Shattering of the Fairy Tale

The seventh year of Tianqi, 1627.

In the second month of that year, where the time travellers had found themselves, the Later Jin invaded the Joseon Dynasty, forcing them to surrender. Thus did this eastern vassal state of the Ming Dynasty fall to the Jurchen.^[1]

In the fifth month, Emperor Taiji^[2] of the Later Jin invaded Ningyuan and Jinzhou^[3], but was beaten back by the Ming army. This was known at the time as the Great Victory of Ningjin. But in his next attack Emperor Taiji changed his strategy, and his armies circumvented the Ningjin-Shanhai Pass^[4] defensive line. Across seventeen years of Chongzhen’s reign the Later Jin army crossed the Great wall five times in total. The central plains, already in tumultuous times, were further destabilised.

In the seventh month, Emperor Tianqi of the Great Ming fell seriously ill.

In the eleventh month, the Eunuch party led by Wei Zhongxian^[5] was destroyed. This brought a glimmer of hope to the late Ming, but yet, like a meteor shower, it quickly disappeared. It was like how cutting a single sore off a festering corpse would never bring them back to full health. The Great Ming: the last Han dynasty in the central plains, was no longer able to cling onto the mandate of heaven, and was sliding down a path of no return…

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With Master Gao Ju confirming their worries, the three time travellers were speechless for a while, and a gloomy mood had set upon them.

Master Gao coughed lightly. Twirling his moustache, he slowly asked: “Since these valued guests are seafaring merchants, would you have any goods to sell?

Wen Desi and Xiao Zishan exchanged a glance—they had finally got to the point. This look was of course caught by Master gao.

“We of course do have some goods to sell, but we’re still new around here and are not familiar with the local ways…” Wen Desi pretended to be caught in a hard spot.

“Haha, this is easy to solve. I have bought and sold foreign merchandise for many years in Guangzhou. If you sirs could trust me, then I offer my services.”

“If you will, then we would be grateful.” Wen Desi was overjoyed.

“This is a small sample of our goods.” Xiao Zishan said, taking out various objects from his backpack.

After Master Gao had seen that powder box, he was greatly interested in what these people could bring out. First was another powder box similar to the pink one before, except this time in a greasy light green colour. Second was a completely transparent glass cup with some pleasing patterns along the sides. Although this cup was far more transparent than any cup Master Gao had seen before, it was not too far out of his imagination. What followed were various types of porcelain of mediocre appearance and glaze. They felt very light in his hands, and didn’t quite have the same cold sensation of porcelain. Not very valuable.

As if Xiao Zishan was reading his thoughts, a few small dishes were dropped onto the ground. Master Gao was taken aback by his sudden action, but was surprised to see that they had not shattered upon the brick floor, and only spun a little, completely unharmed.

A housekeeper on the side rushed over to pick up the dishes, but Master Gao stopped her hand and carefully inspected one of them. Not a single crack or scratch. These people have such weird things.

Apart from this, there were also some transparent boxes, both square and round, all equipped with a tight-fitting lid. Although it was similar to the glassware Master Gao had once bought from the Portuguese, it was much lighter and didn’t shatter when dropped. Out of the bag also came some shiny knives, some water-proof cloaks made of a glass-like material…all of it was strange things.

Gaoju looked at the wide variety of things that filled the table, both surprised and happy. The goods were all rare and exotic, which meant they could be sold at a high price. But as for the origins of these goods…he looked at the three people before him. They were definitely suspicious. After a moment of deliberation, the thought of profit trumped over his sense of caution. Thinking about it, he had always been doing this trade of foreign goods. Who would care if the goods came from Portugal or Australia? Since these people had stumbled into his house, why would he reject a chance to make money?

“I am not familiar with these strange goods. How much silver would they sell for?” Master Gao carefully asked.

Wen Desi pointed at the glass cups and said, “This cup, one thousand taels each.”^[6]

In the minds of the three, this wealthy Ming dynasty merchant shouldn’t hesitate to buy such a rare and exotic treasure. Unexpectedly, they saw Master Gao looking at them with a face full of surprise, like he was looking at a bunch of madmen.

“This…this is really expensive.” Master Gao shook his hand. “Such glasswork is also sold by the Portuguese. Even the large glass bowls and bottles they sell are only three taels a piece. Smaller ones are only one tael each. This cup…”

The implication was clear to the three travellers, at most it was probably worth only three taels. It was like they had been doused in ice water. The classic item that time travellers would peddle wasn’t worth even a single penny…

Xiao Zishan, seeing that the negotiations were going to hit a wall soon, revised his approach. He bowed towards Master Gao. “We have been living overseas for a long time, and we do not know the local market well. Please, may Master Gao enlighten us.”

So, it’s time to make my own offer. Gao Ju thought for a moment, and offered his price for each item by pointing. Xiao Zishan noted down the offered prices:

Powder boxes, ten taels each. Glass cups, one or two taels each. Melamine dishes, five qians^[7] for the large, two qians for the small. One qian for the spoons and such. Plastic lunch boxes, three taels each. Plastic raincoats, one qian each. Pocket knives, five qians each.

Surprisingly, it was the dull, plastic powder box that caught the attention of the Ming merchant. Xiao Zishan then asked about trade in this area of Guangzhou, and also Master Gao’s perspective of their own goods.

It turned out that the foreign goods trade of Guangzhou city was entirely monopolised by the Portuguese. No matter where a merchant hailed from, they could only berth their ship in Haojingao, where the Portuguese were based.^[8] After having paid taxes there they could sell their goods in Haojingao. Only the Portuguese merchants could enter the city of Guangzhou to trade. There were a total of thirty-six businesses that specialised in exporting Chinese goods, and it was with them that the Portuguese would do business. Every year they would order large quantities of porcelain, silk, sugar and other assorted goods.

Of course, the merchants of Haopan street such as Master Gao were slightly different. Although Master Gao didn’t explicitly explain what he did, Xiao Zishan and the others were aware due to the historical literature they had read.^[9]

Master Gao was the most interested in the mirror in the powder box. He said that such things would occasionally also be traded by the Portuguese. Big mirrors would be priced up to hundreds of taels. Although their mirror was smaller, compared to ones that usually from the Occident, they were clearer and brighter. If they were larger they could fetch an even higher price. As for the “soft porcelain”, that is, the melamine dishes, there was nothing too surprising about the texture or feel. The only good thing was that they were light and didn’t break easily. The “soft glass bowl”, that is the plastic lunch box, although it was hard to break, was not as transparent as an ordinary glass bowl. Finally, as for the plastic raincoats and knives, they were worthless toys in Master Gao’s view.

The three blushed with a little shame: even with our extra centuries of accumulated knowledge, they might really still be inferior.

In their conversation, Master Gao also tried to ask about the customs and traditions of Australia. Xiao Zishan gave some perfunctory answers: that the country had many skilled craftsmen, and there was much freedom of speech and debate. When asked about the leader of their country, they replied that there was a single leader called “Ba Chi”, and under them was a minister who handled all military and civilian matters called “Xiaomi.” And everyone in the country, regardless of their status, all worshipped a god named “Ah Dami.”^[10] Listening to this, Master Gao could only go “tsk tsk”.

While the three were talking they all completely forgot about their earlier vigilance about the tea, and when they rose to bid goodbye, all their cups were already dry. This made Master Gao look down a little upon the three. Before they left, the “Australian seafarers” had agreed to supply the first batch of goods in three days, and to also bring along more novelties if possible.

Only, the way in which these three people departed really made Master Gao want to tear his hair out. The three not only refused to leave through the front gate, but also insisted to go into a secluded corner of his backyard, and for everyone to leave them alone. Master Gao wasn’t assured by their behaviour, and decided to send a diligent and careful guard to watch from a distance. The guard saw the three furtively look around their surroundings, before suddenly ducking behind a wall. When the guard rushed around the wall, they had already vanished without a trace.

NB: The price of glass comes from Wang Shizhen’s Fengzhou Zabian. The original price dated from the Jiajing period,^[11] but I couldn’t find a price for the 17th century. For now I’ll use it as a placeholder, so there’s no need for everyone to look too deep into it. If you know, please enlighten me.^[12]

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1. The Later Jin was a Jurchen-led khanate located in the north eastern parts of China. They were the precursor to the Qing Dynasty. The Joseon was the dynastic kingdom of Korea, and paid tribute to the Ming dynasty. The original text says ‘vassal state’, but the english notion of vassal doesn’t capture the nuances of the relationship between Imperial China and surrounding kingdoms. With some risk of oversimplification, the short story is that the Ming wasn’t as directly involved in the governance of its tributary states as ‘vassal’ might suggest. For details of the Imperial Chinese tributary system see this great wiki page. ↩︎

2. The founding emperor of the Qing dynasty in 1636. Contemporaneously Khan of the Late Jin Empire, which bordered the Ming Dynasty along the north. ↩︎

3. A city in Liaoning province, in the north-eastern parts of China ↩︎

4. Shanhai Passis most famously known as where the Great Wall ends in the East. ↩︎

5. Apparently a pretty infamous eunuch of the Late Ming. From what I can tell they were a pretty corrupt bunch. ↩︎

6. I’m not familiar enough with the fiscal history of the Ming dynasty, but towards the end of the Ming dynasty from what I can tell, the highest paid court officials would only be paid about 200 taels of silver every year as their salary. For perspective, a tael of silver may buy you up to 300 kg of salt (the price however fluctuates a lot depending on time and place). So one thousand taels would be a pretty hefty sum for most people. ↩︎

7. One qian is one-tenth of a tael. So five qians is half a tael. ↩︎

8. An old name for Macau ↩︎

9. Smuggling non-portuguese stuff ↩︎

10. A bit of an untranslatable in-joke from the BBS community. ‘Eight Inches’ (Ba Chi in Chinese) is the nickname of the former boss of sonic BBS (real name Chen Jin’nan). ‘Ah Dami’ is the phonetic spelling of Admin. And ‘Xiaomi’ is of course a maker of phones. ↩︎

11. 1521-1566(7) ↩︎

12. This is a comment from the author. ↩︎