#慢慢 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

baiwu-jinji-translations · 9 days ago

Text

裴公罪 The Sins of Lord Pei

Chapter 6 Fifth Sin – Misbehaviour (part 2)

When Tang Yuming heard about this at the palace of the Ningwu Marquis, he was elated and went about claiming the dumped pupil for himself. He sent word left and right to other officials selecting students, forbidding them from accepting Qian Haiqing, which eventually left Qian Haiqing with no mentors to choose from. Coerced and cowed by Tang Yuming’s position and power, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and accept Tang Yuming’s offer, and was so devastated that he almost cried tears of blood.

Tang Yuming, however, simply had to flaunt his conquest. After he took Qian Haiqing on, he even sent Pei Jun an invitation to the initiation banquet (1) so Pei Jun could attend and offer his congratulations. It seemed that there was nothing he’d have liked more than coming over himself to brag: “So what, the star pupil is mine after all! You can keep Deng Zhun and cry about it!”

Pei Jun was holding the invitation then, and his brain pictured the rest. Instantly, he lost any interest of opening even the envelope of the invitation card.

– But even if his brain hadn’t conjured up the whole scene, he still wouldn’t want to open it. Because ordinarily, only scented plain cloths (2) were needed to make invitation cards for academy students’ initiation banquets. When Pei Jun accepted Deng Zhun as his pupil, it was simply a flimsy card of dark reedy blue, on which was neatly written the people and event in question. But Tang Yuming, who seemed to make his mission to let everyone know that he hit the jackpot with his pupil, went so far as to have no fewer than three horizontal golden threads ironed smack onto the card of plain hemp paper. Judging by its format, it looked positively like an invitation to a concubine wedding ceremony; yet the colour of the paper was unfittingly drab, giving the card an odd appearance.

At the time, Pei Jun snickered and threw the card aside, thinking to himself that he should prepare a modest gift nonetheless – as promising as Qian Haiqing was, he wouldn’t have it easy in the future under that good-for-nothing Tang Yuming’s charge, and this gift would be a token of condolence for the student, whose political career was cut short before it had even begun.

In the end when old Dong, a servant of the household, came back from dispatching the gift, he said that there were some obtuse young noblemen who actually gave gifts meant for a concubine wedding – yet seeing the dull greyish colour of the invitation card, they reckoned it was for a different occasion, and even kindly asked Tang Yuming if he was remarrying after his wife’s death.

The look on Tang Yuming’s face that night was spectacular.

In this way, Qian Haiqing was done dirty by his “esteemed master” before he even started his apprenticeship, and became an indisputable household name in the capital from then on. Whenever students and officials brought him up behind his back, they all affectionately called him –

“Concubine Qian”.

After that, concubine Qian took up residence at the Tang manor unwillingly, looking back with every step as he entered the manor, as if he was marrying himself off while singing a bridal lament (3), and devastatingly regretted winning first place at the academy entrance exam back then. Those who were present described the scene to Pei Jun later, claiming that the dolorous and desolate air of the occasion made it seem more like a funeral procession than an apprenticeship ceremony. Pity that concubine Qian, being a commoner, couldn’t withstand the intense pressure from the Ningwu Marquis, and wouldn’t dare not to take those steps into the Marquis’ home – as his feet stomped the ground when he crossed the threshold, it was like sticking a fresh and delicate flower with brute force into the grass-stained cow dung that was the Tang manor. (4) Afterwards, he was rarely able to extricate himself from tasks of cleaning up the mess of his useless mentor, from which he had little to gain either in public or in private. Pei Jun sighed whenever he thought about this: such a gifted lad with so much potential, ah what a shame.

The reputation of an official at the imperial court was derived from his personal accomplishments on the one hand, and the accomplishments of his pupil on the other hand. In the case of Pei Jun, who became seasoned through arduous work all year long and held multiple posts at the same time, and who pranced around the court busying himself day in and day out, his own accomplishments were numerous enough to be compiled into a biography, so he didn’t mind supervising Deng Zhun’s slow progress that took time to show good results. Whereas in the case of Tang Yuming, who was a rich dum-dum with no accomplishments whatsoever to show for it, he would have to count on the achievements of his pupil to make himself look good. Therefore, gaining Qian Haiqing was like gaining a cash cow, which naturally put a beaming smile on his face so broad that he’d loved to open another crack as a mouth to smile even more broadly. For this reason, everyone at his household was extremely indulgent towards Qian Haiqing.

As Qian Haiqing had no hope of becoming Pei Jun’s pupil, and was encumbered by Tang Yuming as well, he had all but given up on himself. Since he had Tang Yuming’s backing at the academy, and since his heart was filled with bitter resentment for failing to be Pei Jun’s pupil, he often unconsciously took out his resentment on Deng Zhun, as if he’d be accepted into Pei Jun’s household as soon as he had scared Deng Zhun off.

Today’s incident, therefore, was no different from the dozens of wretched incidents that happened in the past three years: Qian Haiqing gave Deng Zhun dirty looks at the poetic exposition class, and led a bunch of aristocratic kids to recite poems and write couplets that made fun of Deng Zhun’s failure to pass the exam that year. Deng Zhun endured and endured, and gave ground as he endured; today, he finally couldn’t endure anymore. If Pei Jun hadn’t stopped him, he’d have smashed Qian Haiqing’s head in, making a big bloody hole that left scars. After his good looks were ruined, Qian Haiqing was barred from rising to a fourth-rank position or higher, and thus could never have an audience with the emperor at court. That short-sighted kid Deng Zhun obviously wouldn’t have ended up well either; a life of misery was all that awaited him.

Now that Pei Jun saw Deng Zhun standing outside the gate of Qingyun Academy still looking huffy and sullen, and was utterly oblivious about what a massive bullet he had dodged by not carrying this act through, he really wished he could poke Deng Zhun on the forehead and scold him: “look at you, so small-minded and myopic”.

But just when he was feeling angry and futile, Qian Haiqing, the person who started it all, happened to be coming out of the academy at this inopportune moment.

Qian Haiqing had nice features and a ruddy face like a peach; he was said to be the youngest son of a wealthy merchant, and so was naturally unafraid of exchanging pleasantries. His eyes almost sparkled with excitement when he saw Pei Jun, and he hurried over to bow and salute: “Master Pei!”

To the few stewards and academy students who stood around, it was like seeing a sparrow landing right under Pei Jun’s razor-sharp steel blade. In the spirit of sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong, they instantly drew a deep breath, tugged at each other’s sleeves, and continued to watch the scene unfold.

Hearing the voice, Pei Jun turned around with raised eyebrows. When he saw that it really was Qian Haiqing, he didn’t move and didn’t tell Qian Haiqing to rise either. Curving his lips, he answered with the startling words:

“Hey, concubine Qian.”

Qian Haiqing almost sprained his back.

Nobody had ever called him by this nickname to his face. Pei Jun’s teasing made the few young students who followed their masters splutter; they tried to choke back laughter so hard that their insides hurt. Their masters weren’t behaving any better; they all covered their mouths with sleeves and stifled their laughs with light coughs.

Qian Haiqing’s face went red then pale again. Though embarrassed, he still decorously saluted the officials around him one by one, then straightened up and said to Pei Jun: “This student...offended brother Nanshan in a moment of rashness earlier. I am terribly, terribly sorry. I hope that brother Nanshan could forgive me, and that Master Pei could pardon my affront. Today is the rare occasion where Master Pei comes to supervise in person, so this humble student would like to express my respects, and wish that master could generously offer your guidance to this student in the future, for which this student would be endlessly grateful.”

Their fight in the previous life plunged things into absolute chaos, and both sides suffered greatly. Qian Haiqing’s face was disfigured and all the positions he assumed were roughly fifth-rank and no higher, which amounted to a career dead end. For this reason, Pei Jun didn’t cross paths with him that often. Seeing the situation now, he twitched his eyebrows and thought that this student indeed carried himself quite well, which was very admirable – but to admire him was one thing; everyone knew that Pei Jun had a habit of defending the weaknesses of his associates, and to swallow the insult of his pupil Deng Zhun’s mortification was out of the question. Therefore, he only took a leisurely step forward, unknitted his long brows and said: “Good, good, I do in fact have a few words to say to you right now.”

Everyone around them was amused, thinking that Pei Jun was surely about to humiliate Qian Haiqing, and all stared at Qian Haiqing with glee. But Qian Haiqing, who had been thwarted in his quest to study under Pei Jun’s tutelage, didn’t care about anything else when he heard that he could receive advice from Pei Jun. He bowed and said: “Master, please tell me!”

Pei Jun smiled at these words, and swept his eyes across Qian Haiqing’s dark blue robe. After deliberating for a while, he said slowly:

“Qian Haiqing, if you want to be the concubine, then keep your nose out of other people’s relationships. If you stir up trouble again, I’ll make sure you won’t even get to be a concubine!”

“HAHAHAHAHA...” The students around finally burst into roaring laughter. These words were like an exceedingly loud slap in the face for Qian Haiqing; he teetered, and stood there mutely with his head down.

Seeing Qian Haiqing’s state, Pei Jun quietly shook his head. He blithely grabbed Deng Zhun’s sleeve, and was meaning to turn around and walk away carrying Prince Jin’s duck feather coat. But he had only taken a few steps before Qian Haiqing’s loud cry rose abruptly from the uproarious laughter behind him:

“Master Pei! This...this student understands! This student understands now! Thank you for imparting your wisdom, Master Pei!”

Pei Jun halted his steps, and heard that voice shouting again: “This student will – will surely try my utmost, Master Pei, thank you –”

Because of this, the laughter and commotion behind him grew even more. Some said he was cold and stand-offish, some said Qian Haiqing couldn’t read the room, some said Qian Haiqing was despicably licking his boots. Yet Qian Haiqing’s voice stuck out amongst it all and was carried over as loudly as a tin whistle; it sounded more abrupt than ever as it pierced Pei Jun’s ears, making him grind his teeth till his gums felt sore.

He raised his head and saw the evening sun in the falling dusk. Glancing at Deng Zhun, who walked beside him with lowered head, Pei Jun let out a heavy sigh.

In silence, Deng Zhun followed him closely for a long while, then timidly asked:

“Master, although you humiliated Qian Siqi, it wasn’t just to stand up for me...on the contrary, you really were giving him advice, weren’t you?”

Notes:

1. The initiation banquet (拜師宴) is a ceremonial occasion that marks the beginning of the mentor-apprentice relationship, where students offer gifts to their masters and show respect and gratitude to their masters.

2. Sending out invitation cards (請帖) to banquet/dinner guests was the norm in ancient China, especially after paper had become the common writing material replacing bamboo slips. Cloth, silk, or felt are common materials used as covers for invitation cards.

3. “Bridal lament” (哭嫁) is a traditional ritual practiced in some parts of China before the bride departs from her own family and sets off for the wedding ceremony at the groom’s family. The bride cries and sings bridal laments, which express her affections for her family and protest against the shackles of marriage. However, the crying and singing are more ceremonial than spontaneous, as the bride was taught the bridal laments as a young girl, and would be reprimanded as ungrateful if she doesn’t cry or sing the laments with emotion.

4. “A fresh flower stuck into cow dung” (一朵鮮花插在牛糞上) is a Chinese idiom that describes a beautiful and talented woman marrying an ugly and talentless husband.

#雖然翻得很慢但這一章真是翻得我鞠躬盡瘁，因為最近太累了 #the sins of lord pei #danmei

5 notes · View notes