The year 1567 CE was a rather eventful one.
By then, Italian sailors had already developed a fondness for roaming the world in sailor trousers, the Portuguese were securing a long-term lease on Macau on the grounds that it would facilitate trade, and the Great Ming Dynasty was on the verge of lifting a maritime trade ban that had been in place for more than a century.
Toward the end of the Jiajing reign, Tan Lun, Qi Jiguang, and Yu Dayou had won a major victory in their campaign to pacify the coastal regions. The scourge of Japanese pirates along the southeastern coast had finally been brought largely under control, ushering in a rare period of peace.
The imperial court seized the opportunity presented by the beginning of the Longqing reign to discuss lifting the maritime ban and reviving the long-suspended maritime trade.
After spending so much money on military campaigns to wipe out the pirates, surely it was time to replenish the imperial treasury?
The only question was whose pockets this fine undertaking, known as the “Longqing Opening of the Seas,” ultimately ended up lining.
Fortunately, such weighty affairs of state had little to do with Gu Xian. They certainly weren’t anything he needed to worry about.
Gu Xian was just as his name suggested: an idler of the Gu family.
He was only thirteen or fourteen years old, right at the age when boys grew rapidly. He seemed to grow taller by the day, and his appetite grew right along with him. To make matters worse, he was a picky eater. Every meal had to include meat and food made with fine white flour. In short, nothing but the good stuff would do.
His parents thought it over and realized that things couldn’t go on like this.
After all, people often spoke of the things that could ruin a household: eating, drinking, womanizing, and gambling.
Eating and drinking came before womanizing and gambling! How could anyone claim that having a big appetite was a small matter?
It was no small matter at all!
When they discovered that the family had scarcely a few copper coins left, Gu Xian’s parents spent the entire night discussing the problem under the covers, trying to come up with a solution.
In the end, they hit upon a rather rotten scheme—
They would send Gu Xian to the capital to live off their son-in-law.
Now, speaking of their son-in-law, Zhang Juzheng, he was quite an extraordinary man.
He had been known as the “Child Prodigy of Jiangling” since childhood, passed the examination to become a xiucai at twelve, and earned his juren degree at sixteen.
They had even heard that he’d recently been promoted. He was now a grand secretary!
A grand secretary in his early forties!
Although they called him their son-in-law, their daughter had actually passed away years ago.
Back then, she’d given birth to a child, but before the little one had even learned to speak, she’d been gone.
Ah, the poor girl had been so unfortunate.
If she’d lived until now, just imagine how comfortable her life would have been!
And if the third branch of the family hadn’t helped arrange the match back then, how could such a fine marriage ever have fallen into their laps?
Thinking back on that wonderful marriage, husband and wife sighed in unison.
Ah, what a pity their daughter hadn’t been blessed with a longer life.
It truly broke their hearts.
If the past couple of years hadn’t been so difficult, leaving the family genuinely unable to afford feeding a boy like Gu Xian, his parents would never have resorted to such a desperate measure.
Their daughter was already gone. What would people think if they sent her younger brother to sponge off her widower?
Besides, Zhang Juzheng had never forgotten them all these years. Every New Year and festival, he would send someone with gifts and greetings.
Their son-in-law was such a decent man!
Sending a bottomless pit of a boy to the capital to eat him out of house and home was, frankly, rather shameless.
But it wasn’t entirely because Gu Xian’s appetite had frightened them into submission.
They were also hoping that spending time around the child prodigy might allow some of his scholarly refinement to rub off on their son, giving him a better chance of passing the imperial examinations and earning scholarly honors someday.
He was already thirteen or fourteen! How could he spend every waking moment thinking about food and drink?
With these thoughts in mind, Gu Xian’s parents put him aboard a boat, earnestly reminding him to obey his brother-in-law once he reached the capital and, above all, never cause him any trouble.
Gu Xian dutifully agreed to everything they said.
Inwardly, however, he was practically bursting with delight.
The capital!
That was where the Son of Heaven resided!
Goods from every corner of the empire converged there, which naturally meant there would be more delicious things to eat than anyone could count.
Gu Xian could hardly wait to see it for himself.
After bidding his parents farewell, he boarded the boat and headed north.
He had actually visited the capital before.
Just not the capital of this particular era.
Back then, he’d been every bit as greedy for good food. His family had apprenticed him to a distant relative who worked as a master chef, and he’d remained there for several years.
Under that distant relative’s guidance, Gu Xian had not only developed excellent culinary skills but had also listened to all sorts of discussions at various gatherings, covering current affairs, history, and new and old schools of thought.
Sometimes, when the adults noticed him listening with obvious curiosity, they would smile and say something like, “Come, let me test you.”
Gu Xian never turned down a challenge. He enthusiastically answered every question.
Everyone liked a child who could grasp things as soon as they were taught.
And so, Gu Xian had gradually progressed from reading, writing, and arithmetic to astronomy and geography, picking up a little knowledge of practically everything.
That included the illustrious life of his brother-in-law, Zhang Juzheng, about whom he’d learned quite a bit from an elderly gentleman.
Zhang Juzheng was an extraordinary reformer.
During his ten years at the helm of government, he had introduced sweeping reforms from the top down, addressing longstanding problems in politics, the military, the economy, education, and other areas.
Under his leadership, the entire imperial administration had shaken off the lethargy of the Jiajing era and begun operating with remarkable efficiency.
Unfortunately, those reforms ultimately failed to escape the unfortunate fate of being abandoned after their architect’s death.
For a long time after Zhang Juzheng’s death, the Ming Dynasty’s former Chief Grand Secretary had anything but a good reputation.
After all, when the emperor himself took the lead in condemning someone, naturally every imaginable misdeed would be pinned on that person’s head.
It wasn’t until the waning years of the Ming Dynasty, when the empire was teetering on the brink of collapse, that Zhang Juzheng’s reputation was finally restored.
By the late Qing Dynasty, Liang Qichao went so far as to lavish praise upon the reformer, declaring him “the only great statesman of the entire Ming Dynasty.”
Perhaps this was precisely what people meant by the saying, “In poverty, one longs for a good wife; in troubled times, a nation longs for worthy ministers.”
Since all that business about condemning Zhang Juzheng had only happened after his death, Gu Xian felt that his journey to the capital was absolutely necessary.
Zhang Juzheng was only in his forties now. His death from illness was still a long way off!
If Gu Xian devoted himself to feeding his brother-in-law properly, perhaps he could help the man live another ten or twenty years.
Then Zhang Juzheng could dedicate his entire life to the cause of reforming the Great Ming!
With this in mind, Gu Xian arrived outside Chaoyang Gate in the capital at the very end of the fourth lunar month.
A cooking pot was strapped to his back. In his left hand, he carried the local specialties his parents had prepared, while his right hand held a plump grain-transport duck he’d purchased himself.
He wandered along the bustling streets, looking around with open curiosity.
Having grown up in the prosperous Jiangnan region, Gu Xian was hardly some impoverished country bumpkin who’d never seen the world.
Even so, the sight of these streets, at once familiar and strange, filled him with a thousand emotions.
He didn’t need anyone to give him directions.
He knew that a little farther ahead lay the Dongsi Archways, an intersection marked by four imposing ceremonial gateways.
The southern archway bore three large characters: Mingzhao Ward.
That was where Gu Xian was headed.
Earlier that year, Zhang Juzheng had successfully entered the Grand Secretariat on the recommendation of his teacher, Xu Jie.
Now that he had finally attained the rank that entitled him to hang a plaque bearing the character fu, denoting an official residence, above his gate, he’d naturally taken the opportunity to move into a somewhat larger house.
As soon as the new residence had been settled, Zhang Juzheng had written to his parents-in-law, informing them of his new address and telling them that any future correspondence could be sent there.
Gu Xian had to admit that this Zhang Juzheng seemed far more human than the flawless reformer so lavishly praised by scholars of the late Qing and Republican eras.
At the very least, Gu Xian had been rather touched when he read that letter.
His wife had been dead for more than a decade, yet he’d still thought to inform her parents of his new address at the earliest opportunity.
He was clearly a man who cherished old ties.
With the address of the Zhang residence in hand, Gu Xian was in no hurry to present himself at the door.
After bidding farewell to the fellow townsman who had accompanied him to the capital, he stopped beside the road to watch a vendor preparing clear-broth offal soup.
It was a very ordinary snack enjoyed by common folk.
As the name suggested, the dish consisted of pig intestines, lungs, liver, heart, and other offal, all simmered together in a single pot.
Of course, pig offal required special preparation before it could taste good.
This particular vendor was carefully scrubbing the intestines with alkaline water made from plant ash. His practiced, deft movements were so fascinating that Gu Xian stood watching with great interest for quite some time.
Before long, he even struck up a conversation with the man as though they were old acquaintances.
“Aren’t you afraid someone will steal your technique?”
The vendor chuckled.
“What’s there to be afraid of? Even if someone learns how I do it, they still won’t be able to make theirs as clean or as tasty as mine.”
For one thing, the ash water alone was the first obstacle to overcome.
Nobody else’s mixture worked nearly as well as his!
Hearing how confident the vendor was, Gu Xian grew even more interested.
He promptly declared, “Then I’ll definitely have to try some!”
The vendor smiled and jerked his chin toward the large, steaming pot on the stove.
“See that? There’s a batch almost ready. Wait a little longer, and you’ll be able to have some.”
Gu Xian set down his belongings, pulled over a stool, and sat down to chat with the vendor while waiting for the soup to finish cooking.
There was something peculiar about the capital’s weather.
It was almost the fifth lunar month, yet the air was still terribly chilly, especially as evening approached.
As someone from Southern Zhili, Gu Xian felt that what he needed most at this very moment was something piping hot to warm himself up.
The instant he swallowed his first mouthful of clear-broth offal soup, he knew the vendor had every reason to be so confident.
The appeal of offal lay precisely in its variety.
Each organ had its own distinct texture, and every mouthful offered a different flavor.
Unfortunately, not everyone could make such a jumble of ingredients taste good.
But this bowl of clear-broth offal soup was absolutely delicious!
Gu Xian swiftly polished off the entire bowl, then enthusiastically showered the vendor with praise for his cooking.
He made his appreciation abundantly clear, both in words and in deeds.
And just like that, he successfully made his first friend in the capital.
It wasn’t until the sun was almost setting that Gu Xian remembered he still had a brother-in-law to impose upon.
He hurriedly gathered his belongings and headed straight for the Zhang residence.
After rushing the rest of the way, he managed to arrive at the front gate just before Zhang Juzheng returned home.
Gu Xian had only just set down his things and was about to knock when he spotted a middle-aged civil official approaching from the other direction.
The man wore a long beard and had handsome, refined features. His bearing, however, was rather stern, and he already possessed an unmistakable air of authority—the sort that commanded respect without any need for anger.
He certainly matched his parents’ description of his brother-in-law!
Seeing that the man was indeed heading toward the Zhang residence, Gu Xian’s eyes lit up.
With his cooking pot still strapped to his back, he ran over to meet him.
Rubbing his hands together a little nervously, he introduced himself.
“Brother-in-law! I’m your long-lost younger brother-in-law! I’ve come all the way to the capital especially to see our nephew…”
Zhang Juzheng: ?!
The idea of sending their son to their son-in-law’s house to eat and drink at his expense had been so embarrassing that Gu Xian’s parents hadn’t been able to bring themselves to mention it.
They hadn’t even sent Zhang Juzheng a letter to warn him.
Consequently, even Zhang Juzheng, a man who could ordinarily remain perfectly composed if Mount Tai collapsed before his eyes, was caught somewhat off guard.
Hold on, what are you doing in the capital?
And what’s with that round iron cooking pot on your back?!
Naturally, Zhang Juzheng knew about his young brother-in-law, Gu Xian.
In the year his wife had passed away, his mother-in-law had fainted from the shock upon receiving the news.
When a physician was summoned to examine her, they discovered that she was pregnant with a boy.
She had already been getting on in years at the time, and the pregnancy had nearly ended in miscarriage.
After the boy was born, his father named him Xian, meaning “idle” or “leisurely,” hoping that he would grow up to enjoy a comfortable life of ease and prosperity, free from too many hardships.
Zhang Juzheng had learned all of this through letters.
Over the years, he’d been so occupied with his official career that he’d never found an opportunity to visit his parents-in-law in person.
Naturally, he’d also never met this younger brother-in-law, who was more than twenty years his junior.
Whatever the circumstances, Gu Xian was still his children’s maternal uncle.
A little warmth appeared on Zhang Juzheng’s usually unsmiling face.
“So you’re Xian, then. Come inside, and we’ll talk.”
Delighted, Gu Xian promptly picked up the two burlap sacks he’d left on the ground.
As he followed Zhang Juzheng into the residence, he eagerly began explaining what he’d brought with him.
He was particularly enthusiastic about the large white duck that had poked its head out of one of the sacks to get some air.
“This is a fat duck raised on grain carried by the imperial grain-transport system! I heard they’re supplied especially to the big restaurants in the capital for making roast duck. I had to pester the seller forever before he’d agree to spare me one! If it doesn’t taste good, I’ll have to go back and settle accounts with him!”
Then, as though remembering something important, he asked, “Oh, right! Brother-in-law, is there somewhere in your residence where we can roast a duck?”
Zhang Juzheng: “…”
He would very much like to know whose residence had facilities for roasting ducks.
Gu Xian was nothing if not perceptive.
He immediately found his answer in Zhang Juzheng’s silence.
“No matter! We can keep it alive for another couple of days. I’ll go out and have a look around, see if I can find someone willing to let me use their enclosed roasting oven. If that doesn’t work, we can always make duck braised with shredded ginger instead. It’s the perfect season for that!”
His parents had told him that he absolutely had to make a good first impression on his brother-in-law.
He certainly couldn’t go around looking down on his brother-in-law’s household just because they didn’t have a roasting oven!