Don’t Be a Kept Man

at……”

“If you get a question you are not well versed in, then there’s nothing you can do.
In the end it’s just your rank being taken away…… Regardless of anything else, you will still be mine, the husband that married into Xie Yu Zhi’s family, the Er Gu-Ye of Chang Guo Gong Estate.”

Xie Yu Zhi looked at him, 

“With this, are you still worried?”

Chen Miao Ping paused and muttered under his breath, 

“I was never worried……”

 

The morning court assembly had just been filled with ministers yelling back and forth at each other.
Debating about the entire issue and the problems that erupted from the cheating scandal.
From the actual scholars who cheated to the families with authority abusing their power, and to the rotten ministers and even to the lack of punishment from the Emperor. 

Someone was raging against the greedy officials, some others were raging against the power some families held, some against the officials and ministers, and let’s not forget the Grandmasters of Censors4, those were people who did not fear death. 

They directly raged out towards the Emperor, even comparing him to the previous dynasty’s clouded and useless Emperor Chen Guang Yi.
Saying that the Emperor let families with power and authority get away with too much, letting officials and ministers be corrupted by greed. 

Commoners were at the point where they don’t have enough clothes on their body, don’t have enough food to fill their stomachs while powerful and wealthy families were dying in their sleep and dreams as they buy prostitutes and leisure.
His Majesty would not be that far away from Chen Guang Yi’s ending, the end of his dynasty was right in front of his eyes.

In response to their claims, the Emperor had fought with them to the point where his face had turned a burning red.
He was almost angered enough to pick a sword up himself and chop their heads off.
One of the Grandmasters even directly tried to throw his head into a pillar to kill himself right there and then in the Imperial Court, yelling that if he needs to die for the Emperor to wake up with clarity, it is worth more than his life.
It took more than a couple of guards to pull him back to save him.

Chang Guo Gong could be considered as one of those families with power and wealth, and it did not help that his son-in-law was the Flower Seeker.
The amount of spit washed onto his face from those old ministers could almost clean the dirt off.
They kept chasing him with continuous questions like how did your family’s son-in-law rank Flower Seeker? Did you also bribe those corrupted examiners? If you did, you should be honest about it.
You could be spared with a light punishment.

Bribe your fucking grandma’s boob!

Chang Guo Gong hit his chest so many times in anger.
He has never done such dirty things and he almost swore to the heavens to prove his innocence.
But his face couldn’t have been slapped fast enough.
He just promised he didn’t do anything, and in the next moment, he was being asked to stay behind to talk to the Emperor privately.

Such is life……

Sitting across from Xie Yan Ping in Dian Yun Hall was a personal aide of the Imperial Palace.
His face was painted in white, but it did not hide that he was a middle aged man.
He had in his hands a long brocade box, which contained the test questions that His Majesty had created.
Since he had entered into the estate, that box had not left his hands.

Xie Yan Ping stroked his beard and smiled, 

“I have already ordered someone to retrieve Miao Ping.
It may take a while, in which case during this reprieve, I must invite Gong-gong to try the tea from my estate.”

To be able to reach this age in the Imperial City, they must be intelligent, in more ways than one.
Liu Gong-gong smiled and bowed at the waist, 

“Guo Gong-Ye is torturing this servant.
To be such a bother is my shame.
How could I leech on to this estate to taste this tea? Everything can wait until the Flower Seeker has arrived.”

Can’t even catch him off guard! Xie Yan Ping could only feel a headache suddenly pulsing in him and it was at this moment that a maid from outside with a voice that was all too enchanting sounded out, 

“Gong Ye, Gu-Ye has arrived.”

Her words, however, only made his headache worsen.
In response, he said, 

“Tell him to come in.”

The door opened up and Chen Miao Ping walked in.
With a composed and collected demeanor, he slightly bowed with his hands towards Xie Yan Ping, 

“With respect to see my Father-In-Law……”

And then turned his gaze to see Liu Gong-gong beside him, with a questioning face, 

“This is……”

Liu Gong-gong, taking the advantage, stood up from his seat.
With a smiling face and a weird high and delicate pitch, he said, 

“This me is a close servant to His Majesty, surname is Liu.
Flower Seeker, you can call this me Liu Gong-gong.”

Chen Miao Ping’s face lit up with recognition, 

“Oh Liu Gong-gong, please excuse my manners.”

Xie Yan Ping changed the subject and said, 

“Ah Miao Ping, His Majesty today was met with something quite difficult.
There’s a certain set of strategies His Majesty wants to test you on, and purposefully sent Liu Gong-gong here.
You must answer- very- care-ful-ly, hmm?”

Although he brought this trouble upon himself, even daring to drag the Emperor with him into this mess, his knowledge pool was drier than the Sahara Desert.
He really did not know anything.
Whatever history, whatever literature, his brain was empty inside.
But, if nothing else, he’ll just have his rank taken away and be mocked by everyone under the sun. 

He has thick skin, so he was not too scared and even prepared himself to get a big fat zero on this test.
So he was very nonchalant when he heard Xie Yan Ping, 

“Miao Ping has only scratched the surface of knowledge and Miao Ping is afraid that he will be of no help to His Majesty.
But Miao Ping will try with the limited ability he has to do his best.”

“A great attitude.”

 

Liu Gong-gong, with his ever smiling face, complimented him.
He then opened the brocade box and took out a scroll.
He rolled it open on top of the yellow rosewood table in the book room they were currently in, 

“This is the question His Majesty has given to the Flower Seeker.”

On a delicate and special yellow paper of the 12 royal emblems5,there was a set of characters written with confidence, power and boldness.

What was the reason for the demise of the previous dynasty’s ruler, Emperor Yong Zhao? What does it mean to be a ruler? A minister? A commoner?

Just from this single scroll of paper, Chen Miao Ping could feel the Emperor’s inner turmoil,  of his suspicion and doubt that arose from the scandal.

When he had attended school, his teacher had said, to do reading comprehension, there’s a few things you must do first.

The first one is obvious, what is the question? From this, there was no doubt that the Emperor wanted to see the understanding Chen Miao Ping held towards the demise of the previous dynasty.
And then he needed to answer what the relationship was between the Emperor, the officials and the common folk. 

And at this time, as this lesson has been said and learned by millions of people before, there are a million things one cannot say outright.
His answer cannot be repeated from the answers of before or be what most people would say, and he must balance himself on the fine line of showing his own personality and opinion, his own understanding, and line up to the concept of loyalty towards the Emperor.

The second is to read between the lines.
He needs to understand and feel for what the entire question is about, to understand the meaning of the person who created this question.
And it was another obvious guess.
Due to the cheating scandal, there was a very high possibility that the Emperor was deeply doubtful towards his own leadership skills.
By being so directly confronted by his own ministers and officials, he needed some kind of chicken noodle soup to soothe his soul.

And then in the conclusion, link between the two, provide some alternate points of view, match up some anecdotes from his life, and construct a firm middle point to drive it all home.

Chen Miao Ping stared at the question for a long while, and finally in the expectant eyes of Liu Gong-gong, he pulled up the brush and started to write a set of characters that was not well aligned……

Chen Miao Ping looked like he was not too satisfied and changed his sheet of paper.
He turned towards Liu Gong-gong and showed off his right hand which had gauze wrapped around it, 

“Today Miao Ping had clumsily injured his hand, so Miao Ping must apologize……”

Liu Gong-gong quickly said, 

“No worries, His Majesty will not punish for that.”

 

Only after his confirmation did Chen Miao Ping continue to write.

Use brass as a mirror, could then straighten up clothes; Use history as a mirror, could then avoid repetition; use humans as mirror, could then learn from mistakes…… 6

An appropriately used famous saying as a hook is to help raise up the image of what is to come, letting the teacher who is marking the test have a desire to keep reading.

The downfall of the previous dynasty, is contained with three reasons: the first, when Emperor Yong Zhao took over the throne, it was not built on stable foundations.
He had immediately started to build a road by the Chang He River, which made the Imperial Treasury dwindle to emptiness. 

The other part of this is that the officials in charge were scraping every last drop from the commoners, from their wealth to their strength, forcing everyone to work on that project.
Millions of acres were left abandoned, with farms being forcibly taken away to use their farmers for building. 

This dissipated any possibility of belief and trust in the country in the commoners.
The second, is that there were still those eyeing the country.
The south had Bai Yue, the north had Hui Zhou.
And there were even more envious and greedy eyes on side with the barbarians……

First degrade, then compliment.
This will make a very well rounded essay, with reason and evidence.

Although Emperor Yong Zhao was indeed uncaring of his country and lacked responsibility and care, one cannot think he was worthless.
The road on Chang He River opened up new business trades and routing, directly connecting the two sides, between the north and the south.
Because of this, there was a certain boost to the economy, and this country has benefitted all the more for it.
So in the midst of this, the real success was……

And in regards to the relationship between the ruler, ministers and common citizens, Chen Miao Ping forced buckets and buckets of chicken noodle soup to heal the wounded soul,

Above the thousands and thousands of citizens, there is the leader, and underneath the leader, are the ministers, and underneath those are the citizens.
The three are deeply linked and inseparable, one cannot be missing from the equation……

The previous dynasty had lost its citizens’ hearts, directing many common folks to pick up their pitchforks and start protesting.
It was at this time that this current dynasty started to build itself up.
Chen Miao Ping felt that he had bullshitted enough words out and finally started his conclusion.

……The ruler is the boat, the citizens are the water.
Water can hold up a boat, and it can overthrow the boat.
This is what it means when one grasps the hearts of the citizens, one rules the world.

His penmanship was very slow, and Chen Miao Ping was considering character by character, word after word, so about two Shi Chen had passed before he finished this test.
When he was done, Liu Gong-gong carefully placed his answers and the scroll back into the brocade box before smiling at Xie Yan Ping, 

“We have bothered the Flower Seeker for his efforts today.
It is quite late, and this servant must return back to the palace for his duties.
Gong-Ye, this servant will ask you to leave the courtesies behind and allow this servant to walk back by himself.”

Xie Yan Ping was too lazy to play the courtesy game with this fellow who hides his dangerous personality under a smiling facade.
He did as Liu Gong-gong wished and had instead directly called a higher ranked Mo-mo in the room to send him out.
Seeing this, Chen Miao Ping also took advantage of this to excuse himself away.

The sky was already almost pitched back when he walked out of Dian Yuan Hall.
But he did not immediately head back and started looking left and right, as if he was trying to find someone or something. 

It was at this time that a dark shadow dropped silently down from the rooftop.

“Finished?”

A voice that sounded like Xie Yu Zhi called out behind him which made Chen Miao Ping turn his head around.
He asked out of curiosity when he saw Xie Yu Zhi with his hands behind his back,

“Where did you come from?”

Xie Yu Zhi laughed and pointed up at the roof, 

“I was waiting up there.
I saw everything that you wrote down.
Not bad.”

Chen Miao Ping said, 

“How did you see it?” 

And then added, 

“Pried open up a shingle?”

What kind of powers of sight does he have?

Xie Yu Zhi nodded his head and explained, 

“When I was at the window, Father found out.
So I went up on the roof.
Your essay probably won’t have a problem.
Your writing is really not bad at all.”

Chen Miao Ping couldn’t hold it in and lightly pinched Xie Yu Zhi’s face, 

“…… Only you would think that it is not bad.”

Any literary arts students from the future could slaughter him in a second.

Xie Yu Zhi said in a prim and proper tone, 

“I always think that you are not bad.”

“Oh?” 

Chen Miao Ping lowered his voice and asked, 

“In which way? On the bed?”

Xie Yu Zhi: “……”

 

 

Notes:
*1 Tea ceremony: A very integral part of a wedding (which is still in practice now, but generally less rules, and varies between families).
It has a very deep-rooted history and has a lot of meanings depending on the dynasty/location, but the overall meaning here is to officially change the couples’ call to their parents as a symbol of now being officially part of the family.
The order is the husband first, then the wife, kneeling and bowing to their parents and changing how they call their parents/in-laws while handing them a cup of tea (once again, male first then female). 

 

There are a lot of variations depending on when/which time period/dynasty you are in and which area you are in, from how much you bend/how you kneel, what the design of the tea cup needs to be, what kind of tea, where you stop in distance from the parent/in-law, who else gets to be handed the tea and so forth.
And after they complete this, as an end to signal that completion/acceptance into the family is being gifted something like jewelry or red pockets.

 

*2 Shu Tong: a male attendant for a young master who is usually someone of poor background.
They take care of their master and also get to study along with them.
It’s a fairly vied for position between those with poor backgrounds as even though they do need to serve a master with a lot of the duties of a servant, they themselves are able to study because of that servitude(free education!).
They usually are in charge of making things easier for their master to study such as clean up the book room/scrolls, etc.

 

*3 Gong-gong: kind of like a male version of Mo-mo, but this servant title is reserved for an eunuch who works at the Imperial Palace/City

*4 Grandmasters of Censors: A group who maintains disciplinary surveillance over the country and the officials, having the ability to impeach any official for public or private misconduct, including as you have read, the Emperor (or at least try).
You can think of them as like the advisors/checks to (try and) keep the Emperor focused on leading the country in a good way for its countries and citizens

 

*5 The 12 royal emblems: Basically signals it’s the Emperor’s.
These royal emblems consists of the image of sun, moon, stars, flowers/birds, dragon, mountain, rice, algae, fire, a pair of ritual wine cups (mostly known to depict images of a tiger and a monkey but depends on the dynasty), axe, and a special, squiggly pattern (the third one counting from top left on the first row).
Each of which is to represent some of the basic elements that form the foundation of a country.
Some of which you can see below but they would be put together in one single robe and sometimes the royal yellow color (there’s also variations between different countries, not just for ancient china which you may see if you search it up):

*6 The quote that Chen Miao Ping uses in the beginning of his essay is from the “Old Book of Tang” which is part of a collection of historical documents and events, “The Twenty Four Histories” and for the most part, documents the history/events of the Tang Dynasty

Extra Tidbits!

There was an interesting comment on chp 44 where we are in an anonymous secret book club and I thought that sounded very fun to be in.  Plum came up with a name to call all of us Galactic Judges (to reference the system there haha).
Let me know your opinion (or possibly another suggestion)? o(〃＾▽＾〃)o