CH 18

Chapter 18: Arising

The spring of the 31st year of Kangxi [1691] was another good season. When Yinyou was studying in Wuyizhai, he still sat next to Yinzhen. Sometimes the Crown Prince no longer came to Wuyizhai but followed the Emperor to handle government affairs. Looking at the fourth brother, the fifth brother, and the eighth brother in the room, Yinyou suddenly felt that the so-called  Nine Sons Seizing the Throne [1] was actually a dispute between the eldest brother, the Crown Prince, the fourth brother, the eighth brother, and the fourteenth brother. In a contest, the one who strikes first will be the one to lose first. The first to lose was the eldest brother, then the Crown Prince, the third brother, the eighth brother, and then the fourteenth brother.

The fourth brother was the calmest person, so he had the last laugh.

As for the brothers older than the fourteenth brother, except for the fifth brother and the twelfth brother, only the seventh brother had a good ending. The others were all imprisoned and killed.

Some people said that the fourth brother could not tolerate others, but Yinyou felt that for the stability of the Qing Dynasty, after becoming the Emperor, Yinzhen could not tolerate these brothers even if he wanted to. The people who lost to him were not incompetent people, but tigers that were temporarily tied up. Once the rope binding them was broken, there would be endless trouble.

People always found it easy to stand on moral high ground and express their views. Only those who have experienced it will know how difficult the matter truly was.

When Empress Xiaozhuang passed away in the 26th year of Kangxi, Yinyou was only seven years old. He still remembered that this old lady had given him many rewards, and therefore made some people in the palace who looked down on him respect him. 

Because Empress Dowager had raised the fifth brother, after she passed away, this brother became more and more silent. Yinyou thought that the fifth brother was smart enough. He understood that in the eyes of the harem, he was the great-grandson raised by Empress Dowager and not the son of Concubine Yi, so he learned to be low-key. Because of this, when Yinzhen ascended the throne, he still became a qinwang [2] without an issue, instead of being named sāisī hēi [3] by Emperor Yongzheng like one of his compatriots and younger brother.

As a son of Kangxi, there were only two ways to go: one was to gamble, and the other was to endure. Lost the bet, miserable. Can’t endure, also miserable.

Relying on the Qing palace dramas and historical dramas he watched in his previous life, “The Secret History of a Certain Empress Dowager” [4], “There’s a certain dynasty” [5], “Such and such Incognito Travel” [6], Yinyou knew more or less about some true and false history facts. Therefore, as a qualified transmigrator who was good at forbearance but too stupid, he chose to endure. 

Although there was a ‘knife’ at the top of the word “endure” [7], without this knife, his heart would be obvious to everyone. 

[7] Baidu. 忍 rěn means to “restrain oneself”. Decomposing the character means “blade/knife heart”. Rěn can be used to mean “cruel” [cán rěn] or “perseverance” [jiān rěn]. (Bambi: Remember that “heart” also means “thoughts/intentions” so in this whole paragraph Yinyou’s saying he can only endure because otherwise, he would be defenseless, his mind too obvious to everyone and therefore too easily played by all.)

Speaking and reading Manchu was no longer a problem for Yinyou. He was glad that he transmigrated early. If he transmigrated as a half-grown child, Manchu would be enough to kill him a hundred times. How could he recognize words?

When it was time for lunch, Yinyou skimmed at the plates and bowls in front of him and looked at the third elder brother. When the third brother who was the oldest among them moved his chopsticks, everyone began to eat.

Most of the food on the table was northern-style food [8]. Yinyou began to think about the rice from his previous life. When he was old enough to build his mansion, he must ask the people in the mansion to cook him a table of southern-style food. Fortunately, he was a man, if some southern soft girl transmigrated here, how could she drink goat’s milk and all kinds of meat?

After the meal, Yinyou was drowsy, and only through willpower could he maintain his eyelids open. Dazed, he listened to the brothers speak highly of each other. Who knew that the third brother changed the subject and suddenly turned to him, “I heard that the seventh brother has sometimes spent the night in the courtyard of the fourth brother, the relationship between the fourth brother and the seventh brother really makes the third brother envious.”

Envy your sister! Yinyou’s drowsiness disappeared immediately, and he looked at the third brother blankly, “Huh?”

The third brother took a sip of tea, and spoke slowly, “A few days ago, Huang Ama said that the fourth brother and I should learn to do things together. Most likely this winter we will leave the palace to build a mansion. When the fourth brother has a Fu Jin [9], the seventh brother can’t remain the same, alright?” 

Hearing what the third brother said, the fourth brother raised his head to meet the third brother’s gaze, “What’s wrong with an older brother taking care of his younger brother? When the third brother has Fu Jin in the future, you won’t want to welcome all the younger brothers?” 

Yinzhen’s words were too blunt and caused the smile on the third brother’s face to freeze. The third brother responded dryly, “Fourth brother is joking, the younger brothers will naturally be welcomed.”

Yinyou took over the subject and said, “The third brother and the fourth brother are about to receive errands.” He glanced at the two enviously, and then looked at the brothers sitting opposite which were the fifth brother and the eighth brother, “Fifth brother, eighth brother, do you think this is the third and fourth brother deliberately making us greedy?” 

The fifth brother chuckled, “What the seventh brother says makes sense.”

The eighth brother also showed a warm smile, “Fifth and seventh brothers, don’t envy the two brothers, this younger brother is still at the bottom.” 

He glanced at the fourth brother who was sitting next to Yinyou. The fourth brother was now fourteen and would only be fifteen years old at the end of the year. Now, Huang Ama was going to let the fourth brother and the third brother learn how to do things together. It seemed that Huang Ama loved the fourth brother a lot.

For the imperial princes, only when they had an errand could they get in touch with the officials and make a name for themselves. It was no wonder that the third brother acted like a friendly elder brother at this time. The eighth brother took a sip of tea without losing lose half of his smile.

Yinyou trembled slightly, these princes said three sentences, and two and a half had some meaning behind them. He was really under a lot of pressure.

Yinzhen noticed Yinyou’s move and frowned slightly. After the group of brothers went out and began to walk to the study, Yinzhen asked, “Seventh brother, are you feeling cold”.

Yinyou shook his head doubtfully, “Not at all.”

“Huh?” Yinzhen glanced up and down at Yinyou and examined the thickness of his clothes, “Pay more attention to your body. Put on more clothes in the morning.”

Yinyou nodded, and then looked up at the warm sun in the sky in confusion. Did he miss it and today was actually cold?

“Fourth brother, seventh brother, are you standing outside the study door to talk about the weather?” The eighth brother stood behind the two with a smile on his face, wearing a moon-white robe, looking as warm as jade.

“No, we are studying the relationship between the cold and the thickness of clothes, is the eighth brother also interested?” Yinyou asked with a smile.

The eighth brother lowered his eyes and smiled lightly, “If there is time, the eighth brother would like to have a long talk with the seventh brother.”

Yinyou laughed twice and did not answer.

Yinzhen’s eyes turned cold, and he enunciated, “You two brothers, go in and study.” Then he let Yinyou walk in front of him and walked in front of the eighth brother.

The smile on the corner of the eighth brother’s mouth never faded away.

Every day the brothers were still studying hard and making progress. Of course, Yinyou had no chance to meet any xiunu [10], and the other brothers also had no such chance. One was because the brothers were busy studying, and the other was because, after the primary selection the xianu who stayed in the palace should stay where they should stay, and running around the place would be a loss of virtue and this was not just a matter of being rejected from the selection.

All Eight banners of the Mongolian and Han Dynasties paid attention to the reputation of women. Once a family’s daughter was marked with a lack of virtue, she could only choose to accompany the green light [11].

In fact, Yinyou also wanted to meet a xiunu to see their beauty. It would be even better if he could meet two. Unfortunately, the rules of the royal family were too strict, and the brothers would not go anyplace close to where the xiunu lived. Like this, his wretched hopes were smashed to pieces.

Since he couldn’t see the beauties, he could only obediently read books and practice riding and shooting.

Riding the horse, Yinyou the bow to the full, let go, and the arrow flew out with a whizzing sound, hitting the red heart again. He smiled with satisfaction.

“Seventh brother’s arrow is so accurate,” the eighth brother rode to the right of Yinyou and also drew the bow. After a whizzing sound, the arrow stabbed firmly at the red heart.

“The eighth brother is also very good,” Yinyou tilted his head and smiled at the eighth brother.

The eighth brother looked at the smile on Yinyou's face, and a smile arose in his eyes.

Not far away, with a gloomy face, Yinzhen lowered the bow that was originally raised and looked in the direction of the eighth brother and Yinyou. Slowly, he once again raised his hand, fully drew the bow, and let the arrow fly out.

When the arrow was inserted into the target, the master in charge of Yinzhen’s riding and archery pulled out the arrow with his hand, only to find that the arrow had been deeply inserted into the archery target...

***

The translator has something to say: got a pretty face, a pretty boyfriend too~~

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▲ Footnotes 

[1] This is called the “Nine Lord’s War” according to English Wikipedia. I translated it according to the raws, and the Chinese words said 九子夺嫡 which is Nine Sons Seizing the Throne. I’ll continue calling it Nine Sons Seizing the Throne because it’s cooler and it will save me the effort to change everything. You can read more here anyways. And if you’re wondering which nine sons: 1st Prince, 2nd Prince, 3rd Prince, 4th Prince, 8th Prince, 9th Prince, 10th Prince, and the 14th Prince. 

[2] Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang. She was Kangxi’s paternal grandmother. 

[2] 親王 qīnwáng - prince. Wikipedia: Commonly simplified to qinwang, translated as “Prince of the First Rank” or “Prince of the Blood” or “Heshuo”. 

Corie or DRWCN, a Chinese Tumblr user explained it like this: 

“Titles are granted to the huangzi if he has proven himself to his father. There are three typical types for princes: junwang 郡王 = prince of second class , qinwang 亲王 = prince of first class, and taizi 太子 = crown prince. Princes typically get named junwang first, and as they prove themselves with more accomplishments they’ll get promoted to qinwang. There can be as many qinwang or junwang as there are princes, but there can only be ONE taizi. Taizi is the heir to the throne. In most cases, taizi can be any of the princes, not necessarily the oldest prince. 

Taizi is just taizi, no name or other characters are added before this title. qinwang or junwang are usually given a “name” honorific: [title]-junwang, or [title]-qinwang. The “title” in this case is typically 1 character long (1 syllable).” 

[3] 塞思黑 sāisī hēi. Baidu: The 9th brother, Yuntang, had offended multiple times Emperor Yongzhen. When recording his name, he was called 塞思黑 which is a multi-meaning word, and it has the behind meaning of “let this obese and annoying thing tremble”, in short, it means obese and annoying person. Many people understand it incorrectly as “pig” but it only means disgust or disgusting.

[4] 某太後秘史 or “The Secret History of a Certain Empress Dowager”. The author may be referring to the series “Secret History of Empress Wu” which aired in 2011.

[5] 還有某某王朝 or “There’s a certain dynasty”. I couldn’t find a link.

[6] 某某微服私訪 or “Such and such Incognito Travel”. I’m pretty sure the author’s referring to the Chinese television series Records of Kangxi’s Travel Incognito aired in 1997.

[7] Baidu. 忍 rěn means to “restrain oneself”. Decomposing the character means “blade/knife heart”. Rěn can be used to mean “cruel” [cán rěn] or “perseverance” [jiān rěn]. Bambi: Remember that “heart” also means “thoughts/intentions” in this whole paragraph Yinyou’s saying he can only endure because otherwise, he would be defenseless, his mind too obvious to everyone and therefore too easily played by all.

[8] OpenTable (2020): “Chinese food culture can be loosely defined into two camps: North and South. Broadly speaking, the climate north of the Yangtze River is colder and the south warmer, resulting in different choices of carbs (wheat in the North and rice in the South), ingredient options (the South has more seafood and river fish, while the North has more red meat), and palates (Northern food is stronger and heavier, many Southern foods are subtler and more complex, and Southwestern food is spicier partially due to the humidity).”

As said by Tiffany Cheng in Quora: 

“Northern Chinese food.

Heavier and oil are used in larger amounts

More meat dishes and wheat-based dishes are featured

Wheat-based dishes such as buns, breads, and wheat-based noodles are the staple food item

Saltier

Southern Chinese food. 

Lighter oil is used in the smaller amount

More vegetable dishes and rice-based dishes are featured

Rice is the main staple food item

Less salty.”

[9] Fu Jin. “Wife” in Manchu.

[10] 秀女 xiù nǚ or “xiunu” (lit. Beautiful/Elegant woman) were daughters of officials and noblemen, who were selected to be wives or concubines for members of the imperial family. (As explained by thehlifestyle).

[11] 伴青燈了 or “accompanied by a green light”. Guessing they become nuns and live a life of confinement.