Chapter 331: A Policy of Earnest Hearts and Practical Governance

"Xia Wanchun, Qu Changwen, Huang Yuanyao, Hou Xuyan — the four of you, come along with me for now!"

The four named men each wore different expressions; the other six who were not named breathed a momentary sigh of relief, but grew even more tense.

Huang Yuanyao and Hou Xuyan rose directly and followed the speaking eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, Li Fengxiang, without any change in expression.

Xia Wanchun glanced at the somewhat flustered Qu Changwen, gave him a reassuring look, rose and straightened his clothes, then followed closely behind Huang Yuanyao and Hou Xuyan. Qu Changwen, rather nervous, took a deep breath to steel himself before rising and trailing along step by step.

No matter how they comported themselves in the moment, to claim they felt not a shred of nervousness would be utterly impossible — after all, they were about to meet the Great Ming Emperor, that Son of Heaven who held the supreme seat of honor.

In this age, scholars paid lip service to state and country, to home and dynasty, yet everything they spoke of was utterly inseparable from the Emperor; as for men of arms, let alone — how many cried out that they would die fighting for the Great Ming, for the Emperor?

The Emperor, to many people, had always been a distant yet resounding title; countless men spent their entire lives without ever laying eyes on the Emperor's face.

The four men gazed at the palace's resplendent adornments and felt no sense of extravagance — including Xia Wanchun, they all beheld the majesty of the Great Ming imperial palace and felt instead a sense of solemn sanctity.

The imperial house ought to have such a palace; this was no act of extravagance, but precisely what distinguished the Celestial Dynasty from petty states like the Tatars on its borders.

After leading the four tribute scholars to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Li Fengxiang waved his hand to signal the eunuchs and palace maids standing in attendance to withdraw. Only after they had all departed did he chuckle a few times and back out last himself.

"Your minister Xia Wanchun pays respects to Your Majesty — ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years!"

The four were of equal standing at this moment, with no order of precedence; they entered the hall abreast and performed the ritual together, all in one smooth motion.

Gazing at the four men before his very eyes, the Chongzhen Emperor wore a beaming smile, looking kindly and approachable, as if regarding his own sons.

No joke — these were the cream of the crop, sifted layer by layer from several thousand juren; in later ages they would be the top scorers of the college entrance examination, every one of them a talent.

Yet Chongzhen harbored doubts as well — this imperial examination still used the old "eight-legged essay selection," and the eight-legged essay was a thing of utterly no use. Though these men before him had excelled in their results, whether they could actually prove useful once placed in real positions remained an open question.

Chongzhen also thought it a pity — had this reform not been so hasty, and had the imperial examination, that institution which had endured for a thousand years, not been so immovable for the moment, the Chongzhen Emperor would not have continued using an examination he knew full well could not select the talents he urgently needed.

At that, the Chongzhen Emperor picked up the first man's examination paper. He glanced at the dense rows of small characters, set it down, and asked casually:

"Regarding what you have seen and heard across the realm at present, and the merits and faults of civil and military officials — is there anything you wish to tell me?"

The first to be questioned was Qu Changwen. Though panic gripped his heart, he knew this might be the only chance in his life to face the Son of Heaven directly. Trembling, he stepped out of the ranks and spoke with a quavering voice:

"To answer Your Majesty, your minister has heard that when a sovereign rules over the realm, he must have substantive governance to administer, and only then can he restrain the masses, manage ten thousand affairs, and achieve an age of harmony and prosperity; he must have a sincere heart to lead by example, and only then can he temper the hundred offices, revitalize all matters, and attain the height of supreme order."

After Qu Changwen spoke a few lines, Chongzhen found them reasonable and waved his hand to signal him to continue.

Qu Changwen had been nervous throughout; the Chongzhen Emperor's attentive listening and occasional nods brought him great comfort, allowing him to relax slightly, and so he continued:

"Establish the guiding principles, rectify the laws and statutes, hang them at the gates of the court, inscribe them in the ordinances — foremost in the halls of government, spreading through the various ministries and hundred offices, reaching to the commanderies, kingdoms, and distant shores; warp and weft them, from the grand to the minute, from the vast to the trivial, nothing left unprovided, filled and sealed with rigor, without the slightest leak — this is what it means."

Having said this much, Qu Changwen paused in thought, seeming to steel himself with great resolve, then gritted his teeth and said: "My father often said that the ministers of this age have all lost their sincere hearts — yet what is a sincere heart?"

"To rouse the indolent, to sharpen the diligent, to issue forth from within the depths of the mind, to arise from the secret places of the heart, to begin within the tranquil palace, to spread through the capital and its domains, to pour into the borderlands and farthest corners; steep and soak them, so that spirit and thought flow unimpeded, and flesh and form suffer no blockage — this is what it means."

At this moment, Qu Changwen seemed a changed man, speaking in an unbroken torrent, as if he had even forgotten the Chongzhen Emperor seated above.

"When substantive governance is set forth, then subordinates have that which they receive and obey, the common people have that which they model themselves upon; ears and eyes are unified, what is seen and heard is not confounded, without the worry of scattering and drifting — and the instruments of rule shine forth. When the sincere heart is established, then offices have that which they silently comprehend, the masses have that which they secretly trust; spirit and intent carry through, standards are not transgressed, without the affliction of fragmentation and sloth — and the root of governance is made firm."

"With these instruments of rule, one does not merely drive the realm by force, but also shows the realm what is upheld; mutual restraint and mutual checks, and harmony and prosperity gradually arrive. With this root of governance, one does not merely manipulate the realm by rhetoric, but also enlightens the realm by spirit; mutual emulation and mutual encouragement, and supreme order arrives without strain."

"From antiquity, sovereigns who ruled without leaving the hall yet transformed the realm with the speed of wind, who never left the court yet received responses like an echo to a drum — they used this very way. Thereafter, those who prized purity and tranquility ruled from deep within while the nine offices performed their duties — this was indeed governing with a sincere heart and substantive measures."

When he finished, the Chongzhen Emperor suddenly felt this young man was promising material — not only had he, in history, died for the state alongside his father, but his head also understood the ills of current policy, and he dared to speak them before the Emperor's very face. Truly rare.

In fact, the "sincere heart and substantive governance" policy Qu Changwen had just spoken of was precisely the root source of the gradual corruption of officialdom.

In the early years of Chongzhen, when the roving bandits were first rising in Shaanxi, the starting point was "officials forcing the people to rebel" — knowing full well the people had reaped no harvest, county magistrates and petty tyrants at the bottom still levied exorbitant taxes without mercy. That was the origin of the Shaanxi popular uprising.

Beyond that, lower officials, fearing responsibility, turned a blind eye and deaf ear — some even said, "wait, the bandits will scatter on their own by next spring." Those above knew it in their hearts but mostly winked and let it pass, unwilling to expend effort on such matters.

Even if an official somewhere reported the matter up the chain, no policy would come down for half a month or even several months; and even when policy did come down, the popular uprising had long since grown from a single spark into a prairie fire. This was what Qu Changwen meant by "substantive governance" not reaching down.

A sincere heart, in other words, was the true intent of an official in nurturing the people; substantive governance was the fundamental solution to what did not reach up above or down below.

Even Xia Wanchun had not expected that a man so conservative in daily life would, when facing the Emperor in the palace examination, speak such extraordinarily bold words.

But to be fair, Qu Changwen had not spoken a single false word — the officialdom of the present day had long ceased to be the incorruptible place everyone once aspired to; every one of them wore a human face over a beast's heart.

Just as Xia Wanchun was nodding repeatedly at Qu Changwen's answer, the Chongzhen Emperor turned his gaze to him and asked again:

"Xia Wanchun, give me your views."

Hearing this, Xia Wanchun immediately stepped out of the ranks, bowed with full respect, and said: "To answer Your Majesty, in the current situation, the Dashing bandit holds sole dominance in Shaanxi, the lands of Henan have entirely fallen, Sichuan is lost to the Western bandit, the Qing slaves have usurped the region east of the Liao, and with the reform of commercial taxes, Jiangnan has already produced seditious talk — this is no ordinary time."

"Across the four seas, the destitute people — nine houses in ten are empty. It is not that relief and succor have not been proclaimed, but the suffering and helpless have no one to appeal to, for the imperial grace has not been made known; and the embezzlers block it. The hidden and obscure have not reached the throne, for the plunderers obstruct them. As Changwen said, for every ten spent above, not one reaches below. A cup of water against a cartload of firewood — relief cannot be sustained; and when it fails and the people rise again, the momentum is often even fiercer."

"Why not severely punish the crime of private encroachment and audit the ledgers of expenditures?"