Fan Wang finally agreed to let his second son become Officer of the Five Offices, but someone from the Langya Wang Clan had to become Chief Clerk first. Otherwise, his family could not afford the disgrace.
A month later, in early summer, Wang Huizhi indeed refused to come. Liu Cheng therefore formally dispatched carriages and horses to Black Robe Alley three times to recruit a man even his own father acknowledged was useless, finally escorting this fellow respectfully to Jincheng.
And that very evening, this precious treasure went straight home.
But the results were outstanding!
For a time, not only were the Department Clerks of the émigré Langya Commandery dumbstruck, even Jiankang itself was visibly shaken.
Many people-not just one or two, and not merely the gentry of the Second-Rank Great Clans-when confronted with or discussing Liu Cheng, this so-called "new luminary from Luoyang," always ended up judging him by such terms as "Northern Migrant Shan Family" and "marriage into a Punished Family," regardless of how powerful his backing was, how many military achievements or diplomatic services he had rendered, or what desirable office he currently held.
To put it plainly, they refused to recognize him.
This refusal was not a deliberate attempt to humiliate or suppress him. They had no grudge against Liu Cheng. Rather, after decades of subtle conditioning, the distorted political environment of Great Jin following the Southern Migration, in which the gentry wielded enormous power and "Wang and the Ma Clan Shared the Realm," had profoundly affected everyone.
Family pedigree had to be the measure of everything.
That was why the gulf between gentry and commoners had become as entrenched a malady as ruling Han with Hu in the North.
And there really was no remedy for this chronic affliction in the short term. Even Liu