Chapter 141: The Storm has Come
“Why did you stop me earlier?” Tang Jie asked Wen Yanbo agitatedly after leaving the Hall of Delegated Rule.
Wen Yanbo sighed, “If I wouldn’t have stopped you if it was even possible to stop His Majesty. His Majesty not ruling in Zhang San’s favor was already saving face for us.”
Tang Jie’s elderly face was full of frustration and embarrassment. “It’s our fault for being useless – we lost to a mere pen-in-cap.”
Wen Yanbo consoled him: “What’s done is done. It’s fine – we can still use this ancestral law edict to advise His Majesty.”
“Comprehensive order as precaution against malfeasance” – in the end, it was still a catch-all law that could be interpreted different ways.
Tang Jie sighed, “Wang Anshi will certainly make a big deal of this.”
The ancestral laws had been a major tool for restraining Wang Anshi’s reforms, but now they might end up supporting him instead.
That was the most damaging aspect of the court case.
Catch-all laws could be used by anyone.
Wen Yanbo smiled bitterly, “There’s nothing we can do about it.” Given how the case turned out, there would inevitably be consequences.
Their opponents were no pushovers!
This outcome wasn’t actually surprising to them.
Though they knew Emperor Zhao Xu couldn’t directly rule in Zhang Fei’s favor at the time, they also knew Zhang Fei’s interpretation of ancestral law was very beneficial to the emperor.
The emperor was very likely to define ancestral law in this manner.
Leaving aside the emperor’s personal interests, the previous lack of definition of ancestral laws were a roadblock to the New Policies reform!
Therefore before starting reforms, this roadblock had to be removed.
Otherwise, every word of the New Policies could potentially violate ancestral law.
“Accept defeat when you lose. How old are you to still try throwing tantrums?” Wang Anshi teased Sima Guang as he came out after them.
“I don’t want to argue with you today,” Sima Guang said as he quickened his pace.
Wang Anshi immediately chased after him, “Wait, I have something to discuss with you.”
Sima Guang snorted, “I have nothing to discuss with you.”
“Yes you do! Yes you do!”
Wang Anshi grabbed Sima Guang’s sleeve.
Sima Guang was alarmed, “How improper of you to grab and pull like this, let go quickly.”
Wang Anshi held on, “I really have important matters to discuss.”
“Let go first.”
“Promise you won’t leave if I let go.”
“Wang Anshi!”
“Alright, alright, I’ll let go.”
Wang Anshi released his grip and asked, “Regarding the Yan family case, how do you plan to rule?”
Sima Guang paused briefly, answering cautiously, “I already said to cite precedent to override statute, why do you still ask?”
Wang Anshi said, “If you cite precedent to override statute, all bookstores in the capital will be sued. You can’t rule to give all the shops to the authors.”
Sima Guang said, “I have my own considerations.”
Wang Anshi said, “Wait a bit longer.”
“Wait for what?”
“I will soon petition His Majesty to legislate on this matter.”
“This is a judicial matter, you want to interfere?” Sima Guang said angrily.
Wang Anshi quickly replied, “Don’t get angry yet. I’m establishing a tax law. As I mentioned earlier, future book printing will require author permission. Bookstores can pay compensation to obtain author consent. I will suggest His Majesty levy a contract tax on this to protect authors’ rights.
If you wait for me to promulgate this tax law, you can then rule according to law – either have the booksellers pay the authors, or prohibit printing.”
He wants to draw clear boundaries with me – he won’t interfere in judicial matters, but I also can’t interfere with his financial reforms, Sima Guang thought suspiciously as he looked at Wang Anshi. “Was this your idea?”
Wang Anshi asked, “What makes you think it wasn’t my idea?”
Sima Guang snorted, “If it were up to you, the government would probably do the printing itself.”
Wang Anshi coughed awkwardly, “I won’t hide it from you – this was Zhang San’s suggestion.”
“I knew it.”
Sima Guang gave him a look of disdain.
Wang Anshi asked, “Do you agree?”
Sima Guang asked, “How much tax do you plan to collect?”
“Ten percent,” Wang Anshi said, “Collected from the authors, so book prices won’t increase too much.”
That’s not too much. Sima Guang suddenly asked, “Seems you’ve prepared everything already.”
Wang Anshi chuckled.
Sima Guang nodded helplessly, “Fine! I’ll wait for you.”
Wang Anshi was clearly testing and guarding against him. Judicial reform was fine, but tax law couldn’t be counted as part of the judicial system. He was very worried Sima Guang would use this case to establish tax law when tax law made up a large portion of his own reform goals.
If Sima Guang didn’t agree, he would definitely interfere with the judicial system.
Sima Guang knew he had no authority to reform tax law since the emperor didn’t support him, so he could only agree to Wang Anshi’s terms.
Let’s not interfere with each other’s domains.
There was anxiety in his heart – it was finally happening.
Yes.
It was coming.
Not just Emperor Zhao Xu and Wang Anshi had run out of patience, even the opposition had no patience left.
Everyone was already kneeling at the execution ground, but the blade hadn’t fallen – even the spectators were uncomfortable watching.
Emperor Zhao Xu first formally promulgated ancestral law.
And he played it very decisively this time – he had the Second Emperor’s edict carved onto a stone tablet and erected it in front of the palace gates.
His edict was issued yesterday, and today the stone tablet was already standing there.
Clearly it had been prepared in advance.
How could the officials not understand what was happening?
All they could say was – this young emperor was ruthless!
But since they lost the court case, they could only swallow this bitter pill with tears.
However, everyone knew the real show was yet to come.
Sure enough, the day after the stone tablet was erected, Emperor Zhao Xu formally announced that reforms would be carried out to address the nation’s ills. He established the Finance Planning Commission, jointly led by Chen Shengzhi and Wang Anshi, to oversee the reforms.
This was a bombshell right from the start.
The court officials were stunned.
Especially the Three Financial Bureaus officials led by Finance Commissioner Tang Jie.
Finance Planning Commission?
Then what about the Three Financial Bureaus?
Which was the real authority?
Wang Anshi quickly showed them who the real Three Financial Bureaus was.
The day the edict was issued, Wang Anshi promulgated the copyright tax law in the name of the Finance Planning Commission.
This law would be incorporated into contract law, meaning that the contract will be taxed.
On the same day, the District Court under the Kaifeng Prefecture also issued its ruling on Yan Jidao’s lawsuit.
It ruled that Sanlu Studio had violated the law.
The explanation was that it followed precedent in its ruling.
Since the Kaifeng Prefecture ruled this way, this lower court had to rule the same way.
But this ruling went back to the Kaifeng Prefecture for review.
The Kaifeng Prefecture then issued amendments and explanations regarding the District Court’s ruling, mainly three points. First, printing and profiting from others’ works without author permission would be considered illegal.
There were still many hand-copied manuscripts at the time.
But the regulations only specified “printing”, meaning hand-copying was allowed, even copying for sale was allowed.
This showed the law specifically targeted printing.
Second was the protection period, set at fifty years after the author’s death. Printing Tang dynasty poets Li Bai or Du Fu’s poems would not violate these regulations.
Third were the specific compensation matters, set at a fifty-string fine. Since this industry was not very profitable at the time, the fine couldn’t be set too high.
However, it would only be fully implemented in Bianjing after seven days.
This gave printing workshops a buffer period.
Of course, they didn’t rule to give Sanlu Studio to Yan Jidao.
Instead they ordered Sanlu Studio to immediately stop printing and selling any poetry collections related to Yan Shu, and if they wanted to continue selling, they must obtain authorization from the Yan family.
With this law and this precedent implemented simultaneously, copyright law naturally came into being.
Sima Guang certainly wouldn’t stand out himself to coordinate with Wang Anshi.
Lu Gongzhu was a good friend to both him and Wang Anshi, and also supported Wang Anshi’s reforms, so Sima Guang had Lu Gongzhu coordinate with Wang Anshi.
Many literati and scholars were excited about this.
But the Three Financial Bureaus officials were dumbfounded.
You promulgated tax law without even informing us.
This showed the Finance Planning Commission was above their Three Financial Bureaus!
This caused them to blow their lids off.
This was truly shameless.
Many people hadn’t expected Wang Anshi would do this.
Of course, some people had anticipated it.
In the evening.
“Lord Wen truly predicted this accurately – this is exactly what he did,” Sima Guang sighed.
Earlier when reforms were imminent but Wang Anshi delayed reorganizing the bureaucracy, it didn’t make sense. The only explanation was that Wang Anshi planned to bypass the entire system.
But Wen Yanbo smiled bitterly, “I didn’t expect him to be so ruthless either – promulgating tax law without discussion by the Two Departments and Three Financial Bureaus. Though this tax law is trivial, it shows how powerful this Commission is! No wonder His Majesty issued his ruling on ancestral law first. One could say this Finance Planning Commission tramples on ancestral laws with every stroke.”
The ancestral system was meant to divide power, but now all power was concentrated – completely the opposite approach.
Sima Guang was also deeply worried, but still tried to advise, “This is still only temporary. The key is the new laws – we don’t know the details yet. Lord Wen needs to be patient, don’t act rashly!”
Wen Yanbo looked at him and sighed, “Of course I know this, but even if I don’t memorialize, I can’t stop the censors and remonstrators below from memorializing – someone has definitely already memorialized to impeach Wang Anshi.”
The Censorate was a peculiar department – the Chief Censor couldn’t stop censors below from memorializing, and the Chief Censor himself was often impeached by censors.
As he spoke, Wen Yanbo looked at Sima Guang again and said, “Didn’t you say earlier you wanted to fight Wang Anshi in court to avoid partisan strife?”
Sima Guang looked at him and fell into deep thought.
Meanwhile, after arguing with Tang Jie all day, Wang Anshi left the battlefield to Lu Huiqing and went home.
Just after arriving home, he heard his wife laughing – there was a guest.
It was none other than Zhang Fei.
“Why did you come here?” Wang Anshi looked at Zhang Fei suspiciously.
He knew Zhang Fei’s personality too well – he wouldn’t come without a reason.
“I came to congratulate Academician Wang.”
Zhang Fei quickly stood up to offer congratulations.
Wang Anshi waved his hand, “The work isn’t done yet, what congratulations?”
Madam Wang said, “Zhang San means well after all.”
Wang Anshi looked at his wife and was forced to say to Zhang Fei, “Alright, alright, I understand your intentions.”
Madam Wang then said, “Husband, I’ll pour you some hot tea.”
Wang Anshi quickly said, “Thank you, thank you wife. I argued with that old Tang all day, my lips are parched.”
Madam Wang advised, “You’re all officials serving together, can’t you discuss things nicely?”
Wang Anshi sighed, “Wife, you don’t understand – I didn’t want to argue, but he trapped me in the room and scolded me, I had no choice!”
Madam Wang shook her head helplessly, “I’ll go pour your tea.”
As she spoke, she said to Zhang Fei, “Zhang San, stay for dinner – I’ll have the servants prepare more dishes.”
Zhang Fei quickly said, “Thank you for your kindness, Madam, but I have some matters to attend to later, so I won’t trouble you.”
Madam Wang didn’t insist and left the room.
As soon as she left, Wang Anshi asked Zhang Fei, “Tell me, what’s the matter?”
Zhang Fei grinned, “You must know about my law firm’s tax accounting business?”
Wang Anshi nodded.
Zhang Fei said, “Now that the copyright tax law has been promulgated, those booksellers and literati may not understand how to pay taxes, and the Finance Planning Commission may be short-staffed. Why don’t you let my law firm handle the copyright tax calculations?”
Wang Anshi’s eyes lit up as he looked at Zhang Fei, “Elaborate.”
Zhang Fei said directly, “Previously the Three Financial Bureaus used their power to threaten merchants not to let me calculate taxes. If you can give entrust this tax calculation to my firm, then merchants will know who the real Three Financial Bureaus is and who they should listen to in the future.”
Wang Anshi pointed at Zhang Fei, chuckling, “You rascal.”
Zhang Fei just grinned.
Without much consideration, Wang Anshi nodded, “Alright! I agree.”
“Thank you, Academician Wang.”
For Wang Anshi, this was truly inspired. With the Finance Planning Commission established, it needed to immediately establish authority and credibility. Zhang Fei voluntarily offering himself as the means to establish his power and authority – how could he refuse?
The Three Financial Bureaus had previously targeted tax calculation and besieged the Bianjing Law Firm. If he could help Zhang Fei turn this around, everyone would know who to listen to in the future.
When Madam Wang came to the room with tea, she found Zhang Fei had already left. “Did Zhang San leave?”
Wang Anshi said, “He just came to discuss some small matter with me, then left after we finished talking.”
After setting down the tea, Madam Wang glanced at Wang Anshi and smiled, “This Zhang San is quite the troublemaker, and he has so many ways to make money. I heard he opened another bookstore.”
“Haha, that’s true. That boy has many tricks up his sleeve, one after another – sometimes pleasant surprises, sometimes shocking ones.”
As he spoke, Wang Anshi suddenly felt something was wrong and looked nervously at his wife, “You didn’t sign any contracts with him, did you?”
Madam Wang quickly praised, “You predict things like a prophet!”
That little rascal, no wonder he left so quickly. Wang Anshi said dejectedly, “Our family doesn’t lack that bit of money, why did you agree to him?”
Madam Wang said, “I just thought since you personally promulgated this copyright tax law, our family should take the lead in following it.”
As Wang Anshi’s wife, she was also quite eloquent.
Wang Anshi said awkwardly, “But these are still my works, you should have at least asked me first.”
Madam Wang said, “Oh, I saw that those booksellers pirating your poems and essays didn’t ask you either, and you didn’t seem to mind, so I thought I could decide myself.”
Wang Anshi awkwardly picked up a cup of tea, wanting to ask his wife how much she sold for – if it was too much it could appear as accepting bribes – but felt embarrassed to ask.
How could Madam Wang not know her husband’s thoughts? She volunteered, “One hundred strings per year, for five years. He gave the Yan family the same price.”