Chapter Ninety-One: The Father Who Ruins His Son

“Many thanks for your help, Lord Chen. Rest assured—if you will only grant me a little time, I will certainly repay every coin!” Zhang Yanyu bowed to Chen Ying.

Chen Ying said, “How did you end up borrowing money from Yu Zhengyang? Did you not know it was a bottomless pit?”

A long sigh escaped Zhang Yanyu, heavy with helplessness. “It was my father who borrowed it. A son repays a father’s debt. Yu Zhengyang is not entirely wrong.”

“And your father is?”

“Replying to you, my lord: my father is Zhang Wencong, once a lecturer at the Four Gates School in the former dynasty, and now a Doctor in the Imperial College’s Book Studies.”

Seeing that Chen Ying still seemed unsure, Zhang Yanyu explained. The Four Gates School was not a primary school in the modern sense, but one of the three academies under the Imperial College, alongside the National Academy and the Grand Academy. The National Academy and the Grand Academy stood as the highest institutions of learning, while the Four Gates School was a court academy devoted to educating imperial princes and other royal children. A lecturer there was a teacher for the royal offspring. What was more, Zhang Wencong’s rank was not low; he was a Beijing official of the sixth rank, lower step.

“So Lord Zhang is from a scholarly official family after all!”

“What scholarly official family? We are just poor to the point of ruin.”

“Has something terrible happened in your household?”

Zhang Yanyu shook his head.

Chen Ying was puzzled. Though the salaries of officials in the Tang Dynasty could not be compared with those of the Song, they were still quite substantial by ancient standards. With his current post, Chen Ying held the fifth rank and received an annual stipend of one hundred and eighty dan of grain, roughly forty-three thousand cash in salary, sixty thousand in service allowances, plus sixty mu of office land—an income equivalent to around six hundred thousand yuan a year in modern terms.

Naturally, Zhang Wencong, as a sixth-rank official, earned somewhat less, but even so his yearly income would still amount to roughly three hundred and thirty thousand yuan. With that kind of income, one could not claim to be rich beyond measure, but at least food and clothing should have been secure.

After Zhang Yanyu’s explanation, Chen Ying finally understood what had happened.

It turned out that in the ninth month of the first year of Wude, Zhang Wencong had written a poem:

“名声寄托于至善，流传显示其长盛不衰。
地理图中罗列四条大河，天文图上记载五大水源。
方正之流蕴含温润如玉，圆转之处闪动珠光。
唯有蒙园的官吏，栖居闲卧，玩赏濠梁之趣。”

Somehow, this poem reached the ears of Li Yuan.

Li Yuan was very fond of it and immediately rewarded Zhang Wencong with six reams of the finest Xuan paper and a set of premium Hui inksticks. That was where the trouble began. Zhang Wencong was an utterly devoted man who loved calligraphy and never let his brush leave his hand. Every day, rain or shine, he had to write at least one full ream of paper.

At first, when he used coarse hemp paper and pine ink, the Zhang household could still just barely afford it. But after receiving the emperor’s gift of Xuan paper and Hui ink, Zhang Wencong became utterly enamored of them. He would use nothing but Xuan paper and write with nothing but Hui ink. Yet both were luxuries in that age.

At first, Zhang Yanyu’s mother still managed to scrape together a little money from the family’s narrow margins to buy paper and ink for Zhang Wencong. But now a single ream of Xuan paper cost one thousand three hundred cash, and Zhang Wencong could use that much in a single day. In the space of only one month, the already poor Zhang family had been written clean out of house and home.

With no other choice, Zhang Yanyu’s mother sold whatever part of her dowry could be sold, but even that could not fill the hole Zhang Wencong had left behind. Yet if there was no Xuan paper at home, Zhang Wencong would fly into a rage. To satisfy his father’s need to write, Zhang Yanyu had no choice but to borrow money from Yu Zhengyang.

But once one takes up usury, one had better not touch it at all. The moment one does, ruin follows. Zhang Yanyu had no money to repay Yu Zhengyang, and could only dodge and hide from him.

Listening to this tale, Chen Ying was left speechless. He had imagined that Zhang Yanyu might have borrowed money because of an illness in the family or a gambling habit, but never had he imagined that the debt was incurred simply to buy fine paper for his father.

Still, with Zhang Wencong’s habits, few people could afford to keep up. Even if he were only a sixth-rank official now—and even if he eventually rose to the third rank, with an annual income equivalent to more than a million yuan—Tang Dynasty prices were extremely low, while copper cash was highly valuable. One string of cash, when converted, was worth roughly four to five thousand yuan in modern money. Even a third-rank official would receive only a little over two hundred strings a year, not nearly enough to last half a year.

Chen Ying could only look at Zhang Yanyu with sympathy.

He was short of able men and had originally wanted to bring Zhang Yanyu into his household service, but the price of doing so was far too high. Never mind that he was only a fifth-rank official now; even if he were to establish his own office in the future, he still would not be able to afford a man like Zhang Yanyu.

Unless, of course, the price of Xuan paper could be driven down. For now, though, that was only an idle thought, and Chen Ying had neither the time nor the energy for it.

He noticed several people loitering suspiciously outside his gate, clearly up to no good. When Liang Zan saw Chen Ying take notice, he explained, “They’re probably house spies from some other family. Shall I have them seized and questioned?”

Chen Ying shook his head. Better to avoid trouble if possible. Besides, after Wei Zheng’s little uproar, all of Chang’an was even more convinced that he was under Princess Xiu Ning’s protection. No one with a working brain would come looking for trouble. As for Chai Shao, however, Chen Ying felt somewhat displeased.

Since you have wronged me, damn it, I might as well give you a little trouble of my own.

To say that Chen Ying felt nothing for Princess Xiu Ning would be a lie. But he was well aware that he had nowhere near the ability of Wei Qing. If he wanted to win the beauty’s favor, he would have to become, like Wei Qing, a man whom even the emperor would go to great lengths to win over. The support for Li Jiancheng in Lingzhou would surely not come slowly. That meant Chen Ying did not have much time. After much thought, he decided that before leaving, he ought to pay Princess Xiu Ning a visit.

Of course, one could not visit her empty-handed. But Chen Ying had already looked over the gift list in his household and found nothing worthy of presenting. In truth, although the Chen household had become a rising power in Chang’an, it was still far too early to say it could sway the court. Those who came hoping to curry favor with him were almost all petty officials of little account.

As he reached the gate, he saw a young man with a thin face approaching. His clothes were patched in several places, though cleanly washed. In the cold weather, he was shivering in the bitter wind. Chen Ying said, “We don’t have anyone free to go to the Eastern Market and buy things. Would you be willing to run the errand for us? How much do you charge?”

“That depends on what you’re buying.”

“Can you read?”

“A few characters.”

“Good. Wait here.”

Chen Ying went inside, wrote out a list, and handed it to him. “See if you can buy all of this and have it delivered here. The shopkeeper can come to the manor to collect payment. How much extra would you charge for the errand?”

“There isn’t much on the list, but it’s all very valuable. If Your Lordship has no time to shop, I can run the errands for you and have the merchants deliver the goods here for your inspection!”

Chen Ying thought this was the best arrangement. To sit at home and wait for merchants to deliver goods to his door—wasn’t that practically the same as a modern food-delivery app?

By the time evening lamps were lit, four or five merchants had arrived carrying their wares. Chen Ying chose a fine Hetian sheep-fat jade bracelet. This variety of jade would not become truly popular until the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Hetian sheep-fat jade was still not especially expensive. The bracelet he selected was flawless, pure white, with a mellow luster and exquisite texture to the touch.

Its carving was remarkably delicate. A piece like that would cost at least several hundred thousand yuan in modern terms, yet in this age it was only worth two strings of cash—less than a tenth of its later value. And this particular piece was undeniably a first-rate natural treasure.