Establish the heart of Heaven and Earth! Establish the lives and destinies of the people! Carry on the lost teachings of the sages of the past! Bring peace to all generations to come!
These four lines were so famous that even people unfamiliar with Confucianism could recite them, and mistakenly believed they had been spoken by Confucius.
In truth, they came from Zhang Zai, the great literary master of the day, known as Master Hengqu.
Zhang Zai had been clever from childhood. At twenty-one, he wrote the Nine Articles on Border Affairs and submitted them to Fan Zhongyan, earning his admiration. Zhang Zai had wanted to abandon the brush for the sword, but Fan Zhongyan persuaded him to turn back. He read widely in Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist works, studying them intently until he had absorbed the strengths of all three schools.
Zhang Zai passed the jinshi examination five years later, at the age of thirty-eight. He passed alongside the twenty-year-old Su Shi and his eighteen-year-old brother Su Zhe. He seemed to have bloomed late, but he went on to write books and establish his own school of thought—a case of great talent maturing late.
These four lines embodied his philosophy, though it had not yet been distilled into a concise summary. They were only its first outline.
One could imagine how deeply they would affect anyone hearing them for the first time.
Liu Yi was stunned.
He murmured to himself, reciting the lines one by one, as a surge of heroic ambition welled up inside him.
This was the spirit of Confucianism!
This was what a man of letters should aspire to!
When he looked at Huang Shang again, his attitude had changed completely. He clasped his hands in a formal salute and said with genuine sincerity, "Huang Shengzhong, you are a man of great talent!"
Chen Sheng came over too and recited the lines once. Disbelief and barely restrained envy appeared in his eyes. "Shengzhong, once these four lines spread, your name will resound throughout the Eastern Capital!"
Huang Shang smiled modestly. "You flatter me! You flatter me!"
I'd wanted to get along with you all as an ordinary person, but all I got in return was contempt.
Fine. I'll stop pretending and lay my cards on the table.
I'm the top scholar!
He wasn't doing this for needless attention. The Reincarnators had entered far earlier than he'd expected, and after weighing the pros and cons, he'd made his decision.
The key was that twenty-year-old Huang Shang was living in the historical setting of the Great Song, with no connection whatsoever to the main plot.
He wouldn't reach any real level of power until he was in his fifties or sixties.
That would take too long. He couldn't wait.
If he didn't want to proceed one step at a time, he had to make the Reincarnators discover Huang Shang's existence. Then he could naturally alter the course of his fate and bring this man of the imperial court into the plot.
But there was a problem.
Forget the whole realm, or even the entire Great Song dynasty. Just the Eastern Capital Kaifeng Prefecture alone had a population of 1.3 million.
In that vast sea of people, Huang Shang was just a poor scholar. Where would the Reincarnators even begin looking for him?
So he had to make a name for himself!
But if he repeated the words of a historical figure, the Reincarnators would inevitably find it strange, perhaps even suspicious. What mattered next was how he spread the lines and guided their interpretation.
His choice of four lines had been deliberate.
As it happened, in the Great Song, a plagiarist could never survive.
Especially one who plagiarized poetry.
Back when Huang Shang had watched those transmigration novels and TV dramas, the protagonists always stole a few poems that would be famous for a thousand years, then used them to show off.
Steal a poem, feel great for a while; keep stealing poems, feel great forever.
But the protagonists never cared whether the style was consistent, let alone whether the allusions in the poems made sense. As long as the scene was a little bit appropriate, they used the lines without a second thought.
Huang Shang hadn't thought much of it either. The poems came from the future, so he'd copy them. What could the ancients do about it?
But after he truly arrived in the Song dynasty, he realized it wasn't that simple.
Literati—especially those of ancient times—could pick apart a famous work with a ruthlessness that was simply unimaginable.
That brought to mind a scandal still discussed throughout the Great Song—
the case of Ouyang Xiu and his alleged affair with his niece.
It had begun as an attack by political rivals. But Ouyang Xiu had written some erotic lyrics, including these lines:
At first glance, there was nothing wrong with them. But the literati began picking them apart, saying they vividly captured a young girl's charms.
When they tied that interpretation to the scandal, rumors arose that he had behaved indecently in his own household and carried on an affair with his niece.
That was the Niece Scandal.
Of course, later generations had offered all sorts of theories. Some said the poem hadn't been written by Ouyang Xiu at all, but by an enemy called Nameless One. Others said Ouyang Xiu had simply liked young girls, and that the girl hadn't necessarily been his niece...
As for the truth, only those involved knew.
So what would happen if a transmigrator without real talent passed off someone else's poem as his own?
Once the poem spread across the realm, the literati would investigate your life, your family, your parents, everything about the way you lived, and even what you'd been thinking when you wrote it—what feelings and ideas you'd meant to express.
They'd pile one piece of hard evidence on top of another. It wouldn't be a matter of fans saying, "My family's cheating; they deserve to die." They'd dig up every bit of dirt, leaving you disgraced and ruined.
As long as you wrote an excellent line that didn't fit your life, even if no one had ever written it before, people would accuse you of plagiarism.
And once that accusation stuck, your reputation was finished. You'd be targeted in every field.
Likewise.
No matter how jealous or envious Chen Sheng was, he could only swallow his tears.
Even if Huang Shang had no powerful backers, Liu Yi wouldn't dare steal his work.
If he were caught, he wouldn't just lose his chance at the imperial examinations—his entire life would be ruined.
Not only that, he'd spread the word.
Sure enough, just a few days after Liu Yi and Chen Sheng left, literati began calling on Huang Shang.
Then more came, and more still.
"A mountain need not be high; with an immortal, it becomes famous. A lake need not be deep; with a dragon, it becomes numinous. This is a humble abode, but my virtue makes it fragrant."
When he'd been unknown, poor simply meant poor.
When the four lines spread throughout the Eastern Capital Kaifeng Prefecture, his poverty became a sign that he was content with a simple life and refused to consort with the vulgar world.
The lines even came to be known as the Four Verses of the Humble Abode.
Huang Shang grew more and more modest. He declined invitations from the literati to attend gatherings every day and instead devoted himself to his studies.
His attitude moved the literary masters who had been watching him in secret.
One day, as Huang Shang returned from a meal, he saw a tall horse waiting outside the courtyard.
When the rider spotted him in the distance, a stern, resolute man dismounted and stepped forward to greet him. "I am You Shixiong, courtesy name Jingshu. I've come to pay my respects to Huang Shengzhong. I hope you won't take offense at my unannounced visit."
Huang Shang returned the salute.
After spending so long in this world, he'd finally met his first historical figure.
You Shixiong was a renowned general of the Northern Song. He'd made his name in history by repelling Western Xia incursions and protecting cultural relics. His writing, poetry, and calligraphy had all been passed down, making him a man of both letters and arms.
Of course, the You Shixiong standing before him was still a young man. He hadn't passed the jinshi examination and held no official post. He'd come for another reason.
He was Zhang Zai's student.
Huang Shang had already looked into it: Zhang Zai was currently in Kaifeng Prefecture.
After hearing the four lines, Zhang Zai had found a kindred spirit and praised them without end, then sent You Shixiong to make Huang Shang's acquaintance.
It was time to give these four lines back!
A weight lifted from Huang Shang's heart. When the four lines reached the Reincarnators' ears, they would naturally have questions. He had a comprehensive plan for dealing with that, and Zhang Zai was a key part of it.
Zhang Zai had sent an invitation. It was exactly what Huang Shang wanted, and he'd gladly become his student. Even if there had been no invitation, he would have sought Zhang Zai out himself.
In this era, without a good teacher to guide you, making a name for yourself in literary circles was undoubtedly much harder.
Huang Shang figured that with "his" talent, he'd only passed the imperial examinations as the top scholar at thirty-five because he'd never had a good teacher.
Zhang Zai was already the perfect choice. Add the Hengqu Four Verses, and it was a match made in heaven.
So Huang Shang told him outright that his four lines had been inspired by Zhang Zai's Exposition on the Book of Changes.
Seeing how much Huang Shang admired his teacher and how modest he was, You Shixiong liked him even more.
But just as the two were enjoying their conversation, a servant came inside to announce someone.
Another visitor had come to call.
This time, the visitor represented Sima Guang.
Before you continue