Living leisurely in Tang Dynasty

Since Yuanying was gifted with a large bamboo forest, he arranged for his workshop to come pick up suitable bamboos for production.

The workshop manager is the quick-witted Deng Qing, who was the first to suggest using reeds to produce paper. Not only did he receive his reward as promised, he was even offered a job with Prince Teng.

Upon entering winter, Deng Qing lead his workers around harvesting reeds as they were not owned by anyone and can be freely harvested. The workshop is currently short of manpower but he only needed to pay a small sum to hire outsiders to send over reeds that are as tall as poles.

Being in the outer suburbs, people who were supposed to be slacking in winter started happily collecting and sending in reeds to the paper-making workshop. In exchanged they were rewarded with money and food to have a good new year celebration with their family.

The workshop started producing in full swing by following a fixed set of operating procedures. If there is no hiccup, the first batch would be ready before the Emperor’s birthday and Li Yuanying would only need to come for an inspection. Even if he couldn’t make it, a ready stockpile was already ready and all the Prince had to do was to offer his treasures out.

Yuanying initially said that he would wait for spring before sharing his treasure with his older brother. However, he was already impatient and planned to send it out on Li Er’s birthday!

Hearing that Prince Teng acquired a bamboo forest that belonged to the royal household, Deng Qing was energetic.

Bamboo were more expensive than reeds, because it grows faster and can grow all year round. They can also be planted everywhere in the mountains! Moreover, Deng Qing has made new discovery that by mixing different kinds of easy-to-find materials in different proportion, it can change the end product’s color, hardness, and toughness!

Deng Qing immediately led his men to check out the bamboo excitedly. With so many bamboos, they would no longer have to worry about limited production!

One day before the Emperor’s birthday, the workshop sent in newly made reed paper into the palace. Yuanying opened one roll and inspected it. It was not that different from the rattan paper used by court today. It looked lighter and thinner, but was more resilient and doesn’t tear easily!

Yuanying was happy. He took out his production sheet and reviewed it again and again. After confirming that the materials used was very cheap and had greatly reduced product cost, he put them into a pre-packed carton to be dedicated to Li Er as a birthday gift.

Lady Liu was also anxious about the same topic. She came to visit Yuanying at night and asked: “Have you really prepared the birthday gift properly?”

“Yes, all done. Lord Brother will definitely like it.”

Lady Liu saw that Yuanying was full of confidence and didn’t ask more questions. She instead ask that a treasure from thewarehouse be moved into Yuanying’s room as a spare birthday gift.

“There can  be accidents in everything, you bring this along. If what you prepared is not suitable, send this up.”

Li Yuanying opened the brocade box brought by mother and found a treasure that was left to him by his late father. Yuanying agreed verbally but when Lady Liu left, he hid the treasure under his pillow, and solemnly warned those around him.

“Don’t take this away. This is what dad left for me. I want to keep it as a family heirloom so I can’t give it out!”

Naturally his men complied.

Li Yuanying slept next to the brocade box. At night, he dreamed of his late father holding him on his lap while talking to others. The topic was boring and so his hands became restless. He then secretly reached out to pluck the Supreme Emperor’s beard. Father groaned, lowered his head and stared. The boy immediately laughed happily. Children! They like watching people’s exaggerated movements and listen to exaggerated voices.

The late Emperor was happy seeing his soon laughing heartily. Not only did he not reprimand him, he instead boasted.

“Look, such small hands but are strong enough to pull my beard!”

With father’s indulgence, Yuanying didn’t think that his action of pulling people’s beard was wrong. He also thought it was  fun. He loved to pull them secretly while others were not paying attention and then he enjoys listening to them scream in pain. Even his imperial brother was not spared and has suffered this misfortune twice!

Yuanying opened his eyes in the morning, and watched the sun shining in from outside, filling the room with clear light. He sat up in a trance, feeling like he was still in Da’an Palace.  When he rubbed his eyes, he knew that he was no longer a kid who could pull people’s beard for fun.

Li Yuanying sighed.

Servants who came in to serve the little prince saw him sighing.

“What’s wrong, Your Highness?”

“Chinese New Year is coming soon and I will be 12 years old after New Year. I can no longer be a child.”

“As long as your highness wants, you can always be a child.”

Yuanying thought about it and sees truth in that statement. He was after all rich and a majestic prince of the Tang Dynasty. He can do whatever he likes. Besides, even if he lived to be 80 years old, mom  would still treat him like a child. By then, he would definitely be an old child of 80 years old!

He immediately became happy and picked up the brocade box he had prepared and went looking for  Li Er.

Today is Li Er’s birthday and there is no court session. The planned itinerary is a banquet at noon for ministers and a family banquet in the evening. Nonetheless, the Emperor still got up earlier than Li Yuanying. When Yuanying arrived, Li Er had already had breakfast, and the other children had already celebrated one round of his birthday.

Li Er was practicing calligraphy and  motioned for his brother to be allowed in.

Yuanying ran up with the brocade box in his arms. Seeing Li Er writing large characters, he immediately leaned over to sing praises: “Brother Emperor, your writing is really spirited. Just look at it. With the momentum of leaping dragons and leaping tigers, everyone will agree with me!”

Li Er was used to compliments and he agreed that his handwriting was pretty good. However he somehow felt that something felt wrong Li Yuanying’s praises. Today is the Emperor’s birthday and so he wouldn’t find fault with him.

“It’s still so early in the morning, why didn’t you sleep in late?”

“Today is your birthday, of course I have to celebrate your birthday! How is it? Did I come early enough? Am I the first?”

“Zhi Nu already came by.”

Li Yuanying: “…”

“Sizi was here.”

“…”

“Chengyang has come.”

“…”

“Hengshan has come.”

“…”

“Gao Yang has also been here.”

“…”

His Majesty Li Er looked at Li Yuanying and asked slowly: “So do you still think that you are the first?”

“What’s so great about waking up early?! I  prepared a birthday gift for you, Brother! They definitely didn’t give you a gift earlier than me!”

This is true. Everyone else was going to present their gift at night and no one had gave him anything yet.  

Li Er immediately asked curiously: “What birthday gift did you prepare?”

Li Yuanying pushed Li Er’s dried calligraphy aside and pulled his older brother to sit down. He wanted Li Er to opened the brocade box himself.

Li Er wasn’t annoyed by his actions and  reached out to open the  box.

Seeing that there was something like a calligraphy or painting inside, Li Er felt that this kid was too casual by giving him his own calligraphy/painting as a birthday gift. He took out the “calligraphy/painting” and was prepared to criticize, but found a roll of blank paper!

Li Er looked at Yuanying, asking him to explain. Is this a mistake, or are you going spit out something like the intention is more important than the gift?

Yuanying was in no hurry, he pulled Li Er and said: “Brother, please write on it and see if this paper is useful!”

Li Er couldn’t figure the kid out but he still did as he was told. He got  someone to spread out the paper and began writing on it.

He wrote the four characters “a gentle and pleasant breeze” which came from his favorite <<Orchid Pavilion Preface>>.

After finishing, Li Er observed the paper carefully and found that although it was thinner than his usual, it did not smudge and the quality was good. It really is a pity that the Emperor uses high-quality paper all year round. So what’s so good about this paper as a birthday gift.

“You really prepared such a gift for me?”

“Of course not!”

Yuanying then took out another piece of paper and handed it to Li Er. This is the painstaking effort of Deng Qing and his men in the past two years. Yuanying had spend lots of money but as long as it is something that money can get, Yuanying will not be stingy. Anyway, even if this new method is dedicated to his brother, Deng Qing can still produce it!

Li Er was puzzled. After taking a look at the manuscript Yuanying handed over, his eyes gradually relaxed. He raised his eyebrows, turned to Yuanying and asked, “Is this method really possible?”

“Didn’t I bring you actual product?”

His Majesty was overjoyed and he gave a rare praise to Li Yuanying: “Okay, I like this gift very much.”

Satisfied, Li Yuanying told His Majesty about everyone who was responsible for this project. Mei Niang gave the idea and Deng Qing contributed the most. In short, everyone is awesome and they all contributed to this birthday gift. Hard work!

It was a rare occurrence where the Emperor listened patiently before driving his younger brother away to play.