Wayward Son (37 page)

Li Si, the Emperor’s prime minister, entered grandly dressed in flowing robes of gold-embroidered black silk. He bowed ceremoniously.

“Kwok-se, dear to His Majesty’s heart, how happy is your return from foreign lands! The Emperor rejoices in your safe arrival here in Xi’an.”

Something in the prime minister’s manner signaled to Cain that the words were not entirely sincere.

Responding with exaggerated courtesy of his own, Kwok-se replied jovially, “Surely you jest! Of course we are safe! The imperial bandits accompanied us here all the way from Lanzhou.”

Li Si raised an eyebrow. “Bandits, you say? I know of no such bandits in our precincts. In China, the rule of law is as universal as it is absolute.”

At that very moment, with the reverberation of an enormous gong, the First Emperor entered the hall, surrounded by groups of scribes, guards, and ministers of state. All three men bowed low as His August Majesty, Qin Shihuangdi, ascended his throne of emerald, jade, and gold.

Cain studied the ruler’s features. About forty-five, he had the body of a warrior, as well as a few facial scars, evidencing past combat. His head was surmounted by a tightly twisted topknot. He sported a double-edged Jian sword in a black brocade belt wrapped around his tunic. The “gentleman of weapons,” as the Chinese saying went, the sword looked as if the blade had been carved from a single piece of jade. Altogether a commanding presence.

Cain had not anticipated the voice, however. In a booming, resonant bass, the emperor began the audience by addressing his scribes.

“Let the reports on the revenues from each commandery be in my hands no later than tomorrow evening,” he ordered, referring to the administrative districts into which all China was now divided. “You are now dismissed, my scribes, so that you will not fail to fulfill my orders.”

Turning to his prime minister, the emperor inquired if there were any matters deserving of the ruler’s attention. Li Si, gesturing to Kwok-se and Cain, addressed the ruler in a fawning tone.

“The travelers from abroad attend on you, sire,” he said, somewhat superfluously.

As if on cue, Kwok-se and Cain promptly straightened from their bows. The emperor cast a bemused gaze on both his visitors. He motioned to Kwok-se to address him.

“The bright virtue of the August Emperor aligns and orders the whole universe,” the emperor’s old friend recited.

“You are safely returned, Kwok-se! The sight of you gladdens my heart!” His affection for his schoolmate was obvious.

“Majesty, I have brought from the Far West some gifts for your inspection.” Palace guards, who had transported a selection of the treasures from Alexandria, promptly laid them out directly in front of the throne. An appreciative smile brightened the emperor’s face, although Cain thought it was peculiar that no papyrus scrolls were included in the collection of gifts.

After a few minutes, during which the emperor inspected the gifts, Kwok-se continued, “But the most valuable treasure I have secured in Egypt stands beside me in your presence, Majesty. I have the distinct privilege to introduce you to Philo of Alexandria, the most eminent cartographer of his, or any, age.”

An even broader smile radiated from the emperor’s face.

“A cartographer? How delightful! Is the foreigner perchance conversant with our language?” Qin Shihuangdi seemed afflicted with some sort of nervous tic, causing him to blink his left eye irregularly, but it did not detract from the man’s imposing dynamism.

Cain again bowed low and then recited, “The bright virtue of the August Emperor aligns and orders the whole universe.” His accentual, rhythmic tones were perfect. The emperor had not expected a visitor gifted with such fluency.

“You speak our language magnificently, Philo of Alexandria. I am delighted! May I see a sample of your cartographic work?”

Having been primed by Kwok-se, Cain withdrew from a satchel a papyrus roll on which he had created a beautifully detailed map of the Mediterranean coastline, ranging westward from ancient Phoenicia in the Levant to the Pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar. He spread the scroll out at the foot of the throne. The emperor signaled a servant to bring the map to him so that he could examine it more closely.

“This is extraordinary! Maps are my passion. Will you be able to accept a commission for some new projects?”

“I would be honored, Majesty,” replied Cain, knowing that to refuse would be ungracious, at the very least. “What do you wish?”

“Here in the palace in Xi’an,” the Emperor gestured around with a lordly sweep of his left arm, “we harbor large dreams. I have a dining room that accommodates six thousand guests for state dinners. On one wall of this room, I desire a map of the entire western world. Can you fulfill my desire?”

“I have traveled far and wide, Majesty. I will attempt to do your bidding.”

“Excellent!” declared the Emperor. “Now, my ministers, you may depart.” Bowing in salutation, all the attendees at the audience, including Li Si, processed from the room.

When they were gone, the Emperor rose and descended the steps from the throne. Throwing his arms around Kwok-se, he embraced him warmly.

“How I have missed you these five long years! You must never leave me again. And we have the wedding plans to discuss, Kwok-se. Winter is not far off.”

To Cain’s astonishment, the wedding Kwok-se had returned to Xi’an to attend, and to which Cain was invited, would unite Kwok-se’s own daughter with the emperor’s second son, Hu Hai, in marriage.

The emperor changed the subject abruptly and addressed Cain.

“The dimensions of the palace dining room will be conveyed to you by my secretaries. I hope you will be able to start on the map immediately. It will be an important addition. But for now, my wish is for you both to accompany me on a royal outing.”

Gazing at Kwok-se meaningfully, the ruler imparted, “In your absence, I have accelerated a prized new project, old friend! There has been nothing like it ever before. Nothing!”

The emperor’s left eye blinked rapidly, while Kwok-se and Cain bowed in assent. Placing his arms around the shoulders of his guests, Emperor Qin Shihuangdi swept them out of the throne room.

CHAPTER 48

China, 213–212 BC

THEY RODE IN RUMBLING, elaborately decorated imperial carriages down the highway’s walled center lane to a destination nearly twenty miles east of Xi’an, just beyond
Huaqing Hot Springs
. The First Emperor was clearly relishing the suspense he had created in his guests.

“Have you any idea where we are headed?” he asked Kwok-se, poking him jovially on the arm.

“How could I, Majesty? It is you who have graciously planned today’s itinerary.”

They alighted in front of an enormous earthen mound. There were no buildings visible as far as the eye could see.

Kwok-se ventured a question to his old friend. “Have you brought us here, then, to appreciate this beautiful countryside?”

The emperor guffawed. “Surely you jest! You see, do I not remember your mercurial manner of speaking, old friend? Come, follow me.”

Attended by the palace escort, they circled on foot to the back side of the towering mound. To the guests’ amazement, the earth lay open, with tens of thousands of laborers working in a deep, subterranean pit in utter silence. As with everything undertaken by the First Emperor, the scale of the excavation was mind-boggling.

“What figures are those men fashioning?” asked Kwok-se as he pointed to an array of life-size statues.

“They are creating my army, my friend. Out of terra-cotta, but the warriors’ swords and the other weapons are real.” The emperor turned to inspect the clay army before continuing. “And so will be the soldiers, once the heavens endow them with the breath of life.”

“But surely, Majesty, do you not already have a full roster of living and breathing troops?”

“Of course, of course,” replied the emperor with an impatient wave of the hand and some more rapid eye blinks. “But
these
troops are special. Unlike my run-of-the-mill conscripts, or even my heroic veteran officers,
these
will live forever.” He drew rapid breaths for emphasis.

Cain recalled Kwok-se’s previous remarks on the subject of the emperor’s obsession with immortality. He stared at the serried ranks of terra-cotta soldiers, each of them life-size and impeccably attired in studded plate armor. The workers were evidently using an assembly-line technique to create the torsos, with individual heads and limbs subsequently added to fashion an immense gallery of lifelike, realistically differentiated individuals. At least two thousand troops had been completed, with ample space in this pit for thousands more. Their robes, in brilliant vermilion and green, imbued them with an extraordinary vitality. Such a force could certainly withstand any hostile charge in the spirit world.

They continued on. Beyond a nearby hillside were factory buildings housing workshops for bronze chariots, terra-cotta horses, and the manufacture of clay acrobats and musicians. Exquisite bronze waterfowl accompanied the instrumentalists, a graceful embellishment for their never-to-be-heard melodies. Yet another factory was devoted solely to stone armor and helmets.

Cain, emboldened by the emperor’s magnanimous mood and apparently close friendship with Kwok-se, sensed it might be the appropriate time to probe the ruler’s interest in a life without end. Still, he took care to phrase his question tactfully.

“When we first met in Alexandria, Majesty, Kwok-se informed me that you had discovered a potion or elixir that confers immortality. Is it not so?”

The emperor turned to him and lowered his voice. “I was
hoping
to discover it,” he confided. “I even made two visits to Zhifu Island—you must know it, yes?—and dispatched hundreds of inhabitants there to search Penglai Mountain on that quest. They never returned.” He paused and chuckled. “But then, to return without the elixir would have required them to demonstrate their
own
mortality, wouldn’t it?”

There was an awkward pause in the conversation. Then the emperor continued, “But we have not finished, gentlemen. Come this way!” He held his hand aloft, as if he were signaling a sizable group of visitors to follow him.

As they strolled briskly westward, the emperor explained that the entire burial complex occupied an area of approximately twenty-five square miles. Cain cast his mind back to the Egyptians. In comparison with the Valley of the Kings opposite Luxor, in whose graves many pharaohs had been interred, the emperor’s complex was enormous. The First Emperor’s necropolis dwarfed even the Great Pyramids.

Behind a strongly fortified wall in the distance there loomed an even more gigantic, mound-like structure. “Now
that
is the reason for all this. You see how well it is positioned. The slopes of
Mt. Li
guard it to the south, and the
River Wei
lies on the northern side. To the west, the
Qinling Mountains
protect it. And my terra-cotta army guards the eastern side.”

The men entered a gate on the northern side of the outer wall. Then, after they passed through an entrance in the inner wall, the enormous mound lay directly in front of them. Roughly square-shaped, it covered over a million square feet and soared nearly three hundred feet into the air.

“If my life-mandate should ever expire, I shall be comfortable here, and well protected,” declared the emperor with satisfaction. It soon became clear that the project was nothing less than the construction of an underground palace that would be impregnable, not only to enemies from the spirit world but to time itself.

In that special way, China’s First Emperor would indeed be immortal.

With His Majesty leading the way, they descended more than two hundred feet into a vast subterranean chamber. By the light of seal-fat lamps, thousands of workers were busily carving a giant stone map of China on the floor. Teams of skilled craftsmen embedded pearls and other precious stones on the ceiling to create a gleaming heavenly vault.

Here, beneath the emperor’s tumulus, earth and sky conjoined in an entire cosmos to form a facsimile of the living world. On the huge map, mountains of beaten copper had been placed, and clusters of precious stones marked the location of cities. Around the map’s edges and traversing the interior ran silvery rivers and streams of mercury. As Cain and Kwok-se gazed in awe, they could hear the whirring noise of concealed machines, making the liquid flow.

Since the dawn of humanity, Cain had never seen such an elaborate building project—or a leader with such a grand view of himself.

***

Not about to disappoint his new patron, Cain threw himself wholeheartedly into the map project for the state dining room in the palace. The emperor gave him carte blanche to hire skilled artisans, and Cain promptly interviewed and coordinated a team of two hundred craftsmen. He even enlisted the managers of a silk factory in order to explore new materials for the map. Tough yet elegant in appearance, the surface that he devised and called silk paper would appeal to the ruler, he thought, as much for its novelty as for its aesthetic qualities. In accordance with the dimensions relayed by palace officials, Cain designed the map to be seventy-five feet tall and three hundred feet long—large enough for the state dining room wall, but still puny in size when compared to the stone map of China on the royal mausoleum floor.

Every day he worked well into the night, not only on the map project but also on another commission the emperor had assigned him. This was the construction of a large, decorative globe, which the emperor intended for his tomb. There it would have a symbolic function, just like the great stone map of China, the starry heavens, and the rivers of mercury—believed by many astrologers and physicians of the day to be the base of all metals and a powerful element in prolonging life and health.