Calling card

"What the hell is wrong with you?! Didn't you say he was definitely a fake?"

After seeing Wang Yang off, Squad Leader Xue flew into a rage, then pinched his voice into a falsetto to imitate Clerk Wang:

"And you even said, 'Would I joke about something like this?' Well, look how that turned out! Not just a joke, but a joke big enough to fill the heavens! If you want to die, don't drag me down with you!"

Clerk Wang looked miserable. "I thought his uncle was an Attendant Gentleman of the Cavalier, didn't I? Who knew he meant a Cavalier Attendant! I've heard there's a man from the Langya Wang among the court's Cavalier Attendants. That might be his second uncle."

After a moment's thought, he added, "Could he have heard that somewhere and be deliberately bluffing?"

Then he shook his head again. "Probably not. 'Advance upon a tranquil current, attain the highest offices without rising from one's seat,' and 'gentry and commoners do not sit together'-an ordinary person couldn't make up things like that!"

Squad Leader Xue rapped on the table. "Look, do you have any idea what you're doing or not?"

Clerk Wang muttered to himself some more, then rubbed his temples. "It's hard to say, truly hard to say. But better to believe it than dismiss it. If we've really offended the Langya Wang, then you and I..."

Squad Leader Xue said impatiently, "Then what do you suggest?"

Clerk Wang paced back and forth. "We have two choices now. First, report this through the usual channels. Second, verify it ourselves."

"Then let's report it." Just hearing the word "verify" gave Squad Leader Xue a headache. He was afraid they would end up covered in dust and disgrace again, as they had just now.

Clerk Wang said, "Think carefully, Squad Leader. If we report it, we'll be reporting to the Yellow Standard Commander. He'll certainly come to collect the young master himself, and then we'll never get another hand in!"

Squad Leader Xue sat up straight. "Never get another hand in? Explain that. What do you mean?"

Clerk Wang's eyes burned. "This is the Langya Wang! Someone you wouldn't encounter in several lifetimes. Never mind us-even the Yellow Standard Commander, even the Garrison Commander of the entire A Qu Garrison, couldn't meet such a person if they fought until their heads split. You and I have neither roots nor backing. We could muddle along until we died and still be no better off. But if we could climb onto the great tree that is the Langya Wang-"

Squad Leader Xue's eyes lit up, then dimmed again. "But-but would someone like him think anything of us?"

"Normally, of course not. But he's in trouble now. This is precisely when he needs our help."

"Help? How? Take him to Jiankang to find his uncle? We don't have that kind of ability!" Squad Leader Xue said dejectedly.

Clerk Wang waved a hand. "Naturally, we can't take him to the Capital to find his relatives. But we can get him to Jingzhou City."

Squad Leader Xue looked puzzled. "You mean Jiangling? What good would going to Jiangling do?"

"Didn't I just get back from Jiangling? I heard a member of the Langya Wang came to the Inner City a while ago. His name is Wang Tai, and he's an extraordinary figure! He previously held high office in the Duke of Situ's Office! His father and grandfather both served among the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers! They say his brother-in-law is the present emperor's younger brother, the inspector of Southern Xu Province, Xiao Feng, Prince of Jiangxia! Even our own prince would have to call him Uncle, if you reckoned their generations!"

(Note: for an explanation of the use of the form of address "prince," see the endnote to chapter 15.)

"Really?!" Squad Leader Xue wore the expression of someone hearing a secret of high politics. "What office has he come to Jingzhou to take?"

"He hasn't come to take office. I think he's here to recuperate? Or perhaps he owns property here. Anyway, he isn't staying in the New City, but over in the Northwest Old City. Civil and military officials, aristocrats and gentlemen from all over Jingzhou City went to visit, their carriages and horses streaming to his door, but every one of them was turned away. I heard even a young master of the Hedong Liu Clan came asking for an audience and couldn't get one! We could take this little dandy there. Once we get through the Wang family's doors, our standing... heh heh." Clerk Wang chuckled in delight.

Squad Leader Xue looked baffled. "Our price? We're not buying slaves or maidservants. Why talk about our price?"

Clerk Wang said with a smile:

"It's a figure of speech, my dear Squad Leader! Li Ying, the great scholar of the Eastern Han, enjoyed tremendous renown. Any guest admitted to his hall was said to have 'ascended the dragon gate,' and his standing doubled from that moment onward! If we can 'enter the Wang gate,' the principle is the same. And if Wang Tai thanks us for rescuing a member of his clan from danger, so much the better!

All he'd have to do then is put in a casual word with those officials at the provincial headquarters, and wouldn't we soar into the heavens in a single flight? Besides, don't we still need to verify whether he's genuine? We can take him straight there and let that member of the Langya Wang check. Surely he'd know whether the boy was real or fake? That saves us the trouble too."

Squad Leader Xue beamed. "Good, good, good! An educated man really is different!" But another concern soon occurred to him, and he said uneasily, "But what if this little dandy makes excuses and refuses to go?"

Clerk Wang's gaze turned cold. "Simple. If a false monk dares not face the true Buddha, then we won't need to go to Jiangling!"

Once they had settled on their plan, the two men went to Wang Yang. They told him that a member of the Langya Wang was residing in Jiangling and offered to escort him there after daybreak.

Wang Yang immediately grew wary. Clerk Wang made it sound so pleasant, dressing it up as "exchanging news with your clan" and "paying a visit to your kin," but wasn't he really trying to verify his identity? If that Wang Tai in Jiangling truly belonged to the Langya Wang, wouldn't meeting him expose the trick behind the painted screen?

Though he felt uneasy inside, he let nothing show on his face and calmly agreed. Seeing no trace of fear or hesitation in Wang Yang, Clerk Wang and Squad Leader Xue grew even more certain that he belonged to the Langya Wang. The prospect of attaching themselves to a noble house of the highest rank filled them with delight.

Clerk Wang immediately ordered someone to bring the brush and ink he had prepared, then said respectfully, "Please write out your calling card, young master."

A calling card, also known as a name slip, was similar to a modern business card. In the Six Dynasties period, visitors first had to present one before calling at someone's home, a practice also known as "submitting a card."

Wang Yang had learned brush calligraphy since childhood and continued copying model works as an adult, giving him more than ten years of practice. He had started with Tang regular script before moving on to running and cursive scripts, and had even won a modest award. Writing posed no difficulty for him at all.

He also knew the customary format for calling cards during the Six Dynasties. He had even seen an actual card excavated from the tomb of Zhu Ran, a general of the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period, so the format was familiar to him.

Clerk Wang felt rather excited. He had long heard that the Langya Wang's calligraphy was exquisite beyond compare, with renowned masters emerging in every generation. At last, he had a chance to see it for himself!

Wang Yang picked up the brush. Seeing Clerk Wang waiting eagerly beside him, he immediately rallied his spirits and swept the brush across the paper: "Wang Yang of the Same Clan bows twice and asks after your well-being; of Langya, courtesy name Zhiyan."

He poured a lifetime's skill into those few words, his strokes firm and vigorous, brimming with an antique air!

Quite satisfied, Wang Yang finished his last stroke and glanced at the somewhat dazed Clerk Wang. Looks like my calligraphy stunned him! Excellent, excellent. All those years copying models weren't wasted.

Looking back at the calling card, he suddenly realized that although its wording followed the customs of the time, his identity was false. Never mind that the Langya Wang genealogies certainly contained no record of him-he might not even get through a face-to-face conversation.

Why not play a little trick with the calling card?

It would leave a good impression and lay the groundwork for explaining my identity later.

At that thought, he wielded his brush and added a short poem: "The road to my old home stretches far and far; the tears upon both sleeves never dry. Now that we meet, what need is there to ask? I trust you to send word that I am safe."

Wang Yang knew that his alterations had drained Cen Shen's "Meeting a Messenger Bound for the Capital" of all its spirit and vitality. But to lay the groundwork for his assumed identity, he could only sacrifice a little of poetry's artistic standards.

After leaving, Clerk Wang still seemed dazed. Squad Leader Xue asked, "Old Wang, you've been like this ever since you saw his calling card. What is it? Was his writing very good?"

When Clerk Wang failed to answer, Squad Leader Xue raised his voice. "Old Wang!"

Clerk Wang jumped in fright and finally came back to his senses.

"What on earth is wrong with you?!"

Clerk Wang looked perplexed. "This young master does seem to be a man who understands letters, but his handwriting..."

"What about his handwriting?" Squad Leader Xue pressed anxiously.

"It's far too ordinary!"

"What?!" Squad Leader Xue plainly hadn't expected that answer.

Clerk Wang shook his head repeatedly, almost muttering to himself. "Ordinary, ordinary, utterly ordinary! Ordinary beyond belief! Really far too ordinary! Could it be-could it be that I don't know how to appreciate it?"

Note: the northwestern part of Jiangling was the old urban area, while the southwestern part was the new urban area built by Guan Yu. This layout had changed little even by the Tang dynasty. The Yuanhe Junxian Tuzhi states: "The city originally had a central pavilion; north of it lay the old city, while south of it was the city built by Guan Yu." Interestingly, the official website of a certain provincial cultural heritage bureau cites the Tongdian as saying: "The former Han city, namely the old city, lay toward the northwest, stretching southeastward. Guan Yu built a city toward the southwest, and Huan Wen built a city encompassing both as one." It would be one thing if only the official website quoted it this way, but more than one academic paper does so as well. Who knows who started it? The result was yet another academic rumor being widely cited. Some even specified the exact volume of the Tongdian it supposedly came from. Quite a feat...

That sentence certainly does not appear in the Tongdian. It was probably based on Mr. Huang Shengzhang's discussion in "The Money-Weighing Balance and Earth-Notification Documents Excavated from the Jiangling Phoenix Mountain Han Tombs, and Questions of Historical Geography," collected in Collected Essays on Historical Geography and Archaeology. Presumably, the first person to cite it confused Huang's discussion with the original text of the Tongdian.

Also, the term "Eastern Han" was already in common use during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Parallel prose was fashionable then, so "Eastern Han" was often used in paired clauses. For instance, in an edict Xu Ling drafted for the emperor: "At the beginning of Xiping in the Eastern Han, amid the turmoil of Yongjia in the Western Court"; in Liu Xiaochuo's preface to Collected Works of Crown Prince Zhaoming: "Serving the Four Dukes, he won praise in the Western Capital; through Changshou's single inspection, his name spread in the Eastern Han"; and in Jiang Yan's "Memorial on Expedient Measures on Behalf of Grand Marshal Xiao": "Its source arose in Western Qin, its waves spread over Eastern Han." These are all examples of the same usage.