Stories Old and New by Feng Menglong;Yang Yunqin.;Yang Shuhui.;

Author:Feng, Menglong;Yang, Yunqin.;Yang, Shuhui.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780295801292
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2019-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

At the time, the Song dynasty had just wiped out the Jurchens with the aid of the Mongolian army. However, following the advice of Zhao Fan and Zhao Kui, the court engaged the Mongols in hostilities over control of the Yellow River and Yougu Pass and demanded to recover the three cities of Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Yingtian. It was a move that triggered a Mongolian invasion in retaliation against the Song breach of their agreement. The Huai and Han River valleys were thrown into turmoil, and the emperor took alarm.

Having undeservingly won the favor of the emperor, Jia Sidao knew that he could not very well further seek royal titles without incurring reprobation. High position was not possible unless he won top honors by driving the invaders away from the borders, which was the very first priority of the empire. (It’s all right to treat something as a first priority, as long as no fuss is made over a trifle.) Therefore, claiming that he was well-versed in military strategies, he o ered his services and volunteered to go to Yangzhou to raise an army and crush the enemy for the protection of the southeastern region in the name of the emperor. Immensely delighted, Emperor Lizong appointed him military commissioner of the Huai region,12 to be stationed in Yangzhou. Sidao thanked the emperor, left the court, and, with his wife, concubines, and retainers, went to Yangzhou to assume his post.

Three days later, he quietly sent a trusted retainer to visit his biological mother, Hu-shi. The man found out that she was indeed living at the east end of Guanglingyi with a stonemason. Having ascertained the fact, he reported as much to Sidao, who immediately dispatched a sedan-chair procession to bring her to him. When an official of the tribunal led the sedan-chair carriers in bowing to Hu-shi, the woman was so frightened she almost fainted and did not pull herself together until the official explained his mission entrusted to him by the commissioner.

“Since I am married,” said she, “I cannot do anything without my husband’s knowledge.” Right away, she sent someone to bring the stonemason back and told him about the situation. As the stonemason wanted to follow her, she could not very well refuse him and had to take him along. With Hu-shi riding in front in the sedan-chair and the stonemason on a horse following behind, the procession made its way to the commissioner’s residence. Sidao invited his mother into his private quarters. Mother and son fell upon each other’s shoulders and wept. When they were separated, Sidao was only three years old and Hu-shi in her twenties. More than thirty years had passed before this reunion. How could they not have been filled with emotion?

Hearing that the stonemason was also there, Sidao was ill-disposed toward meeting him. He took out three hundred taels of silver and sent a trusted follower to accompany the stonemason on a business trip down the river. Acting on Sidao’s secret instructions, the man got the stonemason drunk when they were half-way down the river and pushed him into the water.

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