“The liar is the grandmaster?! Why would Madam Ye say that?!”
At this moment, Lin Wan’er’s face was full of astonishment and bewilderment.
An Chengxi asked Lin Wan’er, “Does the senior know the life story of Meng Changsheng, such as the year he was born and the year he died?”
Lin Wan’er blurted out, “My grandmaster, that venerable elder, was born in Chang’an City in the first year of Linde of the Great Tang, which is AD 664, and died in 1663, which is the second year of Kangxi in the Qing dynasty, exactly one thousand years.”
An Chengxi shook her head and said, “This junior had people in Chang’an examine a large amount of ancient texts and records. Since Meng Changsheng once passed the imperial examination as a jinshi and entered court as an official, some official histories and ancient books have records of him. According to the official histories, Meng Changsheng was indeed born in the first year of Linde, that is correct.”
“But this contradicts what that Daoist priest said, so this junior then hired some tomb raiders from the Mo Jin school to search for clues in the ancient tomb of the Wu family from the Tang dynasty.”
“After more than a year of searching, right up until the senior and Chen’er went to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, they finally found a document from the Wu family over a thousand years old. It records that the sixteenth-generation descendant of the Wu family at that time, surnamed Meng, named Sheng, courtesy name Changming, was born in the second year of Qianfeng in the Great Tang, which is AD 667. The surname matches, the name matches, the courtesy name matches. This junior believes that this Meng Sheng is Meng Changsheng!”
Lin Wan’er widened her eyes, her expression no longer composed, and blurted out, “Madam Ye means that the grandmaster altered his birth year? He deliberately made his age three years older?”
“Yes!” An Chengxi nodded and said, “Based on what this junior has found, that seems to be the case.”
Lin Wan’er furrowed her brows tightly. “But that makes no sense! This little woman once chatted with the young master about it. The young master once had the fortuitous encounter of meeting an old man, and that old man’s ancestor was a servant boy surnamed Jiang whom the grandmaster took in at the beginning of his cultivation. Even that old man said the grandmaster was born in the first year of Linde. At that time, the grandmaster was not yet a hundred years old, so it is impossible that he was already laying plans for things a thousand years in the future. Moreover, in the Tang dynasty, some scholars would spend vast amounts of manpower and resources bribing examiners and falsifying their ages younger to take the child student examination. Some officials would also falsify their ages younger to delay retirement, but I have never heard of anyone falsifying their age older.”
An Chengxi smiled faintly and said, “Why Meng Changsheng claimed publicly that he was born in the first year of Linde, this junior has pieced together some clues from other records. Senior, please hear this junior’s analysis and see if it makes sense.”
Lin Wan’er nodded and said earnestly, “This little woman is all ears.”
An Chengxi said, “This junior first analyses human nature. Meng Changsheng’s original name was Meng Sheng, courtesy name Changming. After cultivating the Dao, he changed his name to Meng Changsheng and styled himself the Changsheng Layman. This is like a businessman who was originally called Meng Sheng but later changes his name to Meng Facai, only the words ‘Changsheng’ sound more ethereal and less vulgar. But in essence, the underlying logic is the same as names like Meng Facai or Meng Danguan. This junior thinks that a person who changes his innermost desires into his own name must have extremely strong inner cravings; he is absolutely not the sort who is free of desires.”
Lin Wan’er agreed, saying, “Madam Ye’s analysis is indeed very reasonable.”
An Chengxi continued, “When Meng Changsheng passed the jinshi examination and entered court as an official, the emperor at the time was still Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi. Emperor Gaozong changed the reign title fourteen times in his life. His wife Wu Zetian changed it seventeen times after ascending the throne. As for Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Taizong of Tang, they each used only one reign title. The other emperors generally used one or two. Both Gaozong and Wu Hou, the imperial couple, frequently changed reign titles. It is said that this was because both devoutly believed in Daoist natural laws, the I Ching, and feng shui. Each reign title held special significance for them, likely frequently divined through the I Ching’s eight trigrams.”
As she spoke, she continued, “Meng Changsheng’s birth chart from the first year of Qianfeng, this junior had someone calculate it. For him personally, it does not bode well for official career and advancement. For the rivers and mountains of the state, it also holds no great significance. With his birth chart, combined with Gaozong’s devout belief in Daoism and the I Ching, he would have no prospects for development.”
