Chapter 86: The Imperial Academy Branch

That night, the princess’s residence was alive with activity. Wu Yueling had personally gone into the kitchen and cooked several of her best dishes to welcome her adoptive mother and wash away the dust of travel.

After admiring the fireworks, Yang Yuhuan left the princess’s residence and returned to Huaqing Palace to keep the Emperor company.

“Your Highness,” Situ Dao said with a laugh, bowing politely. “May I ask when I might be taught the craft of making fireworks?”

Wu Yueling looked at the fellow, and after a moment’s silence said, “Start with the carpenters’ workshop first. Do you know any woodworking?”

“That’s not difficult. The old craftsmen can make all sorts of exquisite things.”

“Good. Take this design for the firework tube and study it. I have other matters to attend to. Yu Chaon, find him a place to stay.”

She handed him a sheet of plain white paper and left at once.

Back in her room, Wu Yueling looked at a long written order. It was the imperial decree her adoptive mother had brought. She had seen it before: the signatures of the Three Departments were already on it, and it had been drafted by Scholar Zhang Fengyi of the Hanlin Academy.

The decree had been brought by her adoptive mother. As the saying went, one does not visit the Three Treasures Hall without reason; if someone came all this way, there was certainly something to be done. It was just as she had expected.

In ten days, she was required to report to the branch academy of the Imperial Academy and begin studying the Analects and the Great Learning, the two most basic texts.

Word outside had it that she was merely a country bumpkin with little education, and that she was always fussing over lowly things like cooking and trade.

According to Yu Chaon’s explanation, the Imperial Academy had three levels of branch schools. The highest was the Imperial College, followed by the Metropolitan College, and at the bottom was the Four-Gates College. As for the other three academies, there was no rank to speak of; they were the lowest of the low.

Altogether, the institution now had a little over five thousand students. The Four-Gates College had the most, with more than a thousand, because most of its students came from common families. Tuition was fourteen bolts of silk for a year.

Of course, there were also the children of officials, though their fathers were only of the sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth rank.

The Metropolitan College had a little over six hundred students. Besides the sons of officials above the fifth rank, it also admitted those who had risen up from the Four-Gates College.

As for the Imperial College, its numbers were pitifully small. In that year there were only two hundred students, and fewer than five had been promoted there through examination.

Once admitted to the Imperial College, one could eat and live at the state’s expense for nine years. The court would provide for one’s studies, much like a doctoral program at a university. But because Wu Yueling was a princess, a single word from the Emperor had secured her admission without objection.

Beyond these were a few academies looked down upon by scholars and men of letters.

There was the Law College, the Calligraphy College, and the Arithmetic College. These trained all kinds of technical specialists, and they had plenty of students, since they had almost no children of officials among them. Most came from families with some means, or from poor but respectable households that had never gone into trade. Of the three, the Calligraphy College had the largest enrollment, because it taught handwriting and the standard speech of the Tang.

People went there because everyone aspired upward: first to the Four-Gates College, then to the Metropolitan College, and then to the Imperial College, where the state would feed and house you.

Wu Yueling was going to school. The absurdity of a teacher being sent to become a student had not been in her plans at all. In her mind, ancient schools ought to be little more than private village academies. Thinking of that, she felt a spark of excitement; she had never once seen how they really studied.

When the maidservants, Xiao Chun and Xiao Mi, heard that the princess was to attend the Imperial College, they were quite pleased. They had been selected from the palace’s inner quarters and brought to the princess’s residence to help manage her affairs. Since they had both lived in the palace before, they understood that being summoned by the Emperor to study at the Imperial College was, in one sense, a kindness shown for their mistress’s sake and a matter of honor for her. The princess still occupied a place in the Emperor’s heart, however small.

“Your Highness, tomorrow you must go to the imperial city, so tonight you must be sure to rest early. It’s quite far, after all, and you may need to rise by the second watch. I hear the scholars there get up at the crowing of the rooster to study at dawn. They are very diligent!”

Listening to Xiao Chun, Wu Yueling realized she would likely have to get up in the middle of the night tomorrow. She answered plaintively, “I won’t be able to get up...”

“Xiao Chun will drag Your Highness out of bed,” Xiao Chun said with a smile as she continued arranging the princess’s long black hair. “You must never be late for the Imperial College. The teachers will beat people if you are.”

“I’ll beat people too,” Wu Yueling said lazily, tapping the coins on the table.

“They really do beat people. Xiao Chun has heard about it. Back when the Crown Prince arrived late, the teacher struck his palm red. He ran to complain to the Emperor, and His Majesty said, ‘Well struck. If teaching is not strict, it is the teacher who is negligent. If the child does not study, it is the father’s fault.’ So then the Crown Prince’s other hand was beaten red as well!”

“You make it sound so vivid, as though you were there yourself,” Wu Yueling said, turning to look at her. The round little face of Xiao Chun was as serious as could be.

“It’s true,” Xiao Chun said, puffing out her cheeks. She looked so adorable that one could hardly be angry with her.

“All right. I won’t be late. I’ll go early.”

“Actually, Sister Xiao Mi told me that there are many fair-faced scholars in the Imperial College. Maybe you could even find a husband there,” Xiao Chun said teasingly as she wound the hair into bun after bun. It was also, of course, the wish of servants everywhere: it would not be bad for the princess’s residence to have a male master as well.

“Ha. A bunch of bookish fools. No thanks.”

Though she said that, there was still some meaning in the Emperor’s arrangement. Perhaps it was not only to send her for study, but also to choose a consort. Wu Yueling idly rolled the copper coins on the table. One slipped through her fingers and fell to the floor, clinking as it spun for a long while before finally coming to rest in a crack between the wooden boards, neither heads nor tails.

Xiao Chun picked up the coin and placed it back on the table. “So the princess doesn’t like scholars? Then perhaps you like warriors? The sort who become great generals?”

“Mm. I don’t have much fondness for scholars. After all, they smashed up our wine shop. As for warriors...”

At the mention of warriors, inspiration flashed through Wu Yueling’s mind. That sounded rather good. If they ever tried to marry her off, she could simply use that as an excuse to brush them aside.

After Xiao Chun left, Wu Yueling heard the rustle of movement on the roof, and then the window opened with a soft sound. A nimble figure slipped inside.

“Miss, Chu’er would also like to go take a look at the imperial city...”

“Hm? I’m guessing you want to scout the terrain,” Wu Yueling said, glancing at her. As the mistress of a professional thief, she knew this one far too well. She picked up the coin again and looked at Hua Chu’er’s suddenly innocent and pitiful face.

“Why is it that Miss always sees right through Chu’er at a glance?”

Hua Chu’er came closer, shrugging with an air of injured innocence.

“That’s called seeing through a thief’s heart over time,” Wu Yueling said, twirling the coin and shifting into a more relaxed sitting posture, one leg crossed over the other.

Hua Chu’er’s hands never stayed still. After kneading the princess’s shoulders, she began pounding lightly on her back, grinning all the while. “Miss is going to study at the Imperial College, isn’t she? There’s a saying: stealing books doesn’t count as theft! Chu’er’s sleight of hand doesn’t only steal money and valuables. I can also steal the ink from a scholar’s belly and put it into Miss’s own!”

“That sounds awfully convincing, but I don’t need any scholar’s ink. And I’m no scholar anyway. I’m just a country girl, a humble woman, always dabbling in lowly things!”

She flicked the coin upward, letting it spin carelessly in the air.

Chu’er snatched it from her in an instant. Though it was only a tiny copper coin, her eyes still gleamed at the sight of it. “Miss must not let vulgar nonsense disturb your true heart. There’s a saying, after all: never belittle yourself. What kind of person is Miss? Do you really need anyone else pointing fingers at you?”

“Ha. That’s from the Memorial to the Throne. Did you strip those troublemaking scholars clean?”

“Oh dear, Chu’er just remembered her little notebook assignment. Miss, this old Hua is taking her leave first!” With a quick roll of her bright eyes, Hua Chu’er dashed to the window, flipped herself through, and disappeared in an instant.

“So even a single copper coin of the princess’s you won’t spare...”

Wu Yueling withdrew her gaze, placed her hands on the table, and picked up the little bronze mirror. Finding it too large, she set it back down again. Then she recalled the matter Yu Chaon had reported: on the very day those scholars caused trouble, their families had all been burglarized. What had been stolen was not only poems and books, but also brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.

Come to think of it, there had been some extra inkstones and sheets of paper appearing in her room lately. So Chu’er had really done it.

And if she thought about it from another angle, wasn’t that Master Song living inside the Imperial Academy?

Going to the imperial city?

Could it be that Chu’er had been aiming for exactly that? That didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Wu Yueling had never had much fondness for that Master Song anyway. If he happened to suffer some sudden misfortune at the hands of a thief, that would have nothing to do with her...