Читать книгу A Thousand Pieces of Gold: A Memoir of China’s Past Through its Proverbs - Adeline Mah Yen - Страница 9

QI HUO KE JU

ALTHOUGH MY GRANDFATHER used to be a businessman before his retirement, he was always more interested in books than money. When the Communists were taking over China in 1949, my family fled from Shanghai to Hong Kong. My stepmother Niang placed me in a boarding school where I stayed for the next three years. On the rare occasions when I was allowed to go home during the holidays, Niang told me to sleep on a cot in Ye Ye’s room.

Ye Ye and I never discussed it, but I knew in my heart that we were both happy about this arrangement. Although I was young and he was old, we shared a special rapport and I loved being with him. He would ask me to read the Chinese newspapers aloud to teach me new characters, or show me the proper way of writing calligraphy with a brush. Sometimes we played Chinese chess but what I liked best of all were the stories he told about legendary figures from Chinese history.

Once 1 asked him what sort of businesses my father was involved with.

‘Your father is very talented,’ Ye Ye answered. ‘He has import/export, manufacturing and real estate businesses.’

‘What is the most profitable business, Ye Ye?’

‘It all depends on your definition of “profit”,’ he answered. ‘If your chief consideration is money, then the best investment is probably real estate. Houses and apartments in good locations will always go up in value if they are well managed. Keep that in mind.’

‘Is there any other consideration more important than money?’

‘Of course!’ Ye Ye answered. ‘Relationships, morality and education are all much more important than money. Many people make the mistake of thinking that cash, material goods and real estate are the only precious things in life. They forget about education and knowledge. To me, a sharp, ethical and cultivated mind is a much worthier asset than anything else, and is truly a qi huo ke ju (precious treasure worth cherishing). Let the proverbs I’ve taught you and the stories behind these proverbs be your most precious commodity. Treasure them and carry them with you wherever you go.’

Because of their influence on Chinese history, many Chinese regard Confucius, the First Emperor of China, and Mao Zedong to have been the three most influential figures who ever lived. Confucius moulded Chinese thinking and his teachings still affect Chinese life on every level. The First Emperor unified China, abolished feudalism and established a form of government that remained virtually unchanged until the twentieth century. Mao Zedong ended the civil war, unleashed the Cultural Revolution, and radically altered China’s political system and ideology. Whereas the lives of Confucius and Mao Zedong have both been very well documented, that of the First Emperor remains relatively unknown to western readers.

In Shiji, Sima Qian wrote extensively about that period of history when a divided China was united by the First Emperor, as well as the tumultuous years immediately following his death. Many of the phrases used by the Grand Historian to describe the intrigues and conflicts of that time have come down to us as proverbs. They have survived for over two thousand years and are still frequently quoted in everyday conversation.

During that restless era of strife and constant warfare, the population of China already numbered over 40 million. However, battlefield casualties were enormous. According to Shiji, 1,500,000 soldiers were slaughtered in fifteen major military campaigns waged by the state of Qin between 363–234 BC. The average peasant led a life of misery and uncertainty. Armed soldiers would arbitrarily march across his fields, appropriate his crops, draft his sons or rape his women while the seven states fought for supremacy. Between wars, there were diplomatic manoeuvres, accords, intrigues and treaties. Women had no rights and were used as pawns to secure strategic marriage alliances and sexual favours. The life of an average woman was at the complete mercy of her husband or father.

But it was not only peasants who suffered. Royal princes too were sometimes used as pawns. At the conclusion of a peace treaty between two states, it was customary to exchange hostages as a guarantee of good faith. These hostages were usually princes of royal birth.

In 265 BC, a merchant named Lü Buwei travelled to Handan, the capital city of Zhao, in search of fresh business opportunities. Of the seven states that remained, Zhao was the most cultured and sophisticated, Chu had the largest land area and Qin the greatest military power.

There were two main reasons for Qin’s military might. First and foremost was the hardiness of its people. Living in the far west corner of ancient China, the people of Qin had been responsible for centuries for the defence of their western frontier against the fierce nomadic Xiongnu or Huns who roamed the adjacent desert wastelands. In time, they adopted many of the savage fighting methods of their enemy and developed military practices more ruthless than that of any other state. Their children were taught to ride from a young age, given bows and arrows and shown how to shoot birds and animals from the saddle. When a war was declared, every citizen was conscripted. The Qin army seldom used chariots but would swoop down upon their enemies on fast horses, moving like a swarm of locusts across the plains and destroying all in their path with their spears, halberds, dagger axes, crossbows and arrows. Flight or surrender was considered cowardly and desertion was punishable by death. Qin soldiers were promoted according to the number of heads of enemy troops they brought back to their officers. All military personnel were expected to fight to the death.

According to Shiji, there was a second reason for Qin’s strength. Sima Qian wrote:

The country of Qin was so situated that its geographical position almost guaranteed its military might. Access was irksome because the state was surrounded by a girdle consisting of the Yellow River and the mountains. Suspended 1000 feet above the neighbouring states, its lofty location was so advantageous that a million attackers could be held off with fewer than 20,000 men. When a Qin general sent his troops to descend on the enemy, it was like a giant emptying a pail of water from the pinnacle of a tall building.

Merchant Lü Buwei was born in the state of Wei but lived and prospered in the state of Haan for a few years before moving to Zhao. Like many traders, he travelled frequently from state to state, buying cheap and selling dear. By the year 265 BC he had already made a fortune and was known to be a very wealthy man.

At that time Qin was governed by King Zao, whose reign was to last for fifty-five years. Between 275 and 270 BC, Qin defeated the armies of both Wei and Chu so convincingly that both states were forced to deed over large tracts of land during the peace negotiations. Flushed with victory, King Zao turned his attention north and attacked Zhao in 270 BC. This time, the Qin troops were defeated by the well-disciplined Zhao army. Qin sued for peace and the two states exchanged royal princes to act as hostages.

Instead of sending his oldest son, the crown prince, as a hostage, King Zao dispatched one of his grandsons, Prince Zi Chu, the son of his second son, Prince An Guo. Like many princes of royal blood, Prince An Guo had a favourite wife and many concubines. His favourite wife was barren but he had more than twenty sons by his other wives. When Prince An Guo was commanded by his father to send one of his sons to the state of Zhao, it was easy for him to dispatch Prince Zi Chu because Zi Chu’s mother was one of his least favourite concubines.

Life as a hostage in an alien state was a precarious affair much dreaded by the royal princes. Should hostilities resume between the two states, the hostage prince would be an easy and convenient target on which the populace could vent its anger. There was even the likelihood of being murdered or executed.

After his arrival in Zhao, Prince Zi Chu was neglected by his royal family back home. He was a middle son, his mother was only a minor concubine, and his father Prince An Guo was not even the Crown Prince. He was provided with a very modest residence in the guest house district of Handan, capital city of Zhao. The other aristocrats in the city held him in contempt, noting that he lived shabbily under straitened circumstances, without even a decent carriage.

As time went by, the relationship between the two states of Qin and Zhao gradually worsened. There were frequent skirmishes and aggressive posturing on both sides. After each dispute, Zi Chu’s privileges would be further curtailed. He had no choice but to endure in silence the mounting insults, deplorable living conditions, diminished rations, reduced allowance and other forms of abuse. Ignored by his own family and ostracised by the people of Zhao, Prince Zi Chu was destitute when Merchant Lü Buwei came into his life.

After migrating from the state of Haan to Zhao, Merchant Lü prospered even further. Now immensely wealthy, he decided to settle down in Handan, which at that time enjoyed the reputation of being the most cultured and sophisticated capital city of the seven states. ‘Handan’s women are beautiful, its music superb, and youths everywhere try to simulate the elegance of the natives. They imitate even the way people walk in Handan.’^*

By sheer chance, Merchant Lü overheard that Prince Zi Chu was being held hostage in the same city and was living in difficult circumstances. More importantly, he learned that Zi Chu’s father, Prince An Guo, had recently been proclaimed Crown Prince of Qin following the death of his older brother the year before (266 BC). It dawned on the merchant that Prince Zi Chu now stood a chance of becoming heir to the throne of the most powerful state under Heaven.

Merchant Lü asked his own father, ‘What is the rate of return if one invests in farming?’

‘The return can be as high as ten times your investment.’

‘How about the buying and selling of jewellery and pearls?’

‘Much more profitable. A hundred times your capital.’

‘How about helping to place a king on the throne?’

‘Oh!’ his father exclaimed. ‘That can lead to the sort of wealth that is incalculable.’

Merchant Lü laughed. ‘In that case, Prince Zi Chu should be regarded as qi huo ke ju (a precious treasure worth cherishing)! If we invest in him, we might reap enormous riches one day. Father, you have made up my mind for me.’

After this conversation, Merchant Lü set about making a business plan. First he paid a visit to Prince Zi Chu and was shocked at his modest surroundings and poverty-stricken appearance. Moved to pity, he said to the prince, ‘I know how to open the gate of your house wider for you.’

Prince Zi Chu laughed and said, ‘Why don’t you open your own gate wider before worrying about mine?’

Lü replied, ‘You don’t understand. The width of my opening depends on the width of yours.’

Xin zhi suo wei (grasping the essence of what he was alluding to), the prince led the merchant to a mat in an inner room. They sat opposite each other and were soon deep in conversation.

Lü said, ‘Your grandfather, King Zao, is getting on in years. Although your father Prince An Guo is now Crown Prince and next in line to the throne, he has not yet designated his own successor. Your chances of being your father’s heir are not great because not only are you a middle son, you also have more than twenty brothers. What do you say if the two of us put our heads together and come up with a plan to seat you on the throne one day?’

Prince Zi Chu could hardly believe his ears. ‘My mother and I have never been favoured by my father. Besides, I have been a hostage and away from home for a long time. At present, I have no chance of competing with my brothers who are there in person, waiting upon my father day and night. If you can accomplish this miracle, I will make you my guardian and share everything with you. In addition, I’ll remain grateful to you for the rest of my life. But the real question is, how do we achieve this?’

‘I have made some enquiries and thought it out very carefully,’ the wily merchant replied. ‘You are poor and living in a foreign state. You have no money to buy gifts for members of your family or to cultivate people here in Handan. I too am poor but I’m willing to take out a thousand pieces of gold and use them on your behalf. As everyone knows, your father is very much in love with his favourite wife, Princess Hua Yang, who happens to be barren and has no son of her own. I think that is the reason your father has not yet named his successor. Princess Hua Yang’s influence on your father is enormous and it would help greatly if she were to adopt you as her son.

‘I hear that Princess Hua Yang is fond of jewellery. Tomorrow let us go and purchase for her the rarest gems and brightest jade. I shall travel to Xianyang, the capital of Qin, next month and give them to her as a special gift from you. Hopefully, she will be persuaded to put in a good word for you to your father.’

‘But you don’t even know Princess Hua Yang. How will you make her acquaintance?’

Lü laughed, ‘That is no problem at all! I have contacts who know Princess Hua Yang’s older sister and brother. I hear that the princess and her siblings are very close and see each other regularly. In any case, leave all that to me and don’t worry. First let me present you with five hundred pieces of gold for living expenses and for entertaining the noble lords here at Handan. Make some good contacts. I’ll be back soon and everything will be arranged for you.’

Prince Zi Chu knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Lü. Then he said, ‘Should you succeed in making me King of Qin, I shall rule my kingdom together with you.’

A few months later, Lü returned from Xianyang in the best of spirits and immediately sought out Zi Chu. ‘Congratulations!’ he began. ‘I met Princess Hua Yang’s sister and asked her to present some gifts to the princess, telling her that they were from you. Then I said to her, “King Zao is getting old. When he dies, your sister’s husband Prince An Guo will be king. At present, Prince An Guo loves your sister deeply even though she is barren. Princess Hua Yang is a beautiful woman but I have heard that when a woman ages, her husband’s love vanishes along with her beauty. And since she has no son, there will be no one left to protect her after Prince An Guo’s death. Her position will become more and more precarious as she gets older and feebler. Who will be there to look after her at that stage of her life?”

‘I could see that she was getting interested. Now I brought out the jewellery and said, “All these jewels were specially purchased for Princess Hua Yang by Prince Zi Chu. Please give them to her. Prince Zi Chu is a worthy and filial son and loves your sister like a second mother. Life is hard for him. The people of Qin have largely forgotten Prince Zi Chu, and he has languished in the foreign state of Zhao as a hostage for over five years. In spite of this, he remains good-hearted and honest. What a fine young man! He is worthy and filial and everyone in Zhao holds him in the highest esteem!

“When I think of it, since Princess Hua Yang has no son of her own, why doesn’t she adopt Zi Chu as her heir and persuade Prince An Guo to make Zi Chu his successor? This way, your sister, you and your family will always be protected and honoured, even after Prince An Guo’s death. When Zi Chu ascends the throne, Princess Hua Yang will be the Queen Mother. Even after her death, Prince Zi Chu will honour your sister’s memory and the memory of her family. This is called yi yan er wan shi zhi li (speaking one sentence that results in ten thousand generations of gain).”

‘I’m glad to report that after lengthy discussions with her sister, Princess Hua Yang became convinced of the truth of my advice. She waited for the appropriate moment and praised you to your father, saying what a worthy man you are. Then with tears in her eyes, she begged your father to allow her to adopt you as her son and set you up as his rightful heir so that her own future would be secure. Your father gave his consent and even had a jade tally engraved with words to this effect. He broke the tally in two and gave one half to Princess Hua Yang, retaining the other half for himself. This means that you are now your father’s rightful heir. Congratulations!’

‘What you have done is incredible!’ Prince Zi Chu exclaimed. ‘But why did my father not make a public announcement that I am now his heir?’

‘How can he do that? Remember, your grandfather is still very much alive and sits on the throne at this very moment. Your father is only the crown prince, not yet the king. But the fact that he had a jade tally engraved to this effect and divided it with Princess Hua Yang means that he has made a solemn promise. Here! I almost forgot! Your father and Princess Hua Yang also asked me to be your tutor and entrusted me to bring you all these rich gifts. Just look at them! I have no doubt that all the noble lords in Handan will soon look at you with different eyes and your fame will spread far and wide from now on.’

‘I shall always be grateful to you,’ Zi Chu exclaimed. ‘How can I ever repay you?’

‘Don’t even think of it!’ Merchant Lü replied. ‘Why don’t you come to my house tonight to celebrate? I have many concubines who can entertain us. Tonight, they will sing for us while we dine.’

Over the next five years, the two men became best friends and spent much time together. Though Merchant Lü had many concubines, he was particularly fond of one named Zhao Ji who was very beautiful and had great skill in dancing. One day in 260 BC, Prince Zi Chu happened to catch sight of her. As she danced and sang, Prince Zi Chu could not take his eyes off her. Throughout the dinner, he thought of her. Finally, when it was time for him to leave, he stood up and proposed a toast.

‘I drink to your long life!’ Prince Zi Chu said to Merchant Lü. ‘You have done so much for me. May I ask for one more favour?’

‘Of course! Whatever I have also belongs to you. Just ask and it will be yours.’

‘In the last five years, I have been to your house many times and seen many of your concubines,’ Prince Zi Chu began. ‘Even though they are all very pretty, I have never been tempted. But tonight, I have met someone who is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Please, will you give Zhao Ji to me?’

At first, Lü was outraged. He thought of lashing out, but instead held his tongue, took a long drink of wine and thought deeply. By now, he had invested all his wealth in Prince Zi Chu and could no longer afford to break with him. Unbeknown to anyone else, Zhao Ji had just told him that morning that she was pregnant. The thought occurred to him that if they concealed her pregnancy and Prince Zi Chu married her, his son would one day be King of Qin.

He forced a laugh and said to Prince Zi Chu, ‘I would not do it for anyone else but you! You are my best friend and I can refuse you nothing. Give her a few days to pack her belongings and I will send her to you.’

Zhao Ji successfully concealed her pregnancy from Prince Zi Chu. When she delivered in the next year, Prince Zi Chu assumed the child was his and promoted Zhao Ji to the level of a proper wife. He named the boy Prince Zheng.

Two years later, hostilities between Qin and Zhao escalated to such an extent that the Qin army laid siege to the city of Handan. This infuriated the men of Zhao and they wanted to kill Prince Zi Chu. With the help of Merchant Lü, the prince successfully bribed the officers acting as his guards with 600 catties of gold and the two friends managed to escape. They made their way outside the city gates of Handan to the Qin army and were escorted back to Qin.

Back in Xianyang, Prince Zi Chu was hailed as a war hero. Since his adoptive mother Princess Hua Yang was originally from Chu, Merchant Lü urged Prince Zi Chu to dress in the costume worn by Chu noblemen when he went to pay his respects to her and his father, Prince An Guo. Princess Hua Yang was very much impressed by this thoughtful gesture and advised Prince An Guo to grant Zi Chu even greater riches.

Meanwhile, in Handan, Prince Zi Chu’s wife Zhao Ji, and son Prince Zheng, were in a vulnerable position. Over the years however, through the assistance of Merchant Lü, Zhao Ji’s parents had become wealthy in their own right. They paid heavy bribes for Zhao Ji and Prince Zheng to go into hiding. Mother and son lived quietly by themselves for a number of years close to the home of another royal hostage, a prince from Yan. This prince had a baby son, Prince Dan, who was approximately the same age as Prince Zheng. The two princelings often played together and developed a close friendship as they grew into boyhood.

In reading Shiji, I am repeatedly struck by the extensive role played by family ties, close friendships and personal commitments throughout the course of Chinese history, leading to consequences undreamt of by the perpetrators.

The train of events that followed has a striking parallel in our own time. During the 1940s in China, almost all the leaders of the Communist party were close friends of Mao Zedong. They actively participated in the promotion of his image, claiming him to be a qi huo ke ju (precious commodity worth cherishing), and ‘the highest ideal of mankind’. In deifying Mao, they rode on the coattails of his success and developed a total and blind commitment to him.

After driving out the Nationalists in 1949, Mao became more powerful than any previous monarch had been. To challenge him was to dispute the party and the legitimacy of its rule. In Chinese folklore, there is a mythical character named Zhong Kui who possesses the power to expel ghosts and evil spirits. Mao alluded to this figure when describing his own role: ‘The Communist party needed someone to get rid of Chiang Kaishek and the other bad elements in order to personify its claim to power. I became the party’s Zhong Kui of the twentieth century.’

As the years went by, Mao identified more and more with his own press. Twenty years later, the idealistic and fiery revolutionary had turned into an autocratic, paranoid and frustrated old despot clinging desperately to his throne. At one point in the early 1960s, he was heard lamenting that his comrades treated him with the same attention paid to the corpse at a funeral.

Mao unleashed the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to reassert his dominance, purging his most loyal colleagues, many of whom had been with him for over thirty years. These were the same men who had originally deified Mao in the 1940s. Because of their assiduous promotion of Mao, they had helped to create the Mao dynasty, and identified Mao so closely with the Chinese Communist party that the two became synonymous in the eyes of the Chinese people. Never did they expect that the ‘precious commodity’ they had helped transform into a demigod would turn against them and plunge the country into chaos.

Although China still considers herself to be a Communist country, it is a very different sort of Communism from that envisaged by Marx, Engels, Lenin or even Mao himself. Since Mao’s death in 1976, China has been radically transformed culturally, economically and politically. Some consider China to be Communist in name only, retaining that label solely because of the country’s Maoist legacy.

Even today, criticising Mao for his actions during the Cultural Revolution is still perceived as challenging the Communist party’s right to rule. This issue remains unresolved and continues to haunt the present leadership.

^* Handan Xue Bu is a proverb taken from the book Zhuangzi, written around 310 BC. The proverb describes a person who loses his original self by slavishly imitating the ways of others.