58: The Small Map

The first lesson of the militia kind came at the noon of the first day of the third moon.

The third moon, by the small specific reading at the hut, was the small turn of the upper-hills winter — the moon at which the small specific accumulating depth of the snow began, by the small slow patient turn of the country, to stop accumulating; the moon at which the small thin air at the dawn began, by the small specific reading of the wind, to take a small thin trace of warmer south air at certain noons; the moon at which the small first specific signs of the small accumulating spring began to show at the lower edges of the small specific deer-runs.

Lao Wen, at the noon of the first day, set out on the small wooden table a thing Heizi had not yet seen.

It was a small folded piece of hempen cloth — perhaps three hands square — that the old scholar had drawn from the small wooden chest at the foot of his cot. The cloth was old. The dye was an old indigo that had faded, by the small specific accumulating years at the chest, to a small pale grey-blue. On the cloth, in small careful even strokes of dark ink, was a map.

It was the first map Heizi had ever seen.

He had — in the past five months on the road — drawn small specific maps in his head. He had drawn them in dust with a stick. He had read Wei Lao-han's chalk on the doorstone, Lu Wen-han's chalk on the floor, the eastern-pine hermit's chalk on the slab. He had not seen — by the small specific reading at the small wooden table — a map laid down by hand on a piece of cloth that did not, at the morning's first cooking, get washed away.

The map was the upper hills.

He could see — by the small specific accumulating reading of his own past nine months on these paths — the small bear-back at the small specific cluster of three small pine-marks at the center; the small flat hollow at its foot; the grove of twelve pines on the western terrace. He could see the small narrow draw with the small old shrine perhaps a *li* and a half south. He could see, further south, the small flat place beside the eastern pine where the dead hermit's hut had been. He could see, north of the bear-back, the long low ridge with the small flat place behind it where the lean-to had stood.

He could see, also, the country he had not been in.

Further north of the long low ridge, the country opened. The cloth showed perhaps another four ridges and two small valleys. Beyond them, at the upper edge of the cloth, was a small specific gap — by the small specific reading at the small set of the cloth's rim — where the small old herders' paths gave out, and the country became something the cloth did not show.

Lao Wen pointed at the gap.

"Beyond there," he said in the small low voice, "is the small country I have not been in. The cloth ends at the small specific upper edge of the upper hills proper. Beyond is the small specific eastern foothills of the Henan border, going west toward the small first true mountains. The map is — by the small specific reading — incomplete."

He paused.

"Lad."

"Yes, Lao Wen."

"This map is — by the small specific reading at the past nineteen winters — the first map I have laid out at this small wooden table for any other man to see. The map is mine. The map has been at the small wooden chest at the foot of my cot since the third year of Wen-di. I drew it slowly in those years, by the small specific accumulating walking I did at the upper hills in my first three winters at the hut. I have, in the years since, added — at the small careful work of certain summers — perhaps four small new contour lines and the small additions of three small specific old herder's huts that I learned of from peddlers at the lower contour."

He paused.

"It is, lad — by the small specific old reading of an old militia officer — a map of a small specific scout's country. It is the country I would, if I were the small specific officer in a small specific failure of a reign, have given to a small five-man scouting unit at the small specific moment of their being given a charge to *find a place to stand*."

He paused once more.

"The map is — at this noon — what I am beginning the small specific tactical lessons with."

He sat back on the small wooden stool.

He pointed at the small specific cluster of three pines at the center.

"Lad. The bear-back. Tell me — by the small specific reading you have made of it in the past three months — what the bear-back is good for."

Heizi looked at the small specific cluster on the cloth.

He thought.

He thought slowly, in the small accumulating way Lao Wen had been teaching him in the past month. The bear-back was — by the small specific reading he had at his own walking of it — a small low hill that stood at the small specific south of the country. Its eastern face was bald grey rock. Its western face was wooded with the long slow slope into the small flat hollow. It had, at its foot, the small flat hollow where the three streams met. It had, on its terrace, the grove of twelve pines and Lao Wen's hut. It had, perhaps a *li* east of its eastern face, the small further country that ran east toward the lower contour.

He spoke slowly.

"Lao Wen. The bear-back is good for — by the small specific reading I have — concealment from the south. The grove of twelve pines on the western terrace is invisible from the small flat hollow at the foot, by the small specific accumulating brush. The hut is invisible from the lower country east, by the small specific bald grey rock of the eastern face that breaks any small specific line of sight from below. The bear-back is — by the small specific reading — a small specific high place from which an eye on the western terrace can see south to the small flat hollow at perhaps ten paces' clearer ground, but cannot see north or east without leaving the grove."

He paused.

"It is — by the small specific reading — a small specific defensive position for a small household that does not want to be seen, but — but is a small specific weak position for a small household that needs to see what is approaching from north or east."

Lao Wen nodded.

"Yes, lad. That is the small specific reading."

He paused.

"Now — what would the small specific weakness, in a small specific failure of a reign with bands moving in the lower country, ask the small specific household to do."

Heizi thought.

"A small specific eye-station at the upper face of the bear-back's eastern bald rock. A small specific scout sent up at certain mornings to look east. The small specific lame brother — yes, by the small specific reading of his bad foot, perhaps not at the steepest scrambling of the bald rock, but — but perhaps the smith's son or the boy at certain specific watching mornings."

"Yes."

"And the small specific accumulating reading of the lower contour at certain dusks, by the smith's son at the lower edge of the western face's brush, where the small specific column of any cooking-fire's smoke from the lower country would, at the small specific reading at perhaps a *li*, be visible against the small grey winter dusk."

"Yes, lad. That is the small specific reading also."

The old scholar pointed, then, to the small specific cluster of three small pine-marks east of the bear-back, where the lower country began.

"And here — what is here."

Heizi looked.

He had not — by the small specific reading at his own walking — been in the small further country east of the bear-back since the small specific morning of his outbound at the second moon. He had at that morning come in by the small old herders' path that ran along the foot of the bear-back's western face, around the southwestern side, into the small flat hollow at the foot. He had not gone east.

He thought.

The small further country east — by the small specific reading of the cloth — was a country of small narrow wooded valleys with small thin streams at their bottoms. It was, by the lame boy's report at the dusk three days ago of a small specific peddler-print on a thin contour two *li* east, country that had, at certain seasons, small specific traffic.

He spoke slowly.

"Lao Wen. The small further country east is — by the small specific reading — country that connects the upper hills here to the lower country south, by the small specific contour the bandit-band of the eighth moon was on. The contour is — by the small specific way of the country — the way bands move."

"Yes."

"The bear-back, then, is — by the small specific reading — at the small specific edge of a route. We are not far from a route. We are perhaps two *li* west of a route. The route is, by the small specific reading at the lower contour, a small specific traveling-route used by bands and by peddlers alike."

"Yes."

"The route is — by the small specific reading — a small specific weak spot in our small specific defensive position. A band moving north on the route, at any specific season, will pass within two *li* of the bear-back's eastern face. If the band has — by some small specific accident — been told that the old scholar's hut is on the bear-back's western terrace, the band can come up. The route is the small specific approach."

Lao Wen nodded slowly.

"Yes, lad. That is — by the small specific reading of an old militia officer — the small specific reason this hut has been hidden by the small specific accumulating discipline of an old man at a hut for nineteen winters. The route exists. The country knows, in a small specific old way, that the route exists. The hut has — by the small specific reading — been kept invisible to the route by my small specific careful banking of the fire and my small specific not-going-down to the lower contour at any season."

He paused.

"By the small specific accumulating reading of the past three years, lad — by the small specific reports I have had from peddlers at the small thin column at certain dusks — the bands on the route have been increasing. The third year ago, I saw perhaps one band a year. The second year ago, three. This past year, six. This winter — by the small specific accounting at the eighth-moon report from a peddler — eleven."

He paused.

"The route is — at this third moon, lad — at the small specific accumulating becoming-of-a-real-route. By the next year, by the small specific reading, perhaps a band a moon. By the year after, more."

He looked at Heizi.

"The household has — by the small specific reading at this small wooden table at this noon — perhaps a year and a half of the small specific quiet at this hut before the small specific accumulating route forces a small specific decision on us. The decision will be — by the small specific reading — to either move further into the upper country, where the route does not yet reach, or to lay a small specific defense at the bear-back's western terrace."

He paused.

"That is — that is the small specific tactical question I am laying for the household this winter. We will, in the next four winters, be at the small specific working out of the answer."

Heizi nodded.

He looked at the map.

He had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past quarter hour — begun, for the first time in his life, to read the small specific country not as the small specific surface of a road he was walking but as the small specific terrain of a small specific question of where to stand.

He filed it.

In the small lighter catalog, beside the morning of the first deer and the small wooden bowl that had waited three months, he set: *the small specific noon at the small wooden table, when Lao Wen laid out the cloth map and asked, for the first time in nine months on the road, the small specific question of where to stand.*

That afternoon, after the small noon meal, the brothers and Lao Wen sat at the small wooden table for two more hours. Lao Wen, slowly, with the small specific patient even pace of an old officer at a teaching, walked the four young men through the small specific other features of the cloth map: the small specific upper-hills crossing-paths, the small specific peddler-routes, the small specific places where the country had — at certain seasons — small specific habitable places for a household; the small specific places where it did not. The brothers, at the small wooden table, listened.

Tie-zhu, at the small low pad at the western wall — the foot was up; he had been walking at small specific short distances at the small clear ground in front of the hut for three days — leaned forward to follow the small specific lines on the cloth. By the second hour of the afternoon, he had — by the small specific quiet attention of his small specific eye — laid out, in his head, the small specific shape of the bear-back and the small specific shape of the country around it, in the same small specific way he had been laying out, in his head, the small specific shape of every upper-hills slope he had walked in the past nine months.

Wang Er, at the eastern wall, listened. The smith's son's slow honest face did not — at the small specific lesson — show any small specific change. He was — by the small specific reading at the past month at the hut — at the small specific quiet listening of a young man whose small specific work would not, in any reading of the cloth map, be the small specific work of where to stand. The smith's son's small specific work was the small specific work of holding what was at hand. The cloth map was — by the small specific reading at his face — a small specific work of the big brother's hand.

An Ashi, at the small slab against the eastern wall, took out the small folded scrap of pine bark and the small thin charcoal sliver. He laid down, in small specific careful even marks, a small specific copy of a portion of the cloth map — the small specific portion around the bear-back and the small specific lower contour to the east. He copied slowly, by the small specific reading of a Sogdian merchant's son who had been, at his ninth and tenth and eleventh years, taught the small specific copying of his father's small specific accounting-papers.

The boy looked up at Lao Wen.

"Grandfather. May I — may I make a small copy of the cloth on a small piece of bark? For the household's small specific reading at the small slab?"

Lao Wen looked at him.

He nodded.

"Yes, boy. Make a small copy. Make it slowly, in the next two weeks, at the long evenings. Do not make it complete. Make it only of the country we will, by the small specific reading, be walking at this winter and the next. The further country west and the country I have not been in — leave them off your small bark. The bark is — by the small specific reading — only for the small specific working country of the small five-man scouting unit at this hut at this winter."

"Yes, grandfather."

Lao Wen paused.

He said: *and boy.*

"Yes, grandfather."

"When the bark is finished — perhaps in two weeks — keep it at the small slab against the eastern wall for the household's reading. Do not — do not, boy, take it from the hut at any moment without the big brother and the lame brother and the smith's son and the grandfather's knowing. The bark is — by the small specific reading — the household's small specific second eye, at the small slab. It is at this hut. It does not — by any small specific reading — leave the hut alone at any season."

"Yes, grandfather."

That evening at the small fire, Heizi sat with the small folded indigo pouch in his palm. He took out the small folded square of pale yellow silk with the small embroidered character *生* and laid it on the small wooden table beside Lao Wen's cloth map of the upper hills.

The small square of silk and the cloth map sat side by side at the small wooden table for a long beat.

Heizi looked at the two.

He thought, for one beat, about the small specific accumulating relationship of the two pieces of cloth on the small wooden table.

The small square of silk — by the small specific reading he had at the third week of the eleventh moon — was the small specific instruction his sister had laid for him at the morning of her last afternoon. *Live anyway.*

The cloth map — by the small specific reading at this noon — was the small specific instrument an old militia officer had laid for him at the small wooden table at the first day of the third moon. *Where to stand.*

The two were not — by any small specific reading — the same instruction.

But they were, by the small specific accumulating reading of nine months, the small specific two instruments a young man at fifteen would, by the small specific way of the country, need.

The instruction *to live anyway* had — by the small specific reading at the past nine months — required, at every small specific moment of the road, the small specific knowledge of *where to stand*. The small specific where had not been, in the past nine months, available to him in any clear way; he had been, by the small specific accumulating reading of his own walking, finding it as he went.

The small specific instrument of the cloth map was — at this evening at the small wooden table — the small specific gift of an old officer who was, at fifty-five at the third moon of an upper-hills winter, laying down for him the first small specific *where*.

He folded the small silk back into the small finished indigo pouch and put it back in the inner pocket of his shirt against his ribs.

He did not — at the small wooden table — say anything.

Lao Wen, at his small wooden stool, looked up briefly from the small bound book he had reopened for the evening's reading.

He looked at Heizi.

He nodded, once, with the small specific reading of an old officer who had — by the small specific accumulating noticing at the past month — seen what Heizi had set on the small wooden table beside the cloth map.

He did not — at the small wooden stool — say anything.

That night, Heizi at his watch sat at the small banked fire ring just inside the south face of the hut.

He listened.

The shape of the silence on this night was the shape of a small old hut at the grove of twelve pines, on the first night after the cloth map of the upper hills had been laid out at the small wooden table for the brothers to see. The map had — at this dusk — been folded and put back in the small wooden chest at the foot of Lao Wen's cot. The small hempen-bark copy An Ashi had begun was at the small slab.

The map was, by the small specific reading at this watch, in three places: at the chest, at the bark on the slab, and — most importantly — in Heizi's head.

The country was — at this watch — beginning to be readable to him at the small specific scale of *where to stand*.

He filed it.

In the small lighter catalog of moments, beside the morning of the first deer, he set: *the small specific noon at the small wooden table, when the cloth map was laid for the four of them, and the small specific *where to stand* began to be readable.*

The owls of the upper hills called twice.

He sat his watch through.