Another volume of “Mute House” is complete! Celebrating~~
This time differs from the main “Mute House” series—I wrote a prequel to “Mute House,” named “Zero.” Mm, quite good, satisfying my OCD for orderly book titles…
Speaking of orderliness, I originally wanted to finish the “Mute House” prequel in one volume, but… I clearly underestimated my own writing enthusiasm… Once I start digging plot holes, I can’t stop…
So “Mute House Zero” isn’t just one volume… Next comes the Han Dynasty volume, though I haven’t decided on that volume’s title yet—leaving it blank for now.
Those who’ve finished reading “Mute House Zero” should all know this prequel tells the Boss’s previous story. For students curious about this period, I hope you enjoyed it.
Though I wrote it happily, the process was truly extremely painful…
This was my first attempt at having twelve consecutive “Mute House” stories progress continuously on a single timeline. Though I’ve written many long-form stories of hundreds of thousands of characters, the “Mute House” story itself differs from other stories—after all, it’s constructed upon real history.
So while writing, I researched numerous materials and considered many aspects.
For example, when I first wrote Chapter One of the main “Mute House” series about the fish-pattern mirror, I never intended to write dialogue in classical Chinese. Because awkward classical Chinese would hinder smooth reading, but I still accepted my editor’s suggestion then, changing pronouns like “you” and “I” to “thou” and “I,” which added some ancient flavor but made the writing somewhat incongruous.
Therefore in “Mute House Zero,” I tried to avoid such forms of address, only using them when the context fit. For smooth writing flow, everyone should just accept that ancient people conversed thus—otherwise I truly couldn’t write…
There’s also the idiom problem. Almost every time I used a phrase, whenever I thought of it, I’d check that idiom’s origin—whether it had already appeared in Qin dynasty context. If not, I’d strive to replace it with other words that had appeared. But I later discovered this was simply too restrictive. If everyone read through like this, they’d surely think my entire text was full of typos.
For example, the word “partner”—ancient soldiers formed groups of ten called “fire” units, sharing cooking fires, hence companions were called “fire companions,” so I could only use “fire companion.” Oh, if researched more carefully, this term only appeared during Yuan-Wei times, not existing at all in Qin dynasty.
Not just words—objects too.
But I finally felt relieved. I’m writing a novel, not a textbook or history book. The ultimate purpose is making my story engaging with smooth, comfortable prose. So if everyone sees words or objects in the text that shouldn’t appear in Qin times, please be understanding.
Speaking of research, I’ll ramble a bit about this round’s discoveries—history books contain many self-contradictory places.
For example, King Jia of Wei—the “Records of the Grand Historian” says he didn’t die. But the “Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance” writes he was killed. This point troubled me greatly.
Perhaps someone will ask, what does this person’s death or survival matter? After all, whether or not he was killed then, he’s already dead now.
But this involves many issues. For instance, the previous states Qin destroyed—Han, Zhao, even later Yan, Qi, Chu—all five states’ kings were captured after national destruction. Not one person was killed, so why are records about King Jia of Wei unclear, even contradicting each other in historical materials?
[Historical quotes comparing Records of the Grand Historian vs. Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance regarding King Jia’s fate]
Whether King Jia of Wei surrendered or was killed is a question. Perhaps because the “Records of the Grand Historian” didn’t record where he was enfeoffed, Sima Guang let his imagination run wild, directly writing “killed him.”
Moreover, in the above “Comprehensive Mirror” passage, the “three months” translation—some materials say it means flooding Daliang City for three months. This theoretically should be impossible. From the “Comprehensive Mirror’s” overall writing style, this only represents the third month, which by lunar calendar calculation is precisely spring flood season.
Otherwise, a random example: [Twenty-fifth year, fifth month, the realm greatly feasted.] “Feast” refers to drinking wine, anciently meaning when the state had celebrations, specially granting subjects gatherings to drink. So by the previous translation method, the king granted everyone five months of drinking… Is this scientific?
However, one seemingly can’t blame the great Sima Guang. Regarding Xiang Yan’s death, the “Records of the Grand Historian” has two different accounts—
[Historical quotes showing contradictory accounts of Xiang Yan’s death]
See, whether Xiang Yan was captured or killed, or captured then committed suicide… history books are truly difficult puzzles to unravel.
Besides how people died, there are also many contradictory recorded issues. I’ll give another example.
The Records of the Grand Historian says Li Xin participated in capturing King Xi of Yan and breaking Qi, but in “Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance,” these two military campaigns had nothing to do with Li Xin—only saying he participated in the initial attack on Yan.
[More historical quote comparisons]
Right, this history period in history books is just these brief passages, even just one sentence. But in the history written in “Comprehensive Mirror,” Li Xin’s name never appeared at all.
Here one can actually see clues—Sima Guang writing “Comprehensive Mirror” perhaps thought after Li Xin’s defeat, he wouldn’t be valued by the Qin King. But judging from between the lines of various historical materials I researched, King Zheng of Qin absolutely wouldn’t be like this.
Even Zheng Guo who admitted being a spy, the Qin King could value him—how much more a commanding general? One general is hard to find; victory and defeat are common military matters.
Using Li Xin’s example, one can actually prove King Jia of Wei was probably captured, only why he ultimately wasn’t settled in commanderies by the Qin King—there might have been various accidents.
So history books are truly products of continuous reprocessing. History is written by victors—this saying I’ve always firmly believed.
Incidentally, regarding Xianyang city walls research.
Xianyang truly had no city walls. In an anecdote about Hu Hai mentioned in “Records of the Grand Historian – Biographies of Jesters,” “wanting to lacquer its city” probably referred to the Great Wall or palace walls.
When Liu Bang attacked the Guanzhong region, he also made Qin generals at Wuguan defect. After entering Guanzhong, there were no large-scale siege warfare records, only plain encounter battles. Well, if settings allow, I’ll write about specific circumstances in the next “Mute House Zero.”
Besides these two history books, I researched various other materials. For example, when writing about Yellow River hydrological data, I consulted the “Commentary on the Water Classic.” Must complain that anciently the Yellow River wasn’t called Yellow River, just “River,” and the Yangtze wasn’t called Yangtze but just “River.” Writing this made me so awkward…
Also, to write about the Boss’s alchemy, I read various alchemical texts… The more I read, the more fascinated I became—haha! Actually quite fun, all writing about many strange and bizarre recipes with detailed alchemy techniques… Of course, feeling like actually making them would be making poison…
Speaking of which, while researching I discovered an interesting fact.
[Quote about standardization under Qin Shihuang]
Let me discuss “unifying cart axles.” Originally I thought so-called unified cart axles just meant building highways with regulated wheel spacing distances that couldn’t exceed standards.
As it turns out, so-called highways were actually tracks—railways laid with timber.
Seeing this, everyone’s probably shocked, right? Railways… and remains were discovered. In Nanyang, Henan’s mountain area, discovered in recent years.
“Through carbon-14 dating, this track section is Qin dynasty remains from 2200+ years ago. The principle is no different from modern railways, even double-tracked, not pulled by steam locomotives but by horsepower. Experts all marvel that 2200 years ago our ancient country already had such advanced transportation facilities. This will be a more astonishing discovery than the Terracotta Warriors.”
“Current railways aren’t cast iron but rolled steel rails. Qin Shihuang’s ‘rail roads’ of course weren’t cast iron either, but laid with timber. The timber making tracks was hard-textured, undergone anti-rot treatment, still intact today. However, sleepers have rotted badly, obviously not undergone anti-rot treatment, material quality inferior to tracks, but one can still see their general appearance.”
“Using tracks, friction greatly reduced, so horses could also pull much cargo at once. Experts think this the most economical method of using horsepower, or an extremely efficient method. Recognized speed should be at least 600 kilometers day and night, some think 700 kilometers. This is nearly double the speed of 800-li express delivery. No wonder Qin Shihuang could effectively manage the vast empire without enfeoffment, and frequently mobilized hundreds of thousands in large-scale operations, plus went out constantly year after year. Countless eastern tours—just calculating times recorded in history books shows his touring round-trip speed was quite fast.”
The above quotes some news reports—those interested can search for detailed content, particularly amazing.
From this, inferring so-called “unifying cart axles” should be because track spacing was fixed, so all cart wheel distances must conform to national standards to travel on highways.
No wonder they’re called “highways” rather than ordinary roads.
The more I understand Qin dynasty history, the more I feel the great Qin Shihuang was a time traveler… Okay, my imagination’s running wild again…
I read even more reference books about astrology, divination, clothing, jade, jewelry and such—not mentioning them now.
If opportunities arise later, I’ll organize them and perhaps publish a historical commentary reference book related to “Mute House”—all historical knowledge behind stories written in “Mute House,” all particularly interesting. Due to length issues, all couldn’t be manifested in the main text.
In short, another “Mute House” volume complete! Always feeling this plot hole keeps getting bigger… Still so much I want to write… Going to face the wall a while…
I solemnly thank Mr. Zou Hui, boss of Zhongnan Angel, Editor-in-Chief Deng Li, and literary editors like Green Cat for their efforts, plus art editor sisters’ support. The manga adaptation of “Mute House Zero” must also greatly thank Editor-in-Chief Liang Jie’s strong support.
Of course, special thanks to Xiao Bo—”Mute House” has now been open exactly five years, from illustrations to art books to manga, our cooperation keeps improving. The manga version of “Mute House Zero” has also begun serialization in “Shen Man.” Let’s continue working hard together.
Finally, many thanks to reader friends’ support—”Mute House’s” growth is inseparable from your attention. If you like this story, like this shop, like the Boss, then please continue anticipating!
“Mute House”—one volume, twelve stories, one story per month, one volume per year… Really? Since last year’s delayed publication of “Mute House · Four,” my rhythm was disrupted, so I wrote “Mute House · Zero” first. “Mute House · Five” will probably only be published in 2016… That’s still fast… I’ll work hard!