeply accords with Our heart, and he has rendered years of meritorious service guarding the palace and attending the imperial carriage. He is hereby elevated in rank to Right Chief of the Masses."

"Heifu, Court Consultant — his memorial on the honorific title quite accords with Our intent. He is hereby reassigned as General of the Inner Gentlemen of the Palace! Rank equivalent to one thousand dan! He shall serve in the palace guard!"

PS: Chapter 2 in the evening

(End of chapter)