MHNEB 12

Book 1: Now we don’t hear the loom shuttle; we only hear our daughter sighing

谈论木兰

Chapter 12: Discussing the topic of Mulan

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Edited by Granny

In Yu City, You Manor. 

You Ke brought Cui family’s 12th son a cup of clear water, as he smiled without speaking.

“I hope you do not mind that I do not have any good tea or snacks over here and only served you a cup of water.”

To these nobilities, if there isn’t any good tea or snacks being served, they would rather drink water. This Cui family is in-laws with the most prestigious family tribes in the north. Compared to You Ke who is just a lowly pauper, he is completely different from You-shi.

If not for You Ke accidentally gaining the favour of the tribe elder, You-shi’s adoration and love, one fear that he would still be studying with all his might in the village. He would not be able to serve as a magistrate in Yu City.

You Ke saw Cui Lin smiling bitterly as he took the cup of water over. But before Cui Lin even took a sip, he was stunned.

“Is the situation in the capital at that stage already?”

They even troubled Cui family’s most carefree 12th son to consume such drinks? 　

This man, Cui Lin, is Great Wei’s Situ CuiHao’s grandson. Like his forefathers, he is the astonishing genius of Cui family’s third generation.

Situ CuiHao(1) is well versed in literature, knowledgeable in history, is able to read the stars, amongst all the noble families, he is willing to toll for his country, good in research and is someone who is beyond reach. He experienced three generations and assisted the leaders of Tuo family. He was the leaders of the courtiers of Han-ren and is still deeply cherished by the current Wei emperor, Tuoba Tao.

“My forefather wholeheartedly wanted to recover the system of splitting officials into 9 ranks for Wei country, to allow everyone to follow the footsteps of Han families, then arrange the hierarchy of all the nobilities. This move thoroughly offended all the Xianbei rich nobilities. Adding on to the fact that (2) Priest Yu and him tried to convince Your Majesty to abolish the Buddhist religion,……”

Cui Lin let out an exasperated sigh.

“He is getting older, and his ability to scheme is not as secretive as he was in his youth. Besides, Your Majesty is also different from the emperor from before. Now that the situation in the North is already set in stone, the four seas have achieved peace, the emperor will be in a capricious mood……”

“Shush, cautious with your words!” You Ke jumped in shock.

This friend of his might be a little crazy at times, but he would never talk about political matters of the court.

You Ke had stayed in Yu City for very long, but he regularly conversed with his granduncle through letters. Therefore, naturally, he knew about the matter between Cui Hao and Tian Shiqian, who tried to persuade the heavenly son to abolish Buddhism. But afterwards, because what they did was overboard, in a rage, the heavenly son burned down the temple in anger, smashed the statue of Buddha, killed many monks. The situation was akin to “within a piece of land, there were no temples”. (3)

Many of the Xianbei nobilities were Buddhist. With Cui Hao’s actions, he attracted trouble upon to himself.

But he was just a tiny magistrate, so whatever Cui Hao had said, he could only listen. Hearing that the conversation was going overboard, he can’t help but coax him.

“Cui Lin, since the current situation in the court is so tense, you should persuade your grandfather to retire from the court soon. Now that he is around 60 while the emperor is still in his youthful years since the current is flowing against him, he should retreat. Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

“Speaking is easy. The northern nobility follows blindly in accord to my grandfather’s will, and my grandfather wouldn’t be like those people who will retreat when the current is flowing against him, right? It would be ideal if he didn’t force his way through already.” Cui Lin waved his hands, “Forget it, let’s not talk about these troublesome issues. The reason for my coming today was for the female general that resides in your Yu City area, Hua Mulan.”

Hua Mulan?

In You Ke’s brain, an image of a tall and cold woman dressed in Xianbei garments appeared.

“What’s the matter, from your expression, you’ve already met Hua-shi?” (4) Cui Lin curiously investigated, “I remember you’re not the type that will get in the action. Why, don’t tell me you’ve already headed to Yingguo county?”

Although Yingguo county was under Yu City’s jurisdiction, it is still about a day’s journey from Yu City, which is why he said that.

In his imagination, Hua Mulan who had removed her armour and returned home should be leading a normal life where the man would farm while the woman knits. She would not come to Yu City. That was why there was only one possibility how You Ke could have met Hua Mulan.

“Don’t use ‘Hua-shi’ to address General Hua.” You Ke strangely felt Goosebumps, feeling the ear-piercing way of address was very strange.

In his impression, that miraculous woman who was about 1.7m high was totally different from a fair and tender “Hua-shi”.

She should not even be addressed with any form of “-shi”. She is herself, someone, who is surnamed and named Hua Mulan.

Cui Lin took an interest in the topic. He immediately straightened his body as he folded his legs, waiting for You Ke to explain what he meant.

You Ke saw that his good pal was filled with curiosity. He knew that if he doesn’t come clean with whatever he should say, he wouldn’t be spending his next few days in peace. So, he began to narrate what had happened to himself to Cui Lin.

“One day, as I was handling some matters in the court, an official suddenly came to send a message. He said that there was a case of a suspected murder in Liu family’s village. The case was complicated and involved a tribe of Xianbei lords, so we……”

You Ke recalled what had happened that day, he slowly explained what had transgressed so far.

When You Ke was young, he was very poor. His widowed mother worked in their family’s fields all day to be able to bring him up. You Ke had been betrothed when he was 12 years old. But because his family was living in poverty, and their prospects didn’t seem good, the female’s family had decided to withdraw from the marriage.

After that, he was uninterested in the so-called “boudoir” in this world. He whole-heartedly studied. And finally, he got the envy of all the students in the noble’s imperial examination in the eyes of the senior nobles. He was then brought to the capital to study. It was there that he came to know of his good friend, Cui Lin.

You Ke felt that he had experienced a lot. After his widowed mother passed away, he was even more uninterested in women. But because his parents were from an official’s family, he had seen all sorts of horny women. But he had never seen a woman so special like Hua Mulan.

He relayed what had happened at the scene of the crime to his good pal. He described how he saw a Xianbei man was examining the corpse. Seeing that he had come, the Xianbei man explicated how the case was a suicide instead of a murder. Then, he instructed the coroner on how to check on the wounds and instructed the yamen runner where to find the evidence…… 

Afterwards, he heard that the man was the same tiger-waisted-bear-bellied Hua Mulan, and to not lose his composure, he relied on the pain by biting on his tongue.

And then, he recounted to his good pal how Hua Mulan faced Liu family’s children, how she followed the villagers to attend the court session, and how she was there as a witness.

When Hua Mulan’s tales and legends had resounded the capital of Pin city, Cui Lin was out journeying. Hence, he has never met this “Famed person”.

But he knew that all the northern noble tribesmen and all the common folks had nothing but words of praise for Hua Mulan.

The amount of praise was so much that it seems very peculiar.

“You said that right now, this Hua Mulan returned back home and still donned on male’s clothing to strut around the village?” This was completely different from what Cui Lin had imagined.

“You had never seen this Hua Mulan, that is why you feel that it is so surprising……” You Ke paused, then, he changed his way of phrasing his sentence, “it should be that, when you’re standing by her side, you wouldn’t dwell on her gender.”

“Oh?” Cui Lin felt a little bored with his legs folded. He relaxed his body and leaned on the side of the table, and commented in shock: “I don’t suppose that this General Hua Mulan, looks like someone who you can’t tell the gender of?”

“Contrary to so, contrary to so. This general, cannot be differentiated via gender.”

You Ke saw his pal being so lazy, he can’t help but laugh. “In this world, there are some people who only need to stand there, and you’d know that they are different. At this moment, you wouldn’t care whether she is a male or a female, what kind of status does she has, which tribe did she originated from, where was she born at. You’ll simply, purely want to get to know this ‘person’.”

“The Hua Mulan that I saw, is such a person.”

“In this way, could it be that my brother and her are on friendly terms?” Cui Lin bantered.

“This is where I felt that it was such a shame.”

You Ke heaved a sigh.　

“In order to display that I was being fair, and not standing on the Xianbei’s side, I was not able to interact much with her. Our interactions were so little that other than her explaining about the deceased’s cause of death, we didn’t even speak up to a few sentences. This really made me feel distraught.”

“Back to the topic, why were you looking for Hua Mulan? Regardless of how you look at it, she doesn’t seem like she has any connections or is acquainted with anyone in the Cui family.” You Ke was slightly worried for Hua Mulan.

Once she had any dealings with these noble families, it was hard to live as free and easy as she is now.

“I came here to persuade Hua Mulan to join the Crown Prince’s side, in hopes of appeasing Your Majesty who is getting increasingly grumpy.”

“What?” You Ke stood up suddenly.

“There was once when Your Majesty wanted to let Hua Mulan become the Crown Prince’s ‘nanny’ but was turned down my Hua Mulan. Afterwards, Your Majesty turned down the Ruru’s marriage to Hua Mulan giving an excuse that ‘no amount of blood could mend relations between two tribes’.  Through this, we could see that Your Majesty’s feelings towards Hua Mulan are different from the rest.” Cui Lin looked at You Ke’s shocked expression, “What, you actually didn’t know?”

Ruru meant the Rourans. Xianbei-ren hated the Rourans. The Xianbeis felt that their intelligence and strength were lower as compared to them and they considered them akin to insects that were not capable of thinking. Thus, they replaced the naming convention of the Rourans to the ‘Rurus’, because the Ruru is a name that is akin to an insect. (5)

Amongst the Xianbei, women were to be highly respected and regarded. After a matrimonial link to both strong tribes, the female’s tribe could regularly intervene with matters of the male side’s tribal affairs. It is even more so for widowed women, she could even bring in all the assets, inclusive of people and horses, of the male’s family to return to her roots.

It was later during Tuoba’s reign that he established a policy that “If the son is prosperous, the mother must die”. Once the emperor establishes one of his sons as the crown prince, his birth mother must repay it with death.

Since his birth mother had passed away, there must be other women who must take care of the crown prince. Sometimes, it could be an empress who did not manage to bear the crown prince, sometimes, it could be someone trusted by the emperor whom he picked.

The so-called “nanny” meant “a step-mother who would protect the crown prince”. This woman’s status must not be too noble, she must be smarter than others and must be loyal towards the DaWei’s royalty.

Now that Tuoba Tao is the newly reigning emperor, using brute force to halt discussion, he commanded that his “nanny”, Dou-shi, as “Protector Empress Dowager”, and others should call her as Empress Dowager Dou. This servant-status Empress Dowager had then spent her life in riches and luxury and had groomed the crown prince Tuoba Tao back then after the death of his birth mother. It was such a pity that she had passed away two years ago.

After she had passed away, Tuoba Tao had arranged a grand funeral and burial for her. He also inscribed “Intelligent Empress Dowager” on her monument. After the monument was built, yearly sacrifices were made to pray for her.

During the second year of her passing, was the year where the Heavenly Son had won the battle of Yin mountain in the north. The Rourans was thoroughly defeated. He rewarded everyone who made military contributions and promoted Hua Mulan to a government minister that year.

After Empress Dowager Dou’s passing, the Crown Prince Tuoba Huang had also lost his birth mother that year. (8) Originally, the nanny’s position should be the current Empress who did not bore any children yet. However, the current Empress came from the Xia kingdom, who was conquered by her husband, Tuoba Tao.

With just this point, many of the officials and generals had enough reason to object the empress being the Crown Prince’s nanny.

If Hua Mulan agreed to accept the role of being the Crown Prince’s “nanny”, it might not be that bad of a decision.

Everyone with eyes should be able to see Tuoba Tao’s admiration of her, at the very least.

The young prince had always remained in the Great Wei empire while Wei empire was conquering other nations. Thus, he didn’t have any military merits, which, in the eyes of Xianbei-ren, was a disadvantage because they prided military achievements.

If he had a nanny that could claim to have “the prowess of a tiger”, it would be a great compliment to him.

But at this moment, there weren’t any “What Ifs”. Hua Mulan received all the rewards, carried back the rewards that would allow her to live out her whole life without having to worry about food, and happily went back home.

“Hua Mulan actually turned him down. Thinking about it, it would be unlikely that she would adhere to (your request). Besides, it’s not like if she wanted to become his nanny, she would be able to do it now.” You Ke did not believe that such a woman would be joyfully able to live out her life in the palace while taking care of the child.

“Let me ask you, back in her hometown, is Hua Mulan spending her life happily?” Cui Lin propped his body upright and asked him while straightening his chin.

You Ke was rendered speechless.

Amongst the villages, there were all sorts of strange rumours and stories spreading. It was not as if he did not hear of those before. It was that even him, before meeting Hua Mulan, thought of her as those “tiger-back, bear-waisted, dark-skinned and ugly” women.

He did not know, whether this was considered her living happily or not.

He was not in Hua Mulan’s position, he did not experience what Hua Mulan had experienced, and it was even because he was a man, that is why he could not figure out what was Hua Mulan’s thoughts on this right now.

Maybe she didn’t think of the rumours as much.

That was why he was unable to answer him.

“Actually, Your Majesty’s underling’s ‘Egret’(7) had been commanded with their life to keep an eye out for Hua Mulan.”

Cui Lin suddenly tossed out another piece of information that would astonish anyone.

“If I’m not wrong, the gang of Dugu family’s stupid fourth son and Your Majesty’s more simple-minded guards probably was incited by Your Majesty in rashness and was sent down to……”

“Back up Hua Mulan.”

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(1) A historical figure in the Northern Wei dynasty that was known for his contributions in unifying the North of China. He is one of the most important policymakers under Tuo family’s reign.   

(2) Taoist Priest. They tried to influence the direction of the country by trying to convince the emperor to implement a policy to change the country from Buddhism to Taoism.

(3) If you google the phrase 一境之内，无复沙门, it’s a part of history related to doing with the abolishment of Buddhism in Northern Wei. I can’t completely explain it, but if you read the history of Northern Wei, you will understand. 

(4) I’ve said this before, but in this context, -shi is used to describe females. Basically, Hua-shi means Lady Hua.

(5) the name in Chinese is 蠕蠕. The way of writing it involves the 虫 (insect) character, which is why the Emperor, Tuoba decided to name them that.

(6) The birth mother of Tuoba Huang is Consort He. She died in childbirth.  There wasn’t total conclusive evidence that it was because of the policy or she just died in childbirth in history. 

(7) Egret, or bai lv in Chinese, is probably the squad's name for the emperor's direct guards.

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Fleur's corner:

Hey! This chapter took quite some time to translate. I'm really busy right now so I won't be able to reply to any comments.

But, it'd be good if you leave me a comment so I know how you feel regarding this chapter. Once again, I'd like to thank all of you for reading.

There will be a chapter next week.

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