Chapter 538: Ask Not About the Common Folk, Ask About Ghosts and Spirits

Cling, clang — the sound rang out without pause. On the great cliff face of Mount Zhifu, a stone inscription was being chiseled into being, bit by bit, by countless craftsmen…

Hei Fu, overseeing the work, looked up at those seal-script characters carved in stone. The calligraphy was Li Si's. After setting the first-phase tasks for "Collecting All Books Under Heaven" in Linzi, Chancellor Li had also come to Jiaodong. Upon arriving at Zhifu, his first act was to compose the stone inscription text for Qin Shi Huang. Those characters were bold, powerful, and archaically simple — people could not praise them enough.

"In the thirty-second year, the season being early winter, all things wither and fall. The Emperor tours the east, ascending Mount Zhifu on inspection, overlooking the sea…"

"Throughout the counties and districts, all obey the sage's will. The assembled ministers extol his achievements, requesting they be carved in stone, displayed as an eternal model."

After reciting this passage, Hei Fu looked toward Zhang Cang, who had likewise been assigned this tedious errand, and said, "Wherever His Majesty goes, he is fond of leaving stone inscriptions as a record."

"It is not only His Majesty."

Zhang Cang said, "My senior brother Han Fei once told a story: King Wuling of Zhao had craftsmen make hooked ladders, climbed Mount Bowu, carved a giant footprint, and then wrote beside it: 'The Sovereign Father once traveled here!'"

"When King Zhao of Qin heard of this, he too ordered men to use hooked ladders to climb Mount Hua, and with pine, cypress, and stone built a giant chessboard — the board eight zhang wide, the pieces eight cun long — and on a great boulder beside it carved the words: 'The King of Qin once played chess here with a heavenly god!'"

"Hahaha! Such a thing actually happened?"

Hei Fu, hearing this, could not help laughing. Was this not the classic "So-and-so was here"! So it turned out that the Sovereign Father of Zhao and King Zhao of Qin were the originators of this practice.

Wherever Qin Shi Huang went, he would with keen interest send men to carve stone as a memento. So far he had left inscriptions at Mount Heng, Mount Yi, and Mount Tai — three sites. The scenic and yang-energy-rich Zhifu Island would certainly not be missed.

"I recall, several years ago, when the first stone was carved at Mount Heng, Chancellor Li submitted a 'Memorial on Stone Inscriptions.'"

Hei Fu recalled that not particularly famous essay, because he distinctly remembered what Li Si had said at the time…

"The Five Emperors and Three Kings of old understood teaching differently, their laws and standards were unclear; they borrowed the authority of ghosts and spirits to deceive distant lands. Their reality did not match their name, and therefore they did not endure. Before their bodies had perished, the feudal lords rebelled, and their laws and decrees went unenforced."

And further: "Now the Emperor has united all within the seas, making them commanderies and counties, and all under Heaven is at peace." "The assembled ministers together extol the Emperor's merits and virtue, carved in metal and stone, to serve as a guiding standard"…

These several passages of Li Si's explained the reason for composing and carving the inscriptions: namely, to extol no ghosts or spirits, to speak of no ancient kings, and to honor only the present Emperor. This theme, from the Mount Heng stone inscription four years ago to today's Mount Zhifu stone inscription, had been carried through consistently, never changing. In the stone inscriptions, not a single word praised ancient kings or ghosts and spirits.

"That being so, what attitude does Chancellor Li, who wrote that memorial, hold toward ghosts, spirits, and the Way of Fangxian?" Hei Fu asked Zhang Cang.

"Among all the disciples the Master taught, none believes in ghosts or spirits."

Zhang Cang shook his head and said, "The Master would tell every disciple a story: South of Xiashou, there was a man named Juan Shuliang. This man was both foolish and fearful of everything. Walking one moonlit night, he looked down, saw his own shadow, and thought it was a ghost crouching on the ground. He looked up, saw his own hair, and thought it was a demon standing there. Terrified, he turned and ran. Returning home, he died of fright."

"The Master said: In this world, there are originally no ghosts or spirits — or rather, ghosts and spirits do not exist in the world, but exist in the human heart!"

"Anyone who believes there are ghosts must be clinging to impressions formed when their spirit was dazed and their mind unclear. As for those who claim to have cultivated since youth, to have seen immortals, and to be able to teach emperors the art of eternal life without death — they are either so foolish they have deceived themselves, or they harbor ill intentions, seeking to use the names of ghosts, demons, and immortals to achieve their own ends!"

Xunzi also gave new interpretations to sacrifice and divination: "Eclipses of the sun and moon, and we perform rituals to save them; drought, and we perform the rain sacrifice; only after divination do we decide great affairs — not because we believe we will obtain what we seek, but to adorn them with form. Thus the gentleman regards them as adornment, while the common people regard them as divine. To regard them as adornment is auspicious; to regard them as divine is calamitous."

He did not believe that rain-sacrifices could make Heaven send rain, or that divination could foretell the future. The reason for holding sacrifices and performing divination was merely out of consideration for ritual and ceremony — a kind of civilizing activity. It was one thing for the common people to believe it, but if the meat-eaters who governed them also truly believed that sacrifices and divination held mysterious power, that would bring disaster.

That was why Han Fei, in his "Forest of Persuasions," mocked the Kings of Chu and Yan who believed in immortality elixirs, and in "Warding Off Evil," ridiculed the folly of those who devoutly trusted tortoise-shell divination and used the results in military decision-making, laughing: "Tortoise shells, milfoil stalks, ghosts, and spirits are insufficient to determine victory; the configurations of terrain are insufficient to decide battle. Yet to rely on them — there is no greater foolishness!"

Zhang Cang was the same: when the Emperor performed the Feng and Shan sacrifices and encountered rain, he dared to raise his head at the summit of Mount Tai and loudly declare that no such thing as Heaven's will existed in this world.

The disciples of the Xun School were nearly all atheists. Even Fuqiu Bo, at most, reached the level of "revering ghosts and spirits while keeping them at a distance," and rarely spoke of strange forces and chaotic spirits.

By the same logic, it was no surprise that Li Si could say things like "borrowing the authority of ghosts and spirits to deceive distant lands." The Legalists consistently did not believe in ghosts and spirits; they believed only in law and decree, only in governance by men.

"As the teacher, so the disciples." Hei Fu clapped in praise, but then his tone shifted:

"Yet the day before yesterday, when His Majesty summoned Anqi Sheng, had him stay long at the traveling palace, kept him close at hand, and questioned him on matters of immortal mountains, ghosts, and spirits — Chancellor Li was at his side, but did not utter a single word…"

Speaking of this Anqi Sheng, Hei Fu grew angry. The old man was said to be from Langya; his teacher was the famous fangshi "Heshang Gong." He studied the learning of Huang-Lao and cultivated the arts of yin and yang, and was considered the most renowned figure of the contemporary "Way of Fangxian." It was said he had already passed a hundred years of age and possessed the arts of immortals. The fangshi of Yan and Qi took him as their leader and called him the "Thousand-Year Elder."

Anqi Sheng had been famous for a long time. In former days, several kings of Qi, Yan, and Zhao had sought him out, but his movements were mysterious — they glimpsed his head but never his tail. After Qin Shi Huang unified all under Heaven, he too sent men to invite Anqi Sheng to Xianyang, but his whereabouts could not be found. Some said he had feathered and ascended as an immortal; others said he had ridden a crane off on immortal wanderings.

Who would have thought that this fellow had actually been hiding on Zhifu Island, disguised as a nondescript old temple caretaker, evading Hei Fu's investigation — and then suddenly revealed his identity!

A lofty recluse long sought had now suddenly come to pay his respects. Qin Shi Huang was quite pleased and bade Anqi Sheng stay. That very day, Hei Fu and Zhang Cang had wanted to speak words of remonstrance, but before they could open their mouths, Qin Shi Huang assigned them the tedious errand of erecting a stone on Zhifu Island…

Well then — the meaning was clear enough: he found them too talkative and in the way, and sent them off early!

Li Si, who had arrived at the time and witnessed this scene, said not a word, but instead offered congratulations to Qin Shi Huang, as if he were quite pleased to see this happen…

Zhang Cang shook his head and sighed: "The Chancellor's counsel has always catered to His Majesty's preferences. Now that His Majesty grows daily more fascinated with seeking immortals and inquiring after the Dao, how could the Chancellor knowingly transgress and spoil His Majesty's pleasure?"

Zhang Cang knew his two senior brothers' characters perfectly well. The greatest difference between Han Fei and Li Si was, roughly, that one's ruthless cunning lay in his writings, and the other's lay in his heart; one had his own principles, and the other had no principles or bottom line whatsoever.

For Li Si, so long as he satisfied the Emperor's desires and maintained his own position, everything was negotiable.

"The Chancellor has already forgotten."

Zhang Cang was somewhat pained and indignant: "The Master once taught us: To obey orders and benefit the ruler is called compliance; to obey orders and not benefit the ruler is called sycophancy! Blindly pandering to the sovereign's whims does the state no good."

And it was not only the matter of cultivating immortality. When His Majesty the Emperor undertook grand construction projects, Li Si likewise obeyed every command without daring to dispute a single matter. That might have been tolerable when he was Commandant of Justice, but now that he held the honored post of Chancellor, such perfunctory sycophancy would likely ruin the affairs of state.

"The duty of the Chancellor has always been to follow the Dao, not the ruler." Zhang Cang was not very satisfied with Li Si's actions since taking office, and he spoke of what Xunzi considered the correct way of serving as a minister.

"One who can offer counsel to the ruler — if it is accepted, good; if not, he departs — is called a remonstrating minister."

"One who can offer counsel to the ruler — if it is accepted, good; if not, he dies — is called a contending minister."

"One who can lead the assembled ministers and officials to jointly press and correct the ruler — though the ruler may be uneasy, he cannot but listen, and thereby resolve the state's great troubles and eliminate the state's great harms, achieving the honoring of the ruler and the securing of the state — is called an assisting minister."

"One who can resist the ruler's commands, usurp the ruler's authority, and reverse the ruler's actions, in order to secure the state from peril and remove the ruler's disgrace, his feats sufficient to accomplish great benefit for the state — is called a rectifying minister."

"Thus, those who remonstrate, contend, assist, and rectify are the ministers of the altars of state, the treasures of the ruler of the nation!"

"Jizi in Yin may be called a remonstrator; Wu Zixu in Wu may be called a contender; Lord Pingyuan and Lord Xinling in Zhao and Wei may be called assisters; Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou in Shang and Zhou may be called rectifying ministers."

Having said this, Zhang Cang looked at Hei Fu: "I, Zhang Cang, am willing to be a remonstrating minister. What about you, Hei Fu?"

Hei Fu only watched the stone carving, silent and wordless…

"Right now, I still do not know!"

…

The next day, the Mount Zhifu stone inscription was fully carved. Only then did Hei Fu and Zhang Cang consider their task finished, and they took a boat back to Chui County on the opposite shore.

At the traveling palace in Chui County, from Ziying, the Fifth-Rank Grand Master who attended the Emperor's side, Hei Fu heard bad news.

"His Majesty and Anqi Sheng have been talking for three days straight! Yesterday they spoke in detail well into the night. His Majesty repeatedly edged forward on his mat, allowing Anqi Sheng to come within three paces."

"Three days!"

Zhang Cang was greatly alarmed: "What in the world has Anqi Sheng been telling His Majesty?"

Ziying said, "Nothing more than the matter of the Three Immortal Mountains. I happened to overhear a few lines at his side. Anqi Sheng said that east of the Lesser Sea there is a great abyss called Guixu, within which lie the five immortal mountains: Daiyu, Yuanjiao, Fangzhang, Yingzhou, and Penglai. In his youth, when he followed Heshang Gong in cultivating the Dao arts, he once sailed the sea seeking them. North to Shamen Island, south to Haizhongzhou, reaching as far as Zhuya. That year, sailing a boat on the Eastern Sea, he met a great storm. It wrecked his boat, wounded his body, and seized his soul. When he awoke, he saw an immortal and only then learned that a divine turtle had rescued him and brought him to Penglai, the immortal mountain…"

"Anqi Sheng said that the immortals of Penglai all have skin like ice and snow, soft and yielding like maidens. They do not eat the five grains, but breathe the wind and drink the dew. They ride the clouds and mist, drive flying dragons, and roam beyond the four seas. On the mountain, every bird and beast is white; palaces and towers are built of gold and silver. Everything resembles the mortal world, yet is different."

"The immortals kept him for several days, then had the divine turtle carry him back to the land of Qi. When Anqi Sheng came ashore, he realized that several years had passed. It turned out that one day in that perilous realm equaled one year in the mortal world! After this, Anqi Sheng went several more times to seek the Three Immortal Mountains, only to find he could never ascend them again. In truth, the distance to the Three Immortal Mountains is not far. The difficulty is that when one draws near the mountains, a sea wind always blows the boat away. Before reaching the mountains, looking from afar, they seem like a patch of white cloud. Drawing close, one sees the Three Divine Mountains are instead below the sea's surface. Whenever one wishes to land, one is always blown away by the wind and ultimately can never reach them."

"Such a bizarre tale — does Your Majesty believe it without a shred of doubt?"

Zhang Cang grew even more agitated, while Heifu merely nodded in silence, thinking to himself, "He probably ran into a mirage. He can't prove he went there, but no one can prove he didn't, either…"

Ziying said, "After entering the lands of Qi, we frequently encountered fangshi discussing spirits, strange phenomena, and bizarre arts — by the hundreds — but none as detailed as An Qisheng. His Majesty yearns for the immortals who neither eat the food of common mortals, fear neither water nor fire, ride the clouds and mists, and come and go freely. Beyond the Three Immortal Mountains, An Qisheng also recounted the tale of the Yellow Emperor casting the tripod and ascending to heaven on a dragon. After hearing it, His Majesty said…"

"Said what?" Zhang Cang pressed.

Ziying glanced left and right, then lowered his voice. "His Majesty said, 'If I could truly become like the Yellow Emperor, I would regard casting aside my wife and children as easily as kicking off a shoe. Yet I am loath to abandon the common people of the realm…'"

A shoe was just a shoe — Chen Ping had been right. If one's body were in good health, who would fear death so desperately? Heifu had heard rumors to that effect. As his body aged day by day and illness and pain grew heavier, had Qin Shi Huang's midlife crisis truly reached such a state?

And what was he loath to abandon — the realm, or the common people?

The First Emperor of Qin, who wanted both the fish and the bear's paw — in the end, would he be left with empty hands?

"As for the rest, His Majesty dismissed all attendants and spoke with An Qisheng in private. It is beyond my knowledge." With that, Ziying took his leave and departed.

At that moment, the fangshi Lu Sheng and Han Zhong happened to pass by and saluted the group.

Though their manner remained deferential, the small glint of smugness in Han Zhong's eyes when he looked at Heifu was impossible to conceal. Lu Ao's smile, too, held a profound meaning. Bringing in An Qisheng — they had wagered correctly.

This time, a truly troublesome character had arrived. With everyone else choosing to curry favor with the emperor, seeing through it all yet saying nothing — Heifu, how should you conduct yourself now?

Once they were alone, Zhang Cang stamped his foot.

"His Majesty's blind faith in the fangxian way has reached this extreme!"

After pacing in circles several times, Zhang Cang looked at the silent Heifu, and his anger flared even higher. He jabbed a finger at him and rebuked him, "Heifu, you asked why Chancellor Li says not a word while His Majesty dotes on these fangshi. Aren't you doing the exact same thing! Glib-tongued, artful in speech, skilled at currying favor with the sovereign — that is the way of a sycophantic minister. If we sit by and do nothing, what difference is there between us and Chancellor Li and those fangshi? Say something!"

Heifu merely stared fixedly at the inner chambers of the traveling palace, still ablaze with lamplight deep into the night. At this very moment, Qin Shi Huang was probably still in rapt conversation with An Qisheng about the way to immortality.

"Pitiful — at midnight, vainly leaning forward from his mat."

Heifu's sigh made Zhang Cang freeze. Within those words seemed to lie boundless regret — though whether he regretted the man, or the matter, was unclear.

"He does not ask of the common people, but questions ghosts and spirits!"

Heifu turned back and smiled at Zhang Cang, whose scalp was still tingling from this perfectly apt, cribbed couplet. "Brother Zihu, you asked me which kind of minister I intend to be — the remonstrator, the contender, the assistant, or the corrector. Very soon, you will have your answer!"

…

PS: Drank too much yesterday and haven't recovered. Just got back to Kunming from the capital, so only one chapter today.

(End of chapter)