A pair of jade-like children

At dusk, the slanting sun slowly sank toward Mingsheng Lake west of Nine Luminaries Mountain. Fiery clouds blazed along the horizon, bathing Liu Family Cove in crimson. Birds called as they returned to the woods, and cooking smoke rose in slender streams from the Fortified Manor built against the mountain.

Chen Caozhi jumped down from the ox cart and gazed at the Fortified Manor in delighted surprise. It closely resembled the earthen buildings of Yongding in Fujian in later ages. Though less imposing in scale, its three-story circular structure of rammed earth and stone clearly displayed the primitive style of those later Yongding buildings. He had never expected to see such a castle-like earthen stronghold here.

"Grandmother-Grandmother-"

"Uncle Chou-Uncle Chou-"

Two small children ran out through the Fortified Manor's main gate. Both had bangs level with their eyebrows and hair falling to their shoulders, brows like painted ink and eyes like dots of lacquer. Their two snowy-white, rosy little faces were utterly adorable.

They were the son and daughter left behind by Chen Caozhi's elder brother, Chen Qingzhi, who had died three years earlier. The boy, Chen Zongzhi, was eight; the girl, Chen Run'er, was six. Their mother was a young lady of the Ding Clan, one of the Great Clans of Qiantang, whose maiden name was Ding Youwei. After Chen Qingzhi's death, members of the Ding Clan had forcibly taken Ding Youwei back to Qiantang and demanded that she remarry-

"Uncle Chou tricked Run'er! You said you'd be back soon when you left this morning, but Run'er waited a whole day. Hmph! Run'er doesn't like Uncle Chou anymore!"

Six-year-old Run'er had dark brows, bright eyes, and snow-white skin, like a porcelain doll. A little dimple nestled in her left cheek, and her rosy, plump face was rather captivating when she smiled.

Eight-year-old Chen Zongzhi chimed in like a little grown-up. "That's right. Uncle Chou deceived us. Uncle Chou didn't keep his word."

Mother Chen Lady Li, Chen Caozhi's mother, looked at the pair of jade-like children and chuckled. "Your Uncle Chou didn't deceive you. He went to buy cakes for you." She took two sweet cakes from her bundle and gave Zongzhi and Run'er one each. They were Buddha's Birthday cakes from Lingyin Temple.

Even without the merged memories of his past and present lives, Chen Caozhi would have felt joy at the sight of such adorable children. He crouched to pinch his nephew's and niece's cheeks. This was a habit of his: whenever he saw cute children with baby fat, he wanted to pinch their cheeks. "Zongzhi, Run'er, look what's in the little fish pouch at my waist."

Zongzhi and Run'er both reached into the little fish pouch at Chen Caozhi's waist, each pulling out a grasshopper woven from leaves. Chen Caozhi had picked long, slender leaves along the road and woven them into these lifelike creatures. In his previous life, traveling with a pack on his back, he had learned to make and weave little trinkets to ease the loneliness of the road. They were perfect for amusing children now.

Mother Chen Lady Li smiled. "When did Chou'er learn to weave these? Even your mother didn't know."

"Your son has many other talents," Chen Caozhi said. "You'll discover them in time, Mother."

Mother Chen Lady Li smiled gently. Though she felt that her son's words and behavior differed somewhat from before, these were changes any mother would welcome. She would only think her son had grown up and become more quick-witted. How could she suspect anything else?

A thin old man emerged from the Fortified Manor and bowed to Mother Chen Lady Li. "Sister-in-law, you're back. Your foolish elder brother has something to discuss with you. Two other clan elders are already waiting in the Hall of Order."

This old man was Chen Xian, an older paternal cousin of Chen Caozhi's father. He was currently the oldest man in Chen Family Cove and could also be called the head of the Qiantang Chen Clan. In earlier years, he had served as chief clerk of Qiantang County, but after Chen Caozhi's father, Chen Su, and elder brother, Chen Qingzhi, died one after the other, Chen Xian had soon been pushed out and sent home. Now the Qiantang Chen Clan did not have even a single ninth-rank official. Its decline was plain.

Though Mother Chen Lady Li felt weary, she knew there must be an important clan matter. "Please wait a moment, Elder Brother. This old woman will come at once."

Holding Zongzhi's and Run'er's hands, Chen Caozhi walked through the main gate and carefully examined everything in the Fortified Manor. Such strongholds were built to survive troubled times. The outer walls of rammed earth and stone offered considerable defensive strength. The gate panels alone were fully half a foot thick, made of hard ring-cupped oak. The entire Fortified Manor was about forty-five meters across and nine meters high, with three stories and over a hundred rooms. The lowest floor housed kitchens, servants, and tenant farmers; the second held storerooms; and the third contained the Chen Clan's living quarters. At the very center stood the Chen Clan ancestral hall, where ancestral sacrifices, deliberations, weddings, funerals, and celebrations were all held.

Mother Chen Lady Li went to discuss clan affairs in the Hall of Order, the ancestral hall's meeting chamber. Chen Caozhi stood lost in thought for a while in his bedroom on the third floor of the Fortified Manor's western side, then went next door to look at his study. Brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone were all present, but there were few books. Nor were they bound volumes—or bamboo slips, of course—but scrolls, some on silk and some on paper, piled on the shelves like painting scrolls of later ages. There were a little over a hundred.

Chen Caozhi took one at random and unrolled it. It was about five Jin feet long and two feet wide. The handwritten ink characters in Han clerical script were each as large as a thumbnail. It was "The Lofty Lady" from "Airs of the States" in the Book of Songs-

"Tall was the lady, slender and fair, in brocade beneath a gauze robe. Daughter of the Marquis of Qi, wife of the Marquis of Wei. Sister of the eastern palace's heir, sister-in-law of the Marquis of Xing, the Marquis of Tan her sister's husband. Her hands like tender shoots, her skin like congealed cream, her neck like a long white grub, her teeth like melon seeds. Cicada brow and moth-wing eyebrows; how lovely her artful smile, how bright her glancing eyes..."

Chen Caozhi unrolled several more and discovered that, though these nearly hundred scrolls looked like a great heap, they contained only two works. One was the Mao Commentary on the Book of Songs, annotated by the great Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan-that is, the Book of Songs. The other was the Analects, annotated by Zheng Xuan's teacher, Ma Rong.

Chen Caozhi was no stranger to the Book of Songs or the Analects. He had studied them closely at university, though not to the point of memorizing them. Yet now, with only a brief effort to recall them, he discovered that he practically knew both backward. This should have been the result of the merged memories. It seemed that, although this youth had not been particularly clever or perceptive, he had studied diligently and possessed a strong memory.

Suddenly, he heard Run'er burst into tears downstairs, crying as she called, "Uncle Chou, Uncle Chou, come quickly! Grandmother's crying-"

Startled, Chen Caozhi put down the scroll and hurried downstairs, thinking, Why is Mother crying? Wasn't she discussing matters in the ancestral hall? Could the clansmen be bullying us, a widow and her fatherless son?

A trace of icy severity lay on Chen Caozhi's handsome face as he approached the Chen Clan ancestral hall at the center of the Fortified Manor. He saw an old man in a blue robe impatiently ordering Lai Fu's wife, Zeng Yuhuan, "Take this girl away at once. What are children doing here during a discussion in the ancestral hall? Women are such a nuisance!"

"You bullied Run'er's grandmother! You're a bad man!" Run'er sobbed. Seeing Chen Caozhi, she ran toward him, crying loudly.

Chen Caozhi took Run'er's little hand and looked squarely into the blue-robed old man's triangular eyes. "What an imposing air you have, Sixth Uncle. Can you only display it before little children?"

This old man, another older paternal cousin of Chen Caozhi's father, was named Chen Man. He had never expected this usually meek young cousin's son, not yet even an adult, to dare speak to him that way. He was about to erupt when he saw Chen Caozhi already leading Run'er into the Hall of Order. Following them inside, he fumed, "Fourth Brother, look at this son of Chen Su's! He has no respect for his elders. He dared contradict me to my face!"

Fourth Brother was Chen Xian, Clan Chief, who was then quietly discussing something with Chen Caozhi's mother, Lady Li.

Chen Caozhi approached and bowed to Chen Xian, then knelt beside his mother. Run'er also knelt obediently. Zongzhi ran in just then, bringing all four members of their three generations together.

Seeing that Chen Man was angry and unwilling to let the matter rest, Chen Xian asked, "Caozhi, why did you contradict your Sixth Uncle?"

Chen Caozhi answered unhurriedly, "Your nephew did not contradict Sixth Uncle. I merely admired his imposing dignity as an elder, which frightened a six-year-old child into bawling."

"You-"

Chen Man's beard and hair quivered, and he looked almost ready to bare his teeth and claws. Yet his mouth hung open, his tongue tied; Chen Caozhi's words had choked off his reply.

Mother Chen Lady Li said, "Chou'er, why have you come? Hurry and take Zongzhi and Run'er back."

Seeing the tear tracks on his mother's cheeks, Chen Caozhi said, "Mother, your son is fifteen this year. Under the Jin Code, I'll be an adult next year. I can share your burdens in our household affairs now."

Chen Man finally recovered and declared loudly, "Very well! Chen Caozhi, so you know you'll be an adult next year? Adults must perform labor service. Do you still think you can spend every day upstairs reciting 'Clear flows the stream, deep lies South Mountain'? You must understand-you are not the son of a gentry family-"

Chen Caozhi ignored this inexplicable Sixth Uncle and asked Chen Xian, "Fourth Uncle, what important matter is facing the clan? Why was my mother weeping?"

A hint of embarrassment appeared on Chen Xian's face. He coughed. "It's just as well for you to know, Caozhi. You are a male of the West Tower who will soon come of age. You can discuss this matter with your mother and decide-"

The Chen Clan descendants living in the Fortified Manor were divided into four main branches. Chen Caozhi's father had belonged to one of them. Because they had always lived on the western side of the Fortified Manor, the clansmen called them the West Tower. The other three branches were the East Tower, South Tower, and North Tower. All were blood relatives within the five degrees of mourning. Chen Xian belonged to the South Tower, and Chen Man to the North Tower. As for the East Tower, it had no male offspring in this generation and could be said to have lost its line of succession. Chen Xian had therefore given one of his sons to the East Tower as an adopted heir, allowing that branch to continue.

The Qiantang Chen Clan was not populous, and many of its men died young. Nearly a hundred and fifty years had passed since it moved here from Yingchuan, yet the four towers together still had only twenty-one males, even counting all the minors. The West Tower had only Chen Caozhi and his nephew Chen Zongzhi. Chen Xian's South Tower had six males across three generations. Chen Man's North Tower had the most sons and grandsons: four sons and five grandsons.

Chen Xian, Clan Chief, said, "Caozhi, the county's annual household-register inspection and household grading will begin in the seventh month. I am no longer the county's chief clerk, and since your brother Qingzhi's death, our Qiantang Chen Clan has had no serving officials. The Jin Code stipulates that a ninth-rank official may hold ten qing of land. Your father and brother left twenty qing of poor farmland between them—two thousand mu. Why should you and Zongzhi need so much land? Besides, with Qingzhi dead, you and Zongzhi can no longer enjoy exemption from miscellaneous labor or the right to Protected Households. That means when you turn sixteen next year, you'll be entered in the local register of adult males and must perform at least twenty days of labor for the authorities each year. If the authorities have other business, there will be additional miscellaneous labor. With your frail constitution, how could you withstand such heavy work? So I discussed this with your mother: whenever your turn for service comes, your Sixth Uncle's son can perform it for you, while you continue your studies. Of course, labor service is grueling, and there must be a corresponding reward. Your West Tower can allocate ten qing of land to the North Tower. You and Zongzhi would still have no worries about food and clothing, and an older clan cousin would perform your service for you. Wouldn't that be good?"

How ruthless, Chen Caozhi thought. Twenty days of work for my family each year, and they want half my property. They're plainly bullying the West Tower because we have no adult man, using labor service to frighten me. Did I travel across a thousand years just to perform hard labor for the authorities? He said calmly, "Caozhi is frail. If Sixth Uncle takes pity on me and is willing to have my older cousin serve in my place, I would be deeply grateful. Helping one another is only right for those of the same clan and ancestry. But allocating half our land to the North Tower is absolutely out of the question-"

At this, Chen Man grew anxious and blurted, "What a joke! Who would willingly serve in your place without something in return? Do you take me for a fool?"

Chen Caozhi asked with a smile, "If I don't allocate the land, Sixth Uncle truly won't help me?"

"In your dreams!" Chen Man snapped.

Chen Caozhi asked Chen Xian, "Will Fourth Uncle refuse to help me too?"

"Caozhi," Chen Xian said, "if you are to establish and maintain your own household, you must bear its taxes and miscellaneous labor yourself. Your uncle can help you for a year or two, but not for a lifetime."

Chen Caozhi nodded and said composedly, "Fourth Uncle is right. A man must rely on himself. I still have a year and a half before I turn sixteen. When the time comes, I will bear all the West Tower's service obligations myself."

Chen Man sneered from the side. "Easy enough to say. When you can't endure the hardship, don't go crying for your father and mother!"

Mother Chen Lady Li said tearfully, "Chou'er, you've been sickly since childhood. How could you endure hardship and toil? Let us give your Sixth Uncle ten qing of land, so there will be someone to look after you when the time comes."

Mother Chen Lady Li felt herself growing old and frail. Her greatest fear was that, once she departed this world, her weak son and young grandchildren would be bullied. That was why she did her utmost to maintain good relations with the clansmen.

"Mother," Chen Caozhi said, "how could I let the land Father and Brother left us slip away in my hands? Don't worry. Your son can shoulder this. I've grown up."

Chen Man looked thoroughly disgruntled and said coldly, "Don't be stubborn. When you come begging before me, don't blame me if I ignore you."

Chen Caozhi was helping his mother out of the Hall of Order when he heard Chen Man's words. He turned back. "My father was an eighth-rank commandery assistant, and my brother an eighth-rank county magistrate. Why can't I carry on their legacy and become a ranked official entitled to exemption from taxes and labor service?"

Once again, Chen Man was left openmouthed and tongue-tied, rooted to the spot.

Chen Xian, Clan Chief, marveled inwardly. This boy has always been shy and inarticulate, yet today he suddenly speaks with such ease, as though aided by a god. And his features are handsome and refined, his bearing uncommon—could Heaven have not forsaken us? Could Chen Caozhi be the one to revive our Qiantang Chen Clan?

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