Only twelve of the twenty-two thousand civil servants in the Middle Kingdom were appointed to positions in the Grand Secretariat, and they arguably held as many, if not more, responsibilities as the Son of Heaven. In the beginning, my role was to convince or persuade the Emperor to shun the legalist and immoral influences of the First Grand Secretary and Lady Zheng. All the players at the onset were told there were no factions in this game; however it became clearer with each session that imperial ferment and corruption had already infected Wanli beyond reparation. There was, as Shen Hsing stated in the 1587: A Year of No Significance, “a cleavage from the top to the bottom.” In spite of this scenario, factions did not appear, even though the role sheets and manual encouraged secret societies. The Emperor, having made a pact with the First Grand Secretary in the game, was invariably tied to the legalist principles of autocracy, practicality, and efficiency. It was this pact that made the primary objective of persuading the Emperor to name Chungluo his successor an implausible one. The secondary objective was to impose with moral force the principles of tradition and Confucianism to a sinecure, or else depose he who had forgotten that his appointment was attained by the Will of Heaven and not by merit. The fact that no secret societies existed in the game signals a success on behalf of the Purists, as the balance was restored to the kingdom without treasonous acts.
The initial interview process served to expose those who were dedicated to the Way, and First Grand Secretary Julianna used a utilitarian strategy (public humiliation and punishment for those who would not show deference to the wishes of the Emperor) to silence the Confucian Purists. At first, my character sought to obey the Confucian principle of showing deference to the Son of Heaven, but that functioned only to empower the objectives of the legalists. The purists were forced to inquire, “How is the Emperor exhibiting the qualities of benevolence?” The execution of two secretaries who spoke against the corruption in the kingdom and bureaucracy indicated that the Mandate of Heaven was lost, along with the necessity for imperial deference and decorum. At this point in the game, it became clear that the First Grand Secretary would seek to control the memorial and discussion sessions. Decorum, along with observance of ritual, had to be bypassed to restore order and balance.
The lull created by technical pursuits regarding floods, piracy, taxation, and famine had hypnotized the Grand Secretariat. The first memorial of my character, which was an attempt to illuminate Wanli’s lack of devotion to the Way, was met with condemnation on behalf of the Emperor. The First Grand Secretary dismissed it as an idealistic interpretation of the Master’s words. With consternation, my character played the “game” of deference to the point of near objective failure. It was after studying closely the Book of Mencius, the Book of Odes, and the Great Learning that my character realized that he did indeed have the power of moral force behind his efforts. My second and final memorial, a poem composed to the statue of Confucius at the steps to the Forbidden City, was written specifically to rouse Purist conviction and encourage more secretaries to proactively speak against Wanli’s immoral and un-Confucian behavior. The last years of his reign is known to scholars as the Dreaming Period, because, riddled with unhealthy habits, Wanli rarely even left his chamber to attend ceremonies or meetings. “The Wind Steps Behind the Statue,” which sought to reinforce the words of the ancients with referentiality, also contained many puns on the Emperor’s political attitude and lifestyle: the “bulky tree,” “artifice dreaming,” “weight of a thousand catties,” “the middle, choking sonorously,” as well as pointing out the legalist tendency to “study the tips of Autumn hair without seeing the cartload of faggots.” The Ming game was, much like the Athens game, seemingly designed to precipitate specific outcomes with clearly-defined victors. Interestingly, both games ended with relative ambiguity. Besides obtaining extensive knowledge from these two historical epistemes, I can happily conclude that my public speaking ability has improved drastically throughout the semester. The assertive performance of my character in the Middle Kingdom proved to be a complimentary endeavor to the cagey act of my character in the Athens game.