Chapter 7: Xi

At dusk that day, in the county jail's main hall within the official compound of Anlu County, the Assistant Magistrate of Anlu finally finished his day's work and lifted his head from the mountain of bamboo slips. Just as he was massaging his aching neck, a clerk at the door reported that the Prison Scribe, Xi, had returned.

"Back so soon?"

The Assistant Magistrate was instantly overjoyed. He hurriedly straightened his robes and cap, and actually intended to go out and greet him personally.

Under the Qin state system, the county was headed by the Magistrate, who governed from the county temple, bore a bronze seal with a black ribbon, and held a rank of six hundred shi. The Assistant Magistrate was the deputy, governing from the county jail, bearing a bronze seal with a yellow ribbon, and holding a rank of four hundred shi.

The Assistant Magistrate's duty was to assist the Magistrate in managing administrative affairs, equivalent to a later-era deputy county head and chief justice rolled into one. The Prison Scribe, however, was merely a subordinate officer under the Assistant Magistrate in charge of litigation and criminal cases — equivalent to a presiding judge. As his superior, there was really no need to go out and greet him in person.

But the Anlu Assistant Magistrate knew very well that this "Xi" was no ordinary subordinate. This man had served many years in Anlu County as a clerk and ordinance officer, long reputed to be capable and efficient. Later he had been transferred to the neighboring Yan County as Prison Scribe, responsible for legal interpretation and enforcement, and his reputation for impartial enforcement of the law had even spread back to Anlu.

In the fifteenth year of King Zheng of Qin's reign, Xi had again cast aside the brush to take up arms, joining the Qin campaign against the state of Zhao, garrisoning Pingyang and earning merit. He was promoted from the rank of Bugeng to the fifth rank, "Grand Master" — though this Grand Master was a different concept from the Grand Masters of the Spring and Autumn period, merely a middling noble rank, nothing lofty. Afterward, Xi was laterally transferred by the Grand Administrator of Nan Commandery back to Anlu County, where public order was extremely poor, to serve as Prison Scribe, in hopes that he could restrain lawlessness.

Over the past few years, although Xi worked diligently and conscientiously, with not a single case of injustice on his hands, he also had no particularly dazzling achievements. So the Anlu Assistant Magistrate had initially treated him as just an ordinary subordinate.

It was not until the seventh month of this year, when Xi's mother passed away from illness and Xi returned to his hometown to bury her and observe mourning, that the Assistant Magistrate discovered to his shock that without Xi's assistance, his own workload had more than tripled! The other subordinate officers' handling of trials, crime-scene examinations, and official reports was nowhere near as thorough as Xi's, and many mistakes had cropped up.

Come to think of it, that made sense. In the whole of Anlu County, where else could one find a model official like Xi, who could copy out the entire Qin legal code stroke by stroke and recite it backwards from memory?

The Anlu Assistant Magistrate came to a sudden realization: so Xi was his right-hand man in governing the criminal cases of Anlu — he absolutely could not afford to slight him.

Once outside, the Assistant Magistrate spotted Xi's figure from a long way off and laughed heartily: "At last, I have been waiting for you, sir!"

"How could this humble officer dare let the Assistant Magistrate greet him in person? You overwhelm me."

Xi was born in the forty-fifth year of King Zhao of Qin, making him thirty-six this year. His hair was jet-black and bound in a topknot, with two arrow-shaped whiskers above his lip. He wore a narrow-sleeved, long robe — the standard dress of a civil clerk. Seeing the Assistant Magistrate come out to greet him, he hurriedly bowed with clasped hands, protesting that he dared not accept such treatment.

The Assistant Magistrate helped Xi up and found him just the same as ever: a bamboo scroll always tucked inside his robes, convenient for reading during meals or carriage rides, his fingers perpetually stained with ink — who knew how many legal statutes he copied in a single day?

"Sir Xi, you truly haven't changed one bit," the Assistant Magistrate thought with emotion.

The two men walked hand in hand back into the hall. The Assistant Magistrate expressed his condolences over the bereavement in Xi's family, but Xi had long since emerged from the pain of losing his mother. This workaholic did not waste time on pleasantries with his superior; he cut straight to the point, bringing up the case he had encountered today while passing through Huyang Ward, and asked the Assistant Magistrate who should be put in charge of it.

The Assistant Magistrate furrowed his brow. The matter involved a Ward Chief knowingly breaking the law — somewhat tricky. Moreover, these past two months he had been buried in paperwork and was only too eager for Xi to come back and share the workload. Stroking his beard, he said: "Since it is a case you encountered on the road, and the common soldier Heifu came to you of his own accord to report it, let you preside over the trial. What do you say?"

"Xi will by no means decline!"

Xi was a man of few hobbies, but he had a singular passion for trying cases and copying the Qin legal code. Any difficult case could be readily resolved in his hands. Having had no contact with criminal cases for over two months, Xi felt ill at ease all over. He was like a steel blade gone rusty, urgently in need of a case to hone himself against.

That said, setting aside the Ward Chief's official status, the case encountered today was not complicated in itself. As for how to conduct the trial, Xi already had a strategy in mind, and he requested instructions from the Assistant Magistrate:

"In my view, this case can be split in two. First, the merchant Bao's self-report of a robbery by bandits. Second, the common soldier Heifu and Ji Ying's self-report that the Huyang Ward Chief, the thief-catcher, and others attempted to seize credit and defraud rewards… Only once the crimes of the bandits and the circumstances of their capture in the former case are established can the latter case be tried."

Much like filing a lawsuit in later ages, litigation and trial in Qin followed a fixed procedure. For a case to enter this procedure, someone first had to lodge an accusation, which would serve as the starting point of a trial. If the victim themselves lodged the accusation, it was called a "self-report," equivalent to the "plaintiff" of later times.

Xi added that the three bandits were now detained in the county jail, and physicians had been arranged to treat the wounded bandits and stop their bleeding. The self-reporters and the accused in both cases had also all been brought back by him, and the case could formally be opened very soon!

"Sir Xi is truly swift and decisive. With you handling matters, I am at ease." The Assistant Magistrate was thoroughly satisfied, and he contentedly washed his hands of the affair, leaving Xi to make his own decisions…

…

After taking leave of the Assistant Magistrate, Xi hurried without pause to his own office. His two subordinates, the Ordinance Officer "Nu" and the Jail Clerk "Yue," had long been waiting there for him.

The names of his subordinates were a coincidence. Yue often joked to Nu that if they could find someone named "Ai" to serve as their scribe, their little office would have assembled all four emotions: joy, anger, sorrow, and delight.

Xi, however, had no time for jokes. As he wrote out the "Procedural Forms for Sealing and Examination" — that is, the trial principles and procedures for this case — on his desk, he said: "You should know that before the trial begins, the names, identities, and places of origin of the offenders and the self-reporters must first be established."

The two men nodded: "That goes without saying."

Xi then gave his instructions: "Nu, your face is fierce and your voice stern, enough to make men tremble. You will be responsible for questioning the three bandits. Intimidate them a little."

"Yue, your face is kindly and your voice pleasant. You will be responsible for questioning the three self-reporters. Put them at ease so they do not panic, and have them wait calmly for the trial."

Nu and Yue hastened to assent. From the moment they learned their superior had returned, they understood that their days of grinding overtime had come again. Fortunately, this Prison Scribe Xi was vastly experienced in handling cases, and he knew exactly what methods to use on what sort of person — he had it all worked out in his mind.

"As for that Huyang Ward Chief and the thief-catcher and the rest…"

Xi set down his brush, raised his head, and said coldly: "As a Ward Chief, he knowingly broke the law — clearly a man of reckless audacity. I hear his family also has some backing. You two likely cannot handle him. Let me go and meet with him personally."

Nu and Yue murmured their assent, saying they would go and attend to these matters first thing tomorrow morning.

"Tomorrow morning?"

Xi shook his head and said: "It seems that in the two months I have been away, you two have grown quite slack."

He stood up and began to lecture the pair: "As far back as Lord Shang's reforms, it was required that the authorities must finish the day's public business on that very day, and not delay it overnight!"

Nu and Yue felt their scalps prickle. The person their superior admired most was Lord Shang; he liked to emulate him in all things and never spoke without invoking his name.

Sure enough, Xi pointed a finger upward and quoted a saying of Shang Yang's.

"Lord Shang said: 'He who governs by day shall be king; he who governs by night shall be strong; he who governs by the morrow shall be diminished!'"

A state that can finish all its administrative affairs that very day will be able to claim kingship over all under heaven; if it drags on until that night to finish, the state can still be strong; but if it drags past the night and puts it off until tomorrow, such a state will be weakened!

He spoke with earnest gravity: "We are but petty local officers. Though we dare not claim that what we do can help our great king rule all under heaven, nor can we claim it will make the state of Qin mighty and prosperous — yet at the very least, we must not let our own slackness cause the state to be diminished…"

Nu and Yue looked at each other. Wasn't this just about working overtime? How had it turned into a matter of national importance?

In truth, there was one more thing Xi did not say aloud.

He had already heard that this Huyang Ward Chief who had committed the crime was actually the nephew of the county's Left Commandant!

Under the Qin system, large counties established both a Right and a Left Commandant, in charge of bandit suppression and military conscription. The Left Commandant was the fourth-highest official in Anlu County, ranking above Xi. The reason the Assistant Magistrate had handed this case to Xi to try was precisely because he feared making an enemy of the Left Commandant.

The Left Commandant's family had deep roots in Anlu County and kept a wide circle of retainers and guests. If Xi could not handle this case swiftly, he feared the long night would breed many troubles, giving people room to manipulate matters and engage in favoritism and fraud!

With this in mind, Xi snatched up the brush and the paring knife from his desk and strode out the door.

"No need to wait until tomorrow. Nu, Yue, you two will accompany me out at once. We shall hold the trial through the night!"

PS: For Xi's biography, see the "Annals."

The names of the two petty officers are a tribute to "National Treasure," though the real Xi was probably a very serious workaholic, not the comical figure played by Sa Beining.

(End of chapter)