Shuli Go Stories Vol. 7: Benefits of a Classical Education

Part 2

           

The camp the scholars set up was diverse in the extreme. Each individual on the march was obviously paying their own way, so some had simple bedrolls like the ones Lian used, while others had practically brought their estate with them. Elaborate folded tents were erected by servants, and personal bodyguards to the rich rubbed shoulders with the younger students who looked about as nutritionally enriched as Lian herself. Yet despite the disparities, there was a joy and sense of comradeship between all those marching. The well off shared their meals with the poor, and everywhere the people were smiling and enjoying one another.

Shuren and Zemin's accommodations were somewhere between the extremes. They shared a small tent, just large enough for them to eat, sleep, and store their possessions, including a small lamp by which to read at night. Lian's presence inside the tent cramped everything, but her assistance setting up the tent meant even Shuren didn't appear upset by her attendance as they set to cooking their dinner.

They prepared the meal – a simple mixture of rice and salted pork, bought recently but not very well cured – and started eating it, all in utter silence. The two students glanced occasionally at one another, saying nothing, but avoided looking at Lian directly. She was just happy to have another full meal.

Eventually though, the silence grew uncomfortable, and she realized the two boys were intimidated by her presence. Up close and in the glow of the lamp, they saw the grime on her clothes and the obvious fact that she hadn't washed in several weeks. More than her obvious poverty though, Lian's entirely different set of life experiences seemed to loom between them. The two young scholars were young – she quickly confirmed they were both twenty-one – and though Lian appeared to be only a few years older, she couldn't imagine these young men had ever had to hunt small game for a meal, or go without a meal altogether to save money for a family. They were too young and too rich to have ever faced true hardship, and Lian's hardships were written all over her: clothes, sword, face, and stomach. They had been kind in offering the meal, but facing the reality of having this strange, older woman in their space, they were ill-prepared to host her. They had never done this before, and it showed.

Lian, after she'd eaten her fill and sat in the awkward silence long enough, decided that she would give these young students some hands-on instruction in the art of conversation amongst strangers with nothing in common.

"So, tell me. What is this petition of yours all about?" She asked in as genuine a tone as she could muster.

"What do you mean?" Zemin returned the question after a quick glance to his friend.

"Your petition. It needs a topic – a grievance, usually – what is it so many of you are marching for?"

"Why do you care?" Shuren asked, his continued hostility not unexpected.

"Just curious," Lian smiled back, forcing the chubbier student to look away. "Is it a case of corruption? Some public work you want done? I've been trying to think why so many students and scholars would come together. Usually these things are made up of peasants and laborers. The occasional merchant or guild..."

"It's... hard to explain," Zemin looked to be genuinely troubled, forced to respond on the spot.

"Well what's on your actual petition? They still only let you use... what, 150 words? What's written down?"

"Here," Shuren leaned over and opened a sack, rustling through a few belongings until he produced a small paper sheaf. "You can read it yourself."

Lian did. It read:

Official Proclamation of the Petitioners for Justice and the Resurrection of the Empire

It is time for renewal! The Central Empire has become decadent: a shadow of its true glory. There is a moral rot corrupting the minds and hearts of our great nation. We request an audience with the Emperor to explain the source of this disease and the only possible cure. In brief: the current fascination with novelty and invention is leading us away from the wisdom and truth of our ancestors and the great minds who have led our nation in the past. It is only through a Great Reorganization that we can fulfill the true promise of the Central Empire and bring an end to the suffering, chaos, and exploitation that runs rampant in the heart of the Empire.

Lian read it, then set it down and looked at the two students, their eyes suddenly alive and unafraid of her. She knew the look, it was the look of the religious, eyeing up a potential convert.

"So your petition is actually about..." she paused, looking for the right description.

"Everything," Zemin aptly filled in. "Yes."