Chapter 1 Mengshi
Last March, Meng Shangong, commissioned by Zhao Du, traveled to Chengdu Prefecture, Meizhou, and Jiangjin County in Yuzhou, Xichuan Road, to collect the Meng family history. Upon returning to Lin'an Prefecture, he handed me a volume of his travel notes, along with "Meng Bai's Family Records" and "Mengshi Family Chronicles." I've been reading through them for a hundred days, yet I still don't know how to write about the Meng family's past. These recorded events are not only disorganized and false, but also vague and almost impossible to extract. To be convincing, I should begin with Wang Quanbin's campaign against Shu in the 27th year of the Guangzheng reign—the surrender of King Meng Chang of Shu. However, if I were to start by stating, "The Meng family is not actually descendants of Meng Chang, but rather descendants of Meng Yiju," it would undermine the Meng family's legacy and seem like an unnecessary clarification. If I began with Meng Xiao's father, Meng Jian, and recounted the Meng family's entanglements with the Zhang and Wu families, I feared it would become a poorly documented, unofficial history.
During those hundred days, I frequently visited Wanghu Pavilion to consult with Meng Shangong about local legends. Meng Shangong was a talkative and eloquent speaker. After listening to his story of "Meng Yiju's Escape," I finally found a clue to compiling the Meng family's past. This clue wasn't the King of Shu, nor was it Meng Jian, who squandered his family fortune, but rather Meng Zhixiang, the founding emperor of Later Shu.
According to Meng Shanggong, the current Meng family of Yizhou regards Meng Xiao as the head of the family, who in turn regards Meng Li as his great-grandfather and Meng Ji as his ancestor. In the Huanglongxi area of Pengshan County, however, people refer to Meng Li as Meng Da and Meng Ji as Xiao Qi. An insider in Pengshan County discussed the origins of this father and son, beginning with Meng Zhixiang. Instead of stating that Meng Zhixiang founded the Great Shu Kingdom and proclaimed himself emperor, he instead claimed to have owed Ren Yuan two million strings of cash. This two million strings of cash not only ties in with Meng Da's origins but also served as the primary reason for Meng Zhixiang's founding of Shu and his proclaiming himself emperor.
This story begins with Meng Zhixiang and King Wei destroying Former Shu - Meng Zhixiang taking office as the Jiedushi of Xichuan.
According to local residents, Meng Zhixiang, while simultaneously rewarding the troops and recruiting soldiers, extorted six million strings of cash from the people upon his arrival in Xichuan. Four million strings were used for rewarding the troops and expanding the levy, leaving the crucial two million strings. (Later Tang) Prime Minister Ren Yuan demanded the remaining two million strings from Meng Zhixiang, but Meng Zhixiang refused to hand them over. The emperor then sent Li Yan, the provincial governor, to supervise the army, but in reality, to demand the money. Not only did Meng Zhixiang refuse to part with the funds, he had Li Yan executed on the spot. Later Tang's Mingzong, Li Siyuan, personally came to collect the money, but only recovered a few hundred thousand strings. General An Zhonghui appointed two military governors and one provincial governor in the two Sichuan provinces, intending to lead an expedition. Meng Zhixiang, having received advance notice and fearing he would be unable to defeat An Zhonghui's men, forged a kinship with Dong Zhang, the military governor of Dongchuan. The following year, Meng Zhixiang and Dong Zhang conspired to kill three men sent by An Zhonghui. To isolate Dong Zhang, Emperor Mingzong Li Siyuan sent two generals to recruit Meng Zhixiang. However, Meng Zhixiang and Dong Zhang disagreed on whether to accept the offer. Dong Zhang refused the imperial edict, and Meng Zhixiang sent envoys to persuade him, but to no avail. Dong Zhang even captured Hanzhou City. The two fought several battles, and Dong Zhang was defeated and fled, only to be killed in a mutiny. Thereafter, Meng Zhixiang established his dominance in the two Sichuan provinces, and upon Li Siyuan's death, he established the Kingdom of Shu and proclaimed himself emperor. That same year, Meng Chang was appointed crown prince, and Meng Zhixiang died. Thirty-two years later, Shu fell, and Meng Chang, accompanied by his mother, brothers, and family, fled to Bianjing.
Meng Zhixiang had five sons, of whom Meng Yiju was the eldest. After the fall of Shu, Emperor Taizong (Zhao Guangyi) offered Yiju an official position while simultaneously ordering Wang Quanbin to eliminate him (according to local sources, this was likely a poisoning or nighttime capture). Meng Yiju initially refused and fled to Dayao. Local sources claim that Meng Yiju received information from a spy in Beijing (or perhaps his nephew) that Wang Quanbin intended to capture or poison him, and therefore left Shu before Wang Quanbin arrived. The reason for his departure is explained as the theft of Meng's family brocade by a household servant named Yao.
This slave from the Yao family, with a square head and bulging eyes, was fluent in the teachings of Huang-Lao and skilled in using silkworm feces to cure blindness. He had served Meng Zhixiang for ten years and, in the first year of the Yingshun reign, joined Meng Yiju. He managed both the household affairs and the accounts and expenditures, earning Yiju's deep trust. On the eve of Wang Quanbin's arrival to arrest or possibly poison Meng Yiju, the slave from the Yao family suddenly stole brocade from the family and fled overnight. Locals claimed the brocade was worth two million strings of cash. The slave left behind a letter, claiming he had stolen the brocade to pay off a debt owed to his master: a wronged ghost named Ren, who was seeking to collect a two million string of cash from the Meng family. This wronged ghost traveled through the underworld, and since the paths of the Yin and Yang differed, he had to take a detour to reach Chengdu, first from Cizhou to Jingzhao, then from Jingzhao to Yaodi, and finally from Yaodi to Chengdu. Yao Jianu said that he would intercept Ren Gui on the road and return the brocade to it, which would be considered as paying off the debt owed by his father for the Meng family, so as to save the Meng family from disaster.
Soon after, Meng Yiju also left for Yao. When asked about the reasons for his departure, the locals offered four theories: One theory stated that Yao's slave was from Tongshi Prefecture in Dali, and Meng Yiju, upon learning he had returned to his hometown, went to pursue him. This was the first theory.
The second argument is that the Yao man wasn't a traitor. From Meng Zhixiang to Meng Yiju, the Yao man had served two generations of the Meng family, even curing a foot sore Meng Zhixiang had sustained during a march. There was a hidden reason for the Yao man's theft of the brocade. Just as a native knows an earthquake is coming when a pig escapes from its pen, Meng Yiju knew the Yao man's whereabouts in the letter were meant to lure him to the area, and so he went to the Yao man's place. He brought his entire family along because he feared the Ren ghost would come and devour his family.
The third theory is that all of the above stories were fabricated by Meng Yiju and Yao's servants. After Meng Yiju learned that Wang Quanbin was planning to arrest or poison him, he traded his family's wealth for brocade and entrusted it to Yao to take away from Chengdu. Later, under the guise of reclaiming the money, he returned with his family. In this version, Yao, acting on Meng Yiju's instructions, disguised himself as a merchant and transported the Meng family's brocade out of Chengdu. Meng Yiju traded his wealth for brocade to facilitate his escape from the city and because it was less susceptible to theft than gold and silver.
The fourth theory is that the ghost surnamed Ren really wanted to collect the debt, and the ghost surnamed Yao really wanted to repay the debt. Two million strings of cash was all of Meng Yiju's wealth. He wanted to go to Yao alone to collect it, but his family insisted on going with him. At this time, his wives, concubines, children, and the elderly, like the locals later, were very suspicious of him. Meng Chang, who was in Bianjing, died seven days after being granted the title of Duke of Qin. When the news came, Meng Yiju's wives and concubines were afraid that their husband would escape and abandon them. Taizong and Wang Quanbin could not really capture or poison Meng Yiju, but his wives, concubines, and children were able to tie him up. So, Meng Yiju put a leash around his neck and dragged ten wives, concubines, and children with him to Yao.
However, one son stayed behind. The locals said that Meng Yiju left this son behind to prove to Taizong and Wang Quanbin that he was not running away, but was really going to recover the family property. This son was a dead end, and he ended up in Pengshan County to buy time for his father to escape. Others said that the son had smallpox at the time and was not suitable for long-distance travel. This son was Meng Da as the locals called him, and later Meng Li. Before leaving, Meng Yiju entrusted his young son Meng Li to a maid. When the maid returned to the countryside, she attracted everyone's attention. From Pengshan County to Meishan County, people said that she was loyal, filial, chaste, and a virtuous woman, and that she was kind to others and a gentleman. In order to praise her loyalty and kindness, Pengshan County even erected a stone archway for her, commemorating her as a virtuous woman.
Meng Da's given name, Meng Li, was given by the chief eunuch of Pengshan County. From a young age, Meng Da loved chiseling and turning. Starting at age ten, he trained for two years in stonework with a master from Dayi, crafting Buddhist statues from temples. At age twenty, he apprenticed to a master in southern Fujian, learning carpentry. He was then able to build eaves and small hanging towers nestled against the mountainside and facing the water. Meng Da was a quiet and unassuming man, always claiming to carve bamboo when asked what he did. The people of Pengshan referred to him as "the son of the chaste woman and gentleman of Huanglongxi Tang'anzi, the youngest son of Meng Yiju, the eldest brother of the King of Shu—and therefore the nephew of Meng Chang, the bamboo carver." When the Pengshan County government office was plagued by bird droppings and the bailiff asked Meng Da to weave a bamboo netting covering for the main hall's eaves, the locals said that while Dalang wouldn't inherit the Meng family's wealth, he wouldn't suffer its woes either. Even if a son didn't inherit his father's business, he could still inherit his father's honor. By the time Meng Da was invited by Pengshan County to organize five carpenters and stonemasons to build the main hall for Longmen Temple, he already had two wives, a daughter, and three sons. People today say it's important to look further ahead. The most remarkable achievement of Meng Xiao's great-grandfather, Meng Li, wasn't building a main hall for a temple, weaving a roof for the county government, or building fifty houses for the Meng family and marrying four women. It was the birth of his son, Qilang.
In the third year of the Qiande reign, the Song army conquered Shu, and Meng Chang died in July. Thirty-three years later, in July, surrounded by a large circle of thirty-one people, Meng Da died on a bamboo mat. His legacy of flowered red sandalwood, hundreds of carvings, along with fifty houses and two hanging towers, was divided among Qilang's eldest and second brothers. Silver ingots and several thousand taels of silver were distributed to his eldest sister and third brother. Qilang received the hundreds of chisels and planes left by Meng Da, along with a silkworm farm. Such an unequal division of the family fortune is hardly to blame for Meng Da's partiality. Qilang's vulgarity was known to everyone in the village and county. If he were given too much of the family wealth, it would seem Meng Da was protecting his own shortcomings, betraying the dignity of his ancestors. Qilang's vulgarity consisted primarily of a lack of study, burglary, assault, and a love of prostitution. Today's accusation of Qilang's lust is a revelation of the Meng family's inherent nature. One must be fair: who in the Meng family doesn't have almond-shaped eyes? Who dares to say it wasn't a woman who seduced him? The reason for not liking to study might be that the teacher did not teach well. However, descendants of the Meng family in Pengshan County said that the teacher was very good and Qilang really did not like to study.
When Qilang was ten years old, his brothers were already helping out as account keepers in the lumberyard. Meng Da hired a teacher to teach him to read and study the classics. Qilang refused to study. The teacher called him a beast, a lamb, and a half-human. He, seeking revenge, deliberately mispronounced the words. The teacher said, "When a mean person is idle, he does bad things. When he sees a gentleman, he becomes disgusted. He hides his badness and highlights his goodness. If people look at you as if you were seeing your heart and liver, what good is that?"
Qilang said: "When a villain meets another villain, he will treat him as if he were his own liver and lungs. If he doesn't understand, how can he feel disgusted?"
The teacher pulled out a two-foot-long horsetail whip from his sleeve and whipped him, calling him a "dog bone" and a "bastard from the nest". Then he walked out of the door, shaking his sleeves. Qilang picked up the teacher's horsetail whip and walked out of the house. Seeing a group of children from the neighborhood killing frogs, he cursed them, "Dog bone" and "bastard from the nest". The children rushed up to beat them and chased Qilang. They jumped back and forth between the bamboo boats that were placed horizontally and vertically, with their heads pressed against their waists, and were blocked outside by a bamboo door. The darkness behind the door engulfed Qilang's head and face. Qilang stopped in front of a quilt, and suddenly came behind a mouse like a cat jumping up and down. A toe stuck out from under the quilt and giggled. The tiger-head bell hit the jade ring and made a sound. The quilt asked, "What's the sound?"
"My bell."
Quilt asked: "Why is it making a noise?"
"Tied it up and tucked it into my waist when I came out. It sank and fell, making the noise."
Quilt asked, "What kind of stone ring is this?"
"This is the bracelet my father made for my aunt. I'll wear it first."
The quilt said, "Put it on me."
Qilang groped his way into the bed, pressed down the quilt, and said, "I can't take it off."
The above is the story of the frog-beating boy. This incident cost a life, and was recorded in the official records by the local scholar Li Meng. The Meng family in Pengshan County also recorded this incident in their "Family Chronicles," confirming that their ancestor indeed possessed a male yang lock. The frog-beating boy later became the son-in-law of the Renshou County Magistrate. Once, after getting drunk, he claimed that he had chased Qilang into the boathouse that day, while the cat was peeping from behind the bamboo planks. Returning home at dusk, he was pinned to the plank and beaten by his father, forcing him to confess the truth. Late that same night, his father told Meng Da about the incident. Meng Da stripped Qilang's pants to search for the bracelet and bell, but found only half the bracelet, not the bell. Determined to find the other half and bell, Meng Da sent a servant to inform the man in the boathouse. The man found half of the Meng family's bracelet in his wife's pillow. The next day, Pengshan County servants fished the woman out of the river, and the coroner removed the Meng family's tiger-head bell from her body. The case was solved, and Meng Da locked Qilang up in the rice warehouse. After Qilang was released, he was nicknamed "Dog Bone". Children who knew about or had seen dog lock knots would make fun of him and say that he had a dog knot.
People today say that the rumor that the men of the Meng family had dog knots began to spread around this time. People today believe that Meng Da's leaving the silkworm farm, a hundred miles from his home, to Qilang was not without hidden reasons, and there were two underlying reasons: First, Meng Da died in the first year of the Xianping reign. From that year on, perhaps to meet the tribute from the prefecture, or perhaps to achieve the Chengdu prefecture's overall goal of making Shu silk, Shu embroidery, and Shu brocade "the poorest and the best in the world," weavers from Shuzhou, Pengzhou, Qiongzhou, and Huaian began purchasing silk and dyes from Qingcheng, Xinjin, Chongning, Linqiong, Jinshui, and Jintang counties. The silkworm market flourished, as Tian Kuang later remarked, "People gathered to buy all kinds of goods, and trade was timely and at a high price." Meng Da's appointment of Qilang as his successor, chiseling and planing, and managing the silkworm farm was a legacy and a sign of high hopes.
The second explanation of the mysterious destiny begins with the bulging-eyed housekeeper of the Meng family. The Meng family's connection to the underworld of silkworms, in fact, began with Qilang. Metaphysical, it must have begun with Meng Zhixiang's visit to Sichuan and his encounter with the bulging-eyed Yao. Yao was a man of the surname Yao, fluent in Huang-Lao, known for curing blindness with silkworm feces, knowledgeable in ghost doctrine, and able to speak ghost stories. He was no ordinary person. His hometown, Yao, was the home of Cancong's descendants. Therefore, he was a descendant of the Cancong clan. His theft of the Meng family's brocade, and not anything else, further proves his close connection to the silkworm deity. While others may not be aware of the Meng family's connection to the silkworm deity, Meng Da certainly knew. Meng Da's silkworm farm was located a hundred miles from Pengshan, north of Qingshen County. Qingshen was named after the Cancong clan—"clothed in green, he taught the people agriculture and sericulture, and the people regarded him as a deity." This is the hometown of Cancong, the King of Shu. This leads to modern speculation that the farm was not a silkworm farm, but an ancestral hall or temple, maintaining the Meng family's connection to the silkworm deity. In other words: whichever son of Meng Da gets it will inherit the wealth and fortune of the Meng family.
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