Accounts as Blades

On the eve of the Northern Wei court’s move to Luoyang during the Taihe era, Lu Shen, a lowborn clerk in the Secretariat, uncovers a scheme by imperial clansmen and frontier generals to resell the Six Garrisons’ military grain. The books, however, claim that the Pingcheng granaries are full. He means to turn a blind eye and save his own skin, but his superior puts him forward as the scapegoat. His first impossible choice looms: reveal the true accounts and bring down the imperial clansmen, but leave the frontier garrisons without grain and risk a mutiny; or conceal the falsified books and buy himself time, while letting the capital’s relocation plans and his family’s lives collapse together. He chooses to protect the frontier first, secretly altering the accounts and fabricating a story about “replacing old grain with fresh,” then navigating between imperial princes, maternal relatives of the imperial family, eunuchs, and messengers from the Six Garrisons. When the imperial clansmen see through him, they force him to frame their political rivals. The frontier generals bring troops to demand grain, while the emperor uses him as a weapon. Every hole he plugs, he digs another. His second dilemma is even crueler: the emperor secretly orders him to sacrifice one garrison to ensure the move to the new capital, while a frontier general demands that he open the granaries and hand over the secret edict. Obey the emperor, and he forfeits his morals; side with the frontier garrison, and he will bear the name of a traitor. The climax erupts in both the court and the granaries. Using the falsified books, the real grain, and the secret edict to turn all three against one another, he sets the imperial clansmen, frontier generals, and emperor at each other’s throats. In the end, he burns the accounts in public, opens the granaries, and throws himself before the palace gates to plead for death, forcing the emperor to choose between “killing him to quell the unrest” and “admitting the truth and reforming the system.” The emperor kills the imperial clansmen, pacifies the frontier garrisons, and institutes a new system. Lu Shen is demoted, then reinstated, becoming a capable official with no reputation for spotless virtue. The story’s moral premise comes to rest with him: in a world of utterly rotten schemes, even dirty hands can do clean work, but someone must first own up and pay the price.