Riding the wind of rebirth

"Not bad, not bad!" Just from the voice, Zhou Zhi knew that his godfather was laughing so hard on the other end of the phone that his nose was red: "This research is very thorough! How did it even connect to archaeological findings?"

"That's what my godfather taught me: reading and traveling are both skills, and combining the two is the way to do scholarship."

"You really are a PhD candidate now, your words can be both sweet and sour." Godfather laughed, "So, Liu Danian's epitaph corroborates the accuracy of your information, the names match up, right?"

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” Zhou Zhi said. “This information comes from the genealogies of the Shui family and the Xian family. The confirmation of the name Liu Danian proves the accuracy of their records.”

"Speaking of family genealogies, how did you get your hands on the genealogies of these two families? I know about the Xian family's genealogy, but the Shui family's genealogy doesn't even exist before the Ming Dynasty."

"The Shui family is also an ancient family. They were originally generals of the Qin state, and their original surname was Liang. In 206 BC, when the Qin state fell, all loyal and good generals of Qin were executed. The Liang brothers fled with their families from Hejian to Shuikou, Kuiguan in Fengjie. They changed their names from Liang Cairui to Shui Liangcai to avoid being recognized. From then on, they used Shui as their surname."

"Later, Shui Liangcai's descendant Shui Guo led four to five thousand people of his clan to assist Gongsun Shu in building Baidi City at the end of the Western Han Dynasty. Later, he joined forces with Xiang Fan, a Ba person of the Linjun clan, to lead an uprising against the army of Liu Xiu of the Eastern Han Dynasty."

"That unlucky grandson, he really knows how to pick his opponents!" The godfather was laughing so hard on the other end of the phone: "Old Tax's temper is just like his ancestor's!"

"Old tax?"

“Ah, the head of the finance department of the Agricultural Machinery Bureau, whose hometown is Shenbi City, said that he only knows that his ancestors migrated from the Ba Kingdom and later became the Jiachuan Prominent Family. That makes sense.”

"Yes, after this defeat, the Shui clan was once again nearly wiped out. The few surviving members fled to Jiachuan with their families and moved and reburied the remains of their ancestor Shui Liangcai at the fish-shaped tomb on the 'Mercury Mountain' of Pigeon Creek on the Yangtze River at the foot of Gaoling Mountain, which is now across from Baisha Town."

"At that time, the Shui clan mainly lived on the north bank of the Yangtze River, while the south bank was mainly inhabited by barbarians. From the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Shui clan population increased, and some descendants moved to Siwang Mountain, a high mountain on the riverbank 8,000 meters downstream, to cultivate a large area of ​​land. The entire mountaintop was about five or six square kilometers, surrounded by cliffs, easy to defend and difficult to attack, making it a treasure land for the Shui clan to live in. Later, a village gate was built, and during the Southern Song Dynasty, the village gate was fortified to become a military fortress against the Yuan Dynasty. This is the origin of the name Beizhaishan Mountain City in Baisha Town. After that, the Shui family gradually multiplied and developed, and their population flourished. By the late Sui and early Tang Dynasties, they had gradually become one of the most prominent families in the area."

"At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Shui Sangong, who lived in Beizhaishan, and his colleague Xian Peng, who lived near Shenbizui, established a market at the foot of the mountain, which is the origin of Baisha Town. Later, the descendants of the two major surnames, Shui and Xian, lived and traded here until the first year of Emperor Dezong of Tang, when there were about two thousand people."

"During the Zhenyuan era of Emperor Dezong, the head of the Shui family was named Shui Hong, who served as the registrar of Jiangjin County after passing the imperial examination. His son, Shui Gan, served as the magistrate of Hejiang County and successively assisted Ma Jingru, Zhang Yuanji, and others in serving as the prefect of Luzhou to quell the barbarians. He led the Shui family's troops to guard dozens of tributary prefectures in the southwest of Luzhou and was promoted to the rank of Zhenwei Colonel, a general in Luzhou. Shui Gan's third son was named Shui Ye, who was exceptionally intelligent..."

“I’ll be able to continue from here!” Godfather laughed. “Back then, the Shui family had a child prodigy, and the Xian family had a child prodigy. Shui Ye could recite the Book of Poetry and the Book of Documents at the age of four. He studied under the same famous scholar and tribute student as Xian Wang from the Xian family. Shui Ye and Xian Wang were the best students among their classmates.”

“Xianwang had a habit of resting at the offering table in the nearby City God Temple during his lunch break, almost without interruption, regardless of the season. Shuiye asked him, ‘Is it hot in the summer? Is it cold in the winter?’ Xianwang replied, ‘In the summer, someone fans me, so it’s cool. In the winter, there’s a stove under the offering table. It’s warm.’”

"Of course, Shuiye didn't believe it. One day, Xianwang had to go back to his ancestral home in Guanyinxi and didn't come to school. Shuiye took the opportunity to go to the City God Temple to see if what Xianwang said was true."

“It was summer, and the weather was very hot. Shui Ye lay down on the offering table, and soon two little ghosts fanned him. Shui Ye felt very cool and comfortable, and he drifted off to sleep.”

Not long after, Shui Ye vaguely heard the City God ask the two little devils who were fanning themselves: "You two fools! Look closely at the offering table, is that the former military governor? That's clearly Magistrate Shui." The two little devils stopped fanning themselves, looked at the offering table, and sure enough, it wasn't the former military governor. They quickly grabbed their fans and left. When Shui Ye woke up, he was very angry. Could it be that the former military governor would become a military governor in the future? And he could only be a minor magistrate?

"Later, the two participated in the imperial examination. Wang passed the examination on his first attempt. He was first recommended as a child prodigy, then passed the provincial examination, and finally became the magistrate of Jiachuan County and the military governor of Jiannan Dongchuan."

"Shui Ye only passed the imperial examination after the emperor had changed, and in the end, he only became a county magistrate. That's what the local legend says."

Zhou Zhi laughed and said, "Now we can add some details to this story. Xian Wang was the fourth-ranked Jinshi in the Renwu year of the Zhenyuan era of Emperor Dezong of Tang, while Shui Ye was one year later. He became the twenty-seventh-ranked Jinshi in the Wuzi year of the Yuanhe era of Emperor Xianzong of Tang, and his ranking was far lower than Xian Wang's. He only became the magistrate of Guixi County, Zhongzhou, Shannan Circuit."

"Not bad, not bad, wait a minute, I'll write this down and we'll treat Old Taxpayer to a drink tonight!" My godfather was always excited when he encountered things related to local history and folk customs.

"No need to write it down, I'll pack the documents for you in a bit, it's all in there."

"Okay, then let's continue setting it up."

“From the time when Xianwang was the tax collector in Ye, both families began to value education and pursued official careers through the imperial examinations. In the Ming Dynasty, Xianyong, a descendant of the two families, was a tax collector and a classmate of Liu Danian. When Liu Danian became the county magistrate of Jiachuan, these two families naturally offered him great assistance.”

"The Liu family is a family of prime ministers. When their family members came to Jiachuan, the two families established a connection, which can be considered as climbing a high branch," the godfather analyzed.

"Yes, so when Liu Danian's son Liu Qiqian came to Jiachuan as an instructor, Shui Kui and Xian Yong gave their grandsons, who later became disciples Xian Shen, Shui Yourong, Shui Yougui, and Shui Youlu, to him as his disciples. That's how the story of how the group saved Nian Gongxian in the dilapidated temple came about."

"As for why Gong Xian ended up in Jiachuan, this involves the broader context of population migration during the Ming Dynasty."

"Huguang fills Sichuan!"

"Well, to be precise, it should be that first people from Jiangxi filled Huguang, and then people from Huguang filled Sichuan."

"That's right. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the country was in turmoil and the population decreased sharply. Only Jiangxi was free from war, which led to a large population. I saw that Jiangxi's population accounted for 10% of the country's population at that time, but the per capita land was only a quarter of the country's total. The excessive population and land conflict forced people to migrate."

“Yes,” Zhou Zhi said. “At that time, the places with the most lenient household registration system were those bordering the Tusi (chieftain) areas and the Jimi (tributary) prefectures. There were many ways to register a household there. For example, in Jiachuan County, you only needed to purchase a few acres of land to become a Jiachuan resident.”

"Jiachuan was surrounded by the Lu Rong, Jiu Si Man, and Bozhou Tusi during the Ming Dynasty, which attracted a large number of wandering people to come here to 'fish in troubled waters.' Even if they couldn't get land registration, they could go to ethnic minority areas to cultivate land. The local Tusi and the officials appointed by the imperial court in the surrounding areas hardly cared. After the land became cultivated, they would give some bribes to the officials to add the land to the county's register, and they could still get registered." (End of this chapter)