“Monster? There are many such people in the academy. Prince Wei can probably also be called by this title. When other eighteen-year-old youths are still studying diligently, he can already debate with several elders for a long time in front of a large audience. In the future, when you seniors permanently reside at Yushan, you’ll discover they’re actually quite ordinary.”
Zhangsun Wuji was no innocent bird either. How could he not know what the Mount Tai elders descending the mountain meant? Scholars always emphasized that the successful should benefit the world, while the unsuccessful should cultivate themselves. The four old men were too old to become officials in court, but entering the academy had no such concerns. The academy also received court salaries. Although the court didn’t contribute much money, even one coin counted as a government salary. None of the academy’s teachers cared how much money the Yun family contributed—what they cared more about was how much the court contributed.披上一个官家的身份—donning an official identity—even when returning to their hometowns, county magistrates would have to pay respects according to protocol. Meeting provincial governors or deputy governors, they only needed to cup their hands or clasp their fists as greeting. Instructors at the imperial academy couldn’t be judged by whether they had rank titles.
Once the Mount Tai elders entered the academy, the court could claim that the four old men were serving the imperial family. In wartime years, you could still claim you wanted to preserve your life or were unwilling to aid tyranny. But now, with the early signs of a golden age, saying such things would be excessive. Once these old fellows entered the academy, it meant entering government service. In the future, when visiting wise men in the countryside, others would have no more excuses. There were plenty of people in this era unwilling to become officials—and the more talented someone was, the less willing they were to be an official.
This was all bad influence brought by Tao Yuanming! What did it mean to “not bend the waist for five pecks of rice”? The court now issued two dan of rice per month! In many remote places, they couldn’t even find someone familiar with local customs to serve as officials. The bad atmosphere passed down from the Wei, Jin, and Five Barbarians period had to be reversed. If smart people were all unwilling to become officials, putting incompetent people in official positions would only make the common people look down on government offices and officials. This was extremely unfavorable for a unified state.
Yun Ye and Li Tai exchanged winks and secret signals. Li Er and Zhangsun also smiled at each other. As for Master Yuanzhang, whenever Hypatia said “The Master said,” he would slap the back of her head, and when she said “The Odes say,” another slap would follow. After just a few strikes, Hypatia’s hairpin had been knocked off, her hair was messy, and she kept her head lowered without making a sound.
Elder Wen Hai was laughing so hard he was delighted. Mount Tai was a small place, also a remote place. Although secluding himself in the wilderness earned him great fame, actually there weren’t many disciples following him—there were almost no outstanding disciples. So Wen Hai, who loved being a teacher, attached extreme importance to passing on his mantle.
“Yun Buqi, Li Qingque, are you both willing to study under this old man?” Hearing Elder Wen Hai speak, Yun Ye very much wanted to say he was so busy all day he didn’t even have time to fart—where would he find interest in listening to “The Master said” and “The Odes say”? Earlier, listening to the old man debate classics with Li Tai, one passage nearly put Yun Ye to sleep. If he couldn’t even understand it, how could he learn it?
“The marvelous applications of the Five Elements cannot escape one principle; advancing, retreating, existing, perishing—one must recognize the way of adaptation. The principle of fate is subtle; sages rarely spoke of it. A proper official wearing a seal is not as good as riding a horse; the Seven Killings using wealth—how could obtaining emolument be appropriate? A seal encountering wealth leads to dismissal; wealth encountering a seal leads to promotion. When fate is doomed to early death, the Food God stands alone encountering the owl; when fortune reaches danger, the Yang Blade repeatedly encounters and breaks the pattern.”
What did that mean? Was this chanting or debating scriptures? At the time, Yun Ye saw from Li Tai’s ignorant and confused big eyes the outcome of defeat. It wasn’t that he couldn’t out-debate them, but that he simply didn’t understand what the old fellows were saying. The old fellows used difficult and obscure sentences to deliver Li Tai a fatal blow. Taking such masters as teachers—wasn’t that just waiting to be abused?
Not taking them wasn’t an option. Li Er, Zhangsun, Li Gang, Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui—almost all the big shots’ eyes gleamed with ferocity. If he didn’t agree, he’d definitely die more miserably than a pig.
“To receive your teaching, sir, Yun Ye is fortunate for three lifetimes. Please allow me to perform the grand bow.” Yun Ye acted very straightforwardly. If he couldn’t escape, then do it. Li Tai, who was a beat slower to react, was pinched through his sleeve by Yun Ye and also came to his senses. The two brothers prostrated together to perform the grand teacher-accepting ceremony to Elder Wen Hai. Seeing the two formally accept him as teacher, Li Er and Zhangsun’s faces immediately returned to an amiable appearance. The other big shots also stood with cupped hands, putting on a disgusting appearance of witnessing the ceremony, kind to an absurd degree.
Li Er and Zhangsun walked over laughing. Li Er cupped his hands, Zhangsun performed a curtsy. After the formalities were complete, they laughed heartily and said, “That my son Li Tai has been accepted by Master Wen Hai is his fortune. Li Tai, listen well—from now on, you must treat him with the respect due a teacher, without violation. Morning and evening attendance must not be lacking. I have here a jade pendant as tuition gift. Please don’t disdain it, Master.”
Zhangsun also produced a jade pendant and offered it with both hands, saying to Wen Hai, “My inferior student Yun Ye is by nature cunning and deceitful, fond of eating and lazy at work. I am but a woman—teaching him is truly beyond my ability. Now that he’s under your teaching, sir, I can set down this worry. This is his tuition gift. Please accept it, Master.”
Li Chengqian’s heart was blooming with joy. Of the three of them, now only he still had to attend school. Yun Ye was carefree, Li Tai only did happy things, and only he in the Eastern Palace still had to endure the endless bombardment from his teachers. Normally, he envied them both so much he nearly went mad. Now it was good—very fair. Taking a Mount Tai elder as teacher was equivalent to taking four teachers. Ye Zi and Qing Que had faces full of honor on the surface, but Li Chengqian could tell from their constantly twitching cheeks just how angry these two fellows were right now.
Having just taken on teachers, Kua Yang slapped Yun Ye’s shoulder with one palm and laughed loudly, saying, “As a junior, you don’t need to show filial respect to this old man—just compose another poem. That ‘Autumn Evening in the Mountain Dwelling’ just now was indeed not bad. Come up with one more with backbone. If discussing poetic backbone, the Jian’an talents are first. If discussing fresh elegance, Little Xie of the Later Jin is also exceptional. Forget it—just give this old man any poem to enjoy for a moment.”
Regarding Kua Yang’s proposal, Li Er nodded to express agreement. Zhangsun nearly applauded and cheered. Li Gang happily stroked his beard to express agreement. Yun Ye smiled and agreed. Jian’an backbone? Little Xie’s fresh elegance? Li Bai had already written about these—no difficulty at all.
Pretending to ponder for a moment, he opened his mouth: “What abandons me and goes is yesterday’s day that cannot be kept; what troubles my heart is today’s day full of worries. Long winds send autumn geese ten thousand miles—facing this, one can drink heartily in tall towers. Penglai writings have Jian’an bones, in between Little Xie again fresh and flourishing. All harbor lofty spirits with magnificent thoughts flying, wanting to ascend the blue sky and grasp the bright moon. Drawing the knife to cut water, the water flows more; borrowing wine to dispel sorrow, the sorrow grows more sorrowful. Life in this world brings dissatisfaction—tomorrow I’ll let my hair loose and play with a small boat.” After finishing the poem, Li Er’s face turned black as a pot bottom. Zhangsun was also very dissatisfied. Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly, Du Ruhui sighed, and Li Gang laughed so hard he swayed back and forth.
Elder Li Zhang copied down this poem and carefully pondered the artistic conception within it. He couldn’t help but laugh heartily as well. Master Kua Yang patted Yun Ye and said, “Good lad, suits this old man’s taste. We just agreed to come down the mountain, and you use poetry to advise us to float boats on the sea and leave like Fan Li—but that won’t work, lad. We old men lost the bet and must honor our agreement. Wait—wait until today’s experiment ends and we determine the outcome, then we’ll go sing on the great river. Hahaha, Your Majesty, having such subjects must make your mood comfortable! We old men congratulate Your Majesty.”
Li Er’s complexion changed from black to white as he smiled bitterly, saying, “That I haven’t been angered to death already shows my magnanimous heart. Henceforth, I’ll have to trouble you masters to teach them more.”
Yun Ye had only thought about Jian’an bones and Little Xie, completely not considering the poem’s artistic conception. After finishing, he realized this was a poem Li Bai recited when he was down on his luck. The Tang monarch and ministers had just coaxed the Mount Tai elders down from Mount Tai, and were nearly coaxed back up by this poem of his. No help for it—the poem had already been recited and couldn’t be taken back. He hid beside Zhangsun, afraid Li Er would suddenly explode, deliberately pushing Li Tai out front to block for him. Seeing Li Er’s complexion improve, only then did he relax.
While the small circle of people was reciting poetry, the polo match on the plaza had ended. Amid the cheers of ten thousand people, the two polo teams slowly returned to their respective sides. Today’s main attraction finally took the stage. Two black horses pulled a cart into the training ground. On the cart were placed two copper hemispheres and two large buckets of water. Following behind were sixteen superior draft horses, each one exceptionally robust. Upon reaching the center of the field, strongmen immediately beat massive drums, and everyone’s eyes were drawn to the center of the field.
Specially invited guests came before the cart to inspect whether the copper balls had any mechanisms. Master Nong Mei had always loved tinkering with mechanical arts and specially examined the copper balls. After confirming there were no connecting mechanisms, he permitted Li Tai to direct the strongmen to place a strip of ox tendon that had been steamed and beaten soft along the mating surface of the two hemispheres. Then they carefully covered it with the other half of the copper ball. They opened the air valve and poured water inside. When water flowed out, they stopped, used ox tendon rope to tightly bind the air valve, opened the lower air valve, connected a bellows, and began pumping the water out of the copper ball.
Yun Ye stood to the side watching. The water inside the copper ball wasn’t completely pumped out—they barely extracted ninety percent. When seven or eight strongmen could no longer pull the bellows handles, Li Tai ordered the air valve immediately sealed. He reached out and pushed the copper ball, discovering the two hemispheres had already pressed tightly together. The junction still had flattened ox tendon showing. He nodded toward Yun Ye, indicating preparations were complete.
Immediately, a loud-voiced official holding an academy-made megaphone announced to everyone on the training ground that the two copper hemispheres were merely pressed together. Now let’s see just how much force qi has—let’s see if sixteen of the finest draft horses can pull the copper ball apart. How much force it takes to pull the copper ball open indicates how much force qi has.
Hearing this crude explanation, Yun Ye listened through gritted teeth. If this were in later generations, he’d be laughed at and ridiculed to death by everyone. But now, aside from the disheveled-haired Hypatia who, like himself, was listening while gritting her teeth in endurance, even Li Tai himself was beaming with pride.
Two horses on each side lowered their heads and, under the threat of the grooms’ whips, strove mightily. The copper ball had already been lifted up, the ropes on the hooks on both sides pulled taut, but no matter how they exerted force, they couldn’t pull the copper ball apart.
Master Kua Yang ordered four more horses added to each side. Twelve draft horses pulled forcefully in both directions, but the copper ball seemed to have grown together—not moving an inch.