Volu Injustice (1/2)

Volu Injustice

In the third hteenth year of Xiande or the sixth year of the sixty-year cycle, I had reached the age of twenty-two After I had ranked first in the iyuan, there were many people who ca the excuse that I was still young and wished to continue to study in order to better serve the government Thereafter, fewer and fewer people ca eyes soon realized that even though I was a young yuan, there was little chance for me to rise in rank meteorically¹ In addition, I buried myself in books, almost as if I was obsessed This kind of person did not meet the requirements set forth by the influential families As a result, I was able to experience a rarely occurring peace and quiet

This day, as usual, I caathered in the h I was a Hanlin Academic, there was still a hierarchy in Hanlin Acadeyuan</e Bachelor² and Exaqipin⁴ rated position as a Junior Co the Senior Co,⁵ Reader-in-Waiting⁶, and Academy Chancellor⁷ When I looked over, I saw a diverse crowd Amidst the crowd, at the head was the Academy Chancellor, Xie Xian, while at the back was a Bachelor who had recently passed the ireatly surprised, especially by the presence of those ere ranked as Expositor-in-Waiting and above who usually spent their tiathered here Walking forward, I noticed Acade heatedly On the table in thewas a red piece of paper On it ritten: Green Hills Sage Riverside Painting⁸ Everyoneto deter had decreed the establishment of the Palace of Sublime Culture, raphy and paintings, but real racefully said, “This painting e have always been of green landscapes with a gorgeous style His later works were influenced by his beliefs in Buddhism and Daoism, and were prih this painting is an ink landscape, the brushwork is rugged, the clouds andTherefore, I do not believe that this is a work by the Green Hills Sage”

Acadeh what you sayis carefully selected Although well preserved, we can see that it is a work of the Green Hills Sage's tio We can also see the presence of the seal of the Green Hills Sage From the postscript, there should not be any problems”

The other officials were split on both sides, arguing incessantly Interested in as happening, I carefully scrutinized the painting for a long ti enificant skill in appraising antique works and was a newly appointed official, the two arguing acadehed and spoke, “Suiyun, what is your view?”

Walking to the table, I stood in front of the painting Openingat the characters on the painting The upper section has the words: ‘Brother Ke Ziyuan’s elegant pastime’ The bottom section has the words: ‘respectively manufactured on the ninth day of the seventh month of the second year of Yuanyou, the 21st year of the sixty-year cycle’ The four corners of the painting have signs pointing to the Green Hills Sage The top left has theraving, the bottom left has the baiwen</eht has the Pavilion,¹² and the bottoe These four seals have all appeared on the other works by the Green Hills Sage Acadein of seals, and is probably not wrong From the contextual research, we can safely say that the Green Hills Sage was a fasipin</e Pavilion After Western Jin was forced south by encroaching noe was heartbroken and lived in seclusion at the Linyuan Pavilion in Sichuan It is said that the sage was too poor to be able to rely on himself Fortunately, he was able to receive financial assistance froh the years of warfare If you look at the two seal s froifted to Ke Ming”

Taking a breath, I continued, “These seal s all have historical antecedents I have read the Green Hills Sage’s Sichuan Chronicles</e the autuanized a feast, and both host and guest enjoyed a wonderful time As we bade our farewells, the Ke family asked for one of my unworthy works To express </eh the family has disappeared into oblivion, I have found mentions in the work of Tao Kai called the years of the Western Jin Dynasty In the chapter on shi+ Chong,¹⁷ it states, ‘When shi+ Chong was young, he was treated indifferently as a laborer for the Ke family When he later became wealthy, he conspired with eunuchs and slandered the Ke fa in their complete extermination’¹⁸ If you look at the botto’s Golden Valley Garden Treasure Depository seal After shi+ Chong, along with his family, was exterminated, most of his prized possessions ended up in the is of the Prince of Changling¹⁹ The Prince of Changling was ayears of the Western Jin Dynasty and was much favored by Emperor Yuan of Jin²⁰ E’s possessions It is highly likely that this painting ended up in the hands of the Prince of Changling If we consider all of these facts, especially with such a provenance, I believe that this painting is real”

Thenodded their heads Only Academic Yin was unable to accept these facts and inquired, “If everything you said is true, then how do you explain the painting style?”

S, I replied, “This is only , I hope that everyone can point it out Before fleeing south, the style of the Green Hills Sage’s works was bright, cheerful, and intense Therefore, he liked to paint green landscapes But in the years before he traveled south, his painting style slowly becaly tranquil He used ink as the basis before using green color on top It’s highly likely that he was already painting ink landscapes Of the years he spent in Sichuan, very little of the Green Hills Sage’s works have been handed down It wasn’t until Eastern Jin was established did he focus on ink landscape paintings But, at the beginning, he preferred to use dense ink to eraphy style From this we can see that his time spent in Sichuan was a period of transition for his painting style This also explains why so feorks exist from this time period Immature works would frequently be destroyed by their creator I have read of the Green Hills Sage’s penchant for doing so in the seventh volu up to this point, everyone had acceptedfervently respectful After all, soe was quite rare

After this incident, I was given additional work, o to the book repository to organize the official imperial documents As we had prepared to build the Palace of Sublianize the histories of Southern Chu using the official ieneration of the imperial family and aristocracy Southern Chu had been founded for sixty years and experienced the reigns of two sovereigns, Zhao She, the founding Eh I did not think there was reed and petitioned the king, delighting Zhao Sheng Unfortunately, organizing the official imperial docuh I was a relatively new official, I was skilled Acadeive the responsibility to the Reader-in-Waiting, Xia Song and assignedwas already over sixty and was preparing to retire As a result, I was the one actually with the responsibility, while Xia Song only worked for a few days before requesting a leave of absence and returning home to rest The most troublesome aspect of his job was the need to enter the Palace Library and work in the book repository where all of the documents were stored And, I could not enter freely and needed to be acconed to these storehouses As a result, I began to work less than a hundred This wasvery close and yet as far as the ends of the earth

The eunuch supervising these storehouses was surna His hair was already white To sit every day for twelve to fourteen hours was detri the first day, I said, “Eunuch²² wang, ill probably have to spend up to half a month here You don’t have to be polite Just find a low-ranking eunuch to come help If I need your assistance, I will co was already getting up in years and had an idle position Although the book repository was very close to the Imperial Library, the eunuchs of the Bureau of Cere Eunuch wang could not even get close to the king As he was in no position to vie for the King’s favor, no one would bother to find trouble for him So, he didn’t have to worry even if he wasn’t conscientious Therefore, he dispatched a young eunuch, called Xiaoshunzi,²⁴ with less than a year’s experience, to help ence and few years of schooling was very rare ast eunuchs Not everyone could have the education offered to those in the Bureau of Ceremonies

When I saw Xiaoshunzi, I froze If I re boy I hadhimself to bury his father How did he now beco sad, it was not appropriate for nizeeunuch was not bad, not only ably organizing the four treasures of the study, but also quickly finding the petition or iether harmoniously A job that should have taken twenty days would probably only take twelve or thirteen at the most

At noon on the third day, after lunch, as I was drinking a light tea and preparing to take a brief respite, Eunuch wang suddenly burst in assisted by two young eunuchs, yelling, “Xiaoshunzi, Xiaoshunzi, where did this young blasted servant go?” Curious, I looked at hi expression appeared on Eunuch wang’s face, “Jiang yuan, you’re here too?”

Rubbish If I weren't here, where would I be? I wasn’t allowed to return ho this, I said, “Eunuch, what’s happened? Has sorily, Eunuch wang spat out, “The little bastard Xiaoshunzi’s hands aren’t clean; he has stolen my beloved snuff bottle awarded to this old servant²⁵ by the previous e his eyes wide, Xiaoshunzi kneeled on the ground, and said, “There is no such thing, this servant²⁶ does not have the gall nor the bravery to steal so been castrated in to physically h-pitched Now panicked, his voice beca eunuch helping Eunuch wang said, “How dare you talk back? Do you think we don’t know? You were originally a criuilty of robbery When Steward²⁷ wang lost soht of you And as expected, e searched your rooreen with fear, Xiaoshunzi prostrated himself and replied, “This servant didn’t do it, this servant didn’t do it So to fra furious replied, “Are you saying that I framed you or Xiaofuzi²⁸ fra with fear, Xiaoshunzi prostrated hi daren, you are someone educated Please help me explain to the Head Eunuch These last several days, this servant has been helping by the ?”

I was originally watching the scene unfold beforeon I noticed that although Xiaofuzi was a good actor, I could see that his breathing was agitated and his heart pounding, and had already concluded that he was deliberately fraround was not clean, so I did not have any way of explaining the situation I did not want to becoave a brief and indifferent look and didn’t say anything Xiaoshunzi quickly beca ordered, “Have him bound and sent to the discipline roo in the Royal Palace is death Have hi the scene that I witnessed where Xiaoshunzi had tried to sell himself to bury his father,ht up a plan I i this servant cry so hard,so responded, “We did find the snuff bottle hidden in his roo me the last few days When was the Eunuch’s snuff bottle lost?”

Thinking, Eunuch wang answered, “I used it last night It disappeared around noon”

Deliberately furrowing my brows, I stated, “This is definitely difficult to determine How about this? I²⁹ aes, and am able to determine a man’s fate and identify injustices Please allow me to perform a divination”