For countless years, Book Mountain had treated Yue Kingdom as a barrier—a tranquil grove beyond the halls of learning, a bamboo fence outside the reading rooms.
The resonant sound of recitation could pass through; wind and rain could not encroach.
Before the new Dao Calendar began, Evening Drum Academy bore this responsibility.
It stood at the foot of Book Mountain. When the evening drum sounded, all voices fell still.
The disputes of the various schools ceased at Evening Drum. Even during Dragon and Snake Rise from the Land, at the beginning of that new age when beacon fires filled the realm, war had never reached Book Mountain.
Of course, had Jing Grand Ancestor unified the realm and become the Son of Heaven of the Six Directions, then the Daoist Sect, as his supporter and symbiotic ally, going on to unify the thought of the Hundred Schools would have been almost inevitable.
After the new Dao Calendar began, the fences around Book Mountain became the many states, great and small.
Song Kingdom, Yue Kingdom, Li Kingdom, Liang Kingdom, and even the former Xia Kingdom, as well as the earlier Shao Kingdom and Yan Kingdom—all had no shortage of Confucian School disciples entering official service.
Chu Kingdom naturally had them as well. Wu Ling, who advocated the merging of military and Confucian teachings, had once lived on Book Mountain for a full three months.
As mighty as hegemon Chu was, it naturally wielded the Hundred Schools for its own ends. No matter which school one studied, Chu Kingdom had to come first; all plans had to be made for Chu. Yet the identity of a Confucian School disciple was itself a fence, holding back the wind and rain before they arrived.
Since the establishment of the state system, states had risen and