Part 7 (1/2)
”Sire, all you have to do is to stab lightly. The dagger has been soaked in poison. A slight p.r.i.c.k is enough to end my life.”
King Zheng sat still and raised his hands to signal the guards rus.h.i.+ng into the Great Hall to stop. Without changing his expression, he said, ”I do not have to kill you to feel safe. Your words have convinced me that you do not have the heart of an a.s.sa.s.sin.”
In a single, smooth motion, Jing Ke wrapped the fingers of his right hand around the handle of the dagger. The tip of the dagger was aimed at his own chest as though he was about to commit suicide.
”You're a learned man.” King Zheng's voice was cold. ”Dying now would be a waste. I'd like to have your skills and knowledge a.s.sisting my army. If you insist on dying, do so only after you've accomplished some things for me first.” He waved at Jing Ke, dismissing him.
The a.s.sa.s.sin from Yan gently put the dagger down on the table, and still bowing, backed out of the Great Hall.
King Zheng stood up and walked out of the Great Hall. The sky was perfectly clear and he saw the pale white moon in the blue sky like a delicate dream left behind by the night.
”Jing Ke,” he called after the a.s.sa.s.sin still descending the steps. ”Does the moon appear during the day often?”
The a.s.sa.s.sin's white robe reflected the sunlight like a bright flame. ”It's not unusual to have the sun and the moon appear in the sky simultaneously. On the lunar calendar, between the fourth and twelfth days of each month, it's possible to see the moon at different times during the day as long as the weather is good.”
King Zheng nodded. ”Oh, not an uncommon sight,” he muttered to himself.
Two years later, King Zheng summoned Jing Ke to an audience.
When Jing Ke arrived outside the palace in Xianyang, he saw three officials being marched out of the Great Hall by armed guards. Having been stripped of the insignia of their rank, their heads were bare. Two of them walked between the guards with faces drained of blood while the third was so frightened that he could no longer walk and had to be carried by two soldiers. This last man continued to mumble, begging King Zheng to spare his life. Jing Ke heard him muttering the word ”medicine” a few times. He guessed that the three men had been sentenced to death.
King Zheng's mood was jovial when he saw Jing Ke, as though nothing had happened. He pointed to the three departing officials and said, by way of explanation, ”Xu Fu's fleet has never returned from the East Sea. Someone has to be held responsible.”
Jing Ke knew that Xu Fu was an occultist who claimed that he could go to three magical mountains on islands out in the East Sea to find the elixir of eternal life. King Zheng gave him a large fleet of s.h.i.+ps loaded with three thousand youths and maidens and heaped with treasure, gifts for the immortals that held the secret of eternal life. But the fleet had set sail three years ago, and not a peep had been heard from him since.
King Zheng waved the sore topic away. ”I hear that you've invented many wonders in the last couple years. The new bow you designed can shoot twice as far as the old models; the war chariots you devised are equipped with clever springs to ride smoothly over rough ground without having to slow down; the bridges whose construction you supervised use only half as much material, but are even stronger-I'm very pleased. How did you come up with these ideas?”
”When I follow the order of the Heavens, all things are possible.”
”Xu Fu said the same thing.”
”Sire, please permit me to be blunt. Xu Fu is nothing more than a fraud. Casting lots and empty meditation are not appropriate ways to understand the order of the universe. Men like him cannot understand the way the Heavens speak at all.”
”What is the language of the Heavens then?”
”Mathematics. Numbers and shapes are the means by which the Heavens write to the world.”
King Zheng nodded thoughtfully. ”Interesting. So what are you working on now?”
”I'm always striving to understand more of the Heavens' messages for Your Majesty.”
”Any progress?”
”Yes, some. At times, I even feel I'm standing right in front of the door to the treasury filled with the secrets of the universe.”
”How do the Heavens tell you these mysteries? Just now, you explained that the language of the Heavens consists of numbers and shapes.”
”The circle.”
Seeing that King Zheng was utterly confused, Jing Ke asked for and received permission to pick up a brush. He drew a circle on the silk cloth spread out on the low table. Though he didn't use a compa.s.s or other tools to a.s.sist him, the circle appeared to be perfect.
”Sire, other than objects made by men, have you ever seen a perfect circle in nature?”
King Zheng pondered this for a moment. ”Very rarely. Once, a falcon and I stared at each other, and I noticed that its eyes were very round.”
”Yes, that's true. I can also suggest as examples eggs laid by certain aquatic creatures, the intersecting plane between a dewdrop and a leaf, and so on. But I've carefully measured all of these, and none of them are perfect circles. It's the same with the circle I drew here: it may look round, but it contains errors and imperfections undetectable by the naked eye. In fact, it's an oval, not a perfect circle. I've been searching for the perfect circle for a long time, and I finally realized that it does not exist in the world below, but only in the Heavens above.”
”Oh?”
”Sire, please accompany me outside the palace.”
Jing Ke and King Zheng strode outside the palace. It was another beautiful day with the moon and the sun both visible in the clear sky.
”The sun and the full moon are both perfect circles,” said Jing Ke as he pointed at the sky. ”The Heavens placed the perfect circle-impossible to find on earth-in the sky. Not just one, but two examples, and they're the most notable features of the firmament. The meaning couldn't be clearer: the secret of the Heavens resides inside the circle.”
”But the circle is the simplest of shapes. Other than a straight line, it's the least complicated figure.” King Zheng turned around and returned inside the palace.
”That apparent simplicity disguises a profound mystery,” Jing Ke said as he followed the king back inside. When they returned to the low table, he drew a rectangle on the silk with the brush. ”Observe this rectangle, if you would. The longer dimension measures four inches, and the shorter dimension two. The Heavens speak also through this figure.”
”What does it say?”
”The Heavens tell me that the ratio between the longer side and the shorter side is two.”
”Are you mocking me?”
”I wouldn't dare. This is just an example of a simple message. Please observe this other figure.” Jing Ke drew another rectangle. ”This time, the long side is nine inches and the shorter seven. The ideas expressed by the Heavens in this figure are far richer.”
”From what I can see, it's still extremely simple.”
”Not so. Sire, the ratio between the longer side and the shorter side in this rectangle is 1.285714285714285714 ... The sequence '285714' repeats forever. Thus, you can calculate the ratio to be as precise as you like, but it will never be exact. Though the message is still simple, much more meaning can be extracted from it.”
”Interesting,” said King Zheng.
”Next, let me show you the most mysterious shape the Heavens gifted us: the circle.” Jing Ke drew a straight line through the center of the circle he had drawn earlier. ”Observe that the ratio between the circ.u.mference and the diameter of a circle is an endless string of numbers beginning with 3.1415926. But it keeps on going after that, never repeating itself.”
”Never?”
”Yes. Imagine a silk cloth as large as all-under-heaven. The string of numbers in the circle's ratio could be written in tiny script, each numeral no bigger than the head of a fly, all the way from here to the edge of the sky, and then coming back here, start on a new line. Continued this way, the entire cloth could be filled and there would still be no end to the numbers, and the sequence still wouldn't repeat. Your Majesty, this endless string of numbers contains the mysteries of the universe.”
King Zheng's expression didn't change, but Jing Ke saw that his eyes had brightened. ”Even if you obtained this number, how would you read from it the message the Heavens want to express?”
”There are many ways. For example, by treating the numbers as coordinates, it's possible to turn the numbers into new shapes and pictures.”
”What will the pictures show?”
”I don't know. Maybe it will be an ill.u.s.tration of the enigma of the universe. Or maybe it will be an essay, or perhaps even a whole book. But the key is that we must obtain enough digits of the circular ratio first. I estimate that we must compute tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of digits before the meaning can be discerned. Right now, I've only computed about a hundred digits, inadequate to detect any hidden meaning.”