The fifteenth day of the sixth month. Regular Court Audience.
The height of summer, without a breath of wind.
Morning light crossed the palace roof and fell upon the golden bricks of the Vermilion Steps, steaming up a haze of dust.
The officials stood in their ranks, Court Tablets rising like a forest. Six or seven in every ten had sweated through their layered robes.
The Great Zhou Dynasty held court on the fifth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth of every month, regardless of wind or rain-or sweltering heat.
Today, however, was different.
Once the Director of Transmission finished reporting external affairs and the Ministry of Rites finished reporting the movements of the tribute envoys, the hall fell silent.
Everyone at court knew that, with the Crown Prince's establishment in his own palace complete, the appointments of the Eastern Palace Attendants should now be settled.
The Ministry of Personnel's proposed list had already been submitted to the emperor; the remaining nominations and deliberations were still being weighed.
The Upright Officials had their eyes on the vacant Reader-in-Waiting post in the Directorate of Classical Studies, while the Shen Faction watched the Registrar position already in their grasp. Each worked their own abacus, waiting only for the imperial brush to fall.
In the oppressive summer heat, the emperor had little inclination to prolong the audience.
Thus, after hearing the routine business, and with the Eastern Palace matter long since settled, he signaled Wang Cheng to announce the decree.
Holding his fly whisk, Wang Cheng stepped half a pace out of rank and proclaimed:
"Wei Nisheng, Vice Director of the Ministry of Personnel's Bureau of Selecting Officials, receive the decree."
Wei Nisheng stepped forward.
A Scarlet Robe, a Silver Fish, and a Jade Balance hanging from his sash.
Only a few months had passed since