Chapter 4 The Treacherous Officialdom

So let's start inside the Jia compound. Di Yu has just arrived, settling in. And we meet Li Wan. She's the widow of Jia Zhu. On the surface, she looks like the perfect example of a virtuous, elite wife. And she had the background for it, right? Daughter of Li Xusheng, a very senior official. He was the libationer of the Guozi Jian, which is like, what, head of the Imperial Academy? Pretty much, yes. A top scholar. But here's the twist, the paradox he mentioned. Despite his own learning, he was a firm believer in that old saying, talentless women are virtuous. The idea was that too much intellect, too much knowledge beyond the domestic sphere, was actually a bad thing for a woman. Made her unsuitable, maybe unstable. So wait, she wasn't encouraged to read widely? Or debate ideas? No, not at all. Her education was deliberately restricted. She learned things like the Four Books for Women, biographies of good women, that sort of thing. But the main focus? Weaving, needlework, household management. Fangji Jingzhu, as the text says. Even her style name, Gong Kai, means something like palace cutter or palace tailor. It's all about domestic craft. So her very identity was shaped around this domestic limitation. But why? If her father was this high-ranking scholar, wouldn't he value intellectual companionship in his daughter? Or want her to be equipped for, you know, a complex world? That's the core of the gilded cage idea. For an official like him, arranging a good marriage was paramount. His daughter's perceived virtue, her quiet domesticity, her lack of challenging ideas, that was her value in the marriage market. It made her predictable, safe, an asset to the powerful family she'd marry into, ensuring stability. Her own potential was secondary. Wow. And the text shows the impact of that. It describes Li Wan living in all this luxury, but she's like dead wood and cold ashes, just going through the motions, focused only on her young son and female relatives. Completely detached. Exactly. It's a devastating portrait. It shows that all the silk and jade in the world couldn't buy personal fulfillment or intellectual freedom for women trapped in that system. Okay. So that's the quiet tragedy inside. Yeah. Let's shift gears now to the, well, the much less quiet world outside. Our old friend Jia Yikuny, he's landed on his feet again. He's just been made prefect of Yun Can. Big promotion. Right. And boom, first day on the job, basically, this massive homicide case falls right into his lap. It's messy. Two families fighting over a maid who'd been sold, and it ends with a young man beaten to death. And this victim, Feng Yuan, he's kind of important, isn't he? He represents something different. An orphan, but from a good family. And he'd bought this maid, intending to make her his one and only partner. He was actually trying to turn his life around. Genuine affection, it seems. Yes. There's a real touch of sincerity there, which makes what happens next even harsher. Because the ones who grabbed the maid and killed him, retainers of the Xu family, one of the most powerful families around, known bullies. So, Yun Can looks at the facts, seems open and shut. Murder. Influence peddling. He gets ready to issue warrants, arrest the Xu family servants involved. Standard procedure. Standard procedure. Until it isn't. Just as he's about to sign off, a gatekeeper nearby catches his eye. Gives him this look. Not just a glance, but a really significant, deliberate look. The kind that says, hold on, think about what you're doing. And Yun Can gets it. He does. He reads the room, or rather, the look. He dismisses everyone else, goes into a private chamber, and calls just that one gatekeeper in. And then he realizes, this isn't just some random servant. He knows this guy. It's a former novice monk from the Gourd Temple, where Yun Can himself stayed years ago when he was poor and struggling. Whoa. Small world. So this ex-monk turned gatekeeper. Aha. He holds the key now. Pretty much. He basically asks Yun Can, so you got this fancy new job, your honor, but surely someone gave you the memo. The, uh, the cheat sheet for this province. The protector's amulet. The protector's amulet. Yu Guan Fu. That's the moment, isn't it? This isn't just local gossip. It's a real thing. A list. Oh, it's real. It's a secret but formalized list. A kind of private ledger passed among officials. It details the four wealthiest, most influential families in the entire region. The ones you absolutely do not cross. Ignore this list, the gatekeeper implies, and you can kiss your career goodbye. Or maybe worse. So the corruption isn't just people taking bribes here and there. It's baked into the system. There's an actual map of who is above the law. Precisely. You cannot function as an official, especially a judge, in Jinling without knowing who's on this list. And the way it's presented is fascinating. It's in rhymes. Almost like little mnemonic jingles, making these terrifyingly powerful families easy to remember. We should probably run through them. Definitely. Let's hear the roll call of the untouchables. Yeah. Starting with, ironically, Yu Guan's own extended family, right? The Jia. Yes. The rhyme goes, Jia is not fake, a pun on the name. Its halls are white jade. Its horses are gold. They're descended from two dukes, Ninguo and Ronguo. Pure establishment power. Okay, next. The Xi family. 300 miles of Eifang Palace cannot hold a single Xi of Jinling. Right. The Eifang Palace was this legendary, massive, ancient structure. So the rhyme is saying their wealth is just immeasurable. Descendants of Lord Xi, the preserver of peace, more old money, old power. Got it. The Wang family. The Eastern Sea lacks a white jade couch. The Dragon King comes to invite Jinling's Wang. This paints them as almost supernaturally influential, like even mythical sea kings defer to them. And crucially, the gatekeeper points out, the Wang family is directly connected to Yu Guan's current appointment. He owes them. Oof. Okay, that tightens the screws. And the fourth family, the one actually involved in the murder case. That's the Zhu family. In years of good harvest, snow, Zhu is abundant, pearls are like dirt, gold is like iron. This rhyme points to their immense commercial wealth. And the text clarifies, they aren't just landed gentry anymore, they've become major merchants. Bankers. Specifically, they manage the imperial household treasury. Wait. They manage the emperor's finances. Effectively, yes. The inner court treasury. So this isn't just local influence, this is structural power at the highest level. When Yu Guan thought about arresting their people, he wasn't just poking a local bear. He was potentially messing with the finances of the state itself. Exactly. And the final nail in the coffin, the gatekeeper stresses, all four of these families are interconnected by marriage. Jie, Shi, Wang, Xue. They function as one giant block. One loss is a total loss, one honor is shared honor. Touch one, you anger them all. Wow. Okay, so Yu Guan gets this crash course in how things really work. Forget the law books, this amulet is the real law. But let's get back to the human tragedy here. The maid, Yinglian. Yep. And Feng Yuan, the guy who genuinely seemed to care for her. What's her story? And here's where the gatekeeper's past becomes incredibly relevant again. He knows who she is, he identifies her as Yinglian, the daughter of the Zhen family. They used to live near the Gourd Temple, where he was a monk and where Yu Guan stayed. She was kidnapped years ago, around age 5, now she's maybe 12 or 13, caught in this horrible situation. How can he be sure it's her, after all that time? There's a specific identifier. A tiny birthmark, like a grain of rice between her eyebrows. It's hereditary in her family. The gatekeeper remembers it from when she was a child. It connects this whole sordid case right back to Yu Guan's own past, his time of hardship near her family. That's chilling. A direct link. So Feng Yuan buys her, treats her decently, and then she's snatched away by this Shu Pan character. No, Shu Pan. Nicknamed the Idiot Overlord, which tells you a lot. The sources paint him as utterly impulsive, spoiled, violent-tempered, sleeps around constantly and just burns through money. Spends money like dirt, is the phrase used. He saw the girl, wanted her, took her. His servants did the dirty work, beating Feng Yuan so badly, he died three days later. And Shu Pan? What does the Idiot Overlord do? He just takes Ying Lian and carries on with his plans to travel to the capital city, leaves his servants behind to deal with the mess, completely confident his family name will shield him. Which brings us back to Jia Yuqin. Sitting there, protector's amulet revealed, warrants unsigned. What does he do? He must be torn. He is. Initially, at least. He has this moment of genuine moral outrage. He tells the gatekeeper, basically, I can't just toss the law aside for personal connections. The emperor appointed me, this is my second chance, I owe it to him to be diligent. It's his last stand for idealism. And the gatekeeper, the pragmatist. He just shoots it down, no time for idealism here. He hits Yuqin with classical wisdom, but used cynically. Things like, a great man moves with the times, and a true gentleman knows how to seek good fortune and avoid disaster. Survival 101 for officials. So basically, adapt or perish. Forget justice, save your career. Exactly. And then the gatekeeper lays out the plan, the fix. How to make this whole inconvenient murder disappear while keeping everyone important happy. It's a masterclass in cynical maneuvering. Okay, walk us through this solution. Step one. Step one. Put on a show. Yuqin issues fake warrants. Arrests a few minor Xu family servants or distant relatives. Makes it look like he's taking action. Step two. Manage the story. The gatekeeper arranges for the Xu family to quietly spread the word that Xu Pan, the actual killer, suddenly died of an illness. Maybe even frame it as karmic payback. Feng Yuan's ghost getting revenge. Convenient. Very convenient. Xu Pan is dead. Problem solved for prosecuting the elite. But the case still needs an official close, right? You can't just leave it hanging. Right, and this is where the real theater comes in. Step three. Divine intervention. Yuqin sets up a spirit writing altar in the court, like a public seance. An immortal spirit communicates through the planchette, confirms Yu Pan died of karmic consequences, and crucially, identifies the real culprit who deserves punishment. The original kidnapper who sold Yinglian in the first place. Find a low-level scapegoat, someone easily disposable, pin it all on him using divine authority, and the powerful walk free. Precisely. It redirects all legal blame onto someone the system can afford to punish. Step four. The final settlement. The kidnapper is prosecuted. The Xu family makes a show of generosity, paying compensation maybe five hundred and thousand taels to Feng Yuan's family for funeral costs. Blood money, basically. And Yuqin, he officially closes the case, His career is safe, the amulet remains protected. Brilliant. Utterly corrupt, but brilliant. Jay Yuqin. What's his calculation? Well, he looks at the situation. He sees the Feng family, the victim's family, probably just trying to get as much money burial fees as they can. Standard practice, maybe. And then he sees the Xu family, flexing their muscles, their connections. Obvious play. So Yuqin's faced with a choice. Justice or politics. And he picks politics. No surprise there, maybe. Not really. The sources say he decides to settle the whole thing in Zhu Weipan's favor. It's called Zhumqinwangfa. Basically deciding, based on relationships, the king, not the law, the fa. So the Fengs get a pile of silver for the burial, and suddenly their complaints just vanish. Money talks. Loudly. Justice silenced. But Yuqin wasn't done, was he? He had to clean up his own potential messes. Yeah, what was that about loose ends? Loose ends and his own history. He quickly sends letters off to the big players, Jia Zhang, Prince Tang, Wang Zihuan, just confirming, yep, all sorted, nothing to see here. Standard procedure for covering tracks. But his biggest worry was exposure. Personal exposure. Ah, right, the monk. Xinmenzi from the Calabash Temple. Exactly. This monk knew Yuqin from back when he was poor, destitute even. You can't have someone like that hanging around when you're busy bending the law for the rich and powerful, can you? No, it ruins the image. So what did he do? He found some fault, probably fabricated, you know, trumped up some charge, and had the poor shami exiled. Sent him far away. Wow, that calculation there is just chilling. It really is. Justice gets twisted to let a wealthy murderer walk free, but it comes down like a hammer on a poor monk who just happens to know too much about the judge's past. So if you step back, what does this tell us about the whole system? Is it about truth at all? It suggests the legal system, at least in this context, is more about maintaining the social order, the hierarchy. You can act it out of fear. You know, fear of being exposed, fear of upsetting the powerful families. Old ties trumped everything. So once someone like Xu Pan commits a crime, the law just becomes damage control. Precisely. And now that the damage is contained, the Xu family is free to move on. Which brings us to them. Who are these people the system bent over backwards for? Okay, so the family background is supposedly scholarly. Xu Xiang, Ji Xi, Zi Ji. Sounds respectable. It sounds... it... yeah. But then you look at the heir, Xu Pan. Oh boy. The irony is thick. He's the absolute definition of a spoiled brat. How so? Well, his father died young. His mother, Wang Xi, just doted on him, spoiled him rotten. The text calls him old and unaccomplished. Basically wasted his youth on trivial stuff. Cockfighting, horse racing, just wandering around. But he's rich, right? Immensely rich. Millions in wealth, yeah. And here's the kicker. He holds this really important position as a royal merchant. A huangxiang. Meaning he handles government money, imperial funds and material? Exactly. Massive responsibility. But here's the thing. He knows absolutely nothing about business or economics. Zero clue. Yeah, wait, how does he keep that job then, if he's incompetent? Purely inherited influence. Old family friends in the Ministry of Revenue. The hubu, that's it. His actual business dealings? They're losing money hand over fist because he's, and I quote, young and unaware of worldly affairs. His managers are basically robbing him blind. Okay, this is getting wild. A known murderer, who's also totally incompetent, at his crucial job managing imperial funds. How is this not setting off alarm bells everywhere? Family ties. That's the shield. His mother, Qiwei Yi Ma, she's the sister of two incredibly powerful people. Huang Zituan, who just got promoted, actually, to a major military command, and Wang Furen. Qi Yizheng's wife. In the wrong mansion. Bingo. So these Zs are instantly connected to the absolute top tier of political and military power in the capital. They're basically untouchable. But it's not all bad in that family, is it? There's a sister, Qiwei Baochai. She sounds completely different. Oh, entirely. Baochai is two years younger, described as having moist skin and bone, very elegant, graceful. Her father absolutely adored her. And he educated her. Yes. Made sure she studied. Believed she was, like, ten times superior to her idiot brother. Which, frankly, seems plausible. But she didn't stick with scholarship, did she? No, and that's the sad part. After her father died, she basically gave up her books, turned to needlework and household management and Zenzijiachi. To help her mother, essentially. To ease the burden. She sacrificed her own intellectual path to try and, you know, hold the family together, because the male heir was useless. Okay, so they need to get out of their provincial town after the murder scandal. What reasons do they actually give for moving to the capital? It's a big move. Here's where it gets really interesting. They have three justifications lined up. Very convenient. Lay them out for us. Okay, first, there's an imperial decree. The emperor is looking for talented daughters from good families, you know, Xihuan, Mingji, Zeninu, to possibly serve as companions or scholars for the princesses. Ah, a perfect excuse for Baoche. A legitimate opportunity, maybe. Exactly. It puts a respectable gloss on her relocation. But reason two is probably the real driver. Money problems. Because Yupiopan is messing everything up. Absolutely. His businesses are losing money left and right because he's incompetent, and his managers are crooked. So, he needs to go to the capital himself, show up at the Ministry of Revenue, settle the old accounts, figure out new spending. The family finances are in serious trouble. Okay, ambition for Baoche, financial desperation. What's the third reason? Purely social, and, well, for Pan, tourism. Visit relatives, see the sights of the capital. You know, Yudan Xiangguo Fenghuang. Treat it like a grand tour right after killing someone. The nerve. Unbelievable. And didn't he get some good news right as they arrived? Something about his uncle? He did. Just as they're getting close to the capital, he hears that his very strict maternal uncle, Wang Zihuan. The military commander guy. Yeah, him. He's just been promoted again to governor general of nine provinces and shipped off to inspect the borders. So, the one person who might actually keep Yupiopan in line is conveniently out of the picture. Pan is inwardly thrilled. He was apparently worried about his uncle being too strict, restricting him. Now he thinks he's got free reign. Which probably explains why his mother was so insistent they don't get their own place. It confirms her worst fears about him. She knew he couldn't be trusted on his own. Her whole plan was to stay with relatives, either Wang Zihuan's family, or Wang Furin at the wrong mansion, specifically, as she put it, to keep him constrained. She's in the knee. Makes sense. Since Uncle Wang Zihuan was busy leaving town... They went straight to Aunt Wang Furin at the wrong mansion. And how was their reception there? Oh, Wang Furin was delighted. Her sister and her rich nephew arriving. Plus, the whole messy murder thing had been neatly swept under the rug by Jiayu Kun, thanks to their influence. So she and Grandmother Jia were adamant, you have to stay with us. Very welcoming. And Jia Zheng, the patriarch? He offered them a place to live right there in the compound. The Perfragrance Court. With Xiang Yuan. Tell us about that place. What was it like? It used to be a quiet retreat for Rong Gong in his later years. Described as small, clever, maybe ten rooms. Nice enough. But the location and layout were crucial. Awesome. It had two exits. One main gate opened directly onto the street outside the mansion complex. Okay, private access. Used mostly by Zhu Pan's servants. Significantly. The other exit was a small corner gate leading through a lane connecting back to Wang Furin's main courtyard. Hmm. So it offered potential for both containment being near Wang Furin, but also escape. That street gate seems key. It's a double-edged sword, architecturally speaking. Shui Yi Ma, the mother, tried to set boundaries though. She insisted they pay for all their own food, supplies, daily expenses. To avoid being a burden. Yeah. Maintain some independence. Exactly. To keep things proper, ensure they could stay long-term without imposing. A gesture towards maintaining decorum. Seems reasonable. A good plan for cohabitation, but knowing Zhu Pan, how long did that plan last? Did the containment strategy work? About a month. Maybe less. The plan failed spectacularly fast. What happened? He initially talked about finding his own place, but he got comfortable. Too comfortable. The freedom offered by that court, especially the street access, was too tempting. And you sound friends. Oh, did he ever. This is where the real trouble starts brewing. He quickly fell in with, basically, all the worst elements among the jie youth. The profligate and frivolous sons and nephews. The wang ku chi she. The ones already inclined towards bad behavior. Exactly. And Zhu Pan, with his money, his worldliness, his lack of morals, he became their ringleader. Their catalyst. So what kind of stuff were they getting up to? It started with parties. Feasting, admiring flowers, typical rich kid stuff. But it escalated quickly. Gambling, visiting prostitutes, view to Piao Chang. Serious vices. And this influenced Zhu Pan, too? Or was he leading the charge? Both, really. He was already bad, but this environment, this enabling peer group, made him ten times worse than before, according to the text. He dragged them down, and they dragged him further down. It's kind of amazing this could happen right under the noses of the Jia elders. Wasn't Jia Zheng supposed to be strict? He was, generally. But the family is huge, sprawling. And the actual clan elder at the time, Jia Zhen, he was apparently more focused on his own official duties, his own leisure reading, playing chess, not exactly micromanaging the teenagers. And the location helped hide it, right? The pear fragrance court. Absolutely critical. It wasn't directly in the main living quarters. It was separated by, like, two layers of buildings. And crucially, that private gate onto the street. It meant they could come and go without anyone in the main house really noticing. The perfect setup for secret debauchery. The architecture meant to contain him actually enabled him. Precisely. The structure itself became complicit. So what does this all mean when we pull back and look at the big picture? It means the arrival of the Xu family wasn't just relatives coming for a visit. It was, effectively, the introduction of a powerful, corrosive element right into the heart of the Jia household. They exploited the family's weaknesses, the lax oversight, the existing bad apples, the physical layout almost immediately. Institutional corruption meets social degradation, invited right in through the front door, facilitated by family ties. Yeah, the irony is thick. Su Yima wanted restraint and stability for her son, but his arrival just unleashed more chaos and decay. They came seeking refuge and support, but they brought a kind of moral contagion with them. .