Chapter 10: To Marry, One Must Marry a Five Surnames
The horizon was tinged with the white of a fish's belly.
Hidden in the bamboo forest, the Clock Tower saw a young novice monk, yawning, climb up to ring the bell.
Living in this ancient temple on the mountain, with the morning bell and evening drum in one's ears, daily life felt as monotonous as chanting a thousand sutras, and the perception of time passing seemed to slow down.
It seemed to be the same time as that day, but practice makes perfect. This time, Ouyang Rong nimbly climbed out of the well, scaled the fence, and walked away with his hands behind his back as if nothing had happened.
After discovering that secret blessing worth ten thousand Karma, he lingered down there for quite some time, not chatting with Master Bu Zhi, but meticulously re-examining the underground palace from beginning to end several times.
He wanted to try if he could manually find or trigger this hidden blessing.
Because what if it wasn't the 'going home' he expected, but some other strange good fortune? It wasn't impossible, so he had to rule it out.
But what made Ouyang Rong unsure whether to be happy or disappointed was… he found nothing and returned empty-handed.
Ouyang Rong returned to Sanhui Courtyard, but deliberately took a detour—mainly to avoid his Aunt's courtyard—and, to be fair, ever since Zhen came to stay, the atmosphere of a guilty conscience had been fully established for him.
But this detour led him to bump into Master Shandao, who was preparing for morning chanting and breakfast.
The old monk asked, "Mingfu, why are you walking so stealthily so early in the morning?"
"This is… a morning exercise method popular in my hometown."
"It seems this old monk is unworldly."
As the two just passed each other, Ouyang Rong seemed to remember something and turned back curiously:
"Oh, right, I haven't asked yet, what sect does your Donglin Temple cultivate? Zen or Vinaya?"
"Neither. Zen is in the west, Vinaya in the north." Master Shandao shook his head. "This small temple is in the south, cultivating the orthodox Lian Sect, but Mingfu can also call us the Pure Land Sect."
"Pure Land Sect, huh…" Ouyang Rong looked up and asked, "Do you think there really is a Pure Land in this world?"
Master Shandao immediately nodded. "Of course there is. Isn't that Master's grand-uncle of mine an example?"
"If there is, where is this Pure Land?"
Master Shandao pointed to Ouyang Rong's chest, "The Pure Land is right here. The Pure Land in Mingfu's heart has always been in Mingfu's own heart. Why ask this old monk, an outsider?"
Ouyang Rong nodded, "I was too attached to appearances."
Master Shandao looked at him and said, "There's something I'm not sure if I should say, but this old monk noticed the day before yesterday that Mingfu has been looking melancholic, with an obstruction in his heart."
Ouyang Rong looked directly at the old monk and humbly asked, "How can one break through the obstruction and achieve liberation?"
Master Shandao didn't answer, lowered his eyes to straighten his monk's robe, tidied his attire, and before leaving, merely raised his hand to point in the direction of Sanhui Courtyard, then turned and slowly walked away.
Ouyang Rong stood there for a while, then turned and returned to Sanhui Courtyard.
As he stepped through the door, he suddenly stopped and looked up at the plaque hanging above the door frame.
It read "Sanhui."
"What are the Three Wisdoms? Hearing, Contemplation, and Cultivation, these three… Hearing must be attentive, Contemplation must be careful, and Cultivation must be truthful."
Ouyang Rong's voice rose from low to high, as if his enlightenment deepened from shallow to profound, and he proclaimed loudly, "Ouyang Lianghan, I ask you again, how to break through the obstruction?"
He answered himself: "Hear while lying, contemplate while sitting, and… act while rising!"
The scholar laughed, flung his sleeves, and strode into the hall.
…
"I'm leaving the temple today."
By the dining table, the new Longcheng Magistrate, a young man who had just reached his twentieth year, put down his chopsticks with a serious expression.
"No." Zhen lowered her head, sipping her porridge, not even lifting her eyelids.
"Aunt, your nephew is informing you, not discussing; your nephew has already sent word to Yan Butou and the others, and I've also inquired with the Abbot. The Master said your nephew's body has recovered by seventy to eighty percent and he can go down the mountain."
"Act first, report later?"
"It should have been done long ago."
"The flood down the mountain has receded by seventy to eighty percent, why go down now?"
"Precisely because it has receded by seventy to eighty percent, it is the most crucial time to begin disaster relief. Your nephew is the Longcheng Magistrate, I cannot hide on the mountain after recovering and leave it all to my subordinates."
"What 'leaving it to subordinates'? Tanlang is not very responsible for this flood down the mountain. You've only just taken office, and it's a once-in-several-years Yunmeng Marsh flood. The disaster occurred while you were unconscious. This is an act of God; no one will hold Tanlang responsible."
"If there's no responsibility, can I rest easy and sleep soundly with a clear conscience?"
Zhen put down her bowl, took a handkerchief from Ban Xi, wiped her mouth, and began slowly:
"Alright, then go down the mountain. Don't worry about your Aunt. Just leave me to fend for myself in this deep mountain ancient temple. Hmm, I might as well become a nun. A child I raised for twenty years is not as reliable as a lamp and an ancient Buddha."
As she said this, her tone, which was a mixture of tsundere and resolute, even carried a hint of a sniffle, and the woman tilted her head to "secretly" wipe away tears.
Ouyang Rong's expression remained unchanged. His Aunt had already branded him as ungrateful and unfilial, but he waited for a long time and didn't hear the dull thud of a wooden fish. It seemed even the Buddha couldn't bear to watch.
He continued to suggest, "If Aunt doesn't want to stay here, how about sending someone to take Aunt back to Nalong?"
"No!" Zhen immediately said with finality.
"…"
She glared, "Tanlang is an official now, his wings are hard, so he doesn't want to take Aunt to enjoy the good life, right?"
Ouyang Rong said seriously, "Great Zhou regulations stipulate that local County Magistrates must serve a thousand Li from home and must not bring relatives or fellow villagers to take office for personal gain."
"Heh, your Aunt hasn't read the Great Zhou regulations, but don't think you can fool your Aunt about the requirements for a parent official."
Zhen smiled faintly, "These relatives refer to male relatives who can show their faces. There is no objection at all to bringing relatives like mothers, and it's even encouraged. Perhaps the Censor from the Provincial Censorate might even praise Tanlang for being filial and honoring his mother, and it would count as an extra point in the assessment."
Ouyang Rong coughed, covering his fist, "Alright, alright. But Liulang said the county yamen was flooded. I'll go down the mountain, settle in first, and then pick up Aunt…"
Zhen didn't pay attention to that, smilingly interrupting Lord, who wanted to change the subject, "And, ah, don't the Great Zhou regulations also state that a County Magistrate must bring his wife and daughter to take office? If he truly doesn't have one, he must bring a concubine, and during his tenure in the locality, the supervisor cannot marry the daughter of a local supervised person, otherwise, he will be punished… This rule, County Magistrate, should be more familiar to you than to a village woman, right?"
Ouyang Rong's face was stern. He found it strange why Zhen was so muddled about some things and so incredibly clever about others. A nephew's bane, right?
"Then, our conscientious Ouyang County Magistrate, shouldn't you be considering marriage?"
"…" Aunt's map of Yan was truly a bit long, only now drawing out the dagger. Ouyang Rong thought.
However, this time, since he had decided to go down the mountain and take office, and do a good job, he would no longer avoid it.
"Your nephew cannot marry a Five Surnames."
Ouyang Rong looked directly at Zhen.
"Why not? Tanlang is a Gentleman whose name is known throughout the land at the age of twenty."
"It's simple, family standing." Ouyang Rong raised his palm and gestured slightly at his forehead.
"What's wrong with family standing? Our Nalong Ouyang Clan…"
Ouyang Rong nodded and spoke truthfully: "Our Nalong Ouyang Clan truly has no family standing in the eyes of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans. The last time our branch of the Ouyang Clan produced a prominent figure was back in the Han Dynasty."
"…" Zhen.
"Even the path of imperial examinations that your nephew took, for the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, is… Hmm, Aunt should know that your nephew was once bestowed the official position of Lin Tai Zheng Zi by the Empress at the Apricot Garden Banquet, which was formerly the Secretary's Office proofreader. To hold this office, one must come from a 'qingzi' background, meaning the purest of the pure officials. Almost all Chancellors of the current dynasty started from this position. It's prestigious, and it's also the ninth-rank starting point that all scholars from the north and south aspire to.
"But do you know, in the Great Zhou imperial examinations each year, from all the common families across the land, selecting scholars from north and south, there are only thirty to forty people at most. And among these, only the top scholar and a few others can pass the strict selection of the Ministry of Personnel to be chosen for this office."
He paused, then Ouyang Rong said lightly, "And such an official position can be directly held by aristocratic scions from the Five Surnames and Seven Clans. They can be appointed simply by the recommendation of their elders, without needing to take the imperial examination."
Zhen hesitated to speak.
Ouyang Rong gently comforted her, "Aunt, in the eyes of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, we are the commoners among commoners. Even the Great Zhou Li Clan, who have been emperors for nearly a hundred years, are regarded by them as a secondary clan mixed with barbarian blood. They rely on their clan prestige and disdain to intermarry with other surnames, so… let's not think too much about it for now."
In the Great Zhou Dynasty, it was said that the Five Surnames were the most noble, with Cui, Li, Lu, Wang, and Xie, totaling the Five Surnames and Seven Clans.
Among them, the Boling Cui Clan, Qinghe Cui Clan, Longxi Li Clan, Fanyang Lu Clan, and Taiyuan Wang Clan were the commandery surnames, the highest doors of the Northern gentry.
And the Langya Wang Clan and Chen Commandery Xie Clan were the 'qiao' surnames, the highest doors of the Jiangzuo gentry… that is, the Southern gentry. However, the two Southern clans were at the bottom of the Seven Clans.
Because in the magnificent Southern and Northern Dynasties struggle before unification, it was the Sui-Qian from the Northern Dynasties who ultimately triumphed, pacified Southern Chen, and achieved another North-South unification. The center of the current Da Zhou Empire is in Luoyang and Chang'an in Guanzhong, and the North is the traditional Central Plains heartland. Therefore, in this dynasty, the Five Northern Clans were stronger than the Southern Wang and Xie.
Among them, the Boling Cui Clan was especially preeminent, revered by the world as the foremost of the gentry.
And as Ouyang Rong knew, these Five Surnames and Seven Clans were not merely about family legacy and generations of officialdom; it was said that these seven highest aristocratic families in the world, each more or less, had close ties with the three prominent worldly sects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, or had a family tradition of Confucianism, Xuanxue, or Taoism. Even more, some were involved in more secret inheritances of otherworldly Practitioners.
And those who could survive the chaotic Southern and Northern Dynasties struggle and whose families continued into the Great Zhou Dynasty were all ancient and powerful clans with terrifying foundations, whose genealogies could even be traced back to the pre-Qin era, the same period as the pre-Qin Practitioners recorded in ancient books.
Ouyang Rong continued, "Moreover, during Gaozong's reign, in order to suppress the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, an edict was issued prohibiting intermarriage among their most direct lines. But now it seems the prohibition edict did not achieve its intended effect; instead, it indirectly raised the status of these seven prominent families, making them 'forbidden marriage families' in glorious isolation… In fact, it's easy to understand. Even you and mother in the countryside have heard of the nobility of the 'Five Surnames,' and the popular adoration… it's truly imaginable."
In Ouyang Rong's previous life, these "forbidden marriage families" were at the top of the social hierarchy in the Great Zhou Empire's marriage market, with everyone, young and old, driving up their value.
Zhen frowned, "Is it really that difficult? Isn't my Tanlang the best man in the world? And that's still not enough?"
Ouyang Rong's mouth twitched. He got up and helped Ban Xi clear the table.
"Is there no chance even for collateral branches?" Zhen's heart was still unwilling.
"For collateral branches, others aren't fools; they would have made their moves long ago. I heard the prohibition edict was suggested by a Chancellor of humble birth during Gaozong's time, after his marriage proposal was rejected by one of these clans. Don't even think about it without a family background of at least a fourth-rank official of the current dynasty."
Zhen frowned, "How can it be so troublesome…"
Ouyang Rong took the hot towel Ban Xi handed him, wiped his face, and seemed to remember something, smiling: "Northern gentry value marriage alliances, Jiangzuo gentry value talent, Guanzhong gentry value official titles, and Daibei gentry value powerful relatives. Do you see which of these your nephew can match? Hmm, there's no 'value handsome men' category."
Zhen glared at him, then said nothing.
Ouyang Rong also pretended to be as dejected as her, but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had finally made his Aunt give up.
"Jiangzuo gentry value talent… Coincidentally, isn't my Tanlang a dragon among men…" Zhen mumbled.
Ouyang Rong smiled, not responding. Sometimes, the shattering of a fantasy too quickly isn't good. Let his Aunt slowly come to terms with it… He washed his hands, preparing to go out.
But he didn't expect the woman in the long skirt behind him to suddenly ask, "Tanlang, isn't your academy teacher named Xie?"
Ouyang Rong was stunned, "Yes, why?" Then he added helplessly, "Don't overthink things. I'm leaving."
He felt somewhat bewildered but didn't pay attention to Zhen, leaving Sanhui Courtyard.
Inside the room, Zhen rested her chin on her hand, watching Lord's retreating back, her phoenix eyes curving into a smile.
"Really, I still have to seize opportunities for you."
…
Couldn't resist writing a bit more, so it's a bit late to post. This chapter is nearly four thousand words. There's more tonight, good brothers!