In a covered carriage, twenty-nine-year-old Xie An lay reclined with his head on the lap of a top-grade household courtesan of seventeen or eighteen, eyes closed, feigning sleep. The courtesan, braced against the carriage frame, sat perfectly upright, not daring to stir; she held a fly-whisk like a long-handled feather fan hovering at the ready just inside the carriage door to one side, to keep the dust outside from rolling in through the rolled curtain and soiling her master's clothes.
Now, Xie An was ordinarily no harsh master, but this courtesan, granted by the palace and lately in favor, had always been attentive to detail. Though they had been together only a month or so, she had come to know something of her young master, and understood that though he seemed unconcerned just now, his mood was not good at all — so she dared not be remiss.
Indeed it was so. This trip had been forced upon Xie An from the start, and his mood could hardly be called pleasant. But years spent playing the famed gentleman of East Mountain had long since trained a whole set of skills in him: even if the sky fell and he was frightened half to death inside, it would not stop his face from wearing pleasant smiles — let alone mere vexation.
Who knows how long they had been on the road? His mood had just begun to settle when they passed through a market town. Beyond the din outside, the teasing laughter of the courtesans in the other carriages grew distinctly louder and woke him thoroughly; he simply sat up and lifted the cloth curtain.
The first thing he saw was merchants by the road hiding behind trees, sneakily peeping at his convoy, and a down-and-out gentleman standing at the roadside with his horse, watching him with cold eyes as if he bore him some grudge. It left Xie An baffled, and there was nothing to be done about it; his barely settled mood soured instead.
But the next moment, as the carriages passed this crossroads and its rustic market, he looked ahead and saw, in a single glance, chrysanthemums blooming in clusters on the mountain before them. Suddenly it dawned on him: he had already passed Jiangcheng — what they had just crossed must have been the fork of the Jurong Road — and ahead lay Flower Mountain (Baohua Mountain of later ages), famous for its abundance of chrysanthemums and its place beside the Jingkou Road.
Having seen this mountain, and with his mood stuck neither up nor down, Xie An's famed-gentleman temperament flared up. He simply ordered a halt, deciding on the spot to abandon the itinerary: leaning on a rattan staff, he would climb Flower Mountain to boil tea and view the flowers.
Up on the mountain, he found it was nearly mid-autumn, the sky high and the clouds thin. Not only were the mountain trees and chrysanthemums, yellow interlaced with green, lovely to behold — even the scenery north of the river lay spread clearly before his eyes, faintly set off against the trees below his feet. More marvelous still, the Yangtze rolled on, gleaming under the afternoon sun, winding between the two like a jade belt draped across the land — truly a rare sight.
Xie An was deeply satisfied. He had climbed for the flowers, yet beheld the great river like jade; he had ascended to dispel his cares, and indeed his heart opened wide — truly he had tasted the flavor of nature.
And yet, for all the splendid view, no friend stood at his side — only a few courtesans, hardly enough to display his flair on such an occasion. He could not help feeling it a pity.
That was not all. With the chrysanthemums in full bloom, he was not the only one on Flower Mountain enjoying the view. Xie An knew perfectly well that if he stayed until evening, the humble-family commoners living nearby, learning he was here alone, would be sure to come and invite him. And his disposition was mild and obliging — unlike the Wang clan with their haughty pedigree, or Yin Hao and those men with their fiery tempers. If someone latched onto him it would be hard to refuse, and then, having eaten at a humble family's table, perhaps even slept the night in one of their homes, he could not escape being ridiculed.
So after lingering a while, reluctant though he was, he came down the mountain in the end and pressed on with the journey. In the carriage he wrote out a length of silk by hand and had a bondservant carry it back to the family home in Wuyi Lane, telling the young men and nephews of the household what he had seen that day on Flower Mountain and how he had felt, and instructing them: the sky is high and the clouds thin, the flowers cover the mountain; there is no need to wait for the Double Ninth, nor to heed the elders of the house — once they saw the eighth-month weather, they could all come out together, find their chance to climb the heights and gaze afar, and so enlarge their spirits.
This leisurely excursion had its price, however. With the distance lost, and lodging with the vulgar soldiers of the garrison towns out of the question, it was only toward evening that he found a villa of the Chenliu Cai clan in the area and hurried there for the night.
The Chenliu Cai clan were proper heroes of the crossing of the river, a premier great family of the second rank (under the Nine-Rank system there are no first-rank great families, so second rank is the highest), and naturally no commoner would obstruct him. Yet what Xie An never expected was that the core of the Cai clan — Cai Mo, former Minister over the Masses, Director of the Imperial Secretariat, Governor of Yangzhou, General Who Conquers the North, one of the so-called Three Luminaries of the Restoration — was not in the city of Jiankang but alone at this villa.
Xie An had spent these years reclining high at East Mountain and was not well acquainted with Cai Mo, who had steered the court for several years before. But the man was a venerable elder of the realm whose office stood at the very summit of a subject's reach; lodging now at his villa, Xie An naturally had to pay his respects.
By the same logic, the Xie clan, having stored up their strength and now risen in prominence, were likewise a great aristocratic house; meeting him alone in the evening, Cai Mo could hardly refuse to see him, and ordered his household to entertain the guest to the best of their ability.
When the two met, Xie An, deer-tail whisk in hand, wooden clogs dragging, finished his bows and settled into a seat; flicking the whisk, he spoke first: "Today I passed Flower Mountain, saw the chrysanthemums in full bloom, and climbed up to view the flowers — only to find, quite unexpectedly, the great river lying athwart the view like a jade belt. One sees indeed that small knowledge is not equal to great knowledge, short years not equal to long years — a perfect truth!"
Cai Mo, a man of seventy, heard this and sat bewildered a good while before coming back to himself; then he asked glumly: "Do you mean to discourse on the mysteries with this old man?"
Xie An was caught off guard. This... was this not supposed to be pure conversation?
"Our Chenliu Cai clan has passed down Confucian learning from generation to generation. Some of the younger sons may have taken up your pure conversation, but I crossed south with Emperor Yuan. I have always been dull and stubborn, knowing only to study the principles of the sages and attend to the practical livelihood of the people. I do not understand these things of yours." Cai Mo frowned slightly as he said it.
To be fair, the old man's tone was fairly flat, and he stopped at a hint, without seizing the chance for a long harangue — and still less did he, like Xie An's elder brother Xie Yi after drinking too much, curse out the sons of the other premier families at the drop of a hat. He was already among the sort who gave much face.
But the barb in the words still left Xie An ill at ease, fidgeting between sitting and standing.
After a while, as the junior man, he could only keep fishing for conversation; yet his nature had always hidden a needle in cotton, and though the other man was an elder at the summit of officialdom, near seventy, he could not help slipping in a veiled jab: "Duke Cai is not in Jiankang — why have you come here?"
Though they did not know each other well, Xie An had spent his mourning in Jiankang and had heard the whole story from his elder brother, who had been recalled to office before his mourning ended to serve as Minister of Personnel. The man must be dodging a summons: the court presumably wished this old founding minister, having stepped down from the Governorship of Yangzhou, to continue as Minister over the Masses and steady the situation.
After all, the Emperor was very young; disorder had broken out in the north and the Northern Expedition was already underway — and Huan Wen, meanwhile, glared covetously from upstream.
Yet for some reason Cai Mo simply hid and would not take the post. Even the last time he held the office he had recruited no subordinate staff... as if to tell the realm: I am merely a stopgap for those people; the court never took me seriously and I do not take the court seriously; those people look down on me, and I look down on them.
"Do you think my dodging this summons is like you people at East Mountain — seizing the occasion to bid up my own price?" Cai Mo paused a moment at this, then actually laughed.
Xie An's nature could not after all bring the words out plainly; he could only shut his mouth in silence.
"Back then Emperor Yuan crossed the river and founded the enterprise as Chancellor; I served under him as a staff aide, and in the forty years since, through every rise and fall, bowing through it all, when have I ever cared about rank?" Seeing his silence, Cai Mo could only sigh. "That I will not accept this post of Minister over the Masses today has a simple reason... That the rebel Shi Hu defeated himself and Jie Zhao collapsed of its own accord — that is the plain truth. That the court above and below is roused, that everyone clamors for the Northern Expedition — that is the great current. And yet I also happen to know that the pure-conversation gentlemen are incompetent: with them holding the court, the Northern Expedition is certain to fail... and if there is any slight success, it will be Huan Wen's doing. But Huan Wen holds the upstream. Once the Northern Expedition prevails, and the court's pure-conversation crew then fumbles the imperial army into defeat — would that not be Wang Dun's rebellion rising again? I oppose the Northern Expedition and cannot stop the Northern Expedition. So tell me, why should I still serve as this Minister over the Masses?
"A man of seventy — must he yet contrive to ruin the integrity of his last years?"
Xie An finally turned grave, and could only answer with great care: "As far as I know, though Duke Chu was defeated, he led out only a small force of three thousand into Qingzhou, and was even then attacked by Li Nong's army of twenty thousand. One such reverse is of little weight for the Northern Expedition, surely? You must know the people of the world all look to the Northern Expedition..."
Cai Mo looked at him again and again, surveying him up and down without pause, until Xie An's scalp crawled and he could only fall silent.
"That the Grand Commander lost a small force of three thousand — I did not know of it before." Cai Mo stared a long while, then turned his own head aside to gaze at empty air. "But as I would say it: though Chu Pou held command as an imperial in-law, weigh conscience and capability, and he still surpasses you pure-conversation gentlemen by a great deal. Moreover, he keeps his judgments beneath a calm surface — composed outside, weighing matters heavily within. By now, after this defeat, I daresay he too knows how things truly stand... In any case, on this trip you mean to sound out the truth of it, do you not? Go and see for yourself!
"As for this old man, my mind is made up: after this affair, if I yet have years left, I shall return to Jiankang and open a seat to teach Confucian learning, so the state and court are not left occupied by you pure-conversation famed gentlemen.
"And you — since we have met, whether you like it or not, I must say a few words more. Duke Chu is advanced in years and has now met defeat; perhaps hereafter the Empress Dowager will use your Xie clan to hold the state. By no means, because your prices have been bid up back and forth so often, come to believe you are truly some peerless national gentleman, some 'if such-a-one does not come out, what is to be done for the people of the world?' The four characters 'people of the world' — without real talent and learning, no one can bear them!"
Xie An was young after all; though his conscience quailed, he still strained to rise and rebut with folded hands — even letting slide that the other had trespassed upon a taboo of his own elders: "A pity, then, that Duke Cai overestimates me too. I am nothing but a recluse of East Mountain; what talk is this of the people of the world?"
Cai Mo curled his lip, paid him no further heed, and simply rose and left, heading for the back of the villa.
This was a true, unfeigned flinging of sleeves and a grand exit, displaying the famed-gentleman style of the Great Jin court to the full... And had a certain transmigrator been present, he would likely have been shouting in his heart: if this were written down, it would absolutely make it into the Shishuo Xinyu!
But back to the matter at hand. Xie An, not long after his capping year, had roamed at ease on East Mountain, moving among the sons of the Wang, Xi, Yuan, Sun, Yang, Yin, and Gu families and certain eminent monks, and had early established himself as the core of the new generation of famed gentlemen. Wherever he went, who did not count it an honor to hold pure conversation with him, who did not praise his East Mountain famed-gentleman manner?
Yet tonight he had met a retired old man who said over and over that the pure-conversation gentlemen were incompetent and ruined the state; past the first astonishment, his heart could not help but begin to panic.
Add the man's standing, his age, and his resolute air, and real argument was out of the question; he could only watch him go in silence.
That night he tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Early the next morning he simply took to the road as if fleeing, heading first for Iron Urn Fortress.
You see, Chu Pou was father of the reigning Empress Dowager, and his wife was precisely Xie An's elder cousin... In other words, reckoned from the present Empress Dowager Chu Suanzi, who ruled from behind the screen as regent, the Chu clan were imperial in-laws on the father's side, and the Xie clan precisely the imperial in-laws on the mother's side. This was the very secret of the Xie clan's rise, and the reason Xie An could rove East Mountain at his ease.
Arriving at Chu Pou's residence here and learning that this Grand Commander was still in the north, he paid it no mind and went in to see his cousin Xie Zhenshi.
And when Xie Zhenshi saw her cousin, it was as if a drowning man had seen his rescuer: she caught his arm right inside the gate, tears streaming down her face. "Shinu, cross the river and go see your brother-in-law for me! Judging by the words my trusted people at home have sent back, he was struck by ghosts and spirits in Pengcheng, and I fear he has not many years left to live!"
Xie An was struck dumb. What ghosts and spirits? What "not many years left to live"?
His brother-in-law was only forty-five. Half a year ago, when they met in his own mansion, he had been hale and hearty; even a month ago he must have been in good health — how otherwise could he have crossed the river north to Pengcheng and, as Grand Commander, taken overall charge of the Northern Expedition?
As for the news just received from north of the river — yes, it said the army had been defeated at Daibei, but that was only the three thousand of the vanguard, and Daibei lay far away in Qingzhou, while his brother-in-law had come no farther than Pengcheng in Xuzhou. He had not even gone to the battlefield, all right?
But whatever the truth, with his sister in this state Xie An could not bear it. He left the courtesans behind, crossed the river at Guazhou Ferry, and set out to travel light and swift to Pengcheng and see his brother-in-law.
In truth this was the very reason he had set out early: his cousin Xie Shang, currently in command of the military affairs of Yuzhou, had heard ugly rumors north of the river and hastily written him an urgent letter, telling him to go to the front and sound out the true state of things.
Yet Xie An, hurrying day and night, never in the end crossed the Huai River: on the evening of a certain day in the first days of the eighth month, in Huaiyin on the south bank of the Huai, he met this brother-in-law. And at the very first meeting Xie An's heart sank halfway — for no other reason than that the man's face was truly haggard and his spirit listless; compared with half a year before, he seemed to have aged ten years.
"Anshi has come!" Chu Pou, lying stiff on the couch, saw the visitor and struggled up to sit, smiling. "Pay no heed to your elder sister's nonsense. I have not the slightest wound or illness, nor was I ever struck by ghosts or spirits!"
Just as Xie An was about to speak, Chu Pou grew dim and downcast of himself: "Only I was struck by the lives and deaths of men."
Xie An's heart gave a start; for no clear reason Cai Mo's words came back to him, and he answered with a wry smile: "Brother-in-law — one small defeat, and you feel the Northern Expedition is certain to fail?"
"It is not that the Northern Expedition must fail — it is that I, Chu Pou, must fail at the Northern Expedition." Chu Pou's words were earnest. "Anshi, as a youth I followed my father in Wuchang; I never saw the stench of the Central Plains at the time of the southward crossing. Later, though I lived through the upheavals of Wang Dun and Su Jun, I was always under Venerable Xi's protection, serving as a staff aide in his tent, and never went through any great fighting with the blade... And within this one month, though I have only brushed past wind and frost, I have come to know some things I never knew before."
Xie An had no choice but to ask: "May I ask what things?"
"First: the people of the Central Plains, scattered and displaced by the wars, their sufferings heaped upon sufferings, truly hang upside down in torment... Therefore there is no course but the Northern Expedition!" Chu Pou's words came hard. "I had actually thought the Jingkou refugees much given to exaggeration. Only now, arrived at Pengcheng, do I know it was I who once looked down from on high and could not fathom them... In truth, here at Jingkou, the Northern Garrison troops, top to bottom, are all Central Plains refugees — they too want the Northern Expedition."
Xie An sighed and nodded. "True. The Northern Expedition is the trend of the times; with Shi Zhao collapsing of itself, not to make the expedition cannot be justified."
"Second: this man here — I understand nothing of military affairs, have no fighting vigor, still less virtue, and simply have not the ability to lead a Northern Expedition!" Chu Pou went on, his speech growing ever more halting, as if even swallowing were difficult. "The people threw in their lot with me, and — never mind defeating the enemy — I could not even shelter them in full! The people of the Lu region... the people of the Lu region... I can only curse that Wang Chilong (Wang Dao) said it so plainly long ago: I did not kill Bo Ren, yet Bo Ren died because of me... Hateful, hateful! And before this Northern Expedition I still lacked self-knowledge. My staff all urged me: you are the Empress Dowager's own father, your standing is precious; you ought not lightly push deep. And I would not listen. Only after the defeat at Daibei, when someone reminded me, did I wake: if I truly met with failure at the front, I feared the Empress Dowager would be dragged in with me — only then did I think of pulling back. But is not this pulling back the same as flatly abandoning the northern gentry and people whose rising was because of me?! Caught so between advance and retreat, I fear I shall be laughed at for a thousand years!"
Hearing this far, and looking at the man's appearance, Xie An's mouth went dry; there was nothing to be done.
One must know: years before, Huan Wen's father Huan Yi had said that Chu Pou kept his judgments beneath a calm surface... This was not merely an assessment that praises openly and disparages beneath; it laid the man before him thoroughly bare: this brother-in-law of his, calm and composed on the surface, was inwardly extremely sensitive, with great swings of feeling.
It was a temperament he had carried from childhood.
And thinking again of Cai Mo's words two days before, it all seemed the more absurd: Cai Mo, who had likely long since guessed the Northern Expedition must fail, probably never imagined this brother-in-law of his would collapse to such a state at a single defeat!
And to think — truly just because three thousand men had lost once in Qingzhou, he was frightened out of daring to stay in Pengcheng?!
How would staying in Pengcheng to organize the line of defense have been so dangerous?!
But on the one point of self-knowledge, you had it all figured out!
These words could not be said, however; Xie An could only strain to console him: "In that case, brother-in-law, better to submit a memorial early and request of your own accord to give up your post and recuperate... As it happens, Yin Hao has become Governor of Yangzhou; his talent and virtue stand out — let him organize the Northern Expedition."
"That is the third matter."
Chu Pou pinched the silk of his coverlet between his fingers, and the tears fell without cease.
"I shall certainly have to beg pardon for my fault. But the Empress Dowager is only twenty-four and the Emperor only six! Outside, Huan Wen is gradually gathering power and has already begun encroaching on your eldest brother's Western Garrison military authority, and between Jingzhou and Yangzhou friction is bound to rise again... If I cannot hold the Northern Garrison military authority at Jingkou, then once Yin Hao is beaten by Huan Wen, how are the Empress Dowager and Emperor to place themselves? Not only that — some things may be said to you. That Yin Hao is after all the Prince of Kuaiji's man. Now, with Huan Wen outside and the Prince of Kuaiji holding the regency, of course they advance and retreat with us — but are they truly of one body with us in fact? The way I see it, even the Western Garrison authority in your elder brother's hands cannot be lightly let go! So the present situation is: we cannot not hold military power; holding military power, we cannot not make the Northern Expedition; and the Northern Expedition must fail. Tell me — how am I to place myself?!"
Xie An was left utterly without words. Of course he knew these words were right — but if so... if it was like this, would not the Northern Expedition be walking straight into a dead end?
And with the north in chaos like that, how could the imperial army not manage a single victory? Why did this Li Nong not surrender at mere rumor of them, and instead attack the imperial army?
Could it be that Cai Mo spoke the truth — that pure-conversation men cannot bear the burden of the state? But that reproach was aimed at himself, not at the brother-in-law before him, was it not?
And why had Huan Wen been able to destroy Shu in a single campaign?
Was Huan Wen a talent surpassing his age — or was his own crowd simply too incompetent?
For a time Xie An's own mind was in knots.
After half a day he managed to go on consoling him: "In that case, brother-in-law, withdraw to Guangling for now, watch how the situation develops, and do not lightly cross the river back to Jingkou... Jiangbei and Jiangnan are not the same thing."
"Exactly my own thought." Chu Pou, heedless of his tear-streaked face, seized his wife's younger brother by the wrist.
And so Xie An stayed with the army, traveling with Chu Pou, and in seven or eight days they returned together to Guangling.
By his reckoning, it would do no harm for matters to drag on like this: in three to five days his cousin would come over, the brother-in-law would have someone to look after him, and he could leave this land of strife, take those courtesans, and return to East Mountain in Kuaiji.
Yet scarcely had they returned to Guangling when, that very night, dreadful news arrived.
"Whence came a crowd of two hundred thousand?" Xie An, who had thrown clothes over himself and hurried to Chu Pou's couch in the night, was truly startled. "Was it not said to be some five hundred households of the Lu region?"
"It is not the Qingzhou affair." Chu Pou lay on the couch, the hand holding the military dispatch trembling beyond control; this time he did not even weep, only seemed to have lost his soul. "It is my fault, it is my fault! I have wronged the state and wronged the people!"
Xie An snatched the dispatch from his hand, opened it, and read — and was so appalled that for a moment his face went blank.
The dispatch set it out plainly: in the seventh month great disorder had broken out in Hebei — Shi Min, Shi Zun, Shi Jian, Shi Kun, Li Nong, and Zhang Bao warring in confusion, the Murong clan about to raise arms, the Di of Fangtou and the Qiang of Shetou all stirring restlessly. The left-behind people of Hebei, fearing the wars and hearing that the imperial army was marching north, had — to the number of two hundred thousand — crossed the Yellow River to seek the south! But once across, they heard, of all things, that the imperial army had been defeated and even the Grand Commander had withdrawn back into Huainan! Now rumors from every part of the north said that these two hundred thousand had no one to receive them and no provisions, scattering in every direction — many must already have died along the banks of the Yellow River!
"Anshi, Anshi! Shinu, Anu!" At this Chu Pou finally broke into audible weeping. "What is to be done?! Did they die because I left Pengcheng?!"
Asked so, Xie An was struck speechless — but, strangely, he calmed down.
This middle-aged man, nearly thirty and never yet properly entered office, swiftly perceived a cruel fact: the life or death of these two hundred thousand Hebei people whose hearts clung to the imperial army had in itself no bearing on the great situation. The true bearing lay in this: his brother-in-law was a man who kept his judgments beneath a calm surface, and he could not endure such a blow. If this caused his body to keep deteriorating, only then would it turn back and shake the court and the Xie family.
He would have to stay on in the city of Guangling... at the very least until this Grand Commander had gained some stability; only then could he leave this place and go off to East Mountain in Kuaiji.
There, good friends awaited — Sun Chuo, Monk Daolin, Xi Yin, Xu Xun, Wang Linzhi — with whom he could hold pure conversation, drink tea, raise cranes, and strum the qin.
That's right — Xie An was still resolved to go. Never mind that his brother-in-law had not yet reached that point; even if he truly did, there was still his cousin, General of the Household of the West concurrently Governor of Yuzhou, holding the Western Garrison; his own elder brother, Minister of Personnel, controlling promotion and dismissal; and even a second elder brother of much the same age, Xie Ju, called Xie Huzi, ready at any time to step up for the family.
The four characters "people of the world" — it truly was not yet his turn, Xie Anshi's, to shoulder them.
And besides, a man living in this world, enjoying the grace of father and grandfather, born noble, with a famed gentleman's flair — ought he not simply lie high on East Mountain and make a game of his days?
Only, if he thought this way — having just now lost his composure — was his famed-gentleman manner perhaps not yet up to standard?
After this tangle of random thoughts, Xie An instead consoled his brother-in-law with a smile: "Brother, you think too much. Whence would two hundred thousand come? It must be the officers at Pengcheng, fearing war, frightening you with empty words."
"Anshi, Anshi, do not console me. At this point, what is unclear? A man as incompetent as I — once he betrays the people of the world, he has betrayed the people of the world." Chu Pou, whose hair had somehow turned streaked with gray, tilted his head back with a sigh and lay down on the couch, unwilling to say anything more at all.
Chapter 6