CH 67

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Officials in the Qing Dynasty and even in modern times generally take up post in local government before being promoted to a higher position, so as to accumulate experience and facilitate a more fluid approach to moving up.

But the Ming Dynasty did not have such customs.

For example, Zhang Juzheng had never had a post outside of the capital. After he achieved jinshi, he’d been at the Hanlin Academy ever since, and then he entered the Prince of Yu Manor as an Academician Expositor-in-waiting1. The only time that he was not in the Capital and in post was during the prime of his youth when he was disillusioned with the imperial court. Using the pretext of convalescing, he travelled around the country for three years. Aside from that, he had no experience of being an official outside of the capital. But his career path was seen as venerable and was very desirable to others.

Another example would be Xu Jie. Although he had once worked in Yanping and Hangzhou, this was only because he had offended the Senior Grand Secretary, Zhang Cong2 back then and had been demoted there. Which meant that, if he had had a choice, he’d naturally have rather stayed in the capital. Aside from the standards of living, being under the eyes of the Emperor, made it much easier to be promoted. Naturally, posts in Songjiang, Jiangxi and Zhejiang were also lucrative posts that everyone wanted. But there were many monks and not enough gruel to go around3, if one did not have a powerful backer, it was impossible to get one of these posts.

Regarding Zhao Su, given that he was a jinshi of the first rank, and once the eldest prince’s teacher, and now currently, the Chancellor of the Directorate of Education – staying in the Capital was appropriate and no one would have said anything. The Emperor having also fostered a relationship with him previously naturally saw very highly of him, and would have expected him to continue working up in the capital until he became the Secretary4 of one of the Six Ministries before finally entering the Grand Secretariat.

But, not long after he was promoted to fourth-rank, the news was made public that the Emperor had changed the eldest prince’s teachers, followed by the news that Zhao Su had personally requested to be relocated outside the capital. The news came in close proximity so naturally people thought that there was a link and that Zhao Su was annoyed with the Emperor and was leaving in anger. Even Gao Gong came to his home personally to persuade him to stay.

“This student had already wanted to come see teacher before setting off but I seem to have inconvenienced you, teacher, to come and see me personally, I must apologise!” Zhao Su was wearing day robes, his black hair held up by a jade hair ornament, he personally came to the door to greet Gao Gong and cupped his hands together respectfully.

“Forget it, we can drop the formalities between us.” Gao Gong had originally hurried there angrily to say his peace but seeing Zhao Su’s respectful attitude, his mood calmed down a bit. “Let’s chat inside!”

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When the two of them had sat down inside, he finally said: “I want to ask you, why did you suddenly request the Emperor to place you in a post outside of the capital, and didn’t even discuss it with me beforehand?”

If I had told you beforehand, would I have been able to leave, Zhao Su sneered at himself whilst saying: “Teacher, please forgive me. It is my wish to travel and see the rest of the country. After achieving jinshi, I have been His Highness’ teacher the whole time and was unable to do as I wished. Now I have the opportunity, and I can also take the opportunity to broaden my horizons.”

In fact, this was all true, but the real reason that Zhao Su wanted to leave wasn’t because Zhang Juzheng and Li Chunfang had taken his job but because he wanted to avoid the storm that was brewing.

Xu Jie and Gao Gong were both people who possessed great wisdom and knowledge but even greater ambitions. They were both fighting to govern the nation, but because of their differing personalities, it was clear that their policies and governance did not match. They were just like a married couple who had incompatible personalities but tried to force themselves to stay together, spending all their time together, sooner or later, things would come to blows. Plus, the disagreements between the two of them were becoming more and more evident, it wouldn’t be long until things imploded, there could only be one and not the other.

To be honest, if Zhao Su had to choose, he would choose to stand with Gao Gong.

First of all, it was because they had a relationship of teacher and student; secondly, the former Emperor, Jiajing, had left the country in chaos. The border was constantly being attacked, there were frequent revolts all over the country, and there were divisions within the imperial court. For anyone that the civil officials did not like, they would band together and attack. Under these circumstances, if one was to use Xu Jie’s method of “going along slowly to avoid getting fatally injured” would not work at all, therefore Zhao Su preferred Gao Gong’s swift and decisive methods. At least, he would clear the area of brambles for future generations and open up a new road on which to advance along.

Even if he regarded Gao Gong highly, it did not mean that the latter would necessarily prevail in this political battle.

In order to get rid of Yan Song, Xu Jie silently endured, laying in wait for over two decades, being deeply subtle and unbelievably patient. He had a clear advantage over Gao Gong, and his students covered all levels of society, including quite a few imperial censors. If any of the latter were to submit a memorial to the Emperor, it was likely that Gao Gong would suffer a great defeat.

Plus, Gao Gong was obstinate and self-opinionated by nature, he did not listen to others and once he had decided on something, nothing could hold him back. Zhao Su had tried to overtly and covertly persuade him a few times, asking him to temporarily cease fire, and not fight with Xu Jie for the time being, but Gao Gong did not listen one bit, and after a while, Zhao Su knew that it was pointless, and decided on getting out of dodge instead.

Gao Gong was also feeling a little touched by his words, and had long lost the fiery anger that he felt when he arrived, he sighed and said: “Going out to see the world is also good. However, it’s not the same as being in the capital. Under the feet of the Emperor, everyone works meticulously out of fear of the consequences. But if you offend anyone out there, a cornered dog will jump over the wall11, and might go as far as getting you killed.”

After he spoke, he laughed to himself: “Look at me, I originally wanted you to warn you to be careful but I’ve ended up scaring you.”

Zhao Su also laughed: “I will bring Zizhong with me, he can fight ten people by himself, ordinary bandits are nothing against him.”

The two of them put imperial court matters aside, and talked about some everyday matters. When Gao Gong was not angry, he was actually quite witty, otherwise he would not have become the teacher that the current Emperor respected the most.

Zhao Su, on seeing the other’s good mood, made him think about the attacks and degradation that Gao Gong would suffer in the future, until the latter was forced to retire from the imperial court, becoming more and more wretched. But this was the way of the world. Zhao Su could change his own fate, but his hands were bound in determining other people’s fate, this was because personality determines one’s destiny. He was incapable of changing Gao Gong’s nature, even if he was able to persuade him this time, he wouldn’t be able to everytime. But Zhao Su was still determined to try, since he had a good relationship with Gao Gong. And this way, not only could it resolve the internal strife in the imperial court but he also hoped to be able to help and offer his own ideas.

Not long after that day, Zhao Su’s assignment finally arrived, his new post was to become the Prefectural Magistrate of Shandong, Laizhou Prefecture.

Love will find a way16, one of them had painfully waited for many years with undying loyalty whilst the other had gone through unspeakable torment but held on to her morals, even Zhao Su was happy for them.

Maiden Yu was brimming with smiles as she listened to Zhao Nuan finish speaking to Zhao Su, she then took a cloth wrapped bag from the hands of her maidservant and passed it to Zhao Su: “Your journey is long, I don’t have much to offer, there are a few summer robes in there, I was afraid that when you arrive there, it will be summer and you won’t have the appropriate clothing to change into. Brother-in-law17, please kindly accept them.”

Zhao Su said proudly: “Look at my wife, the most virtuous and warm under the heavens, who could compare…..”

He was unable to finish as Zhao fu-ren gave him a deathly stare that made him immediately not dare to utter another word. Zhao Su laughed: “You’ve finally found someone who can take care of you. Sister-in-law18, please look after him and don’t let that idiot get into trouble!”

Maiden Yu shot a glance at Zhao Nuan and then pursed her lips and smiled: “Brother-in-law can rest assured, I am here.”

一一 After saying his goodbyes, it was time for him to set off. Zhao Su looked over at everyone once more, his hand was feeling a little empty, and his mind wandered to that person who must have been stuck in the palace studying and unable to come out. He said goodbye to everyone and then got back on his horse ready to head off.

Suddenly he heard a voice call him from afar: “Su, Suuu————!”

Zhao Su turned around stunned and saw Zhu Yijun arriving on horseback with Feng Bao on the same horse. The latter was probably afraid that he was inexperienced and might fall, behind them were a few others, including Zhang Juzheng.

“Susu!” Zhu Yijun shouted out loudly, and in a blink of an eye he had already arrived, “wait, wait!”

He barely waited for the horse to stop and had already jumped down, giving Feng Bao an awful fright as he quickly reined in the horse.

Zhu Yijun ran over to Zhao Su as soon as he was on the ground: “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

Zhao Su hadn’t noticed that he had a giant smile on his face upon seeing this child: “Aren’t you studying, how did you come out?”

Zhu Yijun pouted a little: “I asked teacher Zhang and Feng da-ban to accompany me out, and father always agreed in the end.”

Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao who were behind them looked at each other and forced a smile. Zhao Su imagined that he had caused quite a stir in order to be allowed to leave the palace, using every trick in the book.

“Your status is elevated, you are part of the heavenly family, you mustn’t act like this again.” Zhao Su said this but he was not using a scolding tone and in fact had a warmth that even he didn’t expect.

“I know.” Zhu Yijun threw his arms around his waist, his head buried in his embrace. A muffled voice was heard that only the two of them could hear. “Susu, wait for me to grow up, I will definitely find a way to bring you back.”

He was silent for a moment and then Zhu Yijun couldn’t wait any longer for his response and was about to lift his head to look at him when he heard Zhao Su reply: “Okay, I’ll wait for you.”

Zhu Yijun was overjoyed by his words, but also depressed by their parting. It was just that unfortunately a ten-year-old child could not express so much joy, anger and sadness, so he put all his emotions into this embrace and put all his strength into a promise that might be realised until many years later.

[End of Arc 2]

Author Note:

Note that I did not find out whether Laizhou was a Middle Prefecture or an Upper Prefecture, I believe it is the former.

Translator Note:

Wooow – two arcs down and two to go. I can’t believe that I have been translating this for six months…. I wonder if I can get the rest done in the next six (´ ∀ ` *)