“What about the tribute ships?” The opportunity was rare, and Cheng Danruo did not let any chance to learn slip by.
“The urgency of the tribute ships lies with the river delicacies,” Yan Hongzhi said. “Shad are caught in the fourth month and must cross the Huai River by the fifth month. Otherwise, by the time they are transported to the capital, they will likely no longer be fresh.”
Xie Xuanying added, “Last year, the Yellow River’s summer flood came early. The tribute delicacy ships that had not crossed by late in the fifth month were delayed for more than a month because of dam construction, and no ice was used. By the time they reached the capital, the shad had all rotted away.”
“How can a mere craving for food compare with the importance of water conditions?” Yan Hongzhi said. “I heard that the Imperial Catering Directorate even filed a complaint against the Grain Transport Office, saying that it had delayed the tribute.”
The Imperial Catering Directorate was one of the Twelve Directorates, in charge of the palace’s meals, while the Grain Transport Office was a department specially established to oversee grain transport.
Xie Xuanying said, “That is true, but His Majesty was wise and did not blame the grain transport commissioner.”
Cheng Danruo silently noted the departments and official posts, her gaze sweeping back and forth across the broad river channel.
After a moment, she asked hesitantly, “Is that a tribute ship? Why are there people on board?”
She was pointing to a fast horse boat, about 420 feet long and 170 feet wide, hung with two yellow flags reading “For Imperial Use” and “Imperial Commissioner.” But because it was close, she could clearly see women dressed in silk and satin on it.
“Private use of tribute ships is also a common matter,” Xie Xuanying said calmly. “Official and civilian boats must wait for the lock to release water before they can travel together, but tribute ships have no such restriction. There are often eunuchs who use public office for private gain and carry merchants’ goods.”
Cheng Danruo savored his attitude and guessed that this was not considered much of a major matter.
Sure enough, Yan Hongzhi mentioned it casually, then immediately put it behind him and instead brought up another matter: “Dan-niang, you once said that you had only read the Thousand Character Classic and the Three Character Classic, and that the rest were all medical books and Buddhist scriptures?”
Cheng Danruo nodded.
In ancient times, the illiteracy rate was very high. Being able to recognize a few characters already counted as fairly good among commoners. The Cheng family practiced medicine, and only because Cheng’s father knew a few characters, and because his daughter had been precocious in childhood, did he teach her to read and recite the Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica.
She had not studied the classics, histories, philosophical works, or belles-lettres, nor had anyone taught her.
Yan Hongzhi said, “Yesterday I had Mo Dian go ashore to buy the Four Lesser Books. You can start learning from these.”
The so-called Four Lesser Books were elementary educational works from the Song Dynasty, namely: Rhymed Maxims on Nature and Principle, Elementary Enquiries into the Names of Things, Elementary Enquiries into Successive Dynasties, and Essentials of Historical Study.
Cheng Danruo had never heard of any of them. She took the textbooks handed to her by Mo Dian and curiously leafed through them.
The first one she looked at was Rhymed Maxims on Nature and Principle, a compilation drawn from Confucian classics such as the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Analects. It could be described as a moral education textbook.
She put it down.
She then looked at Elementary Enquiries into the Names of Things and smiled almost immediately.
“High and level ground is a plain; deep and secluded ground is a valley. The ridge of a mountain is called a ridge; the foot of a mountain is called a slope… All paternal aunts and sisters are relatives on the father’s side. Those called aunt and uncle are relations by marriage on the mother’s side.”
Without question, this was a quite practical popular reference book, covering not only physical geography but also human relations and ethics.
“The inner chamber is called the shi; the outer chamber is called the tang. The side rooms by the gate are called shu; the two side halls are called xiang.”
So the bedroom was the place for sleeping, a private school referred to a small room at the side of the main gate, and the West Wing in Romance of the West Chamber was a room on the western side, mostly used for daughters of the household to live in.
But after only a brief flip through, she quickly put it down as well.
Although she had never studied systematically, after living in ancient times for so many years, Cheng Danruo had already absorbed these terms imperceptibly. She was only filling in gaps and making sure not to mix up the meanings of “jia” (sowing) and “se” (harvesting).
The third was Elementary Enquiries into Successive Dynasties. This one was also very short, a thin volume. It was a history textbook, recounting the changes of dynasties from Pangu’s creation of the world up to the Song Dynasty.
In short, it was a table of dynasties.
For young pupils, this could help them quickly sort out the thread of history, but for a modern university student with a general education, it was of little use.
As for the last one, Essentials of Historical Study, its contents were more detailed, with dense annotations. It could be considered a simplified version of a General History of China.
Yan Hongzhi observed her actions without showing any emotion, and only after a long while asked, “How is it?”
Cheng Danruo thought about it. Many things actually could not be hidden, so she might as well reveal them openly. “I do not know why, but although this is my first time reading them, they seem familiar.”
“Oh?” Yan Hongzhi seemed to have sensed something long before, and asked, “What do you mean?”
She said, half-truthfully and half-falsely, “I am not clear either. It was often like this in my childhood.”
At this, even Xie Xuanying could not help casting a look over. “A person with innate wisdom?”
“I do not remember,” Cheng Danruo said. “I heard from an old servant in the family that when I was three, I went out with my father. It happened to be the rainy season, and the river had risen sharply. Somehow I fell into the river and drifted downstream as far as ten li, before fortunately being rescued. At that time…”
She hesitated for a moment, then said lightly, “The rising water vapor gave rise to quite a few amusing rumors.”
Yan Hongzhi, however, was very interested. “How so? Did someone perhaps see a dragon ascending to heaven?”
When a flood came with the force of thunder and rolled on majestically, ignorant people of former times feared the power of nature and invented many vividly detailed tales, strange stories about dragons undergoing tribulation and the like.
“That was not the case,” Cheng Danruo said with a smile. “The villagers said that at the time the water was too fierce and no one dared go in to save me. Who would have thought that a giant white turtle carried me to the bank, and only then was I pulled ashore by them.”
She said this without any guilt, because it was all true.
It was only that the white turtle carrying her was probably not a real turtle, but the medical kit she carried with her.
“Did you become enlightened from then on?” Yan Hongzhi had a very exploratory spirit, and unexpectedly pressed further, “Do you still remember matters from your previous life?”
Cheng Danruo shook her head. “This is all what the family servants said. I no longer remember it at all.”
Yan Hongzhi deeply regretted it.
Xie Xuanying, however, still remembered the illusion at Tianxin Temple and asked, “Who did you learn your illusion techniques and mathematics from?”
“I do not remember that either.” She lied with perfect composure.
Teacher and student both felt regretful, yet their doubts were also resolved. After all, examples of sudden enlightenment through reincarnation had existed everywhere in the past, and people who claimed to remember their previous lives had appeared many times in history as well.
Whether the School of Mind or the School of Principle, both were idealist philosophies and did not oppose theories of gods and ghosts.
Yan Hongzhi picked up Essentials of Historical Study and said with a smile, “Let me test you.”
He began to quiz her on history.
At first, it was only the succession of dynasties, but later it became the life trajectories of wise rulers and worthy ministers. Cheng Danruo had done fairly well in history during high school, and the subjects she chose for the college entrance examination had also included history, but after all, she had only studied it superficially, and gradually she could no longer answer.
Even so, Yan Hongzhi was already very satisfied. “For a girl to have this much knowledge is already uncommon.”
Cheng Danruo quickly said, “I want to learn more.”
He asked with a smile, “What use is learning?”
“I want to know how the times change, what things are changing, and what things have never changed.” She spoke slowly. “I also want to know where I should go in this world, and what I can leave behind for the world.”
A flash of admiration passed through Yan Hongzhi’s eyes, along with a trace of regret.
Such ambition, such breadth of mind – if only she were a man.
The School of Pure Sincerity did not hesitate to teach women scholarship, and even believed that men and women were equal in intelligence. However, they were also very clear that approval was one thing and reality was another.
If a man learned well, he could prosper a whole nation; if a woman learned well, she could at most benefit a single family or clan.
But soon, Yan Hongzhi concealed his disappointment, thinking that unpolished jade was rare, and who could say for certain what the future held? One could only seek to have no regrets.
He lifted his spirits and came to hold even more expectations for Cheng Danruo. “In that case, tomorrow I will teach you to read history.”
If the Chen family had given Cheng Danruo a roof to shelter her from wind and rain, then Yan Hongzhi gave her a pass to move to a higher class.
Reading was, in ancient times, a luxury.
And having a nationally renowned great Confucian scholar as a teacher was a luxury among luxuries. Looking at Xie Xuanying, one could see just how precious and rare her educational resources were.
Cheng Danruo welcomed his instruction with an attitude even more diligent than she had shown for the college entrance examination.
First, she memorized Essentials of Historical Study.
The first volume covered ancient times, the Five Emperors, and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.
It spoke of how, before Pangu separated heaven and earth, the world was one vast chaos, like an egg – all commonplace talk, so she temporarily skipped over it. The Five Emperors section then dealt with Fuxi, Taihao, and Shennong, which in fact referred to early human tribes and the formation of the slave system.
She already knew many of these points of knowledge. While reinforcing her memory, she also became familiar with the ancients’ choice of words and sentence patterns.
Usually, when everyone spoke in colloquial language, it did not matter, but once something was set down in writing, she still had to pay attention to diction and phrasing. Becoming familiar as quickly as possible with the way classical Chinese was written would certainly benefit her in the future.
That night, Cheng Danruo did not finish memorizing until the section on King Wu’s campaign against Zhou.
The next morning, after breakfast, Yan Hongzhi called Cheng Danruo over alone and lectured her on history. “Yao had a son, Danzhu, yet he yielded the throne to Shun. This was great virtue…”
Cheng Danruo listened attentively.
The ancients lectured on history in a way completely different from modern people. In modern history classes, what was remembered was figures, events, times and places, and the significance of a certain event. For example, Qin Shi Huang unified the six states, ended the situation of contention among the seven states, and had such-and-such influence on later generations.
But the ancients focused on emperors, generals, and ministers – whether the emperor was wise and understood how to keep close to worthy ministers and stay away from petty men, and whether ministers had selfish motives or properly assisted the emperor.
As On the Faults of Qin says: “If the Second Emperor had acted as an ordinary ruler and employed the loyal and worthy, with ruler and minister of one mind and anxious about the troubles within the realm, wearing mourning garments to correct the former emperor’s errors…” They believed that as long as the ruler was worthy and the ministers loyal, the state would not perish.
In a word, the ancients also summarized the causes of dynastic rise and fall, but the focus was on emperors, generals, and ministers, as if history were decided by the wisdom or benightedness of a small number of people.
This was a very obvious historical limitation.
After realizing this, Cheng Danruo’s inner awe toward Yan Hongzhi dissipated.
Undeniably, when she first suddenly encountered such a learned ancient Confucian master, she had felt timid. It was like the reverence of an age of half-understanding, looking up to experts, elders, and teachers, genuinely in awe of every word he said, trying by every means to gain their approval.
But now, that halo disappeared.
She still respected Yan Hongzhi’s profound knowledge and was grateful for his open-minded attitude, but she no longer regarded him as an authority, and could study what he taught more objectively.
And once her mindset was properly adjusted, she naturally handled things more calmly.
Cheng Danruo no longer urgently wanted to make progress in every game of chess. In the latter half of the game, she played almost at random, wanting to see how Yan Hongzhi would respond.
“Today Dan-niang has finally grasped the true flavor of the chess game,” Yan Hongzhi teased her. “The past two days were full of killing intent at every step, all the chilling force of late autumn.”
Autumn governs the aura of killing; the metaphor fit the occasion very well.
Cheng Danruo was surprised. “Is it that obvious?”
“Chess character is like personal character; chess style is like personal style. Some things cannot be seen on the face, but are starkly revealed on the chessboard,” Yan Hongzhi said with a smile. “Earlier when you placed your pieces, you schemed out every possibility, but scheming drains the mind the most. How could winning or losing at chess be worth this?”
“I have let you see me make a fool of myself,” Cheng Danruo said with a self-mocking smile, then calmly said, “I was only afraid that time was too little, that I would not even manage to learn a rough outline before I had no chance again.”
Yan Hongzhi was startled, then sighed soundlessly.
So all the urgency had merely been because dawn might not bring another evening.
In the fifth year of Taiping, heavy rain in Datong did not stop for three months, and floodwaters covered the villages. Some villagers saw a white turtle moving through the rushing currents, carrying those who had fallen into the water to shore, so they built the White Longevity Shrine and worshipped it as a water god.
—Datong County Gazetteer
