The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 209 An Era Without the Masters

Zhang Liang had been in Shu for over a year, but he couldn't understand why Prince Fusu had gone to Dongjun to arrest him this spring, and coincidentally, a meteorite fell in Dongjun.

No one knows what the meteorite looks like; legend has it that it was in the Xianyang Palace.

Ju lifted his bundle again, gazing at the county town.

Jiangyuan County was built along the Min River. It has vast fields and numerous houses and villages, which look quite different from those in Guanzhong.

The houses and villages in Guanzhong are also connected in a continuous stretch, but at first glance they appear dark and gloomy.

The houses in Sichuan are mostly built with bamboo, with only a few constructed with stones and mud.

The bamboo house looks quite unique.

Just as Zhang Liang was about to say something more, he noticed that Ju was looking at the house, so he said, "There's not much else in Shu, but there's plenty of bamboo."

Ju said, "This place is really beautiful."

Gangwon County has an extremely comfortable and relaxing atmosphere, where people are busy in small groups during this busy farming season.

The rice in the fields had grown to about half a person's height by the time of the Autumn Equinox.

It is certainly beautiful here, but compared to the hard work and busyness of Guanzhong, the people of Shu are content and at ease.

Moreover, being in Sichuan, one is surrounded by the vast mountains of Bashu, stretching for eight hundred miles.

The mountains of Bashu kept the outside world's conflicts and grudges at bay, and there were not many people coming and going. In a year, apart from the Qin army and officials, there were hardly any other unfamiliar faces to be seen.

Zhang Liang led Ju into a bamboo house and pushed away the huge panda that had come up to him.

Seeing that it had been pushed away, the panda wriggled its plump body and slowly and lazily returned to the pile of bamboo shoots to continue sleeping.

Ju was quite surprised to see the bear.

Zhang Liang said, "It eats bamboo, not people."

Ju asked in confusion, "Did the master raise this?"

“It’s not my pet.” Zhang Liang stood there, looking at the panda that had fallen asleep again, and said with emotion, “When I first came to Sichuan, this bear broke into my house. I failed to drive it away several times, so it stayed here.”

Ju walked over and observed it. The bear was just sleeping and didn't seem willing to move at all.

After turning his gaze away, Ju followed Zhang Liang into the house.

After tidying up a room, Zhang Liang said, "You can stay here for now. Come with me to teach in a rural area tomorrow."

Ju smiled and said, "Thank you, Master."

Summers in Sichuan are hot and humid with frequent rain. By evening, thunder rumbles incessantly, and the mountains of Sichuan are once again shrouded in a curtain of rain.

After a few days of peaceful life, when it rained, the panda would hide in the bamboo house. The bear would sit under the eaves and stare blankly at the rainy weather.

Zhang Liang sat under the eaves of the bamboo house, eating steaming rice from a wooden bowl; a few pieces of cured meat were enough for a meal.

Ju also enjoyed the tranquility of this moment; under this heavy rain, it seemed as if the entire world had become peaceful.

As Zhang Liang ate his rice, he thought of Ju as a very innocent person. He pondered as he ate, recalling Ju's origins and experiences.

Although this volunteer teacher came from the military in the Hexi Corridor, he looked like an innocent young man.

Such a person does not seem to be a spy for the Qin army, nor could he have been planted by the Qin army.

Ju's temperament is like that of a child who has grown up under the protection of his elders.

Over the past few days, Zhang Liang subtly inquired several times and discovered that the child was indeed not a spy sent by the Qin army, so his identity as a volunteer teacher was still safe.

Ju truly regarded himself as the eldest brother and was very obedient.

But Zhang Liang felt somewhat ashamed that he had thought such things about him before.

It seems that Wang Yu, who is far away in Sanchuan County, is still protecting him.

Zhang Liang distributed the remaining cured meat to Ju, and said, "Sichuan not only has a lot of bamboo, but also a lot of salt, and people make a lot of cured meat. You should eat more."

"Thank you, Brother Han."

Zhang Liang smiled and walked into the bamboo house.

As Ju ate cured meat and rice, he said, "This place is so nice, so peaceful."

"Isn't the Hexi Corridor good?"

Zhang Liang asked the question casually.

Ju replied, "The Hexi Corridor is good, but it's mostly frequented by soldiers and merchants. There are even more merchants in the Hexi Corridor now than before. Before Brother Zhang Han came to the Hexi Corridor, it had never been this prosperous."

As Zhang Liang wrote on the paper, he asked, "Brother Chen Ping?"

"And Brother Lou Jing, they are all very good people."

After asking just one question, Ju became interested and began to talk about the Hexi Corridor.

Zhang Liang knew that Qin had deployed a large army in the Hexi Corridor, and that the army in the Hexi Corridor was led by a general named Zhang Han.

But this was the first time I had heard the names Chen Ping and Lou Jing.

Ju told Zhang Liang about the events of the past two years in the Hexi Corridor, and also mentioned that General Zhang Han missed the best opportunity to capture Modu at Mazong Mountain.

However, he talked most about Lou Jing and Chen Ping. From his words, Zhang Liang learned about the current situation in the Hexi Corridor.

Ju admired four people the most: Prince Fusu, General Zhang Han, and his elder brother Lou Jing and elder brother Chen Ping.

The Qin army had a large number of troops stationed on the border, while there were not many troops in the former territories of the six states.

Even so, Guanzhong, with Hangu Pass and Tong Pass as its strongholds, does not seem to be worried about the people of the former six states returning to their old territory.

Zhang Liang asked, "Have you ever met Prince Fusu?"

Ju recalled, "I met Prince Fusu when I was a child. At that time, my father was still building Tongguan City."

"Did your family build Tongguan City back then?"

"Yes, at that time, Prince Fusu lived outside Tongguan City."

"Living outside Tongguan City?"

Zhang Liang continued to press for answers.

Ju patiently recounted the story of how Tongguan City was built.

Zhang Liang then learned that the Xianyang Bridge, Tongguan City, and the Weinan canals were all built under the personal supervision of Prince Fusu.

At that time, Prince Fusu was still a boy, but he had already begun to build up Guanzhong, and more than ten years have passed since then.

Zhang Liang had heard about Prince Fusu before, but now, with Ju's narration, Zhang Liang knew what kind of person Prince Fusu was.

It seems that Zhang Liang could not find anything bad about Prince Fusu.

This young man has been a very good person since he was young, even to the point of being unreasonable. He is like a role model for all his peers.

This role model is also extremely good. As long as people all over the world have such a role model in their hearts, they will learn from him, imitate him, and even become such a person.

Ultimately, if we were to categorize such people by one word, it would be morality.

Zhang Liang's thoughts, though seemingly endless, boiled down to just two words: morality.

The young master hoped that people would value morality, so he and Shusun Tong together taught such students.

After Qin unified the six states, the emperor ordered Prime Minister Li Si to abolish the various vassal states, standardize the width of carts and the written language, and after the eastern tour, he demolished the ancestral temples on Mount Tai and forcibly implemented the Qin law to abolish the clan system in various places.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Li Si's policy of relocating people was aimed at dividing and erasing the original inhabitants of the six states, making everyone in the world become Qin people.

In this process, Li Si, the harsh prime minister, destroyed many patriarchal systems and customs, as well as the original customs, writing systems, and even sacrificial practices of various regions.

This process was brutal, so brutal that it severed the foundations of the old six kingdoms.

And the confrontation between Qin law and Qi Lu doctor.

When war destroyed the classics of the various schools of thought, and the debates at the Jixia Academy were silenced, all the writing systems in the world were to be unified.

How many of the followers of the Hundred Schools of Thought, such as Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Yin-Yang School, and School of Diplomacy, are still left?

Even after Xunzi passed away, there were really not many successors left. Even Zhang Liang felt that it was just some people boasting.

The world seems to have transitioned from an era of flourishing Hundred Schools of Thought to an era of decline for these schools.

In other words, after Prime Minister Li Si thoroughly examined all the classic texts of the world, he did so as if he were plowing a field.

Prince Fusu stepped forward and presented a precious material called paper to the world. He then crafted it into scrolls and taught them to the children of the land.

Thus, after Prince Fusu took over the task of standardizing the written language from the emperor, he once again elevated it to a new level by placing the teaching profession under the control of the Qin court through the practice of sending teachers to rural areas.

The history of the six states that followed could only exist in stories. Later generations knew of the Spring and Autumn Period of the Warring States, but they only read the books of the Qin people.

After the Hundred Schools of Thought, what can people still believe in?

Perhaps the only thing we can do is trust Prince Fusu.

This is why, every year during the harvest season, the people of Weinan offer a bowl of grain at the former residence of Prince Fusu to express their gratitude.

Such people have long become a new kind of brand.

After the Jixia Academy was burned down by war, new shoots sprouted on the ashes-covered land, bringing people new books, new virtues, and new spirit.

A country needs morality; a country without morality will fall into chaos.

This virtue is what Prince Fusu advocated: dedication, responsibility, pragmatism, perseverance, wisdom, and a sense of mission for the times.

After listening to Ju recount his past, Zhang Liang pondered many things.

The prince used these virtues to create seeds, sowing them one by one in the literary wasteland of the six states and Guanzhong. These seeds will grow into a forest, giving new life to this era of decline of the Hundred Schools of Thought.

After personally participating in the volunteer teaching program, Zhang Liang realized that the process was very long.

While Prime Minister Li Si's standardization of writing might have been achieved with a single decree or by executing a group of former nobles from the six states, Prince Fusu's initiative to teach in rural areas was not. It was a long-term endeavor that required several generations to complete.

Even in Prince Fusu's generation, the results were not yet visible; it would take the next generation for the seeds to grow into trees.

Zhang Liang didn't know why Prince Fusu insisted on doing so; perhaps the prince felt it was the right thing to do and therefore needed to do it.

Ju was one of the first children taught in Weinan, and he could be considered a disciple of Prince Fusu.

During these days of interaction, Zhang Liang felt that Ju was a very good child. He was methodical in his actions, eager to learn, and good at adapting.

(End of this chapter)