Chapter 201: Can’t have your Cake and Eat it
Sima Guang was very frugal and strongly disliked extravagance. Unless traveling long distances, he generally did not ride in carriages. Even in extremely hot weather, he still walked home.
He leisurely returned to his small residence.
His old servant, who had followed him since his hometown, immediately came out to greet him.
“Welcome back, Chancellor Sima.”
“Mm. Hm?”
Sima Guang nodded, then suddenly turned his head to look at the old servant. “What did you just call me?”
The old servant said: “Chancellor Sima.”
Sima Guang asked puzzled: “Who told you to call me that?”
The servant replied sheepishly: “Young Master Su told me. Now that you’ve been promoted to a vice-chancellor-level position, I can’t call you ‘Licentiate’ anymore.”
All along, the old servant had respectfully called him by his old title Licentiate, the title given when one passed the second-lowest level of the civil examinations. He did not even know Sima Guang had been promoted to State Councilor. Ridiculous! Sima Guang furrowed his brows and asked: “Su Shi?”
The old servant nodded.
Sima Guang asked: “When did he come?”
The servant replied: “Just now. He’s reading in the study.”
“I’ll go find him.”
Sima Guang headed straight for the study.
Like Wang Anshi, Sima Guang lived much like ordinary citizens in terms of food, clothing and housing. Even this small residence was more modest than Xu Zun’s. Though his salary was not low, he spent his money partly on helping the poor, with the rest going entirely to collecting books.
Su Shi used to frequently borrow books from his home or Ouyang Xiu’s home.
Arriving at the study, Sima Guang questioned Su Shi: “Su Shi, why are you corrupting my servant?”
Su Shi was startled momentarily, then realized and said with a smile: “Chancellor Sima, you’re too indifferent to fame and status. You’ve been promoted to State Councilor, yet even your old servant doesn’t know and still calls you Licentiate. If others heard this, they might laugh at you.”
“You really like meddling in others’ affairs.”
Sima Guang glared at Su Shi, then suddenly seemed to remember something and asked: “Since you’re here, I have a question that’s been bothering me.”
Su Shi asked: “What question?”
Sima Guang asked: “Tell me, is it easier to be moral or to follow the law?”
Without thinking, Su Shi replied: “Of course it’s easier to be moral.”
Sima Guang responded with an “Oh” and said: “Not repaying debts may be immoral but isn’t necessarily illegal, so how can being moral be easier?”
Su Shi smiled: “Whether something is illegal can be determined by legal texts, but whether something is immoral is often up to interpretation.”
Sima Guang pondered briefly and sighed: “I see!”
Su Shi asked: “Why did Chancellor Sima ask this question?”
“Just curious.”
Sima Guang waved his hand and changed the subject: “Did you come to my home today to borrow books?”
Su Shi smiled: “Actually no.”
Sima Guang asked: “What brings you here then?”
Su Shi smiled: “I’ve come to recommend myself.”
“Recommend yourself?”
Sima Guang was surprised and asked: “You want to join the Court of Penal Review?”
Su Shi nodded.
Sima Guang asked: “Why?”
Su Shi said seriously: “To be honest with you, I was inspired by that previous court case.”
Sima Guang perked up: “Oh? Please elaborate.”
Su Shi sighed: “In court, Wei Yushan made it clear – everyone evades taxes, and he’d be a fool not to. When existing laws aren’t followed by anyone, discussing reform is meaningless.”
Sima Guang nodded: “You’re right. It seems we’ve been too ambitious!”
The reason for emphasizing morals over law wasn’t because morality was superior, but rather a compromise.
Logically speaking, morality was actually the higher realm, while law represented the baseline. One should maintain the baseline before discussing morality.
But the current reality involved ignoring the baseline and only discussing morals – this was self-deception.
The reason was that violating morality only resulted in education, like being told “what you did was wrong, don’t do it again.”
This left considerable room for flexibility.
Violating the law resulted in punishment, with very little room for flexibility.
People dared not punish, so they resorted to moral education instead.
If preserving wealth among the people was based on virtue, it was actually based on compromise.
In other words, if you can’t control the wealthy landowners, letting wealth remain in their hands would never lead to stable results.
The greatest principles were the simplest.
The principles were actually very simple – people just couldn’t follow them, so they created grandiose concepts to hide this fact.
Success was impossible if one ignored reality.
Su Shi also discovered this problem – if no one followed the law, reform would merely become a pure struggle for benefits. Following the law had to come first, before discussing the merits of reforms.
…
Zhang Fei, being a common man, didn’t dwell too much on such matters. After Sima Guang left, he began reviewing the firm’s accounts.
In a word, the sight was unbearable.
They had only earned a bit of money from Ma Tianhao and his group, with little income afterwards.
However, expenses kept increasing.
Just then, Fan Li entered the hall, and Zhang Fei asked, “Mogul Fan, our firm’s income keeps declining. We can’t go on like this.”
Fan Li sighed, “There’s nothing we can do about it.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Zhang Fei said irritably, “Can’t they find any cases to litigate? Our reputation is so great now.”
Fan Li replied, “It’s precisely because our reputation is too great that we can’t take cases easily.”
Zhang Fei asked, “What do you mean?”
Fan Li opened his mouth, then said, “Wait a moment.”
He went to the archives room and retrieved a case file, handing it to Zhang Fei, “Take a look at this case.”
Zhang Fei took it and read through it. The case was quite simple – in First Sweet Water Lane, an elderly woman had passed away, and there was a dispute over her property.
The old woman had a son who lived in the western part of the city selling silk, but he had never cared for his bedridden mother. A neighboring woman who sold pancakes had been taking care of the elderly lady, so when she died, she left her house to this neighbor.
The son believed the house should be inherited by him rather than given to a neighbor, so he wanted to file a lawsuit and came to the Bianjing Law Firm for help.
After reading it, Zhang Fei said, “This is a good case! We could earn quite a bit. Are you not confident about it?”
Fan Li quickly replied, “That’s not it. The neighbor is a kind and honest person, and we could definitely win if we fought the case. But the truth is, this son is truly worthless. Living in the same city, he never visited his bedridden mother. Only after her death did his family rush over for the funeral – though really, they just wanted to occupy the house. I estimate that old lady’s house is worth at least a thousand strings of cash – no small sum.”
Zhang Fei looked at Fan Li puzzled, “Since when did you become so conscientious? I remember you used to be quite ruthless.”
Fan Li replied irritably, “Our profession already had a bad reputation before – everyone was just trying to make money, so we didn’t care. But now… now that you’ve built such a good reputation for our Bianjing Law Firm, even helping poor people with cases for free, if I take this case and win it, wouldn’t that ruin our reputation?”
Zhang Fei clicked his tongue, “I built that reputation precisely to use it to make money. What use is reputation if we can’t earn from it? As long as we use legal means, we shouldn’t burden ourselves too much with such considerations.”
Fan Li said, “If you don’t mind, then let’s take the case. The son said he’s willing to pay one hundred strings if you personally handle his case.”
“One hundred strings! Why are you still hesitating? Of course-!”
Zhang Fei suddenly scratched his head and looked at the case file, “Uh, let me think about it first – can we win?”
Fan Li smiled, “I could win this case myself. Our dynasty’s laws clearly state that blood relations take precedence over neighbors, and it’s their ancestral home meant to be passed down to descendants – even the mother might not have such great authority to give it to an outsider.”
Zhang Fei looked at him speaking so eloquently and said, “Then you help the son, I’ll help the old lady, let’s compete.”
Fan Li immediately replied, “Well, I certainly can’t beat you.”
“Exactly! So you see this is… this is difficult,” Zhang Fei said.
Fan Li nodded, “Yes, Brother San is right, it’s quite challenging. Take your time to think it over. I need to go attend to some matters.”
“Go ahead! Go ahead!”
After Fan Li left, Zhang Fei stared at the case file, deeply conflicted. He scratched his cheeks and head in frustration, exclaiming to himself, “Zhang Fei, what are you struggling with? You’re a damn lawyer, not some vigilante. Opening a business is about making money, not fighting injustice. Why even hesitate? I must take this case! It’s a sure win – am I going crazy?”
Just then, someone said, “What are you muttering about by yourself?”
Zhang Fei looked up to see Xu Zhiqian walking in. He blinked and answered honestly, “I’m studying a case.”
“What case?”
Xu Zhiqian immediately walked over.
Zhang Fei handed her the case file.
After reading it, Xu Zhiqian suddenly looked at Zhang Fei, “You’re not thinking of taking it, are you?”
Zhang Fei said, “It’s not about wanting to or not. We’re running a business – when someone asks for help, we can’t refuse!”
Xu Zhiqian exclaimed passionately, “This son is completely heartless and beyond redemption. He lives in a mansion in the west city while his mother lies sick in bed. He hasn’t even visited her, let alone taken care of her. And now, for money, he dares to slander that kind-hearted lady, accusing her of using sweet words to deceive his mother and scheme for his ancestral home. It’s absolutely despicable! If you help him, wouldn’t you be aiding evil?”
Zhang Fei retorted, “When a bad person goes to buy a knife from a blacksmith, does the blacksmith refuse to sell?”
Xu Zhiqian replied, “If you didn’t know he was bad, that would be understandable. But if you know and still sell him the knife, you become an accomplice.”
“Fine, fine, fine! You’re always right! Won’t even let me make money now. Why don’t you go be a Buddha instead of a pen-in-cap? This is ridiculous. I’m going to take a piss. You’re driving me crazy!”
Zhang Fei stood up and stormed off angrily.
“Really, he’ll never change!” Xu Zhiqian glared after him.
As soon as Zhang Fei left, Fan Li walked in with a smile.
Xu Zhiqian turned and glared at him: “What are you smiling about?”
Fan Li smiled sheepishly, “Miss Xu, you’ve misunderstood Brother San. I could win this case too – if he really wanted to the firm to take it, he could have done it quietly without you knowing.”
Xu Zhiqian paused, “You mean he was deliberately provoking me?”
Fan Li quickly shook his head, “No, I think he was hoping you would stop him, so he could back down gracefully.”
Xu Zhiqian said, “Not taking it is right, so why would he hope for me to stop him?”
Fan Li said, “Well, we opened this business to make money after all!”
Xu Zhiqian said, “Having enough money is fine, we don’t need that much.”
Fan Li smiled awkwardly, not daring to speak.
Xu Zhiqian’s eyes lit up, “Mogul Fan, have someone find that kind lady. Let’s help her get the house back and teach that unfilial son a lesson. This is truly outrageous.”
Just as expected, Fan Li asked quietly, “How much should we charge?”
Xu Zhiqian blinked, “Can we do it for free?”
Fan Li said awkwardly, “We are running a business after all, this…”
Xu Zhiqian thought for a moment and said, “Then how about just five hundred coins?[1] I don’t think that lady was after the house anyway – she just wanted to take care of the old woman. Let’s not charge her too much.”
“In that case… we might as well do it for free.”
“That would be even better!”
“…?”
[1] For reference, in case it has been forgotten, 1 string contains 1000 coins. The other guy was willing to pay 100 strings.