A Nation of Commerce (1)

The Empress would be Lady He, the woman who later becomes Empress He — and the mother, Empress Dowager Dong?

I had always understood the two of them to be at each other's throats, but perhaps that was not the case at all. With a creature like Liu Hong bearing down on the entire palace as its patriarch, there was no chance he would leave his family enough air to quarrel among themselves.

I looked at the boy of my own age, who was gazing up at his father with eyes full of fear.

Bian, he had said — so this child was Liu Bian, the one history would remember as the deposed emperor. The younger-looking boy would be Xie… Liu Xie, Emperor Xian, last Son of Heaven of the Eastern Han.

"Now, Bao. You remember these four faces well."

Liu Hong seemed to stoop. He whispered against my ear.

"Come to think of it, you and Bian are exactly the same age. If you truly mean to call yourself my subject, and if that talk about coming here to help was sincere — then stay at Bian's side and be his friend."

Taken at their word, they were a parent's request that someone befriend his child. Coming ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from Liu Hong's mouth, they carried nothing but a chill. A chill that said he would be watching how well I performed. That this, too, was a test.

Liu Bian gently drew Liu Xie into his arms — the younger boy still understood none of it — as if to shield him from their father. Whether Liu Bian did so or not, Liu Hong turned me around. He had not forced me, exactly, but the hand locked on my shoulder carried a murderous promise that he would tear the arm off if I failed to obey.

I faced the Emperor.

"Let us walk a while."

It was the first garden I had seen since transmigrating into the world of the Three Kingdoms — no, it was more lavish than most parks or botanical gardens of the modern age. Liu Hong ordered me not to trail behind him but to walk at his side.

I had no idea how many eunuchs might be hidden in the shadows of the surrounding trees and rocks, but surely no one would attempt an assassination at the Emperor's very elbow. I followed, reasoning that the stroll he had proposed carried some measure of guaranteed safety.

How far had we gone?

"How much have you and Brother Aman figured out?"

The interrogation started so abruptly I had to clench my teeth to keep from breaking stride. Liu Hong gave a short, amused breath of a laugh.

"Cai Yong must have told you. That I have many eyes and many ears. Do you know why the eunuchs I empowered drown themselves in pleasure? Because they know that no matter what they do, I will find out. However secret the plot they weave, every step of it reaches my ears through the denunciation of someone else."

Without some pleasure to lose themselves in, they could not bear my gaze — he said it in a voice ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still laced with that dark amusement.

Had even Cai Yong been Liu Hong's spy? Or had someone else reported Cai Yong's movements — and ours — to Liu Hong?

"When you sit in a seat called the Lord of Men, meeting people whose insides don't match their outsides is simply daily life. So as long as the deception doesn't go too far, I let it pass. Speak."

I'll have to talk. I can't tell whether he already knows everything and is toying with me, or whether he's simply casting a line.

I squared my chest and spoke, keeping my voice as even as I could.

"Does Your Majesty truly intend to kill every last great clan through the Taiping Dao?"

"Yes."

The affirmation came without a shred of hesitation, and the words died in my throat. Liu Hong went on.

"What do you think the Qingliu are?"

Should I start with the common knowledge from the Romance?

"They refuse to flatter the eunuchs, so they are incorruptible, and they think of the common people…"

Khahahaha — Liu Hong burst out laughing as if something had caught in his throat.

"Before I became Emperor, I was a feudal lord in name only. My circumstances were no different from a poor commoner's. In the eyes of that commoner I once was, the so-called Qingliu were no different from the Zhuoliu."

Liu Hong stopped walking. We stood before a strangely shaped rock, and he ran his hand across it as he spoke.

"The population of the Han is fifty million… probably around sixty million by now. How do you suppose I know that?"

"Did the court not conduct a census?"

"That's right. And yet the Qingliu, the scholar-officials, the great clans — they call the census 'tyranny.'"

Murderous intent and mockery tangled together along Liu Hong's profile.

"The census is tyranny, they say, so it must be conducted loosely. Conduct it strictly and the people will flee — or so they claim."

Once registered in the household rolls, the people had to pay taxes and offer their bodies for corvée labor and military service. Hating that, some of them would go so far as to enter a great clan's household and call themselves slaves.

"Do you think those fleeing people run off into the mountains or the sea? The ones who take those fugitives in and fold them into their own private retainers are precisely the great clans — the Qingliu."

I groped for a reply, then said the first thing that came to mind.

"Could you not simply collect that much tax from the great clans themselves?"

"Do you think a great clan will honestly report, 'I have such-and-such number of people under me, and their land amounts to this much'?"

"…They'd underreport."

"Exactly. Now then — what happens, as the years pass, to the farmland and the population this country can actually account for?"

"They shrink."

This was why, in any dynasty, the land recorded when a powerful centralizing policy was first enacted was enormous — and why it dwindled with time. They hid the land. The fifty million people of the Eastern Han did not suddenly vanish so that even Wei, Shu, and Wu combined numbered fewer than ten million because of war. The great clans hid them all. The foundation of the Sima, who intimidated the Cao of Wei into seizing the imperial throne, and of the great aristocrats who ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠later turned the Sima into puppets — that was it.

"The people and the land shrink, but the money the Han needs simply to maintain itself stays the same. Not only at the four borders, but within as well, the Man and the Yi are always watching for a chance to plunder — and they tell me to lay down arms and let the people rest? Where in the world will you find a more hollow piece of nonsense?"

A bitter smile rose on Liu Hong's face.

"It isn't that there are no Qingliu of genuine conviction, as you said, Bao. But the words those fellows put forward are empty too. Practice the governance of Zhou, they say. Do as in the days of Emperor Xiaowen or Emperor Xiaojing… Perhaps it would have worked in those times. But the people of that age could never have imagined scholar-officials commanding such vast lands and such numbers of people."

Liu Hong closed his eyes and recited.

Lord Shang, even here.

"Well, some of Lord Shang's words no longer hold. For instance, the notion that commerce must be suppressed and the entire people devoted solely to farming. But that is a story that only works when all land belongs to the king. Most of the land is not the king's — so I must do what even Lord Shang never conceived. Something without precedent."

Liu Hong's eyes turned toward me. But those eyes were not seeing me. They were looking at Liu Hong's own past.

"When I was a child, I was so desperately poor that I dreamed of becoming a wealthy merchant."

"I heard that two years ago, Your Majesty opened a marketplace in the inner palace and had the palace ladies play at being merchants. There were even rumors that Your Majesty personally haggled over goods. Was that… because Your Majesty longed for the old days?"

"The rumors reached that far, and still you don't understand my heart."

For some reason I… took a step toward Liu Hong. I had to know. Whether I cursed him, condemned him, or damned him — I had to know what was inside Liu Hong before I did anything at all.

"Tell me."

Liu Hong's eyes wavered slightly, as if he had seen something he had not expected.

"…Do you know why a sovereign personally takes up the plow?"

"To encourage the people to devote themselves to farming. It would be the same as a Xiongnu sovereign who never gives up the work of a herdsman."

"Then what would be my reason for personally setting the example in commerce?"

Ah. Surely not.

"Take these two wuzhu coins."

I held out both palms, and Liu Hong placed a coin — a wuzhu — in each hand. I was beginning to understand his intent.

"…They don't weigh the same."

"That's right. The heavier one is a proper wuzhu. The lighter one is a wuzhu cut with impurities. The costs of rebellion and invasion keep rising — no, the treasury I inherited from Emperors Shun, Chong, Zhi, and Huan was already a mountain of debt — and the people and the land keep being nibbled away by the great clans. So what am I supposed to do?"

Liu Hong's face crumpled.

"The suffering falls on the common people who remain, the ones who didn't go under a great clan. Even if the amount of tax that must be levied stays the same, the number of people who can pay it shrinks."

Liu Hong's fist trembled. I tensed, wondering if he was about to smash it into my skull… but that did not happen.

"Rebellion and invasion wait for no one, so Your Majesty had to fill the treasury somehow — and that method was minting this debased coinage."

"I know perfectly well that this sort of thing is nothing more than putting off today's disaster until tomorrow. But no one has thought of a better way. Confucius and Mencius themselves would be no more than ordinary men if they faced today's situation. Money is base and filthy? Commerce is base and filthy? Counting coins is not something the Son of Heaven should stoop to? Don't make me laugh."

"Even so, I cannot deny that it is harsh governance."

Liu Hong's shoulders rose and fell. He was panting from the aftermath of his outburst, but he still listened to me.

"This magnificent garden, this palace decorated with strange and grotesque rocks — what is all this? Is this not also money? If Your Majesty had practiced frugality…"

Liu Hong gave another short laugh.

"Bao. I thought you understood me, but you still fall short."

"What do you mean?"

"I sold offices — just as the Qingliu condemn me for."

I had expected Liu Hong to fly into a rage if the sale of offices came up. I never thought he would admit it so boldly — I sold them.

"Which is better — to stamp out these debased coins in your hands without restraint, or to drag out, even by force, the wealth rotting in the Qingliu's storehouses?"

"That's…"

Forcing money out, and putting it into circulation.

"There are still those who sneer that I lived almost as a commoner, that I'm a country bumpkin unfit for the imperial throne. The Qingliu worship frugality, and yet if the Emperor actually practices it, they sneer that he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠doesn't know how to establish dignity."

Liu Hong was not wrong. Aristocrats think a sovereign who has the full support of the common people is base, and that only a sovereign supported by the nobility is noble. That is how aristocrats think.

"Besides, this place is a shop. Bao — would you rather buy goods from a gloomy, dilapidated store, or from a fine, handsome shop?"

Liu Hong tapped the rock. Tap. Tap.

"The Emperor has to indulge in a certain amount of luxury, or those so-called scholar-officials won't covet office and want to buy it."

But I still wanted to argue with him.

"Even so, excessive luxury…"

"I would prefer you said that knowing how many stonemasons and carpenters I fed by building this garden, and how many common people in Luoyang keep their livelihoods because that money was released into the city."

Liu Hong shook his head hard.

"I've heard it until I'm sick of it. Don't devote yourself to things like commerce — devote yourself to farming! Bao, that talk is nothing but words the Qingliu and the great clans use however it suits them. Merchants are no better than bandits, they say? And the great clans who stole the fields and stole the children until those people became merchants no different from wanderers — those clans aren't bandits?"