Chapter 52: This Must Be a Systemic Problem!

(Bonus chapter for Alliance Leader Dancing Three Armies — an old friend across three books, my sincere thanks)

"A tool that can make pounding rice twice as effective with half the effort?"

Yan Zheng glanced at Heifu, then looked at the half-eaten rice cake he had left, as if struck by a realization.

But he did not press further with questions; instead he sank into deep thought, and only spoke after a long while:

"Such tools and contrivances all fall under the jurisdiction of the Works Master. The Statutes on Artisans state: 'Articles shall bear the artisan's name so their integrity may be examined; if the work is substandard, punishment shall be exacted.' The affairs of the hundred crafts are overseen by the Privy Treasury in Xianyang; in each commandery and county they are overseen by the county magistrate. Beneath the county magistrate is the County Works Master, who is responsible for managing the hundred crafts of the county. Each year, the County Works Master must submit the tools and weapons produced to the commandery for evaluation. If rated inferior, he is punished; if rated inferior for three consecutive years, the punishment is increased."

Heifu nodded. Qin's agriculture and crafts both had a full set of offices managing them from top to bottom — no wonder they could concentrate all the state's resources onto warfare. Moreover, handicraft production was primarily government-run, with frequent inspections and evaluations; individual artisans like his brother-in-law were actually rare.

Having finished with the punishments, Yan Zheng began on the rewards: "Conversely, our Qin has always disdained useless curiosities and frivolous contrivances, and instead esteems 'merit and utility above all.' If a man of the hundred crafts submits a tool that increases practical effectiveness, and it truly achieves the claimed results, he too should receive a reward — either a bestowal of rank, or a bestowal of coin…"

Heifu understood. This so-called "merit and utility above all" meant prioritizing practical effectiveness — one might call it the "doctrine of function supreme."

This indeed fit the Qin character perfectly. To give an example: an iron sword, though forged through a thousand hammerings and temperings, could be sharper and more durable than bronze, but since it could not be mass-produced or issued to the army on a large scale, it found no favor with the Qin military.

The same logic applied to iron armor. Although Yan and Chu already had elite troops clad in iron armor, the Qin army still uniformly wore leather armor — after all, this was something they could collect tens of thousands of suits of every year through fines alone.

Besides, if you wanted iron weapons and iron armor, couldn't you just take them from the captives and corpses after routing the enemy…

In short: low cost, large scale, and practical — these were the elements the Qin authorities favored.

Heifu was delighted now. Wasn't the treadle pestle in his own home exactly that kind of good thing!

He finally understood why Qin had not promoted the rotary millstone — which had already appeared in the Qi and Lu regions to the north — the way they had promoted ox-drawn plowing. It was probably because stone millstones were costly to produce in this era and hard to make universally available to every household; only wealthy families had one made in imitation, and the spread was extremely slow.

But the treadle pestle was different. Its construction was simple — any random artisan could glance at it and reproduce it — and the materials were easy to find and cheap.

"This is a deed of great merit."

Heifu was just feeling pleased, thinking that when he went to the county seat for the examination he could conveniently present this treasure to the County Works Master, and who knew, another rank and reward money might be coming his way. If he could keep rolling out similar inventions in the future, rising through the ranks and growing rich would be no dream.

Yet Yan Zheng poured a basin of cold water right over his head.

Yan Zheng's expression turned grave, and he said to Heifu with earnest weight:

"This old man must still warn you: if the person submitting such an item is not registered among the hundred crafts, the authorities may well accept the item first, but then punish the submitter. Ha, when that time comes, never mind becoming a village chief — Heifu, I fear you won't even be able to keep this rank of Gongshi!"

…

That afternoon, Heifu took his leave of Yan Zheng early, ending his final lesson. Early the next morning, he was to set out for the county seat to take the official examination held on the first day of the twelfth month.

Leaving Bian Hamlet and walking the road home, Heifu's mind was still full of what Yan Zheng had admonished him about.

Yan Zheng had doused Heifu's beautiful dream, and told him a story he had heard many years ago from a judge of the Censorate, when he was collating statutes at the Censorate office in Xianyang…

Long ago, Marquis Zhao of Han got drunk and fell asleep. The Keeper of Caps, fearing he would be cold, laid a garment over him. When Marquis Zhao awoke and saw the garment, he asked his close attendants, "Who covered me with the garment?" The attendants replied, "The Keeper of Caps." Marquis Zhao thereupon punished both the Keeper of Robes and the Keeper of Caps.

Marquis Zhao punished the Keeper of Robes because he deemed him derelict in his duty; he punished the Keeper of Caps because he deemed him to have overstepped his authority. It was not that he did not worry about the cold, but that he considered the harm of overstepping authority to exceed that of the cold. Thus a wise sovereign drives his ministers: ministers need only perform their own duties well and must not overstep their authority to achieve merit; exceeding one's office warrants punishment…

That stuttering Han Fei even summed up this story as: "Let the cock watch the night, let the wildcat seize the rats — each uses its ability, and the sovereign then has nothing to do."

This is Legalist thinking. As it is for officials, so it is for the common people's household registration.

Ever since Shang Yang's reforms, Qin has divided all members of society into registration categories, stipulating that people of a given registration category should perform the work proper to that category:

Soldier-farmers till the land and fight wars; the hundred crafts manufacture tools; merchants and traders buy and sell goods; officials properly govern the localities.

Thus in the eyes of the Qin authorities, if a soldier-farmer does not diligently farm and serve in the military, but instead spends his days tinkering with contrivances and chasing profit, that is just like a cat that does not properly catch mice but runs off to learn how to crow like a rooster.

Even if you truly produce something good, you absolutely must not be rewarded for it. If, for the sake of a minor device, an unhealthy trend were set, giving people improper aspirations and causing them to vie in imitation — how could that be tolerated? Wouldn't the order of Qin then fall into chaos?

This is precisely what Shang Yang emphasized: "When the masses turn to commerce and skilled crafts, all to evade farming and warfare — when these are all present, the state is in peril. If the people take these as their model, the state shall surely be whittled away!"

Therefore, toward such a restless person, the authorities would first accept the item he submits, smile and pat him on the shoulder with a few words of verbal praise — and then severely punish him…

The tool is without fault; the man bears the fault.

It was precisely for this reason that over the past hundred years, even when Zhang Yi, Gan Mao, and other itinerant persuaders from east of the mountains entered Qin and rose abruptly to eminence on the strength of their tongues alone, the people of Qin merely watched in silence, without ever being tempted to learn to become itinerant persuaders themselves in pursuit of wealth and rank.

Because they were not of the "Itinerant Retainer Registration" specially created for foreign talents, the people of Qin, however envious they might be, understood clearly: that road would never belong to them.

They could only farm and serve as soldiers, generation after generation, following the single outlet for gain that Shang Yang had delimited.

People of later ages might find it hard to understand: the registration boundaries in Qin were not something you could casually cross. What blocked Heifu's path was a high mountain, a forbidden line, a natural moat…

"So you're saying, unless I one day become a Works Master, or the supervising official in charge of such matters, the idea of using inventions and creations to rise in rank is impossible?"

Heifu felt like weeping but had no tears. So after all that walking, what lay ahead was a dead-end alley. Thank heaven he had not rushed off to the county seat to present his treasure, or he would have fallen right into this huge pit, and all his countless prior efforts would have instantly gone to waste.

Though the reasoning was so, Heifu still felt it was wrong. How could the inventiveness and initiative of the people be extinguished on account of household registration management?

"This must be a systemic problem!" He shook his fist at the heavens in righteous indignation.

It seemed that regarding the treadle pestle, Heifu would have to rethink things thoroughly.

Just as he was pondering this, he spotted a figure on the road ahead rushing frantically toward him — it was his younger brother, Jing!

Jing had also spotted Heifu and ran even more desperately, even taking a tumble halfway and rolling in the mud.

"What's happened? Is it Mother?" A wave of unease rose in Heifu's heart; his first reaction was that his mother might have fallen ill again. He hurried over to help Jing up and asked.

"No…"

Jing's face was full of urgency: "The hamlet chief somehow found out that our family has a treadle pestle that makes pounding grain easier, and he tried to force brother-in-law to build one for his family too. Brother-in-law refused, and the hamlet chief actually stirred up the whole hamlet to surround our house!"

"Such a thing!" Heifu's expression instantly changed, but then he caught on: "Then how did you get out?"

"I was out chopping firewood at the time. When I got home and saw things were bad, I wanted to come find you. The hamlet gatekeeper let me out the hamlet gate…"

"I see." Heifu asked further: "The hamlet chief stirred up the hamlet people to surround our house — what exactly does he want?"

Jing ground his teeth in fury: "The hamlet chief wants you, eldest brother, and brother-in-law to hand over the treadle pestle and share it with the whole hamlet for everyone to use! In truth, he just wants it for himself! Right now a dozen or so households, egged on by him, are all blocking the doorway! Second Brother, hurry back with me and see!"

PS: If rated inferior at the provincial evaluation, the Works Master is fined one suit of armor; the Assistant and Section Chiefs are fined one shield; the apprentice cord-makers are fined twenty sets of cord. If rated inferior at the provincial evaluation for three consecutive years, the Works Master is fined two suits of armor; the Assistant and Section Chiefs are fined one suit of armor; the apprentice cord-makers are fined fifty sets of cord. — Miscellaneous Excerpts of Qin Statutes

(End of chapter)