Chapter 7 Meng Jian
The black-robed Taoist was gone for thirty-two years, and even after Meng Xian's death, he never returned to collect the debt. On his deathbed, Meng Xian called his son Meng Jian to his bedside and said, "We owe Mr. Zhang nine hundred and ninety thousand strings of cash." This was in the Yiwei year of the Zhenghe reign.
After Meng Jian sent his father away, he went to his fifth aunt to ask who Mr. Zhang was. His fifth aunt burst into tears and said she didn't know. Meng Jian asked, "Then why do I owe Mr. Zhang 990,000 strings of cash?"
The fifth aunt replied, "When your father was imprisoned, it was Mr. Zhang who saved him and gave him 990,000 strings of cash."
Meng Jian asked, "Where is the evidence?"
The fifth aunt took out ten pieces of brocade with animal figures and said, "Your father had them woven. Mr. Zhang also has ten pieces that are exactly like these."
Meng Jian looked at the brocade pattern and asked, "Before Mr. Zhang gave it to us, did we have any money?"
The answer is: "Yes."
Meng Jian asked, "When will you pay back what you owe Mr. Zhang?"
The fifth aunt was annoyed by him, so she stopped talking and retreated to her room crying. Meng Jian went to ask the second aunt, the third aunt, and Liu Xiucai, the steward, "When will you pay back what you owe to Mr. Zhang?" No one had an answer. So Meng Jian thought: it had been thirty-two years since Mr. Zhang lent the money to Meng Xian, and Mr. Zhang should be dead. Now that Mr. Zhang was dead, the money didn't have to be paid back. Meng Jian also decided: if Mr. Zhang was not dead, or if he passed the receipt to his son, and he came to collect the debt in the future, he would ask about the whole story of the loan and find a flaw to deny it. The reason for making this decision to deny was not because Meng Jian was unfilial or had no money to repay, but because he believed that there was no need to repay based on the rules of the business. Meng Jian's business rules came from the way of doing business that wealthy merchants in western Sichuan had calculated for many years and explored. It did not abolish the rule that the son should repay the father's debt, but it stipulated that "repay the debt now and in this life." Among Meng Jian's predecessors, some talented merchants drew on the Guanzi's "Renfa" saying, "The sage ruler relies on laws and not wisdom, relies on numbers and not discourse, relies on public interest and not private interests, relies on great principles and not small things" and created their own idea, saying, "Rely on instructions and not on affairs, rely on affairs and not on wisdom, rely on wisdom and not on virtue, rely on the present and not on the past or future."
Many merchants admired Han Fei's teachings, and under Han Fei's banner, they declared, "Virtue is the root of disorder, and kindness is the source of chaos." Among these believers, Meng Jian was the most insightful. Before his father's death, he had already grasped this: "People's likes and dislikes all arise from self-interest. Likes and dislikes foster treachery, and treachery is especially prevalent among relatives and friends. Ghosts, immortals, and relatives are fickle and often exploit kindness to conceal their treacherous schemes. A master managing the household and handling external affairs should be aware of the guilty, the sympathetic, those who overstep their bounds, those whose achievements are unworthy of their deeds, those whose words are inaccurate, those who do not align with the facts, those who value the past over the present, and those who plot for the future. These are those who lack evidence and are driven by random thoughts. Only by relying on evidence can one be sure of success."
He also gained insights into techniques and psychology: "A criminal has evil intentions, while a gentleman shows kindness to others, and he also has an intention. A villain lies about morality and pretends to be a gentleman, but he is not really a gentleman. How to distinguish between true and false? Due to benefits and harms, the mind can be divided into two types, one is quiet and true, the other is virtual. The latter obscures the former and then obscures the former again. How to distinguish between the primary and the secondary? A gentleman acts according to virtue and can also do the work of a villain. This is because he is open-minded. Therefore, the master should cultivate one mind, understand the causes of things, use the causes to plan the end, use the two handles of benefits and harm to control people, and use people's likes and dislikes to control himself. When people have no likes and dislikes, then sincerity will show itself." These words later became his last words.
With these insights, coupled with his own calm and rational mind, Meng Jian believed he could manage both the household and external affairs. He therefore married nine women and converted the ancestral temple built by his grandfather, Meng Yin, for Miss Bai into a separate courtyard to house ten maids. The women's lives were managed by his principal wife, concubines, and the steward, Liu Xiucai. However, Liu Xiucai was dismissed from his position as steward and relegated to accountant. This was because Meng Jian had married two women before completing his three-year mourning period, and Liu Xiucai had once tried to dissuade him. Meng Jian accused Liu Xiucai of overstepping his authority by interfering with his status. Seeing Liu Xiucai's coldness and indifference, he changed his approach and devised a plan to accommodate his wives and concubines. Converting the ancestral temple into a separate courtyard to house the maids was also Liu Xiucai's idea. Meng Jian's principal wife and concubines, unwilling to see him marry again, disapproved of this idea. Meng Jian adopted this idea, but blamed Liu Xiucai for not consulting with his wife and concubines, causing discord in the family. He then accused Liu Xiucai of exceeding his authority and sent him to the accounting office. Liu Xiucai lost his dignity and thereafter told everyone he was lustful, saying, "Erlang has no heart, only lust." Meng Jian was indeed lustful. According to his theory, this lust was innate, just like his ancestor Meng Ji, his grandfather Meng Yin, and his father Meng Xian. This lust first manifested itself in his pursuit of his concubine, Han Shi. Han Shi was the daughter of a wealthy family in Xichuan. When Meng Jian met her, she was already in her thirties. Her brother, Han Xian, was a magistrate in the Lizhou government office, and her brother-in-law was a candidate in Pujiang County. Unwilling to marry Meng Jian as a concubine, Han Shi fled to Pengzhou. Meng Jian pursued Han Shi to Pengzhou, following her daily and offering her gifts, promising her a betrothal gift of ten thousand strings of cash. With the arrival of winter, Han Shi fled to Pujiang County to seek refuge with her eldest sister. Meng Jian pursued her and presented her with a mandarin duck quilt. The locals said the brocade quilt was woven from a single shuttle and was identical to the one owned by King Meng Chang of Shu. Yet, Han remained unmoved. In early spring, Meng Jian pursued Han to the foot of Qionglai Mountain, where bandits abducted her and made her their concubine. Meng Jian went up the mountain alone, carrying a box of gold and silver, to exchange her for the bandits. The bandits were tea farmers, whose parents and brothers were also tea farmers. Seeing Baoguang, they were both delighted and terrified, and quickly released Han. Thus, Han agreed to marry Meng Jian. The locals' version of the story is that Han, raped for days by the bandits in the mountains, had lost her virginity and was forced to become Meng Jian's concubine. Some say this is untrue, saying that Han, having remained unmarried for over thirty, had already resolved to remain so forever. How could she be afraid of losing her virginity?
In short, it was Han who married into the Meng family and gave birth to Erlang in the Yisi year of the Xuanhe reign. In the first year of the Jingkang reign, Meng Jian married two concubines: the fifteen-year-old Ma, the daughter of a city official, and the fourteen-year-old Luo, the daughter of a doctor at the Guangdu County Medical Bureau. Han made three fussies, but Meng Jian didn't respond—this is what distinguished Meng Jian from his ancestors: he wasn't fond of love. Meng Jian said that desire is the root of love, desire is the heart. Love is open-minded, and there can be no ambiguity. Han fell from favor and never had another child. The third concubine, Ma, gave birth to Silang, and the fourth concubine, Luo, gave birth to Liulang and Wujie, all later. From the time they arrived at the Meng family until the Wushen year of the Jianyan reign, Meng Jian wasn't often at home. He was in Huaide Army, Shaanxi, and Gongzhou, unable to return home. The one who transferred him to Huaide Army, Shaanxi, and Gongzhou, preventing him from returning home, wasn't someone from the time, but Zhang Gong, Meng Xian's former creditor.
The black-robed Taoist priest from Zhang Gong's family, the creditor, arrived in the first year of the Jingkang reign, one summer evening. Meng Jian was embracing his concubine, Luo, in the courtyard when a servant arrived to announce that a Taoist priest had arrived. Meng Jian walked into the covered corridor of the outer courtyard and encountered the black-robed Taoist priest.
The Taoist in black asked, "Do you still remember Mr. Zhang?"
Meng Jian said, "I don't remember."
The Taoist in black said, "I no longer follow Mr. Zhang, but Wu Lang. I'm not here to collect a debt."
Meng Jian asked, "What's the matter?"
The Taoist in black said, "Daxia is now attacking Huaide. The front line needs horses and military supplies. Wu Lang wants you to go and collect the military supplies."
Meng Jian asked, "Why?"
The Taoist in black said, "For the country."
Meng Jian asked: "Why the country?"
The Taoist in black said, "You may not serve the country, but Wu Lang serves the country. If he asks you to serve the country, you should obey."
Meng Jian said: "You said it wasn't you, but you are actually here to collect the debt."
The black-robed Taoist pulled a dagger from his robe, pointed it at Meng Jian's nose, and said, "I am not a man of this world. I came down from the mountains to save my country when the traitor Wang rebelled. Now I follow Wu Lang, also to save my country. So, it doesn't matter who I do it for or whether I owe you a debt. It doesn't matter what I do for you."
After hearing this, Meng Jian understood Han Fei's words about "treachery," "duplicity," and "fluidity"—all of them were me—my father Meng Xian's treachery, duplicity, and changeable form. Zhang Gong and Wu Lang share the same heart, a heart like the black-robed Taoist's features, unchanged for decades. It is cause. Because it is real, the event is imaginary. Within the event, cause is also imaginary, only to become real again in the future. Cause is present, past, and future, and it can transcend time. For the next nine years, and indeed for the rest of his life, Meng Jian often wondered if his father Meng Xian truly owed Zhang Gong 990,000 strings of cash. If so, why did the black-robed Taoist come to collect it only now? How did they know in advance that Daxia was about to invade? Meng Jian did ask the black-robed Taoist, "The debt has been there for a long time, so why are you only now demanding it?" The black-robed Taoist replied, "Because of the changing celestial phenomena, because of the Dao." Meng Jian didn't understand. The less he understood, the more he doubted, and his doubts fueled his admiration and hatred for the black-robed Taoist's "Dao." Out of admiration, he decided to have one of his sons enter Taoism. Out of hatred, he didn't want his son to be a Taoist priest, but rather a monk in a temple. Meng Jian imagined his son would use Buddhist teachings to comprehend the Dao, using Buddhist principles to transform the Daoist practices of pretending to be gods and ghosts. Enlightenment and transformation, in this moment, crystallized into a cause. This cause traveled through time, returning to Jingkang, where Meng Jian was still busy with something unrelated to it: spending money.
Upon arriving in Huaide, Meng Jian and Wu Lang met once. During this encounter, Meng Jian saw the over one hundred heads Wu Lang had chopped off. The heads were piled in the wilderness, and the stench spread, filling the eyes, noses, and cavities of everyone within a hundred miles. The stench was like hooks piercing one's body. Then it was like snakes and insects, entangling the heart, making the discomfort tenfold worse. Later, it was like mosquitoes and flies, burrowing into the brain, buzzing like mud, smothering the stench and drowning out the discomfort. Suffocating and dizzy, one broke through the discomfort, realizing that one was no longer in the world, but had arrived outside the world. This place had no boundaries, no piles of ropes and ropes of rules, only pieces of iron and lives. Every day, all he heard and saw was fame. When Meng Jian was old, he told his son, Meng Xiao, "That's fame. Dad saw it with his own eyes! It's in Huaide Army and in Qingxi Ridge."
When Meng Jian was old, he often lamented the experience of spending money in Fuping, saying that it broadened his horizons. He said to his son Meng Xiao: "I have delivered food, bows and arrows, and horses to the front line. When the people were armed, each caravan looked like an army. From Jingchuan to the east, to Huazhou, spears and bows escorted the food and horses. How expensive is it? One family is not worth a stone of rice in Huazhou. Except at this time, nothing you do is called spending money. In the Jiyou year of Jianyan, Wanyan came. Zhang Gong said. Wanyan was surrounded by Tiefutu and Crooked Horse, blood red and silver white, with a powerful aura, like mountains and seas. The army retreated to Jingyuan, and Dad saw a head again, but he didn't know whose head it was. The two heads rolled together, and Dad couldn't tell which one was from the Wu family and which one was from Wanyan. It was like two ripe fruits falling down, landing on the dirt road, cracking the pulp, and then the pulp was stepped on to make bubbles, so who could tell which one was from the Li family. Which one is from the Wang family? Daddy took it as a golden man when he saw it was small-eyed. If you dare to kick it, kick it into the ditch. The color of the Wanyans flowed down and formed a red shallow ditch, in which was the bridle pierced by the spear head, which was also silver-white under the sunlight. When we got to Fengxiang, Daddy no longer sent food to Wu Lang, but began to send money to the people. The money was exchanged for silver sticks, and the accounts were all recorded in hundred catties. The silver sticks were wrapped in your grandfather's brocade, and they had to be counted as ten thousand pieces to make it count. Yes, at this time there were no heads, and the people were nailed to the ground. You ask how they were nailed? Don't ask, this thing is scary. A big nail as long as a person, and chisel arrows are flat and three-edged, connected to a pole as long as a person. Shoot down in rows, and they are in chaos, and the horses are nailed to the ground. Nailed to the ground The people and horses, spears and banners, are like shrimps, crabs and moss washed by the waves. If you want to see it, you have to go up the mountain. Going up the mountain to see it, the flowers are like a flood, like door gods and couplets torn by the wind and thrown down. Later, people arrived in front of the pass - it is said that they were also Wanyan's people, piled up in groups, like a wall. The Wanyans also felt that it was like a wall, hiding behind it. After a while, they also piled up on top like bricks and tiles. When my father saw it, he felt sad when he thought of what they had eaten and drunk. Then he thought that this was all merit, so he didn't feel sad anymore. Merit is more valuable than money, people and horses. Finally, they arrived at Liangquan (County), and Wu Lang started to chase people. Wu Lang chased people like a dog chasing a rabbit, like a cat chasing a mouse, and he would roar and laugh when he caught up. Oh, or maybe not. It was he who laughed, it was the group of soldiers he led. Dad felt that it was him, no one else could laugh like that, his achievements and courage were unmatched by others. He dared to fight tens of thousands of people with a few thousand men, and tens of thousands of horsemen on foot with a few thousand men on flat ground. Tomorrow they would decide life and death, and he could still sleep tonight, but others could not. You asked him why he laughed? No reason, Dad felt that in Wu Lang's eyes, what he was chasing was not people, but fame... No, not for the country, he was not doing it for the country. It doesn't matter whether you do it for the country or not, you have to have achievements for the country, and you cannot do it without achievements. At that time, he said, these are all merits. We don't know what merits are. Later, Dad finally saw it. There are merits, it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter who you do it for, for the court, for Wanyan, it doesn't matter how you do it..."
Locals today say that many placed their patriotic feelings in Wu Lang. Before the Battle of Fuping, the Jing Dynasty was the Jing Dynasty, and the Shu people were the Shu people. The Shu people either disliked the Jing Dynasty or had no experience with them. When the Jing Dynasty sent officials to Yizhou, the Shu people saw only the steep terrain between Shu and Jing. Their understanding of the distant Jing Dynasty was limited to the phrase, "The terrain is too steep, we can't go." After the Battle of Fuping, "all five roads were trapped," and Shu became a fat piece of meat waiting to be pierced by the Wanyan sword. The Shu people were terrified, huddled against the walls of their homes, realizing that their country was their home. Their only hope now was that the Wanyans would not be able to pass Dasan Pass. Dasan Pass was still a thousand miles away, but for the Shu people, it was as close as home.
It seemed like only yesterday that the people of Shu, following their own traditions, were still discussing Wu Lang's brutal killings and his penchant for piling up heads. They said Wu Lang had disobeyed the orders of the commander-in-chief (Qu) and even insulted him with slander, a lawbreaker. They said Wu Lang, after gaining power, had falsely accused the commander-in-chief (Qu), leading to his death, a man without moral integrity. Yet, today, upon learning that Wu Lang was still at a critical juncture, the people of Shu fell silent for a day. The next day, upon learning that Wu Lang was still at a critical juncture, they remained silent for a day. The Shu people's silence was a sign of shock, not because reason was powerless in the face of the horrors of war—they could still say, "The Son of Heaven conquers the world on horseback, not with bows and horses," so reason is never powerless. They knew Wu Lang could stop the emperor's horse. From Heshangyuan to Xianren Pass, after seven days and nights of fierce fighting, Wu Lang fought back like a wolf, retaking Fengxiang and Longzhou. Learning of this series of battles, the Shu people were awed. They still talked about the principles of Shu, but left Wu Lang out of the circle. Whenever they talked about him, they would quote the phrase "Kongtong people are brave."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
