Chapter 9:

Chapter 9



Virtue is a strange thing and yet it is the moral fabric of the Empire of the Blazing Sun. It is not Utility as I originally thought when I heard of it as otherwise merchants would have been quite high in the hierarchy due to how useful they were. Instead merchants are at the bottom and this is not an anomaly done by social engineering.

Not from what I am seeing at the very least. There's no priest telling us how to think, no nobles insisting one path is virtuous and the other isn't. No, people here instinctively look at merchants as lesser and it took a lot of time to articulate why, which is why I am doing my best to put it on paper.

"No, this doesn't make sense either." I muttered as I looked over the paper and made the cuts.

The paper was more cuts than writing on it by now but it was a draft of a draft, something for me to use to articulate my thoughts, rather than make them coherent.

My past life's biases made themselves apparent in my writing as they made me blind to some sort of hidden rule that makes nobility fine, and merchants not due to the fact they might as well have been the same thing back then past a certain point.

"Nobles provide services and protection, so that makes them virtuous, but merchants also provide a valuable service. Is it perhaps the fact that it is indirect? A merchant is pretty much transporter of goods most of the time ,as well as an imperfect assessor of value, bot of which are virtuous. Is it perhaps the fact that they can just leave?" I continued muttering.

No… perhaps? Is it productivity?

"Tai Su, what are you doing?" A voice interrupted my thoughts just as I was about to write them.

I looked at the interloper warmly as I easily recognized that voice.

"Bao, nothing much, just trying to put my words on paper for my first scholarly work." I replied and motioned for her to join me.

"Of, no, On Virtue and Valor? That's a lot of cuts Tai, is it some sort of weird warrior way of structuring things?" My wife observed with amusement.

I shook my head at that.

"No, I am trying to figure out how to put what Virtue is in writing and make it consistent. Valor is certainly a lot easier as teacher Hao Wen explained it a lot." I replied as I returned to my paper.

The benefit of having a teacher is that they organize knowledge, not merely give you knowledge. They help connect things and make them coherent.

I could tell you how virtuous things are by instinct, how one profession helps others more and their hierarchy and if I were to ask someone else in another province I am sure we would agree on most things in relation to it but putting in writing why? I am struggling with even defining it, let alone saying why.

Valor was easier to make sense of thanks to teacher Hao Wen's instructions, it's merely an advanced form of achievement that differentiates between each act depending on the ease with which you do it, the number of people that have done it before and how much it helps others. It's simple partially subjective and it's social aspect more nebulous but it fits my old life's logic so well it's disturbing and makes me wonder if it didn't actually come from there.

Virtue on the other hand?

"Trying to define the obvious is hard Bao." I continued as my wife looked at me trying to turn the instinctive coherent.

Bao continued looking over my paper as she tried to make sense of the mess or words and cuts I made on it.

"Yeah, I'm lost, why did you cut out utility? It seems to fit." Bao asked.

"Merchants are not virtuous, but they transport things which is, they provide goods to where nobody else produces them or can offer them, which is useful, and they can give a vague value on certain things which many professions such as appraiser do which is virtuous. There is something that merchants do that when combined with all of the virtuous things they do in theory makes them without Virtue." I explained.

She chuckled at that.

"Look at you the mighty scholar Tai Su." She said softly.

"I'm not doing it because I'm a scholar." I replied.

"Then why?" She asked curiously.

Scholars needed to write, to observe and pass these observations to others. A scholar that does not write and have their works stored somewhere is a fraud. Teacher herself made one around the concept of teaching and her experiences with it to prove she deserved the spot, but that's not why I am doing it.

"I am doing it because I hate knowing something and not knowing why. I know what act is more virtuous than the other, but I don't know why and what makes one more virtuous and I want that written down." I explained.

My wife took a bit to think about it before asking what I asked myself months ago.

"Isn't there someone that has written this down somewhere?" She asked curiously.

I continued looking at the nearly filled page as if it owed me money.

"I tried reading some, they use circular arguments, the sort of ' Virtue is that which grants virtue and causes virtue in others.' and other such nonsense. I want a definition of virtue that does not contain the word in it, something that can separate virtue as a distinct concept as opposed to this diffuse thing my mind can see but not define." I growled.

The Archive becoming open to me now that I knew how to read has been a blessing, but it was painfully limited and the knowledge there was shallow.

"It can't be that bad, can it?" Bao asked sensing my annoyance.

"All texts are ranked from one to six depending on how 'profound' they are deemed. Not a single text in the archive is above the second tier, everything in it are things anyone that can write and memorize some knowledge can put on a paper. I ran out of useful and easy to find things fast." I explained.

I expected more from the archive, and all years or waiting for this moment left me feeling is unsatisfied.

"How can knowledge not be useful? She asked innocently.

"I found a scroll that defined horses as ' animals of varying color ranging from black to pure white one can ride and that possess various uses'." I answered.

She looked confused at my words.

"But isn't that what horses are? It sound right to me, a horse has four legs, has a variety of colors and is something you can ride on." She asked.

I sighed at that and tried to remember of an example I could give her to understand what I meant. It cam pretty easily in fact and was something she had first-hand experience in.

"Do you remember when we were twelve and you decided to ride a sheep and broke your arm? That sheep was a four legged animal, it was white and your could ride it. That doesn't make it a horse. Everything else there is like that, all I needed was to know something of a given topic and I could easily see how shallow the knowledge in there. is" I complained.

And yes I was complaining. Some of the knowledge there was useful, but it was the sort of surface value knowledge most people would hear when having a conversation where they discuss about having heard about the subject, not something in a textbook. Nonetheless it was more than I had before.

Maybe I should feel grateful for it, but all I am felling is disappointment.

She giggled at that as she realized the issue.

"The information is too vague, but it's more than nothing and less than you need to be useful, but what do you want it for?" She asked.

I nodded at that.

"You are quite curious today Bao." I observed.

It was a question even if it wasn't phrased like that, she always wanted something when she got like that.

The young woman huffed at that.

"Can't a wife be curious Do you think that all I can do is say 'yes husband'?" She asked mockingly.

It was a mask, I knew it was a mask and she knew that I knew and she couldn't even keep it for long.

"No, you always want something when you try to get me to answer you questions." I replied.

I could see it on her face that she was debating between continuing this or getting to what she came her for, and it seems that from the way her shoulders slumped she picked just getting on with it.

"I am bored Tai, the rice fields are tiring and the monotony is killing me, I need something to keep my mind busy and painting and writing does not help." She whined.

Well, that was my signal to stop thinking and amuse her I suppose. Working on the rice fields is difficult and mind-numbing, but it's not boring, it keeps you too active to be boring.

Bao seemed to disagree, she needs mental stimulation and I had just the trick.

"Get the clay tablets and the painted rocks, we can play something." I ordered.

I saw her eyes light up at that and went to do as I asked her in a hurry.

This is a village, albeit calling it a hamlet would have been more accurate, we don't have the sort of wood-workers that would make me a board game, but we have clay, we have paint, brushes and we have rocks as well as some dice.

Making something like chess, checkers or even tabletop rpgs, or other mindless board games is easy if you have some time and don't care for things such as balance. Games don't have to be polished, all they need is to be fun.

'I should probably learn how to carve wood.' I thought as I arranged my writing implements and placed the paper to the side.

"And be careful with them, the last thing we want is to have to remake the tablets, again! Also what are we playing?" I shouted.

"I'm careful! Also I want to play checkers!" She shouted back.

Not my favorite game, but if that's what she wants might as well, at least the table is prepared for it now.

'One more year until the Sect Trial, one more year until I learn if I can grasp Immortality and power.' I thought morosely.

"I am here, and I most definitely did not break anything this time!" She exclaimed happily as she presented what she found.

It was to my surprise the intact checkers tablets, two reddish tablets with squares painted on it that when placed near each other could act as a checkers board. I was halfway expecting her to have broken them from how fast she moved.

"Checkers it is then." I acknowledged and proceeded to take the black pebbles and put them on the board.

I'll leave thinking of the future for another time. At least I won't be alone for whatever happens then. That's the one part of this life that's better than the last one.