“Furen, your family’s learning is certainly of venerable and profound origin. Yet tales of immortals have been handed down and retold over thousands upon thousands of years. If even one part in ten remains true, that is already a blessing. You ask which immortal is my teacher, but I am young and my knowledge is shallow. I would never dare make a reckless guess and risk disturbing an honored deity. After all, when one possesses great powers, even the utterance of one’s name may be felt!”
Her childish voice was clear and tender, neither servile nor overbearing. Every word had reason behind it. Together, the little game she had devised and the argument she now presented became a pair of invisible shears, neatly cutting through the net of probing questions cast about her.
Mi Furen had already recovered her composure. Her breathing was even, her expression serene, and a reply was forming upon her tongue.
Before she could deliver it, however, Mu Taihou laughed softly from her seat above.
“Xiuyi, have you begun teaching Fusu his first characters?”
Though they were young and could not yet understand every subtlety of the adult world, Mengyuan, the eldest Gongzhu; Fusu, the eldest Gongzi; and Shuhua, the third Gongzhu, had all sensed the faint shift in the atmosphere.
Children were sensitive by nature. Those raised in a palace were more sensitive still. Having grown up watching the adults around them, they knew that the slightest movement of an eyebrow or change of expression could conceal a great deal.
Almost at once, Fusu clasped his hands and replied, “Damu, Mother has taught your grandson to read from the elementary texts.”
Zhao Ji regarded him affectionately. With a smile, she remarked that her grandson must be fond of asking questions, and that the effort of instructing him had caused Mi Furen to carry her habit of teaching into the conversation just now.
The meaning was unmistakable: the previous subject was closed. There would be no further argument.
Mi Furen paused, then followed Mu Taihou’s lead and began speaking of Fusu’s early lessons.
An eldest son was always special. Dawang paid particular attention to him, and so did the Taihou.
Fusu had been born in the sixth month of the third year of Qin Wang Zheng’s reign. In actual years, he was less than a year older than Ying Yang. Yet to all the people who doted upon him, he was already a great big boy of five! It might still be a little early for formal schooling, but learning his characters could certainly no longer be postponed.
Mi Furen came from a family of historians and scholars. Raised amid books and learning, Fusu was making excellent progress.
Pleased, Zhao Ji bestowed precious ornaments and playthings upon him, then smilingly instructed Jianglü and the other boys to learn from their elder brother.
Ying Yang looked toward Ji Meiren and the eldest Gongzhu. Mother and daughter, both dressed in deep crimson, remained perfectly calm.
She glanced at the other consorts. Their expressions, too, were entirely ordinary.
After lowering her head and thinking it over, Ying Yang began to understand.
When the question was one of age and seniority, Ji Meiren and the eldest Gongzhu would certainly insist on making their presence felt. But when the question became the different treatment accorded to boys and girls, they would fall silent.
That silence was not precisely surrender, nor was it willing acceptance. It was habit.
Some of the world’s supposed truths were heard almost from the womb, repeated from generation to generation, year after year. Women are inferior to men. Daughters are of no use. Such pronouncements, and the merciless reality that women could not ordinarily obtain power through recognized channels, taught girls from childhood that they were different from their brothers. They could not compete with them—and, more than that, they were not supposed to.
After eight hundred years of Zhou rule, the world had long grown accustomed to the principle that women could not serve as court officials. Naturally, the exhortation to study hard, so closely bound to the prospect of holding office and exercising authority, was not directed at girls.
Which meant that it was rather strange of her First Emperor father to have sent so many books to Huicao Hall and told her to study diligently.
Ying Yang scratched her chin in a distinctly inelegant fashion.
Ah, whatever. As long as nobody says it aloud, life can go on as usual.
The conversation continued for a while longer before an attendant came to announce the hour.
Zhao Ji then declared that they would proceed to Bushou Palace and Bugao Palace to pay their respects to Huayang Taihou and Xia Taihou. Only the three Furen, the children, and the children’s birth mothers were to accompany her.
Once the greater part of the company had been dismissed, Mu Taihou did not depart immediately. Instead, she asked with concern, “Have the children eaten their morning meal? Would they like a little something before we set off?”
Attendants brought in food and drink. The wet nurses of the fourth Gongzi, sixth Gongzhu, sixth Gongzi, seventh Gongzhu, and seventh Gongzi carried their little charges aside to feed them.
The eldest Gongzhu, Fusu, and the third Gongzhu first clasped their hands and expressed their thanks. Only then did they take up their honeyed cakes with elegant restraint.
Jianglü, already holding a piece of junü, froze. He hurriedly performed the forgotten courtesy and stole a glance at his A-Mu.
He received a magnificent icy glare for his trouble.
For two anxious seconds he waited for the loving slap that might follow. When none came, he straightened his chest and began eating in enormous mouthfuls.
Ying Yang joined them and picked up a piece of junü: flour dough twisted into a ring, brushed with honey, then fried in oil.
She could not decide whether to call it a ring-shaped biscuit or a Chinese doughnut. In the end, she chose to retain the name found in the writings of the great poet Qu Yuan.
She licked it, dipped it—no, wait, that was wrong—bit into it.
Crunch.
Sweetness and fragrant crispness exploded across her tongue.
Ying Yang hastily reached for her cup.
This sugar-ring biscuit is way too sweet! How much honey did they put in it? Oh, come on—why is the water sweet too?!
The previously inconspicuous Wu Gongzhu instantly became the center of everyone’s attention.
Jianglü cried in astonishment, “Damu’s junü is so delicious that Fifth Sister is crying!”
Thank you so very much, Brother!
Now nobody present needed to rack their brains for a graceful way to smooth over the awkward moment. One innocent remark from a real child was worth ten carefully polished speeches from adults.
Xia Xianshi forgot all about reprimanding her daughter for losing her composure before her elders. The tears that had burst straight from Ying Yang’s eyes frightened her so badly that she immediately ordered an attendant to bring a cup of lightly salted water. If salt could not be found in time, plain boiled water would do.
Zhao Ji, meanwhile, had Ying Yang’s plate of junü and honeyed cakes brought to her. She took one and tasted it.
The sweetness was exactly right—just as she liked it.
Without a word, the eldest Gongzhu, Mengyuan, offered up her own plate.
Zhao Ji took a piece, bit into it, and observed, “This plate is less sweet.”
Taihou had formed her own conclusions.
Setting down the cake, she praised her eldest granddaughter. “A good child. You understand filial devotion and harmony.”
Then she ordered the attendants responsible for serving today’s cakes and drinks to be punished.
Ying Yang drank three cups of warm water in succession, yet the cloying sweetness still lingered in her mouth.
After hesitating, she asked in a small voice, “Damu, could I borrow your tooth powder and clean my teeth…?”
She looked up at Zhao Ji with pleading eyes.
It was no great matter, and Zhao Ji agreed.
A maid led Wu Gongzhu toward a smaller room set aside for washing and grooming. The other children clamored to accompany her. The adults waved them away with expressions of faint distaste—Go on, go on—for they had things of their own to discuss.
The consorts who remained behind had now heard the words toothbrush and tooth powder yet again. One after another, they began asking Mu Taihou about them.
Smiling, Mu Taihou chatted with her son’s consorts about the toothbrushes and tooth powders her son had presented to her the previous evening.
Her choice of words, her tone, even her enthusiasm were much the same as when she spoke of rare and precious spices offered as tribute from Ba and Shu: novel, ingenious, useful enough, and well worth discussing.
If both Mu Taihou and Dawang had tried these things and pronounced them good, then presenting them to the other two Taihou could hardly be considered an embarrassment!
Something stirred in Xia Xianshi’s heart. She looked toward her elder cousin.
Xia Furen likewise considered it an honor worthy of delight. Outwardly, however, she maintained her composure. With a modest smile and carefully humble words, she began describing Wu Gongzhu’s miraculous transformation and the painstaking thought the child had devoted to her invention.
Why had Wu Gongzhu been able to make such ingenious things as toothbrushes and tooth powder?
Because Wu Gongzhu was filial, of course!
Ten days earlier, Wu Gongzhu had happened to overhear the Xia cousins discussing Mu Taihou’s unbearable toothache. Quietly, without announcing anything, she had committed the matter to memory and kept it close to her heart.
Though she was only a tiny child, she had restrained her childish impulses. Clever and industrious, she had pondered the properties of medicinal ingredients by day and night, personally grinding powders and testing materials.
Ji Meiren sighed. “Wu Gongzhu’s filial devotion is truly sincere!”
Even Mi Furen declared, “In former days, Zeng Shen carried rice a hundred *li* upon his back and never neglected to cook for his parents. Wu Gongzhu’s devotion today is no less than that of Zengzi!”
Xia Furen smiled.
“Perhaps the gods themselves recognized Wu Gongzhu’s filial heart. That must be why, in fewer than ten days, she was able to produce several powders and ointments that cleanse the teeth and soothe pain. Without Heaven’s assistance, how could an ordinary child conceive of such marvelous objects out of nothing? Even if she possessed extraordinary ingenuity, where could she have obtained the recipes?”
These words spoke directly to Zhao Ji’s heart.
“Yes, yes,” she agreed, nodding.
Mi Furen said nothing.
Zhao Furen, who was ordinarily sparing with words, now had something to say.
“The Gongzhu’s pure filial devotion is a good thing. Yet the craftsman’s arts are lowly occupations, not the proper path. In future, the Gongzhu ought to keep her distance from such pursuits.”
If a toothbrush or tooth powder had been devised by a commoner, artisan, merchant, impoverished scholar, or member of the lesser nobility, it might have offered an opportunity to win wealth and advancement for oneself and one’s family.
But in a royal or noble household, however clever or novel a manufactured object might be, the making of it remained a lowly pursuit, unworthy of a cultivated lady or gentleman.
Zhao Furen’s words were reasonable by the standards of the age, and well-intentioned besides. The others nodded in agreement.
Ying Yang, unaware that she was on the verge of losing the right to improve her own standard of living, was busy rubbing her teeth with her fingers under the fascinated gaze of several little children.
…This is a bit embarrassing.
The toothbrushes in Ganquan Palace were made for adults and were unsuitable for children. Since she only wanted to rid her mouth of the lingering sweetness, Ying Yang had washed her hands, asked a maid to spoon some tooth powder onto her palm, and begun rubbing it against her teeth with a fingertip.
The four curious little ones imitated her.
Then, all at once, their faces crumpled.
“It’s bitter! So bitter!”
Jianglü burst into tears with a great waaah!
The women talking beyond the screen fell silent and sent someone to discover what had happened.
The eldest Gongzhu and Fusu, dignified to the last, held their tears in their eyes.
The third Gongzhu went through the entire process without so much as a drop of moisture appearing in hers. She licked her teeth, her eyes shining.
“My teeth feel so light! It’s delicious!”
Thank you, Third Sister, for saving my reputation!
Ying Yang immediately promised to send some tooth powder to Third Sister later. Once the urgently commissioned children’s toothbrushes were ready in a few days, she would send those to her elder sisters and brothers as well.
Jianglü shouted, “Fifth Sister, do you really like eating bitter things? Can’t you like eating honey instead? My teeth want to eat honey powder!”
Then he added, “Fifth Sister, you need to eat more! That way you’ll grow up pretty!”
The laughter of the women beyond the screen stopped.
A woman’s voice rose sharply in warning. “Jianglü!”
But Jianglü’s ears were still ringing from the bitterness. He failed to hear his mother’s loving warning.
“Fifth Sister, you’re really ugly right now—mmph, mmph, mmph!”
Fusu clapped a hand over Jianglü’s mouth and quietly ordered his younger brother to apologize.
The eldest Gongzhu gave Jianglü a mocking glance.
“Jianglü, you’re going to get yourself beaten again!”
She turned to comfort her little sister.
“Don’t be sad. Jianglü is talking nonsense. There isn’t a single ugly person in our family!”
The third Gongzhu took Ying Yang’s hand.
“My A-Mu says that if little children eat plenty of meat, they’ll grow fair and plump and very pretty. Yangzi, you just need to eat more meat!”
Fusu released his brother and, with a stern expression, began lecturing him.
“Have you never heard the saying, ‘To judge a man by his appearance is to misjudge Ziyu’?”
The bewilderment in Jianglü’s eyes told his elder brother plainly that he had never heard it at all.
“Well said, Da Gongzi!”
No one knew when Zhao Furen had approached. Hearing Fusu’s words, she praised him, then strode forward with a rather unpleasant expression and seized Jianglü by the collar.
Ahem. As both a consort and a relative of the Qin king, whose height approached two meters, Zhao Furen was hardly a petite woman herself.
She stood eight chi tall—approximately one meter eighty-five.
Jianglü was only four chi.
When the eight-chi Zhao Furen lifted her four-chi son, she might as well have been carrying a chick.
“You haven’t the slightest bearing of an elder brother! This is all because I’ve indulged you too much!”
However furiously Jianglü kicked his feet, he could do nothing to prevent himself and his beloved mother from disappearing around the corner of the hall.
Walls and furnishings did nothing to contain the wailing that followed. Everyone could hear it.
“Waaaaah! A-Mu! A-Mu, I was wrong! Waaaaah—!”
Author’s Note
Wei Guifei, a consort of Li Shimin, had a skeletal frame measuring about 1.85 meters, so she was probably around 1.9 meters tall in life. _(:з」∠)_
Every time I remember that Brother Zheng was nearly two meters tall, my face turns a little green (and I don’t even know why). Maybe I have a touch of giant-phobia. (Not really?)
I’ve caught COVID again recently, orz. Little angels, please take care! It’s going around in some places again, along with influenza and other illnesses. It’s easy to catch a cold when the seasons change.
Translator’s Notes
– Junü (粔籹): An ancient fried, honeyed pastry mentioned in classical writing. The novel playfully compares its ring shape to a modern doughnut.
– Zeng Shen / Zengzi: A disciple of Confucius traditionally celebrated for filial devotion. The anecdote of carrying rice for his parents is invoked as a comparison with Ying Yang.
– “To judge a man by his appearance is to misjudge Ziyu”: A classical saying associated with Confucius and the disciple Ziyu, warning against judging worth by looks.
– Chi and li: Historical units of length.