The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 327 Dishes Bestowed Upon the Ministers
Most of the time, Kosen Palace was very quiet, and the emperor and his wife had grown accustomed to this tranquility.

Today is a rare holiday, and the place was briefly lively for a few hours when Wang Ben arrived.

After the meal, Fusu sat down again and began tidying up a stack of papers.

Li watched as his maternal grandfather held his younger sister and laughed happily. He walked to his father's side, saw the words on the paper, and asked, "Father, is this the calendar?"

Fusu said, "Yes."

After looking at a few pages, Li asked curiously, "The current twenty solar terms are very useful and highly regarded in all counties. Why does Father Emperor want to reorganize them again?"

Fusu's gaze remained fixed on the papers as he whispered, "This is the lunar calendar. Zhang Cang spent a year guarding the celestial globe and calculated most of it. The rest is all here."

Li said, "Isn't the current calendar good?"

“It’s not that the current calendar is bad, it’s that it’s incomplete,” Fusu corrected his son.

Li said, "I'll help Father Emperor tidy up."

Fusu handed him another stack of papers and said, "Fold them in order."

Li sat down to the side and began to tidy up.

Winter came a little later this year than last year, but the snow was still just as heavy.

Li arrived at the Prime Minister's residence and met Zhang Cang there.

At that moment, Zhang Cang was busy calculating the accounts in front of him and was so focused that he did not notice the arrival of the young master.

When she felt a little hungry, she reached for the flatbread next to her and found that the flatbread, which should have been cold, was still hot, even a little too hot to handle. Looking up, she saw that it was Gongzi Li.

Zhang Cang rose and bowed, saying, "Young Master."

Li sat down to the side and said, "Prefect Zhang, there's no need for such formalities. My father asked me to bring the newly written calendar."

Zhang Cang accepted the scroll handed to him by the young master.

"I heard from my father that Magistrate Zhang stayed by the armillary sphere for a year to observe the stars in order to make this calendar."

Zhang Cang said, "It wasn't that long ago. We observed the stars at home, wrote down what we saw last night, and then used the armillary sphere to calculate them after the court discussion..."

In Zhang Cang's account, the armillary sphere was simply a calculation tool and not particularly mysterious.

But in the eyes of the world, in the understanding of propriety, the emperor used the armillary sphere to calculate the meteorite in Shangjun.

As for how it was calculated, no one knows, not even the Emperor himself; it is probably a secret between the Emperor and Zhang Cang.

He said politely, "Prefect Zhang must be working very hard."

Zhang Cang chewed on a biscuit while flipping through the book in his hand, and said, "This is something Cang is good at, so it's not difficult for Cang."

The talents of people are indeed incomparable. Li had seen the calculations of the calendar, and the formulas were very complex, requiring many conversions to solve.

Li said, "If only this knowledge could also be sent to the Imperial Academy."

"I will most likely spend my entire life in the Prime Minister's residence."

Zhang Cang was still looking at his book when he spoke, and didn't even look up at Gongzi Li.

Before coming here, I had already heard that among the emperor's most trusted ministers, Zhang Cang and Cheng Miao were both rather eccentric.

In other words, Zhang Cang's implication was that he shouldn't even think about it; he had endless state affairs to attend to and would be busy in the Prime Minister's residence until the end of his life.

Li felt that Zhang Cang's statement was related to the recent political climate in the Qin court.

The emperor's demands for efficiency in handling state affairs are increasing, putting great pressure on the court officials.

Even during the winter solstice, when people are on leave, officials still come and go from the Prime Minister's residence. Perhaps the Emperor could take a break during the winter solstice, but state affairs could not be suspended.

People can rest, but national affairs cannot.

Officials may take a break after the winter solstice, but they must return to their posts promptly if the affairs of the state require them.

This statement is contradictory, but it also reflects the pragmatic and demanding nature of the Qin court.

Dedication is a very important spirit and quality. The Jingye Canal in Jingye County still flows today. The emperor hoped that his officials would be dedicated to their work, and that the people of the world would also be dedicated to their work.

Looking at the wind and snow outside the palace, Li said, "I wonder how my brother is doing out there."

Seeing that Zhang Cang was still looking at the lunar calendar, he politely asked, "Prefect Zhang, will the calendar be changed in the future?"

Zhang Cang said, "No, there will be two calendars in the future. One is the Qin calendar that was already in use, and then this new calendar will be promoted. This is the lunar calendar, which is a calendar that is supplemented based on the previous twenty-four solar terms. This calendar is called the lunar calendar, which has twelve months and twenty-four solar terms."

Li asked, "Why use two calendars?"

Zhang Cang replied, "For the sake of agriculture and people's livelihood."

Li said in a low voice, "I've heard my teacher talk about the scholars from Qilu in the past. Some of them were pursuing the so-called Way of Heaven and Man. My teacher often ridiculed those alchemists. Some of their fantasies were so exaggerated that they even started to believe them themselves. My teacher always said that he was quite dissatisfied with those alchemists. Even when he was a scholar in Qin, my teacher never associated with them."

Zhang Cang scratched his head, wondering how to explain to Gongzi Li the relationship between the sexagenary cycle and the lunar phases.
Even if I explain it, will Gongzi Li understand?

Qin had a law that prohibited the construction of city walls in the spring and banned logging in the spring, because Qin attached great importance to the calendar.

Magistrate Zhang was indeed a man of few words; as they said, he was usually a man of few words. A month passed after the Winter Solstice, and the Prime Minister's Office finally promulgated the new calendar.

This calendar is a new calendar improved upon the twenty-four solar terms.

The previous twenty-four solar terms were recognized for their rationality and practical significance when counties guided agricultural activities and encouraged cultivation. In addition, the new calendar was successfully accepted by the people as soon as it was promulgated.

It seems that, to people, this calendar should be for people like this.

In the winter, Takasen Palace returned to its usual tranquility, and the emperor, as usual, would return for lunch in the afternoon after court meetings.

After the emperor finished his meal, he sat here and looked at the documents.

Since the birth of the little princess, the emperor would always stay an extra hour at Gaoquan Palace.

The emperor sat at his desk reading the reports from his ministers, while the little princess sat beside him eating fish porridge. Her gaze would occasionally drift to the documents in her father's hands. Although she couldn't understand them, she would read them because she saw that her father enjoyed reading them.

If the emperor was too busy with palace affairs to take care of the princess, he would bring the princess with him to Zhangtai Palace to manage state affairs while also looking after the child.

In the afternoon, Fusu, dressed in a black robe, led his daughter up the steps of Zhangtai Palace.

Later, when the emperor began to review state affairs sent by the prime minister's office, he would occasionally summon his ministers.

The little princess had seen many of the Qin court's high-ranking officials coming and going at Zhangtai Palace so often that she could remember who was who.

Later that night, after the emperor had finished his affairs of state, his wife also came to the main hall, and the family sat down together for dinner.

Fusu looked at the dishes and asked, "The spinach has been grown?"

Tian An replied, "It's strange, the spinach that can't be grown in autumn is growing in early spring."

Perhaps due to the variety, the season, or the soil and water, this spinach has a bitter taste.

This spinach was a gift from the people of the Western Regions. We only started cultivating it in the last two years, and it failed last year.

I was surprised and delighted that it sprouted again this spring.

The little princess didn't like spinach. She was about to spit it out, but when she saw her mother's look, she swallowed it back down, feeling wronged.

Fusu quite liked the spinach, even though it was a bit bitter, because it meant people would have a new vegetable to eat.

Fusu could no longer find the pomegranate tree that his father, when he was still the King of Qin, planted on Mount Li, but Fusu believed that this spinach would surely spread throughout the Central Plains.

Fusu said, "Grapes have already been grown in the Hexi Corridor. In the future, let Guanzhong try to grow some as well."

"Yes."

After the emperor finished giving his instructions, Tian An hurriedly went outside the palace to give instructions to the others.

Tian Anxi enjoys cooking, and he also enjoys studying crops, not just spinach and radishes, but also a type of wheat that came from the plateau.

That kind of wheat is barley, which is Tian An's least favorite crop.

Fusu picked up another spinach, put it in his mouth and chewed. The spinach was very small and narrow, with a bitter taste, and the root was red. It was not the broad-leaved sweet variety of later generations.

Fusu was quite satisfied with just one more dish and ordered, "Give the spinach to the officials."

Tian An nodded.

The next day, while the Zhangtai Palace was holding a court meeting, Tian An went to the Shanglin Garden early in the morning.

The emperor distributed most of the land in Shanglin Garden to the surrounding counties, leaving only a dozen or so acres behind.

Tian An entered Shanglin Garden, dismounted, and looked at the spinach growing in the fields. He ordered, "By imperial decree, all these spinach should be picked and distributed to the officials."

Upon hearing this, the eunuchs all went to work in the fields.

"Grand Attendant, what should we plant after we harvest the spinach?"

Tian An hesitated for a moment, then took out the land register before giving instructions: plant radishes from the Western Regions on one plot of land, and also plant some cotton, sesame, grapes, and coriander from the Western Regions...

There were many crops to try planting. Tian An admitted that his wisdom was insufficient, so he used the most basic method to plant all of them. Those that could be grown and eaten were good crops, and those that could not be grown or eaten were not good crops.

This was the most useful method Tian An could think of, since he didn't know which crops in the Western Regions were easy to grow and which were not.

As for the spinach in front of him, Tian An believed that this was not the reason he planted it. As for why it did not grow in autumn and winter, it was probably because this year's autumn and winter were too cold.

After giving these instructions, Tian An drove three cartloads of spinach back to Xianyang.

Now, the Shanglin Garden is entirely under Tian An's control, and the vegetables that the emperor's family eats are all grown by Tian An. Every time he cooks a table full of dishes, all of these vegetables are grown by him.

Whenever Tian An sees those things, he feels a great sense of satisfaction and happiness.

After returning to Xianyang, Tian An had three carts full of spinach distributed, so that everyone could get a handful.

The emperor was a beloved emperor. Although he kept everyone very busy, he would always reward his officials during festivals and holidays, and even on non-festival days. Last autumn, he rewarded his officials with raisins from the Western Regions, and this time he rewarded them with spinach.

But when Attendant Tian mentioned that the spinach was grown by the Emperor in the Shanglin Garden, the officials started scrambling for it.

What Tian An said is also correct. This year, the emperor performed the agricultural ceremony in Shanglin Garden, and these spinach were almost the same as those grown by the emperor himself.

(End of this chapter)