"A bridge runs across to a ruined isle; splendid halls rise from wild thickets. Wind and moon meet a kindred spirit; lake and mountains find their master..."
"Oh! Lord Yaofu, that sounds like a line from the Northern Song minister Sima Xiangru? But this Lord Sima gave our Wagoku quite the scolding in the Zizhi Tongjian..."
"Haaha! 'They know petty rites but lack great righteousness; cling to minor scruples but have no great virtue; value trifles yet scorn integrity and shame; fear power but do not cherish virtue; when strong, they are sure to become bandits; when weak, they are sure to bow low'... Morino Kiyoshi, this is the passage you mean, yes? The Song people's judgment was biased, but if we use these words as a mirror, they can indeed illuminate many things!... However, the Song people have now been gone for four hundred years, and our Wagoku has also bathed for four hundred years in Tang winds. We are long since different from the past..."
"Oh, truly? In the Shogunate's chaotic age now... Buddha protect us! I hope it is truly as Lord Yaofu says!..."
By Moon Lake southwest of Ningbo, a gentle spring breeze was blowing. A dozen or so Wajin envoys strolled along its shore, and looking at that exquisite scenery, they could not help opening their folding fans and chanting poems from the Tang and Song.
As the interpreter, Shi Wende followed behind them with a taut face and a solemn expression. He did not want to stay too close to the Wajin mission; it would call up too much of his "unbearable" past. But the Provincial Administration Commissioner had already given him orders to keep an eye at all times on the Wajin's movements and circumstances, to be a qualified "spy," and to prevent