Shuntian Prefectural Yamen is located in Xicheng District, about a mile or so away from North Bingmashi Hutong, Zhu Pingan walked for more than ten minutes before they reached the entrance of the Yamen.
This place is both familiar and unfamiliar to Zhu Pingan, familiar because he had been here before when he travelled to Beijing, in the modern Jiao Dao Kou Dong Gong Street; unfamiliar because at that time, only the lobby of the Shun Tian Government Offices was left, and the rest of the building had become the teaching building of the Dongcheng District College of Education.
Of course, nowadays, this is the standard Shuntian government office, with a grand atmosphere, a small square in front of the door, and the street in front of the government office is dotted with industries that “eat the government office rice”, such as inns, taverns, pharmacies, teahouses and so on. The inn is for people who come to the Yamen to stay, the restaurant provides meals, the pharmacy provides medicine for bruises, the teahouse is a place for business talks, and there are people coming and going in front of the shop, and the business looks very good.
Zhu Pingan booked two tables of food and wine at a restaurant near the yamen, one table was for Liu Mu, Liu Dazhou and the others to receive their meals, the other table was for Sheriff Zhang and the others to come back to consume it after they had escorted the barefoot eight into the prison and completed the formalities.
“Many thanks, my lord.”Sheriff Zhang as well as the magistrates thanked Zhu Pingan repeatedly.
“You’re welcome, it’s been hard on you all morning, a few cups of thin wine, a slight token of appreciation.”Zhu Pingan slightly arched his hand, then stuffed the money bag into Liu Mu’s hand and instructed, “Brother Liu, you guys will entertain Sheriff Zhang and the others on my behalf later, order more wine and meat.”
After making the arrangements, Zhu Pingan followed Sheriff Zhang into the Shuntian government office and passed through the vestibule to the second gate of the government office, which was the ceremonial gate. The ceremonial gate was closed, and there were two corner gates on each side of the east and west, the ceremonial gate would only be opened on the governor’s first day in office as well as during inspections by the higher-ups, other times it was closed and one could only go through the corner gates on the east and west sides.
The east and west side of the corner door is also a good idea, the east for the noble, the west for the cheap, the east side of the corner door is called “human door”, for the governor usually in and out; the west side of the corner door is called “ghost door”, is escorting the prisoner to go through the channel.
Zhang sheriff arranged other constables to escort the criminals through the west ghost door to the prison, while Zhang sheriff led Zhu Pingan through the east “human door” to pay a visit to Zhou Zhifu.
Because at this time, Governor Zhou was still working in the lobby, so Sheriff Zhang led Zhu Pingan to the lobby.
The lobby of the Shun Tian government office was the grandest building in the government office, but the hardware facilities looked to be in a state of disrepair.
“Since Lord Zhou took office, he has set aside all the front for repairing the yamen for disaster relief and poverty alleviation.”Sheriff Zhang explained with some embarrassment.
“Lord Zhou is truly dedicated to the people.”Zhu Pingan nodded in admiration.
On both sides of the lobby of the Shuntian government office, there are two couplets that attracted Zhu Pingan’s attention, the couplets are engraved and dyed with vermillion on black wooden boards and hung on both sides of the lobby, the couplets are “Gaining an official is not an honour, losing an official is not a disgrace, don’t say that an official is useless, but the place is tied up in an official; eating people’s food, wearing people’s clothes, don’t say that the people can be deceived, but you are a people too”.
“Last year the couplets on both sides of the lobby had unclear handwriting, this is a new one written by your honour.”Seeing that Zhu Pingan was more interested in the couplets, Sheriff Zhang explained from the side.
“Well, very good, very good ……”Zhu Pingan looked at the couplet and nodded his head in appreciation.
“Very good? Heh heh heh, then I’d like to thank Scholar Lang for commenting on where this couplet is good.”While Zhu Pingan was admiring the couplet, a cheerful voice came out from within the lobby.
“Greetings, my lord.”
Zhu Pingan looked up and saw Zhou Houjie Zhou Zhiwei walking out of the lobby with a smile, and could not help but bow his hand.
Zhou Houjie smiled and waved his hand as he walked up to Zhu Pingan, “Scholar Lang, hello again.”
“Your Excellency should still call me Zi Hou.”Zhu Pingan smiled shyly.
“Good, then Zi Hou will comment on this couplet, if it is flattering, the lunch promised by this official will be lost.”Zhou Houjie smiled and nodded his head to snicker.
“Then Ping An will make an offering.”Zhu Pingan arched his hand and bowed, then dropped his gaze on the couplet once again, and after a slight pause of a few seconds pointed to the couplet and commented, “This couplet of Lord Zhou shows as much pro-people and responsibility as possible, the capital’s major, important and fatal cases are all heard here, and your lordship is the people’s parental official, so you have a great responsibility. ‘Do not say that an official is useless, the place is tied to an official, do not say that the people can be deceived, they are also the people’, Your Excellency’s pro-people and sense of responsibility is shown in it. This couplet is no less than a mirror hanging high above the public hall, a couplet informs the people that the Lord is fair and honest in handling cases.”
To be able to see the pro-people and impartiality was considered rare. Zhou Houjie nodded slightly, still satisfied with Zhu Pingan’s critique.
Zhu Pingan noticed Zhou Houjie’s expression and slightly ticked the corner of his lips, pointing at the couplet and added, “Of course, in fact, Pingan found that there is another mystery in this couplet of your lordship.”
“Oh? Tell me.”Zhou Houjie said with a smile.
“In this couplet of His Excellency’s, the word ‘official’ is all a little less, while the people’s ‘surname’ is a little more, if Ping’an didn’t guess wrongly, His Excellency means to think more about the people, a little less of the official’s authority, and a little more of the people. “Zhu Pingan pointed to the words official and surname in the couplet and added with a slight smile, “This is the hidden word text in the couplet, the ancients mostly used it to be implicit, curving the path, implicit but not revealing; Your Excellency went the other way around, using the hidden word text meant to emphasise, to emphasise thinking of the people more, Your Excellency this couplet is really well intentioned, Pingan has been taught.”
“Zi Hou good eyes, it seems that this official has to add another dish to deserve this review from Zi Hou.”Zhou Houjie couldn’t help but stroke his whiskers and laugh, a red light surfaced on his face as he looked at Zhu Pingan and flirted.
The feeling of meeting a soulmate in high mountains and flowing water is about Zhou Houjie’s mood at this moment. At this moment, when he looked at Zhu Pingan, it was just like when the zither master Boya met the woodcutter Zhong Ziqi on the banks of the Wei Shui River. Thousands of gold are easy to get, but a soulmate is hard to find.
“Elder’s gift does not dare to resign, it looks like Ping An will have the blessing of a mouthful today.”Zhu Pingan arched his hand and smiled, not excusing himself.
“Oh …… so it is like this ah, at that time when it was hung up, I thought that the craftsman engraved it wrongly, and went to find the craftsman, but the result was that the craftsman took out the original couplet of the lord, and said that it was engraved in accordance with what the lord had written in a single stroke. I looked at the original couplet, and it was indeed exactly the same. I had always thought that His Excellency had made a mistake in writing it. I didn’t realise that it was written this way on purpose by His Excellency. If it wasn’t for Lord Zhu’s explanation, I’d still be in the dark.”It was only at this time that Sheriff Zhang reacted as an afterthought, and as if enlightened, he came to a realisation that there was so much to be said about just these two points.
“You ah, really a rotten wood ……” Zhou Zhifu looked at Zhang shook his head and laughed, and then waved his hand and commanded “Go to the catering room to say, add another dish, the last time over the saving of that dish added to today, this official want to be good!I want to treat you well. Zhang sheriff you also don’t go, today at noon in this together have a lunch.
