Chapter Ninety-Four: Rhapsody on the Epang Palace (Part One)

“Master Cai.”

Zhang Yu bowed with scrupulous courtesy.

When Cai Yong saw Zhang Yu approaching, he first smiled, then noticed the sheet of paper in his hand.

“So soon? You have already finished it?” Cai Yong reached out and took the page. The elegant ink had not yet dried.

“Yu Lang, writing is no matter for haste. Even when inspiration surges like a flood, it still takes careful polishing. Spending a month or more in preparation is nothing unusual…”

As he spoke, Cai Yong lowered his head and began to read.

“Truth be told, I had long since conceived this piece. Today, I merely took advantage of your banquet and let it come forth naturally.”

Cai Yong gave no answer.

He had already been utterly seized by the essay.

Its title was: Rhapsody on the Epang Palace.

After the system’s second upgrade, a great many high-end items had been added, and as a result the prices of the older poems and odes had also been reduced.

For example, when Zhang Yu first exchanged for Walking by the Mound of Grass, the full poem cost 1,500 prestige points; even though he already knew part of it by heart, he still had to spend 750. But after the system upgrade, the complete version of Walking by the Mound of Grass now cost only 800 points.

Yet this Rhapsody on the Epang Palace had cost Zhang Yu a full 2,500 points.

That was only because he could recite the opening and closing lines from memory; otherwise the original price would have been an astonishing 3,000.

Just this single composition had caused Zhang Yu, who had thought himself moderately well off, to throw in half his assets at one blow, dropping from 5,800 points to 3,200.

Fame and profit are forever easy to spend and hard to earn; however much one has, it never seems enough.

Fortunately, he felt the money had been well spent indeed. This was a masterpiece destined to shake the world and be remembered through the ages, one that would surely bring him far more prestige in return. Used at this moment, it could not be more fitting.

It was a rhapsody by form. Though it differed somewhat from the Han rhapsodies of his own age, and likewise from the parallel-prose rhapsodies that flourished in the Wei and Jin eras, the essential nature remained unchanged. It still prized argument and meaning over meter and strict regulation, so there was no need to fear that the gentry would fail to accept it.

Rhapsody on the Epang Palace was written in the first year of Bao Li, under Emperor Jingzong of Tang, Li Zhan, that is, in the year 825.

That year, Du Mu was twenty-three. In modern terms, he would have been the age of a fresh graduate forced into unemployment, returning to his hometown to play League of Legends. That made Zhang Yu think again of Bai Juyi, who had written Song of the Grass on the Ancient Plain for a Farewell at sixteen…

“If there had been no computers, phones, or internet when I was a child, I might actually have gotten into Tsinghua or Peking University,” Zhang Yu thought to himself.

Be that as it may, Emperor Jingzong had ascended the throne at sixteen, was dim-witted and without virtue, and indulged in unchecked debauchery. He stirred fear throughout court and realm alike, leaving everyone with a sense of crisis, and so Du Mu lifted his brush and wrote this immortal work that would endure for a thousand ages.

In his Preface to a Friend’s Essay, Du Mu wrote: “Because Bao Li embarked on a great expansion of palaces, and enlarged music and sensual delights, I composed Rhapsody on the Epang Palace.” From this it is clear that his purpose was to take the lesson of Qin Shi Huang’s failure and use it to warn the supreme ruler.

And who was the ruler now? Not the emperor, but the far more brutal Chancellor Dong Zhuo.

He allowed his subordinates to kill, loot, burn, seize, and plunder everywhere, slaughtering the people, and even reduced the imperial capital of Luoyang to ashes. Such villainy was beyond anything even a foolish sovereign could accomplish.

He himself was even more overbearing and arrogant, deposing the emperor at will and brazenly debasing and playing with palace maids and princesses, the titled and the noble alike, within the inner chambers. Even if Xia Jie and King Zhou of Shang were aware in the world below, they would surely fall silent.

If this rhapsody had originally been a warning to Emperor Jingzong of Tang, then in this late Han age it had become a resounding death knell aimed at the monstrous Dong Zhuo and every lawless warlord under heaven.

“The six kings are done; the four seas are one. The Shu mountains are denuded, and the Epang Palace rises.”

Cai Yong’s eyes lit at once.

“A vigorous opening. Praise and blame are hidden within the narration, and beneath it all lies a deeper question: how were the six kings brought to an end, and how was the realm made one? Such a beginning is marvelous indeed.”

…

“The treasures collected by Yan and Zhao, the enterprises of Han and Wei, the choicest elites of Qi and Chu, gathered over many generations and many years, until they were plundered from the people and piled up like mountains.”

“Here, meaning emerges between the lines. It points out the luxury, extravagance, and dissipation of the Six States; their failure to spare the strength of the people made their destruction by Qin entirely foreseeable.”

…

“It was the Six States that destroyed the Six States, not Qin.”

“If each of the Six States had cherished its people, they would have had enough to resist Qin.”

Cai Yong’s face filled with delight, and when he looked back at the opening line, that first “The six kings are done” finally revealed all its subtle wonder to him.

The “done” in “six kings” lay not only in external causes but in themselves. For Qin to unite the realm, it was hardly possible without the blindness of the six kings.

And after Qin unified the four seas, if it had learned from the lesson of the six states and once more cherished the people of those lands, it would not have been so swiftly annihilated along with its line.

Could such a marvelous composition wake the Chancellor to his senses? Qin failed because it did not take the six states as a warning and ultimately followed in their footsteps. If the Chancellor failed to take Qin as his warning, ruin would be hard to avoid!

Thinking thus, Cai Yong could not help but feel stirred by a scholar’s ardor. “In days to come, I must personally present this essay to the Chancellor.”

After a long while, when Zhang Yu was growing somewhat drowsy from waiting, Cai Yong finally came back to himself.

“You Lang, I scarcely know what to say,” he said with a smile and a shake of his head.

“Rhapsody on the Epang Palace is a work for the ages! With this piece alone, your name can be made throughout the world.”

“Let me take it and add a brief appraisal, then circulate it among the learned circles. Your seven-character verse and new lyrics may well seize this chance and rise upon the wind.”

“Many thanks, Master Cai!”

Zhang Yu had a faint premonition that the impact of this one essay would surpass the sum of all his previous poems combined.

In the streets and alleys of Chang’an, there was an unusual amount of talk among idle passersby.

Under Dong Zhuo’s rule, whether in the former Luoyang or in present-day Chang’an, not only had the old splendor vanished, but people did not even dare speak much when meeting friends or kin, for fear of bringing down some senseless calamity upon themselves.

And yet today, things seemed a little different.

Inside a tavern, three scholar-like men were speaking in low voices.

“Have you heard? That royal Brother Zhang Yu…” said the one in brown.

“Of course I have. He had the audacity to claim he would revive five-character verse. Truly—” the scholar in plain cloth echoed.

“But to be fair, that piece, Song of the Water Melody, was indeed splendid,” said the third, the one in blue.

“But I, Chang Wei, still won’t服 him. If changing the number of characters a little counts as creating a new literary form, then I could invent eight a day.”

“What nonsense!” The brown-robed scholar cut him off, but in his startle he failed to keep his voice down and immediately flung himself over the table.

Glancing left and right and seeing no patrols nearby, he finally relaxed and went on, “How have the two of you become so cut off from the news?”

“What do you mean, Brother?”

“Rhapsody on the Epang Palace. Have you heard of it?” The brown-robed man lifted his chin.

“No. Is it the work of some famous scholar?”

“Famous scholar? Hah. He is indeed famous now. It was written by Zhang Yu of Zhongshan!”

“Zhang Yu?!” The two of them were startled. “When did he write it? Wasn’t he set on reviving seven-character verse? How did he end up writing a rhapsody instead?”

“Just yesterday. Master Cai wrote a recommendation for him in person, and the learned circles of Chang’an are already in an uproar over it!”

“Master Cai… Come to think of it, Zhang Yu first made his name at Master Cai’s residence. Could it be that the Master is intentionally promoting him?”

The brown-robed scholar looked proudly down his nose. “Promoting him? That just means you haven’t seen this great work! Once this rhapsody appeared, from that day forth he would be the one promoting others!”

“What manner of extraordinary piece could earn such a judgment from you, Brother?”

“My own learning is shallow, and I would not dare pass rash judgment on the rhapsody. But from Master Cai’s words alone, one can already glimpse its marvel.”

“And more importantly, the learned circles no longer call him Zhang Yu.”

“What do they call him?”

“Young Master Jade.”