Living leisurely in Tang Dynasty

Lately Li Yuanying has been having much thoughts. In the end he decided that what needs to be done still must be done. He will never plot a rebellion and will not seek for power. There’s nothing to fear as all he wants is to play and eat, so who would stop him?

Even if the Emperor doesn’t trust him, as long as he do not have the intention, the worst case scenario is being locked up at his own fief. Why does he has to live with his tails between his legs now?

Let’s have a fun time first. After playing if he gets locked up he will have no regrets! Yuanying shared his thoughts to Wei Shu and Mei Niang. They both agreed that you only live once so what’s good to live in fear all the time? Maybe with Prince Teng making trouble and the Emperor having lower expectation from him, they can experience more things!

The boy finished his business case under the help of both girls and submitted it to Kong Yingda.

Li Yuanying thinks that his idea is brilliant. If you are an official and don’t even understand underlying matters, how can you make wise decisions to serve the people? These future pillars of the country should be put in positions for training!

After messing around in the counties, Yuanying could select a group to visit Li Zhi in Taiyuan. Let’s get him to arrange some positions in the upper and lower counties and then get the interns to write a report at the end of their tenure.  Let’s see what’s the difference between the lower and upper counties. Also is there room for any improvements? Are there any local experiences that can be adopted?

Since Kong Yingda agreed to submit the plan,Yuanying was relieved and happily went back to play with his friends.

As soon as Kong Yingda agreed, he regretted it a little. Nonetheless he still followed though and met with the Emperor. After all, the Imperial College is taking lead in this matter so it is appropriate for him to take the initiative.

Things had been rather peaceful for the Emperor lately as not many dares to approach him. Hearing that minister Kong is here he quickly invited him in.

Kong Yingda didn’t bother with small talk. He submitted the plan as he found the recommendation good.

His Majesty was quite reassured about Kong Yingda. He is a descendant of the Kong family with great reputation. He has pledge loyalty to the Emperor early and is the best choice to be in charge of the Imperial Academy. Hearing that he was here again for Li Yuanying, Li Er joked: “Since Yuanying went to the Imperial Academy you have come to see me more often.”

Kong Yingda replied sincerely: “I am old and my mind is not as flexible as His Highness Prince Teng. I cannot come up with these new ideas like him.”

Li Er read through the plan and found it thorough. Doesn’t seem like it was drawn up by a guy like Li Yuanying. Looking at the handwriting, it’s written by a woman. Should be either Wu Mei or Wei Shu, one of them.

Li Er looked calm after reading and actually thinks that the only the idea from Li Yuanting was the last sentence that mentioned “Zhangsun Wuji and Fang Xuanling agreed”.

“This is well drafted. I will ask Fang Xuanling and others to discuss this. After that just choose a time to execute this.”

Kong Yingda nodded in agreement.

Before the others arrived, His Majesty asked about the recent situation at the academy.

There’s nothing new happening. Just that Li Yuanying got into trouble by championing for women rights to take the imperial examinations. Every time he was asked to write an article, he would try different ways to talk about this topic. He didn’t stop even after scoring last and insisted that he will one day  convince his teachers.  Some had already complained to Kong Yingda, saying that Yuanying’s articles are getting better as he writes them. If this was not regarding the controversial topic, all his work would be rated as excellent!

Speaking of this, Kong Yingda felt that Li Er was to blame. If His Majesty had not send 3 girls to the Academy, Li Yuanying would not have such deviant ideas!

Well now, you even promised Wei Zheng’s granddaughter to Li Yuanying. He will naturally fight for her rights more actively. He told people everywhere that his family will produce the number one Jinshi Prince and Jinshi Princess in the Tang Empire, not one less!

Kong Yingda laughed angrily when he heard these words.

The qualifying requirements for the imperial examination is already narrow enough. Why do you, the royal family want to join in the fun?

Kong Yingda picked out these words hinting that His Majesty should discipline his younger brother.

Yuanying wanting to take the Jinshi exam had been agreed by the Emperor prior so he didn’t think much about it. Now that he wants to empower his future wife sit or the exam too, the Emperor finds it refreshing. His Majesty brought this topic up when the ministers assembled and the part about “an Imperial Princess” taking the exam was specially directed towards Wei Zheng!

Whenever Wei Zheng opens his mouth, he harps about this and that not being up to standard or following protocols. He should listen to all the blabber from his prospective son-in-law, Li Yuanying.

Hearing the Emperor use his granddaughter’s name against him, Wei Zheng kept a straight face: “There is no legal provision related to the imperial examination that says that women are not allowed to take the examination. If they can pass the examination of the Imperial College, they can naturally take the Jinshi examination.” After finishing his sentence, he looked at Kong Yingda, whether a person can pass the Imperial College examination is what Kong Yingda should worry about, it has nothing to do with him as a grandfather.

When Wei Zheng reminded him, Kong Yingda remembers this clause in the rule.

The legal provisions related to the imperial examination only state that “there must not be decedents from a family with criminal records or from the artisan or business class”. Apart from that, there isn’t a specific clause that prevented women from taking the exams. It’s just that no female has done so after so many years!

There is nothing wrong with taking an exam. Maybe you are talented and passed it before you are old enough to get married, but what happens after you pass the exam? How will you make people follow your rule? When you travel to a backward place, the people there might feel that having a woman to serve as an official in their town is an insult and will rebel on the spot! If you were to give them special treatment and let them serve in the capital just because they are female, how will that be possible? Thousands of scholars will be dissatisfied!

Moreover, the country is short of people and the government encourages families to have more children. If all girls overcame difficulties, roll up their sleeves, study and become an official, who will bear children?

If the girls had entered the Imperial Academy after going through much hardship to qualify, Kong Yingda wouldn’t have to worry as there would be no chance of this happening. However these girls were put into the Academy by the Emperor himself and they are extremely talented and writes well. Should we really qualified them to take the exam?

Kong Yingda hurriedly spoke to His Majesty: “Your Majesty, this matter——”

Li Er was in a good mood today. Seeing Kong Yingda looking distressed, he leaned on the desk and laughed: “Why should Minister Kong worry? Even if we allow them to take the exam, will they be able to pass?”

That’s right. Although the children were quite intelligent, they were not classified as geniuses and they all lacked experience. Anyway, don’t deliberately make things difficult or easy for them and just treat them as ordinary students.

The discussion strayed off topic for a bit but returned to the main topic which was the internship plan drawn up by Li Yuanying.

Zhangsun Wuji had already acted as a bad guy once in front of His Majesty. Seeing the proposal, he no longer raised any objections.

Fang Xuanling was a cautious person and rarely made his own decisions. He only picked out a few details that needed to be discussed. A few more people refined on the plan and they all agreed to implement it. Anyway, this plan is cost-effective and hassle-free, and they can send volunteers to work, what’s bad about it?

The one who needs to worry is Kong Yingda.Whether the students are willing to go will depend on how he mobilizes them. Do you really think everyone likes to mess around like Li Yuanying? Many scholars would rather immerse themselves in reading and ignore the outside world.

Is Kong Yingda worried? Not at all. When he returned to the Imperial College, he looked for Li Yuanying to update that the matter is settled. He took out the charter drawn up by Fang Xuanling and told him to lead the initiative with the student council. If no one is willing to take up the duty then let him , the initiator, take care of everything!

Li Yuanying didn’t give in and even comforted Kong Yingda: “Don’t be afraid, it will happen. I will definitely handle the matter beautifully and I will never embarrass you!”

Kong Yingda he didn’t say much and just let him be.

Li Yuanying called his friends to announce the internship plan. He arranged the volunteers into teams according to their strengths, ready to show off their talents. There were people who did not sign up for various reasons, and Yuanying did not force it. The most difficult is the beginning, once we have a head start, the rest will naturally follow.

Li Zhi won’t be able to join the internship. Soon after getting married, he was packed away to Taiyuan. Li Yuanying specially asked for absence leave to see Li Zhi off and told him to find out all the interesting places in Taiyuan. He conveniently inserted a few people to Li Zhi’s team, saying that they were “fossil expert”.

Li Zhi was originally a little sad and reluctant to leave Chang’an but after listening to Li Yuanying’s endless reminders of one, two, three, and four, the sadness turned into ashes. He said helplessly: “Okay, whatever you say is what I’lI will do.”

The two grew up together and Yuanying was really reluctant to see Li Zhi leave. He kept promising that the next internship location would be Taiyuan, they would immediately visit after completing the first round of internships.

Li Zhi nodded then turned around with his horse, looking like a grown man.

Although Sizi and Hengshan were very reluctant to part with Li Zhi, they were consoled by the fact that Yuanying will take them to Taiyuan for a visit in the next few months. They stood and watched him leave, then followed Yuanying back to the palace obediently. Since Yuanying had been granted leave of absence, he went looking for Lady Liu and they had lunch happily and talked about their restaurant.

Since Yuanying is studying in the Imperial Academy, he was worried that mother will be bored and so made his men send her report about FengThai restaurant daily. Lady Liu monitors the transactions, view feedback of her dishes and listens to anecdotes from the outside world. Her life was quite fulfilling.

Yuanying learned from mother that Chengxin had been managing her music group well and had recruited lots of talents and had new tricks to be performed daily. She also brought up that Chengxin wanted to recruit a 15 or 16 year old girl who was not a musician but was interested in writing music and arranging plays. Apparently she was an acquaintance of Prince Teng and it was him who help her gain her new status.

Lady Liu initially only wanted casual updates but her son’s name was brought up and so became concerned. She was secretly worried if her son would pick up her late husband’s habits? First getting himself a future wife then another lady which he has helped. He’s only 13, what will his future be like!

Because she had concerns in her heart, she paid close attention to her child’s every reaction. Being his mother, she naturally didn’t care about his scandals but they must be for the right person/cause. If he has a illegitimate family outside even before marriage, don’t mention Wei family’s daughter, any family’s daughter will throw a tantrum and leave.

Yuanying wasn’t aware much as he left matters to his men, he will not personally handle any incidences for that might mean getting a scolding! He thought hard and quickly recalled Madam Su from the tea business. Su Dalang once asked for his help to adopt a girl and help her change her status.

“Oh, I know who it is! Don’t worry, I’ll find out what’s the matter.”

He told mother all about the story between Su Dalang and Su Er Niang and mentioned that he had met the girl once or twice and she was clever. Maybe she didn’t get along with Su Dalang’s family or maybe she didn’t just want to be an ordinary girl. If she wants to work with Chengxin in music, let’s support her.

Seeing no sense of guilt in her son, Lady Liu was at ease.

“Then I’ll send people to handle this, you don’t need to worry.” (Lady Liu with a smile)

Yuanying obediently nodded.

The pair was still in conversation when someone came to inform that the Emperor is looking for Prince Teng.

Notes from the author:

His Majesty Li Er: Why are you not visiting me if you are in the palace?