Chapter 360: Family Gate Gong and Yue

The First Emperor sought to unify the realm culturally and institutionally in the shortest possible time, but this was far harder than conquest by force. As Laozi said, governing a great state is like cooking a small fish — it must be done over a slow, gentle flame.

The road ahead stretched long, the war chariot racing on; the driver showed no intention of slowing, but those aboard longed to ease the pace.

Apart from Heifu, the assembled ministers, Prince Fusu, the entertainers, the Mohists, the Huang-Lao school, even the Confucians — all had remonstrated in different ways, but to little effect. Making the Emperor brake and slow down was impossible. Fortunately, Heifu knew that although the ride was bumpy, at least there was no danger of the chariot overturning and everyone perishing — that fathomless abyss, which would plunge all living things back into misery, still lay ten years ahead.

All the contradictions were being planted today; after the Ancestral Dragon's death, they would erupt in one great cataclysm.

"There is still time..." After having the servants take Chen Ping to the guest quarters to rest, Heifu stood beneath the eaves with his hands clasped behind his back, watching the wind and snow outside and thinking thus.

Having risen on the great tide of the age, he had already traveled too far within the system; he was no longer a bystander watching the excitement from the roadside, still less could he sit by and watch the thirty million souls tied to this chariot plunge into fire without being moved. So, before that moment, he would try to see if he could use things from later ages to reinforce the carriage, help it adapt to this speed, or forcibly rein in the horses before the abyss...

"Ten years. Before then, can I lay my hands on the six reins that His Majesty grips so tightly, allowing no other to interfere?"

He would do his utmost. If he could not defy Heaven and alter fate...

Then he would make other plans!

That was a matter for the future. For now, Heifu was merely an "upstart," seemingly not far from the center of power, yet in truth impossibly remote.

He still had to first plan his own wedding, entertain the guests, and prepare the bridal escort procession.

Among the guests Heifu had invited, Chen Ping arrived the earliest, while his family and his old subordinates from Nan Commandery reached Xianyang the following day...

From Heifu's family, only his cousin Yan, who sold brown sugar, his younger brother Jing, and his nephew Yang came. His mother was advanced in years; she had fallen slightly ill after autumn began, and with the wedding date set in the twelfth month, the wind and snow filling the sky and the journey long and arduous, she feared she could not make the trip.

Even though Heifu had asked Mohists and craftsmen to help design a four-wheeled carriage and sent one to Anlu, no matter how steady the carriage, it was useless if the roads were bad. At times like this, Heifu instead found himself wishing the Emperor would order the "expressways" to be built next year and finished quickly. The roads through Wu Pass and Nan Commandery were narrow and muddy; if the old woman came to Xianyang, she would lose half her life. She could only regretfully remain at home, cared for by Youzhong and his sister-in-law.

"Mother was deeply grieved."

Jing came forward first to pay his respects to his elder brother and sighed, "Before I left home, she saw me to the gate and kept holding my hand, rambling on about how sorry she felt toward you, Second Brother, but also feeling a little bit relieved..."

"Relieved about what?" Heifu found this very strange.

Jing drew close to Heifu and said in a low voice, "Mother feels that for eight generations, our family ancestors were all commoners and black-headed folk, a humble little household. We have no deep family heritage, we don't understand ritual and etiquette, and we don't even have a clan name. Yet now we are marrying into the family of the august Neishi, a great clan of Nanyang. She was terrified that if she came to Xianyang, she would do something wrong or say something amiss and cause you, Second Brother, to lose face..."

"How can Mother think that way?"

Heifu was speechless. It was not just his mother; after arriving in the imperial capital, Jing also seemed somewhat ill at ease, unable to hide a look of inferiority in his every gesture.

Indeed, from Jing's perspective, their family could at best sit as equals with the powerful and wealthy of the commandery, but to be linked by marriage to a high official of two thousand shi and the great Ye clan of Nanyang — that truly made him feel a bit hollow inside. Heifu had risen too fast, climbed too high; his family could not keep up with his pace and always felt a chill at these lofty heights.

This mentality would not do.

Heifu therefore put on a stern face and lectured his younger brother: "My rank of Right Chief of the Masses did not fall from the sky. I earned it by fighting with sword and blade, by offering counsel and strategies, by rendering meritorious service to the state. His Majesty himself deems me worthy of it — who dares say otherwise? And as for this marriage, it was old General Wang Jian who acted as matchmaker on my behalf, and the Neishi also gladly consented, willing to entrust his only daughter to me!"

In truth, Neishi Teng's clansmen and his later wife had mostly opposed it, but after pondering the matter at length, Neishi Teng said, "When choosing a husband for a daughter, does one choose family background? Wealth? Or talent and ability?"

Most people give more thought to the first two, but Neishi Teng believed that family background was determined before one was born and had nothing to do with personal effort. And wealth was an external thing, gained or lost, also not worth mentioning.

Only talent and ability were a person's unique and singular qualities, and that was what he valued most!

"Heifu is the most talented and capable young man I have seen in my seven or eight years as Governor of Nan Commandery. I judged then that he was no ordinary man. And sure enough, now he has entered the imperial court, repeatedly offered brilliant strategies, and earned His Majesty's praise. At such a young age, he has become Right Chief of the Masses, his gong and yue illustrious. Given time, why worry that his family standing will not be established? Why worry that wealth will be lacking?"

And so, after seeking his daughter's opinion and seeing that she did not object, Neishi Teng agreed to the marriage. Still, the old fox was cunning and deliberately let his words spread, to the point that Heifu felt somewhat grateful to him.

"My younger brother, do you know what is meant by gong and yue?"

Jing certainly knew. Gong and yue were the Qin officials' record of merit — it was "writing one's achievements in beheading the enemy on a foot-long board" and "using the foot-long record to send down to the county and transfer to the commandery," after which rewards were bestowed according to merit. Every Qin public servant, including Jing, had such a gong and yue record.

Those whose rank had risen to Left Chief of the Masses or higher could even have their gong and yue carved onto wooden pillars resembling ornamental columns and erected on either side of their gate, thereby proclaiming their family's status. The left pillar was the "gong," the right the "yue" — this was the "family gate gong and yue," later abbreviated as "menfa."

In Qin, "menfa" was the designation for the military-merit aristocracy of Guanzhong. The hereditary noble houses of Guandong, having not rendered even an inch of meritorious service to Qin, could not call themselves menfa — no matter how many dozens of generations or centuries they had been passed down, no matter whether they were descendants of Emperor Gaoyang or the progeny of some ancient sage king.

This was also one of the things Heifu liked most about the Qin system.

Heifu bade Jing follow him to the main gate of the residence. Here, too, there was a pillar on the left and one on the right, but because they had only just been completed, they were covered with cloth.

He personally pulled off the cloth, revealing that the pillars were densely carved with seal-script characters, further traced with brush and ink, exceptionally eye-catching!

The gong and yue erected before Heifu's residence, though covering a career of only six or seven short years, were extraordinarily illustrious. To say nothing of minor matters like serving as a chief and catching thieves — from breaking the siege at Tongyang in the winter of the twenty-fourth year of the First Emperor, to seizing Xiang Yan's army standard in the second campaign against Chu, to expanding the empire's territory by a thousand li in Jiangnan and building Nanchang City, and finally to the recent invention of "Heifu paper" — every single meritorious deed was written out clearly and plainly!

Faced with these gong and yue, any doubt would be struck dumb.

I may be an upstart, true enough, but every step was taken upright and squarely, able to withstand scrutiny! I am not comparable to those favorites like Wei Choufu or Lao Ai who rose through luck and favor.

Of course, Heifu had specifically instructed the craftsmen to omit the commendation for building public latrines. In his own words, such a trifling deed was not worth mentioning...

At this moment, Heifu pointed to the magnificent gong and yue before the gate and made Jing read them from beginning to end.

"Brother, now do you feel that our family is worthy of this marriage?"

Ashamed, Jing bowed with clasped hands and said, "Worthy. I was being foolish."

"Good that you understand." Heifu clapped him on the shoulder and said, "So, in seeking to marry the daughter of the Ye clan, I do not consider it climbing above my station, but a match of equal standing!"

"You are my own younger brother. When welcoming the bride and attending to the guests, you must often be at my side. At that time, you must hold your head high and chest out, neither servile nor overbearing. If you show a timid expression, you will instead be laughed at. Can you do this?"

"I can!"

Jing was long past being the callow youth of the sunset days. He had studied for three years in the academy, then campaigned south with Heifu and managed the gold mines, broadening his experience considerably. After being lectured by Heifu, he pulled himself together. He felt proud of his elder brother's achievements, and as long as he thought of them, he could drive the inferiority from his heart.

Jing even cracked a joke to lighten the mood:

"Second Brother, you are marrying far too late. My wife, of the Yan clan, is already with child. In the future, how will we reckon the seniority between your children and mine?"

"You brat."

Heifu laughed and lifted his leg to plant a kick on his backside, while saying, "Since Mother cannot come, after the wedding, I will request leave from His Majesty and bring my new wife back to Anlu to pay our respects to her..."

At that moment, Heifu's old subordinates from Nan Commandery, having unloaded the gifts from the carts, came forward one after another to pay their respects to Heifu.

There was Zhao Tuo, the Acting Commandant of Jiujiang County, who had drunk chicken blood and sworn brotherhood with Heifu, and Ji Ying, the Postal Officer of Nanchang County.

Most of Heifu's old subordinates held posts as Commandants or Aides in the various counties of Jiangxi and could not leave their posts without authorization. Only Ji Ying, as a postal officer, could travel frequently and had come under the pretext of delivering official documents to Xianyang. And Zhao Tuo, who was being transferred to a new post elsewhere, had entered Xianyang to await orders and happened to catch his sworn brother's wedding.

As for Li Xian, Xiao Tao, Dongmen Bao, and the others, they could only have these two deliver their congratulatory gifts on their behalf.

Before Heifu could even raise the two men up and reminisce with them, he saw a young warrior step out from the convoy, a sword strapped to his back, looking hesitant and bashful, as if he dared not come before Heifu...

Heifu was greatly startled, for it was Gong Ao, who should have been serving as County Commandant in Nanchang and could not possibly be here!

"A'Ao!"

Heifu set aside the pleasantries, walked over, and questioned him in a low voice: "Why are you here!?"

Gong Ao had also thrown caution to the wind and said, as if it were the most natural thing, "The Right Chief of the Masses is getting married. As an old subordinate, how could I not come?"

Heifu noticed that Gong Ao was wearing ordinary clothes, without any official seal or ribbon.

A chill ran down his spine — this bastard, he couldn't have just abandoned his post, could he!

Heifu's old subordinates were each different: Li Xian had already sworn loyalty to him, often sending letters reporting on events south of the river; Xiao Tao was steady; Dongmen Bao, though reckless, greatly valued the official rank he had earned.

Only Gong Ao, whose temperament was far too emotional and impulsive — he really might do such a thing!

Seeing Heifu's displeased expression, Ji Ying hurried over to smooth things over and explained on Gong Ao's behalf: "Right Chief of the Masses, please calm your anger. The matter is this: Gong Ao is no longer serving as Acting Commandant of Nanchang County!"

"That's right!"

Gong Ao raised his head and said loudly: "Right Chief of the Masses, I have resigned my post!"

(End of chapter)