Chapter 23: A Single Spark Starts a Prairie Fire
No matter how melancholic her romantic feelings were, they were a private matter; the duties of the Censorate were what truly mattered. In fact, it was precisely because her personal life was at a standstill that Fang Jian poured all her energy into public affairs. Before long, she had gradually settled into her role at the Censorate.
One day, while she was on duty, a soldier from the Imperial City Guard rushed in, calling out in a hurry, "Excuse me, which Lord Censor is on duty today?"
The Censorate often required its officials to go out for on-site inspections, so the censors worked in shifts. Every day, a few would remain in the office to handle urgent matters. On this particular day, it was Fang Jian's turn.
She stepped out of the duty room and asked, "I am. What is all the commotion?"
"My lord, please come with me quickly!" The soldier came forward as if to pull her, but she dodged him with a displeased look. His next words, however, left her stunned. "Someone has come to strike the Petition Drum!"
"What?!" Fang Jian grew anxious as well. After a quick word with her colleagues, she broke into a run, following the soldier out. According to regulations, the Petition Drum was guarded by armed soldiers of the Imperial City Guard. If someone struck it, the matter was to be reported to the Censorate, where the censor on duty for the day would take charge. Regardless of which office or official later tried the case, that censor was required to supervise the entire process and see it through to the end.
The Petition Drum was located outside the palace gates, not far from the Censorate. She sprinted the entire way, stopping short as she drew near. Slowing her pace, she smoothed her clothes from top to bottom, straightening her disheveled official hat, robes, and leather belt. After composing herself and steadying her breath, she finally assumed the proper bearing of an official and walked before the Petition Drum.
A young woman was kneeling there.
Fang Jian stood before her, studying her, and asked, "Are you the one who wishes to strike the Petition Drum?"
The young woman appeared to be no more than fifteen or sixteen. She had a thin frame and was dressed in simple, worn clothes, looking dusty and travel-worn as she knelt ramrod straight. Upon hearing the question, she looked up at Fang Jian, and her eyes lit up. "Yes."
Fang Jian felt a complex mix of emotions. The Petition Drum was not struck often. What great injustice could have driven this young woman to come here alone? "What is your name?"
"This commoner is Zhuo Guanyi."
"Do you know that the Petition Drum is not to be struck lightly?" Fang Jian advised. "Regardless of the magnitude of your grievance, anyone who strikes this drum must first receive twenty strokes of the cane. If things go poorly, you could be beaten to death."
"I know," Zhuo Guanyi said resolutely. "I have petitioned from the county all the way to the prefecture, but every office said a child cannot sue their father and refused to hear my case. I do not know if anyone in the Capital City will support my claim, but I have come only to ask Her Majesty the Emperor—where, in the end, does justice lie?"
At these words, the Imperial City Guard soldiers on duty were all shocked. "You want to sue your parents?"
"To be precise, my father. My father was a matrilocal husband who married into my mother's family. After my mother passed away, he took all the assets, married a new wife, had a son, and changed my sister's and my surname to his own, tormenting us in every way imaginable." Zhuo Guanyi gritted her teeth, her voice filled with indignation. "But my mother was the head of the family! My father had nothing before he married into our home. Why is it that he can now take everything that belonged to my mother and live a life of ease and comfort? If my mother could see this from her grave, what would she think!"
Fang Jian and the soldiers all fell silent.
After a long moment, Fang Jian spoke, asking solemnly, "Zhuo Guanyi, are you certain you wish to endure these twenty strokes and then strike the Petition Drum?"
"Yes, this commoner wishes to strike it." A fire burned in the young woman's eyes, a fire fueled by her very self, blazing fiercely as if to burn everything to ash.
"Very well," Fang Jian sighed with compassion. She turned to the armed soldier guarding the drum. "Prepare for the punishment."
The young woman stood up, gathered the loose ends of her hair to the front, and lay down resolutely on the punishment bench. Fang Jian felt around in her sleeve, took out a handkerchief, folded it into a small square, and crouched down to offer it to her. "I haven't used it. It's clean."
Zhuo Guanyi glanced at her. In Fang Jian's eyes, she saw compassion, encouragement, and comfort—a host of complex emotions she couldn't fully comprehend, but she knew there was no ill intent. So she took the handkerchief and bit down on it.
Fang Jian stood and stepped back. The soldier signaled to her that they were ready. She announced, "Begin the punishment."
"Ngh!"
The plank landed on the frail body with a dull thud. Fang Jian stood there, watching as the young woman whimpered, the pain nearly making her lose consciousness, yet she stubbornly endured. Fang Jian knew that feeling—the feeling of being powerless and without recourse, the feeling of reaching a dead end and risking everything.
"My lord, the punishment is complete."
Hearing the soldier's report, she nodded, walked closer, and asked softly, "Can you still get up?"
"Yes." With trembling hands, Zhuo Guanyi removed the handkerchief from her mouth and struggled to push herself up. She dragged her legs, shuffling forward, moving with excruciating slowness until she stood before the Petition Drum. She pulled out the mallet and, with all her might, struck.
"Dong... dong... dong..." The somber beat of the drum echoed throughout the Imperial City.
Everyone in the entire Capital City heard it. From the high and mighty Emperor and grand councilors to the officials at their various posts, from the bustling palace attendants to the common masses in the city—all of them, as if by unspoken agreement, stopped what they were doing and stood still to listen to the drum that had remained silent for so long.
Zhuo Guanyi gritted her teeth and finished striking the drum. She took a written petition from her robes, turned, and stumbled to her knees. With all her remaining strength, she raised her head and held the petition high above it, looking at Fang Jian. "This commoner, Zhuo Guanyi, accuses my father, Ye Ze, of embezzling the family property of his deceased wife and family head! I implore Your Lordship to investigate!"
Fang Jian walked over, bent down, and took the petition from her hands. "Zhuo Guanyi, this official accepts your case!"
Zhuo Guanyi stared at her, a bright smile spreading across her face, before she went limp and fainted.
Fang Jian called over a female soldier, took out a silver ingot, and gave it to her, ordering her to take Zhuo Guanyi away and see to her care.
"Go and see if she has any relatives. If not, find a place to settle her for now. Take this silver and hire a physician for her." Then she turned to the captain of the soldiers. "I must trouble you to be diligent. This case has now reached the Emperor's ears. It would be best to assign someone to watch over her. Don't let her die, or both you and I will be implicated."
"This subordinate understands."
Fang Jian left the courtyard of the Petition Drum. Before returning to the Censorate, she took a short detour to a nearby school where Cui Miao's younger sister, Cui Shi, was a student. She had someone call Cui Shi out. Cui Shi saw her often and greeted her happily, "Sister Linshen!"
"A'shi, do your sister a favor. In a little while, go to the Office of Transmission and tell your eldest sister that I'm inviting her for drinks tonight. Have her bring Fan Wensong to my house after she gets off duty. Got it?"
"Mhm, I'll remember. School is almost out for me, so I'll go in a bit." A'shi nodded obediently.
Seeing that she had agreed, Fang Jian turned and headed back to the Censorate. When she arrived, Censor-in-Chief Zou Shuyan and Vice Censor-in-Chief Pei Li were already waiting for her in the main hall. After they heard her report and read the petition, they exchanged a look, both finding the matter thorny.
"My lords," Fang Jian began, standing to one side and waiting patiently for them to finish. "This subordinate believes that if what Zhuo Guanyi says is true, her demand for her father to return the property is reasonable. Why do I see you both looking so troubled?"
Pei Li glanced at Zou Shuyan, who gestured for her to speak freely. So she said, "Ah, Linshen, this matter is difficult for two reasons. First, during the Yongchu reign, to elevate the status of women, Emperor Yongchu1 revised the Great Zhou Code, adding many legal rights for wives regarding family property inheritance. For example, if a husband dies, the wife may manage the family property while raising minor children. At the same time, the laws for matrilocal marriage were given equal standing to those for patrilocal marriage. This means that a matrilocal husband is also subject to the inheritance laws that apply to a wife."
"Ye Ze's management of the family property under the pretext of raising his young daughters is legally sound. Although he mistreats them and has spoken of passing the inheritance to an outsider, these are things that have not yet happened and cannot be used as evidence."
Zou Shuyan interjected, "In recent years, there have actually been quite a few similar cases of matrilocal husbands seizing their deceased wives' property. Because these are civil disputes, local authorities adhere to the principle of not investigating unless a complaint is filed. Therefore, the cases that do make it to court are always initiated by the wife's family, suing the husband to reclaim the property."
"And that brings me to my second point. Although the law does not explicitly state it, local authorities tend to follow custom and precedent—that unless it is a matter of life and death, children may not sue their parents. Zhuo Guanyi is the daughter, Ye Ze is the father, and the Zhuo family has no other relatives. When Zhuo Guanyi went to the authorities to sue her father, every local official found it too thorny and passed the buck. Who would have thought this young woman had the nerve to pursue the case all the way to the capital?"
Fang Jian mulled over her superiors' words and asked tentatively, "So, my lords, you believe the difficulty lies in a legal loophole? That to rule on this case, the law itself must be changed? And you fear opposition?"
"Exactly. You are intelligent, Linshen." Pei Li nodded. "First, sort out the entire sequence of events and write a memorial. Her Majesty will likely summon you to report on it at morning court tomorrow, so you should be prepared."
"This subordinate understands!"
Zou Shuyan stroked his graying beard and said with profound meaning, "Our Majesty will certainly not let this opportunity pass."
"Then, what should this subordinate do?" Fang Jian asked cautiously.
Pei Li shot Zou Shuyan a resigned look, as if chiding him for saying too much, then turned to Fang Jian. "You need not concern yourself with that. Just do what is within your duties. Report everything truthfully to Her Majesty."
"Yes. Thank you for your guidance, my lords."
After work, not long after Fang Jian returned home, Cui Miao and Fan Tingrong arrived together.
"Linshen, what did you need us for?" Having received the message from Cui Shi, Cui Miao knew Fang Jian had something specific in mind. After all, for a casual drink, she would have just sent a servant boy, not gone to the trouble of finding Cui Shi. And asking her to bring Fan Tingrong—Fan Tingrong was the niece of Lord Fan Ying, the Minister of Revenue. While Fang Jian was on good terms with her, they weren't close enough to drink together regularly.
As Fang Jian welcomed them inside, she asked, "Did you all hear the Petition Drum today?"
"Of course. How could we not?" Fan Tingrong said with a smile.
"I was the censor on duty today."
Cui Miao clapped Fang Jian on the shoulder and urged impatiently, "Excellent, Linshen! Quickly, tell me what kind of case it is."
Fang Jian invited them to take their seats, and as they ate, she recounted the entire story, including the opinions of her two superiors at the Censorate.
"This young friend Zhuo is truly a remarkable person." Cui Miao slapped the table in admiration after hearing the story. "Given time, she will surely achieve great things."
"That vile Ye Ze! To be so ungrateful after receiving his wife's favor is one thing, but to torment his own daughters like this... he is truly wicked to the extreme," Fan Tingrong also lamented.
"What are you planning to do, Linshen?" Cui Miao guessed that Fang Jian hadn't invited them over just to listen to a story.
"I want to help her," Fang Jian said resolutely. "In my policy essay for the Palace Examination, I once wrote that our laws are unrefined and that local judgments often follow old precedents. But if you trace many of these precedents back, you find they are based on the old custom of men's superiority over women. You and I are both women. We have what we have today because of the protection of our elders, but how many other young women are still struggling against those old customs? They are the very foundation of our foothold in the imperial court."
The three of them were all women and naturally understood this principle. The conflict of interests between men and women was an undercurrent in the court that everyone carefully avoided but which truly existed. They, their mothers' generation, and even Her Majesty were all caught in this undercurrent.
Fan Tingrong swirled the cup in her hand and said thoughtfully, "According to Lord Zou, Her Majesty will likely use this incident to make a major issue of it?"
"Do you remember the debate over matrilineal versus patrilineal lines that erupted when Her Majesty was pregnant?" Fang Jian asked.
"Of course," Cui Miao replied. "Impeachments were flying everywhere during that time. The court was a battlefield of veiled threats. In the end, it was suppressed by the forceful measures of Her Majesty and the Council of State."
"But I feel Her Majesty never wanted to suppress it. It was the lords of the Council of State who, for the sake of the Eldest Imperial Daughter's legitimacy, didn't want the issue to escalate and thus crushed it with thunderous force." Gao Yunqu had told her about this, and she remembered it clearly. Her Majesty possessed great vision and was extremely decisive. Fang Jian had always felt that Her Majesty had used herself as bait to stir the thoughts of women who were still suffering, scattering a handful of sparks, and then waiting for someone to stand up, raise a torch, and clear away the gloom. "I suspect Her Majesty has been waiting for this very day."
Fang Jian's words made both Cui Miao's and Fan Tingrong's blood run hot. Cui Miao asked, "Then what do you want to do?"
"Blow it up. Make this case of Zhuo Guanyi's known to the entire world."
After the meal, as Fang Jian was seeing the two of them out, Cui Miao made an excuse to stay behind for a moment. Once Fan Tingrong had left, Cui Miao asked Fang Jian, "Linshen, have you told Lord Gao about this?"
Fang Jian stiffened and said with a wry smile, "Not yet." She had a faint feeling that Gao Yunqu would probably not approve of her methods.
"Why not?" Cui Miao frowned.
"..." Fang Jian hesitated for a moment before saying, "We can't always stay under the protection of our elders."
Author's Notes
1Yongchu was the reign title of the first empress, who was Wei Qi's grandmother.
An explanation of the marriage settings in this story: First, men and women have equal inheritance rights. Daughters can also carry on the family line, but the prerequisite is that the daughter's children must also take the mother's surname. Therefore, whether a marriage is a standard patrilocal one (woman marries a man) or a matrilocal one (man marries into the woman's family) is both reasonable and legal. The dominant party in the marriage is the head of the family, and the children take the family head's surname, not necessarily the father's. In other words, the dominant party determines which side's family property the new nuclear family will inherit. If the wife is the dominant party, their family inherits the wife's bloodline and property. The matrilocal husband becomes a member of the wife's family and no longer has inheritance rights in his family of origin. You can understand it as the entire system of a woman marrying a man in ancient times, but symmetrically flipped.
Second, because this gender-equal society has not existed for very long, most families are still accustomed to patrilocal marriages, and male-led families will prioritize taking a wife. A family like the Zhuos, with only one daughter, must recruit a matrilocal husband; otherwise, there will be no heir.
Finally, due to the lingering poison of patriarchy, many people, especially men, still feel that becoming a matrilocal husband is a loss of face. Someone like Ye Ze, who entered the marriage empty-handed, would feel this even more acutely, which is why he is so desperate to prove himself. Additionally, there are many cases like Ye Ze's, where the husband embezzles the property of his wife and family head. The law isn't explicit on this, so local authorities are very reluctant to pass judgment.
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