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Chapter Five Secret Attendance upon the Heir Apparent 91 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Despite the anachronisms found in the two Tang Histories concerning the Jianghuai Incident, their account of Wen’s return to the capital after the Incident is faithful to what really happened. This can be seen clearly in the following couplet of “Hundred-Rhyme Poem,” as already cited earlier: 57 From afar I gazed back beyond a thousand leagues, And my returning heart flew to the Nine Highways. This provides the information that after Wen reached Jianghuai, thus ending his long journey, he returned to the capital. What motivated Wen to go to the capital once more? In the black and white terms of the two Tang Histories , he did so “to unburden himself of the clerk’s vilification and slander,” “in the hope of clearing himself of the false charges laid against him.” In other words, he was seeking to escape the eunuchs’ persecution and extricate himself from his predicament. As we know, it was precisely because of his unfavorable family background that Wen purposely avoided a career in the capital, the political center, preferring instead a vagrant life under various local patrons. Now in desperation, he found himself in such straits that he was forced to give up his life in the provinces and travel to the capital for support, disregarding the dangers he had to face in the capital, “at the feet of the emperor.” The following lines give a vivid description of what Wen faced before he was successful in finding a position in capital society. 58 To enjoy sound sleep the price is to suffer long depression, To be served free soup, I have to act with caution and attention. 59 I kept a calling card in my pocket, even though I’m far famed, To help the time, very few appreciated my Way. 60 By molars and incisors I was repeatedly recommended and praised, With umbrella and bookcase my road was yet rugged and rocky. “To be served free soup,” a metaphor for being offered any favor, alludes to Zhuangzi: “I went into ten soup-shops to get a meal, and in five of them the soup was served before I had paid for it.”1 “Pocketing calling cards” alludes to Ni Heng ( , 173–198), who went to the capital but, because of his pride, found it hard to visit anybody until the characters on his cards were worn illegible.2 “By molar and by teeth” means to be commented upon by many people. “Umbrella and bookcase” make up the outfit of a traveling literary man, and are hence here a synecdoche for Wen’s own official career. It was unlikely that Wen would be able to find any position in aristocratic circles in the capital, acting completely on his own; therefore, in order to gain an access into fashionable society he had to look attentively about for an opportunity. Wen reminds us that, endowed with a nature similar to that of Ni Heng, and numbering the eunuchs among his mortal enemies, it was difficult for him to progress. Few officials in the capital were willing or courageous enough to accept him, given both his fame and infamy. Because of his unyielding loyalty and rectitude to the Tang Empire, his Way with respect to state policy asserted itself as an ambition to curb and even to eliminate the eunuchs. This was the dream of many honest literati during this time. However, after many disastrous failures, it proved to be unfeasible, and was “appreciated by few.” Subsequently, Wen tells us about his fruitless attempt to progress in the central bureaucracy of the capital. Nevertheless, he was in high favor with several important statesmen, including his teacher, Li Cheng, who at one time was Prime Minister, and Pei Du, the most influential and meritorious minister of the Late Tang period. But as a result of the eunuch politics, he was treated as an alien pariah by his snobbish contemporaries, and was denied any opportunity for promotion through normal channels. For this reason the way before him remained “rugged and rocky.” Following the couplets cited above from “Hundred-Rhyme Poem” is an extremely obscure account of Wen’s attendance upon the Heir Apparent, the central topic of this chapter. This obscurity necessitates an examination of all the details contained in every relevant record, despite the baffling difficulties such inquiry entails. Initially, we will give a brief introduction. Professor Zhan...

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