Chapter 525: A Single Man

Qilu had always been the region where Qin dynasty policies arrived slowest — so far from the Guanzhong heartland that they often lagged six months to a year behind.

This year, however, was different. In the eighth and ninth months of the thirty-first year of the First Emperor, the First Emperor toured Qilu and performed the Feng and Shan sacrifices on Mount Tai. During this time, the scholars of Qilu, who had long felt the emperor was as distant as heaven itself, now keenly felt the enormous disruption that the Son of Heaven's capricious moods could bring to their lives.

The First Emperor performed the Feng and Shan sacrifices on Mount Tai, yet ended up clashing bitterly with the Confucian scholars. The entire group of scholars was left stranded at the mountain's foot, barred from participating in the rites, and in the end they dispersed in bitter displeasure. After returning home, many nursed grievances and began using the Odes and the Documents to satirize the court. The bolder ones even declared outright that the rain during the First Emperor's Feng and Shan sacrifices was surely heaven's wrath — proof that the First Emperor was no true Son of Heaven!

A rumor may feel satisfying for a moment, but it can send an entire family to the execution ground. Within days, the talk reached the emperor's ears. This was no sovereign who would overlook a petty slight. He ordered the Commandant of Justice to investigate rigorously. Within half a month, dozens of Confucian scholars were arrested and imprisoned in Linzi, Jibei, and Xue Commandery for slandering the court, and several hundred commoners were implicated for spreading rumors.

At the same time, Qin officials in every county proclaimed that henceforth "using the past to criticize the present" was a grave crime. It was forbidden to use historical tales as metaphors to satirize the court, and discussion of the Odes and the Documents was likewise prohibited. For a time, Qilu was under martial law. Qin officials kept watch in wineshops and on street corners, ready to arrest anyone gathering to discuss matters. When scholars met on the streets, they dared only exchange glances, communicating with their eyes.

That was not all. At the end of the ninth month, the world's first printing workshop opened at the traveling palace in Linzi. The very first item printed was a new ordinance titled the "Statute on the Proscription of Books." No longer would scribes have to copy it out line by line with knife and brush — now it could be printed by the thousands on yellow paper in a single run. Relay-station couriers rode at full speed to deliver it to every commandery, and local postal runners stuffed it into their back-baskets, carrying it to every county and every village.

Very soon, this ordinance was posted throughout the commanderies and counties of Qilu, and was even delivered to Lu County in Xue Commandery — right to the front gate of the Confucius family residence…

Kong Fu, the seventh-generation descendant of Confucius, dressed in scholar's cap and Confucian robes, held this thin sheet of ordinance in his hands, yet it felt heavier than a thousand catties. His hands trembled faintly!

The Qin official who had come to the door stood in the courtyard with soldiers behind him, surveying the rather modest Kong family residence. He smiled and said:

"Master Kong, His Majesty's edict states it clearly: all copies of the Odes, the Documents, the Spring and Autumn Annals, and the writings of the Hundred Schools of Thought that are not held by the Erudites are to be surrendered to the Commandant and sent to Xianyang. During his eastern tour, His Majesty observed the flourishing literary culture east of the Passes and was most appreciative. He has therefore resolved to compile a new National History, covering from the Five Emperors and the Three Dynasties above down to the Spring and Autumn period and the Six States below. The miscellaneous works of the Hundred Schools shall be gathered into a canon, recorded in a great compendium of literature, so that they may endure forever."

"All of Lu County, all of Xue Commandery knows that the Kong lineage descends from Confucius and has transmitted the Odes and Documents through the generations as the family's own learning. Your family's wealth may not be the greatest in the commandery, but your book collection is by far the largest. Since His Majesty requires the commanderies and counties to offer up their books, Master Kong, please hand them over!"

Kong Fu had already swallowed a bellyful of bile at the Mount Tai Feng and Shan sacrifices. After returning, although his disciple Shusun Tong had warned him not to criticize the matter, he was now thoroughly disillusioned with the First Emperor and with the Qin dynasty. Now, hearing that the authorities, after arresting people and silencing public discourse, had abruptly changed tack and were collecting all the books under heaven for compilation, he was instantly on his guard.

"I fear the compilation is a pretense, and burning the books is the true aim. This is hardly something Wei Yang never did!"

At the foot of Mount Tai, Kong Fu had seen clearly the court's true face — summoning them at will and dismissing them just as casually. He would not fall for the same trick a second time!

And so Kong Fu handed the edict back to the official and said, neither servile nor overbearing: "Everyone knows that borrowing a book requires the owner's consent. Otherwise it is not borrowing, but seizing. Does His Majesty not need to obtain our consent to borrow my family's books? And furthermore, once borrowed, when will they be returned?"

"Return the books?"

The Qin official, upon hearing this, burst out laughing in sheer amusement. "Master Kong, oh Master Kong, you've read so many books you've read your wits dull. I may be a petty clerk, but even I know the saying: 'Under the whole heaven, every spot is the sovereign's ground; to the borders of the land, every individual is the sovereign's subject.' All under heaven is His Majesty's private property, and we are all His Majesty's servants. His edict says he is requisitioning books — whoever dares refuse is breaking the law!"

The petty official dropped all pretense of courtesy. His face hardened as he said: "The Statute on the Proscription of Books is clear: within ten days of the order, books are to be surrendered to the county; within twenty days, to the commandery. Those who still have not surrendered them after thirty days shall be sentenced to head-shaving, face-tattooing, and four years of hard labor building the Great Wall! Master Kong, I respect you as a renowned scholar of Lu County and a descendant of a sage. I hope that within ten days you will swiftly hand over the books. Do not make this difficult for me!"

The implication was clear: if the books were not handed over by then, he would come and take them by force!

"Which books must be surrendered?" asked Kong Fu's son.

The Qin official replied: "Aside from books on medicine, divination, agriculture, horticulture, and tree-planting, everything else must be handed over!"

Kong Fu's son shook his head. "Everything my family possesses is rites and music, the Odes and Documents, the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Book of Changes. We have none of these petty books on farming and gardening!"

"Then hand them all over. Not a single volume may be kept in private!"

Just as the two sides were at an impasse, Kong Fu's disciple Shusun Tong arrived upon hearing the news. Through a bout of persuasion, he managed to get the petty official to withdraw for the time being.

"Honorable clerk, the Kong residence has so many books that they cannot be sorted out all at once. We beg a few days' leniency. Within twenty days, we shall certainly deliver them to the commandery office!"

"At least this Erudite understands our predicament. But there is no way to grant further leniency — ten days it is! If the books are not handed over in ten days, when we return, we will be bringing ropes to arrest people!"

"Certainly, certainly."

Shusun Tong smiled as he saw the men off. Only then did he have the servants shut the gate. He hastily pulled Kong Fu aside and said:

"Master, this time the emperor is in deadly earnest. I have heard that in Jibei, several Confucian scholars who refused to surrender their books have already been arrested and thrown into prison. They have suffered head-shaving and face-tattooing and are to be sent to hard labor…"

"To mutilate and punish scholars — what an outrage against refinement and learning!" Kong Fu was pained to the heart, but he was helpless. What could a single bookish scholar do against a brutal court?

"Ah, only now do I truly understand what is meant by 'tyranny is fiercer than a tiger'! Had I known it would come to this, I should have followed those who set sail on rafts across the sea and gone to join the Lord of the Blue Sea!"

He raised his head to heaven and sighed. It seemed that if he did not surrender the books, the Kong lineage might face utter catastrophe. Yet he could not bear to stand by and watch the texts his ancestors had painstakingly collected and compiled over generations be destroyed in a single day.

And so Kong Fu looked at Shusun Tong. "Have you found the thing I asked you to procure?"

"Rest assured, Master! I have brought it!"

It was late autumn, and Shusun Tong was dressed in thick layers. He grinned, then unfastened his garments — inside, padded against his body, was a thick stack of yellow hemp paper!

It turned out that Kong Fu did possess self-awareness. Years ago, he had felt that Shusun Tong "could perceive the shifts of the times," while he himself could only engage in "learning of no practical use," far less adaptable than his own disciple. So when the Qin court summoned him to Xianyang to serve as an Erudite, Kong Fu had declined and recommended Shusun Tong instead. Stubborn though he was, he was no fool; having someone at court could also look after the Kong family.

This time was just such an occasion. Shusun Tong, with his well-informed sources, had warned Kong Fu early on that Qin was going to seize the texts of the former kings — nominally to compile books, but in truth to destroy them — and that the Kong family, as the foremost custodians of books, was in grave danger!

So master and disciple had put their heads together and come up with a plan: the court demanded the books be surrendered within ten days, did it not? They would secretly copy out a portion to keep, handing over only the originals. That way, they could at least preserve something.

Time was pressing. Kong Fu set aside his old habit of writing only on bamboo slips and told Shusun Tong to use the convenience of his official post to procure some paper.

Shusun Tong took out all the paper and sighed: "The court is not only seizing the people's books — even the paper that was already scarce on the market has been completely banned. Any petty official who carries paper out without permission is to be flogged. Any wealthy magnate's workshop that makes paper privately faces the death penalty. It is only fortunate that I am an Erudite, and so was able to obtain this much."

"Stopping the people's mouths is harder than damming a river."

Kong Fu shook his head over and over. At once, the main gate was shut tight and no one went out. He set a few trusted family members and Shusun Tong to work, and they began days of copying books.

Because there were men sent by the Qin official to keep watch in the vicinity, they dared not work at night and could only snatch moments during the day. But even with the whole family pitching in, their hands nearly breaking, brush after brush snapping, every drop of ink in the house used up until they had to resort to charcoal — by the deadline on the final day, they had only managed to copy the Analects, the Book of Documents, the Book of Rites, the Spring and Autumn Annals, and a few other sections…

Kong Fu was in despair. He had already committed to memory everything he could recite, copying only what he could not remember, but it was a mere drop in the bucket.

On the night before the Qin official was due to come knocking again, Kong Fu pried open the wall of his own residence. He placed the thick stacks of paper, packed in small wooden cases, inside and watched as it was sealed up bit by bit. Kong Fu could only heave a long sigh:

"Will I ever live to see the day when these walls are broken open and the books brought out again?"

…

The next day, when the Qin official arrived once more with his troop of soldiers, he was met with a spectacular sight: outside the Kong residence gate, bamboo scrolls and wooden tablets were piled up like a mountain!

Though he had known the Kong family had many books, the petty official still stared wide-eyed. "It will take more than ten carts to haul all this away."

Kong Fu said with a touch of pride: "Confucius possessed learning sufficient to fill five carts, and every generation of ancestors since has had a passion for collecting books. Our family property is ten mu, and many of the rooms are used to store books."

As he said this, Kong Fu felt a pang of bitter sorrow.

Other families' wealth was reckoned in fields, houses, gold, and pearls — but the wealth his ancestors had left behind consisted only of these books…

It was by relying on this knowledge, and on the disciples and students trained generation after generation, that the Kong lineage had outlasted even those short-lived feudal lords, had earned the enduring respect of the people of Qilu, and had flourished without decline.

Now, without them, the Kong lineage would suffer a devastating blow!

The Qin official, seeing Kong Fu's proud bearing, was inwardly displeased. He curled his lip. "All these bamboo scrolls and wooden tablets — don't be fooled by the quantity; there probably aren't many characters inside. Master Kong, I'm not boasting, but just the paper legal documents and official papers in the commandery office alone add up to no less than all this!"

"Fish eyes may resemble pearls, but given equal weight, which is more precious — fish eyes or pearls?" Kong Fu thought to himself, but his disciple Shusun Tong shook his head at him, and in the end he did not voice it.

At last, more than ten carts arrived. As those burly soldiers began moving the books, Kong Fu's heart ached terribly.

"Don't scrape them — these have been passed down from the time of Confucius!"

"Gently with that one — it is the sole surviving copy!"

Kong Fu's voice sounded like pleading. In the course of the work, when a few volumes slipped from the soldiers' elbows and fell into the dirt, he dashed over in a single stride, carefully picked them up, wiped them clean on his robes, his heart aching as though his own child had taken a fall…

When it was all over and the mountain of books before the Kong residence gate had been emptied away, Kong Fu stood desolate and lost, gazing long at the departing carts. This seventh-generation descendant of Confucius, who loved books as his very life, found his face streaming with tears, for he knew he would likely never see those "treasures" again.

A moment later, his two streaks of tears had dried. He suddenly said to Shusun Tong, "Your teacher has come to envy you. As a Erudite, you can still read the Odes and Documents, and even take part in compiling that so-called 'National History' and 'Grand Canon of the Hundred Schools'..."

Shusun Tong said quickly, "If you, Master, wished to become an Erudite, would it not be a matter of a single word?"

He was not wrong. Among the Erudite this time, many had been convicted for their words, and others had hung up their official caps and seals and departed. More than half the positions stood vacant, and the emperor was preparing to recruit a new batch willing to cooperate with the court.

But Kong Fu merely shook his head. He bade Shusun Tong follow him into the inner chamber of the residence and said to him:

"The Mohists often say that we Confucians pursue useless learning. Though I love to argue fiercely with them, in truth I understand as well that in this age, the Odes, Documents, Rites, and Music I study find no favor with the meat-eaters. It is indeed useless learning. And those who understand this learning are only my friends. I had thought that in this way, I could preserve my own integrity in this degenerate age, clutching my books and studying until death, with the court and I like well water that does not encroach upon river water. Even if they saw my books piled mountain-high and discovered that what I teach is loyalty to the sovereign and filial piety, they would not regard it as savage floods or wild beasts. But now it seems I was wrong..."

Before citing the classics, Kong Fu habitually wished to reach for a book, but when he looked up, he only then realized that the study which had once been filled to the rafters with books now stood utterly empty, not a single scroll remaining. Grief welling up from his heart, he recited with his back turned:

"Confucius once said: Let the ruler be a ruler, the minister a minister, the father a father, the son a son. When the ruler regards his minister with propriety, the minister serves his ruler with loyalty. This I have always deeply believed."

"But now, I find myself admiring Mencius's words all the more..."

Kong Fu looked at Shusun Tong: "When the ruler regards his ministers as his hands and feet, the ministers regard their ruler as their heart and soul; when the ruler regards his ministers as dogs and horses, the ministers regard their ruler as a stranger among his countrymen!"

"When the ruler regards his ministers as dirt and weeds, the ministers regard their ruler as a bandit and a foe!"

Shusun Tong took up the next line. He drew a deep breath, turned to look at the tightly shut door, and made certain no one was eavesdropping. Only then did he return to Kong Fu's side and say, with some barely suppressed agitation, "Master, does this mean you consent to my doing that thing?"

Though Shusun Tong had submitted himself to Qin service, seeing that the court's every action ran counter to the Confucians, he had always harbored his own designs. He maintained secret contact with anti-Qin figures such as Zhang Er and Chen Yu, and this time, during Qin Shi Huang's eastern inspection tour, he had seized the chance to reconnect with them.

As for why he knew Chen Yu? Because Chen Yu was also a Confucian scholar. After Zhao fell, he had come to live at Kong Fu's home for a very long period. Now that Zhang and Chen had been reduced to fugitives, the Kong family had also secretly aided them with a little money and provisions...

But despite these connections, Kong Fu and his disciple Shusun Tong had not actually done anything, just as he had said — it was best to keep "well water from encroaching upon river water." That was, until the matters of the Feng and Shan sacrifices and the Book-Prohibition Ordinance made Kong Fu utterly and thoroughly despair of this court!

Now, if someone were to rise up and raise a banner in revolt, he would surely, without the slightest hesitation, take up his ritual vessels and go to join them!

Why does a scholar rebel? Is it not because this age has made it impossible for him to read his books!

As if suddenly awakened, Kong Fu declared resolutely, "Mencius also said: He who destroys benevolence is called a 'brigand'; he who destroys righteousness is called a 'monster.' A brigand and monster who destroys benevolence and harms righteousness is called a 'mere fellow'!"

"Jie and Zhou were such mere fellows, such outcasts. To kill Jie and Zhou — one only hears of executing an outcast, never of regicide!"

This was Mencius's most radical statement, providing ministers and scholars an excellent justification for rebelling against fatuous and tyrannical rulers. Kong Fu was certain that when the Qin court claimed to be compiling the books of the Hundred Schools, this line would absolutely be excised and not allowed to remain!

Kong Fu lowered his voice: "In a hamlet of ten households, there will surely be men of loyalty. I believe that across the vastness of the Six Kingdoms, there must be those willing to emulate the deeds of Jing Ke and Gao Jianli and execute this outcast! You may watch for the opportunity and aid them!"

"Rest assured, Master."

Shusun Tong bowed once more and told him a piece of confidential news:

"Those in the realm who wish to kill the First Emperor are beyond counting. And among the Erudite and the fangshi who attend the imperial presence, those who know the emperor's daily movements and are willing to disclose them to others are by no means limited to me alone! On this eastern tour, the security is far laxer than within the Pass. Master, you need only wait and see! I imagine it will not be long before someone strikes!"

PS: A big 4,000-character chapter. Just two updates today. Got a bit of my rhythm back; aiming for three updates tomorrow.

(End of chapter)