CH 49

Young Master Wang was all smiles: “What great expert, Ruan Sheng cannot paint people as well as you. If it wasn’t for the fact he is a juren[1], he wouldn’t have been able to establish himself as a great expert. He gets a kick from inscribing his name onto those four beauty portraits of yours. Usually, if you ask him to include a poem on the painting, he needs to have food and drink as well as beautiful scenery. He stretches out this matter quite a bit.”

But nowadays,  all the great painters were located in the south, with Dai Jin and Shen Zhou as the masters of that domain. Here in North Zhili, there were already not many scholars, let alone fewer people who were skilled at painting. Although this artist that had been fished up by Young Master Wang had quite a few demands, he had properly studied Li Gonglin’s brushwork, so the lines were invigorated with strength, the scenes polished. Compared to those counterfeits imitating Cui Xie’s beauty portraits out on the market, his techniques were even more elegant.

Cui Xie rushed through his studies as he only had about half an hour of free time each day to draw and paint. It had been sufficient while painting some small portraits, but it was truly not enough time needed for painting a substantially larger portrait. Now, Young Master Wang and expert Ruan were inevitably linked together, as he was provided good food and drink all for the sake of imitating Cui Xie’s beauty portraits——But now, the portrait of a military general had been added as well. 

That Painter Ruan actually quite liked imitating these types of portraits, just signing a name had people providing for him as he spent his days in comfort. As such, he was at ease becoming the Wang Residence’s distinguished, commissioned master. Today was Thousand Pine Ridge, tomorrow was Dragon King Slope. Even if the Young Khan continuously made incursions at the border, it did not delay his free and unconstrained paintings of mountains and rivers.

Since Wang Xiangzhen had already mentioned him, he said, “He can imitate your paintings accurately about nine out of ten times. Just draw me a small portrait and later on I can ask him to enlarge it.”

Carefully setting an auspicious date does not beat seizing an opportunity[2], so Cui Xie asked him to stand in the courtyard and model, taking advantage of the glittering light of summertime sunset shining down on them.

In order to save time, he still employed the technique of graphic novels by outlining the silhouettes. However, since there was no need to consider the degree of difficulty while printing, the coloring of the portrait was significantly more fine and meticulous. The color depth was irregularly scattered around in different shades, and color washes were added carefully to the painting until clear-cut and three-dimensional facial features appeared. Even the clothing ornaments that were drawn reflected light and shadows, as if they were real.

At this moment, Young Master Wang was immersed in that heroic fantasy world of the soldierly figure Lu Bu. While he was modeling, he even posed with a real bow and after loosening the bow string, he drew the bow into a full-moon pose, which was not too tiring. Cui Xie drew his half-side portrait, his body dressed with a fitted crimson military uniform with narrow sleeves, the hair worn in a high bun and the head was without a helmet. Standing in a Not Nail Not Eight [3] stance with the heels and toes of both feet spaced equally apart, he pulled the bowstring with his right hand until it reached the edge of his jaw as he looked slantingly out at the scenery.  Both his gaze and the point of his arrow seemed as if was just about to shoot out of the portrait.

The whole body was missing only a full suit of armor, but it was as if  Marquis Wen (Lu Bu)  had once again appeared into the world! In the future, there could be the rebirth of Lord Guan, the rebirth of Xu Chu, Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao….all reborn into the world!

When Wang Xiangzhen saw the finished portrait, he hated that he could not just immediately don his custom-made messy silver-colored armor, grab a square sky decorated halberd[4] and as if he was the reincarnation of Marquis Wen, suddenly bravely storm into the Tartar, advance seven steps and retreat seven steps to capture the Tartar’s Young Khan alive.

This portrait took no less than a full evening to finish, and if the armor were to be painted on, it would not be finished until tomorrow. Cui Xie estimated that there was not enough time,  so he used a translucent oil paper to trace down the outline of the silhouette and had Wang Xiangzhen take the original painting away. After a few days, he could come to get the painting of the armor.

Although Young Master Wang hated that he could not just drag the beaming sun down and throw it back into the sky, he did not dare to rush Cui Xie and as he rolled up the original painting, he commented, “Your studies are more important, paint slowly, no rush, I will come pick it up during one of my breaks.”

He also had a Painter Ruan as his backup and while Cui Xie was slowly painting over here, the great expert Ruan could produce a few sets of the hero portraits from the 《The Six Talents and their Commentaries on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms》. Once the day came, if he were to exchange his clothes for armor and weapons and stuck it on the portrait of him, wouldn’t he have become one of those famous generals talked about throughout all the ages?

Upon returning home, he hung the portrait in the barracks and told the soldiers to look at this rich and important General Wang’s heroic bearing and dashing figure!

Clasping onto the painting scroll, Young Master Wang returned home in delighted spirits and as for Cui Xie, he set aside a bit of time each day to carefully paint the armor. When he was finished, he asked someone to send the portraits over to Commander Wang’s residence.

When painting for someone else, he never skimped on the job or stinted on materials. As such, he actually designed a quite a few different sets of armor: there was a Lu Bu set with a full-body silver-colored armor set complimented by a pheasant plumed crown and  a square sky decorated halberd; the Guan Yu set had an emerald green headscarf and green robes in addition to the Green Dragon Crescent Blade; there was also the Zhao Yun set that contained a silver helmet with raw silk tassels and his White Dragon Horse; Lastly, the Xu Chu set consisted of an armor set that was bare breasted and the upper outer garment was tied around the waist…..

Since clothes could not be remembered clearly throughout history, the armor sets were basically a hybrid combination of new and older versions that had appeared in various games and comics. Regardless of whether it was in line with actual history, they were drawn to reveal one’s figure, so as long as it looked good, the historical accuracy did not matter. When Pengyan saw these armor portraits, he became extremely envious but did not dare to ask Cui Xie for it. He was only able to take them out occasionally when cleaning the study and often imagined what he would look like if he were to put on this armor.

Cui Xie freed up his schedule to paint Pengyan a self-portrait and asked the artisans to print a few more copies of the full-sized portraits of Lu Bu, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei with the faces and other body parts cut out. This way, Pengyan could play dress-up with his own portrait, putting the boy in a cheerful mood.

However, it was not only Pengyan who wanted to do so, all of the young artisans were itching to get their hands on such a plaything. However, their elders felt that Cui Xie’s studies were more of a priority and while it was fine for Cui Xie to have been busy taking care of that Young Master’s business from the Commander’s residence, to spend his precious time suffering for these insensible children,  the elders thoroughly scolded the children.

But, this group of youths had flexible and lively minds, secretly printing a few crude black-and-white portraits and cutting out the faces and armor into separate removable pieces. They could then have their favorite characters wear different suits of armor, and this allowed them to play to their heart’s content. During one of Cui Xie’s regular meetings, he chanced upon two apprentices earnestly playing with the paper dolls. He stopped them and asked, “How do you play this?”

Since Cui Xie was young and wasn’t particularly serious, he was quite popular and had good relations with people. When the two apprentices in their teens saw him, they froze and looked as if they were truant students who had been gaming at an internet cafe but then got caught in the act by their Teacher. They didn’t dare to release any of their imposing air from earlier, trembling with fear to stutter out , “Us lesser ones did not dare to arbitrarily use the pigments and papers used for printing portraits. This was all printed on coarse cotton paper by ourselves, hoping the Young Master will forgive us for this transgression.”

Cui Xie pursed his lips, not knowing how to respond.

He had asked them this question not because they had used the workshop’s pigments and paper to play with, but rather…..If he were to explain it bluntly, he had only played these dress-up games in kindergarten and all the way up to first or second grade in elementary school. Once he got older, he didn’t buy these types of things anymore.

One of the bolder apprentices mentioned, “We were envious of Pengyan-ge’s portrait set where he could swap out the clothes, became muddleheaded and thus printed one for ourselves….”

Cui Xie waved his hands and replied, “I am not blaming you all, I just did not expect that adults would also love to play with these too. But do you guys really like playing with these kinds of portraits where you can change your clothes?”

Not only did the two apprentices that had been caught by Cui Xie feel a little ashamed, even Li Jinbao’s expression exposed a slight sense of mortification. All the craftsmen in the workshop coaxed Cui Xie not to bother with those two apprentices and said that they were merely youths who did not know any better and although they randomly used their master’s things, they hadn’t wasted any good paper and pigments. But, not a single one of them said, “These are merely children’s playthings, no one likes them”.

From this, Cui Xie could see that these dress-up portraits were unexpectedly quite popular even among adults.

He was a bit dumbfounded. But after giving it some careful thought, 500 years later, if one were to turn on the TV, one could find and watch several versions of the 《Three Kingdoms》. In this era, only the original work was available and even the brain-numbing story of LiuGuanZhang[5] killing each other’s family members, 《The Legend of Flower Guan Suo》, had been all the rage once upon a time.

It is no wonder that even grown ups like the clerks and artisans…..and even that Young Master Wang who had seen his fair share of grand scenes before, was addicted to those dress up games.

Then he should first try printing a few sets and leave them in the store to gauge the customers’ reactions.

Because a relatively low-grade technique had been used to create the dress-up set, he did not dare to add too much to it and just first printed standing portraits of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, Zhuge Liang, Lu Bu, Zhao Yun, Zhou Yu etc without faces, and they were all about the same size as the figures printed in the book’s portraits. 

Each set of the portraits came with three fixed card sleeve slots, a standing image beneath it and an additional three sets of guanfu[6], armor, and chaofu[7] attires were nested and overlapped in the different slots to achieve the effect of changing clothes.

For convenience while engraving, the main reason being so one could slack while painting, each portrait had the same height and posture. For several of the military generals that did not have long beards, it was also possible to swap out their clothes.

Cui Xie originally expected that the main sales target of this set of dress-up cards was for primary school students. After printing was completed, he specially gifted a set to the three mengxue[8] students for them to take home to show off to their little friends. Who would have thought that even before the students could take it home, the older tongsheng[9] discovered the sets and ran to his residence to ask why he hadn’t gifted it to them first. Did he not regard them as his fellow friends?

Cui Xie could only ask someone to bring them a few sets and taught them how to use the slots to switch between different attires and inquired whose card they wanted in passing. Compared to Young Master Wang, these literati had different interests and wanted more scholarly characters such as Chen Gong, Xu Shu, Pang Tong, Xun Yu, Guo Jia and other refined figures——there were also some who wanted Ji Kang, who wasn’t even mentioned in the 《Romance of the Three Kingdoms》, to which Cui Xie flatly refused on the spot.

It was not until June that the dress-up card kits were officially released into the market. 

Due to rumors of internal invasion in the areas near Yongping and Shanhai, there were fewer non-locals who came to buy books. Shopkeeper Ji only kept a hundred or so more kits in the bookstore and the rest were transported to Tongzhou and the capital by his son, who gave them to bookstores he was familiar with to sell. Who would have expected that this card kit would sell extremely well in Qian’an and it didn’t even lose out to the original beauty prints. The leftovers at the bookstore would not be enough to sell for the next two days.

The Three Kingdoms had become so popular that in comparison, the beauty prints and sacrificial articles for worship, these usable necessities, were left behind in the dust. Shopkeeper Ji hurriedly ordered the craftsmen to print some more before they were offered up for sale again. Unexpectedly, at the end of the day, a few soldiers dressed in crimson red yesa[10] directly lined up silver taels along the store’s counter, ordering 300 sets of the dress-up card kits for immediate use. Even after scouring through every inch of the shop, Shopkeeper Ji couldn’t scrape up that many card kits and he did not dare to act strong with the officers in front of him, so he persuaded in a low voice: “All of the paintings in our shop are commissioned by famous artists from outside the county, and this order will not be ready for quite a while. How about this gentleman leave behind an address and then once we have found a painter, we can send it over to this gentleman’s residence instead?”

That soldier was extremely pressed by time and complained, “We could only carve out this small block of time to come, we are leaving for the capital immediately! We will take whatever you have at the moment. If not, just send it to Xingtun’s Right Commander Wang’s residence. Once our family’s Company Commander[11] Wang knew of this matter, so he immediately asked us to send it to the da-ren.”

To be able to use Young Master Wang, this great 3rd-rank official, as a messenger, this person was of no ordinary background. Shopkeeper Ji grew increasingly more prudent and asked, “Just which noble figure is this da-ren?”

The soldier said, “Company Commander Wang naturally knows, for things you shouldn’t ask about, don’t ask it. Also, our da-ren is fond of Second Master Guan (Guan Yu) and Zhao Zilong (Zhao Yun). Later on, send more of those over to Commander Wang’s residence, none of those Xu Chu cards!”

Shopkeeper Ji continuously nodded and after storing away the silver, he gave the group all the currently available card kits inside the store, with the exception of the Xu Chu card kits. This added up to a bit more than 30 sets of dress-up card kits and the rest of the order was vowed to be sent over as soon as possible. When those few soldiers left, Shopkeeper Ji handed over the counter to Clerk Fang and headed over to Boss Cui Xie to discuss the matter, asking if Cui Xie knew this mysterious person.

Cui Xie was even more at a loss and shook his head, “These past two days, Young Master Wang hasn’t visited our residence for quite some time. How would I know how such a big character is able to order him around as their errand boy? Let’s first start printing the order, later on, when I visit the Wang residence, I will ask him about it.”

So be it. Besides, the customer had been open and reasonable and had laid out the money on the counter first before taking the merchandise. They were simply card sellers, did it matter as to where the merchandise went?

Once they finally finished printing the amount that the other party had requested, Cui Xie was just about to request for Shopkeeper Ji to take a trip down to the Commander’s residence, but before he could do so, Young Master Wang personally made a trip this time. Upon entering the residence, before tea or snacks could be offered, he urgently requested for the card kits to be handed over.

It just so happened that the card kits had been left in the study and Cui Xie moved the merchandise over for Young Master Wang to pick through himself. If it was not to his liking, he could head over to the workshop’s storage room and replace them with another kit. Young Master Wang shed all pretenses and counted out all the card kits of Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Lu Bu until it added up to 300 sets and then asked for someone to wrap them in cloth and seal it tightly into a wooden box. It was only after that did he heave out a long breath, downing a large bowl of pickled plum drink sprinkled with crushed ice.

He panted and said, “It is still your residence that is the most comfortable. These past few days, my buttocks have barely left the horse saddle and sitting on these hard chairs is like torture. Just which artisan made your sofa, ge-ge also wants to order a set….Hai, my father will definitely not allow me to sit on this type of chair, I will just order one for my mother later instead.”

“This was made by Carpenter Zhao, who lives right across the street from my residence. When I first moved here, I commissioned him to make a small bed and then made a cushion using duck and goose feathers. Later on, his family started selling these types of sofas, and although they are not the best-looking, they are comfortable to recline on.”

Seeing Young Master Wang lying comfortably on the sofa, as if he hated he could not just lay on this sofa for the rest of his lifetime, Cui Xie could not help but ask, “Just who is this person, can actually make you run around like this to buy him a few portraits?”

Young Master Wang sighed, grabbing his hair a few times, feigning remorse but responded in a flaunting manner, “This matter is to be blamed on me, it is all because I like showing off too much. I hung that portrait you gave me in the barracks. Later on, Chief Wang of the Zhenfu Division borrowed my portrait while they were practicing drills and had the soldiers practice in teams. Whichever team won would be allowed to decide which attire to dress me up in next, so all the guards, from the bottom to the top of the camp are all pinning after your portraits.”

“A few days ago, Anshun’s Earl was stationed to fortify Yongping and we escorted some army provisions over. Those ignorant soldiers under my command started boasting in front of the soldiers stationed at the Yongping Garrison for a spell. Later, his Lord Earl wanted to see just what kind of portrait it was so I could only send it down for him to take a look. Luckily the other didn’t put my face in his eyes and returned the large portrait to me, only asking if I had the original portraits of Lord Guan and Zhao Yun.

Cui Xie guessed, “So you said I could paint some for him? It is your superior after all, giving him a portrait will benefit you.”

Young Master Wang grinned, “At his old age, it is unlikely that the Lord Earl will be like me and wants to play dress up with the attire of valiant generals. I reckon it was bought to use as gifts for later. The Young Khan is currently in the Datong area, and as for our Shanhai and Yongping, there is no need for us to be so tense, he also has to…..

He shook his head, “Your studies are more pressing. If he insists on the portraits, I will ask Ruan Sheng to paint for him instead. Ruan Sheng has already grown familiar with all of your characters from the Three Kingdoms and secretly asked me to urge you to bring out some new ones.”

Cui Xie chuckled, “He does not want a self-portrait, nor does he want to try dress-up, drawing is very easy for him. I will have to trouble your great expert Ruan to use another pseudonym——I am a person who is about to take the Imperial examinations and need to be made distinctively clear from this Cui beauty.”

Based on what outsiders were saying, he had heard that the Cui beauty’s big reputation had already spread to the capital and when the Zhirong Bookstore was mentioned, heck, even when mentioning so much as his characteristic meticulous brushwork that paralleled the painting style of graphic novels, the topic would directly call to the mind of the infamous Cui Beauty. This impression was quite hard to shake off.

He might as well prepare a few more safeguards and puppets, as long as others did not link the Cui beauty to him, he could live magnanimously and frankly!

It was just a pity….

When he took out pen and paper, spreading the alum water sealant onto the paper, he often thought regretfully: hidden behind such anonymity, he could not gift Colonel Xie this kind of dress-up card kit, nor paint his face into the book, so that Xie Ying could disguised as some young hero.

Footnotes:

Images:

Square Sky Decorated Halberd:

Not Nail Not Eight Stance:

An example of what is correct: 

Incorrect: