Chapter 6: CH 6

After Assistant Liu left, Cui Xie encountered additional visitors dropping in successively, one after the other.

He was the eldest son of an official in the Ministry of Revenue, a righteous figure of high status, and someone who had helped provide assistance to the jinyiwei in the capture of the criminals and just happened to be staying at the inn. The Senior Provincial Official dispatched several of his trusted aides to look in on him. But for some reason, the entire province’s officials, from top to bottom, and even the local large and influential families in the area joined the steady stream of visitors, either personally dropping in or sending their servants to check upon him. The daily coming and goings of these visitors at the inn were equivalent to in later generations when celebrities were hospitalized. Reporters and media outlets would advance dauntlessly in wave upon wave (idiom) to gather and interview the person in question.

jinyinwei: means the ‘Embroidered Uniform Guard’; and was essentially the imperial secret police that served the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. They are given the authority to overrule judicial proceedings in prosecutions with full autonomy in arresting, interrogating, and punishing anyone, including nobles and the emperor’s relatives. The guards would usually don a distinctive golden-yellow uniform with an identifiable plaque hanging near his torso and carrying a special blade weapon. 

Of course, everyone had tacitly forgotten that his bottom had been beaten to mush by his own blood father, instead, treating his injuries as the battle scars he had sustained when he helped capture the criminals. 

Before these people had come, they had received some advice from Assistant Liu: to never mention things like eight-legged essays or the four forms of poetry, only advising that when they met him, to praise him with a few words like ‘fair and full of vitality’ or possessing ‘dragon’s talent and phoenix posture’. Additionally, they would start presenting some of the local popular customs and goods, giving a few sets of Yongshun’s (county in Jiangxi Province) newly printed stories and poetic novels. Cui Xie racked his brains to talk like how the people of the Ming Dynasty did, pretending to not have heard anything when he did not understand, bowing his head to shed tears when his family was mentioned. Afterward, Pengyan would feel distressed for Cui Xie and helped him to answer. In any case, through this method, no weak points or flaws were exposed.

Eight-legged essay: ‘eight bone text’; style of essay in imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The eight-legged essay was needed for those test-takers in these civil service exams to show their merits for government service, the contents often focusing on Confucian thought and knowledge of the Four Books and Five Classics in relation to governmental ideals.

Four Forms of Poetry: verses, ditties, odes, and songs

After dealing with the guests, he also had to pretend he missed his parents and his life in the capital, in order to slowly worm out information from the father-son duo. This way, he was able to learn about the original owner’s family, friends, and past life.

Pengyan was especially soft-hearted, as long as Cui Xie heaved a few sighs and said he was homesick, Pengyan would begin reminiscing on past memories and the family circumstances back in the capital; And Cui Yuan had served Cui Xie’s father from a young age, making him very familiar with the current state of affairs of the people in the parents’ generation. When changing his wound dressings, Cui Yuan would frequently say things like, ‘if Furen was still here’ and so on.

夫人(fū ren): the mistress/wife, also a general term to refer to an official’s wife/madam.

After ten days of bitter struggles, Cui Xie finally figured out the original family’s relationships and circumstances.

In summary, it went something like this. During the Yongle reign, the Cui clan, headed by Cui Xie’s paternal grandfather at the time, was one of many households who had been forced to move from the southern part of the country and up north to Zhili. However, the old man of the Cui household was extremely proficient and skilled at farming and operating agricultural businesses, eventually acquiring around 1,000 mu (1 mu =614.4 m2; around 164 acres) of top-notch, irrigable fields. By the time it got to this original owner’s father’s generation because his grandfather had enough to provide for his father’s schooling and after hiring some tenants to cultivate the fields, he moved to Qian’an county with his wife and children.

Yongle refers to the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di, the third Ming emperor (1403-1424 reigned). The Emperor moved the capital up north and forced many people to relocate.

Zhili: northern administrative region and province of China, first constituted during the Ming dynasty when the capital of China was located at Nanjing along the Yangtze River. In 1402, the Yongle Emperor relocated the capital to Beiping, which was subsequently named Beijing. 

When his father, Cui Que, was 18-years-old, he married Liu–shi, the daughter of an active Colonel.. Although the furen was of military lineage, her bearing was elegant and she could even sing verses of poems with her husband. After getting married, Cui Que advanced while singing loudly in the Imperial examinations. In the 2nd year of the Chenghua reign, he was admitted as a jinshi, and appointed as a capital official. After that, he promptly brought his parents and his wife with him into the capital. Then their old house was given to a prospective imperial exam scholar who used it to open an academy. 

Shi: in ancient times, this term was put after the surname of the married woman as a term of address

advanced while singing loudly: idiom; triumphant progress

Jinshi: the highest title that a scholar could obtain after passing the Imperial examinations, usually holding the highest of offices. It should be noted that the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) had a very large number of jinshi graduates reaching up to around 24, 536 in total.

Colonel or qianhu: The Ming Dynasty had multiple marshal offices and administrative offices set up under high commanderies. Qianhu or colonel is one of many types of administrative titles given to senior and junior commanders to take care of. There were a total of 17 Qianhu offices, or colonel offices, each office and their commander in command of 1,000 households.

Unfortunately, although he was quite proud of his officialdom and career, the household experienced consecutive misfortunes. Upon entering the capital, two years later, the Old Master Cui suffered a paralyzing stroke; immediately afterward, Liu furen, who had been pregnant, had overworked herself and disturbed the fetus, passing away due to difficult childbirth; the Old Madam Cui had to take care of her husband and also take care of her newly-born grandson. Not many years passed before the accumulated work caused sickness, and she developed a heart illness and was forced to send young Cui Xie to the outer courtyard to study, before retreating to her quarters to isolate herself and pray to Buddha to recuperate. 

When Liu furen passed away, Cui Que felt that the ancestral tomb’s feng shui had some issues, and returned back to reconstruct and renovate the ancestral home, before moving the ancestral memorial hall to the capital. After that, he remarried a retired official’s daughter from the capital, the current Xu furen. The rights to manage the household was given to the new furen, Xu-shi, and the next year, she gave birth to the second son, Cui Heng.

Feng shui: harmonizing energy around one’s home or the environment; a concept linking the destiny of man to his environment. It aims to ensure that people live in harmony with their surroundings.

There were still a few concubines in the Cui family’s inner courtyard, but only one concubine surnamed Wu ended up giving birth to a shu son, called Cui He, who was only 5-years-old this year. There were two other shu daughters, the eldest was Jiao-jie, who had been married to maternal Uncle Xu’s son (a boy the same age as Cui Xie and a juren), roughly around two years ago. To this day, she still lived with her husband’s parents in Luzhou (prefecture in Sichuan province). Meanwhile, the younger daughter was called Yun-jie, only ten years old this year and her marriage had not been decided yet.

Shu: meaning concubine-born

Di: meaning born of the official wife/madam of the family

Jie: older sister (think back to how the sons get referred to as ‘name-ge’ as a name of address, it is the same concept here)

Juren: a qualified graduate who passed the triennial provincial exam

As for the original owner, there was nothing to say. Since childhood, he had been studying at home and had never even gone out of the residence more than a couple of times in his life. He had mediocre relationships with his half-brothers and had no friends on the outside, even his studying was muddle-headed and careless—this point was not said by the Cui Yuan father and son duo, but rather was what Cui Xie surmised from Assistant Liu’s attitude.

In short, not leaving home had resulted in only meeting the same old relatives and friends every day, which then resulted in the eventual entanglement of grievances.

These past few days, his days had been even more bitter than during finals week at university, as he had to carefully deliberate over and over every few words said. He also had to watch the other party’s reaction to adjust the subject of the conversation in a timely manner. This observing one’s countenance and watching the color these past few days had exhausted him so much that he did not even have the energy to read.  Since he had escaped out of the original owner’s situation, he breathed a sigh of relief, buried his head into the blankets, and slept happily for the next two days.

This body was only 14-years old, precisely the time when the body was growing the fastest. Whether it was fatigue or injury, as long as one got enough rest, one would be able to quickly recover.

After lying on the inn’s bed for half a month, the plank wounds had more or less fully healed and scabbed over. Near the borders of his wounds, the places where there were scabs were slowly falling off to reveal a tender pink flesh, flushed with color compared with the pale skin surrounding it. As long as the color fades in the future, no blemishes will be left on Cui Xie’s skin. The gash on his shoulder was also scabbing, with no sign of infection, and even when it was moved, it did not hurt and did not impede any major movements.

After observing for two more days, Cui Xie felt that his body felt fine, so he asked the father-son duo to pack up their luggage and prepare to head to Qian’an soon.

Although Pengyan obediently packed the luggage, Cui Yuan was still a little reluctant to leave and asked: “Can we leave in two days instead? What if the Master hears about how you helped the jinyiwei capture those demons, and becomes no longer angry at you and decides to send someone to take us back?”

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Cui Xie shook his head: “Uncle Yuan, do you remember how many days we have stayed in the inn?”

Half of a month.

During those two weeks, the entirety of Tongzhou had visited them, gifting various brushes, ink, inkstones as well as nourishing ingredients, the large gift pile stuffed into a trunk. There were even several pedantic guests who had written poems and essays for him. Only that house in the capital was quiet, not even a piece of paper was sent by them.

Cui Yuan initially did not want to believe that his own family’s Master would be so indifferent to his blood-related son, but after calculating the number of days, and recalling how the household had been so eager to send them out, he could not help but feel discouraged.

Afraid of provoking the Young Master’s sorrow, he sighed back to his son: “Our Master is the disciple of Grand Secretary Wu, and Grand Secretary Wu has some relatives in the jinyiwei. Master has also had some dealings with the jinyiwei before, and always had some face with them. How come even though Colonel Xie spoke some words for the Young Master, saying that we should wait for good news, it seems like Master is treating them like this matter has nothing to do with him?”

His way of thinking had actually accused his Master wrongly. After Colonel Xie’s correspondence had been delivered to the Cui household, Official Cui had not even seen it when it was directly sent to the Xu furen in the inner courtyard. 

After seeing the contents, Xu furen personally threw the letter into a candle flame, burning it to ashes.

Her confidant, Di mama watched the candle flame creep up the letter, the flames licking off the seven characters, ‘Jinyiwei Qianhu Xie Ying’ on the cover of the envelope. Feeling alarmed in heart, she recalled in a low voice,“Furen, this is correspondence from the jinyiwei, although its contents were in regards to ‘ that thing’, it is indeed related to the Master’s official duties. If Furen burned it just like that, if that Colonel were to mention this to the Master, wouldn’t the Master blame you for thinking for oneself and acting accordingly?”

嬷嬷(mā mā): while it is pronounced mama, it refers to old female servants, and is used similarly to pozi

‘thinking for oneself and acting accordingly’:  idiom; to act on one’s own initiative

Xu furen shook her head and spoke unhurriedly, “What does the jinyiwei have to do with our Master? It’s nothing but a petty scam to ask for money. Let’s send a gift privately to end this matter, this is also my duty as a mother. I read the letter, and the contents did not say what troubles our Xie-ge has caused, let’s just treat him as meritorious and innocent, send a hundred or so taels is good enough, no need to disturb the Master.”

Di mama was still a little worried, afraid that Cui Que would learn about his eldest son’s matters from the mouth of outsiders, reigniting the love between father and son. The Master would then blame furen for hiding this matter. 

Xu furen warmly smiled: “If Master really cared about that boy, would he have sent him to the ancestral home? His mother was of military lineage, yet her fate was good. She took advantage of the Master that had not passed the examinations yet and married over. That was the only reason she could occupy the furen’s seat even when her status was not much higher than the rest of those in the inner courtyard. What kind of good studious son could be born from such a woman? Even if that one were to stay in the capital, and enter the Imperial Academy, he probably wouldn’t even be able to pass the exam to become a jinshi. It is better to give Heng-ge the otherwise wasted opportunity instead. But as the furen, I can not be too harsh on him. In the future, once he is of age, as the furen, I will find a competent and filial daughter-in-law for him and let him stay at the ancestral home to take care of her, isn’t this also a life full of abundance?”

Reminder: this was mentioned in the first couple of chapters but the reason Xu furen is so adamant on sending Cui Xie away is that he is a rival for the yinjian position in the Cui Household. It is one of the many titles given to students during an Imperial examination, specifically the sons of officials in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Bureaucratic officials enjoyed this privilege where their sons could have an easier time if they had this title during the exams and based on what type of family you came from, there would be different titles, exam content, and supervisors. Think of it as an alumni legacy for colleges.

Hearing furen’s relaxed and easy words, Di mama chanted a Buddhist mantra, trying to bring in some blessings, and said: “It is still furen who has resoluteness, this servant will go prepare the gift and instruct the outer courtyard not to report this matter to the Master.”

Xu furen gently nodded: “Go. This really is not a big deal. Also keep an eye on Heng-ge for me, let the servants take good care of him, and don’t let him get out of bed for the next two days. Even if the Master hears someone’s advice and news from the outside, when he comes back and sees Heng-ge’s injuries, it will naturally sever off any such thoughts.”

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Cui Yuan and his son did not avoid others while they were packing, when the inn owner heard that they were leaving, he hurried over to persuade: “Does Young Master Cui find anything unsatisfactory? If the room is unorderly, I can call for someone to help clean it up for you; if the inn is not clean enough, my residence is not far away and has a spare empty courtyard. The Young Master is welcome to move in, it will be convenient for studying.”

During Cui Xie’s stay at the inn, as if he was like a spy that had been tasked to infiltrate Wang Jinwei’s No. 76 intelligence organization, he had been wracking his brains with worry, his hair had gone white from the stress, but now, Cui Xie was able to get up and leave openly without saying anything. 

Historical Tangent: Wang Jinwei is referring to a Chinese politician originally a member of the left-wing Kuomintang opposing the right-wing government in Nanjing. He later became increasingly anti-communist after his efforts to collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party ended in failure and his political orientation veered sharply to the right later in his career after he collaborated with the Japanese. He engaged with Chiang Kai-shek in a political struggle for control over the government until the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese war (around 1937). He is often regarded as a traitor in the War of Resistance.

The No.76 organization was founded after Chinese defectors proclaimed their willingness to serve Japan as secret police organizations during the Chinese Civil War.

TN: Honestly, the history behind it is quite convoluted and complex, it is not too important to the story. It’s basically just saying that Cui Xie had been distraught in thinking of how to quickly leave the inn, but now he finally is able to leave his worries behind.

The inn’s landlord continued to bitterly persuade, “Qian’an was hit by numerous floods last summer, households in and outside of the county have had their residences destroyed. This year, rice, grain, and vegetables have become extremely expensive, it is not a quiet place to study. Young Master has already lived at the inn for several weeks, would it not be better to send someone to fix the residence before moving?”

Cui Xie shook his head firmly. 

These days, he had a lot of dealings with the people in the Ming Dynasty, especially those that dealt with those who were government officials. He had already silently accumulated a bellyful of this era’s customs and conventions, no longer the previously tender transmigrator who had been slung by mud.

Since he was determined to leave, he had long prepared a reason that ancient people could not refuse, throwing it out to the inn’s landlord—he wanted to return to his ancestral home to sweep the tombs.

Slung by mud: slang that means to give someone a bad name, bring shame on, discredit or defame

The Ming Dynasty regarded death as a continuation of life, sweeping the graves and making ritual offerings to one’s ancestors were like showing respect to one’s parents, ultimately related to the big Confucian principles of filial piety.

The landlord could not continue to persuade him, instead ordering the kitchen chefs to prepare a lot of dry food,  dishes that could be eaten on the road, and other pickled things. He also arranged for hired workers to help them pack up all the gifts they have received when the guests came to visit the sick m and then rented a spacious and comfortable carriage to send them on their way.

However, they had stayed at the inn, eating without paying, living there for free, and could not just leave nothing behind. Cui Xie used the excuse that personally writing would disturb the wound on his shoulder, so he called Pengyan to write on his behalf, copying down a Zhenjiang (city in Jiangsu Province) aromatic vinegar recipe founded in the Qing dynasty’s Daoguang reign. It was then sealed in an envelope and handed over to the landlord.

Zhenjiang vinegar is a rice-based black vinegar widely used in Chinese cuisine, taking its name from Zhenjiang located in the Jiangsu province. 

TN: My family uses this exact brand, it’s great for cooking and using it as a condiment for dumplings, meat buns, etc. Quite interesting to know where the recipe originated from 

TN: New release! It was nice to know the family situation more and I find that his family situation is actually not too complicated, although the stepmother trope does seem to come in again. however, it has to be noted that these madams of the households had nothing else to do all day and the success of their sons quite literally defined how they would live the rest of their lives, so Xu furen‘s motive is not uncommon. Let’s hope she doesn’t cause too much trouble! Enjoy everyone! I had a lot of fun translating this chapter!

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