The second day after returning home, He Tianshang came to visit. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he inexplicably asked Yun Ye, “Marquis has deep ties with the Daoist sect—do you know why they changed their minds overnight and agreed to place the temple fields under the jurisdiction of the Rent-Yong-Diao system? Moreover, they earnestly begged pardon from His Majesty, saying that previously the Daoist sect had been selfish and self-interested. As renunciants, not only did they fail to alleviate the people’s suffering, they actually became parasites devouring the nation’s financial resources—their sins were grave. Now they’ve repented and are willing to distribute temple fields according to the number of Daoists, following the methods of perpetual holdings and personal allotments. Furthermore, they’re willing to redeem corvée labor in monetary form—after all, having renunciants perform corvée labor is truly somewhat difficult.”
“Did His Majesty agree?” Yun Ye seemed not at all surprised, as if the Daoist sect’s actions had long been within his grasp.
“His Majesty has the Ministry of Revenue and Ministry of Works calculating. He’s also consulting with Minister Fang and Minister Du to weigh the pros and cons. However, in my view, the court is very likely to agree. The Daoist sect has seized the initiative this time. I wonder when they made such a momentous decision. I’m extremely puzzled—there wasn’t the slightest sign beforehand.”
After spending time together, Yun Ye discovered that He Tianshang was actually a very picky person. The Yun family had dozens of kinds of delicious pastries, but this fellow only ever ate the simplest osmanthus cake, never even looking at other pastries. His mother apparently also only ate egg cake. He never took other pastries home. This time was the same—the steward didn’t need instructions and filled the basket he brought, placing it on the table to the side.
“You’re unqualified as a secret agent! What’s the use of appearing and disappearing mysteriously all day? You can’t ferret out even a bit of useful information. How tragic.”
“His Majesty said the same thing. That’s why this elder brother has come to consult Marquis Yun. Whatever I learn from you will give His Majesty some accounting.” He Tianshang’s address of “elder brother” flowed smoothly and naturally, without the slightest hesitation. Previously, he had always said “this humble official.”
“Didn’t you notice that the number of people from the academy taking the grand examination was missing one person? Such a famous external student—you didn’t even notice?”
“You mean Li Chunfeng? He’s just a backup minor Daoist. He doesn’t have that ability. Even his master Yuan Tiangang doesn’t.”
He Tianshang calmly answered Yun Ye’s words.
“Reputation is often shattered by facts, while mathematics is the most genuine field of study. Li Chunfeng spent three years at the academy specializing in mathematics. I remember I once used Laojun Temple’s assets in class for a calculation exercise. The result revealed an interesting phenomenon—there’s a large gap between our dynasty’s taxation and land policies. Through reasonable means, one can evade much taxation. The taxation for irrigated fields and dry fields represents two entirely different concepts. One mu of irrigated field costs eight times the price of dry land, but interestingly, one mu of irrigated field’s yield is only slightly more than one mu of dry land. After deducting taxes from irrigated fields, the remaining harvest only exceeds dry land’s post-tax harvest by thirty percent. Tell me, should one plant irrigated fields or dry fields?”
He Tianshang said bewilderedly, “Everyone competes for irrigated fields, everyone plants irrigated fields, driving the prices of these top-grade fields sky high, especially now. Chang’an’s meritorious nobles are all very wealthy—irrigated field prices will continue to rise. However, what does this have to do with the Daoist sect’s current actions?”
“What does it have to do with it? The Daoist sect sells their irrigated fields at high prices, then buys large quantities of dry land. According to personal allotment regulations, if a person owns five mu of irrigated fields, their one hundred mu personal allotment will sharply reduce to fifty mu. If there are no irrigated fields in the personal allotment, they’ll receive one hundred twenty mu of dry land, or even more. Newly reclaimed dry land within three years isn’t taxed. The Great Tang stipulates that only when the land is planted with grain, mulberry, hemp, or vegetables does taxation begin. If they don’t plan to plant these things, and don’t plant the new crops mandated by the court like corn and potatoes either, where will you collect taxes?”
He Tianshang’s eyes were practically spiraling. He heavily struck his forehead and said, “Don’t they eat?” After finishing, he struck himself again and said loudly, “Fine, I admit I just said something stupid. They use money to buy at the market. But if they don’t plant grain, vegetables, mulberry, or hemp—surely they can’t be planting grass?”
“You’re absolutely correct. They intend to plant grass, except some grasses can be used as horse feed and sold to the court for profit. Do you know the price of top-quality alfalfa? Some grasses just happen to treat certain illnesses—pharmacies charge exorbitant prices! The greatest benefit is not having to pay agricultural tax. Our dynasty’s thirty-to-one commercial tax is nothing to them! They’ve already reduced land tax to the minimum, even eliminated it entirely, yet still have the face to ask the court about using money and goods to offset corvée labor. That damned Li Chunfeng wants every benefit there is.” Yun Ye spoke passionately, yet his expression remained very calm.
Beads of sweat dripped from He Tianshang’s chin as he said tremblingly, “Where there are cart tracks ahead, there are wheel ruts behind. If those motley Daoists are so vicious, the bald Buddhists will dare to follow suit. If this spreads to the common people, where will the Great Tang get grain to eat?” After finishing, he let out a strange cry and was about to run outside.
“What’s the panic? Do you think the court officials won’t see through such petty tricks? Crying while reading books, worrying for the ancients—properly finish eating these osmanthus cakes.”
“What do you know? Wang Gui, Xiao Yu—these great ministers are already celebrating, saying that as long as the Daoist sect’s fields are brought under court jurisdiction, Buddhism will be unable to stand alone. This is a great victory for the court. They’ve already gone home to write congratulatory memorials to His Majesty.”
“I’m not talking about those great ministers. They’re all upright and honest people—who would think of the Daoist sect’s ghostly machinations? But there are still some people who aren’t eating for nothing. The academy taught them for a full three years. If they can’t even deal with these tactics, I’ll hold each one down in a basin and drown them. Although Li Chunfeng studied quite well, he’s not the most outstanding. Think that learning mathematics lets you dominate the world? Nonsense! Learning is an accumulation of comprehensive qualities. In the matter of running, a cripple is already three parts weaker than a normal person.”
He Tianshang still couldn’t sit still. His buttocks twisted on the chair as if he had hemorrhoids. After a long while, he squeezed out another sentence, “The academy students are currently only observing governance. Such important documents, they might not necessarily be able to see.”
“Stop worrying for them. These bastards could even get their hands on exam questions I prepared for the next day’s test in advance. Their superiors’ little schemes can’t be hidden from them. What’s more, these students currently have minds full of serving the nation. Gathering information is their first priority—they’ll know.”
“They can’t peek. This is taboo. If they peek, they’ll break the rules. Even if they achieve merit, they’ll be punished by His Majesty, and those big shots will also look down on them.”
“Who said anything about peeking? They didn’t peek at my exam papers either. Inquiring about information doesn’t violate court regulations, does it? Isn’t this exactly what you do?”
Since Yun Ye was completely unconcerned, He Tianshang gradually relaxed. Setting aside the vexing court politics, the two of them drank tea and ate refreshments, discussing some strange tales and oddities of the Chang’an marketplace, especially supernatural phenomena—this was a very hot topic in Chang’an recently.
Everyone could perform tricks, each with their own ingenuity. When a clever person repeatedly used wisdom to challenge authority, regardless of whether the methods were unseemly, it would always elicit inexplicable cheering from common people. Challenging authority was something everyone had done in dreams. If such a person appeared in reality, they were a hero.
Recently, Chang’an had been abundantly blessed by gods and Buddhas. Brilliantly radiant Buddhas descended to earth, peach blossoms fell from heaven, intense fragrance overflowed everywhere, causing Chang’an’s foolish men and women to kowtow in worship, weeping joyfully with tears streaming down, nearly mad with ecstasy. Only Grandmother Yun, who had always been very interested in Buddhist affairs, was quite unhappy.
Recently, sixty glass mirrors from the Yun family had been bought all at once by an unknown wealthy household—all full-length dressing mirrors. Late-blooming peach blossoms from the greenhouse were also bought at great expense. Even more outrageous, the ambergris that Chenxin had painstakingly formulated was completely bought with gold.
These things weren’t much, but the strangest thing was that the customer was willing to pay triple the price and demanded the Yun family keep these three transactions secret. Apart from the family head and the handlers, no one else could know. The Yun family’s business reputation in Chang’an was famous—since they coveted the money and signed the agreement, they would certainly keep the secret. Grandmother had just begun managing the household and such good business came to the door—naturally she was delighted. As for the customer’s little demands, they were nothing.
When the Buddha descended to earth, Grandmother Yun took her carriage to worship on the first day. Seeing the peach blossoms on the ground, she immediately lost interest and had the coachman drive the carriage home. Xiao Ya, who accompanied her to see the Buddha, only said one sentence before being slapped twice by Grandmother. Pouting and unwilling, she returned home. Seeing her brother, she complained that Grandmother had hit her.
The Yun family had their eyes covered by gold and silver, their mouths sealed. They could only hide in the treasury counting gold while cursing a few times, unable to do anything else. But the Yun family wasn’t the only clever people in the world. For instance, Assistant Grand Astrologer Fu Yi was very clever. He saw through Buddhism’s hypocrisy to the bone, so he didn’t believe there would be any Buddha descending to earth. He planned to have a close-range conversation with the Buddha.
The monks of Jianfu Temple refused, saying the Buddha had already returned to the Western Paradise. He had merely passed through Chang’an, bestowing a small miracle to comfort the hearts of pious men and women. They even mocked Fu Yi’s overestimation of his abilities, warning him to be careful lest the Buddha bring down calamity—in the future, he’d be cast into the Avici Hell to suffer.
Jianfu Temple was also an imperial temple. A mere assistant grand astrologer couldn’t casually enter. Fu Yi could only walk along the outer wall, planning to find a low spot to climb in. Seeing common people picking up the already withered peach blossoms on the ground, his expression was also confused. Looking at the falling leaves all over the sky, he couldn’t understand how there could be peach blossoms in late autumn.
Helplessly returning home, he discovered Yuan Tiangang from the Bureau of Astronomy had already been sitting in his home for quite a while without saying a word. But in the vase on the table was inserted a branch of red apricot blossoms. Pink buds were about to bloom—seeing them in autumn lifted one’s spirits.