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Sun Jian then knelt at his desk and focussed on some minor official
matters. Lady Wu retired to the sleeping quarters, and silence descended for
several minutes.
“…Father, what’s up with these ‘Yellow Turbans’…?”
Sun Jian sighed miserably, lowered the cloth letter that he had been
reading and turned to his son Sun Ce.
“I’d ask Mother again, but she said I should ask you last time,” Sun Ce continued.
“…Alright,” Sun Jian said. “I suppose it’ll be useful for you to know;
after all, this might go on for years.”
“Years…?” Sun Ce exclaimed. “But you said that-”
“I know what I said,” Sun Jian interrupted. “Now listen, and listen
well. The Yellow Turbans are a cult. They go against everything Confucian that
I’ve raised you to believe in. They are doing things that are deliberately
offensive to the emperor.”
“…Like what?”
Sun Jian coughed awkwardly and said, “You know your ‘Wu Xing’?”
“Fire nourishes earth… an’ water… rusts metal…?” Sun Ce replied.
“There’s a bit more to it than that, but it’ll do for this
conversation,” Sun Jian chuckled. “But for the sake of the future, Ce’er… study
harder.”
“I will, Father,” Sun Ce said apologetically.
“The Han are represented by red, and fire,” Sun Jian continued.
“Additionally, the colour yellow is-”
“The imperial colour!” Sun Ce said excitedly.
“…Yes,” Sun Jian replied.
“Oh, uh… sorry I interrupted you, Father,” Sun Ce said.
“It’s fine, just this once,” Sun Jian replied. “Now, as I was saying, my
son… yellow for the Han is as inauspicious as it is auspicious when used by
these cultists.”
“I hate cultists,” Sun Ce grumbled.
“So you should,” Sun Jian said. “We’re trying to advance, and such
backward groups are going to drag us down. The people that follow them are
probably mostly just angry at the government and not proper cultists at all,
but that’s someone else’s fault, not the emperor’s… I’ll get to that.”
“Okay,” Sun Ce said. “So why is yellow double-bad?”
“…I don’t think that’s how I put it,” Sun Jian chuckled. “But anyway…
first of all, Wu Xing dictates that earth
- signified by yellow - is nourished by fire, so part of the
cultists choosing yellow is because of that.”
“…I get it,” Sun Ce said.
“Good,” Sun Jian replied. “Secondly, yellow must never be worn above the head by anyone other than the emperor. The
cult’s leader has told everyone to do exactly that, though… which is why
they’re called ‘Yellow Turbans’, because that’s what they’re all wearing
deliberately to-”
“That’s treason!” Sun Ce exclaimed.
“It is,” Sun Jian replied. “But it’s worse than normal treason. When
Wang Mang usurped the Han over a century ago, he would never have done this. To
have the normal people wear yellow isn’t just a call to get rid of the emperor;
it’s a call to get rid of the empire, of everything we know and understand.
It’s a call to give all of the power under Heaven to everyone, not just the emperor.”
“…What’s wrong with that?” Sun Ce whispered.
“I… admit that it probably doesn’t sound wrong to someone your age,” Sun
Jian replied awkwardly, “but it just is,
alright…? I want to see people’s lives get better, but that isn’t what the ‘Way
of Peace’ will give us. They’re a cult, and so they’ll bring in something
loosely based on Taoism, something twisted that will suit the leaders, but not
anyone else. But it’s the government’s fault for making these fanatical idiots
seem-”
Sun Ce laughed at his father’s words.
“…Hush, my son,” Sun Jian pleaded. “I’m being serious.”