Baling City was unusually crowded that day. Vast numbers of scholars had arrived early over the past few days, filling every inn to capacity. Beginning on the thirteenth day of the eighth month, the authorities had allowed private homes to take in visitors from elsewhere. By the fourteenth, the Xiang Prefecture authorities had been forced to seek help from the Jing Kingdom's Ministry of Works, bringing in a Grand Academician from the Zhang Heng Household to build large numbers of makeshift dwellings outside Baling City for the visitors.
East City Avenue was already bustling, its throngs pressing shoulder to shoulder and heel to heel, but everyone who saw that procession wore a strange expression, then moved aside as though avoiding a god of pestilence.
Some bold souls mocked and cursed them; the bolder ones spat toward the procession.
At the very front of the three-thousand-strong procession, four men carried a small wooden platform draped in a bright yellow tablecloth. On it stood a mounted piece of calligraphy bearing four characters.
Duanyu Legacy.
Confucius had many disciples, but the wealthiest among them was unquestionably Zigong. Not only had he studied Sage Kong's teachings deeply, he had also excelled at commerce and continually funded Sage Kong. One could even say that without Zigong, Sage Kong might never have been able to travel through the various states. Without those experiences, he would have struggled to complete his later writings, and naturally could not have achieved Saint Enfeoffment.
Zigong's surname was Duanmu, and his given name was Ci. Thus, Duanyu Legacy had originally referred to members of the Confucian School engaged in commerce, before coming to refer more broadly to all successful merchants.
At the lower left of those four characters was a large vermilion seal impression.
The seal bore four striking characters in