The third moon of the twentieth year of Da-ye gave way to the fourth. The fourth gave way to the fifth.
The country, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddlers' accumulating saying through the spring, fractured further.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler at the dusk of the third week of the fifth moon — Li Yuan at Taiyuan had, at the past second moon of the twentieth year, formally raised the small accumulating *new banner* of the *Tang* against the Sui-court at Chang'an. The accumulating *Tang* banner was — by the small specific reading at the past peddler — at the small accumulating *real* shape of an accumulating *third major rebellion* with perhaps thirty thousand troops at the small accumulating *Taiyuan-shape* and with — by the small specific reading at the past peddler — the small accumulating *real political reading* of a small accumulating *Sui-court's accumulating cousin* whose accumulating Mandate-claim was, by the small specific reading at the past forty years' Sui-court reading, perhaps the small accumulating *strongest* of the three major rebellions.
By the small specific reading at the past peddler at the dusk of the first week of the sixth moon — Yang Guang at Jiangdu had, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two months, been at the small accumulating *paranoia-and-isolation* shape of a Sui-emperor whose accumulating Mandate had — at the small accumulating *Tang-banner-rising* of the past second moon — withdrawn at the small specific accumulating *seen* shape. By the small specific reading at the past peddler — Yang Guang's accumulating *personal court at Jiangdu* was at the small accumulating *real* shape of an accumulating *court-in-exile* even though Jiangdu was — by the small specific accumulating reading — the Sui's own accumulating southern capital. The accumulating *real political reading* was, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past peddler — that Yang Guang would, by the small specific reading at the next year, perhaps not survive at Jiangdu.
The country was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past four months — at the small accumulating *late stage* of the *real failure of Da-ye*.
Lao Wen at the cot — by the small specific reading at the past four months — read.
He had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past four months — completed the *Daxue's* eleventh round and the *Zhongyong's* second round.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the dusk of the seventh day of the sixth moon, Lao Wen laid the small accumulating *new round* on Heizi.
He said in the small low voice at the small wooden stool at the cot's-side: *lad. By the small specific reading I am giving at this dusk — we will, in the next eighteen months, lay in the small accumulating *Liji's accumulating Royal Regulations* round. The *Royal Regulations* is — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past forty years' Sui-court reading — the small accumulating *real political-shape book* of an accumulating *officer-of-state's accumulating governance reading*. By the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — the *Royal Regulations* lays in the small accumulating *real* shape of how an accumulating *new* state — at the small accumulating *post-failure-of-Da-ye* shape — would, by the small specific reading I am giving, be governed.*
He paused.
"By the small specific reading I am giving — the lad will, at the small accumulating *moment after the master's accumulating end*, take the *Royal Regulations* with the lad's accumulating *one-mark-knowing* into the small accumulating *new* state's accumulating service. By the small specific reading I am giving — the *Royal Regulations* is, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past forty years, the small accumulating *one* book that an accumulating *new state's accumulating high-officer* needs, at the small accumulating *real* shape of an accumulating *governance reading*."
He paused.
"By the small specific reading I am giving — the lad will not, at the next eighteen months, become an accumulating Confucian-classicist at the small accumulating *full reading* shape of an accumulating *court-scholar's twenty years*. The lad will, by the small specific reading I am giving, become at the small accumulating *real* shape of an accumulating *officer who has, at the small accumulating eighteen months, *one-mark-known* the *Royal Regulations'* small specific accumulating shape of how a state is governed*. That is — by the small specific reading I am giving — the small accumulating *enough*."
He looked at Heizi.
"That is — by the small specific reading I am giving — what the lad will leave with."
Heizi nodded.
He filed it.
He went to the small wooden bench at the small clear ground that evening and laid the small accumulating *Royal Regulations*' first opening characters at his accumulating bench-page.
The *Royal Regulations* opened at the small specific accumulating *king's office* shape — *the Son of Heaven, when establishing his offices, makes the three dukes, the nine ministers, the twenty-seven great officers, the eighty-one elder gentlemen* — and laid out, at the small accumulating thousand-character first chapter, the small accumulating *real* shape of an accumulating new state's accumulating officer-arrangement.
Heizi read it that evening through the dusk and into the night.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the dawn of the eighth day of the sixth moon — Heizi had, at the past one watch and a half, read the *Royal Regulations'* first chapter twice.
He went to the cot at the dawn.
He said in the small low voice: *master. The first chapter — *establishing the offices*. By the small specific reading I am giving at this dawn — the chapter lays out a small accumulating *officer-arrangement* of three plus nine plus twenty-seven plus eighty-one. By the small specific accumulating reading at the past forty years' Sui-court — that arrangement is, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, *not* the small accumulating *real Sui-court* arrangement. The Sui-court is, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past forty years, at a small accumulating *six ministries and accumulating provincial-and-prefectural* shape that is, by the small specific reading I am giving, perhaps closer to the small accumulating *Han Royal Regulations*' accumulating later evolution than to the *Liji's accumulating original*.*
He paused.
"By the small specific reading I am giving — the *Royal Regulations* the master is laying at this round is, by the small specific reading I am giving, perhaps a small accumulating *idealized* shape, by the small specific accumulating reading at the small accumulating *post-Han classicist tradition*. The new state — at the small accumulating *post-failure-of-Da-ye* — would, by the small specific reading I am giving, perhaps not adopt the *Royal Regulations'* original three-nine-twenty-seven-eighty-one. It would — by the small specific reading I am giving — perhaps adopt a small accumulating *modified Sui-shape with corrections* the *Royal Regulations* would inform but not, by the small specific reading I am giving, dictate."
He looked at Lao Wen.
Lao Wen looked at him for a long beat.
He said in the small low voice: *yes, lad.*
He paused.
"By the small specific accumulating reading at this dawn — the lad has, at the small specific reading of the first chapter at one and a half watches, laid in the small accumulating *real political reading* of an accumulating *officer-in-training's accumulating second year of independent reading*. The master had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two days — expected this from the lad at perhaps the small accumulating *fourth or fifth* chapter."
He paused.
"By the small specific reading I am giving at this dawn — the lad has, at the past four years and a half at the cot, become at the small accumulating *real* shape of an accumulating *officer-in-the-rough*. The lad has, by the small specific reading I am giving, the small accumulating *eye* the master had — at the past forty years — laid in the lad at the small accumulating *complete* shape."
He paused once more.
"By the small specific reading I am giving — the *Royal Regulations* round will, in the next eighteen months, perhaps go fast. We will, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, finish it before the small accumulating *unfound moment*."
Heizi nodded.
He filed it.
That evening at his watch he sat at the small banked fire.
He listened.
The shape of the silence on this watch was — by the small specific reading at this evening — the shape of a small specific *staff-officer-and-apprentice* whose accumulating master had, at the dawn, named the lad's accumulating reading at the *real* shape of an accumulating *officer-in-the-rough* whose *eye* the master had laid in the lad at the small accumulating *complete* shape.
Heizi did not — at the small banked fire — feel the small accumulating *complete*. He felt — by the small specific reading at this evening — the small accumulating *unfinished*.
But the master's reading was — by the small specific reading at the past four years and a half — the master's. The master had — by the small specific accumulating reading at this dawn — said the small accumulating *complete*. The lad would, by the small specific reading I am giving, take that as the small accumulating *master's reading*.
He filed.
He sat his watch through.
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