Commandery Academy

"Whether you buy it is another matter. Let me put it on you first, young master, so you can see how it looks." The shopkeeper enthusiastically fitted the Folded-Corner Scarf onto Wang Yang's head, then looked him up and down with an admiring sigh. "It suits you, it suits you! Simply perfect! A White Lined Jacket and a Qing Folded-Corner Scarf—all you need now is an Azure Cloud Skirt."

Clothing at the time consisted of an upper garment and a lower skirt. Trousers existed, but those worn as outerwear were usually paired with a short upper garment called a "jacket," together known as "Trousers and Jacket."

Trousers were divided into closed-crotch "Crotch Trousers" (kun) and open-crotch overtrousers called "Open-Crotch Trousers" (ku). Members of the aristocratic clans customarily wore a skirt over their Crotch Trousers; exposing the trousers was considered improper or undignified.

Wang Yang, on the other hand, wore the closed-crotch trousers Squad Leader Xue had given him-or "Crotch Trousers"-directly as outerwear, which was how ordinary commoners dressed.

The shopkeeper casually took out an Azure Cloud Skirt. "This is 𦈌 cloth woven from ramie. It isn't as fine as yue cloth, but it's still excellent material! Only four hundred coins. Try it on, young master, just once!"

Wang Yang waved a hand in refusal and was about to remove the Folded-Corner Scarf when Black Han suddenly said, "This humble fellow thinks it suits you perfectly, young master. If you're satisfied, why not buy both?"

Black Han slapped his saber down in front of the shopkeeper. "Take a good look. This Ring-Pommel Saber was made by the Jingzhou Weapons Bureau back when the Prince of Yuzhang was governor. I'll leave it with you as security for the scarf and skirt. You won't be losing out, will you?"

The Weapons Bureau was the official agency responsible for forging weapons.

Wang Yang noticed that when Black Han mentioned the Prince of Yuzhang, he cupped his hands toward the upper right, just as the Village Head had done earlier.

"Is this one of the Yuzhang Arms?" The shopkeeper picked up the saber in surprise, stroked its scabbard, then drew the blade to examine it closely.

The years when Xiao Yi, the Prince of Yuzhang, served as governor of Jingzhou had been Jingzhou's most glorious period.

At that time, the office of Commandant of the Southern Barbarians had not yet been abolished. The Prince of Yuzhang commanded both the Jingzhou Garrison and the Southern Barbarians Command, two great military headquarters, while serving as governor of both Jingzhou and Xiangzhou. All funding and supplies came from the imperial court, and support was abundant. In other words, he had brought immense resources with him to pump fresh blood into Jingzhou.

As a result, both grain prices and taxes had been at their lowest in recent times. Grain had become so cheap that farmers suffered, so they were specially permitted to pay their taxes in grain instead of money. All outstanding tax debts owed by people within the territory were also forgiven.

Thus, even though the Prince of Yuzhang had left Jingzhou long ago, its people still respected and loved him.

Since the Prince of Yuzhang had no shortage of money, the finest materials were used to forge weapons. To put down the Southern Barbarian Rebellion, he had even personally sent men to supervise production at the Weapons Bureau. The resulting weapons were of superb quality. People called that batch the "Yuzhang Arms," and they were quite famous.

"You aren't a soldier, are you?" The shopkeeper gave Black Han a suspicious look.

Black Han's expression did not change. "Of course not. Otherwise, would I be tired of living, daring to pawn a military saber?"

For a soldier, selling his saber was a capital offense. That was why Black Han had never counted this blade among his assets while trying to scrape together money. Now he had thought it through: if he could not repay the debt in three days, the only use left for this saber would be to fight Third Master Du to the death, and the outcome was easy to foresee. Having the saber or not made little difference.

Besides, he had personally witnessed Wang Yang borrow two thousand coins in a very short time, which strengthened his faith in Wang Yang's abilities.

It was like the wager he had described to Ding Jiu. Since he had already staked his entire fortune and his life on Wang Yang, one more saber hardly mattered.

Wang Yang wanted to stop him, but Black Han spoke to the shopkeeper first. "Let's be clear: I'm only leaving this saber with you temporarily. I'll bring the money to redeem it within three days."

"And if you don't come after three days..."

"Then the saber is yours!"

"Good. Words alone are no proof. Let's put it in writing."

After they left the shop, Wang Yang said, "There really was no need to pawn the saber."

Black Han said, "This humble fellow doesn't know what you intend to do, young master, but I can tell you plan things carefully. That was clear when you had me buy flour earlier. So if you were looking at a Folded-Corner Scarf, you must have had a reason."

Wang Yang patted Black Han. "From now on, you don't need to call yourself 'this humble fellow' in front of me."

Black Han looked somewhat alarmed. "This humble fellow wouldn't dare!"

"I'm telling you to. What's there not to dare? Keep doing it in front of others, but there's no need when it's just the two of us."

Black Han had long since seen that this young master was different from other people. Without making a fuss, he immediately cupped his fists. "Thank you, young master!"

It was only permission to change how he addressed himself, yet Black Han felt that the two of them had grown closer.

"The Prince of Yuzhang had a very good reputation in Jingzhou, didn't he?" Wang Yang asked tentatively.

"Of course! When the Prince of Yuzhang governed Jingzhou, our camp ate cooked wheat every day. They even issued rice-real rice, white rice! That taste was just..." Black Han smacked his lips, as though recalling the flavor of white rice.

"How does the current governor compare with the Prince of Yuzhang?" Although Wang Yang trusted Black Han, even trust had its limits. Since he was posing as a member of the Langya Wang clan, he could not directly ask who the Prince of Yuzhang was. He could only draw out information through casual conversation like this.

"Well, this humble... I couldn't really say. I don't understand much about the big affairs. But the prices of rice and cloth have both soared lately, and the barbarians have been running wild." At this point, Black Han lowered his voice. "I heard they even ambushed the Cao Gong Grove outpost a month ago. More than thirty men died, but the higher-ups suppressed the news and never made it public. Something like that would never have happened when the Prince of Yuzhang was here."

"So the current governor doesn't have the people's support?"

"Not quite. After all, His Highness was raised by the Prince of Yuzhang. Everyone remembers the prince's kindness, so they're still very willing to have His Highness govern Jingzhou. Besides, His Highness is a superb fighter, with strength like a god. He can draw a great bow rated at four hu. Who in the entire army doesn't respect and admire him?"

His Highness? Where had another prince come from?

Right, the Southern Dynasties had always followed the practice of "sending imperial princes out to command"-dispatching princes of the imperial clan to guard a region. It seemed the current governor of Jingzhou was also a prince.

But why was this prince said to have been raised by the Prince of Yuzhang?

Black Han suspected nothing and asked, "Young master, where are we going now?"

Wang Yang set his questions aside for the moment, put his hands behind his back, and said, "The Commandery Academy."

Jingzhou had two commandery academies: one was the local Official Academy, and the other was the "Wang Academy" established by the Prince of Yuzhang.

Quite apart from the Wang Academy's backing by the Prince of Yuzhang, the fact that it was run by the Hedong Liu Clan-a prestigious aristocratic clan on par with the Langya Wang-was enough to make Wang Yang reluctant to start there.

For one thing, he feared the place would be haughty and exclusionary; for another, he lacked confidence in his assumed identity.

Thus, from the outset, Wang Yang had set his sights on the local Official Academy.

The Official Academy stood in the old northwestern quarter. Together with its school buildings, ponds, and terraces, it occupied a substantial area. Hawking and noisy commotion were forbidden on all the surrounding streets,

giving anyone who approached a sense of solemn dignity.

After asking for directions, the two reached the Commandery Academy's entrance. Beneath a ginkgo tree so thick it would take three people linking arms to encircle it, a black-lacquered gate stood half closed. A long couch barred the entrance, and a youth sat on it with a book in his hands, reading with intense concentration.

The youth wore a long garment in the style of a Curved-Hem Robe and a tall black cap. At a glance, Wang Yang recognized these as the ancient Confucian scholar's attire known as the "Wide-Sleeved Robe" and "Zhangfu Cap."

This was a Confucian scholar!

As the saying went, to aid the world and illuminate moral teaching, nothing came before Confucian learning; at the root of Confucian learning, nothing came before the Five Classics.

The study of the Five Classics was known as "classical studies."

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, although metaphysical learning and Buddhist studies flourished side by side, the Official Academy had always devoted itself to classical studies, never wavering in the slightest.

There was nothing strange about a Confucian scholar in scholarly attire appearing at the Commandery Academy's entrance.

What was strange was the couch placed before the gate. Could this be some custom he knew nothing about?

Wang Yang stepped forward. "Excuse me-"

"Here to see the Libationer?" the scholar asked casually, without taking his eyes off his book.

Notes: ① Although Confucian attire had changed and developed since the pre-Qin period, the garment remained a long robe with its upper and lower sections joined together (known in antiquity as a "deep robe"), and the headwear remained a black cap (the so-called black-cloth cap). These two fundamentals had not changed. Combined with the fact that they were at the entrance to the Commandery Academy, this allowed Wang Yang to recognize the attire at a glance.

② Cao Gong Grove lay northeast of Jingzhou City and was said to have been a place where Cao Cao once stationed his troops. The Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era quoted the Jiangling Records: "Twelve li northeast of the provincial city lies Cao Gong Grove. According to tradition, in the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao pursued Liu Bei to Changban in Dangyang, then returned with his army and encamped in this grove. Thus it was called Cao Gong Grove."