What had happened at the banquet soon spread through a small circle, and those whose interests were at stake began to grow uneasy.
Some had initially harbored doubts, but when they saw Luo Cheng openly side with Queen Shen Jiang and remain in the Grand Historians' Office without involving himself in government, they too believed that this new Marquis of Luo truly had no particularly close relationship with the Son of Heaven.
Night fell. Luo Cheng sat in his study, reading a bundle of bamboo slips.
To him, the events at the banquet and everything else that had happened over the past few days were no more than passing clouds and smoke.
Luo Cheng had his reasons for daring to anger Ji Nie. However furious Ji Nie became, he would not withhold any of the authority Luo Cheng was due.
On the surface, power flowed from the top down. In essence, however, it flowed from the bottom up, particularly in an age when royal authority was so feeble.
The power of successive Marquises of Luo came first from the trust of successive Sons of Heaven, and second from the position the Luo Clan itself occupied within the institutions of the Zhou State.
Indeed, in the days of King Kang and King Zhao, those two rulers had been able to wield great authority immediately upon taking the throne because they had inherited the full mantle of the Sage King and Duke Wen of Luo.
Although the Luo Clan's power had steadily declined over the past century, its status remained unique.
Of the six feudal lords who had served on the Regency Council in Duke Wen of Luo's time more than a century earlier, only the Luo Clan's descendants still held high office in the Royal Domain. That was clear proof.
Luo Cheng disliked Ji Nie as the Son of Heaven. He considered him a man of grand ambitions but meager ability, utterly lacking in self-awareness.
He might as well keep the man out of sight and out of mind, spending some time in the Grand Historians' Office first. When the time came, he would naturally begin involving himself in government.
The royal house's feelings toward the Luo Clan were now very complicated.
For instance, Ji Nie disliked both Luo Cheng and the previous Marquis of Luo, but deep down, he knew that both were loyal ministers who could get things done.
Others might harbor treacherous intentions, but the Luo Clan would not. This political trust had already transcended individual feelings and become something taken for granted.
Besides, Luo Cheng was not idle in the Grand Historians' Office. He could learn about the Royal Domain in detail and lay the groundwork for his future administration.
As Luo Cheng examined the various records in the Grand Historians' Office, he quickly discovered that Haojing's problems were far greater than he had imagined, and every one of them was thorny.
Some of these problems had already been recorded in Duke Wen of Luo's writings a century earlier.
Every Marquis of Luo recorded a lifetime of governing experience in books to leave to his descendants.
Duke Wen of Luo's records included the series of reforms he had carried out in the Zhou State.
But he had also explained that these reforms merely eased the problems and could not resolve them completely. His descendants who governed afterward would need to pay particular attention.
One of the most important policies in Duke Wen of Luo's reforms had been to carry out another sweeping round of enfeoffment. The policy had been highly successful, greatly expanding the territory All Xia actually controlled.
The Yi-Luo Rong had suffered crushing suppression.
The wars against the Western Rong, however, had failed. By Ji Nie's reign, the Dog Rong had grown so powerful that the western states could no longer contain them.
As the area under actual control expanded, this problem in the west had become even more serious than it had been a century earlier.
More than two hundred years had passed since King Wu's conquest of Shang.
Hundreds of Marquisate States were scattered across the vast land, locked in desperate struggles with the barbarians.
They competed with one another for living space, clearing many forests into arable land.
The states of All Xia built city after city in the open wilderness, while the barbarians lived in the ungoverned lands between them.
As their living space was steadily squeezed, the barbarians of the central and eastern regions grew weaker and weaker. Fighting between the states had even become fiercer than the wars between Xia and the barbarians.
But around Haojing, the situation was the reverse.
As the site of the Zhou State's ancestral temples, this region had likewise opened up a great deal of land, yet the Dog Rong continued to grow stronger.
During his reign, King Xuan had employed many worthy ministers and united powerful Marquisate States such as Jin State, Shen State, and Guo State, achieving considerable military success.
But years of campaigning abroad had also left the Royal Domain's finances in dire straits, and its people had begun to tire of war.
Moreover, in his later years, King Xuan had grown muddleheaded. As the Son of Heaven, he had taken the lead in trampling the Patriarchal Clan System, forcibly interfering in the succession of rulers of Marquisate States and even leading troops against a state ruled by the Ji-Surname Feudal Lords. This had stirred resentment among the feudal lords.
He had also wantonly slaughtered ministers, driving even loyal servants to abandon him.
In the end, having lost the feudal lords' support, he suffered a crushing defeat at Qianmu, and the Royal Domain's military strength was all but exhausted.
The Dog Rong, who had only ever been temporarily suppressed, ran rampant once more and began migrating toward the Royal Domain.
More and more Dog Rong tribes also gathered between the cities of the various Marquisate States.
The Rong People gathering around the cities was an extremely dangerous sign.
Ji Nie relied on Guo Shifu to govern and extract wealth. He might have intended to suppress the Lords of the Royal Domain, but this was unwise.
He had no prestige among the nobles, and the people also spoke of him with considerable anger.
With the support of both groups lost and the Royal Domain's military strength depleted, even the smallest incident could have irreparable consequences.
The only reason Ji Nie could still sit safely in his Royal Palace was that the Zhou State's complete institutional framework protected him.
Even if his authority was being eroded, he remained the Son of Heaven.
More than two centuries of the Enfeoffment System, the Lineage System, and the system of rites and music had rooted the Son of Heaven's majesty deep in people's hearts.
Although King Xuan had grown muddleheaded in his later years, he had not caused irreparable damage and could still be considered a ruler who had restored the state's fortunes. Ji Nie, however, fell utterly short.
Under the protection of these institutions, he could still be considered safe.
His first choice should therefore have been to strengthen those institutions and seek opportunities to weaken the power of others.
Instead, Ji Nie was favoring Bao Si and distancing himself from Queen Shen Jiang. He even wanted to depose the queen, install Bao Si in her place, and make Bao Si's son crown prince.
This was yet another blatant trampling of the Zhou State's institutions. Would the man who set such a precedent be left without descendants?
"He truly has no idea how close he is to death!"
By openly supporting Queen Shen Jiang and Crown Prince Yi, Luo Cheng was telling the entire world that the Zhou State's Lineage System still stood, and so did the Luo Clan.
In the minds of everyone in the Zhou State, successive Marquises of Luo had always been defenders of the Lineage System and the Rites of Zhou.
But the Marquises of Luo themselves knew that the Lineage System and the Rites of Zhou were both tools for maintaining the Son of Heaven's rule.
If the eldest legitimate son was terrible and a ruler wanted to replace him, that was a perfectly reasonable request. After all, the Luo Clan's ancestors had suffered greatly at the hands of incompetent kings over the years.
But it could not be done so brazenly.
When the Sage King had established the institutions, he had actually left a hidden door.
The rules listed many circumstances that disqualified someone from inheriting. The most common was an obvious physical disability.
His ancestor Duke Wen of Luo had been the Second Son by the Primary Wife. Because the eldest son by the primary wife had a disability in his legs, Duke Wen had inherited the title of Marquis of Luo.
The same principle had underlain Duke Wen of Luo's hint to Marquis Shen of Southern that he should change his heir.
If a ruler truly disliked his heir, he could take certain steps in secret. No one would know whether the outcome had been an accident or deliberate.
But neither King Xuan nor Ji Nie understood this principle-or perhaps they simply did not care and failed to understand the importance of the Lineage System.
One had interfered with great fanfare; the other's intentions were already known throughout the palace before he had even acted. Their methods were far too crude.
Now that matters had reached this stage, Queen Shen Jiang was already on her guard.
As a descendant of the Sage King, Luo Cheng had to take an unequivocal stand on the side of the Lineage System at such a time and firmly defend the crown prince's legitimate status.
Besides, Shen State, which stood behind Queen Shen Jiang, was one of the most powerful feudal states surrounding the Royal Domain of Haojing.
Luo Cheng disliked Marquis Shen as well, but a political figure never determined state policy according to personal preferences.
Ji Nie, a Son of Heaven whose own power base was unstable, dared to challenge the Lineage System while offending a powerful feudal lord with a formidable army lying right beside his bed.
Luo Cheng could only say, "Good riddance."
"The problems are far more serious than they were in my ancestor Duke Wen's time. Solving them all is unrealistic.
"But careful, gradual treatment can still ease some of them. If I can stop the Zhou State from deteriorating further, I will have done all I can."
Luo Cheng knew his own limits very well. He understood that he could only patch over the cracks.
He was highly capable of governing a state. As long as he proceeded methodically, these problems in the Zhou State would at least grow no worse.
As for the future, that would have to depend on the wisdom of later generations.
He continued leafing through the complicated records, considering countermeasures as he read. "First, I have to get that useless Guo Shifu removed. At such a critical time, someone of such mediocre ability has no right to occupy high office."
"The Lords of the Royal Domain around Haojing are already far stronger than they were in Duke Wen's time. They have usurped much of the royal house's authority and are even beginning to reduce the Son of Heaven to a figurehead."
Duke Wen's reforms had greatly slowed this process in his day.
But more than a century later, the problem had come roaring back. The royal house's economic foundation in Haojing had nearly been hollowed out.
Suppressing the Lords of the Royal Domain was necessary, but that suppression had to have limits.
Without decisive strength, one could not cross the Lords of the Royal Domain's bottom line.
Guo Shifu lacked the ability to strike that balance, so he was not a noble Luo Cheng needed to unite with.
In his day, Duke Wen had taken advantage of the Rebellion of Xiong Dun, when the Lords of the Royal Domain were weakened, to bring in the strength of Lords Outside the Royal Domain. Only then had he gained enough power to enact reforms.
The political forces within the Royal Domain were similarly unbalanced now. Both King Huang and King Xuan had recognized the problem, but their methods of solving it had been wrong.
Although royal authority had declined this far, the Son of Heaven was still stronger than any single feudal lord in the realm and any single ministerial clan within the Royal Domain.
Kings Huang and Xuan had therefore chosen to suppress the nobles directly with violent measures. The result was that the nobles, branches of the same tree, had joined together to resist.
In Luo Cheng's view, every king had to confront a very practical problem.
Once the Son of Heaven forced everyone onto the opposing side, he himself became the weaker party.
Ever since the Zhou State's founding, the Son of Heaven had possessed the greatest individual strength, but not enough to rival a coalition of feudal lords.
This reality had not been caused by the Enfeoffment System. Rather, the Enfeoffment System had been necessary because of this reality.
Through a series of institutional designs, the Sage King had made the Son of Heaven a transcendent presence. As long as the king sat firmly upon his divine throne, he could always retain his powerful influence.
Yet there were always rulers who preferred to step into the fray themselves.
Through a series of actions, King Huang and the later King Xuan had successfully pushed every feudal lord and high minister into opposition.
This was extraordinarily foolish behavior.
"Ji Nie's maternal family is from Qi State, and his wife's family is from Shen State. Both are outside powers he can rely upon.
"But Jin State is still missing. The most important great state of the Ji clan in the Central Plains cannot be left without interests of its own within the Royal Domain.
"That does nothing to unite the strength of the royal kin."
Luo Cheng shook his head helplessly. Every ruler wanted to hold sole sway over all affairs, always feeling that relying on others meant sharing power.
Some succeeded and seized greater power. Others failed, even losing their lives and their states. King Huang was a prime example.
He had not wanted to draw on the strength of feudal lords outside the Royal Domain to strike at the Lords of the Royal Domain. He had wanted to do it himself.
In the end, he had been driven from the throne by a revolt secretly directed by the Lords of the Royal Domain.
King Xuan had understood this principle in his early years, which had brought a temporary revival.
In his later years, he had wanted to cast aside the feudal lords who had helped him seize power, and so he had met defeat and ruin.
The ruler of Shen State did indeed want to use his daughter's position as queen to gain greater benefits, but Luo Cheng regarded this as perfectly reasonable.
Shen State had paid a price and deserved corresponding rewards.
The Zhou State had originally been won by the combined efforts of the realm's feudal lords. Those lords neither dared overstep their station by proclaiming themselves kings nor possessed the strength to overthrow the Ji royal house.
The Son of Heaven should have been pleased that they wanted to reap benefits within the system. After all, he was its greatest beneficiary.
The Son of Heaven only needed to sit securely on his fishing terrace, granting high offices to prominent Lords Outside the Royal Domain to balance the Dukes and Ministers and nobles within it. Holding power would then be simple.
Moreover, Marquis Shen was the Royal Domain's northwestern shield and had sole responsibility for communication with certain Dog Rong tribes. Maintaining good relations with Shen State was vital to the Royal Domain's safety.
King Xuan had recognized this, which was why he had chosen Marquis Shen's legitimate daughter as Ji Nie's queen. Yet Ji Nie actually wanted to destroy that arrangement.
"First, a common enemy. Campaigning against the Dog Rong is the Zhou State's righteous cause.
"Keep Marquis Shen steady, and unite the royal in-laws, Marquis Shen and the Marquis of Qi, against the Dukes and Ministers and nobles within the Royal Domain. Since the Marquis of Qi's territory is distant, have him counterbalance Marquis Shen. Unite with the Marquis of Jin to ensure the situation remains stable and does not descend into armed conflict. Still not enough..."
Luo Cheng began considering the introduction of new political forces and exchanges of interests.
He did not particularly mind Lords Outside the Royal Domain gaining power within the Royal Domain. The Luo Clan always considered matters in spans of decades or centuries.
Over so long a period, without the support of a vast clan, the governing power of Lords Outside the Royal Domain would inevitably fade.
Even the office among the Three Dukes, passed down through seven consecutive generations of the Luo Clan, had been worn away by time and lost during Luo Lin's generation.
"Hmm?"
As he looked at the information on the bamboo slips, Luo Cheng's previously composed expression gradually grew grave. The slips recorded the natural disasters that had struck the region between Feng and Hao over the past few years.
Reading the records one by one, it seemed as though Heaven no longer favored the Zhou State. Since Ji Nie's accession, Haojing had suffered a succession of natural disasters.
"Natural disasters!"
Countless severe disasters had struck within little more than a decade. The worst was the earthquake in the second year of Ji Nie's reign. It had caused the Jing River, Wei River, and Luo River to change course, ultimately leaving the three rivers in the Fenghao region dry and silent.
"When a state is about to perish, monstrous omens are sure to appear."
Because of Ji Zhao's existence, the Luo Clan firmly believed in the Mandate of Heaven and the fortunes it bestowed. Now a shadow settled over Luo Cheng's heart.
Setting down those bamboo slips, Luo Cheng picked up another bundle concerning the disasters. After searching through it, he found exactly what he had expected.
These disasters had rendered much of the land between Feng and Hao unsuitable for habitation. Some high ministers and officials had even begun moving their entire households east.
"Trouble!"
Luo Cheng's expression darkened, and his fingers involuntarily tightened around the bamboo slips. He knew he might have encountered a major problem that could not be solved.
Geographical changes caused by natural disasters!
This was a matter of paramount importance in the Treatise on Governance the Sage King had left to the Luo Clan. Every generation of heirs studied it in depth.
The Treatise on Governance stated that any problem caused by human actions had a solution.
If you believed a problem could not be solved, either your ability was insufficient or your status imposed limitations upon you.
Duke Wen of Luo had annotated this passage with his decades of governing experience.
The situation created by King Li had been a man-made calamity. This included the entrenched power of the Royal Domain's Dukes and Ministers and nobles, as well as the growing strength of Lords Outside the Royal Domain and their increasing estrangement from the Son of Heaven. All were man-made calamities.
He had listed the methods by which he had solved problems, along with the problems he could not solve because of the limitations imposed by his noble rank and position.
These valuable experiences in governance could rapidly improve the abilities of the Luo Clan's heirs.
But by the same token, if a problem had not been caused by human actions, it was a major trouble.
Agriculture was the foundation of a dynasty. In this Treatise on Governance, the Sage King had raised a point that very few people noticed.
He believed that a competent administrator should constantly monitor changes in temperature and rainfall, shifts in river courses and mountains, and all such factors that affected the grain yields of farmland.
These changes lay beyond human control. They were Heaven's will, and earthly dynasties had to follow the changes in that will and find the places best suited for survival.
Now Luo Cheng felt that he had encountered precisely this grave problem.
The feudal lords, high ministers, and officials were migrating because their fiefs could no longer sustain them, leaving them willing to relocate.
In an age when thorn thickets and forests covered the land, and jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards roamed everywhere, abandoning land that had already been cultivated to build new cities in the wilderness was an extremely painful undertaking.
Haojing stood at the confluence of the Jing River and the Wei River. If those two rivers ceased flowing, the entire Fenghao region would be destroyed.
Without water, grain yields would fall and the population could not be sustained. With fewer people, military strength would decline further. Who would resist the Rong People swarming in?
Luo Cheng could no longer quite maintain his composure. Clutching the bamboo slips, he began pacing around the room.
In the final years of Western Zhou, a series of natural disasters dealt a severe blow to economic production on the Wei River plain. The Royal Domain's strength declined sharply, and ordinary Zhou people struggled to survive. Amid songs and dances celebrating peace and prosperity, the Zhou royal house's rule over the Fenghao Royal Domain was already tottering on the brink of collapse. - Tales of Western Zhou
Our scapegoat girl Bao Si appears next chapter. I'm rather looking forward to it. She should be the first female character in the book to receive much substantial depiction.
Before you continue