Part 11 (1/2)

w.a.n.g Mien had not in fact gone far at all, and soon he came strolling home. Thoroughly annoyed, Old Ch'in came up to him and said, ”You were altogether too willful just now. He is the head of the whole county. How could you be so insolent?”

”Good sir,” said w.a.n.g Mien, ”please sit down. I have something to tell you. The magistrate, backed by Wei Su's power, has been maltreating our peasants every way he can. Why should I have anything to do with such a person? The thing is that when he goes back he's sure to say something to Wei Su. If Wei Su takes offense at the insult, he'll be looking to settle scores with me, I'm afraid. So for now I'll bid you goodbye, get my things together, and go away to keep out of trouble, though leaving my mother alone at home makes me uneasy.”

”Son,” said w.a.n.g Mien's mother, ”you have been selling your art work for years. Out of that I've saved forty or fifty taels of silver. So I won't be wanting for the basics. And though I'm old, my health is good. I can't see any reason why you shouldn't get out of the way for a while. Besides, you haven't committed any crime. The officers aren't going to come and take me away!”

”She has a point,” said Old Ch'in. ”Moreover, your talents will go unrecognized buried in this village town. Take yourself off to some important place where you may meet your fortune. As for your most honorable mother-I'll be responsible for everything at home while you're gone.” w.a.n.g Mien thanked Old Ch'in with clasped hands upraised. The farmer went back to his house to fetch some wine and delicacies, and with these he bid a fitting farewell to w.a.n.g Mien. They spent half the night celebrating before Old Ch'in went home.

The next day before dawn, w.a.n.g Mien got up and collected his things. Old Ch'in arrived as he was finis.h.i.+ng breakfast. w.a.n.g Mien bid his mother a respectful goodbye, and mother and son, shedding tears, parted hands. w.a.n.g Mien slipped on his hemp shoes, set his pack on his back, and went to the village entrance. Carrying a small white lantern, Old Ch'in accompanied him. The two men wept. Old Ch'in, lantern in hand, stood watching w.a.n.g Mien until he was out of sight.

Exposed to the elements, stopping every twenty or thirty miles at hostels, w.a.n.g Mien traveled straight to the city of Tsinan, capital of Shantung. Though Shantung is a northern, hence a poorer, province, Tsinan is populous and prosperous. When w.a.n.g Mien arrived his money had all been spent, so he had to rent a small dwelling attached to the front of a convent. There he read the stars and told people's fortunes. He also painted a few soft-shape lotus blossoms, which he put up for sale to pa.s.sersby. His work was so popular that he could not keep the crowds away.

Snap your fingers; half a year pa.s.sed. There were some vulgar plutocrats in the city who prized w.a.n.g Mien's pictures and were always eager to buy them. Of course these wealthy men did not come personally; they sent their lackeys, who shouted and called out orders and made such a commotion that w.a.n.g Mien had no peace. When he could bear it no longer, he painted a huge ox and pasted it up together with some barbed verses. He knew this would lead to trouble and began thinking about moving on.

One day in the clear early dawn he was sitting in his room when he was amazed to see a great crowd of men and women shrieking and wailing as they moved down the street. In the baskets that hung from their shoulder poles, some had pots and household things and some had children. All were gaunt and ragged. They streamed past, rank after rank, filling up the street. Some sat on the ground and begged. Asked why they were here, they said they had come from the s.h.i.+res and counties along the Yellow River. Their fields and homes had been swept away, they said, when the river broke through the dikes and flooded the countryside. They were ordinary folk fleeing a disaster for which the government had no concern. So they could only take to the road to survive.

w.a.n.g Mien could not stand to watch them. ”The river is overflowing north,” he said with a sigh, ”and the world enters a period of great disorder. What's the point in remaining here?” He gathered up what money he had, tied his things together in a bundle, and went back home. It was only when he reached the border of his home province that he learned Wei Su was back in the capital and the magistrate had been promoted. So it was safe to return home and pay respects to his mother.

He was glad to find her hale as ever. She told him of the many kindnesses Old Ch'in had shown her. Quickly unpacking, w.a.n.g Mien took a bolt of silk and some dried persimmon to Old Ch'in to show his grat.i.tude. The farmer prepared a homecoming celebration, and afterwards w.a.n.g Mien chanted poems, made pictures, and took care of his mother as he had done before.

Six years went by. w.a.n.g Mien's mother, now old and unwell, kept to her bed. w.a.n.g Mien tried every kind of cure and doctor-to no avail. One day his mother gave him the following advice: ”I can see that I am past saving. Now, these few years people have been bending my ears saying that since you are so learned I should encourage you to go and become an official. No doubt that would reflect well on your ancestors. And yet these officials never seem to come to a good end. With your proud spirit, the outcome would be dreadful if you got yourself in trouble. So my son, heed these last words-take a wife and raise a family; care for my grave-and don't become an official. That way I can die in peace, eyes and mouth closed.”

w.a.n.g Mien tearfully a.s.sented. His mother drew her last few soft breaths and went home to the heavens. The grieving son pounded his bosom and stamped his feet and gave voice to his sorrow, and his cries moved the neighbors to tears. He asked Old Ch'in to help prepare the burial clothes and the coffin. w.a.n.g Mien himself carried the earth to make the grave mound, and for the required twenty-five months he ”slept on earth and hemp” in mourning.

Hardly a year after the ceremonial mourning ended, a great revolution broke out. The anti-Mongol leader Fang Kuo-chen seized Chekiang province, Chang s.h.i.+h-ch'eng seized Suchou, and Ch'en Yu-liang seized the Hupei-Hunan region. But these three were only bandit-heroes. The founder of the Ming Dynasty was to be Chu Yuan-chang,* the Great Imperial Ancestor, who raised an army at Chuyang, captured Nanking, and established himself as the king of Wu. His righteous legions smashed the bandit-hero Fang Kuo-chen and gave him command of all Chekiang, and the villages and towns knew peace.

One day at noon as w.a.n.g Mien was returning home after the ceremonial sweeping of his mother's grave, he was surprised to see a dozen hors.e.m.e.n heading into his village. The man in the lead wore an army cap on his head and a military tunic. With his light, clear face and three-strand whiskers, he had the marks of a true Chinese sovereign. The man dismounted at w.a.n.g Mien's gate, greeted him courteously, and said, ”May I trouble you with a question? Where is the home of Master w.a.n.g Mien?”

”Your humble servant,” replied w.a.n.g Mien. ”This poor home is mine.”

”Marvelous,” said the man, ”for it is you I come to greet.” He ordered his men to dismount, picket their horses by the lakeside willows, and take up posts outside the cottage. The leader alone took w.a.n.g Mien by the hands and went with him indoors, where they seated themselves as host and guest and exchanged further amenities.

w.a.n.g Mien said, ”I dare not inquire your most respected name and t.i.tle and why you have favored this remote village with a visit.”

”I am named Chu,” replied the man. ”I have raised armies throughout southeast China and previously held the t.i.tle king of Chuyang. Now that I have taken Nanking, I am known as the king of Wu.* I have come to conquer the forces of the bandit-hero Fang Kuo-chen, and wish in particular to pay my respects to you.”

”Oh! Simple villager that I am, to lack the eyes to see! So it's really Your Highness! How dare a foolish peasant take Your Grace out of his way?”

”This poor orphan,”a said the king of Wu, ”is a crude, rough fellow. But now that I see your air of learning, my thoughts of worldly fame and merit seem to vanish. All during my campaigns I have held your name in esteem. Today I come to pay respectful call in hopes of receiving your instruction, Master. Since the people of Chekiang have long been in rebellion, what can be done to win their hearts and minds?”

”Needless for a peasant to tell it to a man of enlightenment and foresight like Your Majesty,” replied w.a.n.g Mien. ”If the basic principles of humanity and rect.i.tude be used to win the people's loyalty, who in the whole world could hold out against you? If you conquer our weak people by force, their sense of rect.i.tude will keep them from the disgrace of submission. Look what happened to Fang Kuo-chen!”

The king of Wu sighed deeply and nodded in approval, and the two spoke together until the sun went down. The king's followers had brought dry rations of cooked grain with them, and w.a.n.g Mien went himself to the kitchen to bake a good helping of cakes and fry up a plate of leeks. He served the king and then joined him for the supper, after which the king thanked w.a.n.g Mien for his wise advice and left on horseback.

The same day Old Ch'in returned from town and asked about the visitor. But w.a.n.g Mien never said exactly who had come, only that it was an army officer with whom he had made friends when he was in Shantung.

A few years later the king of Wu calmed the catastrophic turmoil in the world and reestablished the sacred cauldron in Nanking-symbol of the continuity of the most ancient dynastic heritage. The realm was united. The new dynasty was called Great Ming, and the emperor's reign t.i.tle was ”Overwhelming Might.” All over the land the peasantry worked in peace and contentment.

In the fourth year of Overwhelming Might, Old Ch'in went into the city and returned to tell w.a.n.g Mien, ”His Honor Wei Su has answered for his crimes and has been sent into exile. I brought a copy of the whole notice to show you.” Thus w.a.n.g Mien learned that after surrendering to the Ming forces, Wei Su had claimed that he had been the new emperor's loyal va.s.sal all along. The emperor was so furious that he exiled Wei Su to Ho-chou, where he was a.s.signed to tend the tomb of a famous general of the Mongol reign.

Another doc.u.ment that Old Ch'in brought back was the regulations of the Board of Rites governing the selection of officials. As before, there would be an examination requiring formal essays on the Confucian cla.s.sics every third year. ”Actually,” said w.a.n.g Mien, ”these rules are awful. Whenever scholars have this route to fame and glory, they do not take a serious approach to the correct principles for composition, conduct, official service, and seclusion.”

As they spoke evening came on. It was early summer, and the weather was unexpectedly warm. Old Ch'in set out a table in a clearing for thres.h.i.+ng wheat, and the two men enjoyed a supper with a little wine. Then the moon stole up from the east, making everything glisten like an endless expanse of gla.s.s. Not a sound came from the sleeping seagulls and resting cormorants. w.a.n.g Mien held his cup in his left hand and pointed to the stars with his right. ”Look,” he said, ”the constellation Shackles will cross Literary Splendor. Things will not go smoothly for this generation of scholars.”

As w.a.n.g Mien was speaking, a sudden wind sprang up and knifed through the trees with an ominous hiss, scaring the water-fowl into croaking flight. Old Ch'in and w.a.n.g Mien covered their faces in fear. But soon the wind died down, and when they opened their eyes they saw something amazing: hundreds of little stars were streaming from every direction down toward the southeast corner of the sky. ”Heaven may have pity on us yet,” said w.a.n.g Mien, ”sending down this troop of star-princes to maintain the fortunes of the scholars-but not in our lifetimes.” They cleared the table and went separately home.

From then on, talk was heard that the Ming government had sent orders to the Chekiang governor to draft w.a.n.g Mien into the ranks of officials. At first w.a.n.g Mien did not take the rumors seriously, but the talk only increased. And so, without telling Old Ch'in, w.a.n.g Mien quietly gathered his belongings and slipped away by night to the K'uaichi Mountains.

Half a year later the Ming court actually sent an official with an imperial summons. He was attended by many men and brought splendid gifts. He arrived at Old Ch'in's gate and found a man now past eighty years of age, his beard and sideburns silvery white, hands gripping a staff. The imperial messenger extended his courtesies and Old Ch'in ushered him into the cottage. ”Is Master w.a.n.g Mien in this hamlet?” the messenger asked. ”The Imperial Grace grants him the office of Consulting Military Adviser. I have come expressly to present the imperial written command.”

”He's from our village,” replied Old Ch'in, ”but it's been a long time since I knew his whereabouts.” Old Ch'in offered some tea and then led the official to w.a.n.g Mien's home. He pushed open the gate. Spiders and webs filled the rooms; brambles and weeds covered the paths. The official could see for himself that w.a.n.g Mien had been gone a long time. With a sad sigh, the messenger took his doc.u.ment back to the capital to report on his mission.

w.a.n.g Mien lived in obscurity in the K'uaichi Mountains, taking care never to reveal his ident.i.ty. Some time later, he took sick and pa.s.sed on. His neighbors collected a little money and buried him at the foot of the mountains. That same year Old Ch'in also reached his mortal term. It's strange, but these days writers and scholars speak of w.a.n.g Mien as Consulting Military Adviser, though in all honesty, when did he serve in office even for a single day? That's why I have tried to set the record straight.

-Wu Ching-tzu.

*The Mongols, who ruled China for three generations, were overthrown in 1368, when the Ming Dynasty was established and China once again came fully under Chinese rule. This book opens with the period just before the Mongol defeat, and the Chinese officials it portrays were later denounced as collaborators.

* One of China's most famous statesman-poets, he lived in the late fourth to early third centuries, B.C. When his king did not accept his principled advice, he drowned himself in the Milo River in Hunan.

*See ”The Tiger Behind the Fox,” this page.

*When the Ming Dynasty was established in 1368, it ended over two and a half centuries of political dominance by non-Chinese. In 1644 the non-Chinese Manchu dynasty, the Ch'ing, was established. It fell in the Republican Revolution of 1911. This novel was written toward the middle of the eighteenth century, that is, at the height of Manchu rule, when Ming loyalism was regarded as sedition.

*Wu was an ancient name for southeast China.

aThis was the conventional way for a Chinese king to refer to himself.

Nature.

The ground is held in place by the major mountains. It has the rocks for bones, the rivers for veins, and the vegetation for its coat. Its flesh is the earth-the top two and a half feet of soil that things grow in. Beneath lies the ground itself.

-Chang Hua.

Civilization.

In the southern corner of the extreme west is the great primitive gra.s.sland surrounded by lands unknown. There the vital forces of the universe, the yin and the yang, do not interchange, so there is no contrast of heat and cold. No light of sun or moon s.h.i.+nes on it, so there is neither day nor night. The people do not eat or wear clothes but sleep most of the time, waking only once every fifty days. They believe that what they do in their dreams is real and what they do when awake is unreal.

The focal point within the four seas is our middle kingdom of China. Straddling the Yellow River north and south and extending over the Tai Mountains east and west, it contains many thousands of square miles. Its measure of yin and yang has been carefully determined, so it has equal seasons of cold and heat. The division of light and dark has been made with discernment, so there is equal day and night. Its people vary in intelligence. All things grow and multiply. All manner of talents and skills are found there. A king and his officers preside over them. Tradition and law sustain them. Their world is full of any number of things! They sleep and wake in regular order. They regard what they do when awake as real and what they see in dreams as unreal.

In the northern corner of the extreme east there is a land called the hill settlements, where the climate is habitually punis.h.i.+ng. The sun and moon stay close to the horizon, and their light is weak. Most crops do not grow in the soil. The people live on roots and legumes and are ignorant of cooking. They are hard and ruthless by nature, and the stronger exploit the weaker. They honor superior force, not social ethics. Most of the time they are on the move and rarely rest. And they are always awake; they do not sleep at all.

-Lieh Tzu.

A Note on the Translation and Transcription of Chinese.