“So — this is the truth that Lv Sheng discovered. The Zhai clan genealogy is a forgery. The present-day Dunhuang Zhai clan is not descended from the line of Zhai Fangjin and Zhai Tang, and the clan’s registered home commandery is not Xunyang. You have merely fabricated a genealogy to attach yourselves to Xunyang’s Zhai clan — a great and illustrious house — as if you were their kin.”

Xuanzang said with feeling. “This humble monk believes the Zhai clan also had their difficulties. Ever since the Wei and Jin dynasties, the aristocratic gentry families had swelled in power and influence. The promotion and demotion of officials depended not on their character and ability but on the ranking of their surname and lineage. And to verify surname and lineage, one needed genealogical records — documents proving family standing and background. As the saying goes: offices have official registers, families have genealogies. The selection of officials must proceed through official registers; the marriage alliances of families must proceed through genealogies. Surnames became symbols of status, wealth, and power. The gap between those of humble origin and those of gentry birth was vast as the difference between heaven and earth. After the Western Jin period, the north was torn by years of warfare and upheaval, populations migrated without cease, and origins and registrations changed constantly. This gave certain commoner families of humble birth a convenient opportunity to claim the registered home commanderies of others and push their way into the gentry ranks — to fraudulently claim high lineages and falsely assert noble origins. This is precisely what Lv Sheng told you when he stormed into the Zhai residence to demand justice for his father’s humiliation!”

Zhai Chang stared at Xuanzang with cold, hollow eyes that seemed to come from the ninth level of the underworld — full of chilling, terrifying menace.

Strangely, Linghu Demao, Zhang Bi, and the other clan patriarchs did not challenge Zhai Chang on this. It was as if they had long known this secret.

Everyone stared at Xuanzang with grave expressions, as if weighing something.

“So — that is why the Zhai clan elder was frightened to death at the time?”

Li Chunfeng sighed.

Xuanzang shook his head with a bitter smile: “Not just that. Being a clan elder, he was not entirely ignorant of his own family’s fabricated genealogy. Merely having someone else discover it would only bring shame and fury. Such a thing alone would not kill a man on the spot. Lv Sheng had exposed yet another secret of the Zhai clan.”

“What secret?”

Lv Sheng asked.

“Do you truly wish to know?”

Zhai Chang asked with a fierce grin.

“Of course I do!”

Lv Sheng’s expression did not change. He tightened his grip, and the two arrowheads punctured the necks of Zhang Yan and Fan Zheng, blood immediately beginning to flow.

Zhang Bi was shaken with fear and fury: “Xuanzang — speak if you’re going to speak! Stop dithering!”

Xuanzang steeled himself: “The other critical layer lies in the characters Dragon and Rise. What Lv Sheng was seeking to verify was not merely the question of whether the Zhai clan genealogy was forged, but the question of where the Zhai clan actually came from!

“The Zhai clan genealogy records: ‘Fa Ci’s son Qing, during the Taihe period, migrated to Wushi. Qing’s grandson Zhen was ennobled as Marquis of Jian, a great family of the Longyou Commandery. Zhen’s son Xian was elevated to Court Deliberation Grand Master.’ But when this account is cross-checked against historical records, the errors and gaps become glaring. According to the Book of Song, Fa Ci was still alive during the Taihe years. If the father was still living, how could his son Zhai Qing have already migrated to Wushi? This would directly contradict the ritual propriety and moral principles of the time.

“One must understand that Wushi County is present-day Didao in Lanzhou, several thousand li distant from Xunyang, and it did not belong to Eastern Jin but to the Western Qin state.

“The Textual Analysis of Surnames refers to Zhai Qing as ‘Wushi’s Zhai Qing,’ not as ‘Xunyang’s Zhai Qing.’

“On this point, Lv Sheng marked a line in that copy of the Compendium of Surnames with a red brush: ‘Zhai Tang’s sixth-generation descendant Pu Lin.’ And both the Book of Sui and the Book of Northern Qi record details about Zhai Pu Lin: ‘A man of Qiuqiu, supremely filial in nature, known for his devotion to his parents. After both parents died, he built a hut beside their tomb, carrying earth to build up the mound, and later served as Magistrate of Xiaoyang.’ This demonstrates that Fa Ci’s son did indeed relocate — but this son was not Zhai Qing, but rather the father of Zhai Pu Lin. And they did not migrate to Wushi — they migrated to Qiuqiu, which is present-day Cao County in Shandong. Therefore, the Dunhuang Zhai clan forged their lineage here, falsely claiming the registered home commandery of the Xunyang Zhai clan. Their actual ancestors came from the Longyou Zhai clan, descendants of Zhai Qing.

“Who was Zhai Qing? He was the Chief Minister of the Western Qin state. His grandson Zhai Zhen was ennobled as Marquis of Jian — a great family of the Longyou Commandery. The Western Qin was founded by the Xianbei people. In the twelve years of its first existence, it was impossible for a Zhai Qing who had newly migrated from the Jiangnan region to have relatives and kinsmen filling every level of the court. Therefore, Zhai Qing must have been a local native of the Longyou region.

“But where did the Longyou Zhai clan come from? Let us first look at the Western Qin state. The Western Qin was founded by the Qifubu Xianbei, who were an amalgamation of Xianbei, Dingling, Gaoche, and other clans that had further absorbed Qiang peoples. The Book of Wei states: ‘The Gaoche are likely the remnant stock of the ancient Red Di people. They were initially called the Di Li, the northern peoples called them Chile, and the Huaxia people called them Dingling.’ These were the Di peoples of the Spring and Autumn and pre-Qin eras, divided into three branches: the Red Di, the White Di, and the Long Di. And the A Thousand Family Surnames states: ‘Zhai — pronounced Di.'”

“Nonsense—”

Zhai Shu suddenly shouted, raising his blade and swinging it at Xuanzang. “I will kill you!”

“Step back!”

Lv Sheng raised the arrowhead, and Zhang Yan let out a muffled groan.

Zhang Bi quickly seized Zhai Shu: “Do not!”

Xuanzang looked at him with compassion: “Young Master Zhai, this humble monk has not invented this. I would not dare speak falsehoods before the Buddha. Every word and sentence comes from the historical records. In pre-Qin texts, the characters ‘Zhai’ and ‘Di’ were used interchangeably: Zhai is Di, Di is Zhai. Lv Sheng also found a passage in the Bamboo Annals: ‘In the thirty-fifth year of King Wu Yi of Shang, the Zhou king Ji campaigned against the Western Luo Ghost Rong and captured twenty Di kings.'” Since the Western Jin dynasty, large numbers of Dingling people had migrated into the Central Plains and even established the state of Zhai’s Great Wei. Therefore, Zhai Qing was without question a sinicized Dingling person. When the Western Qin was founded and then fell after twelve years, perhaps during this period the line descended from Zhai Qing migrated from Lanzhou to Dunhuang and became the Dunhuang Zhai clan. Back then, Lv Sheng made precisely this deduction — and ultimately it frightened a clan elder of your family to death, because no one would willingly admit that their ancestors were non-Han peoples.”

“What evidence is there?”

Zhai Shu bellowed.

“The evidence lies in the characters Dragon and Rise,”

Xuanzang said. “As we all know, these refer to the Longxing Monastery in Lanzhou. This humble monk passed through Lanzhou on the way from Chang’an to Dunhuang, and made a special stop to pay his respects at the Longxing Monastery. Lv Sheng must have also stopped at the Longxing Monastery when he traveled from Chang’an to Dunhuang. In one of the grotto halls there, built during the Western Qin period, there is a preaching scene depicted on the east wall of the Buddha niche. The Buddha is seated in the center teaching the Dharma, with a flanking Bodhisattva on each side. Behind the Bodhisattva on the left stand three male devotee figures, wearing tall headdresses and long robes with crossed collars and wide sleeves. The inscription beside the first devotee reads: ‘Image of the devotee Zhai Nu of Dunhuang.'”

Zhai Shu stood as if turned to wood, the broadsword clanging to the ground.

The evidence was now utterly clear. The name Nu, meaning “slave before the Buddha,” was common enough among many devotees. Who this particular Zhai Nu had been three hundred years ago was not the important question. What mattered was that as a member of the Dunhuang Zhai clan, he had traveled a thousand li to the Longxing Monastery in Lanzhou to commission the carving of a devotional image. There was only one explanation: the Dunhuang Zhai clan had branched off from the Longyou Zhai clan; this Zhai Nu was returning to his ancestral home to participate in the opening of the grotto and the carving of the image.

It was precisely because the Dunhuang Zhai clan descended from non-Han peoples that they had gone to such lengths to erase every trace of that heritage — forging genealogies to attach themselves to the prestigious Xunyang Zhai clan, fabricating a pedigree.

Everything fit together without a single gap — utterly irrefutable.

Lv Sheng, still holding his two hostages, stared with a vacant expression, as if desperately reaching back through his memories.

“That day, I said—”

A flash of clarity suddenly crossed Lv Sheng’s eyes, and he murmured, “You are non-Han peoples!”

Beneath the constellations of the heavens, silence fell. Everyone held their tongue, all looking at Zhai Chang — even Linghu Demao and Zhang Bi wore a strange expression, though they said nothing. In their eyes, however, was the unmistakable look of sudden understanding.

Overwhelmed by fury and mortification, Zhai Chang spat a mouthful of blood, his vision went dark, and he collapsed to the ground.

“Father—”

Zhai Shu caught him.

“Li Scholar!”

Xuanzang gestured. Li Chunfeng strode quickly over, and several silver needles were inserted at Zhai Chang’s acupoints. Zhai Chang broke into violent coughing and slowly came around.

The corners of Zhai Chang’s mouth still dripped with blood. He glared ferociously at Linghu Demao and the others: “Do all of you look down on my Zhai clan now?”

“Truly astounding.”

Yin Shixiong murmured.

Zhai Chang smiled slightly, exchanged a glance with Zhai Shu, and a killing intent flashed in his eyes. Yin Shixiong suddenly shuddered — and then remembered that outside the nine-tiered tower, the entire mountainside was garrisoned by Zhai Shu’s soldiers from Ziting garrison. With a single order from Zhai Chang, every person present could be killed.

“Resorting to any means necessary!”

Fan Renjie declared with righteous indignation. “To slander our Dunhuang gentry clans in this way — it is utterly without conscience!”

Linghu Demao and Zhang Bi said nothing.

Zhai Chang’s lips curved in mockery. His usually gentle and refined demeanor suddenly gave way to the fierce, resolute quality of a man of iron ambition.

“Master Xuanzang — is there anything further you wish to say?”

Zhai Chang asked. “Tonight is long.”

Xuanzang paid no heed to the threat in his words. He fixed his gaze on Lv Sheng: “Brother Lv, though I have deduced the rest of the story, it must be told by you. Try hard to recall — what happened afterward? I know you can do it.”

A look of confusion returned to Lv Sheng’s eyes, the muscles of his face contorting, as if engaged in a life-or-death struggle with some invisible enemy. Suddenly he let out a great shout, and drove the arrowhead into his own thigh, crying out to the heavens in agony: “I was flogged!”

“That was when the Revenue Director framed you for errors in the grain and cloth levy accounts!”

Xuanzang said with great animation. “Continue!”

“I was revising the Three Discourses,”

Lv Sheng stared blankly, murmuring.

“‘By whom, then, were these surnames assigned to their pentatonic notes?'”

Xuanzang recited. “With three texts, you declared war on the Dunhuang gentry clans!”

“That night it was raining heavily…”

Lv Sheng seemed to sink into agonized recollection. “I was kneeling at the gate of Chenghua Ward. My father, dragging his ailing body, climbed down from the cart. He said… he said…”

Lv Sheng beat his head desperately. “He said… High banks become valleys, deep valleys become hills — when the noble and the common are made one, all living beings stand equal!”

Lv Sheng wept and howled with fury: “He said — this is the Great Way that cannot be touched, cannot be grasped, cannot be spoken with the mouth, cannot be written with the brush!”

Everyone was profoundly shaken. Not only the Dunhuang gentry clans — even Xuanzang and the others were struck with stunned disbelief. His mind leaped back at once to what Suo Yi had once said: “When Lv Sheng entered Dunhuang, it was as though he stepped into a vast and mighty current, swimming against the tide. This current has no source and no end — it sweeps through all of Great Tang, encompassing hundreds of millions of subjects. Even the Son of Heaven of this Great Tang is carried along in it, tossed like silt. Lv Sheng was destined to be broken to pieces, his name dragged through the mud. No matter who rules Dunhuang, rules the Longyou region, rules Great Tang — he will be stricken from the official histories. A thousand hundred years hence, Lv Sheng must be a rebel, a traitor, a subversive. Even when Great Tang falls and the next dynasty rises, Lv Sheng will remain nailed to the historical record for all eternity, never to be vindicated.”

So what Lv Sheng sought to do was to wipe out every gentry clan in all of Great Tang.

Setting aside how mad such a notion was — in terms of possibility alone, he had not the slightest hope of succeeding. Even Hou Jing, with a great army at his command, who had plundered wealthy households and great families without restraint, beaten people of every rank and station indiscriminately, until the bones of the Jiangdong gentry lay piled in mountains — even he had never dared claim he could utterly exterminate the gentry clans.

Furthermore, the imperial house of Great Tang also prided itself on being of gentry stock. It was said the Emperor was still rankled that Longyou’s Li clan ranked below Boling’s Cui clan in the genealogical registers. How could anyone possibly wipe out the gentry clans? Even merely to conceive of such a thing would see Lv Sheng nailed to the historical record for all eternity, never to be vindicated.

“Yes — this is the Great Way I pursue.”

Lv Sheng’s memories seemed to flow slowly back. “During the reign of Emperor Huan of Eastern Han, the realm had fifty million registered households. By the time Deng Ai conquered Shu, there were only seven million. The Yellow Turban Uprising, the chaos of Dong Zhuo, the battles of the rival lords, the slaughter of the Three Kingdoms.

“Severed heads dangled before horses; women were dragged behind carts. Bones lay exposed in open fields; a thousand li without a cock’s crow. The living numbered barely one in a hundred — to think on it is to have one’s heart break. Whose fault was it? The powerful great clans contended for power at court and partitioned the commanderies and prefectures, treading the common people into the mud, worth less than a blade of grass!

“Under the Wei and Jin dynasties’ Nine-Rank Arbiter System: gentry beget gentry, ministers’ sons beget ministers’ sons. Gentry children were born into the rank of Court Gentleman, yet that was the destination that men of humble birth might strive toward their entire lives. The poet Bao Zhao wrote: ‘Lush grows the pine in the valley’s depths; dense grows the grass on the mountain slope. That slender trunk of hand’s width spans the shade of the hundred-foot tree. Children of the powerful ascend to high positions; the brilliant sink among the lowly. It is the force of circumstance that makes it so — it has not come about in a single day.’

“And these great houses are greedy and brutal, extorting and plundering without limit, conscripting labor and military service year after year without end, leaving the people of the realm to abandon their fields and be ground down to exhaustion. The great powerful clans controlled the poor clansmen and commoners beneath them as dependent households for their own use — a single powerful family often owning thousands of bondservants. These people: ‘father and son bow their heads and serve the wealthy as slaves, driving their wives and children to labor for them. Generation after generation in bondage, they still cannot clothe and feed themselves. In life they face lifelong toil; in death their bones lie unburied.’ They were driven to self-mutilation. Some killed their own newborn children rather than raise them. Fathers did not dare marry off their sons. Women left without husbands, men left without wives.”

The gentry patriarchs present were all somewhat ill at ease. What Lv Sheng described was to them entirely normal — because what he spoke of was a part of the national institution itself: the dependent household system.

This had been the common condition since the Western Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties. Bondservants, retainers, household officials, slaves, and servants privately held by powerful gentry families were their personal property, not entered into state household registers, paying no taxes to the court. As for someone like the Southern Dynasties’ Xie Lingyun, who with his vast corps of bondservants perpetually conscripted hundreds or even thousands of people to quarry mountains and drain lakes without rest — that was merely a personal hobby. Someone like Linghu Zheng eighty years ago, who exterminated the entire Lv clan, had no taste for luxury, and instead led two thousand clan members and bondservants to follow Yuwen Tai on campaigns east and west, ultimately winning illustrious military achievements.

Zhang Bi, Zhai Chang, Fan Renjie, and the others found nothing wrong with any of this whatsoever.

“When our Great Tang was established, the court opened the imperial examinations, and scholars of humble birth celebrated with delight, thinking advancement was within reach.”

Lv Sheng’s smile turned bitter. “In those days I was already an official, yet I went and sat the examinations, passing at the top of both the Xiucai and Jinshi examinations. The Master asked me at the time why, having already passed the Xiucai examination as upper eighth grade, I then went to sit the Jinshi examination, which was ranked only as lower ninth grade. I told him: I wanted to see whether this examination system was the Great Way I had spent my life waiting for. Unfortunately, it was not. It was only a small mercy squeezed out from between the fingers of the powerful great houses. Upper prefectures admitted three candidates per year; middle prefectures took two; lower prefectures took one. The Xiucai examination saw thirty candidates and only one — myself — pass. The Jinshi examination had a thousand candidates and only ten or twenty succeeded.

“In contrast, our Great Tang’s hereditary privilege system granted official posts to the children of officials. The son of a first-rank official was granted the upper seventh grade; a second-rank official’s son, the lower seventh grade; a third-rank official’s son, the upper lower seventh grade; an official below third rank, the lower lower seventh grade; a fourth-rank official’s son, the upper eighth grade. Third-rank officials and above could extend privileges to great-grandchildren; fifth-rank and above could extend to grandchildren. Yet the ten thousand scholars of Great Tang competing fiercely through the Jinshi examination — those one or two dozen who actually passed — received only the lower ninth grade. This was not the Great Tang I wanted.

“The Great Tang I wanted is a Great Tang where all living beings stand equal — where no one surname grants anyone superiority from birth, where no father or grandfather’s service in office allows others to live in ease without effort, where no clan can treat hundreds of common people as private property, and where no one is born into a starting position that is already the finishing line for everyone else. The Great Tang I wanted is one where the common people pay their taxes and live in peace; where a scholar who applies himself diligently can change his destiny; where a newborn child does not come into the world with bondage as his destiny—”

Lv Sheng swung his arms wide, holding the arrowheads aloft, raging with all his might. His face was smeared with blood, his expression ferocious and wild. In that moment he looked both demonic and saintly.

Everyone under the stars and before the great Buddha was struck silent.

“A madman!”

Fan Renjie murmured.

“Deranged and vicious!”

Yin Shixiong said coldly.

“He is not only the enemy of the gentry clans — he is the enemy of all under heaven!”

Zhai Chang said with chilling menace.

“I said long ago — he is more dangerous than Hou Jing!”

Linghu Demao said through gritted teeth.

Zhang Bi said each word deliberately: “After Hou Jing was killed, Wang Senbian had both his hands severed and sent to Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi. His head was sent to Emperor Yuan of Southern Liang. His body was displayed in the streets, with common people consuming his flesh until nothing remained. His wife, Princess Liyang, ate his flesh too. People even ground his bones to ash and mixed it with wine to drink. Emperor Yuan of Southern Liang had his head boiled, lacquered, and handed over to the arsenal for storage. Today, this Lv Sheng poses a greater threat to the nation than Wang Mang or Hou Jing combined. Let us simply follow the precedent used for Wang Mang and Hou Jing.”

“Ha ha ha—”

Lv Sheng, stirred by Xuanzang’s account, felt his memory returning piece by piece. He laughed loudly in contempt: “To compare me to Wang Mang and Hou Jing — how little you think of me! You clearly haven’t suffered enough yet. Has power ever destroyed the gentry clans throughout history? Have armies? No — neither will do. Master Xuanzang — do you know what I have been doing?”

“This humble monk only saw you purchase historical records and surname books everywhere to investigate the Zhai clan lineage.”

Xuanzang said.

“The Master guesses correctly — but investigating merely the Zhai clan alone would not have required such effort.”

Lv Sheng laughed. “I purchased historical records and surname books, verified origins, and traced lineages — not merely against the Zhai clan, but I investigated all eight gentry clans: the Linghu, Zhang, Li, Song, Suo, Fan, and Yin families — every one of them!”

The hall erupted in uproar. Linghu Zhan and the others burst into furious denunciations.

Lv Sheng merely smiled coldly and continued: “Just as the Master said — after the Western Jin, the north was torn by years of warfare and upheaval, populations migrated without cease, and origins and registrations changed constantly, giving commoners an opportunity to claim others’ registered home commanderies and push into the gentry ranks. But were fraudulent claims to noble lineage and false assertions of prestigious origins confined to the Zhai clan alone? Of course not — it is simply that some clans were careless about it while others hid it more cleverly. I cross-checked all eight clans’ genealogies against the historical records and surname books, one by one, and found numerous inconsistencies. Some clans had been fraudulently claiming their status for so long, and their forged genealogies were so seamlessly constructed, that it was impossible to pin them down conclusively. So I dug up their ancestral graves!”

This was something Xuanzang had already heard about from Zhai Fa Rang and the others, but the younger generation — including Linghu Zhan and Zhai Shu — were hearing it for the first time. Their eyes flooded red instantly, their curses pouring out.

“I excavated thirty-three ancestral graves belonging to the eight gentry clans, entered the burial chambers myself, and examined the epitaph steles. The Master will certainly know — tomb epitaphs record the deceased’s name, native place, lineage, official ranks and titles, and a summary of their life, much like a biographical account. But there is one distinction: biographical accounts are written for the living of this world, while tomb epitaphs are written for the King of the Underworld. These descendants might dare to deceive the living people of the world, but they would not dare deceive the spirits of the underworld. So even when the genealogies are filled with fabrications, the epitaphs are truthful.”

Lv Sheng smiled.

Xuanzang and Li Chunfeng and the others stood listening in stupefied amazement. Linghu Demao, Zhai Chang, and the other gentry patriarchs were sweating profusely in their shame and fury, trembling violently. This man was too ruthless, too terrifying. Just how many books had he read — to have been able to pick apart the historical records, piece by piece, and demolish an entire gentry clan’s genealogy so utterly? And by this method of investigation, likely not a single gentry clan’s lineage in the whole realm could withstand such scrutiny one by one.

“But in the end you only took away seven of the epitaph steles.”

Xuanzang said quietly.

“Indeed! The steles were very heavy. Naturally I would remove those that were problematic — what would I want the others for?”

Lv Sheng cast a glance at everyone with a faint smile. “The seven steles belonged to the Zhai, Yin, Zhang, Li, and Fan clans.”

The retinues of the Zhai, Yin, Zhang, and Fan clans all erupted in furious denunciations, a torrent of insults pouring forth.

Lv Sheng said calmly: “Unwilling to accept it? Then let me address each clan in turn, just as Lord Hongye said — tonight is long. Let us start with the Fan clan.”

Fan Renjie immediately shuddered, his expression turning deeply unpleasant.

Lv Sheng said: “According to the Dunhuang Register of Distinguished Clans, the ancestor of the Fan clan was Fan Xiong, Censor-in-Chief under Emperor Cheng of Han in the Western Han. He was impeached for his forthright nature, and in the first year of Heping, he moved his household west from Lu County in Jibei to Dunhuang, where successive generations made their home and the clan became a leading family of Dunhuang.”

“The origins of my Fan clan are known to all in Dunhuang!”

Fan Renjie said sharply. “The Register of Distinguished Clans was compiled during the Northern Zhou period — it is there in black and white. Let me see how you can distort the truth!”

“Very well,”

Lv Sheng said without batting an eye. “I could not find Fan Xiong in the records — but I found another man. I excavated a grave from the Former Liang period belonging to your Fan clan, and inside I found a stele inscribed with ‘A Family Account of the Dunhuang Fan Clan,’ which states: ‘In the Han there was Fan Shengzhi, who compiled a work on agriculture and planting. His son Ji served as Governor of Dunhuang. His descendants settled there because of this.'”

Fan Renjie was dumbfounded at once, stammering: “You… you are talking nonsense… where is there any such ‘Family Account of the Dunhuang Fan Clan’?”

Lv Sheng laughed coldly: “Really? There isn’t one?”

Fan Renjie wanted to deny it, but given that Lv Sheng might actually produce the stele, he would have no way to explain it. So he stiffened his neck and said: “And what of it, if there is? Give back my ancestor’s epitaph stele at once!”

“Good — then it does exist!”

Lv Sheng said. “Fan Shengzhi is a real figure in history. He wrote a book widely distributed, the Agricultural Treatise of Fan Shengzhi, in which he taught agricultural cultivation and invented methods such as the area-farming method, the seed-soaking method, the ear-selection method, and the grafting method. Together with Jia Sixie’s Important Arts for the People’s Welfare, it is counted as one of the two great agricultural works.”

Fan Renjie let out a breath of relief: “My Fan clan ancestors have rendered illustrious service to successive dynasties and generations.”

“Fan Shengzhi was a Palace Attendant under Emperor Cheng of Han.”

Lv Sheng said mildly.

Fan Renjie opened his mouth, and the whole of him went rigid.

Xuanzang and Li Chunfeng immediately grasped it. Fan Xiong had been Censor-in-Chief under Emperor Cheng of Han; Fan Shengzhi had been a Palace Attendant under Emperor Cheng of Han. Both were surnamed Fan, both served in the same court — that coincidence by itself might be unremarkable for such an uncommon surname. But two men surnamed Fan having both migrated to Dunhuang at almost exactly the same time made the probability infinitesimally small.

“You are saying one of these accounts must be false — it cannot be the genuine ancestor of the Fan clan?”

Xuanzang asked.

“No — both accounts are false.”

Lv Sheng said. “No Censor-in-Chief named Fan Xiong ever existed in the world. Fan Shengzhi was a real person, but he never had a son named Fan Ji, let alone one who served as Governor of Dunhuang. In short, the origin story of the Dunhuang Fan clan is entirely invented.”

Everyone was aghast.

“You are talking complete nonsense!”

Fan Renjie bellowed in a frenzy, overtaken by a sensation as if he had been stripped naked and left utterly exposed in shame. “Produce your evidence!”

“You may consult the complete edition of the Western Jin scholar Huangfu Mi’s Biographies of Eminent Recluses. It mentions the descendants of Fan Shengzhi, and no such person is among them.”

Lv Sheng said. “As for Fan Xiong — as Censor-in-Chief, an official of a thousand shi rank — I have gone through every surviving source from Emperor Cheng’s reign and found no trace of the man. As for evidence — once the Dunhuang Fan clan’s stele re-emerges into the light of day, you will see it for yourself.”

Fan Renjie’s forehead was drenched in sweat. He slid down against the railing and collapsed to the floor.

“Now let us speak of the Zhang clan.”

Lv Sheng fixed his gaze on Zhang Bi and smiled coldly.

Zhang Bi’s expression changed at once, but he maintained his composure and kept silent.

“The Dunhuang Register of Distinguished Clans records that Zhang Xiang, Colonel Inspector of the Capital Region, was a ninth-generation descendant of King Ao of Zhao. At the time, the powerful minister Huo Guang’s wife, Huo Xian, had poisoned and killed Empress Xu, the consort of Emperor Xuan of Han. Zhang Xiang submitted a secret memorial to the Emperor. The Emperor, in recognition of Huo Guang’s great service, sealed this matter away. Zhang Xiang, fearing for his life, moved his entire household west to Tianshui in the first year of Dijie, where he later died of illness. His son then came to this commandery and settled in the north precinct — commonly known as the Zhang clan of the North Precinct.”

Lv Sheng said. “The story is full of dramatic turns — regrettably, I have searched through every historical record and found no Colonel Inspector of the Capital Region named Zhang Xiang in the entire Western Han period.”

“The fact that you cannot find him does not mean he did not exist.”

Zhang Bi’s expression gradually relaxed. “Historical records are as vast as the sea, and far more have been scattered and lost than preserved through successive dynasties. Can the absence of a record truly negate the existence of my Zhang clan’s ancestor?”

“Of course it cannot. Although I have not found Zhang Xiang, I have found another figure.”

Lv Sheng laughed. “The Former Han Annals records an event: a Chang’an man named Zhang Zhang secretly informed on the Huo clan’s plot to rebel, and Emperor Xuan conferred on him the title of Marquis of Bocheng. How remarkably similar this is to the Fan clan situation — both set in the reign of Emperor Xuan, both involving a man in Chang’an: one named Zhang Xiang, the other Zhang Zhang; the two names similar in form and sound alike. One reported on Huo Guang’s wife poisoning Empress Xu, the other reported on the Huo clan’s treason. Can everyone see the secret hidden here?”

Zhang Bi was struck as if by lightning, unable to think of any rebuttal for a moment. After all, a historical work like the Former Han Annals could be consulted at a moment’s notice.

“So — Zhang Xiang was an invention modeled on the deeds of Zhang Zhang.”

Lv Sheng said. “And the Dunhuang Zhang clan are not at all descendants of Former Liang founder Zhang Gui or its later lord Zhang Jun. It is precisely because the celebrated Eastern Han general Zhang Huan and the sage of calligraphy Zhang Zhi both came from Dunhuang Commandery that every Zhang clan family along the entire Hexi Corridor claims Dunhuang as their registered home commandery. The family of the present Lord Zhang here is not a descendant of Zhang Zhi’s lineage, nor of Zhang Gui’s lineage — yet they have fused both great Zhang families into one and claimed descent from both. But when they went to rebuild the temple of Zhang Zhi last year, they did not even know where Zhang Zhi’s ink-pool was located, and had to send people out searching all over.”

Zhang Bi’s expression grew increasingly unpleasant, but he maintained his composure and did not lose his temper.

“It is precisely because the last head of the genuine Ink-Pool Zhang clan, Zhang Zhan, was relocated by the Northern Wei to the northern capital of Pingcheng that the Ink-Pool Zhang clan declined in Dunhuang. This gave the ancestors of Zhang Bi an opportunity to forge a genealogy that combined both the Ink-Pool Zhang clan and the Former Liang Zhang clan into a single lineage, falsely claiming to be descendants of Dunhuang’s foremost royal bloodlines.”

“Reckless slander!”

Zhang Bi could no longer contain himself. “How dare you!”

“Qianzhi,”

Zhang Yan, who had been sitting silently nearby, suddenly spoke. “There is no need to argue, and no need to admit. The Zhang clan has stood firm in Dunhuang for seven hundred years. Those who insult and humiliate us are beyond counting. Some filth, once it lands on you, is better not wiped away — the more you wipe, the dirtier you get. No matter what he says, as long as no one leaves here alive tonight, everything returns to normal.”

“Yes, Father.”

Zhang Bi steadied himself with difficulty, bowing respectfully. “Bi obeys.”

Lv Sheng looked at Zhang Yan with a glance of admiration, then turned to look at Yin He Lan and Yin Shixiong.

Yin Shixiong curled his lip in cold disdain: “My turn, is it?”

“Your Yin clan has little to say — you simply had military men of the Yin surname who came to Dunhuang during the Eastern Han, fought their way through battlefields and won merit, and that is how you came to be here. It was only when Yin Chong and Yin Dan appeared as talented scholars in the retinue of Zhang Gui of the Former Liang dynasty that you were recorded in the historical texts.”

Lv Sheng said. “Your clan claims to descend from Yin Shi of Nanyang — simply because Yin Shi was the most illustrious of the Yin surname’s registered noble lines, and because Yin Shi’s younger sister, Yin Li Hua, was actually Empress Guanglie of Emperor Guangwu. Emperor Guangwu’s famous remark — ‘If one must seek office, let it be as Colonel Director of Retainers; if one must take a wife, let her be Yin Li Hua’ — made the Yin clan’s name renowned throughout the land. What I find curious is this: during the Eastern Han, how did you dare claim kinship with the lineage of Empress Guanglie? This very audacity convinces me that your ancestors were soldiers who could not read a single character. But having claimed Nanyang as your registered home commandery, you then tried to claim kinship with the former Sui dynasty’s Yin Shishi. Yin Shishi’s lineage is perfectly clear — he was unmistakably of the Wuwei commandery line. Wanting a prestigious home commandery on one hand and wanting to claim ties with a high court official on the other — your clan was coarse and blundering, full of gaping holes. You are not even worth discussing!”

Yin He Lan and Yin Shixiong were trembling with rage. Yet they had evidently taken Zhang Yan’s words as their model, and did nothing but let out cold laughs.

“And what of my Linghu clan?”

Linghu Zhan asked proudly.

Lv Sheng showed a hint of regret: “I excavated nineteen ancestral graves belonging to your Linghu clan, yet found no flaws in your lineage. The same goes for the Song and Suo clans. But finding no flaw is not the same as having none. A number of tombs I had not yet gotten to were discovered before I could open them, so I had to stop. If the opportunity presents itself in the future, I will go back and dig deeper.”

Linghu Zhan was furious enough to explode, but with the hostages in the way, he did not dare act rashly.

“As a matter of fact, although your Linghu clan had its graves dug up, you are the greatest beneficiary among all of them.”

Lv Sheng smiled. “Have you not found it strange? The operations over the years to hunt down Kui Mulang were mostly led by your Linghu clan. Moreover — the Zhai, Zhang, Fan, Yin, and Li clans lost their epitaph steles, and it was this that prompted them to build the observatory on the seventh floor of the tower and take up the study of celestial phenomena. Your Linghu clan lost no stele — yet why are you here, occupying the seat of honor?”

Lv Sheng glanced at the shriveled corpse that had been Linghu Demeng.

Linghu Zhan was suddenly at a loss, and looked at his father. Linghu Demao only gave a cold smile.

Even Xuanzang found himself somewhat surprised. From the time he had arrived in Dunhuang, almost every matter involving Kui Mulang had been presided over by Linghu Demao. He had assumed it was because the Linghu clan was eager to wash away the shame of having their new bride abducted — but apparently there was deeper meaning to it.

“Because I found no flaw in the Linghu clan’s lineage — this gave the Linghu clan a grip over the other five clans!”

Lv Sheng said calmly. “The Linghu clan presided over the observatory and the search for the epitaph steles — effectively holding the other five clans by the nose. In recent years the Linghu clan’s power and influence in Dunhuang has expanded enormously. In the first year of Zhenguan, you seized the post of garrison commander at the western pass from the Yin clan. Your clan now holds the prefectural yamen’s post of Personnel Bureau head, the Dunhuang Irrigation Commissioner, and the Dunhuang County Deputy Sheriff. Within a few short years, you have successively taken control of military power, the power of official evaluation, the power of water distribution, and the power of city security, catapulting yourselves to the head of the gentry clans. Where did all this power come from? It was squeezed out of the other clans by Linghu Demeng! Why did the Li clan choose to submit to me, redeem the epitaph stele, and refuse to join the secret meeting at the pan palace? Because Linghu Demeng had been squeezing them too hard!”

Zhai Fa Rang, Fan Zheng, Zhang Yan, Yin He Lan, and all the others — Zhai Chang, Zhang Bi, Yin Shixiong, Fan Renjie — suddenly felt a pang of fellow feeling, and all looked simultaneously at Linghu Demeng’s dried corpse, recalling the bittersweet years of suffering, unable to suppress a shudder.

As for Linghu Zhan, his face flushed with shame and fury. He had always believed he had won the post of western pass garrison commander by his own hard fighting, and had never imagined that his family had simply handed it to him.

“This is a scheme to sow discord among the gentry clans — please do not fall for it.”

Linghu Demao was beginning to lose control of the situation and urgently said.

The four other gentry clans said nothing, simply letting out a quiet sigh.

“Master — look, this is precisely what the so-called aristocratic gentry clans are like: resorting to any means necessary for the sake of power and self-interest.”

Lv Sheng smiled toward Xuanzang. “Of the eight great Dunhuang gentry clans, a brief investigation exposed five as having fabricated their registered home commanderies and invented their ancestors. How many among the gentry clans of the whole realm are like them? Too many to count. Therefore — the so-called great names and gentry titles, the so-called noble commanderies and prestigious lineages, are like a magnificent robe infested with lice. All surnames under heaven are equal, and those supposedly superior surnames are nothing more than constructs designed to serve the interests of a privileged few. What of the present imperial house? When they seized the realm, the Li clan of Longyou was deemed sacred — descended from Laozi, descendants of Li Ling, or so the story goes. Once Great Tang collapses, it will merely invite the ridicule of posterity. Just as Liu Bang, to mythologize the Liu surname, had a story fabricated in which his own mother was ravished by a serpent — and that story is still mocked as a joke to this day. So—”

“So,”

Xuanzang said with a sigh, “you intend to destroy the gentry clans by this method? To use the Dunhuang gentry clans’ fabricated noble origins as a starting point, and write an essay along the lines of the Three Discourses to spread throughout the realm?”

“Precisely,”

Lv Sheng nodded. “Five of the eight Dunhuang clans are fraudulent. How many among the gentry clans of the whole realm? If I could survive, I would also dig up the ancestral graves of the Five Great Mountain Clans of Shandong — the lineages of the Li, Cui, Lu, Zheng, and Wang families also have questionable points. I would expose their lineages one by one, lay bare their shameful methods for all the world to see. From that point forward, the term ‘gentry clan’ would no longer be a title of honor, but a laughingstock. From that point forward, everyone would feel shame at calling themselves gentry. From that point forward, there would be no more surnames that are born superior. From that point forward, no more of the mediocre and the unworthy occupying high positions simply by birthright. Scholars of common birth — as long as they persevere in diligence, they will find the way open before them. This is the Great Tang I want!”

Lv Sheng stood beneath the vast expanse of the heavens and the constellations, before the head of the Shakyamuni Buddha, laughing wildly, his manner seeming at the edge of madness.

Atop the stone mountain, on the observatory platform.

Yu Zao and Li Cheng lay pressed against the crack beneath the wooden door of a small chamber, listening intently to the sounds from within. Lv Sheng’s unrestrained laughter reached them, and both were stunned, their faces pale.

Li Cheng sat down heavily on the ground, murmuring: “This Lv Sheng — he is truly… truly…”

“Truly what?”

Yu Zao glanced sideways at him.

Li Cheng gave an apologetic smile: “I don’t know how to put it into words. The breadth of this man’s vision — vast enough to swallow ten thousand ages — no figure like him has ever appeared in history. The Dunhuang gentry clans compared him to Hou Jing, but that truly diminishes him. Hou Jing before him is nothing more than a butcher slaughtering pigs. Even Wang Mang, who changed the dynasty, falls far short of him.”

“You’re comparing my Fourth Brother Lv to these two great villains?”

Yu Zao flared with sudden anger.

“No, no,”

Li Cheng quickly said. “That comparison came from the clan patriarchs — I simply couldn’t find a fitting person to describe him. Hmm… the only figure who comes to mind is Gongsun Yang.”

Gongsun Yang carried out reforms for the fierce and stalwart state of Qin, establishing a system of law that would serve Qin and successive dynasties for a hundred generations. But he enforced his new laws with harsh punishments, executing seven hundred condemned criminals in a single day by the Wei River, turning it red with blood, the cries of mourning shaking heaven. For ten years as Chief Minister, many despised him. He died in battle defeat and was torn apart by chariots — the execution of dismemberment — and his entire clan was exterminated.

Yu Zao thought it over: “That does fit well enough. But… will Fourth Brother’s end also be that tragic?”

“The tragedy of Shang Yang’s final fate is the finest annotation to the brilliance of his achievements — just as Lv Sheng’s endeavor, if brought to completion, would be something he would embrace joyfully, departing this world in the most tragic possible manner!”

Li Cheng said.

“To think you would turn out to be his true kindred spirit.”

Yu Zao said.

Li Cheng smiled ruefully: “I am precisely the kind of mediocre man born to superiority whom he speaks of, the kind he has sworn to eliminate… ah, to eliminate in passing, I suppose.”

Yu Zao smiled for once: “Do you know what I think? He is still exactly as he was when I first saw him — his shoulders rising above the Chengton Gate. The splendor of Great Tang, the grandeur of Chang’an — all of it is nothing more than an ornament resting on his shoulders.”

Just at that moment, the sound of trampling hoofbeats suddenly came from the mountaintop beyond the outer wall.

The two of them were startled at once, quickly hiding themselves behind the wall.

It was already night. The full moon hung in the sky. The peaks and ridges of the Qilian Mountains were dyed white by the moonlight. On the ground, various large astronomical instruments cast long shadows, and beneath more than six hundred red glass discs, flames burned, dense as stars, reflecting the constellations above and illuminating the startled faces of those below.

Eight mounted riders came galloping out of the sandy ground at the top of the mountain. Eight riders, yet twelve horses. All were dressed in black robes, carrying swords at their sides, bows hanging from their saddles. The horses’ hooves appeared to be wrapped in cloth, so that on the sandy ground they produced only muffled thuds, quite faint.

Yu Zao slowly drew her bow and nocked an arrow. Li Cheng quietly drew his broadsword.

These riders had arrived far too strangely. On this side of the stone mountain, the Ganquan River cut it off, connecting it to the main range of the Qilian Mountains. The mountain was bare of grass, without any trace of human passage, and there was no path to take. Yet these people had come in the dead of night with their horses’ hooves wrapped in cloth, moving stealthily to this observatory. Their intentions were unknown.

The outer wall was low — only waist height on an adult. Standing outside it, the entire interior was visible at a glance, to say nothing of the towering astronomical instruments. Arriving at the outer enclosure of the observatory, the black-robed riders dismounted. The twelve horses were turned around and tethered in a line, their hindquarters facing the enclosure. Then everyone took from their horses’ backs several coils of long rope, tied one end to an iron ring on the saddle, held the other end in their hands, and entered the observatory one by one.

Yu Zao and Li Cheng crouched in the doorway of the small chamber, now finding themselves in an awkward position. The observatory was not large, and the ground was flat — there was no way to get up and hide outside the wall. The small chamber’s wooden door was locked, so they could not get inside either.

“Kill!”

Yu Zao suddenly sprang up and released an arrow.

These black-robed riders were completely unprepared — no one had imagined that this remote and uninhabited observatory would have people hiding within. One of the riders was struck in the chest by the arrow. The force of a two-stone bow at close range was enormous: the shaft passed clean through the man’s body and embedded itself with a thwack in the wall.

Li Cheng also leaped into action, bringing his blade down hard on another man’s shoulder. That man let out a cry and toppled backward.

These black-robed riders were also elite fighters. In the moments following the sudden ambush, they recovered and spread out, drawing blades and raising bows to fight back. Yu Zao moved swiftly through the gaps between the towering astronomical instruments, putting distance between herself and them. Her ten fingers flew like someone plucking a pipa, firing arrow after arrow — three more riders fell in an instant. Li Cheng found himself surrounded by two black-robed riders. The two sides clashed with their broadswords, sparks flying, Li Cheng barely holding his own and unable to gain the upper hand.

The remaining two black-robed riders chased and traded shots with Yu Zao among the astronomical instruments. Arrows flew back and forth between them. Shafts struck the brass-cast instruments, ringing out sharply, sparks erupting. Some shots shattered precision components on the instruments — celestial spheres tilted and spun wildly.

Yu Zao suddenly shot an arrow at a red glass disc beneath one rider’s foot. With a sharp crack, the disc shattered, and the fish-oil flame beneath it shot three feet into the air. The man’s vision blazed suddenly white, and he was momentarily blinded. Seizing the moment, Yu Zao loosed another shaft — it passed clean through the man’s throat.

The other rider was thrown off sharply by the flash, dodging aside to avoid the glass discs on the ground. Taking advantage of that moment of evasion, Yu Zao fired again — her arrow struck the man fighting Li Cheng in the back. He tumbled and fell. Li Cheng felt the pressure ease at once.

The man with the bow took cover behind an astronomical instrument, shooting Yu Zao’s position with his bow, aiming at the red glass discs near her one by one. Yu Zao rushed to evade. Pop, pop, pop — flames shot up in tongues of fire behind her. In the end, between the two of them stood a wall of three-foot-high flames, neither able to see the other’s shape.

Suddenly a sharp cry rang out. Li Cheng brought his blade down on his opponent’s neck in a decisive stroke. That man crumpled limply to the ground. Li Cheng raised his blade, and together he and Yu Zao closed in on the last archer from both sides.

“Who exactly are you?”

The last archer said in a lowered voice, full of fury.

Yu Zao and Li Cheng now noticed that throughout the entire fight, their opponents had made no sound at all — not a single word spoken. Even the dying screams had been muffled and suppressed, as if these were men trained to die in silence.

“Who are you? Why did you come sneaking here?”

Yu Zao also lowered her voice.

“It appears you also do not want to alert the people below,”

the archer said after a moment’s reflection. “In that case, we are not enemies.”

Li Cheng said coldly: “State your identity, and then we will discuss whether we are enemies.”

The archer hesitated for a long while, then finally lowered his voice: “I am a collateral nephew of the head of Dunhuang’s Li clan — Li Lie!”

Note: The genealogical investigation of the Zhai clan and others is drawn from Chen Juxia’s Research on the Dunhuang Zhai Clan, Ma De’s Corrections to the Dunhuang Li Clan Lineage, and Japanese scholar Ikeda On’s Dunhuang Gentry Clans of the Eighth Century and other scholarly works. These works often require an entire volume to conduct their investigations, so the novel has condensed the material considerably. The same applies to subsequent references to other gentry clan research.

The Dunhuang Fan Clan’s Family Account is one of the documents excavated from the Dunhuang Cave Library, and has been extensively studied by modern scholars. Its date of composition is broadly estimated to be during the Former Liang period or the early Tang dynasty.

The genealogical investigations of the Fan and Zhang clans are drawn from Japanese scholar Ikeda On’s A Minor Study of Tang Dynasty Clan Registers: Concerning the So-Called “Dunhuang Register of Distinguished Clans.”