MHNEB 18 (1/2)
Book 1: Now we don’t hear the loom shuttle; we only hear our daughter sighing.
第18章 求助木兰
Chapter 18: Helpful Mulan [Part 1 of 2]
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(0) Di refers to the legitimate wife. Often the first to be married into the manor to the male. Shu refers to concubine or consort wife. Di children refer to legitimate heirs and children. Most Shu children would not inherit titles and are often used to as a "gift" to establish relationships between the powerful families, or married into as a favour to someone.
(1) 立长: choosing the eldest as the heir – The Chinese families in the past would often place great emphasis on their eldest sons and daughters. They were expected to take over the family as the family head, or in some dynasties, take over their father or mother’s official titles in their parent’s death.
(2) The era of Taiping Zhenjun (AD 440-451) was under Tuoba Tao’s reign. It lasted 11 years. In history, under Kou Qian’s proposal, Tuoba Tao changed his dynasty’s title to Taiping Zhenjun.
(3) The accurate term in this passage is not transcendence but 坐化 (zuohua): passed away in a sitting posture. In Buddhism, zuohua would mean that either a monk had passed away or in a literal sense, became one with the Earth. I chose achieved transcendence because most monks who had achieved transcendence would pass away. The monk would usually have a posture like this: here
第18章 求助木兰
Chapter 18: Helpful Mulan [Part 1 of 2]
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He Mulan had never liked history lessons. Her scores on history were only average. Not to say that is the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the history of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. If you ask her to memorize the history of the dynasties before the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, she may not be able to memorize.
Therefore, there were many times that she did not know what was happening. She purely treated it as a brand new place that she had transmigrated to.
When she first transmigrated over, she heard Hua father talking to her in the Xianbei language, but she never once thought of being transmigrated as "Hua Mulan". In Chinese, the “Hua Mulan” pronunciation is different from the Xianbei pronunciation of “Hua Mulan”. She always thought she was known as “He Mu-er Lan”, a 30 over years old lady who did not manage to marry someone.
After she had borne most of the headache-ridden days, she had absorbed some of Hua Mulan's recent memories. With these memories, she had gained some enlightenment.
She’s actually the famed “Hua Mulan”!
Therefore, it is remarkable that by listening to the several LuShuihus that are used to speaking Chinese using a Han-ren perspective, she can accurately call out the name "Gai Hu" without the Han accent.
He Mulan and Hua father didn't know whether "Gai Hu” or “Gai Wu" was a title or a name, but since that person was not very famous, she merely treated it as a small incident.
But it was this man that was not famous that actually caused huge trouble.
——They kidnapped Cui family’s 12th son Cui Lin that was staying in Yu City.
Cui Lin is not the only grandson of Cui Hao. Cui Hao has five di children and countless shu children. (0) Cui Lin is his youngest di son’s child. Known for his wittiness since he was young, Cui Hao had doted him because of this.
But like many of the renowned family's children in the north, he did not enter politics. It is said that because the Heavenly Master Kou once predicted that once he entered politics, the Cui family would have to undergo a great calamity. Therefore, as Cui Hao had sincerely believed in the words of the Heavenly Master and though he felt that it was a shame, he could only regretfully watch as the most outstanding third generation’s young master live out his daily, idle life.
Cui Lin can banter very well and he has a wide network. Though he is not able to enter the court, all great powers have no scruples when dealing with him. Gradually, Cui Lin has become the middleman and "spokesman" for the Cui family. He had often dealt with the powerful. This time, when he came to Hua Mulan, he was hoping that he could help the Cui family with his ability.
The reason behind why Cui Lin was abducted was caused by the Wei Emperor’s decision to suppress Buddhism.
Cui Lin's grandfather Cui Hao was the leader of the Great Wei’s Han official and the most respected person among the northern clansmen. In three dynasties, there were two Princes who were established as heir to the throne because of his opinions.
Tuoba Tao's father originally intended the heir to be Tuoba Tao's younger brother. It was Cui Hao who reasoned based on the principle of "choosing the eldest as the heir" (1) that made Tuoba Tao become the Crown Prince. Afterwards, when Tuoba Tao ascended to the throne when he was 15, Cui Hao has been loyally standing by the emperor’s side until now.
There has always been friction between the Xianbei aristocracy and the nobles of the northern Hans. As Tuoba Tao respected Cui Hao, and Cui Hao had always been an official who had always been relied on. However, in recent years, Cui Hao's frequent proposal of the policy of "suppressing Buddhism" has directly ignited the anger of the Hu-ren nobles.
The Xianbei aristocracy and most of the Hu-ren are believers of Buddhism. The Xianbeis have believed in Buddhism for a very long time. If it wasn’t for the Kou Qian, also known as “Heavenly Master Kou”, who appeared out of nowhere that led Tuoba Tao to change his faith to Taoism, even changing the reigning dynasty’s title to “Taiping Zhenjun”(2), one would fear that the monarch and the citizens of the Great Wei would be forced to believe in Buddhism.
In more turbulent times, the teachings of Buddhism would spread further.
The main reason was that Cui Hao had suggested that Emperor Wei decree that the monks under the age of fifty must return to the secular world.
The reason behind Cui Hao’s proposal was not only because he believed in Taoism, but also because when the Great Wei was engaged in battle, many males who did not enlist in the army converted to Buddhism.
With the backing of their family, the Buddhist temples were supported by them. They do not pay taxes, do not need to serve in the military, and the youths idly stayed in the temple leading stable lives. The Buddhist temples also had a lot of land space that nobody was allowed to grow crops on. These lands were left to waste.
When the war was raging on, these men that were of the right age to be enlisted could not be recruited. So, the Great Wei could only recruit the ones who were too young or old. This caused great public grievances.
Tuoba Tao heeded to Cui Hao's suggestion that monks under the age of 50 in monasteries should return to secularism to aid the country in corvee and military service. This decree naturally caused a lot of monks to escape from the decree. Some fled to houses of believers who were willing to hide them while continuing to be monks, while others fled to the wild temples in the wilderness to avoid being forced to return to secularism.
In order to hide these monks, many Xianbei nobles would be willing to lend their private houses to hide and support these monks.
In order to expedite the implementation of the “Monks returning to secularism” policy, Tuoba Tao "invited" the three eminent monks of the Great Wei-Jin MoLuo, Shi YuanJia, and Xi Yuan to reinforce his decree. This move immediately forced monks in various temples to return to secularism.
Jin MoLuo had later achieved “transcendence” (3) in the palace.
Xi Yuan and Shi YuanJia are still locked up in the palace.
It was not known whether this group of Lushuihus were hired or acted based on their beliefs. They stalked Cui Lin all the way from the capital to where they were now. Finally, Cui Lin was abducted when he left the You manor to pay a visit to his friends.
Tuoba Tao locked up the three eminent monks. For the sake of convincing Tuoba Tao to not abolish Buddhism, the LuShuihus abducted Cui Hao’s grandson, to exchange Cui Hao’s grandson with the two monks-Shi YuanJia and Xi Yuan.
From the bottom of their hearts, the Buddhist believers hated the Cui family to the core. Now that Cui Lin was in their hands, no matter whether Tuoba Tao agreed to make this exchange, Cui Lin was bound to suffer a whole lot.
All of this is what Magistrate You who came to Hua manor to request for help had mentioned.
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(0) Di refers to the legitimate wife. Often the first to be married into the manor to the male. Shu refers to concubine or consort wife. Di children refer to legitimate heirs and children. Most Shu children would not inherit titles and are often used to as a "gift" to establish relationships between the powerful families, or married into as a favour to someone.
(1) 立长: choosing the eldest as the heir – The Chinese families in the past would often place great emphasis on their eldest sons and daughters. They were expected to take over the family as the family head, or in some dynasties, take over their father or mother’s official titles in their parent’s death.
(2) The era of Taiping Zhenjun (AD 440-451) was under Tuoba Tao’s reign. It lasted 11 years. In history, under Kou Qian’s proposal, Tuoba Tao changed his dynasty’s title to Taiping Zhenjun.
(3) The accurate term in this passage is not transcendence but 坐化 (zuohua): passed away in a sitting posture. In Buddhism, zuohua would mean that either a monk had passed away or in a literal sense, became one with the Earth. I chose achieved transcendence because most monks who had achieved transcendence would pass away. The monk would usually have a posture like this: here
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Fleur's corner:
Politics and more politics...
We are soon coming to the end of book 1 (the first verse) in the story of MHNEB.
I'm in the midst of editing the previous chapters as well as ensuring the formatting and links are up, so if anyone of you spots any missing links, please leave a comment on the chapter. Thank you!
Merry Christmas everyone! Next update on 29/12.
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❤❤❤
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