Chapter Fifteen: Commander Wang's Quarrel Over the Garden — Lady Xie's Wisdom Humbles the Powerful

Purple moss and grey lichen cover the palaces of Wu;

Three months of Qin's ashes, and the tall pavilions stand empty.

The busy beetles toil for nothing in their industry;

The magpie weaves its nest through bitter labour, only for others.

The vermilion gates have seen how many moons lock the remaining light;

The embroidered curtains are startled, time and again, by the howl of the evening wind.

One square of ground is room enough for six feet of a man —

A good laugh at those anxious fools who worry themselves day and night.

People often laugh at the wealthy and powerful, saying that they only appreciate painted mountains and rivers and pavilions, not real mountains and rivers and pavilions. It is said that the rich and powerful, occupied all day with their counting beads and official tablets, have no leisure to visit their gardens. But one must understand that gardens, too, are a kind of illusion. Winding balustrades and small balconies, planted bamboo and flowering trees — all of these can provide diversion. In the end, how long can one truly enjoy them? How many days can one spend in pleasure? A garden ultimately exhausts one man's energies and spirit for the delight of others. It goes so far as this: a man who has no garden, on hearing that someone else's is fine, will scheme by every means to acquire it. If his garden is small but can be expanded, and someone else's is fine, he will by every means contrive to covet and seize it. If someone else's layout is good, he must copy it exactly. If someone else's flowers and bamboo are fine, he must hunt them down. A thousand calculations, not a moment's peace. After all that busy effort, he gains nothing more than a few people saying "very fine." And for all that — even the largest garden, visited every single day, becomes familiar to the eye and soon loses its wonder. Better to set your feet free — everywhere becomes your garden. Set your gaze free — everywhere becomes your pavilion and terrace. And the views are ever fresh, the scene ever changing.

In our age, those who have the finest gardens are the powerful and privileged. But the powerful and privileged are precisely those whose fortunes ebb most swiftly. Power and privilege last no three or five decades. A fine garden is most apt to catch other people's eyes. Men compete and contend for it — who can hold it for long? This might cool the ardent hearts of those who scheme and plot to seize and occupy. The people of this world do not understand: you have power for a time, and you use it for a time — but they do not see that power has its end. Take it to its extreme: the power of an emperor, and his towers were the "Epang" and the "Dizzying Tower," most wondrous and ingenious under heaven; his forests were the "Gen Yue," gathering rare flowers and stones from the entire realm. When the dynasty passes and the carriage moves on, where does one go to find a single beam or rafter, a single tree or stone? Below the emperors come the great ministers — Prime Minister Li Deyu's "Pingquan Garden," where he declared that any descendant who lost even one stone or one tree of his was no true descendant. And where is all that now?

The Orchid Pavilion is gone;

The ZiZe estate is mounds and rubble.

Looking up and down at past and present —

Who can hold anything for long?

In the previous dynasty, during the Jiajing reign period, there was a man known as Commander Wang of the Brocade Guard. His passion was the cultivation of flower gardens. In the end he aroused other men's desires, and they came to force him out of them. Were it not for a single timely word from his concubine, he would nearly have lost the gardens entirely, along with his ancestral altar. This too is a case of gardens bringing calamity.

His pleasures lay in mountains and water,

Just enough to delight his body and mind.

He did not know that on his doorstep greed was watching,

And disaster would creep in and find him.

This Commander Wang was a native of Daxing. He rose through the military examination to the post of Brocade Guard and advanced in official rank to the position of Regional Commander. Though the Brocade Guard was a powerful office in the military establishment, Commander Wang was by nature refined and cultivated, fond of associating with scholars and civil officials. Near the city wall at the west side of Shuncheng Gate he fitted out a garden. Inside it were a receiving hall, a tea room, and a study, all constructed in the style of Jiangnan, exquisitely elegant. Winding covered walkways and curved balustrades, small pavilions and bright windows. Outside, secluded paths and narrow lanes wound through flowering plants, bamboo, and rocks. He also composed poetry, and invited well-known civil officials of the gentry class, along with a few literary recluses and poets, to form a poetry society inside the garden, composing verses there from time to time.

His heart inclined toward ease, away from the saddle;

He kept his ambitions low, inviting the clear stream.

With green wine he toasted the bright moon;

New poems celebrated the pure autumn.

Commander Wang had none of the northern spirit and none of the soldier's bluster; no one in the poetry society dared look down on him. The southwest corner of the imperial city was where civil officials mostly resided, and because of his generous hospitality, his friendships with scholars were many. The garden was secluded and elegant, good for viewing and strolling, and whenever there was a public gathering, invitations would be sent to borrow it — so that the name "Commander Wang's Garden" became widely known. His principal wife had passed away; he had two concubines from the capital, with whom he was not entirely content. He sent a man to Yangzhou and brought back a young woman named Xie. She was beautiful of face and quick of intelligence; she could also compose a few lines of poetry.

A famous flower transplanted from the Guangling branch,

Her manner graceful, her beauty frail and swaying —

The melody of "Hou Ting Hua" more lovely still from her lips,

Like a sweet oriole just learning to sing in the royal grove.

When she arrived in the capital, Commander Wang found her entirely to his taste, and the scholars of the day all sent poems congratulating him. Not long after, more than a year later, she bore him a son. Commander Wang had had no son, and this son was like finding gold and treasure. He also saw that Concubine Xie had intelligence and ability, and he put her in charge of managing the household. The two earlier concubines, who had entered the household first and were women of the capital, deeply resented this. Yet she governed them with skill, and they did not treat her with open contempt. Moreover in receiving guests and scholars, in matters of ceremony and wine cups, she kept everything in perfect order — she was truly an excellent helpmeet.

A woman who gauges guests like Shan Tao,

Who brings out aged wine from behind the bed —

She will not grudge cutting her hair to host a feast,

And can make the master of the house feel like a great lord.

Commander Wang had risen through the military examination, began as a centurion managing the city streets, and muddled through his days well enough. Later he was dispatched on a mission to escort a high official under arrest, and from that earned a thousand gold pieces. After becoming a judicial centurion, things improved further. When he took charge of the Northern Garrison Office, what cat does not eat fish? He collected money freely, without a trembling hand. But he distinguished between what could be collected and what could not; where the law demanded enforcement, he enforced it; where some flexibility was allowable, he allowed it. He did not squeeze and extort mercilessly — and yet his household grew great. When the Wuzong emperor made his southern tour and Commander Wang was left in charge of the seal of office; then with the Prince of Ning's rebellion and the arrest of the colluding General Zhu Ning; then after Wuzong's death with the arrest of General Jiang Bin; then at the beginning of the Shizong reign with the arrest of the Director of the Ceremonial Office, Grand Eunuch Xiao Jing, and his associates, and Commander Liao Peng and his associates — each arrest brought money from those seeking lighter sentences, and each confiscation of their estates — which ran to hundreds of thousands in household wealth — brought its share from official and clerk alike. No wonder the household grew vast. When Zhu Ning's estate was confiscated, he used money to purchase officially Zhu Ning's great flower garden outside the Haida Gate. When Liao Peng's estate was confiscated, he paid an official price for Liao Peng's great flower garden outside the Pingzi Gate. Liao Peng's garden was already magnificent:

Named flowers lined the paths; ancient trees opened a forest.

Winding galleries twisted and turned, a hundred feet of winding rainbow bridge;

Lofty pavilions towered up, hidden behind layer upon layer of cloud and mist.

The rooms received the purple and azure sky;

The verandas leaned upon vertiginous cliffs.

The water floated gold and green in rippling motion;

The hall reflected itself in the pure current.

Outside the small balustrade, a full ensemble of exquisite sounds:

Sparse bamboo rustled gently, dancing in the soft wind.

Within the idle pavilion, several branches of clear shadow:

Noble pines, erect and proud, carried the moon as it shifted.

Magnificent and beautiful in the aspect of accumulated wealth and honour;

Secluded and deep, with the air of a hermit's retreat.

And as for Zhu Ning's garden — that was something else entirely:

Its timbers had exhausted the resources of the southeast;

Its labour had worn out the strength of the northwest.

The water borrowed its flow from the Jade River — a single rush of waves writing jade;

The great hall opened near the golden palace — ten fathoms of towering beams gilded in gold.

Ancient pines were planted to open pathways: Tianmu pines, pine cones, and bracket pines

— the moon flowed through their rings of jade, the wind carried music through them.

Strange rocks were gathered to form mountains: Lake Tai stones, Lingbi stones —

standing up like dragons and serpents, crouching like lions and tigers.

Dim and dark, caves and ravines held back the mist and smoke, their curves and turns without end;

Lofty and sparse, towers and terraces connected with the sun and moon, their deep chambers inexhaustible.

Truly, no words sufficed for those fairy flowers and immortal plants;

Singing birds and sporting fish seemed all filled with delight.

Commander Wang, once settled within, gave everything a thorough and unhurried refurbishing. He invited these elegant guests as companions and attendants, and truly adorned and embellished it throughout. He asked the eminent officials and grandees to compose inscriptions and verses for the various named spots. Though one could not call it Stone Chong's "Golden Valley" or Wang Wei's "Wangchuan," among the gardens of Beijing it ranked as one of the first and second finest. Each spring at peony time, each summer at lotus time, and at the other festival seasons, he himself in his great sedan chair, with others in high carriages and fine horses, would set out with Concubine Xie and his other concubines to enjoy the garden. On one such occasion, Commander Wang walked through the garden holding Concubine Xie's arm and said, "This place — see how I have decorated and improved it. That plaque was newly presented by such-and-such; this path was newly opened; that hall was newly built; those trees were newly planted." Concubine Xie gave vague murmurs of approval, but with a trace of displeasure in her manner. Commander Wang noticed and said, "Is something weighing on your mind?" Concubine Xie replied, "It is nothing. I just think about these two men — both were eminent military officials, both enjoyed the favour of those above. But because of their arrogance, their extravagance, their abuse of power, their corruption — today it all came to confiscation, and passed into our household. Is this not proof that high office is always perilous? Moreover, here in the shadow of the imperial carriages there are no shortage of powerful favourites and imperial kinsmen. We have three gardens, and all of them well appointed, and our name is known. I fear there are those who resent us and those who covet what we have. Our son is still small, and in a moment of brooding these fears came over me, and so I was displeased."

Creation dislikes what is filled to excess;

Human hearts are full of covetous desire.

Who would have thought that within the household's walls

Such deep and far-reaching plans were being made?

Commander Wang said, "The two of them engaged in treasonous schemes, and so disaster came to them. I only serve the public trust and obey the law. I trust this calamity will not fall on us. You worry that our son is young, and fear that these properties will catch the eye and stir up schemes against us. The ancients said, 'A thousand-year field has had eight hundred owners' — nothing can be held forever. And they also said, 'Children and grandchildren have their own children-and-grandchildren's luck.' Why must you worry so much?" Then he and the other concubines drank some wine and returned home, and Concubine Xie had no choice but to let the matter rest.

One day a new commander named Lu was assigned to the Guard. He was of Jiangnan origin; he had previously served in a local administrative post, and after the accession of the new emperor, as one who had served in the imperial retinue, he rose through successive promotions to his present rank, entering the Guard rolls and attending court. Commander Wang had always been one who went along easily with the world, and this Commander Lu was the sort who liked to please people — the two got along splendidly, and Commander Wang had invited him to enjoy all three of his gardens. Commander Lu had some refined suggestions for embellishments that were quite apt, and so they became very close, like old family friends. One day, drinking at Commander Lu's house, Wang asked about his son. Commander Lu said, "One son, already sixteen." Commander Wang asked to meet him; the young man was indeed a fine-looking figure.

Upstanding in his bones and bearing;

Clear in his manner, fair as a powdered youth.

His eyes flowed like limpid autumn water;

His brows drew like distant evening hills.

The swallow chin bespoke an instrument of weight;

The tiger head opened an auspicious promise.

Do not dismiss this young man as too slight —

He will soar freely on the path to Heaven.

Commander Wang said at once, "My dear Sir, what a fine instrument your son is! His future achievements will surpass even yours. This student cannot compare." Commander Lu said, "If he could enjoy the guidance of an elder friend like you, it would be the great fortune of our house." Commander Wang observed, however, that the young man's bearing was still rather common, and that his speech when questioned was crude. Commander Wang said, "Your son's future prospects need not be spoken of — they are great and far-reaching. But he must not neglect his learning." Commander Lu replied, "In the end, my son will be nothing more than a military officer — so long as he can read, that is enough." Commander Wang said, "My dear Sir, you must not say that. Our Guard is not like other Guards — it is a judicial office. Anything referred from the Eastern Depot, cases sent from outside, matters transmitted from within the palace — everything moves with a single imperial edict saying 'Arrest and examine.' Even if nothing has yet been formally established in law, this is the moment of first deposition. When a case is referred to us as severe, the judicial offices cannot dismiss it on their own. If the original intent was to punish lightly but the emperor demands severity, going light means defying the imperial will; going heavy wounds the public good. These depositions must be handled with delicacy — suppressing and elevating, leaving room for the defendant to find exoneration later. Again, when a referral is severe but the truth warrants leniency, one must be able to argue one's way through and convince others. When it comes to interrogation, one may use words to intimidate and extract the truth, or use words to invite and draw out the truth. What cannot be found through written records alone — official documents and informants' reports — cannot be established by a defendant's clever words alone either. The examiner must be open-minded and clear in principle: not to be deceived by prisoners, not to be cheated by clerks and runners. If your son will not refuse the friendship, I have some of my interrogation protocols and draft memorials that I will send for him to study. As old family friends, there is no need for ceremony — let him come often to the house, and I will explain these things to him. At his young age and with leisure at hand, now is exactly the right time to apply the mind. To dig the well when already thirsty is too late."

Learning must be pursued in good time;

When principle is clear, then judgement is decisive.

Beneath heaven's vault, no one cries "wrongful case" —

And one need not be ashamed before the wise judges of old.

Thereafter Commander Lu brought formal gifts and sent his son to pay his respects as a family nephew and seek instruction. Commander Wang explained the interrogation protocols and judicial documents to the boy. In his spare time young Lu would come to ask questions; in his spare time Commander Wang would also summon him for discussion. Concubine Xie received guests with great lavishness. Commander Wang also said, "This young man is destined for great things — we must not treat him carelessly." Concubine Xie was all the more attentive and warm. Young Commander Lu, one might note, had eaten at their home countless times, and had been taken to all three gardens to play — by any reckoning, the favour shown him was very great.

Sharing one's food is the lesser kindness;

Offering one's guidance is a warmer grace.

One cannot call this merely the bond of a father's friend —

It is no less than a teacher's debt of care.

Concubine Xie also often said, "Young men these days tend to think they already know everything. Even though you put so much effort into guiding and instructing him, he may not think it remarkable or feel grateful. Your son is already eight or nine — teach him something too." Commander Wang replied, "He is small — he would not understand. Let him just read a few passages of the Four Books; when he grows up he can inherit the office. He's an only son; don't make things hard for him." After this, Commander Wang, having been lenient in his interrogations of the officials who had protested the "Great Rites" controversy, and having been too candid in examining the Shanxi Circuit Censor Ma Lu's case involving the false sorcerer Zhang Yin — earning neither the emperor's approval nor the Grand Secretariat's — he quickly claimed illness and applied to retire. In these three gardens he lived in leisure and enjoyment for three or four years, and then passed away.

The great tree still stands, as ever —

But where is the general now?

Only the place of pleasure remains;

Spring grass grows green, swaying gently.

In ordinary times he had made friends chiefly among civil officials, and so he received a few elegiac verses at his death. His two younger concubines, childless, were both women of the capital; they took their own furnishings and left. The household's capable servants all flew away; only a few elderly servants and young boys remained. Concubine Xie often lamented, "Only the man who was willing to manage others' affairs — the people who would manage his affairs, there are none left to be found." Mother and son had no choice but to endure on their own.

Commander Lu was assigned to accompany the imperial carriage on a journey to Chengtian Prefecture in Huguang to pay homage at the tomb of the Xian Emperor. He brought his son along on the journey. They had reached Henan when fire broke out twice inside the traveling palace. The second fire was very fierce; attendant inner officials and court ladies — one could not count how many burned to death. Among the escorting officials, none knew in the smoke and flames where the emperor was. Then it was Commander Lu's son — his fortune had arrived — who at the risk of his life entered the inferno. He saw the emperor amid the firelight with no way out; having seen the emperor at Chengtian and recognized him, the young man simply went forward, hoisted him onto his back, and carried him through the smoke and fire to safety. Though the true Son of Heaven is protected by a hundred spirits, yet his own reckless courage in saving the emperor was a merit that nothing could surpass.

Bearing Heaven on his back as a roc bears the wind;

Bathing in the sun toward the valley of Yu.

Flames and scalding water held no fear for him;

Such merit deserves to be carved in the scrolls of history.

The emperor, while still on the road, had already conferred office and great rewards. On returning to the capital, successive promotions came rapidly. In not four or five years, he had risen to the rank of Regional Commander presiding over the Guard. His judgements and decisions in legal matters were those of a veteran official; people all praised his maturity and wisdom in one so young, not knowing how much had been transmitted to him. Commander Lu himself credited his own intelligence, pleased with his skill in questioning, satisfied that his interrogation protocols impressed people and his memorials were regularly approved by the emperor — forgetting that one day Commander Wang had spent considerable breath upon his lips.

The young bird has spread its wings;

It no longer remembers the shell that sheltered it.

As a rule, when a man is in poverty and low station he struggles to protect himself alone; when he rises to wealth and power, he begins to think of extras. Commander Lu had come from Chengtian Prefecture and on arriving in the capital had no properties; now he wished to acquire some, wished for a place for leisure and diversion. Certain idle, gossiping hangers-on said, "Commander Wang's garden is the finest. Commander Wang is dead, and his son is worthless — likes to whore, likes to gamble. He is sure to be unable to hold it. Better to send someone to talk to him and buy it from him." Commander Lu said, "Is that the one outside Haida Gate? A beautiful garden! I admired it greatly when I was there in those days — but I don't know if he would be willing to sell. It would certainly take two or three thousand silver taels." An old guard soldier named Xu Duzhi knelt before him and said, "Your Lordship need only give this servant twelve hundred taels; I will go and get it done." Commander Lu said, "Is that perhaps too little?" Old Xu said, "Not too little. Your Lordship, just take possession of the property and be done with it." Commander Lu smiled and said, "Go first and talk; I will give you the silver."

The place where years ago he rested and played

Has long haunted his dreams.

Employ a three-inch tongue

To take his fifteen-city peace.

By this time Commander Wang had been dead for seven or eight years, and young Master Wang was approaching twenty. In the early years Concubine Xie had supervised and pressed him to study and do well; but Commander Wang had been too indulgent with the boy and spoiled him. Once his father died and his mother grew strict, she could only be strict within the walls of the house. By fifteen or sixteen, a pack of disreputable men had drawn him out with lures and flattery, letting him run wild and about town. Then he had married, which added a brother-in-law — also a troublesome young rake who stirred up trouble outside. Concubine Xie could not control him anymore.

On the day when old Xu came to raise the matter, young Master Wang leapt up like a startled leopard: "Your master is a Brocade Guard commander — so is our family. How dare you look down on us and want our garden? We are not selling! We are not selling! And you, you wretch, who once served our late master — how dare you be so impudent!" He was about to strike him. When Concubine Xie heard and came to ask, old Xu had already been driven out. She was somewhat incensed herself: "Commander Lu received my late husband's great kindness. How, when we have no leverage to sell our property, can he so easily send someone to talk to us — that truly is looking down on us. We need only send him a proper refusal. But young master should not have tried to beat the guard soldier."

Guests who drank together at Ping Quan —

The wine cups are not yet cold.

Mad schemes plot usurpation,

All too ready to forget the waves of grace received.

This was not the end of it. Xu Duzhi went back and, together with Commander Lu, laid a trap.

One day, Master Wang was going out with several idle hangers-on when he met a capital beggar claiming to be a nephew of Zhu Ning, lately pardoned and returned from military exile. The beggar cried out, "Our family had a garden with land attached worth seven or eight thousand, and your family used treachery and power to buy it at an official price of twelve hundred taels! And the ten-odd thousand taels of silver our family had hidden in the garden — declared confiscated loot and imperial property — were all dug up and taken. Now I want you to return the silver and return the property. If you won't, I'll file an accusation and have it all seized back into the government's hands." He made a ruckus. Master Wang was furious, wanted to beat him, wanted to hand him over to the authorities. But the hangers-on said, "You cannot. He's talking nonsense; if he says there is silver and you say there isn't, you must confront him before a magistrate — so just be patient." Young Master Wang was a wax spear tip — as soft as it looked — and yielded without putting up a fight. The bystanders arranged a solution: "Master, your garden is there anyway; why not give this beggar a plot of land, and be rid of the nuisance?" Concubine Xie said, "We should recover the original official price." The bystanders said, "Where would this poor beggar find money? He'll make a scene for a couple of days; if the Eastern Depot hears of it, it won't be fun." Under heavy pressure from all sides, the young master signed over a deed of transfer.

When power is at its height, property accumulates each day;

When fortune turns, nothing can be kept.

The man took the deed, then went to Xu Duzhi's place and collected his twelve hundred taels. The hangers-on around young Master Wang had all been eating from the same pot — had always had a share in this. The garden that Commander Wang had taken years to acquire was now Commander Lu's.

Times change, and the mulberry fields become the sea;

Pounding and building — all toil for nothing.

Since ancient times, those who enjoy a view

Are never those who first created it.

Concubine Xie said, "This affair was clearly done by Commander Lu. He was guided and taught by your late father, and learned how to conduct interrogations — now he sits in the tribunal and uses his power to extort people. You must now quickly give up your wandering outside, and at home search out your father's books and read a little, learn something. Then go and inherit the Brocade Guard Thousand-Centurion position that is owed to you, and you will be of the same official yamen as Commander Lu — you can at least fight for your father's reputation and hold on to what property remains." Master Wang seemed to take this to heart — he showed some anger and resolve, went home, cleared out a study room and swept it clean. He brought out all his late father's books, arranged them, and told the gateman that no visitors were to be announced; everyone was to be turned away; even his brother-in-law was not to be received.

Do not say it is too late to study;

Reading by candlelight surpasses walking blind in the dark.

The High Adviser at fifty became a famous poet —

Fame comes even to those who begin late.

The next morning he went to the study, flipped through one book and another, found he could not make out what any of them were — eight out of ten characters he could not read. He knitted his brows and stared hard, and heaved sighs as loud as thunder. He sat until mid-morning, then picked up a book and went straight to his mother's room. Concubine Xie said, "You have only just sat down — why are you out again already?" Master Wang said, "What am I supposed to do in there?" She said, "Read books." He said, "How does one read?" She said, "Look at the characters on the page and read through them." He said, "I don't recognize them — how am I to read?" She said, "Then what have you been reading all this time?" He said, "As a child the teacher used to read aloud to me and I would repeat after him; but I never actually listened to him. Now I still need a teacher to read while I listen. But for a man of my size to still need a teacher to read to me — how embarrassing." Concubine Xie said, "If you feel the shame of it, then good. If you don't learn now, things will be even more shameful. Go back in — I'll send someone to find a teacher." Back in the study he didn't know whether to stand, sit, walk, or lie down, and soon wandered outside again.

A well-fed hawk will not bear the leash;

It always imagines soaring through the empty sky.

The moment it escapes the glove,

It is already gone, alone in the distance.

He was away for several days without returning. Concubine Xie had people search for him everywhere, to no avail.

After five or six days, the garden caretaker from Shuncheng Gate came to report: "Just now several men who looked like guardsmen came, saying the garden is now under Commander Lu's management, and they put in a new caretaker and drove me away." Concubine Xie said, "Our garden is not for sale." The caretaker said, "They already tossed our household goods out into the street, and they're going to send someone to arrest the master." Concubine Xie said, "So it has come to this? To seize someone else's property outright — even if it costs me my back and my yellow bile, I will reason with them about this." She was still speaking when Master Wang came back, saying, "It's bad — those ingrates have entrapped me. I was bored and wandering out the gate, when by chance I ran into my brother-in-law, who said, 'The gateman told me you were not at home — how are you walking out now?' I said, 'The gateman didn't know.' And so I went along with him. He said, 'There's a place — good for fun. Let's go and enjoy ourselves.' We went to a big house where five or seven people were already there, well dressed, looking like our own sort, gambling. My brother-in-law told me to put money down. I said I had no money. He said, 'Don't worry, a man of your property needn't fear losing a little gambling money — I'll back you.' He called for five hundred taels' worth of chips for us both. I was winning for a while, but my brother-in-law was losing. The first day or two we lost three hundred; I wanted to redeem my chips and come home. My brother-in-law called for more, and day after day my brother-in-law would win when I lost and lose when I won, until we had lost twelve hundred taels altogether. They wouldn't take a promissory note — they wanted property. I didn't know what property I had. My brother-in-law said, 'The flower garden at Shuncheng Gate West — I know its four boundaries. Just write it over to him temporarily.' I refused, and everyone was shouting, and they wouldn't let me leave. My brother-in-law said, 'Your property is worth a thousand; you're losing twelve hundred — you're getting a bargain.' When it came time to write the deed, they said it was still not enough, and I had to write another note for a hundred taels, with my brother-in-law acting as guarantor, before they would let me go."

Concubine Xie said, "Yes — your brother-in-law and Commander Lu have conspired together to trap you. Now the property is already under the Lu family's management." Master Wang said, "How can that be so fast — the deed I wrote had nothing filled in for the official seal." Concubine Xie said, "You fool! You good-for-nothing! Your father paid fourteen hundred taels for it and spent two thousand more in improvement and furnishing. You gambled it away for twelve hundred, and call yourself lucky, and still signed a note for another hundred taels!" She sighed. "To have given birth to this worthless child — even our last nest has been gambled away by you." Master Wang said, "It was my brother-in-law who set the trap." He had been with his wife in the bedroom all night quarrelling over it, and his wife, consumed with anger, had taken a rope and tried to hang herself.

Pity the foolish wastrel;

Pity the ill-fated beauty.

This matter was in fact set up by the brother-in-law together with his associates, as a favour to Commander Lu, taking advantage of the simpleton's blindness. Unexpectedly Concubine Xie exposed it; the household was in uproar, and the wife had tried to hang herself. The brother-in-law came rushing over to look for trouble, but found his sister sitting perfectly well in her room. She said, "Brother — this is not how family acts. He doesn't know how to behave himself, so it is for you to counsel and correct him — how can you conspire together to trap him? That is not how kinsmen conduct themselves." The brother-in-law put on a stern face and said, "What nonsense!" Just then Master Wang came barging in and said, "You shameless villain! You conspired with men to swindle me at gambling! A property worth two thousand, bought for twelve hundred — and I still owe a hundred-tael note — and you call that fair? You used Commander Lu's backing! How long do you think that lasts? You animal — never dare to darken our doorstep again. Get out!" And Concubine Xie arrived just then: "Enough. The garden has already been sealed up by Commander Lu. Who told you to keep company with riffraff and gamble your money away?" This landed squarely on the brother-in-law, who could only slink away. Filled with shame and fury, he thought: "There's no money to be squeezed from this household anymore. A hundred taels, and nothing to show for it. Now I might as well go all the way."

Flies and curs, a rabble of their kind,

Chase every scrap of rank and smell.

They only know: power is there to be used —

And have forgotten all about ties of blood.

These two episodes were arranged by Commander Lu and old Xu Duzhi. The first time they used the hangers-on; the proceeds from the land price were split between the hangers-on and the false-nephew-of-Zhu-Ning. The second time they used the brother-in-law; the proceeds from the garden price were split between the brother-in-law and the gambling confederates. Old Xu took his cut from both ends. And so the brother-in-law came again to see old Xu: "Commander Lu has sealed up my brother-in-law's house. My brother-in-law is ranting and raving, threatening to accuse me of running a gambling trap and to expose Commander Lu's property seizure, and blaming me for my sister trying to hang herself. Now I'll file a suit against him in the Guard. My brother-in-law is afraid of lawsuits; Concubine Xie cares about face and won't go public. They'll surely come to compromise, and hand over the Pingzi Gate garden to Commander Lu, and we can each pocket a thousand or so for our trouble." He wrote a false and fraudulent complaint, accusing the young master of building illegal rooms, operating a criminal gambling den, committing incest with his father's concubine, and through anger causing his wife to hang herself at her mother-in-law's instigation. Old Xu brought it in; it was approved, and he was dispatched with it.

In a heart as deep as a mountain gorge, rank greed;

Driven and deployed like hawks and falcons.

A single paper document, fierce as fire —

And the jade and stone of Kunlun Hill burn together.

Ordinarily when an arresting officer is sent out, before he takes anyone into custody, there is the matter of speaking about money first. But old Xu, with his eye on a larger game, said nothing about money — he simply arrested young Master Wang like a hawk snatching a goose and locked him in the official holding house. With such a show of force, and the family not knowing what had happened, there would be talk of "arresting fees" and "yamen expenses," official silver that could all be negotiated up. But once young Master Wang was locked away, eating government rice at five fen a day and not a single familiar face in sight, Concubine Xie knew that this was a bluster and a swindle — no real charge against him. If she pushed, they would open their mouths wide for money. Better to let it sit and also give her son a scare, so that in the future he would be afraid and dare not run about wildly. She waited a day. Old Xu, fearing the scheme was losing momentum, came to summon Concubine Xie before the tribunal. If Concubine Xie had said, "I am the wife of a noble household, I do not appear in public," he would have had her. But Concubine Xie, unexpectedly, wrapped her head in a plain black cloth, put on a blue jacket and old shoes, and said, "Let us go." Old Xu was caught off guard; he had to abandon that ploy, and said, "Madam — the commander inside is sitting in judgment on the bench. How can Madam appear and expose herself in public? Both sides are family acquaintances — let us discuss it and settle it between ourselves." Concubine Xie said, "That was then; this is now. Then I was a Madam; now I am a woman charged before the law. If I do not go, then what?" She called for a small sedan chair, and old Xu had no choice but to accompany her to the front gate of the Guard. He pulled people aside and negotiated, saying, "Who has not received our commander's favour?" — angling for money and playing both sides — spending perhaps a hundred taels or so.

Once he sat above on this very bench;

Now the coffin trees over his grave are already arched.

His former authority is gone —

Just enough remains to spare her being bullied on the way.

Commander Lu took his seat on the bench; the prisoners were brought in, the doormen shouting and roaring. The instruments of torture — finger-crushers and leg-presses — were flung down on the floor with a crash, making young Master Wang wail in terror: "Mother — I am done! Your son is dying today!" Concubine Xie, kneeling on the ground beside him, addressed him: "How could you expect not to die? Your father, when he sat on this very bench, did God knows how many things with no regard for Heaven's principles. Today it is retribution — and it lands on you. And still you hope to live!" She said it clearly and loudly, just like that. Commander Lu sat with a stern face on his bench above, about to begin his performance, when he heard these few words — she had brought up her husband, who had once done Commander Lu great kindness. And she said her husband had done things with no regard for Heaven's principles, and yet today's proceedings could hardly be called principled either. Commander Lu felt, involuntarily, his conscience stir. He pretended to ask old Xu: "Who is this person?" "The Madam of the late Commander," came the answer. Commander Lu said, "All right, rise." Concubine Xie stood. Commander Lu said, "The illegal rooms mentioned in the complaint, the operating of a gambling and extortion den, the incest with the father's concubine, the driving of the wife to death — what is all this?" Young Master Wang could not utter a word of answer. Again it was Concubine Xie who spoke: "The rooms — there were two originally, and those have already been given away. As for extortion and gambling — who was harmed? As for incest with the father's concubine — his father died when the young master was twelve years old. The two concubines both returned to their families and remarried. As for driving the wife to death — his wife is at home right now." Commander Lu heard her words — their reasoning was strict and their principle was clear. And then he thought: he had already acquired two of the three gardens; how could he continue to use power to oppress her in good conscience? He had no choice but to let it go, saying: "This complaint appears to be false. But the young man's sister-in-law did also try to hang herself, so there is something to it. Dismissed — I will note its withdrawal."

Sternly the moral law confronted him;

It moved deeply even the tiger-and-wolf heart.

An early halt to the grasping, rapacious nature —

And he trembled, and did not dare to press further.

At home afterward, Concubine Xie said to her son, "He and you are both sons of commanders. He sits above; you kneel below — and you drag me into it as well. Can you not die of shame? Now you have seen what your friends and relatives amount to — every single one of them is there to work you. You must stop running about outside now. Stay at home; find your father's books and read a little, learn some characters. Then go and inherit the Brocade Guard Thousand-Centurion position due to you — you will be a colleague in the same yamen as Commander Lu. At least do something to honour your father's name and protect what property remains." Young Master Wang seemed chastened and filled with remorse. He turned over a new leaf. At home Concubine Xie herself taught him to read and write; she also used money to have him inherit the Brocade Guard Thousand-Centurion rank. He became a colleague of Commander Lu in the same yamen, and still managed to hold on to one garden.

As for Commander Lu — though he enjoyed imperial favour and rose all the way to the rank of Palace Guardian with jade pendant, his happiness lasted only so long. After his death, men memorialized against him for corruption and abuse of power, until he was stripped of everything and his property confiscated — and who knows whose hands those two gardens fell into.

Those who seize by force ultimately yield it to others by force.

I reflect on this passage of events: Commander Wang opened the breach with his gardens; Commander Lu seized another man's property by power and did not live to enjoy it. This too should awaken the hearts of those who would wear themselves to the bone for their children and grandchildren. As for young Master Wang — fool enough to be swindled, with friends and relatives all his enemies in the same boat — his situation was dangerous and perilous indeed! To make one's way in the world one must be wise; in choosing one's companions one cannot be careless.