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 The Sorceress' Revolt Author: Toriumi Jinzō Translator: Ainikki the Archivist Ko Biji's Story Part Two: Salt Smugglers Chapter Four     The sun was rising.     The salt smugglers loaded bags of salt from the warehouse onto a horse-drawn cart and pulled them out. They didn't touch anything inside the estate.      Ryū Gen was Tanshi's master of the staff. He'd taught Tanshi the weapon back when Tanshi was in the temple.     Tanshi and Ryū Gen sat across from one another at a low table set in the estate's courtyard, reunited for the first time in two years. There was good food and rice wine laid out on the table for them. Two of Ryū Gen's guards stood nearby, shadowed by trees but not exactly hiding. They just wanted Tanshi to know that they were there.     The governor and the high-ranked officials from the Imperial Court were dead. An incident like this couldn't be swept under the rug, nor could it be undone. The attack would be reported to the prefectural office, and they would send a messenger on a fast horse to the Imperial Palace.      Still, the salt smugglers weren't overly afraid of retribution. Even if the Imperial Court wiped out this band, there were so many salt smugglers scattered in so many places throughout the nation that even the full force of the Imperial Army wouldn't be able to wipe them all out. This resilience was possible thanks to the salt smugglers' robust trade network, which facilitated communication across distances. The common people liked salt smugglers enough not to report them to authorities, and they could even take shelter among them if needed. Ryū Gen and men like him put expensive salt into the hands of the poor and earned their unending gratitude. ***     Ryū Gen savored his rice wine. "You've grown strong and skilled, Tanshi," he said. "That was a splendid battle. You have truly mastered your weapon."     "All I did was swing my pewter staff around a little," Tanshi said, scratching the back of his neck and looking down.     "Don't be so modest. Has your knowledge of women improved as well?"     "Um..." Tanshi blushed.     "I guess not," Ryū Gen said. "I suppose I'll have to teach you about that next."     Tanshi smiled. "You really don't need to do that."     "Don't be silly, young man; of course I do. If you don't know how to wield the staff your parents gave you, you'll never attract a woman."     Tanshi dissembled. It was strange for Ryū Gen to encourage a monk to fraternize with women. But Tanshi liked and respected Ryū Gen, so he didn't tell the man in plain terms that he wasn't interested.     "And how long are you planning to be a wandering monk?" Ryū Gen asked.     "I abandoned the temple. After the head priest passed away, I had no reason to stay."     "Oh." Ryū Gen nodded. He understood Tanshi's reason for leaving the temple. "Well, then. How about you join up with us instead?"     Tanshi couldn't remain a wandering monk forever, now that he had no temple to belong to. Ryū Gen wasn't trying to recruit Tanshi so much as he was trying to take him in.     "Um, that is, sir, I'd like to, but..." Tanshi continued to dissemble.     When Ryū Gen spoke again, his tone was solemn. "I remember that when you were little, you got picked on a lot at the temple. So did I when I was young. I'm like you in that I never knew my parents. I always thought of you like the little brother I never had."     Tanshi's heart swelled with emotion. "Master Ryū Gen..." Ryū Gen was the only person in his life who had always treated him with kindness. Even his foster father, Jiun, had moderated his own brand of kindness with discipline. ***     Tanshi met Ryū Gen when he was ten years old. He had been sent on an errand for Jiun into the city of Sicheng. He'd completed the errand and was returning to the temple when he saw Ryū Gen teaching the uses of the staff in a vacant lot behind a building. Ryū Gen had noticed Tanshi standing there, entranced by his movements, and invited the boy to join in the practice.     "Hey, kid!" Ryū Gen called out. "Want to try this out? You look pretty strong."     "Isn't it expensive? There must be a teaching fee..."     "I couldn't charge a monk money. It wouldn't be right."     "Really?"     "Of course. In exchange for training, I'll ask you to lead prayers for us once a month. Sound good?"     "It does," Tanshi said. "If you're sure..."     Ryū Gen lived on his own in a ramshackle house. He was poor, but his skill with weapons and way of speaking were educated. He was a common warrior in appearance, but there seemed to be more to him than met the eye. His surname was puzzling. It was possibly borrowed from Liu Bei, the Emperor from the Three Kingdoms period.1 Come to think of it, their beards looked exactly the same.     There was a reason why Tanshi wanted to learn the staff so badly. Rumored to have been born from an egg, he was despised and bullied by senior monks as a junior disciple from an early age. Tanshi wanted the bullying to stop, and he thought that the best way to do that was to become stronger.      Tanshi broke down his problem into pieces like a scholar. Since he was constantly being picked on and singled out, the first thing he needed to do was work harder and better than everyone else, so that there would be no reason to single him out. This worked, to an extent; the senior monks admired his diligence in front of Jiun, but when his foster father was absent, the ill-treatment continued. He mastered academic disciplines and received the same result.     Since diligence and intelligence were insufficient, Tanshi next decided to focus on physical strength. That was why learning the staff was such an attractive idea. Already used to hard physical work and the disciplining of his own mind, Tanshi's technique improved by leaps and bounds at the start. He hid the fact that he was learning the staff from everyone at the temple, explaining his absences by saying that he was practicing meditation on the mountain.     Physical strength would mean nothing unless Tanshi had occasion to demonstrate it to the senior monks that tormented him. Tanshi understood this, but he also bided his time. Showing off his skills too soon might backfire.     As it turned out, it took a long time for Tanshi to get the perfect opportunity to show off his skills--almost five years. But when that opportunity presented itself, Tanshi was ready.  ***     When Tanshi was fifteen years old, one of the senior monks absconded with the wife of the leader of an armed band of ruffians. The jilted husband stormed into the Yinghui Mountain Temple with a spear in his hand.     "Come on out, you adulterous bastard! I'll crush your balls!" the leader of the ruffians boomed out, brandishing his spear at the offending monk.     The senior monk fled toward head priest Jiun's quarters. He slipped past Juin, and the leader of the ruffians prepared to run Jiun through for being in the way.      Tanshi was nearby. He put himself between Jiun and the ruffian and seized the spear as it came down, wrenching it from the ruffian's hands. The ruffian flew into a panic that matched the senior monk's previous terror and ran from the temple.     None of the senior monks gave Tanshi any trouble after that day.     In an act of sincere gratitude, Jiun presented his own pewter staff to Tanshi as a gift. The pewter staff was originally a shoulder-high cane carried by monks so that they could chase out poisonous snakes and vermin from underfoot when they traveled. Over time, this original purpose was all but lost to temple tradition. Jiun knew the pewter staff as a ceremonial tool that was used as a rhythmic instrument during chanting and prayer recitation. Usage of pewter staffs was tightly regulated, since monks weren't generally supposed to use weapons.     "The pewter staff is a sacred tool. In place of a spearhead is the symbol of the gods. Think of it as an eagle, watching over and protecting you from above, wherever you choose to roam."     Jiun had told Tanshi to use the pewter staff for defense. He'd never given permission for Tanshi to use it as a weapon. Even so, he used the pewter staff in his training sessions with Ryū Gen.     Ryū Gen's fighting style was unique. It wasn't traditional staff training, but a blend of those techniques with Shaolin Kung Fu. In practice, this meant that more usual straight strikes with the staff were taught alongside sweeping circular motions of the body. Mobility, too, was important: jumping and twisting to avoid danger was part of the training.     The pewter staff that Tanshi had received from Jiun was mostly wood, with iron bound at either end. After he left the temple and became a wandering monk, he asked a blacksmith to embed a steel core and connect the two iron pieces that topped both ends. The pewter staff was designed to be a tool, not a weapon.     It had been two years since Ryū Gen and Tanshi had last seen one another, and Tanshi was surprised to find his staff master leading a band of salt smugglers.      "Salt is a treasure given equally to us all by the creator of all things," Ryū Gen said."People cannot live without salt. The government has put salt production under its control and raised taxes one after another to use it as a national revenue source. Most of the government's income comes from salt, now. It would be understandable if it were used for the benefit of the people, but hmm... all the money the government makes disappears into the pockets of rich imperial officials, used for entertainment and luxuries. That's why we buy salt from the Khitans and the Tangut2 and sell it to the people." His voice rose as he spoke, swelling with passion--or anger. "We sell it at a tenth of the cost, and it's high-quality salt. It's a far cry from the salt mixed with sand that the government sells. What's more, there's a policy that anyone who buys or sells black salt will be beheaded! Think about it, Tanshi. The Emperor and the Imperial Court created the salt smugglers more than anyone else did. We will sell salt, and we will cut down the merciless who deprive and bully the weak and defenseless."      "Master?" Tanshi asked.     Tanshi's brief interruption made Ryū Gen aware of just how agitated he was becoming. He calmed himself, then said, "I'm sorry. But it's important, what we do. We have allies everywhere. Government officials, soldiers, scholars, wealthy people, and people from all the other classes. Believe it or not, this villa is the property of Fan Zhongyan."3     "What? Isn't he the Prime Minister of the Imperial Court?"     Ryū Gen gave Tanshi an enigmatic smile. "Well... we've spread our influence, you could say. Our force is large and well-armed enough to compete with an the Imperial Army. The Emperor does nothing but make the people cry. I'm the son of a farmer, you know, but my parents couldn't pay the taxes one year. I'll never forget the sight of them being beheaded by a government official. I cursed this hellish world... I hugged my mother's head and wept and swore that someday I would avenge her..."      When Tanshi had led prayers to pay for his staff training from Ryū Gen, Ryū Gen had asked Tanshi to pray for the souls of his parents. Now he knew why.     Ryū Gen's eyes gleamed with tears, shining white in the light of the sun.       "I must ask for your forgiveness," Tanshi said. "When you left without saying a word, I didn't understand, and held a grudge. I'm sorry."      Ryū Gen laughed good-naturedly. "I couldn't say goodbye to you because I was planning to be a salt smuggler. We all have regrets. Well, then, drink up," Ryū Gen said, offering Tanshi a full bottle of rice wine.     Tanshi gratefully accepted, smiling.      "During my travels, I stained my hands with blood, and I condemned others to hell. I can no longer call myself a monk."     "Don't worry about that," Ryū Gen said.  "This world isn't fit for humans to live in. All we can do is try to find a gap or a hole in the hell that surrounds us, and win free." This was a different philosophy than Tanshi's, to be sure, and Tanshi envied this free-spirited way of thinking. Ryū Gen accepted the reality of the world, but his unusually strong sense of justice prompted him to change things.      "What kind of country is Khitan?" Tanshi asked.     Khitan was where the Chinese people had come from originally. The Khitans were a Mongol people. Abaoji4 unified the neighboring tribes and established the Khitan state after the fall of the Tang Dynasty (916 ACE). It was renamed Liao (937 ACE), but was called Khitan again later (982 ACE). Since the Zhou Dynasty (1020 BCE to 256 BCE), the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun5 that were part of Khitan had been a treasure trove of resources and a permanent settling place for the wandering desert people who colonized them. The sixteen prefectures were part of Hebei and Shanxi to the north.      In the year 1004 ACE, he current Emperor's father, Emperor Zhenzong, invaded Khitan in large numbers to take over the territory. He and his army failed, and in the end, the Emperor had no choice but to settle the matter diplomatically. The disputed territory was ceded to Khitan in return for peace, mutual aid, and trade deals. Every year, Khitan would receive 200,000 bolts of silk and 100,000 taels6 of silver from the Song dynasty.      The Chanyuan Treaty cemented Khitan as an independent nation. Many people were unhappy about this, not least later Chinese Emperors. Emperor Sejong of the latter part of the Song dynasty, Taejong of the Northern Song dynasty, and others tried several times to recapture the lost territory, but they ended in failure. The loss of the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun was an unbearable humiliation for the Chinese people, and recapturing it was a long-cherished desire of the ruling Dynasty.     At the time of the Chanyuan Treaty, Ryū Gen was an eleven-year-old poor peasant's son, but his blood boiled with humiliation and anger. He could not forgive the Imperial Court, which had become subservient to protect itself, leaving aside the poor commoners they were meant to rule. Angered by the Song dynasty's capitulation, Ryū Gen decided to strike back at the Khitans in his own way. He worked hard to learn martial arts and weapons, and eventually became a salt smuggler, which was his ultimate goal. ***     Ryū Gen spoke with passionate intensity. "I buy black salt from the Khitans and the Tangut people, but I also purchase horses in secret. There are not many good horses in this country. They'll come in handy if and when we ever have to fight off a foreign invasion. Think about it all, Tanshi. With the way things are going, the Song dynasty is going to be obliterated. Empress Dowager Liu takes advantage of the fact that the Emperor is a child, and is as stupid as Empress Wu Zetian.      "Then there's Ding Wei, the grand councilor that advises our Emperor, who deposed Wang Qinruo and usurped his place during the previous Emperor's reign.7 He does whatever he wants, corrupt or not, under the aegis of  Empress Dowager Liu's protection.      "Then there is Lei Yungong, the eunuch who stepped on his fellows to rise to where he is.8 They are the people in power, and they increase their influence by illegally exploiting the common people while cracking down on us. They go after the little guys because they aren't tough enough to go after people who can defend themselves.       "It's true that there are some good people in the Imperial Court, like Fan Zhongyan and Wen Yanbo,9 but Ding Wei thwarts all their attempts at improvement and reform."     This happened later, but Fan Zhongyan penned the work On Yueyang Tower to express his ideals of government service. The descriptive prose piece was composed at the invitation of Teng Zongliang, who had rebuilt the famed ancient tower of Yueyang Lou. The tower was built by a city gate by the side of Dongting Lake, and was known as one of the three great towers in southern China, due to their association with famous literary works.     On Yueyang Tower  contains a very famous line on the role of scholar-officials in China, which describes their ideal state of mind: "They were the first to worry about the worries of others, and the last to enjoy the world's joys." These lines sum up the scholar-official's idealized self-image of self-denial and loyal service. He was a role model for the intellectuals of the Song dynasty, and he'd also achieved great military success and fame before rising to become the Prime Minister of the entire nation. *** "Something else bothers me," Ryū Gen said. "They're minting coins in iron instead of copper, and iron's in short supply everywhere right now."     China was rich in coal and had advanced iron smelting technology. The invention of briquettes at the end of the Tang Dynasty further streamlined iron smelting and increased productivity. After the development of the monetary economy (as opposed to barter), only copper coins were made. This led to a shortage of copper, so iron coins were created as a substitute. Ryū Gen was trying to make machines out of iron and increase the sturdiness and length of life out of the machine's he'd already made, so he took the scarcity of iron as a personal offense, as if the universe was trying to thwart him.     Ryū Gen held out his bowl of rice wine. "Tanshi. Now that we've found each other again, let's be sworn brothers. For real this time."     Tanshi's eyes lit up. "All right." He held out his own bowl of rice wine, imitating Ryū Gen. They crossed arms, making a sort of angled cross pattern, as Ryū Gen drank from Tanshi's bowl and Tanshi drank from Ryū Gen's.      "Is it good?" Ryū Gen asked.     "It’s delicious." Tanshi gulped down all the rice wine the bowl. He smiled, and Ryū Gen smiled back.     "It's hard for me to believe that a person like you could go from being a monk to a salt smuggler." He sighed. "What sad times we live in. Well, then..." He frowned. "Wait a second."     "I have nowhere to be at the moment," Tanshi said. Then he realized what he'd said and lowered his eyes. He was supposed to be on a quest, after all, and that quest had nothing to do with salt smugglers.     "What's wrong?" Ryū Gen asked.     Tanshi was at a loss for a reply. He believed that if he spoke, his quest would be rejected or misunderstood.     "This is a conversation between brothers," Ryū Gen said. "Speak."     "There's... something I really want to do," Tanshi said.      "Then I'll help you do it, whatever it is."     Tanshi fixed a serious gaze on Ryū Gen. "I am looking for the Way of Shattering Earth."     Ryū Gen stared at Tanshi for a long time, as if what he'd said was unbelievable.     "It's something I've been thinking about since I was a child," Tanshi said. "That's why I left the temple, really."     "So you were always planning to discard your monk's robes?"     "That doesn't matter, does it?"     "I don't understand," Ryū Gen said. Tanshi was a smart young man. He should know that the Way of Shattering Earth didn't actually exist. Ryū Gen had heard stories of people with supernatural abilities, but he'd never encountered a single one; such people were not part of his experience. The magic tricks of street performers were just that: tricks to deceive the gullible. "Do you truly believe that the Way of Shattering Earth is real?"     "I want to become stronger," Tanshi said.     "You are strong," Ryū Gen said. "No one who wields the staff as you do could call themselves weak." He laughed.     "I was born from a bird's egg. If it's true, then I should be able to develop other abilities as well, right?''     "That's stupid. If it were true, someone else would have already found the way you seek." He pointed to the sky. There was a flock of crows passing by overhead. "And if you were really born from a bird's egg, you would have taken flight and soared with them long ago."      Tanshi's face fell.      "Tanshi... do you want to become a sorcerer, like in the stories? Because those are just stories. I've never met a sorcerer. No one I know has met a sorcerer. If they exist, they live away from people. Their powers in the stories are monstrous or cruel or beast-like. You're a human, Tanshi, not a bird or a shapeshifting fox."     "But there are things in the world that are beyond people's comprehension," Tanshi insisted. "The night after Jiun passed away, there was a thunderstorm. A man appeared before me as I was reciting prayers."     Ryū Gen raised an eyebrow. "Go on."     "I saw it all very clearly. The man yelled at the thunder for making too much noise, and was struck by lightning and died on the spot. That was the anger of the thunder god."      "No, it was a coincidence," Ryū Gen said.     When Tanshi spoke again, he sounded angry. "No, no, no! There are some things that can't be explained by logic. The prediction of natural disasters. Healing illness through magic. Begging for rain through prayer... and there are sorcerers.  Some people are born with special qualities .To predict the future and live forever and ever... everyone wants to do that. Who says that a few people haven't done it already?"     "The world is not about to reform itself to match your expectations."     "But you understood how awful the world was when you were just a child," Tanshi said. "I've seen it now, too. I feel like all I can do in this world as an ordinary person is wait to die in some horrible way. How could I ever be satisfied with that? How can can anyone?"     "I have no right to preach to the choir," Ryū Gen said, "but didn't the Buddha provide a path for people to transcend the fear of death and embrace the ephemerality of all living things?"     "I am not the Buddha," Tanshi said. "I can't escape from worldly desires and aspirations. I'm just a person, and I want a better answer."     Ryū Gen frowned severely. Tanshi was set on this way of thinking, and he didn't know how to change his mind.  "Are you so afraid of death?"     "No, I'm not. I'm not afraid. I want to challenge my own destiny."     At Tanshi's sudden declaration, Ryū Gen stood up. Tanshi also stood up. They had just been reunited and sworn brotherhood to one another, but they didn't understand each another. Not at all.     They glared, radiating tension. Ryū Gen was the first to regain his composure; he sat back down quietly. Tanshi turned his back on him and walked away, toward the forest that surrounded the estate.      Ryū Gen stood up again, stunned at Tanshi's stubbornness. He followed him a little distance.      The sun was rising over the courtyard.      "Tanshi," Ryū Gen said. "You can come back here at any time. You are always welcome."     Tears glistened in the corners of Tanshi's eyes and didn't fall. "Please forgive me. This is something I have to do."     They didn't say goodbye, but they forgave each other, even if they could not understand. The loneliness of belonging to the same world where all the rules were different based on individual perspective cut them both. They disagreed on the fundamental framework of reality, and not even old friendship could bridge that gap.     Tanshi felt hollowed out and alone in the world as he walked away. Translator's Notes 1 Liu Bei (Chinese: 劉備) was a Chinese warlord in the late Eastern Han dynasty who later became the founding emperor of Shu Han, one of the Three Kingdoms of China. ↩ 2 The Tangut people (Chinese: 党項) were a Sino-Tibetan people who founded and inhabited the Western Xia dynasty. After the collapse of Tang dynasty, the Tanguts established the Western Xia. They spoke the Tangut language, not Chinese. Western Xia was annihilated by the Mongol Empire in 1227, most of its written records and architecture were destroyed. Today the Tangut language and its unique script are extinct; only fragments of Tangut literature remain. ↩ 3 范仲淹: Fan Zhongyan (5 September 989 – 19 June 1052), courtesy name Xiwen (希文), was a Chinese military strategist, philosopher, poet, and politician of the Song dynasty. After serving the central government for several decades, Fan was appointed Prime Minister or Chancellor over the entire Song empire. ↩ 4 耶律阿保機: Abaoji, posthumously known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Liao, was a Khitan leader and the founding emperor of the Liao dynasty of China, ruling from 916 to 926. ↩ 5 燕云十六州: The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun comprise a historical region in northern China along the Great Wall in present-day Beijing, Tianjin, and part of northern Hebei and Shanxi. It was a site of constant military and political conflict between various dynasties from the end of the Tang dynasty until the establishment of the Yuan dynasty.↩ 6 Taels are a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency. The Chinese tael was standardized to 50 grams in 1959.↩ 7 氶想丁謂: Ding Wei (c. 966 – June 1037) was a Song dynasty chancellor who dominated the courts during Emperor Zhenzong's later reign and Emperor Renzong's early reign. Ding Wei's opponent Wang Zeng (王曾) claimed that Ding was considered one of the "Five Devils", along with Wang Qinruo, Lin Te (林特), Chen Pengnian (陳彭年) and Liu Chenggui (劉承珪), a group of high-ranking ministers unpopular at the time. In the centuries to follow, Ding Wei has almost always been portrayed as a treacherous minister in popular fiction.↩ 8 雷允恭: Lei Yungong (died 23 July 1022) was a Song dynasty palace eunuch who rose to power after foiling fellow eunuch Zhou Huaizheng's coup. He dominated court politics following Emperor Zhenzong's death by associating with the powerful grand councilor Ding Wei. However, just a few months later he was beaten to death for illegally moving Emperor Zhenzong's burial site to acquire treasures. ↩ 9 Wen Yanbo (23 October 1006 – 16 June 1097[1]), courtesy name Kuanfu, was a scholar-official of the Song dynasty who served four emperors over more than five decades. He was a grand councilor and a primary advisor during Emperor Renzong's reign. ↩