Poetry Chants, Saber Howls – Chapter 4
by Little PandaJianghu Affairs the Heart Yearns For; A Thousand Li to See You Off on First Parting (Part 1)
Yongyou 32nd year, spring, third month.
Chang’an was the imperial capital, the most prosperous and bustling city in the realm. In Hexing Ward in the eastern city, crowds thronged thick as weave, traffic streaming in an endless procession. The owner of Jixian Bookshop sat inside his store, tallying accounts. A chance glance up revealed several figures entering through the doorway. The one in front was the youngest—a girl of no more than ten or so, draped head to toe in silk brocade, a small golden bow slung across her back. One look told you she came from wealth.
“Shopkeeper Wang, do you have any new books lately?”
“Oh my, Lady Ling, why did you come in person? Whatever book you would like, just send someone to tell me and I will have it delivered to your residence. No need to trouble yourself with the trip.” The bookshop owner recognized her as a regular customer and knew her tastes well. He hurriedly pulled a new title from the shelves and went to greet her with a beaming smile. “Take a look at this one—《Shu’s Nine Mountains Record》, written by the great talent Zhenquan Jushi during his travels through the landscapes of Shu. It was released just days ago, and only my humble shop carries it.”
“No need for all that trouble. This book is a gift for a friend. I am going to see her shortly, so I will bring it along.” Ling Cheng accepted the book with a bright smile, flipping through a few pages at random without so much as asking the price. The attendant behind her had already paid. “Anything else?” she asked.
The owner was about to recommend more when a sudden commotion from outside pierced everyone’s ears. Ling Cheng turned curiously, her gaze drawn to the scene across the way. Beneath a poplar tree, a man in brocade robes was tugging at a young, beautiful woman, refusing to let her leave and putting his hands all over her. The woman was both furious and frightened, but could not break free. The common folk nearby had noticed the situation too, their indignation roused, wanting to step forward and uphold justice—but when they saw the several guards at the brocade-clad man’s side, swords and sabers at their hips, their courage failed them. They seethed in silence, daring to feel anger but not to speak.
Ling Cheng’s expression changed the instant she saw what was happening. Her small brows drew together. She gave a cold snort, handed the book in her hand to the attendant behind her, and unslung the golden bow from her back. Her attendants, guessing what their young mistress intended, immediately offered up a feathered arrow. She nocked the arrow and drew the golden bow back taut as a full moon.
“Swish!”
The arrow struck the brocade-clad man’s thigh, and blood flowed freely!
“Aiyah!” The man howled in pain, collapsing to the ground, both hands clutching the wound on his leg. “Who was it! Who is the fool who dares—”
Halfway through his words, his eyes finally found the girl standing in the bookshop doorway, and terror flashed across his face.
Ling Cheng seemed quite satisfied with the accuracy of her shot. The smile returned to her face. Tucking the bow under her arm, she hopped over the bookshop’s threshold and, in no time at all, stood before him. “Of course it was me! So you actually do remember me?”
“I remember, I remember.” The moment he saw the girl’s face clearly, the man forgot all about the pain in his leg and forced a servile smile. “How could this humble one dare forget Lady Ling? You… you are…”
The onlookers watched the scene in astonishment. This girl was so young—ten at most—yet she had the skill to make that silk-clad fop so terrified of her?
“Hmph! You remember me, but you do not remember what you said last time?” Ling Cheng grew even more incensed by the ugly smile squeezed onto his face. In her other hand she held a small arrow, its tip pointed at his chest. She thought to herself that this man was thoroughly despicable—today she absolutely could not let him off easily. But just as she was considering how best to teach him a lesson, a voice thick with suppressed anger rang out from the distance:
Hearing a familiar voice call her childhood name, Ling Cheng turned her head. Far off, at the ward gate, a large carriage had stopped. The curtain was drawn open, and the middle-aged man seated inside wore a cold, stern expression.
“Father!” Ling Cheng was overjoyed to see him. Her face lit up, and she abandoned the brocade-clad man on the ground without a second thought, running straight for the carriage. Among the crowd of onlookers, someone gasped: “Is that not… is that not Vice Director2 Ling?”
Another bystander asked in surprise, “Which Vice Director Ling?”
“Do you think Vice Director is some trivial post you can find on every street corner? Which other Vice Director Ling does this dynasty have?”
The onlookers were awestruck. “You mean Ling Bingzhong, the Four-garrison Military Commissioner3?”
Ling Bingzhong’s birth name was Ling Mian. When he was seven, his father Ling Zhiyue fell in battle against the Western Fan, dying for his country. The reigning emperor, taking pity on the orphaned son of a loyal martyr, granted him the name “Bingzhong”—Loyalty—and raised him in the imperial palace. He was, in effect, the Sage Emperor’s foster son, and naturally enjoyed His Majesty’s deep trust. More remarkably, his military talent was genuine; he had the makings of a fine general. In adulthood, he campaigned far and wide for the emperor, his martial exploits illustrious, rising step by step until he now held the posts of Acting Vice Director of the Right of the Department of State Affairs and Military Commissioner of Hexi and Suiyou, his authority and prestige surpassing that of the Hedong Military Commissioner—wearing the seals of four military commands, a thing unprecedented since the dynasty’s founding.
That young Lady Ling, as the sole daughter of Ling Bingzhong, held a status as exalted as any County Princess4—no wonder the silk-clad fop was scared out of his wits at the sight of her.
Ling Cheng could not hear their chatter by then. She had already scrambled up into the carriage and said gleefully, “Father, when did you get back to the capital? Oh, I know—it is almost the Wanshou Festival. You have come to celebrate Grandfather’s birthday, have you not?”
The “Grandfather” she spoke of was the reigning emperor, Xie Tai. Ling Bingzhong had admonished her countless times never to address the emperor this way, but she had never once heeded him. At this moment, Ling Bingzhong had no time to correct her form of address—he was furious about something else entirely:
“If I had not returned today, I would have no idea you had grown this reckless! What were you just doing!”
Her father rarely came home, and Ling Cheng had been brimming with joy—only to be scolded the moment they met. She was no gentle, docile young lady of a noble house; whenever she felt wronged, she let it out immediately. “Why are you losing your temper without understanding anything? That man was harassing that sister—was I supposed to just stand by and do nothing?”
Ling Bingzhong frowned. “Sister? What sister? Since when do you have a sister?”
“A sister I do not know. He was grabbing her and would not let her leave. I happened to see it, and I could not just stand by and ignore it.”
“Is that truly what happened?”
“If you do not believe me, then forget it! Why even ask?” Ling Cheng poked her head out through the curtain and ordered the two attendants standing outside the carriage, “You two—escort that sister home. Make sure she does not run into any more trouble on the way.”
She was his own daughter, after all, and Ling Bingzhong knew the child fairly well: headstrong and willful, yes, but at least honest—she said what she meant and would not lie to deceive him. His expression finally softened, though his tone remained gruff. “In that case, you should have sent someone to report to the authorities. Whatever his offense, the officials would have handled it. What business did you have taking matters into your own hands?”
“Father, you do not know—I have run into him before. I already reported him last time, and he was even locked up in jail for a while. But it did no good at all, and here he is today, up to the same tricks! In my opinion, the authorities’ punishment was too mild to make an impression. Better that I teach him a harsh lesson myself, so he remembers the pain.”
In this matter, Ling Cheng left out a great many details. Before reporting to the authorities, her guards had already beaten the fop’s guards to the ground. The fop, not knowing her identity, had reported the matter himself, intending to teach her a lesson. The Chang’an Sheriff, upon sorting out both parties’ backgrounds, realized that while both were children of powerful families, Vice Director Ling’s precious daughter was far more dangerous to cross—and so immediately threw the fop into the great prison. But inside, he lived in comfort, dining on fine food and wearing silk—something Ling Cheng, to this day, remained unaware of.
Ling Bingzhong poked her forehead, at a total loss with this daughter of his. “You always have a pile of crooked reasoning. You have gone and done the Chang’an Sheriff’s job for him—so capable and efficient, why do you not be the Chang’an Sheriff yourself?”
Ling Cheng laughed again, tilting her head thoughtfully. “When I grow up, I would rather be a great general like you, Father, charging across the battlefield. But Chang’an Sheriff… no, no—that office is too small. You just called me capable and efficient—whatever I do, I do it to the best. If it were Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review5, I might consider that.”
Ling Bingzhong was torn between anger and laughter. “Never mind that a little girl like you is spinning fantasies about impossible things—even if you truly held the power to oversee criminal justice, you still could not flout the law and do as you pleased. If someone wished to harm you in the future and caught you in the wrong, the next person thrown into the great prison would be you.”
Ling Cheng kept on grinning. “I am your daughter—who would dare harm me?”
“Nonsense!” Ling Bingzhong’s voice cracked like thunder. His right hand slammed against the carriage wall, and the jolt startled even the driver outside. Ling Suihan’s body gave an involuntary start, and she saw that his expression was a hundred times more severe than before. “What nonsense are you spouting! You think that because you have me to rely on, you can do whatever you please!”
An ordinary child confronted with such towering fury might well have burst into tears. Ling Cheng had only meant to act endearing with her father—she never expected him to flare up so violently. She paused, stunned, then gathered herself and thrust her chin up defiantly. “Everything I do is punishing the wicked and rooting out evil—good deeds! I have never used your name to do anything bad. You call that doing as I please? Besides, when I teach those scoundrels a lesson, I rely on my own real skill—it has nothing to do with you!”
That last remark—better left unsaid. The moment she said it, Ling Bingzhong sensed something amiss. “You have grown utterly beyond discipline. Tell me—who taught you martial arts?”
That arrow Ling Cheng had loosed—its power and accuracy were both quite exceptional. Someone must have trained her.
Though young, Ling Cheng had read countless jianghu tales and prided herself on loyalty in all things. Seeing her father still seething, her mind raced: If I give away Aunt Su’s name, will I not drag her into his scolding? So she said, “I learned it at Prince Rui’s Mansion.”
This was not untrue. Ling Bingzhong had grown up in the palace, and his relationship with Prince Rui, Xie Shen, was the closest of friendships. Prince Rui had a daughter named Xie Miao, whose childhood name was Shejia6. She and Ling Cheng had been born on the same year, the same month, the same day. The elders all said this was a heaven-sent bond between their two houses, and indeed the two girls’ affection for each other was extraordinary—they loved to play together, closer than blood sisters.
Sadly, Xie Miao had been frail from birth, afflicted with a serious illness. The imperial physicians had examined her many times but could not cure it; they could only prescribe medicines for maintenance and care. Because of this, she could not roam the streets and explore as freely as Ling Cheng. When the two met, it was almost always Ling Cheng who went to Prince Rui’s Mansion to find her.
Ling Cheng understood her friend’s frustration at being confined behind high walls, yearning for the vast world beyond. Sometimes she would pester Aunt Su into coming along to Prince Rui’s Mansion, begging her to tell jianghu stories in front of them both, or to teach Ling Cheng martial arts while Shejia watched—anything to bring her friend joy.
But to Ling Bingzhong’s ears, Ling Cheng’s words meant that the guards at Prince Rui’s Mansion had taught her martial arts, and so he could not very well keep venting his anger. He paused, then said, “Go home and reflect on yourself. I will discuss this with you later.”
“I have not done anything wrong. Why should I reflect?”
The carriage was already in motion. Ling Cheng pouted at his words, but her father offered no further response. She turned her head and lifted the curtain once more, her gaze full of worry, looking toward Qingping Ward: yesterday she had made plans to meet Shejia today. If she could not go, Shejia would surely be anxious and distressed.
And Shejia’s health was so fragile—if worry brought on another bout of illness, what then?
Footnotes
- 符离 | fúlí | Turkic böri, meaning 'wolf'; Ling Cheng's childhood pet name called by her father.
- 仆射 | púshè | High-ranking Tang dynasty secretariat title, roughly equivalent to vice director of the Department of State Affairs.
- 节度使 | jiédùshǐ | Tang dynasty regional military governor commanding frontier garrisons with broad civil and military authority.
- 县主 | xiànzhǔ | Tang dynasty title for daughters of imperial princes, ranking just below a full princess.
- 大理寺卿 | dàlǐsì qīng | Head of the Court of Judicial Review (Dali Si), the highest judicial body in the Tang dynasty, overseeing major criminal cases and appeals.
- 舍迦 | shèjiā | Sanskrit śaśaka, meaning 'rabbit'; used as a childhood name for Xie Miao, daughter of Prince Rui.
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