Dinner was served in the West Tower. The Bronze Goose-and-Fish Lamp in the dining room shed a soft yellow glow over a bordered reed mat spread on the floor. Mother Chen Lady Li sat at its northern end, with a five-foot-long dining table of golden-thread nanmu wood before her. Chen Caozhi, Chen Zongzhi, and Chen Run'er knelt in order along its two sides. Four dishes stood on the table: celery, tofu, carp, and smoked preserved meat, along with a soup of "yellow curls"—soybean sprouts.
The four dishes and soup were all simply prepared, with few additional ingredients, but their natural flavors were delicious.
Mother Chen Lady Li was particular about Confucian etiquette. Even six-year-old Chen Run'er sat upright, chewing carefully and swallowing slowly, making as little noise as possible.
Although dinner beneath the Wild Goose and Fish Lamp was quiet, it had a warmth all its own. The feeling of a family gathering to eat together was truly wonderful.
The patter of rain drifted in from outside-the April rain of the lands south of the Yangtze.
Mother Chen Lady Li had a small appetite. After half a bowl of wheat porridge, she set down her chopsticks and watched her son and grandchildren eat their cooked wheat with smiling eyes. Seeing the youngsters relish their food pleased her more than eating it herself, especially tonight, when some change seemed to have come over the household that comforted her-
Chen Caozhi felt his mother's loving gaze and grew a little embarrassed. He had already helped himself to three bowls of cooked wheat, yet still felt as though he had eaten nothing. After three months of nothing but the scent of incense, he was ravenous.
Mother Chen Lady Li smiled. "Chou'er, eat more. You are a grown man now, the pillar holding up the Chen family of the West Tower."
Chen Caozhi chewed and swallowed the wheat in his mouth, then bowed slightly. "Your son will not disappoint you, Mother."
Run'er's clear, water-bright eyes darted about. She very much wanted to speak. Now that her grandmother and uncle had spoken in turn, she understood that she could say a word or two softly. Looking at the right hand in which Chen Caozhi held his chopsticks, the little girl widened her eyes and exclaimed in a whisper, "Grandmother, Uncle Chou is holding his chopsticks in his right hand!"
At that, Mother Chen Lady Li and Chen Zongzhi both turned to look at Chen Caozhi's chopstick-holding right hand, their faces full of surprise.
A faint sweat broke out at Chen Caozhi's temples. The boy whose soul had merged with his had been left-handed, using his left hand both to eat and to write. He had failed to notice and habitually picked up his chopsticks with his right hand. No wonder it had felt so clumsy.
"Run'er certainly has sharp eyes and notices every detail." Chen Caozhi laughed. "Mother has always taught me to hold my chopsticks in my right hand, as proper etiquette requires, but I could never change the habit. This time, I have resolved to correct it-Mother, am I managing all right with my right hand?"
"Very well," Mother Chen Lady Li said happily. "You are not quite nimble enough yet, but if you keep using your right hand, you will become adept. And you must change to your right hand for your daily calligraphy practice too."
After dinner, Zeng Yuhuan came to clear away the bowls and chopsticks and took them downstairs. Before long, she returned and said to Mother Chen Lady Li, "Mistress, my Lai Fu has something to say to you and the young master." For some reason, Zeng Yuhuan wore a troubled expression, as though something weighed on her mind.
"Have Lai Fu come up," Mother Chen Lady Li said.
Lai Fu, an honest, loyal man with callused hands and feet, came to the third-floor dining room and respectfully saluted Mother Chen Lady Li. Then he knelt outside the reed mat, looking hesitant. After wavering for a moment, he finally spoke. "Mistress, young master, Lai Fu has just heard something, and the whole family is very worried-"
Thirteen years earlier, when Lai Fu had followed Chen Caozhi's father, Chen Su, to Chen Family Cove, he had brought not only his wife, Zeng Yuhuan, but also three sons. At the time, all three boys had only childhood names. Chen Su had given them their formal names: Lai Gui, Lai Zhen, and Lai De-
Lai Gui was twenty-one this year and had married the daughter of a nearby tenant household. Lai Zhen, eighteen, was a sturdy young man and a skilled farmer. Lai De was sixteen, with a low forehead and thick lips, as unassuming as his father, Lai Fu. He had been Chen Caozhi's playmate since childhood.
Chen Su and his wife, Lady Li, were kind people who took good care of Lai Fu's family. Since arriving at Chen Family Cove, the family had worked hard every day, but had enjoyed ample food and clothing. Compared with their precarious days in Huaibei, where the fires of war blazed everywhere and they could not be sure of surviving from morning to evening, this place was a fairyland. The bonds of kindness and loyalty between Lai Fu's family and their masters, the Chen Clan of the West Tower, ran deep.
"What are you worried about, Lai Fu?" Mother Chen Lady Li asked. "Is Huang Tenant Households demanding too much in betrothal gifts? There is no need to worry about that. However much you lack, this old woman will make up the difference."
Lai Fu's second son, Lai Zhen, had recently been discussing marriage with Huang Tenant Households' daughter. Mother Chen Lady Li thought Lai Fu was worrying over the betrothal gifts.
Lai Fu was so grateful that he nearly wept. "Mistress, it is not Lai Zhen's affairs that trouble me."
"Oh?" Mother Chen Lady Li asked. "Then what is it? There is no hurry, Lai Fu. Take your time."
Lai Fu said, "I have heard that this July's household registration inspection will be stricter than in previous years. Unregistered refugees like me and my three sons will be sent to Qiao Province, given government land to cultivate, and made to pay rent and taxes and perform miscellaneous labor-"
At this point, Lai Fu was too distressed to continue. In Qiao Province, they would indeed be entered on the household registers and receive government land, becoming free commoners, but with government officers and clerks squeezing them at every level, free commoners were often worse off than tenants farming for great clans. Tenants had the great clans behind them; provided they paid rent and performed labor as the law required, corrupt officials and crafty clerks dared not squeeze them too hard. The problem was that Lai Fu did not even count as a tenant. Tenants had household registration; Lai Fu was an unregistered refugee. Back then, Chen Su had taken in his family as a protected household of the Chen Clan in his capacity as an eighth-rank commandery deputy. Protected households were their masters' private property and likewise owed neither taxes nor labor to the government. An eighth-rank official was entitled to one protected household, but because the Qiantang Chen Clan was not an aristocratic clan, once the official left office or died, his protected household had to be returned to the government and registered anew. Chen Su had now been dead for five years, and Chen Qingzhi for nearly three. No one in the Qiantang Chen Clan could protect Lai Fu's family anymore.
Mother Chen Lady Li fell silent, deeply saddened, but she was powerless in such matters. She could only comfort Lai Fu. "Do not worry too much. Were there not registration inspections the last two years too? When the time comes, we can give the county officers in charge some extra money and silk and muddle through."
Lai Fu and Zeng Yuhuan felt a little reassured. Lai Fu said, "Mistress, even if our whole family worked like oxen and horses, we could never repay your kindness-"
Mother Chen Lady Li waved a hand. "Enough. Go downstairs, Lai Fu. These days, you must often go out and ask about the registration inspection. If anything changes, this old woman can make preparations in advance."
After Lai Fu withdrew, Zeng Yuhuan went to prepare water for Mother Chen Lady Li and the other three to bathe.
Chen Caozhi had listened silently throughout his mother's conversation with Lai Fu, sighing inwardly. In the Eastern Jin, without power, influence, or standing, you cannot even protect your own servants. Our Qiantang Chen Clan truly has declined. There are fewer than a hundred days until July's registration inspection. What workable solution can a fifteen-year-old boy like me devise to help Lai Fu's family?
He heard his mother sigh. "If there is truly no other way, we shall have to ask the Qiantang Ding Clan for help. We cannot let Lai Fu's family be cast adrift."
The Qiantang Ding Clan was the maternal family of Zongzhi and Run'er. Considering themselves a third-tier aristocratic clan, they looked down on Cold-Gate Commoner Clans. They had originally married Ding Youwei to Chen Qingzhi for two reasons: first, his father, Chen Su, had then been deputy administrator of Wuxing Commandery; second, Chen Qingzhi was handsome, distinguished, and exceptionally talented. Lu Na, administrator of Wuxing Commandery and chief evaluator, had assessed Chen Qingzhi as seventh grade under the nine-rank system-
The nine-rank system was a basis for selecting officials instituted by Emperor Wen of Wei, Cao Pi, on the recommendation of Chen Qun, Chancellor of the Department of State Affairs. Its three criteria were family background, moral character, and talent, divided into nine grades. The first grade was for sages. Since no living person dared claim the first grade, the second was the highest, and everything below the third grade counted as lower grade.
Family background was generally judged only by the ancestral Commandery Prestige and the offices and titles held by one's father and grandfather. The Qiantang Chen Clan originated in Yingchuan, a highly prestigious ancestral commandery, but ever since they had fled the Yellow Turban Rebellion and settled in Qiantang County, Wuxing Commandery, three generations had held only low-ranking offices, without power or influence. As a result, the Eastern Jin genealogical rankings excluded them from the aristocracy, counting them merely as minor, non-aristocratic landowners among the Commoner Clans. Both Jin dynasties placed the greatest importance on pedigree, so although Chen Qingzhi's character and talents were outstanding, his humble background meant that seventh grade was the highest assessment he could receive.
Chen Qun, the Wei Chancellor of the Department of State Affairs who had introduced the nine-rank system to win over the aristocratic clans, had himself come from the Yingchuan Chen Clan. Who could have imagined that his descendants would instead be excluded from the aristocracy? How lamentable!
Thanks to the appreciation of Lu Na, administrator of Wuxing Commandery, Chen Qingzhi's reputation had soared. Once he had received a seventh-grade local assessment, taking an official post below the seventh rank would follow as naturally as water forming a channel. It was this that had appealed to the Ding Clan Chief. Moreover, both the Ding and Chen Clans followed the Way of the Celestial Masters, so, swayed for a moment, he had married Ding Youwei, a celebrated Qiantang beauty, to Chen Qingzhi. After all, although very few men of the Commoner Clans rose to high office, there were examples. Grand Marshal Tao Kan had also come from a humble family.
But the Ding clan soon regretted it. Marriage between a high-born aristocratic clan and a humble, non-aristocratic family was deeply shameful, and the Ding clan's prestige in Qiantang County and Wuxing Commandery plummeted. Yet Ding Youwei was already married: spilled water could not be gathered back, and nothing could undo it. Moreover, Ding Youwei and Chen Qingzhi were deeply devoted to each other, and she could not be persuaded to divorce him.
Unfortunately, three years earlier, while serving as magistrate of Haiyu County, Chen Qingzhi had departed this mortal world, leaving his wife and children behind. He had been only twenty-six. The Ding clan had immediately brought Ding Youwei back to Qiantang. She had been just twenty-three that year, and although already the mother of two children, she remained beautiful and delicately captivating. The Ding clan wanted her to remarry and sever their ties to this marriage with the Chen Clan-
Since the Wei-Jin periods, warfare had killed immense numbers of able-bodied men. To increase the population, ritual propriety had yielded to the nation's survival. Widows remarrying was perfectly ordinary and drew no criticism; even imperial princesses remarried. But Ding Youwei would rather die than remarry. Meanwhile, the Ding clan could not secure a match with the higher aristocratic clans they aspired to, and disdained those beneath them. Thus Ding Youwei had remained a widow in her natal home. The Ding clan only permitted her to see her children each April—not by returning to Chen Family Cove, but by sending people to bring Zongzhi and Run'er quietly to Qiantang, where they stayed at the Ding Household for a few days before being sent back.
Mother Chen Lady Li asked, "Chou'er, Zongzhi and Run'er are to be taken to the county town at the end of the month to see their mother. Would you like to go with them?"
"Of course I shall go," Chen Caozhi said. "Besides looking after Zongzhi and Run'er, I would like to broaden my experience."
Slightly surprised by how readily Chen Caozhi agreed, Mother Chen Lady Li said, "Chou'er, are you not worried that the Ding family will look down on you?" Chen Caozhi had visited the Ding Household in Qiantang the year before last. He had returned angry and declared that he would never go there again.
Chen Caozhi smiled. "Mother, I am taking my nephew and niece to visit my sister-in-law. As long as she treats us well, that is enough. Why concern ourselves with anyone else's sour looks?"
Mother Chen Lady Li was greatly comforted. "My Chou'er truly has grown up, as free and easy as your elder brother." Then she sighed softly. "Ah, your sister-in-law is indeed a good woman! What a pity Qingzhi's allotted life was so short-"
Chen Caozhi said, "Since my sister-in-law does not wish to remarry, I will try to find a way to bring her back this time. She could look after Zongzhi and Run'er and keep you company too. Would that not be good, Mother?"
Mother Chen Lady Li shook her head. "The Ding clan will not let Youwei come back. Chou'er, you must not argue with them. Our Chen Clan cannot prevail against their Ding clan. You absolutely must not act on youthful hotheadedness. Do you hear me?"
"I understand," Chen Caozhi promised. "I will not make you worry." He thought, To get by in the Eastern Jin, family background really matters. I remember the saying, 'No humble families in the upper grades, no aristocratic clans in the lower grades.' I, Chen Caozhi, now come from a humble family. Does that not put me several rungs below everyone else at every turn?
Late that night, Chen Caozhi could not sleep. He browsed the scrolls in the study to the left of his bedroom and read the Analects with Ma Rong's commentary from beginning to end. Now that he was living a thousand years in the past, he gained a different, marvelous understanding of this Confucian classic. He knew the Eastern Jin saying, "The poor study Confucianism; the noble study the mysteries." Confucianism meant Confucius and Mencius, while the mysteries meant Laozi and Zhuangzi. As a commoner of humble birth, he naturally had to master one or two Confucian classics and gain an excellent reputation in the county, the commandery, and even the province. Only then could he earn the appreciation of the chief evaluator responsible for selection under the nine-rank system, enter the nine grades as his elder brother Chen Qingzhi had, and obtain a low-ranking office-
A good reputation was immensely important. How could he acquire one in the shortest possible time? People of the Wei and Jin did not particularly admire honest men who followed every rule. The figures recorded in A New Account of Tales of the World were celebrated gentlemen of broad-minded, enduring charm and unconventional independence.
Chen Caozhi slowly ground ink, then took up a hairpin brush and practiced calligraphy on a sheet of Zuo Bo paper. People of the Eastern Jin were passionately devoted to calligraphy. Wang Xizhi's and Xie An's calligraphy added tremendous charm to their personal character. It could be said that without beautiful handwriting, rising above the crowd in the Eastern Jin was out of the question.
The boy had originally written with his left hand, copying the Declaration Memorial, the most famous calligraphy model of Zhong Yao, the great calligrapher of the late Han and Three Kingdoms period. The boy had been diligent, and his small regular script bore a considerable outward resemblance to the Declaration Memorial.
Chen Caozhi had also loved calligraphy in his previous life. The calligrapher he admired most was Ouyang Xun. During university, he had risen early every day for three uninterrupted years to copy Ouyang Xun's Zhang Han Longing for Perch Calligraphy Model three times, capturing something of its spirit. He had also copied Zhong Yao's Declaration Memorial. The original had already been lost by then; what survived was an engraved version of Wang Xizhi's copy. The scroll now on his desk, however, had been copied by his elder brother Chen Qingzhi from Lu Ji's copy of the Declaration Memorial, treasured in Lu Na's residence in Wu County. It was like a tale passed from mouth to ear: distortion was inevitable.
Tradition held that Zhong Yao's calligraphy had advanced tremendously after he obtained Cai Yong's secrets of the art. He had then passed them to Lady Wei, who passed them to Wang Xizhi. Wang Xizhi was the most famous calligrapher of the Eastern Jin and indeed of the thousand years that followed. Born into a premier aristocratic house such as the Langya Wang Clan, he was a supremely celebrated gentleman. Thus copying Zhong Yao's Declaration Memorial would allow Chen Caozhi to trace the stream to its source and gain a profound understanding of the essence of Wang Xizhi's calligraphy.
Chen Caozhi made up his mind. For regular script, he would begin with Zhong Yao's Declaration Memorial; for running script, he would draw on Ouyang Xun's Zhang Han Longing for Perch Calligraphy Model and Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection-
He also wanted to master the exceptional skill of writing with either hand. To become famous in the Eastern Jin, he had to offer something extraordinary and new. From now on, then, he would practice the regular-script Declaration Memorial with his left hand and the running-script Zhang Han Longing for Perch Calligraphy Model with his right.
On that rainy night, Chen Caozhi thought, I have a time traveler's advantage of foresight. I can write fresh, delightful prose, my painting techniques are ahead of this age, and my Go is at the level of a strong amateur third dan. I have also traveled through more than half of China and can call myself widely experienced and knowledgeable. Most importantly, I am only fifteen now. I can pursue focused study. Metaphysics, Confucianism, calligraphy, music-I can study them all. I refuse to believe I cannot master them. Of course, I cannot keep poring over the classics until my hair turns white. Time waits for no one. I must make my name early.
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