Stopping the Carriage

A bluestone road, a yellow ox-drawn carriage, a black-lacquered canopy, and a net of crimson silk cords.

A young girl sat inside the carriage, her figure slender as a crescent moon, her eyes like stars. Her lovely, fine brows were slightly knitted, as though painted in ink.

She wore a white gauze dress, with delicate silver-thread edging embroidered along its lapels and cuffs. The overlapping neckline complemented her pale blue-green inner garment, creating distinct, graceful layers. Though only a single maid attended her, her slender back remained elegantly straight-not because she was trying to maintain the most graceful posture, but because it had long since become habit.

This was the renowned Fourth Lady of the Xie Family—Xie Xinghan.

"My lady, you've already done everything you could for this matter! Even if the master were here, he wouldn't blame you." Seeing the worries gathered between her mistress's youthful, lovely brows refuse to dissipate, her maid Xiao Ning offered a sympathetic reassurance.

Xiao Ning wore pink clothes and had her hair arranged in twin buns. With lively eyes and sweet features, she would have been radiant enough walking down the street alone that someone might have mistaken her for the daughter of a wealthy household. Beside Xie Xinghan, however, anyone could tell at a glance that she was a maid.

Xie Xinghan shook her head gently, her brows still knitted. "Since I'm here, of course I must see it through."

As the personal maid who had always remained at her mistress's side, Xiao Ning naturally understood her temperament. She simply felt that her mistress was still too young. However overflowing her talents might be, she should not have been involved in such matters.

Just as she was about to offer further advice, the ox carriage suddenly stopped.

"I am Le Pang of Yuyang. I wish Lady Xie... the Xie Residence's... Fourth Lady... a safe journey!" Le Xiaopang stood in the middle of the road and bowed with clasped hands. His nerves made him stumble through the second half of his greeting.

A group of young wastrels stood a short distance away, hooting, cheering, whistling, and clapping. Some looked at Le Pang as though he were a true warrior; others, as though he were an extraordinarily rare dumbass.

Xiao Ning looked at Xie Xinghan, who nodded.

Lifting the window curtain, Xiao Ning ordered, "Scare them off."

Four men in blue, short cudgels hanging at their waists, strode forward with their hands on their weapons. Their eyes were cold, their movements sharp. They looked nothing like ordinary household servants.

Without their mistress's command, they would not draw their cudgels, but anyone confronted by that display would have thought a beating was imminent!

"Wait, wait, I... I came... I'm here to..."

The boys scattered in a rush. Le Pang's legs went weak, and he could not even finish the words Wang Yang had taught him. He backed up several steps, wanting to flee but unable to make up his mind.

Remembering that he had yet to receive his two thousand coins, Wang Yang gritted his teeth, burst out of the crowd, and shouted:

"My young master has come to repay a debt! The Xie Clan is a family of cultured standing, yet you would beat someone in the street in broad daylight!"

The four men in blue stopped three paces from Wang Yang. It was not because of what he had said, but because their orders were merely to frighten these people away. Since that had failed, they needed to await their mistress's instructions before taking further action.

Black Han stepped in front of Wang Yang and faced the four men. Le Pang clutched Wang Yang's arm and barely managed not to run, though cold sweat streamed down him and he could scarcely remain standing.

Xie Xinghan said something softly to Xiao Ning, who called out through the carriage curtain, "The cudgels have yet to touch you. How can you call it a beating?"

Hearing the Xie family maid's voice for the first time, Le Pang was thrilled and wished only that she would say a few more words. He wanted to converse with her, but this question was not among the "answers" Wang Yang had prepared for him. Unable to respond, he could only look pleadingly at Wang Yang.

Wang Yang told Black Han to step aside, then said, "If a tiger chases someone and means to bite him, but its fangs have yet to touch him, is the person being chased forbidden even to shout, 'The tiger's biting people'?"

Xie Xinghan pressed her lips together gently, her fine brows relaxing. A hint of a smile appeared on her pretty, jade-clear face, and the entire carriage seemed to brighten. Xiao Ning could not resist muttering, "What a slippery little servant!"

Xie Xinghan spoke again, and Xiao Ning relayed her words loudly. "If you wish to repay a debt, go to the residence, submit a visiting card, give your name, and explain the circumstances. What possible justification is there for stopping a carriage on the road to conduct a private exchange?"

Wang Yang gave Le Pang a meaningful look, but Le Pang shook his head anxiously, at a loss for how to respond. Helpless, Wang Yang could only continue answering for him:

"Your lady accepts no private letters, so we have no means of submitting a card or making ourselves known. With no selfish motives in the heart, heaven and earth stretch wide. Here beneath the bright, open heavens, on a public thoroughfare, we openly offer our greetings and repay a debt. How is that a private exchange? If you insist, there is indeed an 'exchange,' but we dare not accept the word 'private.'"

Overjoyed, Le Pang gazed at Wang Yang with gratitude and admiration. Xie Xinghan, however, frowned and said something.

"My lady has never lent anyone money!" Xiao Ning said sternly. "Naturally, no one can claim to be repaying her!" She even reproduced nine-tenths of her mistress's displeased tone.

"I never said my young master owed your lady money. It was my young master's ancestor who owed your lady's ancestor money. My young master is now repaying the debt on his ancestor's behalf, so please ask your lady to collect it on hers!"

"Utter nonsense!" Xie Xinghan's expression chilled, and she slapped the brocade cushion embroidered all over with silver thread.

Xiao Ning immediately snapped, "Utter nonsense!"

The four Xie Family servants saw their mistress grow angry and stepped forward together, their eyes like a hawk's.

Le Pang recoiled several steps in fright. Black Han also moved anxiously to guard Wang Yang. From his military experience, he had already recognized that these four men were agile and far from ordinary. If a fight truly broke out, he could not be confident of winning even one-on-one.

More and more onlookers gathered around them. Wang Yang's expression remained unchanged as he answered, "I have proof!"

He gave Black Han a few instructions in a low voice. A troubled look appeared on Black Han's face, and Wang Yang urged him, "Go quickly and come straight back!" Black Han hurried off toward the Wine Shop.

"What proof?" Xie Xinghan had Xiao Ning ask.

Wang Yang turned to the somewhat dazed Le Pang and whispered, "Get the letter out!"

Only then did Le Pang come to his senses and produce the letter Wang Yang had written for him.

Taking the letter, Wang Yang said, "Here is the written pledge. One look will establish the truth."

Half believing and half doubting, Xie Xinghan ordered a servant to bring it to her.

Watching the letter pass into the carriage, Le Pang felt both blissful and nervous. At the same time, his admiration for Wang Yang was such that he could have prostrated himself before him.

Wang Yang, meanwhile, was considering how to escape if the worst happened.

Xie Xinghan unfolded the letter and saw a poem written upon it:

"Wandering the Rivers and Lakes with Wine, a slender Chu waist rested feather-light upon a palm. From Eastern Mountain he always rose for the common people, earning the name of a graceful, distinguished chancellor.

A cup of wine brewed tears for a ruthless minister; a tap of a chess piece shattered the Northern Di's resolve. Fifty thousand fan-palm fans could rout the summer heat; a brief cool breeze left gratitude enduring ten thousand years."

After the poem came a line of small characters: "Grand Tutor Xie helped my ancestor sell fifty thousand fan-palm fans, a kindness still unrepaid to this day. This poem both recalls Grand Tutor Xie's lofty righteousness and serves as my pledge of the heart. A pledge of the heart is a pledge held within the heart, with repayment its sole desire! I hope Lady Xie will not refuse! Words cannot fully convey my meaning. Le Pang of Yuyang bows his head to the ground."

Grand Tutor Xie referred to Xie An.

Xie An was a graceful, distinguished chancellor whose fame endured through the ages, and a leading figure of the Chen Commandery Xie Clan during the Eastern Jin. Naturally, he was also a forebear of Xie Xinghan's clan. What Wang Yang did not know was that, according to the genealogy, Xie Xinghan's father, Xie Fei, was a fifth-generation descendant of Xie An's younger brother, Xie Wan. In other words, though Xie Xinghan's branch was not directly descended from Xie An, it was not far removed, and certainly could not be compared to those distant collateral branches.

More importantly, Xie Fei admired his ancestor Xie An's character and often aspired to emulate him. Xie An had also been exceedingly fond of his niece Xie Daoyun, while Xie Xinghan herself was known as "Little Xie Daoyun."

Thus, whether viewed through the glory of her clan or the upbringing of her household, the depth of Xie Xinghan's reverence for this ancestor was easy to imagine.

Wang Yang's "Ode to Xie An," therefore, had truly stroked the right whiskers and patted the right horse!

The poem's first four lines were adapted from Du Mu's "Reminiscence," subtly invoking the story of Xie An taking courtesans to Eastern Mountain and the scholar-officials saying to one another, "If Anshi does not come forth, what will become of the common people?" The fifth line spoke of Xie An preventing Huan Wen from proclaiming himself emperor; the sixth praised the Battle of Fei River, when Xie An calmly played chess while the enemy was repelled. The seventh and eighth concerned an anecdote about Xie An, which had also inspired Wang Yang's "grand letter-delivery scheme."

Notes: ① In modern usage, "fengliu" most often carries negative connotations, a result of its meaning narrowing over time. In antiquity, however, particularly during the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, it did not refer solely to relations between men and women. More often, it described the elegance and bearing of celebrated scholars. Still, Xie An's keeping courtesans was indeed rather "romantic."

② At this time, poetic forms had yet to evolve into regulated verse, so tonal patterns and metrical rules were not yet observed. A poetic revolution was, however, brewing in the capital, later to become the seed of regulated poetry. With the protagonist's transmigration, this process would naturally differ from its original course. This matter will be discussed in detail in the Jinling Volume.

③ Although modern readers are familiar with the characters "xing" and "han," both were commonly used in ancient names. To begin with "han," Emperor Wenzong of Tang was originally named "Han." A scholar-official of the time named Zheng Han changed his name to "Zheng Han," using a different character, to avoid the imperial naming taboo. Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang records that, during the Northern Wei, Bodhi Temple opened a tomb to obtain bricks and found someone named "Cui Han." The Buddhist nun in Quan Zuwang's Biography of Shen Yin was named Hanguang. As for "xing," the celebrated Tang Dynasty poet Cui Shu's only daughter was named "Xing." During the Ming Dynasty, there was a noted scholar named Zhou Xing, and the great calligrapher Chen Zhaolun's courtesy name was Xingzhai.

There may or may not have been someone named "Xinghan"; I have never encountered one in my reading. But it is not a fabrication, either. Five Miscellaneous Groups states, "The moon haloed, the stars immersed: wonders of their appearance." Liu Xiaowei of the Southern Liang wrote, "The Foremost Star holds auspicious radiance; rolling thunder carries its sound afar." More famous still are Han Yu's lines: "Wait until deep night to depart upon the moon; see how many stars swim in its waters."

Women's names in the medieval period included some that fit the cultural expectations familiar to modern readers, such as Yang Yan, Lady Rong, Zuo Fen, Li Lingrong, and Hu Fang. There were also others that hardly look like women's names today, such as Zhang Weide, Liu Duanyan, Zeng Mile, and Wang Muzhi.