Chapter 56: New Policies
Fang Jian returned home, dejected like a stray dog. Xiuzhu came out to greet her but was waved away. Seeing her mistress's gloomy expression, Xiuzhu hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back as she watched Fang Jian enter her room and shut herself inside.
Fang Jian slid down with her back against the door, curling up on the floor. She hugged her legs and buried her face in her knees. Warm tears rolled down, silently soaking the fabric of her clothes.
Fang Jian, oh, Fang Jian, you knew it was impossible, you knew she was unreachable, so why did you have to crash headfirst into that sliver of hope? It hurts so much.
Give up, just give up. That is your teacher, your elder, not someone you can covet. Didn't you know that already? Why won't you just accept your fate?
How utterly pathetic she was now. Forget it, just forget it. Cry it out, and it will be over…
But a wound like this was not something one could simply will away. The staff of the Jingzhao Prefecture's judicial section were the first to sense the change in Fang Jian. The reason was simple: these days, Fang Jian had become increasingly fierce and malevolent, nearly making her title of "Iron-Faced Judge" a reality. She was fine with her subordinates and superiors, but she was utterly cold toward criminals. She, who had once been the one to hold Xie Min back from using torture, now had to be held back by Xie Min. After a few such instances, the officials under her all knew she was in a foul mood. Fearing they might get on her bad side, they even lowered their voices when they spoke.
Xie Min was also perplexed. When they were alone, she asked privately, "Linshen, you don't seem right. What's happened?"
"It's nothing, just some trouble that's put me in a bad mood. I'm sorry to make you worry." Fang Jian took a cloth from the stand in the corner of the duty room, wet it in a basin of water, wrung it out, and placed it over her face. The cool, damp cloth wicked away the sweat and heat from her face, and with it, calmed her feverish mind.
Xie Min advised, "One must have restraint when it comes to punishments. Venting indiscriminately will only warp your disposition."
"I know," Fang Jian's voice came from under the cloth. "I've realized it. It won't happen again."
Displacing her emotions onto external matters brought a moment of relief, but in reality, nothing had changed. Fang Jian had simply lost control for a moment; once she realized it, she reined herself in. Those feelings and that bitterness slowly sank, buried deep in her heart, as she pretended to have let them go.
Within a few days, the staff of the judicial section discovered that their gentle and refined Judge Fang had returned. The only difference was that she spent even more time in the duty room handling official business, often staying until just before curfew. She also went out with them to investigate cases more frequently, running all over the city until the soles of her shoes were worn down by an inch. She had initially done it to burn off her restless energy and keep herself busy, but an unexpected benefit was that she became thoroughly familiar with the entire Capital City. Seeing her take a hands-on approach, her subordinates respected her even more—a pleasant surprise.
One day after her duties ended, she was walking through a bustling market when she happened to see a thief steal something. The victim was an old man who ran a few steps but couldn't catch up, so distressed that he began to cry. Without a second thought, Fang Jian gave chase, sprinting for two full streets before she managed to tackle the thief and escort him back to the Jingzhao Prefecture.
Who would have thought that she would be impeached at the grand court assembly the very next day, accused of galloping through the streets, an act unbecoming of an official.
The court had recently been debating Left Chancellor Fan Ying's methods for enriching the state. Having spent many years in the Ministry of Revenue, Fan Ying knew the national treasury was not as flush as many believed. The moment she took office, she began adjusting taxes, attempting to fill the state coffers by increasing revenue and cutting expenditures, which could then be used for border defense and public works. She had a decisive and vigorous nature and was an expert in financial matters. After two years of dedicated work, she had achieved some results. With this foundation, Chancellor Fan had become even bolder this year. Under Her Majesty's direction, she began preparing for the New Policies with sweeping reforms. There were three main tenets to her New Policies: first, a comprehensive increase in commercial taxes and a restriction on the scope of private enterprise in high-profit industries like salt and iron; second, the Hired Service System1, where commoners could pay money in lieu of corvée labor, and even official and powerful families, who previously had a quota of exemptions, would now be required to pay the service fee; third, the rebuilding of official roads to connect all prefectures with the Capital City, reducing losses during the transport of tax revenues.
If the first two were primarily aimed at increasing tax revenue, the third was more of an engineering expenditure. The Great Zhou was vast, and in the more distant prefectures, the high mountains and dense forests made transportation inconvenient. It could truly be said that "the mountains are high and the emperor is far away," allowing them to become their own little worlds. This, coupled with the concentration of powerful clans, made deep-seated problems difficult to eradicate.
During the Yanxing era, some regions had requested tax reductions on the grounds that the journey was long, the official roads were difficult to travel, and losses were unavoidable. The late emperor, mindful of letting the people recuperate, had granted these reductions. In reality, however, these "losses" were siphoned off by local authorities. The better ones used the funds for official government business, while others simply lined their own pockets.
Both of these were intolerable to Wei Qi. All land under heaven belonged to the sovereign. In the decade since her ascension, she had gradually brought the prefectures near the capital under her control, but the more distant ones remained beyond her reach. She had matured and was now eager to cut the Gordian knot, to uproot the powerful clans and make the entire realm submit to her. And the first step was to build roads into every prefecture!
The moment the three tenets of the New Policies were announced, the entire court was once again in an uproar, with voices of opposition everywhere. With their limited salaries, officials more or less relied on some commercial ventures to supplement their household income. They had previously enjoyed tax breaks, but now not only were the breaks gone, but taxes were also being increased, causing them great distress. The opposition to the Hired Service System was even louder. "There should be a distinction in status between the families of high officials who live on stipends and the common people. For gentlemen and rustics to be undifferentiated is truly not the way to encourage scholars and treat the worthy!2" As for rebuilding the roads, it was a good thing on the surface, but some prefectures did not see it that way. They made an issue of the transport losses, claiming they were unavoidable and should not be scrutinized, and complained incessantly.
The court plunged into a new round of debate, a reenactment of the events from the ninth year of Yongxing. Courtiers with different interests and viewpoints clashed. Guided by certain individuals, they began to impeach and attack one another. Fan Ying's position was high, and she had the Emperor's trust, so the opposition didn't dare attack her directly. Instead, they impeached everyone around her. Her deputies and students were obvious targets, but even low-ranking officials in green robes like Fan Tingrong and Fang Jian were implicated. A few days prior, a courtier had impeached Fan Tingrong for extravagance and hedonism, accusing her of using banquets as a pretext for forming cliques. Although it had little real effect, it left her disgraced and she had been very quiet recently.
Fang Jian's case was purely collateral damage. She had merely caught a petty thief in a bustling market, yet she was impeached for it during a grand court assembly.
Wei Qi was momentarily stunned to hear such an impeachment. The court had been debating major state affairs recently, so hearing about such a trivial matter suddenly piqued her interest. "Minister Fang should be present, should she not? Step forward and offer a rebuttal."
Fang Jian walked briskly from the back ranks to the front. She first bowed to the Emperor, then turned to face the official who had impeached her. She was already suppressing a heart full of frustration, and she decided to unleash it all right here in the court. "…This subject is a judge of the Jingzhao Prefecture. To encounter a thief and turn a blind eye would be a dereliction of my duty. The Book of Documents states, 'The people are the root of a country; when the root is firm, the country is tranquil.' In that chance encounter, this subject chose the path that benefits the people. What fault is there in that? The decorum of an official is nothing more than fulfilling one's duties and serving the people with a whole heart. Why worry about one's cap and gown? You and your ilk stand in this bright hall, impeccably dressed, yet you think only of your own petty interests, buzzing about shamelessly day after day. How utterly disgraceful!" Her opponent trembled with rage and tried to retort, only to be met with a string of witty remarks from Fang Jian, who pushed and prodded with veiled sarcasm.
Wei Qi laughed inwardly. Fang Jian's response delighted her; Fang Jian was quite adept at using the situation to say things that she herself could not. Seeing that Fang Jian was gaining the upper hand, dressing down her opponent until his face was beet red, Wei Qi interrupted at the right moment. "Enough. Is such a trivial matter worthy of being discussed in this court? You are truly regressing with age. With this much leisure time, you would be better off reading Mencius. Dismissed."
Fang Jian was still standing in the center of the great hall. It would be improper to swagger out, so she bowed slightly, respectfully seeing off the chancellors. The first to pass was Left Chancellor Fan Ying. Fan Ying gave her a slight smile, a sign of affinity. Fang Jian was a rising star in her faction, and she naturally liked her. The Right Chancellor, Meng Tingsheng, who followed, was neutral but also appreciated young, loyal officials like Fang Jian, and he too nodded at her. The purple- and scarlet-robed officials who came after had varying attitudes, but Fang Jian paid them little mind. This was not the first time she had stood in this spot, and compared to the trepidation of her first time, she was much more composed. That is, until Gao Yunqu walked before her.
For just a brief moment, Gao Yunqu paused her steps. Fang Jian raised her hands and bowed to her. Gao Yunqu nodded, returned the salute, and then brushed past her, walking toward the exit.
The intersection was incredibly brief. To an outsider, it was a perfectly ordinary exchange of courtesies between a subordinate and a superior. But from the moment Gao Yunqu entered Fang Jian's line of sight, her heart began to pound like a drum. It was not until all the ministers had exited Zichen Hall that Fang Jian managed to calm the chaotic rhythm in her chest, regain her composure, and walk out.
She is a teacher, a superior, a colleague. Remember that. Remember. She reminded herself thus.
But sometimes, buried feelings do not dissipate in the river of time. Instead, like fine wine, they slowly ferment with the passing years. When the bottle is finally opened again someday, the rich, hidden aroma will rush out, intoxicating a person in an instant.
Author's Notes
- Hired Service System: A reference to Wang Anshi's reforms.
- Adapted from the Veritable Records of Taizu of Ming. The original sentence is: "Families that live on stipends should have a distinction in status from the common people. Attending to affairs and performing labor to serve those above is the business of the common people. If worthy men and gentlemen, who are already noble in person, also have their families put to service, then there would be no distinction between gentlemen and rustics, which is not the way to encourage scholars and treat the worthy." I saw this in Starting by Live-streaming to Zhu Yuanzhang that Zhu Di Will Rebel. Although it's published in the romance section, I think it's a no-CP historical story. Friends interested in early Ming history can check it out.
- Mencius spoke of the people as the foundation, you know. The people are valuable, the ruler is of little account.
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