Judge of the Song Dynasty

This truly was a case of plans not keeping up with changes.

Zhang Fei had never expected that Sima Guang would actually have the urge to pick up his brush and write.

This couldn’t be refused – it had to be accommodated.

Zhang Fei quickly had someone bring brush, ink, and paper.

Since Sima Guang had been inspired by Xu Zhiqian’s article, his thoughts flowed like a spring, so he didn’t need to think too much and quickly wrote out an article.

“Wow, Academician Sima truly has a wonderful brush that produces flowers! This article flows like clouds and water, written in one breath – it’s absolutely applause-worthy! Exhilarating! Truly exhilarating!”

Zhang Fei held the article that Sima Guang had just written, reading it with tears in his eyes, spittle flying, extremely excited.

Sima Guang, however, looked at him sideways during his passionate performance, saying not a word.

“Uh, Academician Sima, why are you looking at me like that?”

Zhang Fei asked somewhat uneasily. Sima Guang chuckled, “Stop with the flattery. With your limited abilities, do you really understand how to appreciate this article?”

I praise you so much, and you disparage me like this – that’s really not very considerate. Zhang Fei smiled awkwardly and couldn’t make a sound.

To be honest, aside from the truly excellent calligraphy, he really couldn’t understand what was so good about this article.

Given his literary cultivation, as long as the word choice was appropriate and it read smoothly, that was already quite good.

Sima Guang stroked his beard and said, “Speaking of writing articles, there really is such a thing as natural talent. That Wang Anshi – in other aspects, I don’t submit to him, but when it comes to writing articles… sigh, even if I exhausted all my life’s efforts, I’m afraid I still couldn’t write better than him.”

Speaking thus, he turned his head to look at Zhang Fei and changed the subject: “But the clumsy bird flies first, and diligence can make up for lack of talent. You can’t just not write because you can’t write well, always having Qian’er write for you – that way you’ll never improve.”

His literary accomplishments were actually already quite remarkable – he was a great literary figure of his time, and few in history could compare to him. After all, he was the man who wrote the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government. It was just that he happened to encounter Wang Anshi and Ouyang Xiu, and later there were the Su Shi and Su Zhe brothers, whose brilliance overshadowed his.

In this era when geniuses emerged in great numbers, even Sima Guang could only adhere to the principle that diligence makes up for lack of talent.

He truly did achieve this compensation through diligence, but he was also absolutely a genius.

This was truly terrifying.

The most, most, most demoralizing thing in life was discovering that geniuses worked harder than you.

Zhang Fei completely gave up trying to excel in this area. His requirement for himself was just to practice until his handwriting was neat, his sentences smooth, and everyone could understand them clearly.

He wouldn’t take one step beyond that.

It really had no meaning.

At most, he would be a porter of articles.

Nothing more.

“Yes.”

Zhang Fei still responded verbally: “Academician Sima’s instruction – Zhang San will certainly keep it in his heart.”

Sima Guang saw that his expression wasn’t sincere at all and knew he was just placating him, so he stopped nagging. After all, everyone had their own aspirations. Suddenly his expression became serious: “The words I just said praising Wang Anshi- you must never tell Wang Anshi about them, otherwise I won’t spare you.”

“Ah, oh… I know, I know, I absolutely won’t say anything.”

Zhang Fei nodded repeatedly, thinking to himself about this pair of adversaries.

But Sima Guang couldn’t leave yet, because Zhang Fei still had to take his article to the workshop to compare it and see which characters in the article didn’t have movable type. If there weren’t any, modifications would have to be made.

After all, no one here could modify Sima Guang’s article – only he could modify it himself.

Fortunately, Sima Guang had also paid attention to this, trying to use relatively common characters. In the end, only twelve characters lacked movable type, even fewer than in Xu Zhiqian’s article.

After the modifications, Sima Guang took his leave.

“Zhang San, what should we do about this?”

Hou Donglai looked at Zhang Fei expectantly.

Zhang Fei asked, “What do you mean, what should we do?”

Hou Donglai said, “Should we print Academician Sima’s article, or Miss Xu’s?”

Zhang Fei pondered briefly and said, “Print both. For Zhiqian’s, keep it the same as previously agreed. But for Academician Sima’s article, add ten more coins to the price, print five hundred more copies, and keep the printing blocks too. If it’s popular, we’ll continue printing more.”

Hou Donglai nodded, “Yes, I understand.”

After giving these instructions, Zhang Fei also took a carriage home.

Upon returning home, he informed the Xu father and daughter about this matter.

Xu Zun was also a literati and could understand Sima Guang. If he weren’t the party involved, he would have written something himself, as writing articles was the greatest hobby of the literati. He stroked his beard and laughed, “Qian’er, you writing an article was like casting a brick to attract jade!”

Xu Zhiqian complained, “Zhang San, since Academician Sima has already written something, don’t print my article. It would make people laugh at me.”

She knew her own limitations. If her article were placed alongside Sima Guang’s, hers would be garbage—the gap was too vast.

“It’s different,” Zhang Fei said. “Academician Sima wrote completely according to his own thoughts, and I didn’t dare interfere. If we really compare them, your article suits my intentions better, which is why I decided to print both.”

Sima Guang’s article contained too much personal agenda, even promoting his concepts of frugality and enriching the people. Xu Zhiqian’s article was something they had discussed together—the two were actually quite different.

Xu Zhiqian said anxiously, “You’re not lying to me, are you? If people laugh at me, I’ll settle accounts with you.”

Zhang Fei said, “Don’t worry, I’ll distribute your articles separately. For roadside tea stalls, we’ll distribute your article, but for places like White Crystal Inn, we’ll distribute Academician Sima’s article.”

Xu Zhiqian nodded, “That’s more like it.”

She didn’t want this kind of fame.

Just thinking about it made her feel incredibly embarrassed.

If Sima Guang and the others had disdained to write, she would have felt indifferent. But since Sima Guang had written something, she felt it would be very humiliating.

As the saying goes, “Train soldiers for a thousand days to use them for one moment.”

The craftsmen at Authentic Books Store had been conducting research and development for most of the past year. Although their wages hadn’t been reduced, they ultimately hadn’t made money, leaving everyone feeling uncertain. Day after day of research and development—would they ever make money?

Now business had finally arrived, and everyone was as energized as if they’d been injected with adrenaline, working desperately hard.

Soon, the first newspaper in history was produced.

At the same time, Zhang Fei spread word that he was preparing to distribute newspapers to various restaurants and teahouses for sale.

The managers of major restaurants immediately flocked to him.

Everyone was no fool.

The previous pamphlet had been fermenting for many days, and now suddenly there was a response—this was truly eye-catching.

It was full of publicity appeal.

If other restaurants had it but yours didn’t, the loss might not just be numbers on paper—even your status could be affected.

Hou Donglai, who had been in printing for many years, finally experienced what it felt like to be a person of importance.

He told the managers quite dominantly to leave their money and send people to collect the goods at the fourth watch three days later.

It was that simple.

Inspection?

Ha!

Buy it or don’t.

The managers obediently left their money without a single complaint. They didn’t even know they were buying Sima Guang’s article.

“Boss, how did it go?” Hong Zhong quietly asked.

Hou Donglai said, “Sold everything.”

“What? Sold everything?” Hong Zhong was shocked. “Even at such a high price, people bought them?”

This pricing had terrified the craftsmen—it represented a tenfold profit.

Hou Donglai said, “Maybe we still sold them too cheaply. Not one of the managers who came said they were expensive.”

Hong Zhong scratched his head in bewilderment. A common person like him couldn’t understand such things—he just found it incredible.

This was much more profitable than printing books.

This time they had really struck it rich.

Three days later, at White Crystal Inn.

Early in the morning, Fan Yong and his son stood at the entrance with more than twenty maidservants in full dress to welcome guests, because for the past two days, all the private rooms and booths at White Crystal Inn had been fully booked.

Moreover, all the guests were of considerable standing: Han Qi, Zeng Gongliang, Cao Ping, Gu Ji, and others.

They were all court ministers and imperial relatives without exception.

The lowest ranking was a Secretary of the Three Financial Bureaus.

Since this matter involved the entire court, when everyone heard that the other side was going to counterattack, they naturally wanted to come and investigate.

Many scholar-officials had even sent people to make reservations, only to be told everything was sold out and they could only go to restaurants to read.

As soon as Han Qi sat down, ignoring the beautiful scenery outside the window and the fine food at White Crystal Inn, he immediately asked Fan Yong, “Didn’t you say there would be a newspaper to read? Where is it?”

At his age, he had no interest in coming for breakfast so early in the morning—he was here to read the newspaper.

“Please wait a moment, Chancellor Han.”

Fan Yong quickly ordered a maidservant to bring over a copy of the newspaper.

Han Qi took the newspaper and asked, “This is a newspaper?”

Fan Yong hastily replied, “Yes, you can read it once you open it.”

Han Qi nodded and opened the newspaper—this absolutely opened up a whole new world for him!

Fan Yong then asked cautiously, “What would Chancellor Han like to eat?”

This is a restaurant, not a library—you can’t just read the newspaper without ordering anything!

“Ah?”

Han Qi glanced at him, then looked at the old servant beside him.

The old servant quickly pulled Fan Yong aside and ordered several breakfast dishes that Han Qi enjoyed.

Han Qi soon became absorbed in reading, but as he read on, he suddenly frowned. “This writing style is quite familiar—I feel like I’ve seen it before.”

His gaze moved to the end, and he said in surprise, “Sima Guang? So this was written by Sima Guang. No wonder it looked familiar. How extraordinary!”

He quickly called Fan Yong over again.

“Mogul, how is it that this article was written by Sima Guang?”

“This humble citizen doesn’t know either,” Fan Yong explained. “We only learned this morning that Authentic Books Store printed two issues this time—one written by Miss Xu and one written by Academician Sima.”

“Miss Xu?”

“That’s the daughter of Chief Judge Xu—Xu Zhiqian.”

“Oh.”

Han Qi nodded. “Please trouble yourself to bring me a copy of that one as well.”

Fan Yong said, “Yes.”

Originally, Xu Zhiqian’s article wouldn’t have been distributed to White Crystal Inn, but Fan Zheng had used his connections to obtain several copies.

Since the main figure in this matter was Xu Zun, and Xu Zhiqian clearly represented Xu Zun, this was the real response.

Han Qi was also a great literary figure, and normally he certainly wouldn’t think much of Xu Zhiqian’s writing, but today he wanted to take a look.

After Fan Yong left, Han Qi continued reading carefully, nodding frequently. “Worthy of being Sima Guang—this writing is truly masterful. Excellent, excellent, really well written.”

Sima Guang’s writing style was plain and unadorned, yet it concealed extremely sophisticated techniques. Compared to modern day influencers, he was infinitely more skillful, though he was essentially doing the same thing.

He cleverly focused on considering the landlords’ perspective—that is to say, they all felt this sweeping cut was unfair to landlords, which was why they had this meeting.

He tactfully told everyone that they weren’t targeting landlords, but rather thinking of the landlords’ interests.

If they didn’t consider the landlords, there would be no need for discussion.

As for Xu Zun’s statement, that was just mentioned in passing during the discussion. He even included the original words from that time, showing that they all disagreed with doing this, and that even Xu Zun hadn’t said much about it.

Then he began expounding his own views—reducing expenditures, enriching the people, and governing the realm together—connecting these three concepts to the tenant farmer issue. For example, regarding reducing expenditures and enriching the people, he also proposed that the court’s excessive taxes were somewhat to blame, and it wasn’t entirely the landlords’ fault.

As for governing the realm together, he directly employed a strategy of praise-to-kill.

He stated that scholar-officials all regarded the realm as their responsibility, and when localities faced difficulties, many scholar-officials stepped forward. How could they possibly endanger local stability? He even provided examples to illustrate this point—Sima Guang read extensively every day, and providing examples was his greatest strength. Official source ıs nοvelfire.net

This law had no effect on scholar-officials; they were just worried about petty people stirring up trouble from within.

In any case, it was full of his personal agenda.

His philosophy was in the same tradition as Fan Zhongyan and the others, and since Han Qi was one of the Qingli gentlemen, he naturally agreed with it.

He was reading with great fascination, but as he continued, he suddenly became aware of a din of voices outside.

Han Qi couldn’t help but rise and step outside his private room. Looking around, he saw that the inn was already packed to capacity, filled with court officials and retired scholar-officials.

Everyone held copies of the newspaper, speaking eloquently and arguing endlessly.

This made Han Qi’s thoughts drift back to his youth, when he would engage in spirited political discussions with Fu Bi and other close friends. How wonderful those times had been.

The White Crystal Inn was certainly not cheap, and there were few in the court wealthier than him. He was definitely sitting in the finest private room, enjoying the best service, but at this moment, he felt quite lonely—this newspaper simply couldn’t be enjoyed alone.

Suddenly he spotted Zeng Gongliang and others sitting in an elegant booth, and he hurried over to them with eager steps.

Wang Anshi naturally knew about this matter as well, but he would never come to such an extravagant place as the White Crystal Inn. He had not the slightest interest in fine food and clothing, and frankly speaking, he couldn’t afford it either, since he was still carrying a mortgage. Instead, he went to a small tavern closer to the imperial city, planning to take a quick look and then head straight to work. Who would have known he would encounter Sima Guang’s article there.

First thing in the morning, and it was already ruining his mood!

“Worthy indeed of Academician Sima—this article is truly well written!”

“I really don’t understand why His Majesty trusts Wang Anshi when Academician Sima’s philosophy clearly makes more sense.”

Wang Anshi sat alone in a corner with his newspaper, using it to shield his face as he read Sima Guang’s article and listened to the neighboring table’s praise of Sima Guang. It was truly nauseating, making him so angry he couldn’t even finish his breakfast.

This article was considered well written?

What utter nonsense.

Bah!