Chapter 483: Law and Moral Instruction

It is said that over two hundred years ago, Tian Chang, the founder of the Tian Qi state, selected women taller than seven chi to serve as his harem concubines, numbering over a hundred, and did not forbid guests from coming and going. Thus by the time Tian Chang passed away, his concubines had borne him more than seventy sons.

Tian Chang had his sons dwell separately in over seventy cities of Qi, one son per city, calling them the "Various Tians." The Jimo Tian clan are the descendants of one of those seventy-odd sons. Assigned to Jimo, they have flourished on this land for over two hundred years, becoming the most prosperous noble house in Jiaodong, with a thousand qing of fertile fields, hundreds of retainers under their roof, and over a thousand dependents...

For the Jimo Tian clan, the first month is a busy month. Although five years ago, after the Qin entered Jiaodong, they forced powerful clans to divide their households and also moved the first month to the start of winter, even after splitting off, every branch clan still gathers in the first month for feasting and to pay respects to the clan head, celebrating the new spring. For a time, the Tian clan manor by the west bank of the Mo River is filled with the pleasing sound of strings and pipes and the intoxicating aroma of fine wine.

"I only hope the Jimo Tian clan can endure forever and not disgrace our ancestors' name."

After finishing the ancestral rites, Tian Jiao sighed and turned to the branch clan members gathered at the manor, saying, "Gentlemen, speak your minds freely."

Though only around forty years of age, he was not only the head of a powerful clan but also a renowned scholar of local fame.

Beyond ensuring the various branches did not grow distant, the most important matter of the first-month gathering, presided over by the clan head, was to discuss how to allocate farm work, lend out grain, and use the plow oxen once spring arrived...

During the discussion, a clansman rose excitedly and said, "Clan Head, the forests and marshes of Tianshi Mountain have been seized by the Qin officials and returned to the government. My family has lost a major source of income and is no longer as well-off as before. From now on, when lending grain, we can no longer lend by the level dou and collect by the level dou, charging no interest!"

Others echoed, "Indeed, we should lend by the small dou and collect by the large dou. The same goes for plow oxen and seeds—we can no longer lend them for free! Otherwise, in a few years, my family will be unable to make ends meet!"

Tian Jiao, however, gestured for everyone to wait a moment. He stood and said, "Our ancestor Tian Chengzi lent grain by the large dou and collected by the small dou—this was an act to benefit the people. Tian Chengzi loved the people as a father and mother would, and so the common folk flocked to him like flowing water, which led to the Tian clan replacing the Qi throne."

"Afterward, the Jimo Tian clan produced the renowned minister Tian Zhongshou. He governed Jimo so that the fields were opened, the people were well-provided, the officials had no troubles, and the east was at peace. Jimo thus became one of the five capitals of Qi, and the people remember him to this day."

After a pause, he continued, "Now, the corvée labor under Qin officials is three times what it was under Qi; the land taxes and levies are five times what they were. The people of Jiaodong enjoy pleasure and, with surplus grain, mostly trade it for patterned cloth, silk, fish, and salt, without much in savings. Now the common people's stored grain has all gone to pay taxes and poll taxes, leaving their households short of food and the people in pain and misery. The Jimo Tian clan, as the local power, as the descendants of Tian Chengzi and Tian Zhongshou, how can we not love the people? We should do our utmost to aid them, to share hardships together. How can we emulate the Qin government and rob them!"

"But we can't keep taking losses forever, can we? Why should our family fill the holes left by the Qin officials' harsh policies?" The clansmen still did not understand, but seeing Tian Jiao's mind was made up, they dared not speak further.

After everyone had left, Tian Jiao had his own calculations in mind: "My great ancestor Tian Zhongshou governed Jimo for King Wei and was enfeoffed with ten thousand households. Before he died, he left a saying for his descendants to firmly remember..."

"That is: 'The enfeoffed lord is like a fish, and the common people are like water. If the people abandon me, then I am like a great fish without water—my life will not last long!'"

Especially now, under Qin rule in Jiaodong, it is as if a scorching sun blazes overhead, trying to evaporate all the water from the ponds. The Jimo Tian clan has already lost its position as enfeoffed lords and can only take shelter in the drying ruts of a cart.

Has the local government not moved against the Jimo Tian clan because they fear the family's wealth, reputation, and retainers? Perhaps, but what they fear most is that the Tian clan has deeply won the hearts of the Jimo people, and so they dare not act rashly.

There are only a few dozen Qin officials in Jimo, and of the thousand commandery soldiers, the majority are locals who have received the Tian clan's favor for generations. If the government truly hardened its heart and moved against the Jimo Tian clan, pushing them too far, it's really uncertain whom the commandery soldiers and the people inside and outside the city would side with...

Indeed, the Qin officials could reduce the Jimo Tian clan's status as Tian Qi enfeoffed lords to that of "commoners," and they could strip away their family's profits from the mountains, marshes, sea, and salt, but they could not take away the hearts of the people that the Jimo Tian clan had cultivated over a hundred years!

The Qin officials do not understand the local language and are unfamiliar with the farmlands and taxes. Once they leave the commandery city, they are completely in the dark, becoming blind and deaf!

For every decree they want to issue and every tax they want to collect, they need the help of the Tian clan's people. Although Tian Jiao and his younger brother Tian Jian do not hold office, Tian clansmen and retainers working as minor clerks are not few in number.

Over five years, a tacit understanding has formed: the government manages inside the city, while the Tian clan and the various great and minor noble houses still manage outside the city. The originally rigid Qin officials, after eating seafood in Jiaodong for a few years, have many who have grown fat and lazy. Having received benefits from the Tian clan, they turn a blind eye to some of their affairs.

How Tian Jiao wished he could maintain the family just like this, waiting for the day when a torrential downpour would come and Jiaodong would once again be a vast ocean, so he could flick his tail and swim freely in the sea once more.

Unfortunately, after five years of keeping to their own territories, the old commandery governor left his post, and the new commandery governor, just after arriving, did two things that shook the entire commandery.

This conveyed one message to Tian Jiao: the climate in Jiaodong had changed!

Tian Jiao heard that the new commandery governor was called Heifu, of the Wei clan. As soon as he entered Chunyu, he used an assassination attempt as a pretext to conduct a massive search for the assassin, exterminating three clans and implicating dozens of people, all of whom were executed by the five punishments. The magistrate and commandant of Chunyu were dismissed from their posts, and the entire county was shrouded in a black terror.

After Heifu arrived in Gaomi, however, it was as if he had become a different person. He was extremely friendly to the local officials and noble clan heads, paying respects at the Yanzi Temple and openly expressing his admiration for Yan Ying. That night at the banquet, he also threw out the slogan "The Tian Qi usurped the state illegitimately," intending to support the old clans of the Jiang Qi and allow their sons to enter official service...

This matter made Tian Jiao sense ill intentions. Any clear-sighted person could see that this was an attempt to stir internal strife among the Jiaodong nobles. Yet even knowing it was a ploy, they could not afford to ignore it.

One hand hard, the other soft; his fierce reputation arrived before he did. This combination of punches dazzled the Jiaodong nobles, leaving them all trembling with fear and on guard, wondering what major affair this new commandery governor would undertake once he reached Jimo.

But in Tian Jiao's view, if Heifu thought he could gain a firm foothold in Jimo with just these petty tricks, he was looking down on them far too much.

The people of Jimo were once extremely devoted to the Tian Qi. Not only is there the history of Tian Dan leading tens of thousands to resist the Yan army for five years and ultimately restoring Qi, but before Qi fell, the Grandee of Jimo was also the staunchest anti-Qin faction, strongly urging the King of Qi to act—what a pity he did not listen!

To think of taking root here and governing over a hundred thousand Jimo people hostile to the Qin, without going through the Tian Jiao brothers, is nothing short of a fool's dream!

So after the new commandery governor of the Wei clan arrived at Jimo City, Tian Jiao had his younger brother Tian Jian constantly travel between the city and the manor to probe his movements.

After holding a day-long meeting with the Commandery Commandant, the Commandery Assistant, and the Supervising Censor—the four senior officials—Commandery Governor Heifu finally made another move. What no one expected was that the very first decree he issued upon arriving in the commandery was actually...

"Law and Moral Instruction?"

When his younger brother Tian Jian returned and told him this news, Tian Jiao was momentarily stunned.

"Law" refers to legal statutes, and "instruction" refers to moral edification. Separately, they are easy to understand, but once linked together, they become unfathomable.

"Did you copy down the text of the decree?" Tian Jiao asked urgently.

"I had someone copy it."

Tian Jian presented the bamboo slips in his hands—Jiaodong has plenty of bamboo and wood, and paper, which carries the coloring of the Qin government, is disliked by the powerful families and Confucian scholars.

On these bamboo slips, the very first line read: "Law is the standard of all under heaven. It is that by which doubts are resolved and right and wrong are made clear, that upon which the common people stake their lives."

Tian Jian, brave and martial but lacking in letters, was baffled by this, but Tian Jiao, who had traveled in the Jixia Academy, pondered for a moment and said, "These are the words of Guan Yiwu..."

This was rare—a Qin official actually using the words of Guan Zhong of Qi as the opening of a decree? However, Tian Jiao recalled the "Pacify-the-Frontier Shrine" built in Linzi a few years ago, where the main object of worship was Guan Zhong, and he had heard that one was also to be built in Jimo.

"Paying respects to Yan Ying, making offerings to Guan Zhong—this Commandery Governor Heifu truly comes with ill intentions." Tian Jiao shook his head vigorously.

He continued reading: "Master Guan also said: 'In governing the people, one ensures that the officers have no depraved conduct and the women have no licentious affairs. Officers having no depraved conduct is due to instruction; women having no licentious affairs is due to training. When instruction and training become custom, then punishments and penalties will be few—this is a natural principle!'"

"Since I, the Commandery Governor, first arrived in Jiaodong, I have heard that the officers of Jiaodong often engage in depraved conduct, frequently defying prohibitions as self-styled champions. The clan heads do not understand the laws and ordinances, and the children do not know His Majesty, yet they slander the Qin laws as harsh. The ancients said, 'To punish without first instructing is called cruelty.' I, your official, do not wish to execute arbitrarily. I must first follow Master Guan's words, taking the Qin officials as teachers and using the law to instruct the officers, extending this to the common people, so that all the people turn toward virtue, thereby reducing punishments."

The above borrowed Guan Zhong's words to lessen the resistance of the Qi region's scholars, while hypocritically proclaiming himself a benevolent person who believed in the power of moral instruction and would not wantonly inflict punishments. Below was the main body of this decree:

Heifu announced that, starting from the first month, he would establish two study halls in Jimo: an Officials' School and an Elementary School!

The Officials' School would selectively recruit the sons of clan heads who had reached the age of sixteen to enroll, divided into two classes.

Class B would study the Qin language and Qin seal script. Those who passed the Qin language and Qin seal script examination within half a year would be promoted to Class A; those who failed would remain to repeat the grade and retake the exam. Class A would study Qin law for half a year. Those who gained a rough understanding of the laws and ordinances could serve as clerks in the government.

The Officials' School was essentially a crash course for young cadres. Whomever the government selected would have to send their sons—clearly a back door opened for the old Jiang Qi clans like the Yan, Guo, Gao, Bao, and Lü. The hope was that within a year or so, they could become assistant clerks, helping the government control the villages.

But the Elementary School was different. All the great clans and noble houses of Jimo were required to send their boys aged eight and above to the school to study Qin characters and the Qin language, with severe punishment for those who disobeyed!

Whether the Elementary School or the Officials' School, apart from law and language classes, there was also a common course. On the first and fifteenth of every month, classes would be held at the newly built Pacify-the-Frontier Shrine, before the statue of Guan Zhong. This course was open to the entire society and would be conducted bilingually in Qin and Eastern Qi.

Commandery Governor Heifu would personally take charge and compile the teaching materials, having Confucian scholars willing to cooperate with the government proclaim some important matters to the children:

Such as the long history of the Jiang Qi, their friendly relations with the Qin state, several generations of intermarriage, their mutual admiration, as well as their tragic experience of being usurped by the Tian Qi, with their ruler and ministers cruelly killed or exiled.

Also, the core values that every person in Jiaodong should engrave upon their hearts:

"All the Huaxia share the same ancestors; Qin and Qi are one family; East and West prosper together!!"

(End of chapter)