License to Cultivate Bonus: The Scribe Exam

This is a chapter I wrote while developing the character of Chang-li to help me better understand who he was and the society he's in. I'm releasing it to Patreons only - enjoy!

Chang-li bent over the slate in front of him, carefully chalking each of the syllables of his answer in beautiful, flowing calligraphy. He looked it over, erased a "chu" and replaced it with a "shi" in the third stanza.

All around him, his fellows were stretching and gathering their supplies, taking their leave of the exam. But the instructor had not yet called time, and so Chang-li bent over his slate, looking for any hasty imperfections. The instructor struck a gong.

"Hand in your slates," he told the candidates. Chang-li dropped his piece of chalk beside him, tested his fingers, and rose. He joined the line and presented his slate to his instructor with a bow. The instructor looked him over and gave him an  appraising look before taking the slate from him. His studiousness had been noted, Chang-li thought. It was a good thing.

Instructors would grade honestly and fairly, but having a reputation as a diligent student would stand him in good stead. He left the exam hall and stepped down into the rain, raising an umbrella to cover his head. His steps back to his family's hovel were light.

He dug through the door, removed his shoes and overcoat, and slipped into his house robe before greeting his mother with warm respect. "My son, how did it go?" She clasped her hands to her breast in excitement.

"We will know in a week." but couldn't keep a smile off his face. "I think I did very well."

“You’d better,” his older brother called from the table where he was eating the evening meal. A bowl waited for Chang-li. He sat down and scooped rice from the common pot before picking up his sticks and taking a bite.

His brother held up one calloused hand. "I have been working sixteen hours a day to pay for your fees at that fancy school. You had better come through, little brother." His tone was warm and joking, even where the words had been harsh. Chang-li nodded.

"I shall make you and our mother proud, Hong,” he said simply. He bowed his head. "Respect, older brother, for what you have done since our father's death."

Hong reddened."It is only the duty of the eldest son to support his mother.”

“And now perhaps I can do my duty as a younger brother to raise our family up," Chang-li said, already excited. His family were laborers, and always laborers, took pride in their work, and yet he, who had been a sickly child and not suited for the fields, it turned out to have a gift for studies, one his father and mother had encouraged.

His father had worked long hours to afford the tuition at a scribe's school, his mother taking in extra bending and other chores for their neighbors. When his father had died two winters past, his brother had stepped up. Chang-li had offered to leave school and begin to help support the family, but Hong refused.

"If you do well in school and pass the exam to become an official, you will make more in a year than I can make in five," he said. "Then you may pay me back. Then you may help our mother in her old age."

Chang-li knew he was right, but he was also glad for the excuse not to leave school. If he could secure a place as a scribe, not even in the imperial palace, but to one of the many bureaus and government agencies that worked on behalf of the emperor, his family would be secure.

And today, today he had taken that first step. The results of the testing would determine the course of the rest of his life. He waited on tenterhooks the whole week, but not idly. He found errands to run for money and spent two days helping a shopkeeper down the street with his yearly inventory. And then finally, it was time.

He was up at dawn, gathered outside the gates of the school along with all the other candidates, jostling and pushing for a better view. The hours and minutes crept by. It felt like days before the officials emerged, carrying the lists and posted them on the wall so the students could see how they had done. They crowded in, looking.

The lists were ordered by rank in the class, not by name. So there was much jostling and quite a lot of teasing as students who had pushed their way to the left had to admit they had not scored in the highest ranks and moved down toward the right.

Chang-li had been certain he would not be last, but there was less of a crowd there. And so he started at the right side of the wall and scanned down the list. The girl beside him found her name quickly and fled in tears.

Chang-li looked carefully for the character Wu, his family name. It was not a simple peasant's Wu, meaning water, nor the noble Wu, meaning lotus blossom else, but an obscure character formed by three lines slashing to the right, topped with a Cha, very distinct in his mind. It was not on the lowest page, nor on the next, nor the middle. His heart rising, Chang-li moved to the second to top page. He looked carefully this time. His name was not there.

The crowd was thinning now as more and more students had found their ranking. He waited impatiently until the boy beside him stabbed a finger at the list, let out an exclamation of joy, and ran off to tell his family the good news. Then Chang-li stepped in front of the final page. There were thirty names on it, and he saw the Wu at once, third from the top.

He had made third on the exam, third out of 223 students in his class. Chang-li's heart leapt for joy. His mother would be pleased. Taking a third, he was guaranteed a job.

One of the secretaries who had posted the lists stood to the side. As Chang-li went to turn away, she called out to him, "Student Wu, you and the others ranking in the top ten have been asked to present yourselves to Master Hong as soon as possible."

"Yes, of course," Chang-li said. He bowed to her and made his way through the thinning crowd to the gates of the school. He passed through them and passed into the outer courtyard where the first and second year students took their classes, then through the gates of knowledge to the inner courtyard where the third and fourth year classes, much smaller, were held, before finally passing into the innermost court, the court of knowledge, where he had spent the final two years of his studies. The highest officials of the school had their offices here. Chang-li had never even met the master of the school until the beginning of his final year here, where he and all of his fellow students had audiences five at a time with the great man.

Now he knelt outside the man's study, bowed his head, and knocked on the floor. The door swished back, and Chang-li raised his head. A young woman said, "You may enter. He is waiting for you." Chang-li rose, nodded to her, and stepped over the threshold, leaving his shoes behind him, as was proper. The young woman, presumably the master's personal secretary, gestured him to the front of the room, where a dozen cushions were arranged, eight of them already filled with fellow students.

Chang-li recognized several of the students, his rivals for the top positions, Mah-lin, Lian, Wu-ni, Pao,  and the others. He took a place, and within two minutes the final student arrived. They waited, staring at the empty desk of the master.

The Master sat down across from them. His secretary appeared, balancing a wide tray on one hand. It had a pot of steaming tea and two stacks of tiny cups. She set the tea down and knelt beside the desk. Setting out eleven cups, she poured tea into the first and held it out to the Master. He took it, sipped and nodded. She filled each of the other cups with tea before offering them to each of the students.

Chang-li took his tea cup and sipped. Rosehip and ginger aroma somehow melded together into one exquisite order. Chang-li drank the tea down, careful not to gulp, and finished just as the Master was setting down his cup. The Master looked up at them.

"Congratulations to you, my students," he said. "You have achieved great distinction, taking the top ten places from our whole school. With this comes a great honor." Chang-li sat a little straighter.

"Sometimes doing well on an exam led automatically to a position of a government. It did not happen every year, but as the Emperor's bureaucracy requested. This year we have been given a gracious quota by our Imperial Master," the schoolmaster said. "It is our great honor to be able to present him with the flower of our school. To that end, those of you placing fourth and lower will be immediately inducted into one of the lower bureaucracies. I have your assignments here. This is a great Imperial honor," he said. "I expect each of you to rise to the task."

Most of the other students bowed deeply, murmuring thanks. Chang-li felt his excitement rise if those who placed lower than he had received such choice positions.

Any appointment to an Imperial bureaucracy was a guaranteed lifetime job, so long as you did not screw up. From there, he or the others could rise through the ranks and achieve greatness. He couldn't wait to find what his was.

The secretary took the wrapped scrolls on the Master's desk and handed them to each of the students. She did not have to look between them to decide which scroll went to which student. The Master raised a hand in dismissal. He did not have to show anything of his intense excitement. As the last of them left, the secretary closed the door behind them with a whisper.

Her stockinged feet on the smooth wooden floor made no sound as she retraced her steps to kneel beside the Master's desk. He beckoned and she filled his teacup again. The pot certainly didn't look as though it could hold as much tea as it had dispensed. Chang-li's mouth was dry from anticipation and the astringent tea. He wished he had a cup of water beside him, but would never shame himself to ask.

"You three,” the Master said when asked, looking at them. Chang-li couldn't resist a glance sideways.

The top two knelt beside him. Qian Ya was a female student he had admired from afar for years. Her elegant touches to her simple student's uniform made her stand out in any room. Her beautiful dark hair hung gracefully beside her face, with a simple pin with a lily at its head holding it back from her face on one side. The senior student was Yan Pao. Chang-li was not surprised. Pao was as studious as he was, as well as being absolutely brilliant. He had been vicious in his competition. Qian Ya looked serene, having taken her rightful place. But third was nothing to be ashamed of. Both of the other two were from scribes' families. They had been educated since birth, with extra masters on the side to help them. Chang-li had had nothing but his own wits and his family's belief behind him.

"You three have received very special commissions," the Master said. He took three black-ribboned scrolls from behind his desk and set them in front of him. Each bore a copper-colored seal with a lion's head pressed in it. "You have been chosen by the Commissioner of the Imperial Army to serve as Imperial War Scribes. These scrolls contain your assignment. You will have until the end of today to report to the barracks here for your induction and speedy transport to the Imperial Army Training Facility."

Chang-li's mouth fell open. He couldn't help it. The army, inducted, sent away.

Pao blurted out, "What do you mean? The training facility? That's in Yongden, isn't it? A thousand li from here?"

"Indeed," the Master said. "This is a great honor."

"But my family!" Qian Ya protested. "I have been promised in troth to a man, a man of good family and rank!”

“I’m afraid previous arrangements shall have been broken by this. The army takes what the army wills." The Master smiled graciously at them. "It is not so bad. You will have a chance to rise far higher than you would in this one small city. Why, scribes in the army have risen to great positions of power to become right-hand men or women to a great general, even to appointment as secretary for a provincial governor."

Chang-li was torn. The Master was right. This was a chance, a greater chance than he had ever expected for advancement far beyond his greatest dreams. Yet his family was here.

"May I arrange for some of my pay to be given to my family?" Chang-li asked, keeping his eyes lowered. Even so, he could see his Master's smile broaden. The man nodded his head in approval.

"Indeed, you are the son of a widowed woman, are you not? It is well that you are thinking of your family at this time. Yes, the army has provisions for that, and you in particular will be glad to know that should you be killed, your pension will be given to your family to maintain them."

"Should we be killed?" Pao repeated, sounding incredulous. "Master, I am a scribe from a family of scribes. I have already been promised a position as third undersecretary to the head of the -“

“The army takes what the army wills," the Master repeated. "They are the right arm of our imperial majesty. Would you defy heaven itself?"

Pao submitted. "No, Master, I - no."

The Master smiled in appreciation. As the secretary reached to take the scrolls, he touched her arm.

"That one to Pao," he said. "That one to Wu."

Chang-li caught the flash of surprise on the woman's face. The Master just switched the assignments, he realized. But why? Had he done something, or had Pao, to make the Master reconsider?

Each of the scrolls was handed out. The students rose and bowed, Chang-li careful to give his bow the appropriate degree of respect to one's superior and teacher. They backed out from the room as the door shut behind them, and they recovered their shoes.

Pao began to grumble as he stepped off of the porch into the courtyard. "The army! We'll see what my father has to say about this," he ripped the ribbon from the scroll. He looked even angrier. “The logistics corp? The emperor-damned logistics corp?” He stomped off without a backwards glance.

With shaking hands, Chang-li opened his scroll. The characters were a blur. “— Hereby assigned to the Mandate of Heaven’s Glorious Climb Supervisory Team —”

He was going to be scribe to climbers, to those who sought heaven’s blessing and risked death to claim it. With luck, he might attach himself to a climber who reached the second peak, or even beyond. His star would rise and rise —

Chang-li rolled the scroll and set out for home, forcing himself not to run until he reached the street.