Chapter 9 – Eternal Imperial Capital

A nation of a thousand li of mountains and rivers, imperial city with nine-level watchtower gate; without seeing how grand the Capital is, how would people understand that the Son of Heaven was being revered? Historical relics gathered together, the imperial capital for a thousand years.

Chang’an was located at the ‘eight-hundred-li Qin River’, which was known as the Guanzhong Plain, on the south bank of Wei River. Zhou, Qin, Han, Western Jin, Former Zhao, Former Qin, Later Qin, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang, all established their capital here.

To the south was the Zhongnan Mountains, the middle section of Qinling Mountain Range; range upon range of mountains, precipitous, harsh and difficult to surpass, became the natural barrier on the south side, with its layers-of-mountain-ranges-looking-down-on-Wei-River, bluish-green-cliffs-reaching-up-to-the-heavens-in-the-distance majestic grandeur.

To the north were the Yao Mountain, Huanglong Mountain, Cuo’e Mountain, Liang Mountain, and the others, forming a winding, extending-continuously, Beishan’s [or northern mountain] cluster of mountains, its peaks standing opposite to Qinling’s in the distance.

The city of Chang’an resided imposingly in this wide expanse of fertile plain delimited by these mountain ridges as its boundary, where the Jing, Wei, Feng, Jue, Hao, Chan, Ba, and Lao, various rivers, just like sparkling and translucent, flickering tassels of fluttering-in-the-wind string of beads of pearl, winding around it, forming the ‘Eight Rivers Winding Around Chang’an’. These rivers were like streams of blood vessels, which provided Chang’an with abundant water supply, and thus also made Chang’an brimming with vitality.

The saying ‘Qin Zhong Zigu Diwang Zhou’ [monarch prefecture within the Qin since ancient times] was precisely because of all kinds of advantageous circumstances in strategy and economy that since ancient times, Chang’an obtained the favor of monarchs of the past dynasties.

Qin Shihuang [the first emperor, 259-210 BC] won the government by putting in order the chaotic situation of various hegemons setting up an independent regime during the Warring States period, by creating a centralized state power, the unification of the nation. By the time of Western Han, Zhang Qian [(-114 BC), Han dynasty explorer of 2nd century BC] went to the Western Regions twice; he opened up the Silk Road between Chang’an and the Western Regions, promoting the economic and cultural exchange between the East and the West, and thus Chang’an was upgraded even more to a city of an international level, as the link connecting Chinese and foreign civilization.

The feel of its situation, only the Eastern Capital Luoyang might be able to compare. At the founding of the Sui Dynasty, they established new capital called Daxing. The Tang Dynasty continued to use Daxing as the capital and changed its name to Chang’an; the idea behind it was the ‘Chang Zhi Jiu An’ [long-term peace and stability (of governments)], and was constantly building and expanding it, to make it even more imposing and majestic.

During the Sui and the Tang, the city of Chang’an consisted of Waiguocheng [outer city wall], Gongcheng [lit. palace city] and Huangcheng [lit. emperor/imperial city], three sections. The Gongcheng and Huangcheng were located at the central, northern part of the capital city. In the Waiguocheng, each square on the left, right, and south, three sides surrounded and protected the Gongcheng and Huangcheng.

Right in the middle was Zhuque Dajie [Vermillion Bird[1] Boulevard] as the boundary, separating Wan Nian [lit. ten thousand years] and Chang An [lit. perpetual peace], two counties.

Gongcheng and Huangcheng were the House of Tang’s imperial family residence, where Waiguocheng was the place where common people lived and made their living; each one had its own distinct layout.

Hundreds and thousands of houses appeared like in the game of Go; the twelve streets were like fields to grow vegetables. Chang’an outer city wall altogether had eleven north-south big streets and fourteen east-west big streets, crisscrossing the outer city wall and dividing it up into a hundred and ten squares. Among those were three north-south direction big streets and east-west direction big streets connecting the city gates, forming the main traffic links within the city of Chang’an, of which the widest was Vermillion Bird Boulevard, which was comparable to Luoyang’s Heavenly Street; its width reached forty zhang. As for the other streets, although they are not as wide as the Vermillion Bird Boulevard, their scale could be easily inferred.

In Chang’an, in addition to the Vermillion Bird Boulevard, the most famous were the Du Hui [lit. city/metropolis] Market and Li Ren [lit. benefiting mankind] Market, located at the southeast and southwest corners of the Huangcheng; each market occupied two city blocks. There were four streets inside the market, forming an intersecting # [井 (jing) character] arrangement, so that the entire market was divided into nine sections, each section had its four sides facing the street, shops of all kinds of businesses were setup facing the street. Within each section there were still small alleyways, acting as the internal passageways.

These two markets were the liveliest place in Chang’an city. There were restaurants and eateries; many of them open all night long, so they became the famous night-and-day bustling scenic spots of Chang’an city.

Xu Ziling, following Bu Ting and Tian Santang, safely entered the city via the Ming De [lit. illustrious virtue] Gate. As he stepped into the Vermillion Bird Boulevard, also because this flourishing city exuded the intimidatingly extraordinary and deep hegemon aura of the Emperor, he felt that carrying the Duke Yang Treasure out of such place has now become such a distant and indistinct matter.

Walking along this main axis linking Chang’an’s north and south parts, how could his heart not sigh with emotion? Thinking about the countless dangerous and difficult paths he had to go through before finally came here; the feeling in his heart was really difficult to describe.

To prevent stagnant water, all the main streets in the city had gutters on both sides, as wide as a small stream. At the junction of the sewers at the mouth of the street, there were stone bridges, which became one distinguishing feature of Chang’an.

Locust trees were planted on both sides of the main streets; but since it was wintertime, the dense branches and leaves were already replaced with snow and icicles, which made the people felt the majestic of the depth of the winter even more. But the bitter cold weather did not diminish Chang’an’s prosperous and grand atmosphere. Endless stream of horses and carriages filled the streets, pedestrians were as crowded as school of fish, the liveliness was not inferior to Luoyang in any aspects.

Xing Chang Long’s main store in Chang’an was located in the Metropolis Market at the southeast corner of Imperial City; their three large warehouses were setup separately in the Outer City, at the He Ping [peaceful] Lane on the southwest corner, and the Dun Hua [kindhearted flower] Lane on the southeast corner.

After ordering Chen Liang to be in charge of transporting the salt into their warehouses, Bu Ting took Tian Santang and Xu Ziling to go to their main store. It was a clear sign that he valued Xu Ziling highly.

On both sides of the Vermillion Bird Boulevard, whether it was a store or a house, all were large buildings with courtyard of magnanimous style and structure; the courtyards were in layers, all had atrium and side halls. The houses along the lanes and alleys had white walls with roof tile on top. Single-story buildings lined up in continuous row along the street. Most of the residences’ gates were tastefully decorated wooden door with roof tile on it, with high walls and deep courtyards, located at the alleys and roads that were deep and long, serene, auspicious and peaceful; it was vastly different from the big streets bustling with noise and excitement.

The houses of the rich families were extremely gorgeous and towering, but the shops’ construction was not without exhausting thoughts, knowledge and skill either. The columns and roof beams were carved delicately, the beams and the square wooden pillars interspersed with interlocking wooden brackets protruding out of the eaves, the shapes and techniques were different from each other.

When Xu Ziling, who has obtained Lu Miaozi’s handed-down teachings in architecture – saw this, his interest was overflowing; he enthusiastically absorbed everything.

While he was enjoying the feast for his eyes, the Imperial City’s Vermillion Bird Gate appeared in sight. Following Bu Ting and Tian Santang, Xu Ziling urged his horse to turn into the Guang Ming [radiance] Avenue connecting the Chun Ming [spring bright] Gate on the city’s east side with the Jin Guang [golden light] Gate on the city’s west side. Under the light of the inclining setting sun, they were galloping toward the Metropolis Market, which was also known as the East Market.

Kou Zhong was invited into the cabin hall for the evening meal. The attendees included the Sha Family’s three brothers, Sha Chengjiu, Sha Chenggong, and Sha Chengde, plus Sha Fu, Chen Laiman, and a man called Mao Shichang.

Mao Shichang was only of medium build, but his back was thick, his shoulders round, his gait was steady; he must be a martial art master with ‘hard’ skill as his expertise, and was the Chief Bodyguard of the Sha Family. Around forty years old, his manner in speaking had a bit of slick-and-sly Jianghu flavor, but his demeanor was not annoying; he had a bit of wit, and from time to time he revealed amiable smile.

The most friendly to Kou Zhong was of course the Third Young Master Sha Chengde, Chen Laiman and Sha Fu, simply because they had different relationship with him.

The First Young Master Sha Chengjiu was polite, but kept a bit of distance; he was neither warm nor cold-and-detached toward him. But the Second Young Master Sha Chenggong, with his second-generation-rich-family’s-younger-generation appearance, although he restrained his arrogant manner to some extent, unconsciously he still showed some contempt toward Kou Zhong.

After the maids served fine dishes and good wine, the First Young Master introduced everybody around the banquet table; he said with a smile, “The brilliance of Mo Xiansheng’s medical expertise really astonished and convinced people. Not concealing anything from Xiansheng, after Jiafu fell ill before the New Year, we have invited famous doctors from everywhere Luoyang, yet there was still no improvement at all. But Xiansheng only took two days, and Jiafu already looks like he sheds his mortal body and exchanges his bones; he is able to eat, walk, and talk as usual. Xiansheng’s medical expertise is indeed extremely skillful.”

The Third Young Master Sha Chengde asked with deep concern, “What illness did Jiafu actually suffer? According to Mo Xiansheng’s opinion, how long will it take to be fully recovered?”

Kou Zhong secretly mused that the illness broke out more than a year ago, which was precisely the time when the battle between Wang Shichong and Yang Dong/ Dugu Clan’s side was in full swing; but looking at how the entire Sha Family was moving to Guanzhong now, he could guess that to some extent, the Sha Family must have some relationship with the Dugu Clan. Inwardly he started to form a hypothesis, so he calmly replied, “Laoyezi’s illness is not typhoid at all; it’s because of excessive anxiety to such an extent as to become an illness. His heart melancholy, his qi is knotted; therefore, any medicine won’t be effective, hence the reason I did not prescribe medicine, but was using needles instead to improve the blood circulation and the flow of qi, and the result is divine. Hey! Actually it is not any special skill, only I was able to prescribe the right cure for an illness by … hey! By using needles!”

Submitting cheerfully, Sha Fu said, “Mo Xiansheng is just like your honorable uncle; always modest, having self-control, and did not claim credit for himself. It is indeed very rare.”

The Second Young Master Sha Chenggong asked, “This time Xiansheng is going to Guanzhong, are you going to open up a shop to treat other people’s illnesses, to spread your expertise?”

Kou Zhong mused inwardly that if he told him frankly the real purpose behind his trip to Chang’an, it would almost be guaranteed that he would be scared half-dead; thereupon he laughed and replied, “I still have not made up my mind; I am just following Jiashu’s direction to roam everywhere to broaden my horizon.”

Mao Shichang smiled and said, “Looking at Xiansheng’s deeply concentrated bearing, well-built and formidable physique, plus your saber never leaves your side, evidently you possess consummate skill. I wonder if Xiansheng’s martial art skill is also your honorable uncle’s passed on teaching?”

Chen Laiman gladly replied on Kou Zhong’s behalf, “Xiansheng’s consummate skill, we have already witnessed it personally. That day Xiansheng made your move, in just two strokes that crafty villain Ma Xuran was captured alive. If he was not a front ranking martial art master, I don’t know how he did that.”

The strange thing was that Sha Chengjiu, Sha Chenggong, and the others were completely oblivious of this matter, so they promptly inquired. Finished listening, none was not emotionally moved. Even the Second Young Master Sha Chenggong’s attitude toward Kou Zhong was greatly improving.

Kou Zhong could not help asking, “That fellow surnamed Ma, what happened to him afterwards? Did you find out why he and that Xiao Zhu plotted against Jin Ge’er?”

The Third Young Master Sha Chengde apologetically responded, “After Xiansheng and your honorable uncle left that night, Ma Xuran struggled free off the rope and escaped; he even took Xiao Zhu together with him. Therefore, even until now we are still unclear why they did what they did.”

Displeased, Sha Chengjiu said, “Such a serious matter, why didn’t you tell me?”

Sha Chengde replied, “Dage, please don’t blame me. It was Die’s idea. It seems to me to that Di