San Shier

Biodata

Background / History

Dismissal and Forced Recruitment

San Shier served as secretary to the magistrate of Chengcheng County, Shaanxi. He says he spent ten years studying and traveled north and south of the great river. His given name commemorates his birth on the second day of the tenth month 13.

He lost his position after opposing the collection of taxes from drought-stricken villagers. A yamen runner later confirms that his objections led to his dismissal. When San Shier pleaded outside the government office, Magistrate Zhang Yaocai had runners beat him and refused to take him back 12 22.

Gao Chuwu and three villagers found him shortly afterward. Sent to obtain someone learned enough to answer the Heavenly Deity’s questions, they cornered San Shier in an alley. When he refused their invitation to Gao Family Village, one of them knocked him unconscious with a club. He awoke during the journey and completed the trip under guard 12 13.

At the village, San Shier identified the date as the seventh month of Tianqi’s seventh year. He initially refused to speak the emperor’s personal name, but the threat of another beating made him reveal it as Zhu Youxiao. His account of the Jurchen attacks on Jinzhou and Ningyuan allowed Li Daoxuan to identify the setting as the late Ming dynasty 13 14.

Becoming the Heavenly Venerable’s Servant

San Shier initially suspected that Gao Yiye was a religious fraud and that the village belonged to a dangerous cult. Seeing rice grains as large as millstones and a fragment of cabbage leaf covering a wall shook that judgment. Rather than return to town after his meal, he slept beneath the eaves to remain near the unexplained phenomena 14 15.

The next morning, he watched an invisible force excavate a vast pit and fill a reservoir with water. Convinced that an immortal was helping the village, he eagerly sought employment. Li Daoxuan sent him back to the county seat to gather local news and report important developments, making him a source of information beyond the Scenery Box’s visible area 15 16.

Wang Er’s Uprising and Li Da’s Recruitment

Through a former yamen contact, San Shier learned that officials had seized Wang Family Village’s seed grain. He predicted rebellion, particularly because Wang Er of Baishui was staying there and commanded considerable local respect. He immediately ordered his household to prepare to leave Chengcheng County 22.

When Gao Chuwu arrived with a request for skilled blacksmiths, San Shier arranged for the villagers to escort his wife, daughter, maid, and manservant to safety. He remained behind to fulfill the request, promising to serve the Heavenly Deity once his family was protected 23.

After Wang Er’s rebels entered the town, San Shier disguised himself in a servant’s coarse clothing and approached Li Da, the county’s finest blacksmith. He persuaded Li Da to leave by offering service under a wealthy master and the possibility of escaping hereditary artisan registration. They slipped through the unguarded gate and reached Gao Family Village, where San Shier introduced him to Gao Yiye 24 27.

Village Administration

When Wang Er offered the village two carts of grain, San Shier persuaded him to keep them for his own escape. He also asked about the women of the wealthy households attacked during the uprising, prompting a visibly uncomfortable reaction. Afterward, he criticized the village’s lack of a night watch despite its substantial walls 30.

Li Daoxuan entrusted him with managing rapeseed oil for food and lanterns, then authorized him to recruit more inhabitants using flour. San Shier celebrated this responsibility as becoming the Heavenly Venerable’s secretary. He subsequently brought in villagers left behind by Wang Er’s uprising and organized the storage of the village’s supplies 32 33.

His administrative work replaced disorderly food distribution with weighed portions and written records. During a pork distribution, he recorded each recipient and made the village’s leadership—including his own family—wait until everyone else had received a share 39.

Confrontations and Village Defense

San Shier helped Li Daoxuan deceive Patrol Inspector Cheng Xu by insisting that no city wall existed, even while Cheng Xu threatened him with a saber. Once Li Daoxuan removed the wall and other objects, San Shier reinforced the illusion with a sinister performance that helped frighten the soldiers away 36.

During the temple-opening celebration, he mobilized villagers when sentries spotted a large approaching crowd. He admitted Mister Bai’s family, then faced the dangerous choice of admitting refugees pursued closely by bandits. Li Daoxuan’s sandstorm separated the groups, allowing San Shier to order everyone inside before closing the gate 41 42.

San Shier confronted the bandits’ spokesman and defended the village’s worship against Mister Bai’s accusations of cult activity. Recognizing his own lack of military expertise, he persuaded Bai to command the defenses. During the ensuing assault, he helped reassure the villagers but also trembled under the attackers’ threats 43 44 47.

Appearance

• Long gown: Wears a clean, tidy long gown when visiting the County Yamen to gather news 22.
• Rebellion disguise: Changes into a servant’s coarse clothing and dishevels his hair to resemble a grimy, middle-aged beggar 24.
• Theatrical mannerisms: Uses exaggerated expressions, emphatic delivery, and show-off poses when reciting idioms 12 13.

Personality

San Shier is vain about his education and habitually finishes statements with four-character idioms. He eventually admits that he uses them to appear learned. Li Daoxuan finds the habit irritating, and San Shier tries to suppress it in the Heavenly Venerable’s presence, though it resurfaces elsewhere 13 16 32 47.

He is frightened easily and readily abandons ceremony when his safety is threatened. Nevertheless, fear does not prevent him from completing dangerous assignments: he stays in the rebel-occupied county seat to recruit Li Da and continues Li Daoxuan’s deception despite Cheng Xu’s drawn saber 14 24 36.

His ambition coexists with genuine concern for ordinary people. He opposes excessive taxation, has previously helped a yamen runner and Li Da, and condemns both the officials’ seizure of seed grain and the rebels’ abuse of innocent women. He also sees service under an immortal as an extraordinary opportunity to rise beyond his former position 16 22 24.

His initial suspicion of religious deception is not atheism. He already believes gods can exist; the enormous food and creation of the reservoir convince him that Gao Family Village’s deity is real and benevolent 14 16 44.

Abilities & Skills

Literacy and Administration

San Shier can write and calculate, making him useful in a village whose inhabitants lack those skills 16 32.

• Manages oil allocations for cooking and nighttime lighting 32 33.
• Records food recipients and supervises weighed portions, reducing duplicate or excessive shares 39.
• Coordinates labor and supply storage rather than leaving every household to act independently 33.

Information Gathering and Political Judgment

His former employment gives him knowledge of official documents, local personnel, and county affairs 14 22 24.

• Obtains news through a yamen runner who remembers his earlier kindness 22.
• Correctly anticipates that confiscating seed grain may trigger Wang Er’s rebellion 22 24.
• Supplies Li Daoxuan with news from outside the visible bounds of the Scenery Box 16.
• Limit: After taking shelter in Gao Family Village, he becomes isolated from wider news and must learn about the spreading unrest from Mister Bai 43.

Persuasion and Performance

San Shier adapts his arguments to the interests of his audience 24 30 32.

• Recruits Li Da by appealing to his poverty and desire to escape the artisan registry 24.
• Persuades Wang Er to retain his grain without openly rejecting the rebel’s gratitude 30.
• Attracts remaining villagers from nearby settlements with food and the prospect of survival 32 33.
• Plays along with Li Daoxuan’s staged haunting to intimidate Cheng Xu’s soldiers 36.

Emergency Organization

His experience as a secretary gives him an authoritative manner when addressing commoners 43.

• Rallies panicking villagers and orders them to take improvised weapons onto the wall 41.
• Directs the admission of refugees once the sandstorm makes it safe 42.
• Recruits Mister Bai as defense commander rather than pretending to possess military expertise 44.
• Limits: Struggles to make calm decisions under battlefield pressure and openly acknowledges that he is a scholar, not a military officer 42 47.

Relationships

• Li Daoxuan / Dao Xuan Heavenly Venerable — Employer and object of devotion. San Shier seeks to become his right-hand man; Li Daoxuan increasingly values his practical judgment and organizational work 16 30 32.
• Gao Yiye — Intermediary for the Heavenly Venerable’s instructions. She lends religious authority to his administration, while he protects her standing as Holy Maiden by handling confrontations himself 16 39 43.
• Third Madam — Wife. She helps establish proper worship in the village and proposes funding a temple and statue; San Shier agrees enthusiastically 30 32.
• Unnamed daughter — He entrusts her and her mother to Gao Chuwu’s escort before remaining in Chengcheng County to recruit a blacksmith 23.
• Gao Chuwu — Initially leads the group that abducts him; later escorts his family to safety and assists with village work under his direction 12 23 39.
• Li Da — Blacksmith he previously helped and later recruits into the Heavenly Venerable’s service 24 27.
• Zhang Yaocai — Former employer. Dismisses him for opposing tax collection and has him beaten when he pleads for reinstatement 12 22.
• Wang Er of Baishui — Rebel leader whose uprising San Shier predicts. He later persuades Wang Er to leave the village with his grain and questions him about the treatment of women in the county town 22 30.
• Mister Bai — Fellow scholar and experienced militia instructor. San Shier explains the village’s divine protection to him and recruits him to lead its defense 42 44.
• Cheng Xu — Patrol inspector whom San Shier helps deceive into believing the village is haunted 36.

Notable Quotes

“The authorities had been wrong to seize the seed grain, but what crime had these women committed?” 24

“Only those who worship evil gods belong to evil cults. If the god is benevolent, you cannot call it an evil cult.” 44

Trivia

• An author’s note explains that San is intended as a rare surname and Shier as the given name “Twelve,” rather than treating 三十二 solely as the number thirty-two 9.
• The reservoir’s waterfall prompts him to abandon his usual four-character summation for the longer poetic line, “As though the Milky Way were plunging from the ninth heaven” 15.
• During the temple-opening celebration, he asks for improved sexual endowment and stamina. Li Daoxuan immediately orders Gao Yiye to tell him to leave 41.