Chapter 58: How Can One Have It Both Ways in This World

"Rituals and music, punitive expeditions, rewards and punishments, and displays of majesty are the major pillars of statecraft. The principle that these cannot be delegated downwards is absolute: the two handles of power must remain solely with the sovereign; to lose them is to plunge the realm into lawlessness."

"To govern through virtue is to take loyalty and trustworthiness as one's foundation."

"For the sovereign, words and deeds must stem from the heart; what is said must be done, and what is undertaken must be fulfilled. For the minister, words that fail to match reality constitute a lack of trustworthiness; words and deeds that do not stem from the heart, concealing ulterior motives while falsely claiming competence, constitute an even greater lack of loyalty. Unloyalty and untrustworthiness together define a treacherous subject."

"When the sovereign fails to act like a sovereign and the minister fails to act like a minister, the realm is grievously far from the Way." Zhu Yijun closed the book, summarizing the day's lecture. In truth, it was also a summary regarding Qi Jiguang's return to the capital.

Although the Great Ming was still plagued by an impoverished state and weak armies, it fortunately had some spare wealth, and with Qi Jiguang's return, there was now the backing of a strong military. Consequently, the matters of rituals, music, punitive expeditions, and the wielding of rewards and punishments could now be tentatively pushed into the territories controlled by the Jin faction.

Zhang Juzheng bowed and said, "For the sovereign, it means piercingly observing the lower strata, clearly distinguishing right from wrong, and thereafter wielding rewards and punishments; for the minister, it means constant vigilance, diligent dedication, and thereafter acting so as to guard one's duty and avoid suspicion. In this manner, sovereign and minister each securely occupy their proper positions and travel their proper paths. When sovereign and minister are as one, cooperating with single-minded harmony to overcome times of hardship, the Way of both sovereign and minister remains secure, and the world moves toward governance!"

Zhu Yijun stood up, slightly bowed in return, and said, "I rely entirely on the Senior Grand Secretary to assist the state and impart the principles of governance."

"Your Majesty flatters me too much. This is simply the duty by which this subject repays the late Emperor and remains loyal to Your Majesty." Zhang Juzheng bowed deeply once more and said, "This subject takes his leave."

Not until Zhang Juzheng had stepped outside the Wenhua Hall did he straighten his posture and turn to depart. With his hands tucked into his sleeves, he walked toward the Wenyuan Pavilion. The more he pondered, the stranger it felt, yet he could not quite pinpoint what was amiss. Everything His Majesty had spoken was, after all, what he himself had taught.

Only when he reached the front of the Wenyuan Pavilion did he realize what felt wrong.

Rituals and music were the great pillars of the state, encompassing matters of supreme national importance: sacrifices and warfare. Yet as the discussion unfolded, at what point had it shifted to the execution of rewards and punishments? Thus, the handles of awe-inspiring power and blessing seemed to have expanded, beyond rituals, music, and expeditions, to explicitly include rewards and punishments.

The crux of the matter was that this very definition was something he had uttered himself in order to answer the Emperor's question regarding why local powers were growing unchecked!

Where did the concept of rewards and punishments originate?

It came from the *Han Feizi*, in the chapter titled "The Two Handles," which argues that grace, majesty, rewards, and punishments must never be delegated to others. It states: "The means by which an enlightened sovereign controls his ministers are simply two handles. And what are these two handles? Penalties and virtue. What is meant by penalties? Executions and slaughter. What is meant by virtue? Recompense and rewards."

Yet, strangely enough, nothing seemed fundamentally incorrect about it. According to Confucian doctrine, grace and majesty are manifested in sacrifices and warfare—meaning rituals and culture constitute transformation and rites, while military expeditions constitute martial affairs and campaigns. Within Legalist thought, grace and majesty are manifested in rewards and punishments: fearing execution while desiring recompense.

Relying solely on moral transformation could not resolve the immediate problems of rampant local clans and the de facto warlordism in Xuanfu and Datong. Explaining the handles of sovereign power in this manner did not appear to be wrong at all.

Why did Zhang Juzheng read the *Han Feizi*?

He was a pragmatic bureaucrat who understood expediency; if something was useful, he read it. He read not only the *Han Feizi* but the *Mozi* as well.

Ceasing to probe any deeper, Zhang Juzheng set to work handling state affairs, affixing floating slips of opinion to memorials one after another. Indeed, he had not even noticed himself that heresy had ceased to be something so difficult to accept.

While the young emperor was practicing martial arts, Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of War Li Le collected the credentials of a roving inspector at the Ministry of Personnel. He then arranged for relay post horses at the Huitong Hostel, intending to set out the very next day along the post road to inspect the northern borders and survey the newly constructed sections of the Great Wall.

Just as Li Le finished his preparations and returned home, he noticed someone waiting for him for quite some time at his doorstep. The man was a runner from the All-Jin Guildhall, holding a letter of invitation. Seeing Li Le return, he smiled and said, "Official Li, my master requests an audience."

"And who is your master?" Li Le asked, his brow furrowing as he took the invitation, his expression changing drastically.

The runner merely offered a bow without answering and turned to leave. Since he was a runner from the All-Jin Guildhall, his master was naturally the master of the Guildhall himself: Zhang Siwei.

The nominal master of the All-Jin Guildhall was still Yang Bo, but Yang Bo had already packed his household belongings and was merely waiting for the implementation of the Method of Evaluation in the capital to run smoothly before departing. Thus, the All-Jin Guildhall had effectively changed masters.

The reason Li Le's expression changed so drastically was that tucked casually inside the invitation were two small locks of hair—one silvery-white, and the other soft and fine. The implication of a threat was glaringly obvious.

Returning to his home, Li Le checked his son's hair, noticing that a small section of the traditional tufts on either side of the boy's head had been freshly shorn. He now knew with chilling certainty that the soft lock of hair in the invitation belonged to his child in the capital.

And the silvery-white lock undoubtedly belonged to his elderly mother back in his hometown.

Li Le's wife, Lady Liu, asked with a puzzled expression, "My lord, what is wrong?"

"Where did you and the child go today?" Li Le asked sternly, his fists clenched.

"We stayed at home the entire time and went nowhere. No strangers entered the house either," Lady Liu replied with absolute certainty.

Li Le walked over to the window lattice of his son's side chamber. Seeing a faint footprint on the sill, he knew that his son's lock of hair had been clipped the previous night by an intruder who had broken in.

If they clipped hair this time, what would they clip the next?

Li Le was a censor and imperial official of the court; the Jin faction would not dare do anything openly to him. But his family members were not holders of imperial office; this was a genuine, vicious threat.

"I am going to the All—" Li Le started, intending to head to the All-Chu Guildhall to find Zhang Juzheng and report that someone was threatening his family. But before he finished speaking, he realized that the perpetrators simply did not care. Could Zhang Juzheng protect his family for a moment? Yes. Could he protect them for a lifetime?

Obviously not.

Li Le drew a deep breath and said, "I will change my clothes and head to the All-Chu Guildhall."

Lady Liu knew that Li Le had taken Zhang Juzheng as his examining master. This mission to inspect the borders and survey the fortifications was a post that the Senior Grand Secretary had secured for him, and paying respects before departure was only proper.

Suspecting nothing amiss, Lady Liu helped Li Le change his garments and saw him out the door.

Li Le arrived at the side gate of the All-Jin Guildhall, knocked, and handed over the invitation. Looking around cautiously to ensure no one was following him, the doorman invited him inside.

Hesitating briefly at the threshold, Li Le stepped into the All-Jin Guildhall, and the side gate slowly closed behind him.

He walked toward the theater pavilion, where a performance was underway. Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei were seated inside. As for Yang Bo, he was not present; he was on duty at the Ministry of Personnel, where the newly instituted Method of Evaluation was currently causing no small amount of chaos.

For instance, managing the one thousand storehouses of the Tongzhou capital stores and inspecting fire hazards previously required merely a single character denoting no fire. However, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue refused this simple approach, insisting on exhaustive details.

It had to be written thus: "In the Ministry of Revenue's Class Jia Storehouse, Room No. 107, no fire hazard exists. Inspected by Class Jia Storehouse Agent Zhao Chengde at the third quarter of the *shen* hour." Only such wording was acceptable. With four inspections conducted daily, the Class Jia Storehouse agent oversaw a total of two hundred rooms; writing out four times per room meant a single phrase had to be penned eight hundred times a day.

This was the specific application of "multiplied execution"—making people exhaust themselves by performing trivial tasks in matters that appeared important.

Was not the Method of Evaluation supposed to increase efficiency? Multiplied execution, while seemingly imposing more explicit requirements, was in reality a colossal waste of time.

Yang Bo's countermeasure had been to carve a stack of official seals; the agents only needed to sign their names and stamp them, which was faster than before.

Yang Bo was truly, earnestly striving to implement the Method of Evaluation, attempting with meticulous, painstaking responsibility to see it through to completion. He hoped to find a path that could simultaneously safeguard the interests of the Jin faction, reform the obsolete, and restore vitality to the Great Ming.

Yet where in this world was there a method that could satisfy all sides?

The servants and retainers of the All-Jin Guildhall all knew that the old faction leader was too aged to manage affairs any longer. Thus, this private residence was no longer a private residence; it had become the gathering place of the Jin faction, where Wang Chonggu and his nephew Zhang Siwei sat watching a play.

The play being performed was the tragedy of Yue Fei meeting his death at the Fengbo Pavilion in the Dali Temple through the breaking of his ribs.

The veteran military actor playing Yue Fei, having learned that the Emperor had issued an imperial decree demanding his execution by the fifth watch, looked toward the northern sky with eyes full of anguish and sang:

"Hoping to break out from the cage, to expunge the nation's shame, I will not stop until death claims me! While a breath remains in me, I still yearn for the Central Plains, yet I lament that my heroic spirit is hard to rein in!"

"Why worry? Even if one achieves fame and success, what is lacking in the disposal of bows once the birds are bagged? How is it that I cannot even wait for the hour of the cauldron!"

From outside the stage came a voice of exclamation: "What a noble Grand Marshal Yue! Look at him reduced to such straits, yet he thinks only of absolute loyalty, serving the country to repay the sacred grace!"

Two comic actors, their noses and brows smeared with white powder, played the role of Dali Temple bailiffs tasked with sending Yue Fei on his final journey. Stooping almost to the ground, they craned their necks to stare up at Yue Fei and delivered their lines: "Grand Marshal Yue, it is already the third watch. It is not that we press you urgently, but you know Prime Minister Qin's temperament well."

The veteran actor playing Yue Fei glared fiercely with wide eyes, shouting in a harsh voice: "Say no more! Let me offer my parting bows to the two emperors and my sovereign!"

The comic actors half-chanted and half-spoke: "As for those things, you might as well dispense with the bowing!"

They slipped a rope around Yue Fei's body. Yue Fei closed his eyes for a moment, then snapped them open, singing in sorrow:

"Oh, my sovereign, the Divine Land is forever sunken; treacherous ministers tie our hands, how can I bear to watch the nation shattered and the ruler imperiled? Rather than die a lingering death, let us look upon the surging tides of the Qiantang River, where loyal souls rush together into the flowing waters!"

The comic actors began pulling hard on the rope tightened across Yue Fei's chest. With a mournful cry, Yue Fei collapsed limply to the stage.

Death by the breaking of ribs meant the rope was tightened until the ribs snapped and pierced the heart and lungs.

"Splendid, reward them!" Grand Guardian Wang Chonggu shouted, slamming his hand onto the table as he watched.

Yue Fei's official title just before his death was Junior Guardian of the Board of Inspections, so everyone called him Grand Guardian Yue. Yu Qian's official title before his death was Junior Guardian, so everyone called Yu Qian Grand Guardian Yu.

Wang Chonggu's title of Grand Guardian was that of Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, a prestigious second-rank post specially bestowed upon him to celebrate his meritorious service during the Longqing peace negotiations.

Wang Chonggu's Grand Guardian was not the same kind of Grand Guardian as the other two who had repelled invaders and slain enemies.

Li Le could only force a bitter smile. He could not fathom how Wang Chonggu managed to empathize with Yue Fei; even a scholar like Li Le felt that Wang Chonggu was being utterly shameless.

Ever since the twenty-ninth year of the Jiajing reign, dramas concerning Yue Fei performed in the theaters of the Great Ming had numbered no fewer than sixteen variations, and this particular act was one Li Le had indeed heard before.

Why had Li Le come to the All-Jin Guildhall?!

Because having received an imperial assignment and before even setting out on his journey, he had been delivered an invitation containing two locks of hair!

"Official Li, please, sit, sit, sit." Zhang Siwei said with an affable expression, gesturing for Li Le to take a seat, and remarked with deep emotion, "I am a man who likes to speak plainly and come straight to the point. I invited Official Li here today solely for the sake of your inspection of the borders and survey of the fortifications."