Judge of the Song Dynasty

The Imperial Palace.

Jade Stream Pavilion.

Zhao Xu walked along the path lined with artificial hills and soothing streams, but his face showed none of the relaxed contentment of leisure time. Instead, his brow was deeply furrowed as he murmured quietly: “Drafting Officer Song Minqiu and Li Dalin, Remonstrator Hu Zongyu, Censor Yang Hui?”

At this point, he turned his head to look at the guard beside him. “Are you certain it was these men who did this?”

The guard replied: “This humble servant speaks no falsehoods. Last night they happened to be at Pan Inn as well, and they must have heard what Su Shi said. Before dawn, they sent their household servants to secretly place these handwritten pamphlets in front of various taverns.”

Because Zhao Xu had a wager with Zhang Fei, he had specifically sent people to secretly monitor this matter, never expecting that a pamphlet would appear the very next day.

This truly shocked Zhao Xu greatly.

“Why would these men do such a thing?”

Zhao Xu appeared quite puzzled.

Hu Zongyu had indeed impeached Wang Anshi before, but Song Minqiu and Li Dalin were both moderates at court, devoted to scholarship and not the combative type. Especially Song Minqiu, who could be called a contemporary historian, particularly deep in his research of Tang history. Since Zhao Xu greatly admired Emperor Taizong of Tang, he often discussed Tang history with him and knew his character well. He was truly a man of learning, with ten thousand volumes in his home collection, including many unique editions. Even Wang Anshi, Sima Guang, and Su Shi would go to his house to borrow books.

They were unlikely to engage in such scheming and political maneuvering.

A eunuch official nearby suddenly said: “I’ve heard that Drafting Officer Song greatly loves literature. Could they be opposing the ban on the Scholar’s Gazette?”

Zhao Xu glanced at the eunuch and nodded: “It must be so. It must be so.”

At this point, he sighed: “If even they oppose it, I fear Teacher Wang will find it difficult to handle.”

Just then, Lan Yuanzhen suddenly arrived. “Your Majesty, grave news!”

Zhao Xu asked: “What matter?”

Lan Yuanzhen said: “This morning’s pamphlets have multiplied greatly. Hundreds of copies are now circulating among the people.”

Zhao Xu asked in surprise: “Have you discovered who is responsible?”

Lan Yuanzhen replied: “There’s no need to investigate. It’s those scholars and students, spontaneously copying that pamphlet and distributing it to others to read, which is why the numbers keep growing.”

He continued: “Your Majesty, if this continues, it may affect Academician Wang’s New Policies.”

He had always supported the New Policies, not because he agreed with their principles, but because he disliked the conservatives, who kept a tight watch on eunuchs.

He and Wang Anshi shared common enemies.

Zhao Xu said: “I believe the Teacher Wang will have a way to resolve this.”

In this matter, he wasn’t really trusting Wang Anshi—he was trusting Zhang Fei, who had anticipated this and surely had a solution, so there was no need for him to worry.

It turned out this was all because Wang Anshi had ordered the Kaifeng Prefectural Office to investigate the matter, which directly led to Bianjing’s scholars spontaneously copying the pamphlet to protect whoever had started it.

Go ahead and arrest us all if you can, Wang Anshi.

This was truly beyond Wang Anshi’s expectations.

Previously, he had believed this was definitely orchestrated by someone behind the scenes to target him.

But now it seemed this was not the case.

And indeed it was not.

There really was no one manipulating this from behind—it was all spontaneous behavior.

The scholars of the Song Dynasty normally loved to discuss political affairs, criticizing chancellors and criticizing the emperor. When Wang Anshi and Han Qi were young, they too commented on this and that daily, because the Song Dynasty had an open atmosphere.

This prohibition on discussing political affairs, regardless of whether it was in pamphlets, made scholars feel nauseated upon hearing it. Even scholars who had previously admired Wang Anshi now considered him a hypocrite.

You previously wrote various articles discussing political affairs, earning the appreciation of chancellors like Bao Zheng, Ouyang Xiu, and Wen Yanbo. Now that you’ve become chancellor, you forbid us from publishing articles.

Because the Scholar’s Gazette had only ever published one article, written by Han Qi no less, and it was a traditional piece with nothing objectionable—the kind of article scholars wrote when discussing political affairs.

Your prohibition makes no sense.

Even some scholar-officials who stayed out of worldly affairs and were devoted to learning found this extremely distasteful. They too copied Wang Anshi’s articles, read them through the night, and showed them to others—so would this count as a pamphlet?

Many of the vested interests in the court were considering the issue of power—if Wang Anshi could forbid them from publishing articles today, he might forbid them from speaking tomorrow.

As for the officials who had always opposed Wang Anshi, there was no need to mention them. Seeing that Wang Anshi had delivered himself into their hands, they quickly fanned the flames, adding some seasoning, and everyone began roasting him.

This sudden storm immediately plunged Wang Anshi into a tremendous political crisis.

Wang Anshi was truly overwhelmed by the chaos.

In his heart, he felt utterly wronged.

Previously, when the publications were optional and rarely seen, none of them had cared. Now, after less than a month, it was as if they couldn’t live without the newspapers.

As if he had committed some heinous crime.

“Mentor, this cannot continue. You must make a decision quickly, or the New Policies will be affected.”

Lu Huiqing was now anxious.

He had originally planned to use newspapers to promote the New Policies while attacking Han Qi, stepping on Han Qi to advance his position. Who knew Wang Anshi would try to just nip it in the bud—this had completely backfired.

This had already dealt a severe blow to Wang Anshi’s reputation.

Many people believed that Wang Anshi’s prohibition of the newspapers stemmed from his fear that people would use them to criticize his New Policies, which suggested there must be something fishy about these New Policies.

Wang Anshi had a guilty conscience!

Wang Anshi asked with a furrowed brow, “What solution do you have?”

Having no precedent for such a case, he was somewhat at a loss.

Lu Huiqing said, “Mentor, quickly petition His Majesty to rescind this prohibition.”

With things having escalated to this point, forcing the implementation would only cause greater harm. No one would support him, and there was simply no way to enforce the ban.

Wang Anshi appeared very hesitant. He truly regretted his decision, but he also believed that withdrawing it immediately would prove he had been wrong.

Yet he remained convinced that his concerns were not unfounded worries of a mediocre mind—the others were the ones who were short-sighted and didn’t understand the harm involved.

Seeing Wang Anshi’s indecision and understanding his concerns, Lu Huiqing suggested, “Why don’t we ask Zhang San for advice?”

Wang Anshi was taken aback. “Ask Zhang San?”

Lu Huiqing nodded. “This matter arose because of Zhang San. He once used these publications to help Xu Zun seek justice, which shows he understands this area well. Why not ask him?”

Wang Anshi was reluctant to lose face. After hesitating for a long while, he said, “Go fetch Zhang San.”

“Yes.”

Soon, Lu Huiqing brought Zhang Fei over.

“You little rascal, do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me?”

Upon seeing Zhang Fei, Wang Anshi bristled with anger.

Zhang Fei looked aggrieved. “Academician Wang, where does this accusation come from? When you ordered the prohibition, I immediately complied. If something went wrong, you can’t blame me for it.”

Wang Anshi said, “If you hadn’t published pamphlets and newspapers, would this have happened?”

Zhang Fei replied with tears in his eyes, “I was forced into it!”

“Who forced you?” Wang Anshi said. “You should have come to me then—I would have helped you.”

Truly worthy of Wang Anshi—even when asking for help, he did so with such righteousness. Zhang Fei understood this clearly and couldn’t be bothered to argue. “What’s done is done. So… what do we do now?”

Wang Anshi said, “You caused this trouble, so you need to find a way to solve it.”

Zhang Fei muttered under his breath, “This trouble was clearly caused by you.”

“What did you say?” Wang Anshi’s eyes widened.

“Nothing, nothing.”

“So what do you think we should do?” Wang Anshi asked.

Zhang Fei struggled for a moment before saying, “I’m afraid Academician Wang won’t like what I have to say.”

Wang Anshi replied, “No matter how harsh your words, they can’t be worse than what those people outside are saying.”

Zhang Fei said, “I believe this approach is fundamentally wrong.”

“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?” Wang Anshi glared at him.

“I!”

Zhang Fei nearly cursed out loud, then laughed dryly. “I thought you stopped my publications for my own good? It would only be right for me to appreciate such kindness.”

“Ahem!”

Wang Anshi coughed violently, waving his hand. “Let’s not discuss what happened before. How should we resolve the current problem?”

Zhang Fei explained, “Preventing people from speaking is more dangerous than damming a river—this simply cannot be prohibited. The reasoning is simple: rarity increases value. The more something is forbidden, the more valuable it becomes, and the more it will tempt people to take risks.”

Take bootlegged salt and alcohol, for example. The court’s punishment for these can reach as high as execution by hanging, yet people still take such risks. The court has also been continuously adjusting policies in these areas to make it easier for merchants to obtain trading rights.”

Wang Anshi said, “But the harm of public opinion cannot go unguarded against!”

Zhang Fei replied, “The way to control rivers lies in proper guidance. If properly guided, it can instead irrigate crops. Public opinion is the same—properly guiding public opinion will benefit national stability.”

Wang Anshi asked, “How does one properly guide it?”

Zhang Fei said, “Take the New Policies, for instance. No matter how much you praise them…”

“Hmm?”

“Ahem, no matter how earnestly you explain the benefits of the New Policies, in the eyes of others, it’s just self-promotion. No matter how reasonable your arguments, there will always be those who question them. But if it’s someone else speaking, the effect is completely different. Though called a newspaper, it could actually be an official publication—an official publication disguised as a newspaper would actually be more persuasive.”

“An official publication disguised as a newspaper?”

Wang Anshi seemed to grasp something.

He had previously believed that public opinion could not be controlled by merchants, and Zhang San was ultimately a merchant. But if this merchant was actually working for the state, wouldn’t that still mean state control?

And it would be even more effective.

The more he thought about it, the more he regretted it. How had he failed to make this connection at the time?

Zhang Fei continued, “Not only that, but only by allowing legal newspaper to exist can you punish those illegal ones.”

Wang Anshi said irritably, “Since you understood this principle, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Zhang Fei replied, “Even if I had spoken up then, you wouldn’t have listened, especially since I would benefit from the idea.”

Wang Anshi said, “Who says so? Didn’t I listen to the suggestions you gave me before? Didn’t you benefit from them?”

Zhang Fei was left speechless.

Wang Anshi glanced at him. “What should be done now?”

Zhang Fei said, “The only option is to rescind this prohibition.”

Wang Anshi sighed, “If I simply rescind this prohibition, it would mean I was wrong and they were right. Do you know what kind of impact this would have on my New Policies?”

Zhang Fei pondered for a moment, then said, “Would you be willing to lose to the law?”

Wang Anshi asked in bewilderment, “Lose to the law?”

Zhang Fei said, “Let’s fight a lawsuit.”