Chapter Ninety-One: A Dutiful Son and a Rebellious Son

Next to the teahouse there was a clothing shop, and Cen Fu quickly bought Li Sanjian a new set of garments.

It was a padded robe with a silk face. Once Li Sanjian put it on, he immediately felt extraordinarily comfortable. After drinking some hot tea and eating a few delicate pastries, he felt even more at ease.

It was simply too comfortable. Li Sanjian thought with delight that such a life might mean little to the rich and powerful, but to him it felt almost divine.

He had only changed his clothes, however; the straw sandals were still on his feet. They rubbed painfully, pricking the soles, and he had no choice but to curl his arches and listen as the old man spoke.

"My surname is Cen." After introducing himself, Cen Bu pointed to some papers on the table and asked Li Sanjian, "Was this essay, On Establishing an Office and Using the Sea to Control the Land, written by you?"

Li Sanjian craned his neck and looked at the essay on the table, utterly puzzled. This policy essay had been written by him during the prefectural qualification examination in Guilin. Why had it turned up here now? Could information in the Song dynasty really circulate this swiftly?

"It was my crude attempt. I fear I have made you smile," Li Sanjian said after confirming it.

He tried hard to recall the high officials of the court in his memory, but he could not for the life of him remember ever knowing this man.

A man surnamed Cen—who was he?

At present, Li Sanjian understood the court officials less well than he understood Li Qingzhao. Perhaps he should ask her later, he thought.

"Your crude attempt?" Cen Bu smiled and shook his head. "No need for such modesty, Li Top Scholar. Let me tell you the truth: even His Majesty greatly admired that essay of yours. He praised you repeatedly as a rare young talent."

If that was so, why had they struck me down? At once, a nameless anger surged through Li Sanjian. He knew perfectly well that the final list of successful candidates was decided by the emperor.

He very much wanted to drag that imperial old fool over and ask him why he had rejected him. Damn it—if you push me too far, you had better watch your throne.

At this moment, Li Sanjian still did not know that the present emperor was only in his early twenties.

As he thought about it, Li Sanjian even found it rather amusing. Drag the emperor? More likely the emperor would drag him. As for rebellion or contending for the realm, those were nothing more than idle thoughts—dreams spun alone in the dead of night.

Seeing Li Sanjian’s face alternate between indignation and a foolish grin, his expression shifting unpredictably, Cen Bu smiled and said, "Do you know why you failed the examination?"

Li Sanjian shook his head in confusion.

"You really do not know?" Cen Bu looked at him fixedly, then sighed after a moment. "If you had written this argument during the Ministry of Rites trial examination, your name would surely have been on the list. But your essay on statecraft... that was what brought trouble."

Wasn’t that obvious? Far from being pleased, Li Sanjian grew even angrier.

So the reason for his failure truly lay in that essay, he thought. If not for that piece in which he praised the court’s policies together with all the other candidates, he might well have passed. Cen Bu’s words were also baffling: he wanted him to write On Using the Sea to Control the Land again, yet this year’s provincial examination had actually included that very topic. If Li Sanjian answered that way, would he not be answering a different question than the one set?

It was as though Cen Bu could read his mind—or perhaps he simply guessed from Li Sanjian’s expression what he was thinking.

"Even if the subject does not match exactly, with the rest of your writings, there is still great room for change," Cen Bu said, continuing to stare at him. "Do you know what charge was attached to that policy essay of yours?"

"A charge? Why do you say that, sir?" Li Sanjian asked.

"Treason," Cen Bu replied after taking a sip of tea.

"Treason?" Li Sanjian was startled, then after thinking it over, he could not help laughing. "Ha! Treason? Have you ever seen men bring their families along when coming to the capital to commit treason? My mother is right beside me now. If I were to plot rebellion, would I not be an unfilial, disloyal wretch?"

Could the warning someone gave me the other day have meant this? he wondered. Could the one warning me be the man before me?

Cen Bu nodded, smiling but saying nothing. It was precisely for this reason that Li Sanjian could sit here drinking tea in peace; otherwise he would already have been thrown into prison.

"I should very much like to know why Li Top Scholar wrote such an essay," Cen Bu then asked.

"My teacher often taught me," Li Sanjian said after some thought. "Do not act from greed or desire; do not go against one’s true heart in doing things. What lay in my mind simply rose up onto the page."

"Oh? Then what thoughts does Li Top Scholar have about the current political situation? Do tell me," Cen Bu asked with interest.

Wasn’t all of that already made perfectly clear in the policy essay? And surely they had read this article countless times already. Why ask again now? Wasn’t that redundant? Li Sanjian thought.

He did not really want to go on, but since Cen Bu had asked this far, he had no choice but to reply. "I am young; what thoughts could I possibly have about court affairs? How would I dare have any?"

Cen Bu paid no heed to his sulking answer and continued, "The reason I invited Li Top Scholar here today was precisely to hear your views on the court. Speak freely. I shall not blame you."

"I would not dare call them views," Li Sanjian replied. "I only understand one principle: if all hearts are united, even metal can be cut. I once heard a story of a family whose ancestors had been a powerful and prosperous clan, but by their generation the family fortunes had declined. They owned only a hundred mu of fertile land, their household had fallen into poverty, and they were bullied on all sides. To restore the family business, the old father asked his two sons for advice. The elder son said that, in order to revive the family, they should sell all one hundred mu of land and use the proceeds to buy barren ground and open it up. The younger son said they should instead carefully manage the hundred mu they already had and increase its yield, rather than take such a risky course. The father could not decide, so he divided the hundred mu into two halves and handed them to the two sons to manage separately. But in the end, nothing came of it. Even the family’s remaining land vanished and was bought up by others. The old father died in suffocation and resentment. Afterward, the two sons blamed each other, each calling the other an unfilial child. They came to regard each other as mortal enemies and even tried to kill one another, and the family was utterly ruined."

Li Sanjian paused, then asked Cen Bu, "At that point, how could one tell who was the filial son and who was the disobedient one? If the two sons had worked together from the start, matters would never have come to such an irreparable end."

His words left Cen Bu rather shaken. How could he not understand Li Sanjian’s meaning? Though the statement was still somewhat immature, somewhat naive, and open to debate, Cen Bu could not believe it had come from the mouth of a boy not yet sixteen.

After a long while, Cen Bu stared at Li Sanjian and asked, "How is your master now?"

"My master?" Li Sanjian shook his head. "I do not currently have a master."

"Were you not just saying that your teacher guided you with earnest instruction?" Cen Bu asked in surprise.

Li Sanjian’s face flushed with shame, turning red and pale in turns. After a moment he answered, "My teacher... His venerable self has already expelled me from the school."

Expelled you from the school? Cen Bu stared at Li Sanjian for a long time without speaking.

"Useless. Zizhan has thought too simply," Cen Bu said at last, shaking his head.

Su Shi’s thinking was too idealistic, too simple, even too naive—an all-too-common failing among scholars, Cen Bu thought. Did he believe that by expelling Li Sanjian from the school, others would no longer make things difficult for him?

Su Shi had indeed cast Li Sanjian out, but could the style of writing he had imparted to him, even his views on current affairs, be changed in a short time?

"Sir, do you know my master... Master Dongpo?" Li Sanjian asked after hearing this.

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt the question was rather childish. Su Shi’s name was known throughout the world; scarcely anyone did not know him. Moreover, Su Shi had once held office in the court, and not a minor one at that. How could his entanglements with the court officials be few?

Li Sanjian only did not know what those entanglements, or grievances, actually were.

"Know Su Zizhan?" Cen Bu laughed. "I and Zizhan were both degree-holders in the same year, the second year of the Jiayou reign. Apart from the two of us, there were Su Zhe, Lin Xi, Cheng Hao, Lü Huiqing, Wang Shao, and others. Ah yes, and the present chancellor Zhang Dun as well. I and Zizhan truly shared the bond of classmates..."

With that, Cen Bu suddenly recalled the past and grew talkative, speaking on and on.

Among all the imperial examinations of the Song, the list of degree-holders from the second year of Jiayou was the most remarkable, a constellation of extraordinary talent. It included Zhang Heng, Dou Bian, Luo Kai, Deng Kaofu, Wang Hui, Wang Shao, Wang Wujiao, Lü Huiqing, Liu Ku, Liu Yuanyu, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zheng Yong, Lin Xi, Liang Tao, Zeng Gong, Cen Bu, Cheng Hao, Jiang Zhiqi, Yang Ji, Zhang Zai, Zhang Zao, Zhang Dun, Zhu Guangting, and others.

It encompassed Zhang Zai, the founder of the Lu school of learning, and his disciple Zhu Guangting; Zhang Zai, the founder of the Guan school, and his disciple Lü Dajun; the representatives of the Shu school, Su Shi and Su Zhe. Later, among the degree-holders from this single list, as many as nine rose step by step to become chancellors or chief ministers, including Zhang Dun, Su Zhe, Lü Huiqing, and Cen Bu himself.

This list could be called the foremost degree-holder list of the millennium, a flood of talent surging into the court.

Cen Bu even had marital ties with the Su family.

The present chancellor, Zhang Dun, was also from this list of degree-holders. His nephew Zhang Heng was likewise on the roster, but Zhang Heng ranked above Zhang Dun. Feeling humiliated at being placed below his nephew, Zhang Dun angrily refused the court’s appointment and only passed the examinations again two years later.

As Cen Bu spoke at length, Li Sanjian listened with rising excitement.

So Zhang Dun actually had such extraordinary ability? He had passed the imperial examinations twice in succession...

Li Sanjian had at least heard Zhang Dun’s name before.