All Under Heaven

Strife in the Imperial Court, the education of the little brat, Court Examination.

Yan Manor.

Yan Shifan was pacing back and forth, from time to time he would glance over at the front door. His face was clearing showing his impatience.

Yan Maoqing was trying to resist but he couldn’t any longer, he anxiously asked: “Little Gelao, Grand Secretary is coming back so late, do you think something happened?”

“You’re asking me, who am I supposed to ask!” Yan Shifan was very impatient. He was not particularly good-looking and was blind in one eye, so although Jiajing had a great trust in the Yan family, he didn’t like seeing Yan Shifan at all.

 

Yan Maoqing immediately shut up, he didn’t dare to say anything else.

But Yan Shifan’s inner agitation had not diminished in the slightest. This was not the first time he had felt such a strong uneasiness.

Many years ago, when the former Senior Grand Secretary, Xia Yan wanted to have them executed, he and his father had been extremely frightened and living on the edge. Later, after several discussions, with them kneeling in front of Xia Yan and pleading hard in front of him. They managed to fully capitalise on the soft-heartedness of Xia Yan to be able to save their own lives.

However, this time, the situation appeared seemingly peaceful, the Emperor hadn’t made his move, nor had Xu Jie.

 

But it was precisely this strange calm that made Yan Shifan even more keenly aware of the strange calmness.

Although the ploy that he had designed had finally been broken because of Prince of Yu’s trip into the Palace. However, Yan Shifan felt that it was not a complete loss. As long as Zhao Su made a lot of mistakes during the court examination and left a bad impression on the Emperor, then he could still get his father to bring up the cheating scandal to the Emperor again, and make the metropolitan Examination cheating issue a problem again. He went through all the details again, and confirmed that he had done nothing wrong, and only then did he calm down a little.

“Laoye is home!” Yan Shifan raised an eyebrow, turned around and walked quickly to the door and stopped. After waiting for a long time, he saw Yan Song walking towards him slowly step by step, holding the hand of a servant. “Father, why did you come back so late, what did the Emperor say?”

Yan Shifan asked impatiently. Yan Song didn’t speak, but just sat down in the grand master’s chair in silence.

“Father!”

Yan Song glanced over at him, and then handed the memorial in his hand to Yan Maoqing. Yan Maoqing accepted it unaware of what it was. After reading a few lines, he broke out in a cold sweat: “This, this, Grand Secretary, this official has been unjustly accused!…”

Yan Shifan was impatient, so he snatched the memorial from the other’s hands and read over the entire document. After reading it, he was taken aback: “Father, didn’t we already suppress this issue? Was it given to you by the Emperor?”

Yan Song slowly said, “I waited for a long time before his Majesty came out. He gave me the memorial but he didn’t say a word. And then I was asked to leave.”

Yan Shifan thought for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, “It must be Xu Jie, besides him, who else could find Yu Che’s1 memorial and submit it! Yu Che has already been banished, he probably died on the road. I rummaged through his house, but I didn’t find this memorial. I didn’t expect it to fall into his hands in the end!”

Yan Song closed his eyes to rest his mind. He leaned back and asked with a faint expression: “Let me ask you, weren’t there many memorials submitted against our Yan family in the past. How did his Majesty deal with it?”

Yan Shifan thought for a while: “A few years ago, there were quite a few more, they either died and were exiled. Those people never dared to oppose us again. Even if there were one or two impeachments in the past few years, they were all suppressed by us.”

“Then has his Majesty ever pursued the matter?”

Yan Shifan frowned: “Father, what are you trying to say!”

“Even if there was an impeachment before, and his Majesty hadn’t received it but he had heard about it, he still never pursued it, but this time he called me in and gave me the memorial. Do you know why?”

Although Yan Shifan’s temper was irritable, when Yan Song asked, he immediately reeled back his anger and said: “Father, do you mean that the Emperor gave us a warning?”

“I don’t know.” Yan Song shook his head, looking very tired: “I have become more and more unable to understand his Majesty’s thoughts these days.”

Yan Shifan looked at his gray-haired old dad and suddenly felt a very strong feeling of danger ahead.

The heart and soul of the Yan faction was him, but the one who really held any sway with the Emperor was his old dad who was over eighty years old.

“Father, it’s just a memorial, how can it scare you like this!”

Yan Song sighed a few times: “Recently, I have been tired worrying about your mother’s illness. Over the past few decades, our family has reached the highest rank in the Imperial Court and we have enjoyed great wealth and power. It is enough. Now I only hope for peace and safety, and I’ll be satisfied.”

As a person ages, one’s ambitions die with it. Nowadays, anyone who saw the old and decrepit Yan Song, would not associate him with the powerful authority figure of back then. Yan Shifan disapproved but just as he was about to say something, he heard a stern cry come from the other side of the yard: “Lao fu-ren–!”

Yan Song shook, and abruptly looked up.

Yan Maoqing was also taken aback and immediately looked towards Yan Shifan, his heart filled with an ominous premonition.

After a short moment, the servants were tripping over themselves and they hurried into the room, these were the servants who were waiting on lao fu-ren, Lady Ouyang’s sick bed.

“Lao-ye, da-ye, lao fu-ren, lao fu-ren, she…returned to heaven!”

Yan Song’s beard trembled, as if he wanted to say something, but could not make a sound, his hands covered with veins trembled slightly. His cloudy eyes were already moist.

Yan Shifan was at once complaining that his mother had died an untimely death, whilst at the same time stroking his father’s back. He said, “Father, restrain your grief and accept fate2, mother had been ill for a long time… Now the most important thing is to keep this news under wraps. Otherwise, your son, I will have to return to our hometown to observe mourning3. Father is old, you may not be able to cope with the Emperor…”

Yan Song looked up and stared at him for a while as if he had met his son for the first time, he swallowed, before he finally said: “Yan Shifan, are you even human to say such a thing! Your mother is dead, that’s your mother!”

Yan Shifan also had a temper: “I know, but this is really unfortunate timing! Mother has passed away, and I am also sad, but if the Yan family falls, I’m afraid that we won’t even have the opportunity to give her a funeral!”

Yan Song was silent, shook off the other’s hand, and walked out with his walking stick.

“Father!”

“Grand Secretary!”

Yan Maoqing watched Yan Song leave, and he paused anxiously: “Little Gelao?”

Yan Shifan sneered: “This is all your fault. Look at what’s written on this memorial, every word and sentence is all aimed at you. You collected so much money, now you want lao-zi to wipe your butt! Why didn’t you think about the consequences in the first place!”

Yan Maoqing cried and said with a sad face: “I’ve been wronged, in all honesty, over the years, every time the people below have made offerings, this official has never forgotten little Gelao!”

Of course Yan Shifan knew, so he didn’t kick him out yet and started to think of a way out of this mess. If Yan Maoqing had really dared to take bribes behind his back, he might have really pushed him out to be a scapegoat.

He paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, frowning whilst thinking. The pitiful Yan Maoqing looked at him fearfully: “Little Gelao, this official remembers that Xu Jie had previously married his granddaughter to your son as a concubine, can you… use this to coerce him?”

“What do you know! Xu Jie, that old b*stard, when he delivered her, he never thought of getting her back! In times of harmony, that woman was just a gift, an icing on the cake. Even if we slaughtered her, he would never say a word!”

This was just a sad fact. Sometimes it may not be a good thing to be born in an official’s household. That woman was destined to become a concubine from the moment she was betrothed to his political opponent’s son.

For the Xu and Yan families, this was just a trivial little person, even Yan Shifan didn’t bother to make a fuss about her.

Yan Shifan suddenly had an idea, and he stopped pacing: “Since they have already taken action, then let’s completely muddy up the water!”

Yan Maoqing’s spirits were lifted up: “Little Gelao, please could you explain.”

“Tomorrow you…”

——————

41st year of Jiajing, February 28th, the Imperial Censor, Zhang Xun impeached the Grand Secretariat’s vice Senior Grand Secretary, Xu Jie for misjudgement by recommending Gao Gong, Chen Yiqin and others to be the Chief Examining Officers for the Metropolitan Examination, which resulted in fraud and other incidents.

On the second day of March, the Imperial Censor, Li Chengzhe, impeached Xu Jie for having thousands of hectares of fertile land in his hometown and receiving countless bribes for more than a decade. Being crooked and falling to temptation when he was an Official of the Imperial Court, having total disregard for his Majesty and profiting for himself.

Generally speaking, when officials were impeached, they had to stay home to avoid arousing more suspicion and were not able to attend Imperial Court. So as soon as these memorials had been submitted, Xu Jie immediately shut himself at home to await further instructions. But at this time, the old man of the Yan family, following the death of Lady Ouyang was overwhelmed with grief and fell ill, unable to attend morning court and Yan Shifan was also observing his mourning period, so naturally he couldn’t enter the palace either.

Those in the Imperial Court who actually had some authority were not present, and the Grand Secretariat suddenly became a mess. All the impeachments, as well as the reports of disaster relief and wars from all over the country were falling like snowflakes onto Emperor Jiajing’s desk. He got so annoyed that he just turned a blind eye, he was too lazy to look again, and simply went into closed door meditation, refusing to see anyone.

Three days passed in a blink of an eye.

Huang Jin was surprised to find that after Jiajing’s meditation ended, instead of being refreshed, he seemed even more tired.

“Your Majesty, please take care of your health!” He quickly served the ginseng soup.

Jiajing took the ginseng soup and drank it with a gloomy expression: “Without Xu Jie and Yan Song, the Grand Secretariat has become an utter mess. Those other people help themselves, they have create more worry for me about these mundane things!”

Huang Jin finally understood, the Emperor had said he’d go into closed door meditation for the past three days but he had still been thinking about government affairs, so he couldn’t concentrate on his meditation.

“Why don’t I ask someone to prepare a bath for your Majesty?”

Jiajing waved his hand in dismissal: “Go and invite Daoist Master Lan here.”

Huang Jin responded in agreement and hurriedly went to find Daoist Master Lan.

Jiajing was extremely superstitious and believed in the powers of the Daoist Masters, so naturally he kept many professional talents around him, such as alchemists to make immortality elixirs, preachers, hexagram readers, astronomers and everything else. And Daoist Master Lan that he was inviting, was a master of Fuji, meaning that he was able to summon deities, and use his body to allow the spirit to write out their message or instruction on the planchette.

Daoist Master Lan arrived very quickly. After greeting the Emperor, Emperor Jiajing impatiently asked him to set up the planchette. Daoist Master Lan asked, “Which deity do you wish to invite?”

Emperor Jiajing thought for a moment: “Ancestor Zu.” That was Lu Dongbin.

Daoist Master Lan nodded and started his practice. Emperor Jiajing watched him closely, but not long after, Daoist Master Lan’s facial expression changed suddenly, and his voice was also lower, completely different to his usual manner.

Jiajing knew that the deity had been summoned.

“*I will act as a political advisor to aid the Emperor. What does your Majesty wish to ask?”

“I have been asking myself these last few decades, even if I didn’t open up the territory like Hongwu Emperor, I was at least trembling with fear whilst I did my utmost. But now, the affairs of the country seem to be more and more cumbersome. There are disasters everywhere, and those in the imperial court are fighting like cocks, making noise every day. When will it quieten down and let me relax and concentrate on serving the Gods.”

“Keep virtuous subjects close, and traitorous villains at a distance.”

This answer was too vague, Jiajing was very dissatisfied, so he asked again: “Who are the virtuous, who are the traitors?”

Master Daoist Lan paused for a moment: “Those treacherous officials who dare to submit memorials to the Emperor, Your Majesty knows at a glance.”

This was an obvious reminder. Jiajing’s heart sank, and then asked: “Since there are traitors in the midst, why do the Heavens not give a sign and weed out the traitors?”

“Heaven is governed by heavenly laws and mortals are governed mortal laws. Your Majesty is the ruler of the mortals. Even if there are treacherous officials, Your Majesty must personally punish them. If the Gods act on behalf of everything, would there be any need for a ruler of the mortals?”

After those last words there was silence, Master Daoist Lan’s face changed again, his grip also loosened, and his whole body collapsed onto his knees: “Your Majesty…”

“The deity is gone?”

“Yes.”

Jiajing looked away from him, with a suspicious look on his face: “…treacherous officials?”

Master Daoist Lan was prostrating on the ground, pale and sweating, as if he had exhausted his entire body just now. Emperor Jiajing didn’t suspect him, and let someone help him to rest.

After a while, Huang Jin came to report: “Your Majesty, Secretary Yan is outside seeking an audience. His wife has just passed away. He doesn’t seem to be looking so good…” His words stopped abruptly, because Huang Jin inadvertently caught a glimpse of the expression on Emperor Jiajing’s face.

It was extreme anger, fuming through gritted teeth, as if he wanted to bite someone’s head off.

“Your Majesty?”

“I, don’t, want, to, see, him.”

Xu Manor.

The windows were opened slightly, but it did not affect the warmth of the house. Not only were the tables and chairs covered with soft mats, but even the ground was covered with thick wool blankets. A few blooming red plum flowers were inserted in a straight-necked bottle with a peony and lotus pattern. Next to the red sandalwood bench was a small side table where a tea set had been placed. The man on the right was holding a bowl and pouring water into the teapot. Then, the boiling hot mountain spring water was infused with the Longjing tea. In a split second, the fragrant scent of the tea filled the room, mixing with the faint fragrance of the plum flowers, refreshing their senses and minds.
 

“Teacher’s plan was really clever. The Emperor is very trusting of Daoist Masters and he has asked the Daoist Master to come forward. It is more useful than us using a hundred sentences or submitting a hundred memorials.” Zhang Juzheng poured a cup of tea for Xu Jie, and said with a smile.

“Taiyue4, what do you think our chances of succeeding are now?” Xu Jie’s eyes were half-opened and half-closed, as if he was closing his eyes to rest, but he was also full of energy. He was not tall, but he was high-spirited. He had black hair that was as dark as ink, which was a sharp contrast from the old man Yan Song.

“Teacher, are you trying to test me?”

Zhang Juzheng smiled and said: “Last time, Yu Che’s memorial ended up in our hands and we kept silent. It was ridiculous that Yan Shifan exiled Yu Che’s family and turned the house upside down, but he was unable to find the memorial, but he never expected that the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole and the goldfinch behind 5, and that memorial was actually in our hands. The most wonderful thing was that we removed all the content impeaching the Yan family in the memorial, focusing on exaggerating Yan Maoqing’s greed and corruption. The treasury is now empty, and his Majesty is strapped for funding. This Yan Maoqing is even wealthier than his Majesty. Exactly poking at his Majesty’s sore spot? That’s a given.”
 

“Secondly, Yan Maoqing is the leading pawn of the Yan faction. Hanging him out to dry means that the Yan family will definitely work to rescue him. When the time comes, the Yan family will also be implicated, but all this still requires a matchstick.”

“This matchstick, naturally, was to use the Daoist Master to tell his Majesty who are the righteous officials and who are the real villains.”

Zhang Juzheng continued: “This way, we have the chance to succeed, we must make sure the Yan family never have the opportunity to climb back up again.”

After hearing his analysis, Xu Jie said lightly: “You’ve missed the most important point.”

Zhang Juzheng was taken aback.

“Everything is based on the premise that his Majesty will do it. But if his Majesty holds some nostalgia for the Yan family, and would rather tolerate a traitor, then we will fall short again.” Seeing that his student was a little confused, he smiled and comforted: “But don’t worry, lao fu-ren of the Yan family has just passed away. Yan Song has cherished his old wife for all his life. The Yan faction is nothing more than a toothless tiger, there’s nothing to fear.”

Zhang Juzheng settled down: “This is all thanks to teacher’s well-thought out plans. The Yan family have been running the Imperial Court for twenty years and have caused countless misfortunes. If they can be uprooted, it will be for our country, and the merits are boundless.” Xu Jie sipped tea again, with a slight smile: “Have you seen Zhao Shaoyong?”

Zhang Juzheng was startled at first, and then he reacted: “The person who was caught in the metropolitan examination cheating scandal this time?”

Xu Jie nodded: “He came to see me before and suggested two ways to deal with the Yan faction6.” He slowly said, “One is the Imperial Censor, and the other is the Daoist Master.”

Zhang Juzheng said in amazement: “At that time, he had nothing to do with the Yan faction and others. Why did he advise teacher?”

“At that time, he came over from the Prince of Yu manor to pay his respects on behalf of his teacher. No matter what, this person is astute, and he came up with such a long-term plan at a young age. In addition, this time, he became the scapegoat for Gao Gong and the others, so he is firmly bound to the Prince of Yu Manor now. Given time, it may be possible that he becomes a great weapon, on par with you. After this court examination, if he can make the honours list, you must get closer to him, it will be beneficial to us. After some time, when the storm has passed, I will speak to the Emperor and recommend you to enter the Prince of Yu Manor as a tutor.”

Zhang Juzheng was surprised: “Teacher…”

He knew that his teacher’s attitude had always been reserved and ambiguous. On the surface, he neither favoured the Prince of Yu nor the Prince of Jing, but when the two princes came to express their good will, he had never refused either one, always welcoming them with a smile.

But if he was asking him to enter the Prince of Yu Manor as a tutor, doesn’t that mean…….

He then heard Xu Jie say lightly: “The Prince Yu is kind and will not treat the people in his Manor badly. You have to take this job seriously, so that teacher’s painstaking efforts will not be in vain.”

He had no intention of making things clear, and Zhang Juzheng didn’t ask too much either, he just nodded in response.

Compared with the treacherous waves in the Imperial Court, Zhao Su’s recovery seemed to be coming along peacefully.

In his spare time, he would read books and prepare for the court examination. Zhu Yijun would come to visit him from time to time. At this time, he had to work part-time as a primary school teacher making efforts to instruct the little child.

His relationship with the Prince of Yu Manor was getting closer, and Zhu Yijun was more free to leave the Manor. As long as Feng Bao and the guards followed, the Prince of Yu and Consort Li knew that he’d gone to see Zhao Su again, so they just turned a blind eye.

Zhu Yijun was a lively child who enjoyed jumping up and down and had long been dissatisfied by living in his little world in the Prince of Yu manor. Now that he had an opportunity to run outside, he was naturally very happy, not to mention that Zhao Su lived next door to a family with a three-year-old daughter. She would occasionally come to Zhao Su to ask for sweets. At this time, Zhu Yijun would fully take advantage of acting his own age and pull pranks such as tugging at her pigtails, bullying the little girl making her cry and run away, whilst he laughed proudly.

Since Zhao Su decided to do his best to change Zhu Yijun, he naturally had to put a lot of effort into his education.

The child did not know how to tell between right and wrong nor did he have much self-control. Although he had strong learning ability, he was unable to concentrate for very long. Zhao Su was not his official teacher right now, so he could only try to peak the little child’s interest to attract him to study, but he was of course unable to discipline him.

First of all, he needed to teach him to recognize Chinese characters. Zhao Su thought of a method, instead of letting Zhu Yijun recognize each word, Zhao Su would teach him an idiom every time with pictures he drew himself, whilst telling him stories and teaching him this way, to make learning fun but of course, sometimes not every story was so interesting. When it was like this, he’d use snacks to lure him. Zhu Yijun grew up in the Prince of Yu Manor and ate some of the best food on offer. Ordinary foods may not have been able to attract him, so Zhao Su asked his servants to collect some common snacks in the Capital to fully mobilize Zhu Yijun’s interest in learning.

In addition to literacy, it was necessary to understand the Four Books and Five Classics. Zhao Su felt that Zhu Yijun was too young now, and there was no need to read these boring and profound texts. It was possible to teach a little from the《Book of Songs》, but Zhao Su decided to put the others aside. Instead, he opted for 《Records of the Grand Historian》 《Records of the Three Kingdoms》, and 《Zizhi Tongjian》. These combined learning with fun and were entertaining, so the child naturally liked it very much.

However, advancing slowly in his teaching career, it was inescapable to encounter some mishaps.

Once Zhao Su was talking about about the poems Osprey and Reeds in the《Book of Songs》. Although Zhu Yijun still didn’t fully understand what was called “The person of whom I think, is somewhere about the water”7, he was still very engaged.

Finally he asked: “What is an osprey?”

Zhao Su replied: “A kind of eagle who likes to eat fish by the river.”

Zhu Yijun: “What is duckweed?”

Zhao Su: “Wild herbs that grow in the water.”

Zhu Yijun: “What are Phragmites?”

Zhao Su: “A kind of reed that grows by the water.”

Zhu Yijun: “Are these all edible?”

Zhao Su: “May…..be.”

Zhu Yijun blinked: “Is osprey tasty? Will its meat be very tender? Susu, I want to eat osprey fried noodles.”

Zhao Su: “……”

He vowed never to speak of the《Book of Songs》again.

The days flowed by day after day with such occasional turmoils.
 

On the 15th March, when the spring grass was lush and the flowers were blooming, those magnificent two hundred and ninety gongshi who had previously fought a fierce battle to pass the metropolitan examination came out once more. Under the eyes of the Emperor, they came forth to the supreme palace that they had yearned for day and night and in countless dreams to participate in the court examination.

In fact, no people could fail this exam, but instead, the results from the previous examination will be rearranged after the results of the Court Examination.

If you were ranked first in the metropolitan exam, but you received a bad ranking in the court examination you could be bumped down to the second rank. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there were only two people who were able to get first place in the provincial exam, metropolitan exam, and court examination. One was called Huang Guan​​, who unfortunately lost his Zhuangyuan title for offending Zhu Di, and the other was called Shang Lu, who later became the Senior Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat8.

For many scholars, to be able to get first place in all three examinations was not even worth dreaming about. To be able to enter the court examination and obtain jinshi was already enough to bring honour to one’s ancestors.

The court examination was divided into three ranks. In layman’s terms, there were three honours lists.

The three places in the first rank were the Zhuangyuan, Bangyan, and Tanhua.

The second rank was made up of about eighty-five people, and the first place of this rank, which is the fourth place in the overall list, is called Chuanlu.

The third rank was the remaining people.

Which list you ended up in determined your salary, as well as your future prospects, because if you wanted to enter the Grand Secretariat, you would need to enter at least in the top ten of the second rank in order to have hope. Otherwise, if you scored within the third rank, even if you work hard in the future and the Emperor trusts you, you will generally not be able to enter the Grand Secretariat. If you cannot become the Grand Secretary in the Grand Secretariat but you try to enter by other means, you’d be called a fraud, and the Imperial Censor could impeach you and the other officials will despise you.

All in all, although there was no failure in the court examination, there was still competition. Whether you could just be mediocre and still become an official and slowly build up experience, or you had ambitions to reach the highest ranking official positions, all depended on the court examination.

On this day, Zhao Su was the only one who had a bandaged hand.