Chapter 56: I Have Urgent Business and Must Leave First

The Master Artisan of Anlu County was named Shi — the Shi that means "fitting," the Shi of "cutting the feet to fit the shoes."

His family had originally been tanners in Shangqiu in the state of Song. According to the elders in the family, they had followed the Mohist school into Chu over a hundred years ago, though none of that mattered anymore. After entering Chu, his family had made leather for the E Jun of Chu for generations. Jing had the Cloud-Marsh, teeming with rhinoceros, wild buffalo, and elk — it could not have been more fitting for crafting armor-grade leather.

Later, when Qin seized the Jiang-Han region and established Nan Commandery, his family was registered among the Hundred Artisans and fed by the government. Because Qin had also set up a reward-and-punishment system in handicrafts, and the armor leather his family produced was of superior quality, they were rated "Best" three years in a row and were consequently awarded the rank of Gongshi. From then on, they held a status above that of other craftsmen.

By Shi's generation, the rank had already been passed down for three generations and had been repeatedly raised through meritorious service, advancing from Gongshi to Bugeng. Because of this, Shi had become the County Master Artisan. Although he was merely a Two-Hundred-Bushel official, it was the furthest limit a craftsman could ever hope to reach.

At his level, he no longer needed to cut hides or make armor leather with his own hands, yet Master Artisan Shi's daily workload had not lightened in the slightest. The County Master Artisan was the equivalent of combining a later-era county bureau of industry and commerce with a bureau of mineral resources — there were simply too many things to manage.

The first thing he had to manage well was the various government-run workshops in Anlu County.

Anlu County was a large county, with over ten thousand households needing food, clothing, shelter, and transport — the demand was enormous, so there were many workshops.

There was his family's old trade, the leather-working artisans, who processed the hides of wild beasts shipped in from the Cloud-Marsh wetlands every day, or the livestock hides collected from the various townships and villages. It must be understood that even if an ox in a village stable died, the villagers were not permitted to take the meat, hide, sinew, or horns for themselves — all of it had to be turned over to the government. The government would sell the meat publicly and hand the hide over to the workshops to be tanned, scraped, and polished. Most of these hides were cut into armor plates, then laced together into armor coats, which were sent in a steady stream to the armory for storage, to be issued to the county conscripts in time of war.

Beyond that, there were the wood-working shops that made carts and boats; the metal-working sheds that smelted and cast farming tools and weapons; and the clay-working artisans who made pottery vessels and measuring vessels of all sizes.

Among those who labored in these government workshops, aside from ordinary registered artisans, there were also many male and female convict-artisans — mostly people who had been punished for crimes and enslaved, assigned to the workshops to do the bitter, filthy work of digging ore and scraping hides.

On the first day of the twelfth month, just past daybreak, Anlu County Town was still shrouded in thick white fog when Master Artisan Shi was already up. He first went to inspect the workshops to see whether the craftsmen and convict-artisans had started work on time.

He could not afford to be careless, because a few days earlier the commandery had sent down an order from Xianyang, demanding that every county in Nan Commandery increase its production of armor coats, shields, and weapons this year — doubling the output of previous years!

The people in the Master Artisan's office all speculated privately: for the border counties to be manufacturing so many arms and armors, the King was surely about to launch a campaign against Chu — if not this year, then the next!

With military preparations at stake, Master Artisan Shi grew worried. He could guarantee the output, but the real difficulty lay in the quality of the armor and the dimensions of the weapons — meeting the standards was truly somewhat difficult.

The year before, when Nan Commandery sent inspectors, he had been fined two suits of armor because the weapons his workshops produced did not conform to the standard dimensions — over eight thousand cash gone just like that. This year the commandery's requirements were even stricter, and Master Artisan Shi had no choice but to press every workshop to work extra hours.

So as Master Artisan Shi made his rounds, he admonished the craftsmen with all earnestness: "The statutes say: 'For those who make implements of the same kind, their dimensions, length, and breadth must be equal!' When you make implements, especially weapons and measuring vessels, you must ensure the dimensions are uniform. Every item bears the name of the craftsman who made it. If anyone is careless again and the commandery inspectors find items with non-conforming dimensions, I, the Master Artisan, will trace it to the source and punish severely without leniency!"

What infuriated Master Artisan Shi the most was precisely this regulation: Qin craftsmen were required to cast and manufacture items according to the fixed standards set by Xianyang.

For example, the pottery sheng measure used locally for measuring grain had to be made using the "Shang Yang Standard Sheng" — which had been passed down in Xianyang for over a hundred years — as the template, with a volume of sixteen and one-fifth cubic cun defined as one sheng. When officials from Nan Commandery came to inspect, the error margin of Anlu's standard sheng could not exceed five percent up or down — otherwise it was a violation.

This was even more true for weapons. When making crossbow triggers, the trigger levers made by different craftsmen in Anlu County and Jingling County had to be uniform in size, so that any one of them could be fitted onto a crossbow stock made in Jiangling County.

Master Artisan Shi did not know that later generations would call this exacting, extreme craftsmanship "standardized production." All he knew was that if substandard arms and armor appeared for three consecutive years, his post as Master Artisan would be finished. Perhaps his rank would even be stripped, and he would have to go back to his family's old trade — scraping and working hides.

So when Master Artisan Shi returned to the courtyard where his office was located, and before he had even taken off his heavy winter coat, heard someone outside coming to present a "divine grain-pounding device," he was very impatient.

"Another country craftsman coming to offer a treasure?"

Qin's system of rewards and punishments was strict and clear, so those small craftsmen from the countryside often hoped that the things they presented would earn them a reward — perhaps exemption from one corvée rotation, or a few hundred cash. But people from remote, impoverished places often treated the slightest thing as a treasure, when in fact it was utterly commonplace. Master Artisan Shi had seen it too many times — how could every single thing brought in be a "He Shi Bi"?

The story of the He Shi Bi was widely known in Nan Commandery. It was something that had happened in Chu several hundred years ago: Bian He of Chu twice presented his jade disc, and both times it was deemed a fake, for which he suffered the punishment of foot-amputation and lost both his feet. Only on the third attempt was it accepted, and thus the He Shi Bi became the supreme treasure under heaven.

But Qin was not the King of Chu. As long as a person presenting an implement had not overstepped his proper duties, it had to be accepted, good or bad. Then one would kindly tell them that the thing was useless and would earn no reward, and that they should go find somewhere cool to stay.

So even though Master Artisan Shi did not want to see them, he still had the two treasure-presenters from Cloud-Marsh Township brought in — it would only waste half a ke of time.

Before long, two men came into the courtyard of the Master Artisan's office carrying an implement, drawing the eyes of all the clerks in the courtyard.

The one walking in front was a young man of seven and a half chi, wearing a brown headscarf and a black hempen robe — clearly a Gongshi. The man behind him was eight chi tall, and judging by his attire, was probably a commoner soldier or a craftsman.

After they came forward and set down the object they were carrying, the Gongshi knelt and performed an obeisance to Master Artisan Shi with practiced ease: "Gongshi Heifu of Xiyang Village, Cloud-Marsh Township, and the craftsman Yuan, pay their respects to the Master Artisan!"

Beside him, Yuan copied the gesture, kneeling clumsily.

"Heifu?"

The name seemed familiar to Master Artisan Shi. The civil clerk beside him told him that this was the fierce warrior who had become famous in the tenth month for capturing three bandits by force.

"A fine warrior indeed!"

People of that time esteemed brave warriors, and Master Artisan Shi could not help but offer a word of praise as well. His attitude toward the two of them softened a little, and he had them come inside. After checking their identification tallies and travel permits, he settled his patience and listened as Heifu began to introduce the implement they had brought to the county town.

"This humble man ventures to inform the Master Artisan: this object is called a treadle pestle, and it was made by chance by my brother-in-law."

After hearing the introduction, Master Artisan Shi could not help but grow skeptical. From ancient times to the present, grain had been pounded entirely by hand, yet these two men before him claimed that one could pound grain by treading on a wooden lever with the foot, and that it was even faster and more labor-saving.

"Can this thing truly make grain-pounding yield twice the result for half the effort?"

"Master Artisan, please look — these are the records I kept for my brother-in-law."

Heifu took out a wooden tablet and handed it over. The Master Artisan looked at it and saw that it was densely filled with records of daily grain-pounding with the treadle pestle over the past half-month and more. Each time, Heifu had watched the sun and pounded for roughly half a shichen, and the amount of grain pounded ranged from five dou to seven dou — once, they had even pounded eight dou!

The County Master Artisan grew more astonished the more he read. First, he was astonished that Heifu had kept such meticulous records, as if everything had been within his plan. Second, he doubted: could this treadle pestle really pound so much grain in half a shichen?

Qin officials valued practical results. The County Master Artisan did not waste more words asking questions; with a single order, two minor clerks brought in several male convict-artisans.

"Carry it to the county granary! Real or fake, one test will tell!"

His Master Artisan's office could not compare to the imposing official bureaus reserved for the County Deputy and County Commandant. It had only a small courtyard and a few rooms for handling business; behind the courtyard was the county granary.

The county granary not only had ready-made stone mortars and mountains of unhusked millet and rice piled high, but also nearly a hundred female convict-slaves serving out a "pounding" sentence, tasked with pounding grain.

Heifu stepped forward again to offer a suggestion: "Master Artisan, it would be best to have two female convicts of roughly the same height and strength pound grain simultaneously — one using the treadle pestle, the other using a pestle and mortar. That will make the difference more obvious."

"That makes sense."

Master Artisan Shi nodded and adopted his suggestion, then added: "You two will also go to the county granary and teach those female convicts how to use it. Everything will be clear soon enough."

Heifu's face showed difficulty. "I have not yet informed the Master Artisan: Heifu has only accompanied my brother-in-law here this time. I have urgent business and must take my leave first."

"Insolence!" Master Artisan Shi was somewhat displeased. "Since you have come here to present an implement, you should naturally wait until the result is clear. What business could you have that is so urgent? Could it be that you are in a hurry to become a clerk?" The reason he said this was that today was the first day of the twelfth month — precisely the day when the selection of officials and clerks at all levels began.

As it happened, Heifu really was in a hurry to go for an interview to become an official.

Heifu nodded helplessly and pointed toward the wall over there. "Master Artisan, I am not going far — just to the office next door."

Master Artisan Shi was taken aback. "The courtyard next door is where the Chief Clerk of this county handles his affairs. You cannot really be…"

Heifu smiled. "Indeed. I have been summoned by the county and ordered to undergo assessment by the Chief Clerk to see whether I am fit for the post of Chief of Huyang Village. The assessment is today. I beg the Master Artisan's understanding. The hour of Mo is approaching — I truly must take my leave first!"

…

PS:

"Counties, Capital Offices, and the twelve commanderies dismiss and appoint officials, assistants, and office subordinates, beginning on the first day of the twelfth month and concluding by the end of the third month." — "Statutes on Appointing Officials," from the Eighteen Types of Qin Statutes

"For those who make implements of the same kind, their dimensions, length, and breadth must also be equal." — "Statutes on Artisans," from the Eighteen Types of Qin Statutes. Well, this is the textual basis online for Qin dynasty "standardized production." As for whether it really counts as such, readers may judge for themselves.

(Begging for recommendation tickets ah-ah-ah)

PS: Someone is maliciously spamming the chapter comments. Everyone, please ignore it and do not go attack that book — just conveniently report the person spamming. I've finally found the mute option. Sigh, sorry for affecting everyone's reading mood, my apologies.

(End of Chapter)