Chapter Forty-Four: All Under Heaven, Buddhism and Daoism, and You and Me

Back at the Zhan residence, Zhan Wenjun still had not shown himself. Hovering at Xu You’s side through it all was Bai Hua, whose face wore the same ever-present smile. She was playful and endearing, her voice bright as the sudden ring of silver bells, sweet and amusing. When Xu You asked after Zhan Wenjun, he learned that Zhan Wenjun himself had taken people out to make the arrangements according to the instructions Xu You had given. So much attention to detail only showed that he regarded this scheme as the last straw he could clutch for survival.

With nothing else at hand, Xu You sat for a while in the main hall, then took his leave of Bai Hua and went upstairs with the others. Once they were inside the private room, He Ru glanced at Xu You’s expression and teased him, "What happened? Did you meet an old friend, only to fall out with Li Yifeng instead of catching up?"

Zuo Wen said in surprise, "I remember that when you left, my lord, you never said you were going to see Li Yifeng..."

"Last night Li Yifeng secretly slipped into this place, but he was spotted by the old servant at the gate and had to retreat empty-handed. Then this morning the Seventh Brother was eager to go out again. He once said that he and Li Yifeng were old acquaintances from Mount Cranesong. With all this secret signaling between them, was it not obvious?"

Xu You laughed. "I hope others are not as irritating as you are!"

"Others do not know that you and Li Yifeng are old friends, so they would not think along those lines. There is no need to worry. Ah, I forgot to tell you: this morning I asked Bai Hua about him, but learned nothing at all. The only thing I found out was that the old servant is called Qibo, and he had already been living here when they first moved into this house. His background is very mysterious."

"Whatever kind of man he is, he is at least not our enemy. The stronger the power behind Zhan Wenjun, the more advantageous it is for us." Xu You then recounted to He Ru in full, without omitting a single detail, all the intelligence he had heard from Li Yifeng, though he left out the part about treating his wounds. "What a grand design Du Jingzhi has made. With seven pieces of venison, he means to swallow the seven great clans of Yangzhou whole. He can both complete this year’s additional quota of rent, grain, and cash levies, and avoid provoking resentment and criticism among the Dao faithful through outright exactions. At the same time, he can line his own pockets and fill them to bursting. Sun Guan placing such a formidable man on the throne of Yangzhou’s chief ritual office really does show a rare eye for talent."

After that jab at Du Jingzhi, Xu You grew serious. "Qi Yi, why do you think Mount Cranesong suddenly doubled its rent, grain, and cash levies? What is the reason?"

He Ru sank back onto the mat cushion, tilted his head, and closed his eyes in thought. After a moment, he suddenly opened them. His gaze spilled outward like radiance, reflecting countless stars of supreme brilliance. "Seventh Brother, this matter is of grave importance. We must not take it lightly! Sun Guan has governed the Heavenly Master Way for more than twenty years. He has always proclaimed benevolence and righteousness, treating the Dao faithful as if they were his own children and nephews. There has never before been any edict raising rent, grain, and cash levies, much less by such an enormous amount. It is simply shocking."

Xu You nodded. "When something is abnormal, there must be a monster behind it. Something must have happened suddenly, forcing Sun Guan to break his own word and act against his will."

He Ru sat up straight, dipped his fingertip in the tea, and wrote two words on the desk.

Xu You lowered his head. The wild and unrestrained cursive script entered his eyes, and he could not help but exclaim in admiration, "The spirit of Huang Xiang’s brushwork. Qi Yi, you have grasped seven tenths of it!"

Huang Xiang had been a calligrapher of the Eastern Wu of the Three Kingdoms era. His fame was not as bright in later ages; many knew Zhong Yao, Zhang Zhi, Wang Xizhi, Zhang Xu, and Huaisu, but not necessarily Huang Xiang. He had risen to the office of Palace Attendant and excelled in seal script, clerical script, and cursive script. His contemporaries called him the Sage of Calligraphy, and before Wang Xizhi, he was the only other person to bear that title. His cursive script was rated as divine by Zhang Huiguan’s A Record of Calligraphy in the Tang dynasty, and among his works, the Admonitions for Swift Understanding was especially esteemed.

He Ru shot him a sidelong glance. "It was done offhand, with no method at all. What brush spirit are you talking about? Seventh Brother, calligraphy is but a minor art. Cultivate yourself and nourish your mind, and that is enough. Do not become obsessed with it."

"The beauty of Huang Xiang’s cursive lies precisely in those words: done offhand. If Qi Yi can truly attain a realm beyond method, then in the art of cursive script he will have advanced yet another step beyond Huang Xiang himself."

By this point, even He Ru had been led off on a tangent by Xu You. "Beyond cursive script? You mean Huang Xiang’s calligraphy can still be surpassed?"

"Of course! Cursive script still clings too much to hooks and connections. Stroke by stroke, it remains bound by rules, and it is hard to let oneself run wild. For instance, Zhang Zhi’s one-stroke script moved beyond the hooked and linked structure of cursive script, replacing it with winding and twisting lines. It already had something of the shape of modern cursive."

"Modern cursive..."

Though modern cursive had begun with Zhang Zhi, it was only in its embryonic form; it was not until Wang Xizhi that its true overall style was established. So at this moment such a judgment did not yet exist. He Ru drifted in thought for a while, but soon cast it aside and said resolutely, "Since returning from the south, I have not once stood before the paper pool to practice. As for calligraphy, I have taken it as far as it goes. Let us not speak of it again."

Calligraphy has always been something one either advances in or falls behind in. It demands immense effort and time. Even someone as heaven-sent as Wang Xizhi would never have dared to neglect it for a single day. Yet when Xu You had led teams in his previous life, one of his favorite sayings had been that sharpening the axe never delays the chopping of wood. No matter how hard one worked, one still had to pay attention to balancing labor and rest, tension and release. Only when both body and mind were in good condition could work efficiency truly improve.

"As you say, calligraphy is only a minor art. Cultivating oneself and nourishing the mind is enough. In one’s spare time, waving the brush and playing with ink is also a graceful pursuit..."

He Ru restrained the urge to roll his eyes and no longer bothered to wrangle with Xu You over it. He tapped the tabletop with a finger, and the two tea-written characters were already fading away.

"Jinling?"

Xu You smiled, resting his chin in his hand as he murmured to himself. After some thought, he said, "Qi Yi, do you mean this has something to do with the court?"

He Ru replied coolly, "Sun Guan is the foremost man of the Dao. Who else but the shifting situation in the court could force him to this point?"

Xu You rose and paced a few steps with his hands behind his back. Turning round, he asked, "What is the Heavenly Master Way trying to do?"

"Before answering that, we must first understand the situation the Heavenly Master Way faces now."

"Please, continue."

"Ever since the Yellow Turban Rebellion of the Way of Great Peace, Daoist sects have never been tolerated by the government. Though the Orthodox Unity Way submitted to Cao Cao along with Zhang Lu, the Wei regime still pursued policies of severe suppression and harsh restriction against Daoism. By the late years of Wei, the lands of the north were thrown into chaos by the Five Barbarians, and the culture-bearing aristocracy migrated south across the Yangtze. The Heavenly Master Way then began to flourish gradually, and it had made great contributions to establishing Jiangdong for An Shiyu. Thus, after the founding of the Chu state, An Shiyu vigorously supported the Heavenly Master Way, using its immense influence among the common people to proclaim conversion and guide men’s hearts. Even our present ruler, An Zidao, has the character for Dao in his name. The scale of the Heavenly Master Way’s power is plain enough to see from this single glimpse."

He Ru’s expression turned colder, and a trace of mockery appeared in his eyes. "After An Zidao ascended the throne, he initially still followed An Shiyu’s dying instructions and showed the Heavenly Master Way great favor. But you know his temperament. How could he tolerate such a vast power existing within his own realm? Once he had dealt with the three regents An Shiyu left behind and cleared away the local opposition, all power was in his hands. Over these past decade or more, he has intentionally or unintentionally supported Buddhism to contend with Daoism. Take, for example, Zhu Daorong, the Black-Robed Chancellor, who was said to have won imperial favor through his learning and talent. He deliberated on policy, then joined the circle of power, and all major court affairs were discussed with him. Gifts and bribes came from every direction, and for a time his influence towered over all. Even after so clearly favoring one creed, at first he still took care of the Heavenly Master Way’s dignity and did not dare favor Buddhism too blatantly. His judgments remained more or less fair. But in recent years he has grown reckless. Most important of all, several years ago in the Grand Ultimate Hall, Buddhism and Daoism held a formal debate. The Heavenly Master Way was defeated, and forty-seven Daoist temples across the nation were sentenced to be converted into Buddhist monasteries and placed under Buddhist control. This was a humiliation of the utmost degree for Sun Guan. If I am not mistaken, it was from that time on that Sun Guan finally gave up on An Zidao completely. If he did not wish to see the Heavenly Master Way destroyed in the hands of the ruler and become the eternal sinner of the Dao, then he had no choice but to seek another path."

Xu You’s brow furrowed deeply. "Another path?"

"Exactly." He Ru’s eyes flashed. "The other path he chose was the Crown Prince!"

Xu You had in fact already thought of this, but the matter was too serious and there was no proof, so he did not dare draw a conclusion rashly. "Give me your reasons."

"There are three. First, the Crown Prince and An Zidao are ill-suited in temperament and differ on many political views. At his birth, though the sky was clear and windless, his official cap was suddenly blown away, which An Zidao took as an ill omen. For that reason, he never liked the Crown Prince very much, choosing him only because of primogeniture, legitimate succession, and the opinion of the court. A rift between father and son was exactly the opening Sun Guan needed to sow discord. Second, over the years the Crown Prince has grown increasingly unruly and repeatedly angered An Zidao. There are rumors that Zhu Daorong once advised An Zidao to depose the Crown Prince, which led the Crown Prince to rant wildly in the Eastern Palace, launching fierce denunciations and insults at Zhu Daorong. The two then became enemies. Zhu Daorong is the foremost figure of Buddhism. If he is unacceptable to the Crown Prince, that means Buddhism is likewise unacceptable to the Crown Prince. With what kind of man is Sun Guan, how could he fail to seize such a heaven-sent opportunity? To the Heavenly Master Way, the Crown Prince is an object of immense value. Third, and most important, the Shen clan, like your Xu clan, has worshiped the Heavenly Master Way for generations, but in terms of the relationship between the two, it is far closer than the Xu clan’s. Shen Muzhi is an honored guest at Sun Guan’s table. In this recent upheaval in Yixing, the Crown Prince moved against the city in concert with the Shen clan; behind it all, there may well have been the shadow of the Heavenly Master Way."

Zuo Wen asked doubtfully, "The Xu clan and the Shen clan both worship the Heavenly Master Way. Why would Sun Guan favor one over the other?"

"It is not that he favors one over the other, but that the Xu clan and the Crown Prince are at odds, and the whole world knows it. In the third northern expedition, which ended in failure, the Crown Prince submitted a memorial demanding that the two Northern Expedition generals in command be executed to appease the realm. One of them was the noble ancestor of your Seventh Brother. An Zidao was not so foolish as the Crown Prince; he knew the failure of that campaign was not the fault of his ministers, but the result of his own rashness and refusal to heed advice. He rejected the Crown Prince’s memorial. Not only were the two generals not punished, they were rewarded instead."

This was also the source of the enmity between the Crown Prince and the Xu clan. Xu You had not expected He Ru to know this old story so well, and he let out a faint sigh.

"Since Sun Guan has sided with the Crown Prince, and since the Shen clan also has old grievances with the Xu clan, it is only natural that he would abandon the Xu clan. It is simply the choice he made after weighing the gains and losses."

"All of this is only speculation, with no hard proof. We must still proceed with caution." Though Xu You had already come to agree with He Ru’s reasoning, he shook his head and said, "Even if it is true, it will not be easy."

An Zidao was one of the two most powerful men in the world today. If he determined to deal with you, then all the vastness of the world would turn into a dead end.

For Sun Guan to seek another path would be easier said than done.

He Ru’s eyes grew cold. "Precisely because it is difficult, Sun Guan needs such an astonishing sum of money! When profit comes first, even roads that cannot be traveled will become passable!"