Volume Two: The Noble and the Mean, Chapter Thirty-Four: So You Have Finally Come?

It was the morning of April twenty-second.

At the Imperial Academy’s Xuan Hall, the students had all arrived and were waiting only for the lecturers to begin the day’s lessons.

Of course, they could never compare with the earnest self-study of later generations of scholars. There was talking among some, quarreling among others, and the hall was as lively as a marketplace.

But when a man suddenly appeared at the doorway, the noise inside died at once. Huang Ming, who had been chatting with someone a moment ago, looked up and saw the usually rare-faced Registrar Wen Zhen standing there with a stern expression, his gaze sweeping over him in passing.

As the official in charge of law and discipline at the Imperial Academy, Wen Zhen carried an air of authority that naturally inspired fear in a roomful of unruly students. A single glance from him was enough to make everyone obediently close their mouths and fall silent.

Yet unlike before, Registrar Wen gave no reprimand today. He only said in a deep voice, “This morning’s classes are canceled. In a quarter of an hour, gather before Minglun Hall. There is an important matter to be decided.”

With that, he gave Huang Ming another thoughtful look and turned to leave.

The mood inside the hall quickly loosened again. Everyone could not help discussing what great matter was to be settled today. Xu Qingzhi even ran over to Huang Ming in particular to ask around, after all, Young Master Huang’s sources were far more informed than theirs.

Huang Ming only smiled and shook his head. “Won’t we know in a moment?”

Yet that smile, in Xu Qingzhi’s eyes, somehow felt a little chilling.

...

A quarter of an hour later, in the open square before Minglun Hall.

The students of the Imperial Academy’s five halls, some three hundred in all, together with the lecturers and other staff present that day, had gathered there in full.

Every student wore a look of obvious confusion, glancing around and murmuring to one another in low voices. What drew the most attention, however, were the several officials who were presently bowing devoutly before the statue of Confucius.

Their attire was clearly no ordinary thing. They wore not the green official robes commonly seen on lecturers at the Imperial Academy, but the blue robes of a higher rank. The official in the middle had gone further still, dressed in a dazzling red robe that inspired envy at a glance.

Since the founding of the Great Ming by the founding emperor, a strict hierarchy had been established. Officials, commoners, and soldiers each had their own rules, and the restrictions placed upon officials were especially clear. Even their clothing and appearance were governed by precise regulations.

Take official robes, for example: by color alone they were divided, from highest to lowest, into purple robes for the first and second ranks, crimson for the third and fourth, blue for the fifth and sixth, and green for the seventh rank and below.

Only officials in red or purple robes were truly great ministers of state, which was why people spoke of families whose every member wore crimson and purple as families of immense power and lofty standing.

Beyond color, the court also distinguished official rank through the embroidered badge on the chest, dividing civil and military offices into separate sets of designs, one for birds and one for beasts. These were known as the rank badges.

For civil officials, the first rank was a crane, the second a golden pheasant, the third a peacock, the fourth a wild goose, the fifth a white pheasant, the sixth a heron, the seventh a teal, the eighth a yellow oriole, and the ninth a quail.

Military officials, by contrast, had lions for the first and second ranks, tigers and leopards for the third and fourth, bears for the fifth, a fierce spotted beast for the sixth and seventh, a rhinoceros for the eighth, and a sea horse for the ninth.

Thus it was said that all the court’s officials were painted birds and embroidered beasts, referring precisely to the rank badges on their robes.

With such obviously distinguished officials present, the pressure on a group of Imperial Academy students, most of them still young and inexperienced in the world, was naturally considerable.

Once those officials had finished paying respects to Confucius and turned back around, the murmuring also vanished quickly.

The central official, a fourth-rank man in a crimson robe bearing a cloud-goose badge, wore a smiling expression as he swept his gaze over the hundreds before him.

He said loudly, “I am Wei Ziru, Director of the Ministry of Rites. Today I have come here because of a matter that has affected the reputation of the Imperial Academy, and indeed the reputation of all scholars of our Great Ming, and I have been instructed to settle it once and for all.

“This was also ordered by your Rector, Minister Wu Yipeng of our Ministry of Rites.”

At those last words, his gaze lingered more on the lecturers standing beside the students.

Most of those men looked somewhat unsettled, though they still kept their composure. Only one wore anxiety and unease plainly on his face, glancing repeatedly toward Huang Ming in the crowd as though trying to signal him.

This was Zhang Bi. Early that morning, just after arriving at the Hanlin Academy, he had heard news of a great matter highly unfavorable to his student Huang Ming.

So even though he had no classes today, he had specially come over.

In the end, however, Director Wei had arrived a step ahead of him, leaving him no chance to warn Huang Ming first. He could only stand there and fret.

As for Huang Ming, he seemed not to have noticed anything at all. He stood casually in the crowd and did not once look toward his teacher.

“As for the full story behind this matter, let Censor Lin from the Censorate explain it to everyone,” Wei Ziru said.

Taking advantage of his own standing, Wei Ziru merely opened the proceedings and set the tone. The actual business, naturally, would be handed over to those below him.

The man chosen for that task was the young civil official standing beside him.

He wore the blue robes of a civil official, but in truth he was only a seventh-rank remonstrance censor, and the badge on his chest was not some ordinary bird at all, but a one-horned beast.

There was an ancient legend of a creature called the one-horned beast, whose nature was fair and impartial, who hated evil as though it were a personal enemy, and who could distinguish loyalty from treachery, right from wrong, at a glance. Whenever a criminal passed before it, the beast would pierce him with its horn.

Taking this trait as its model, the court made the rank badges of the censors in the Censorate this beast, so that they too might clearly discern right from wrong and speak out with righteous courage.

This Censorate official named Lin Jinyan also carried a sharp and cutting air. When he opened his mouth, his voice was high and piercing.

“I have long heard of the great name of the Imperial Academy,” he said. “In these recent years, it has truly failed to live up to the former emperor’s painstaking cultivation.

“Yet even so, we could never have imagined that the Imperial Academy of today would have fallen to such a state, becoming a den of filth and corruption!”

“Who are you calling filth and corruption?” someone immediately shot back.

Although these Imperial Academy students were not fond of studying and would rather not come at all, once their own school was so insulted by outsiders, they still felt considerable indignation and could not help speaking up in rebuttal.

“Jin Kan, mind your manners!” Wen Zhen immediately snapped. “Since an esteemed gentleman from the Ministry of Rites has come all this way, if Censor Lin makes such an accusation, then there must be reason for it.”

Registrar Wen’s authority still carried weight. The few hotheaded students, led by Jin Kan, no longer dared to make a scene. They each merely snorted in displeasure.

Lin Jinyan, however, gave a cold smile. He seemed not the least angered by the interruption, and said only, “You are right to question it. If there were no such facts, I would not dare speak so rashly and accuse the noble Imperial Academy!

“But the facts are exactly as stated. There are presently Imperial Academy students by the names of Huang Ming, Xu Qingzhi, and Zhang Han, who have sunk so low as to become brothers with those people of the brothels and low establishments, even helping them devise schemes and make large sums of silver.

“This matter is already widely known in the capital, and more than thirty officials from the Censorate and the Ministry of Rites have jointly submitted memorials impeaching him! You three, dare you come out and confront me?”

At the mention of their names, all three changed color.

Huang Ming drew a slow breath. “So it has finally come.”