Bamboo Fragments: The Case of Yan
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This story takes place in ancient China, around 300 BC. It was a long, long time ago, before paper had even been invented. It was during the long-lasting period in China known as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period. At that time, China was divided into many countries, and wars had been continuing for hundreds of years.
◆1.
I keep thinking about what I should do.
While I was in town, the master was captured.
Wasn't the master the most important guest in this country?
I don't understand what adults do...
Anyway, even though I became a street urchin, I kept the master's teachings, didn't steal, and managed to get by by catching birds. Unlike when I was caught stealing, I had many acquaintances, so there were people who gave me food. There were also people who gave me money for small errands. That's why I was able to survive even though the master was gone for months.
At first, I couldn't find the master even after searching all over Anyi (a place name, the capital of Wei at the time).
Rumors spread that there was a man who had gone mad despite being a great master, and I finally reached the master's location. It seemed like he was locked in a shack.
I could hear incomprehensible shouting. Had the master gone mad? I wanted to cry, but the security was lax, so I snuck into that house in the middle of the night.
It was a terrible shack. I thought so again. The lodging where the master stayed before had white walls and decorations on the pillars and windows; it was magnificent and beautiful. This was a thatched house that looked like it was about to collapse. The smell was also terrible.
The first person to notice me was a woman with a large burn scar on her face. When she noticed me, she shook the master, and the master woke up. The woman helped the master sit up.
Something about the master's movements was strange. It was as if he couldn't bend his legs on his own...
The master noticed me and gave a small cry.
"Yan! Yan! I'm so glad you're alive!"
The master said, shedding tears.
"Master... have you been injured?"
The master closed his eyes, grimaced, and looked down.
"I was falsely accused of leaking information from the state of Qi to the state of Wei. I was supposed to be beheaded, but I was spared with the punishment of having the bones of both my knees scraped away."
"No! How could such a thing happen!"
"I told you before that my junior fellow student had risen to prominence in this state of Wei and introduced me to the King of Wei, didn't I?"
"Yes..."
"The King took a liking to me. It seems my junior fellow student was jealous of that, and this is what happened. He forged a letter and framed me for the crime. Since he is my junior fellow student, he knows my handwriting, so there is no doubt..."
"That's terrible! Damn him! I'll kill him!"
The master turned away and waved his left palm at me.
"No! No! You will be killed. Even if you succeeded, I wouldn't get off unscathed either."
The master was crying. Of course he was. He had been a top-tier guest, only to be turned into a criminal and have his legs scraped... It was too cruel.
"When the master was captured, I was in town... I'm sorry I couldn't save you!"
"It's fine! I'm just so glad you weren't captured!"
"No, Master! Even if it costs me my life, I will definitely rescue you!"
"Don't do anything reckless! You are just a child! It must be hard enough just to survive right now! You must never do anything rash!"
◆2.
My father was taken as a soldier and never returned. My mother also died of illness. Before I met the master, I lived by stealing.
I was born with the ability to move quickly, and I could even catch birds.
When I showed that to the master, he was surprised.
The teacher asked why I stole, and why I didn't become a hunter.
Even if I caught birds or beasts, in the past, I couldn't speak well when things got a little complicated. I didn't know letters, nor did I know simple arithmetic.
For someone like me, even simple transactions were impossible. Besides, there were many bad adults, and orphans were often caught by slave traders and sold into slavery.
One day, I snuck into a potato field to steal. Then, the owner of the field, who had been hiding, shouted, 'Hey!' and threatened me.
I was a little surprised, but I thought it would be easy to escape from a man like that. However, there was a rope stretched among the potato leaves. I tripped, fell, and was caught.
The man tied me up and beat me with a stick with all his might. It was the kind of beating that felt like it would shatter my bones.
Oh, I thought I was going to die, but then the teacher, who was traveling, raised his voice and stopped the man. The teacher gave half of the money he had to the man and bought my life.
The man said,
'What a strange thing to do! Tell me, teacher. What is the point of buying this one? Wouldn't it be better for the world if you killed him? And I think it would be easier for him, too.'
'Easier?'
'Don't you understand, teacher... Hey, kid, the teacher is going to buy you! You should be grateful to him. If you steal again, I'll cut off your hands and feet and put you on public display!'
I followed the teacher. The teacher had a troubled look on his face. Even though he had saved me, I had nowhere else to go.
Reluctantly, the teacher brought me to the state of Wei. I knew the teacher was a good person.
But I never imagined he was the kind of person who would be invited by a king as a guest.
I began to live with the teacher in a magnificent lodging.
I don't know what the teacher was thinking, but he didn't treat me like a slave and started teaching me letters and arithmetic. I thought he was a really strange teacher. Letters and arithmetic were things I was encountering for the first time.
'The reason you cannot make a living is because you know too little about letters, language, arithmetic, and how to think,' the teacher said.
'Letters and learning will help you. If you can understand various things, you might be able to get along with people and interact with them. You can also make a living. Even in desperate and difficult situations, you must not have violent thoughts. Surely, your turn will come too.'
At first, I didn't understand what the teacher was saying at all. But for the first time in my life, I felt a sense of peace.
◆3.
I learned many things. It was interesting. I was given words, and I realized that everything around me had a name.
Plants had names, and tools did too. And I realized that my own feelings had names, and that it was okay to share them with others. Until now, I only really understood things like 'good feelings' or 'bad feelings'.
I realized that I had been lonely and in pain.
I realized that I was feeling happy and content right now.
I would go into town in my spare time and talk to people who didn't seem bad. There were some strange ones, but there were also people who would talk to me normally.
Ah, I realized that there are many good adults out there, too.
I began to understand, little by little, how people in the world lived their lives.
It's amazing. I even made acquaintances and friends!
It was then that the teacher was captured...
After I found out where the teacher was being held, I kept going there.
It seems the evil junior disciple wants to extract information about some amazing technique the teacher knows, called the 'Art of War'.
The teacher told me that he had been pretending to be insane to deceive the evil junior disciple. How smart the teacher is. To think of such wisdom even in such a terrible situation.
My brain isn't even a hundredth as good as the teacher's, but I wanted to think of a way to save him somehow.
One day, that guy Liu Shun said, 'I've heard an interesting rumor.'
He said, 'A man named General Duan Wei is heading to this state of Wei from the state of Qi for diplomatic reasons.' Could this General Duan Wei be the same one the teacher talked about?
My heart felt restless. The state of Qi is the teacher's homeland, isn't it... If I asked this General Duan Wei for help...
It would definitely be better for the teacher to go to the state of Qi than to stay in a country that treats him so cruelly.
However, I had no idea how to convey this situation to the important people who came from abroad and ask for their help.
◆4.
Even after that, I continued to sneak in and out of the teacher's place.
Although there were guards, however lax they were, I couldn't bring anything with me, but the teacher was happy just to have me visit.
During that time, I heard many things.
Sui, who was taking care of the teacher, said that her hometown had been conquered and destroyed by Wei, and she had been turned into a slave.
Why do important people only ever fight wars?
So many people die in wars or are sold off as slaves. There's nothing good about it at all.
Sometimes I think that important people might be even bigger fools than a simpleton like me.
When I told the teacher that General Duan Wei was coming to the land of Wei, the teacher seemed surprised.
The teacher said that before we met, when they were in the mountains and encountered a tiger, their life was in danger, and General Duan Wei killed the tiger and saved them.
Hearing that, Sui said something like this.
Sui said, "There are probably not many people in the world who could do such a thing. Duan Wei is likely my older brother." She added, "When my hometown was conquered and destroyed by the Wei army, I thought my brother had died in battle. But he was alive."
"To think he survived and even became a general," the teacher said, to which Sui replied, "It is plausible." She continued, "My brother was a master of martial arts beyond anyone's imagination, and there was an incident like this."
"The chickens from a neighbor's house were being chased by a stray dog and ran off. The people of that house didn't know what to do, but my brother first struck the dog dead, and then stopped the chickens in their tracks with kicks and punches. My brother killed the dog, but with the chickens, he used controlled strikes or grazed them by a hair's breadth, delivering just enough impact to knock them all unconscious without injuring them, and caught them all."
"Because of that, when he was young, he was called 'Qin-Hua' (Bird-Slippery), using the character for 'bird' from 'kinju' (birds and beasts) and the character for 'slippery'."
Then, Sui said, "My real name is Duan Qin, but I had been hiding it. Since I was a child, I loved cleanliness and was always doing little chores like sweeping, so my brother called me 'Sui' (Broom)."
◆5.
If General Duan Wei knew that his sister, Hui, was being held as a slave here, he would do anything to rescue her. Of course, if he knew the teacher was here, he would rescue the teacher as well.
If only I could get a message to General Duan Wei...
But as a criminal, a slave, and a street urchin... how could I possibly get a message to someone so important?
I wouldn't even be able to meet him...
Besides, if he's here on diplomatic business, he won't be in the state of Wei for very long, and security will be tight, so there will only be a brief window of opportunity while he's on the move.
I'm confident I could slip past the guards and reach General Duan Wei. But the problem is what happens after that. These are truly dangerous times. Before I could explain the situation, I'd likely be killed, mistaken for an assassin.
What should I do...?
Hmm? Wait a minute.
I've learned how to read and write. Even if I can't speak to General Duan Wei directly, couldn't I convey something in writing?
Graffiti on a wall... No, that won't work. I don't know which path General Duan Wei will take in advance, and it would just be erased or get me in trouble.
What if I wrote it on a large piece of cloth and displayed it like a flag?
No, that won't work either. The bad guys would realize the teacher is trying to escape.
I kept thinking. The teacher is such a brilliant person, and he was always studying. I remembered how he would always open bamboo slips (records written on bamboo slats) and study them.
Bamboo... couldn't I prepare many small bamboo fragments, write the situation on them, and pass them along?
If I were cut down in front of General Duan Wei and many bamboo fragments spilled out from my body, wouldn't he read them? I felt like I was onto something.
No, that won't work. If I'm unlucky and don't make it to General Duan Wei, and I'm caught by the bad guys, they would still realize from what I'd written that the teacher is trying to escape.
◆6.
I kept thinking. Suddenly, an idea occurred to me. My real name is Shin. Although, because I am quick, I was called En, which means swallow.
Didn't Sui-san say that General Danwei was called 'Kinkatsu' when he was young? Sui-san also said that her real name is Danqin, but she was called Sui as a nickname.
The people from the State of Wei shouldn't know General Danwei's childhood nickname or the origin of Sui-san's name. If I write the situation using nicknames, even if it falls into the hands of the Wei people, they won't understand the meaning, right...?
Besides, if I convey it using nicknames, it will be even clearer to General Danwei that it was written by someone who understands the situation well.
I asked Sui-san how to write the characters for 'Danqin' and 'Kinkatsu,' pretending it was just part of our casual conversation.
I did it! Teacher, I, a slow-witted student, have come up with a plan to save you! Could it be that I've thought of a strategy even better than yours, Teacher?
I wonder if Teacher will praise me... though I can't tell Teacher about it.
...But if I carry out this plan, I will be executed, won't I...?
It will hurt, won't it... and it won't just be painful.
I won't be able to see Teacher or Sui-san ever again...
I went to see Teacher one last time.
Teacher was still complaining to Sui-san as usual, saying, 'Even though General Danwei is coming, we have no way to contact him.'
I watched Teacher and Sui-san with a calm heart.
If it weren't for Teacher, I would have been beaten to death in that potato field.
To a mere orphan, and a thief at that, Teacher gave me not only clothes and food but also taught me learning, and treated me truly well.
He treated me like a human being.
That day, I watched General Danwei's party as they moved along, carrying the 'Qi' flag, together with the onlookers.
From among the spectators, I was waiting for my chance. I took a deep breath in and out to calm my feelings.
I had many bamboo fragments with the same characters written on them tucked inside my clothes.
Qin Hua
I am here
Please save me
Qin records this
The way I'm writing this might be strange, but this will definitely get the message across.
Goodbye, Teacher!
I really wanted to live with you a little longer, Teacher...
Finally, it's my turn to take the stage!
I dashed out from among the spectators and ran toward the palanquin carrying General Duanwei.
◆
There is a passage in a certain history book that says this.
Around the 4th century BC in ancient China, there was a military strategist named Sun Bin. A man named Pang Juan, who had studied alongside him, rose to prominence in the state of Wei and summoned Sun Bin to join him.
However, Sun Bin gained the favor of the King of Wei, and Pang Juan feared that Sun Bin would surpass him. Pang Juan framed Sun Bin for a crime he did not commit. Sun Bin was branded with a tattoo, sentenced to have his feet cut off, and imprisoned.
Sun Bin feigned madness to lower Pang Juan's guard, skillfully escaped, and went on to serve as a military advisor for the state of Qi.
Later, Sun Bin assisted the Qi army, decisively defeating the Wei army led by Pang Juan at the Battle of Maling, where he killed Pang Juan.
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