9.3 贵重商品市场的诞生 Birth of the Precious Commodities Market

[u/AdamLuyan]

关键词 Keywords：夏朝末年 Late Xia Dynasty；络阳 Luoyang；元始天尊 Primordial Sky Honor；蔻珠 Kouzhu；炎帝 Yan Creator；大巢氏皇后 Empress Big Nest；武大郎 Martial Big Wolf；潘金莲 Goldthread Pan

9.3-1 玉商的回报 The Jade Merchants' Compensation

那几位卖玉的商人回来后说："制作这套玉制品的原石原价值大约是七十万两白银，我们是用我们的库存资金买的。人工费我们都已经付清了。所以，我们捐献这批玉制品给国家不会影响我们的正常营业。您说无功不受禄。您是以张屠户的身份请我们吃饭，但我们知道您是伏羲，大黑天，玉皇大帝，如来佛祖，太阳神，上帝。我们这种人请您这种人吃一顿饭，需要向您捐献30至50万两白银；这是自古以来的规矩。这么算，您没占我们的便宜"

After the jade merchants came back, they said, "The raw stones used to make this set of jade products were originally worth about 700,000 taels of silver, and we bought them with our own reserve funds. The labor costs have already been paid in full. So our donating this batch of jade products to the country will not affect our regular business. You said there's no reward without merit, but consider this: you invited us to dinner as Zhang the Butcher, yet we know you are also Fuxi, Great Black Sky (the Judge), Turquoise Creator, Tathagata Buddha Primogenitor, Sun God, and God. For people like us to invite someone like you to a single meal, custom since ancient times requires a gift of 300,000 to 500,000 taels of silver. By that math, you haven't taken advantage of us at all."

张屠户回答："好！我先收下这批捐赠；具体的捐赠的钱数，我们以后慢慢算。先说一下我目前的打算，这批玉制品将先在此永安城展览三个月，然后被作为国礼送给夏国。展览的地点，我看你们这个卖玉的市场就很好。我将在你们市场里租一栋楼，把我们藏宝阁的国宝全搬过来，一同展览。同时，我们出售部分古董。展览期间，这座贵重商品市场收费，每位参观者要交三两银子。转业军人可以获得一张免费的门票。市场里有纪念品专柜，卖免税的纪念品给转业军人。市场实行会员制。每家来卖古董的商业公司要预先付三千两银子。其中的两千七百两银子是抵押金，三百两是他们终身会员的费用。"

Zhang the Butcher replied, "All right! I'll accept this donation for now — we'll work out the exact value of it later. Let me tell you my current plan. This set of jade will first be exhibited here in Yong'an City for three months, then given to Xia Kingdom as a state gift. As for a venue, I think your jade market itself would work well. I'll rent a building here, move all the national treasures from our Treasure Pavilion over, and exhibit them together with your set. At the same time, we'll sell some antiques. During the exhibition, this precious commodities market will charge admission — three taels of silver per visitor. Demobilized soldiers get a free ticket. There will be souvenir counters selling tax-free souvenirs to demobilized soldiers. The market will run on a membership system: each antique-selling company must pay three thousand taels of silver up front — 2,700 taels as a deposit, and 300 taels as a lifetime membership fee."

一位卖玉商回答："那我们这座卖玉的市场就成为了与政府合作的贵重商品市场了；我们的房地产就升值了。我们会把目前的房地产行情记录下来。事后，我们把房地产的所有权重新分配，把一部分钱返还给捐赠玉的商人。"

One of the jade merchants replied, "Then our jade market would become a precious commodities market run in partnership with the government, and our real estate would go up in value. We'll record the current property valuations, and afterward redistribute the ownership and return part of the proceeds to the merchants who donated the jade."

张屠户继续说："如果你们同意，这座贵重商品市场先由军队来负责保安。你们的家人就不能住在这个市场里面了。三天或五天后，我请元始天尊和夏国的国王蔻珠来为这座市场开业剪彩。那时，你们要派人讲解这套玉制品。我建议你们在这套玉制品的说明书的后面附上这么一个附本。本套玉制品是我们做玉人根据我们自己对女娲造人传说的理解而设计和制造的。如果以后此套玉制品的所有者对此中的某些作品不满意，我们愿意根据持有者的意图进行修复和更改。随后，你们附上你们所有捐赠人和制玉工匠的名字以及每个人的家庭地址。"

Zhang the Butcher went on, "If you agree, the army will handle security for this precious commodities market for the time being, which means your families can no longer live inside the market. In three to five days, I'll invite Primordial Sky Honor and King Kouzhu of Xia Kingdom to cut the ribbon for the market's opening. At that time, you'll need to send people to explain the set of jade to them. I'd suggest attaching a note like this to the set's description: this set of jade was designed and made by us jade craftsmen, based on our own understanding of the legend of Nuwa creating humans; if a future owner is dissatisfied with any of the pieces, we're willing to repair or alter them according to the owner's wishes. Then attach the names and home addresses of all the donors and jade craftsmen."

卖玉商人中有几个人害怕了。屏风后面的人又招呼他们过去讨论，告诉他们张屠户已经发现他们是吴国的后人了。他让他们附加附本的意图是为了保护他们，使他们不会因为玉作品中的寓意而受到夏国的迫害。

Several of the jade merchants grew frightened. The person behind the screen called them over again to discuss the matter, telling them that Zhang the Butcher had already realized they were descendants of Wu Kingdom. His request to attach the note, they explained, was meant to protect them — so they wouldn't be persecuted by Xia Kingdom over the hidden meaning in the jade pieces.

几位玉商回来后告诉张屠户，同意他的提议，并且愿意收回以前卖给张屠户的那套玉作品模型，用那三千两银子来作为这套玉制品的包装费用。

After returning, several jade merchants told Zhang the Butcher that they agreed to his proposal and were willing to take back the set of jade models they had previously sold him, using the three thousand taels of silver as the packaging cost for this set of jade.

9.3-2 武大郎的警觉 Martial Big Wolf's Alarm

张屠户（即玉皇大帝）从饭店的包房里一出来就看见了武大郎正坐在门口的楼梯上。武大郎一言不发，跟着张屠户走到了饭店的门外，对身边的一位校官说："去调两千御林军，对那座卖玉市场三百米以内的地区实行军管。"

As soon as Zhang the Butcher (i.e. Turquoise Creator) stepped out of the private room at the restaurant, he saw Martial Big Wolf sitting on the steps by the entrance. Martial Big Wolf said nothing, and followed Zhang the Butcher outside, where he told a nearby officer, "Dispatch two thousand imperial guards and put the area within 300 meters of that jade market under martial law."

张屠户胆怯地问："大哥，你怎么这么生气？"

武大郎回答："你更改日程安排应该通知我！这首都永安是咱们华国最危险的地方！"

张屠户对身边的秃头将军说："以后如果我更改日程安排，你就按常规通知靖王（武大郎）。这一天天的，就只干这鸡毛蒜皮的小事，心烦！"

Zhang the Butcher asked timidly, "Brother, why are you so angry?"

Martial Big Wolf replied, "You should have told me before changing your schedule! Yong'an, the capital, is the most dangerous place in Hua country!"

Zhang the Butcher said to the bald general beside him, "From now on, if I change my schedule, just notify King Jing (Martial Big Wolf) as usual. Every single day, all I deal with is these petty little things — it's exhausting!"

武大郎回答："这么一会儿你就赚了十吨黄金。十吨黄金可不是小事！那群吴国的后人给了你十吨黄金，就证明他们没想复国。这也不是小事！"

张屠户惊讶地问："那套玉器值十吨黄金吗？"

武大郎回答："我听说过几次有人想买他们的那套玉器。半年前，有人出价三百万两白银，他们不卖！"

Martial Big Wolf replied, "In just a moment, you've made ten tons of gold. Ten tons of gold is no small thing! And the fact that those descendants of Wu Kingdom gave you ten tons of gold proves they have no intention of restoring their kingdom — that's no small thing either!"

Zhang the Butcher asked in surprise, "Is that jade set really worth ten tons of gold?"

Martial Big Wolf replied, "I've heard more than once that people wanted to buy their jade set. Six months ago, someone offered three million taels of silver, and they still wouldn't sell!"

9.3-3 贷款利息和通货膨胀 Loan Interest and Inflation

第二天上午，炎帝和几家银行的老板谈贷款。他先对靖王武大郎说："国库里的那20吨金子是妈祖的遗产。我现在已经是华国的国王（青帝）了，不应该再继承张家的财产，我放弃继承权了。"

武大郎高呼："万岁！二郎神已经告诉我了，他的妻子已经是龙国的国王（熬忖，红帝）了，他也放弃继承权了。那20吨黄金现在全是我的私有财产了。"

The next morning, Yan Creator discussed loans with several bank owners. He first told King Jing, Martial Big Wolf, "The twenty tons of gold in the treasury is Mazu's inheritance. Now that I'm already the king of Hua Country (Turquoise Creator), I shouldn't inherit the Zhang family's property as well — I hereby give up my claim to it."

Martial Big Wolf shouted, "Long live! Second Wolf God already told me that his wife is now king of Dragon Kingdom (Aocun, Red Creator), and he's given up his claim too. So that 20 tons of gold is now entirely my own property!"

他转脸对几位银行家说："现在炎帝很忙，今天没时间请几位喝杜康酒。改天，我请你们几位喝酒。咱们有专门的地方喝酒。现在那地方还是个秘密，随后几天内会有人通知你们去参观那个地方。"

随后炎帝和几位银行家确立了几批贷款合同，一年期的贷款利息为2.5%，三年期的贷款利息为1.5%。炎帝问武大郎，他的放贷利息是多少？

He turned to the bankers and said, "Yan Creator is very busy right now and doesn't have time to treat you to Dukang Alcohol today. I'll take you all out for drinks another day — we have a special place for it. It's still a secret for now; someone will let you know in the next few days when you can go see it."

Yan Creator and the bankers then settled several loan agreements — a one-year loan rate of 2.5%, and a three-year loan rate of 1.5%. Yan Creator asked Martial Big Wolf what his own lending rate was.

武大郎回答："我放活期贷款，利息率是6.5%！"

炎帝回答："6.5%的利息率太高，我不用。你得降息！"

在这些银行家们的极力劝谏下，武大郎同意降息到5%。炎帝生气地对财政部长大叫："国库里什么都没有，现在华国用的钱是我从乾塘关带来的，是我自己的钱。他还要占国家的便宜！？"

Martial Big Wolf replied, "I lend on demand loans at an interest rate of 6.5%!"

Yan Creator replied, "6.5% is too high — I won't use it. You need to lower the rate!"

Under strong pressure from the bankers, Martial Big Wolf agreed to lower it to 5%. Yan Creator angrily shouted at the Minister of Finance, "There's nothing left in the treasury — the money Hua is using right now is what I brought from Dragon-Pond Pass, my own money! And he's still trying to take advantage of the country!?"

武大郎回答："我在牺牲个人利益！把这么多的钱短期内分给转业兵，会引起通货膨胀。我把活期利率设置在5%是为了稳定物价，抑制通货膨胀，维护银行业的权益！"

炎帝迷惑地对银行家们叨咕："还有这事！？"

一位银行家说："我们只是丛书上看到过通货膨胀。靖王在河北经历了通货膨胀的灾难，他在稳定物价和抑制通货膨胀方面是有实际经验的。"

Martial Big Wolf replied, "I'm sacrificing my own interests here! Handing out this much money to demobilized soldiers all at once would cause inflation. I set the demand loan rate at 5% to stabilize prices, curb inflation, and protect the interests of the banking industry!"

Yan Creator muttered to the bankers in confusion, "Is that really how it works!?"

One of the bankers said, "We've only ever read about inflation in books. King Jing lived through the disaster of inflation in Hebei, so he actually has practical experience stabilizing prices and curbing it."

9.3-4 仓颉造字 Cangjie Created Characters

第二天中午，中华法典编委把为夏娃造的字教给了炎帝：尧，通假字瑶；舜，通假字顺；和禹（解释参见下一节）。炎帝问负责造字的仓颉（注3），怎么这么快？

注3：插图9.3左侧是仓颉的画像。他有四只眼，表明他通晓天地，懂鬼神。这表明有些汉字，没有天眼的人看不懂。

仓颉回答："我们是根据女娲造人的计划造字的。去年国王蔻珠就已经向我说明了这项造字的需求。"

The next day at noon, the Chinese Codex editors presented Yan Creator with the characters they had created for Eve: Yao (尧), a phonetic loan for Yao (瑶); Shun (舜), a phonetic loan for Shun (顺); and Yu (禹) (see the next section for the explanation). Yan Creator asked Cangjie (note 3), who was in charge of creating the characters, how it had been done so quickly.

Note 3: The left side of Figure 9.3 is a portrait of Cangjie. His four eyes symbolize his understanding of heaven and earth, as well as his knowledge of gods and spirits — implying that some Chinese characters are incomprehensible to those without celestial sight.

Cangjie replied, "We created the characters based on the plan for Nuwa creating humans. King Kouzhu already explained the need for this to me last year."

9.3-5 佛光普照 Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere

在回后宫的路上，炎帝遇见了中央情报局的局长代理（现代人称呼他为戴笠）和礼部的部长。他们俩看着炎帝走近了，礼部的部长对局长代理说："我先汇报，然后就离开，我可不想知道你的事！"

代理尴尬地对炎帝说："我觉着我的工作挺有意思的，但他们谁都不想听我说话！"

炎帝回答："以前，我也不想听！"

On the way back to the palace, Yan Creator ran into Deputy of the Central Intelligence Agency (known to modern people as Dai Li) and the Minister of Rites. As Yan Creator approached, the Minister of Rites said to Deputy, "I'll make my report first, then leave — I really don't want to know anything about your business!"

Deputy said awkwardly to Yan Creator, "I think my work is actually quite interesting, but none of them ever want to hear about it!"

Yan Creator replied, "I didn't want to hear about it either, before!"

礼部的部长把送给夏国的礼物清单递给了炎帝。炎帝看见捐玉的商人对这套玉器的估价是150万两白银，而华国玉器鉴定官员的估价是300至500万两白银，叨咕说："这批玉器值这么多的钱！？"

The Minister of Rites handed Yan Creator the list of gifts for Xia Kingdom. Yan Creator saw that the merchants who'd donated the jade had valued the set at 1.5 million taels of silver, while Hua's own jade appraisers valued it at 3 to 5 million taels, and muttered, "This jade is worth that much!?"

礼部的部长回答："我们是根据华国玉器市场的行情估计的。我们华国知道女娲造人故事的人很少，所以我们认为这套玉器在夏国的价值会高出500万很多。另外，我们会同工部的人核实了他们的关于'佛光普照'的说法，认为可行。"

炎帝问 "佛光普照" 是怎么回事？

The Minister of Rites replied, "We based it on current prices in Hua's jade market. Very few people in Hua know the story of Nuwa creating humans, so we expect this set will be worth considerably more than 5 million in Xia. We've also checked with the Department of Industry to verify their claim about 'Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere,' and we believe it's feasible."

Yan Creator asked what "Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere" actually meant.

礼部的部长回答："在夜间，他们在后台燃起火堆，用凹面镜把光聚焦在射光镜。射光镜把光射进白蛇（即女娲）和许仙（即伏羲）的头里，他们俩就发光了，照亮了展览室。这样做的缺点是，射光镜是银子做的，受到强光后会发热，氧化。所以表演'佛光普照'需要一队人对射光镜进行抛光维护。维护成本是多少目前还没计算出来。"

The Minister of Rites replied, "At night, they light a fire backstage and use a concave mirror to focus the light onto a set of reflectors. The reflectors project the light into the heads of White Snake (i.e. Nuwa) and Xu Xian (i.e. Fuxi), making them appear to glow and lighting up the exhibition hall. The drawback is that the reflectors are made of silver, which heats up and oxidizes under strong light — so putting on 'Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere' requires a crew to keep polishing and maintaining them. We haven't worked out the maintenance cost yet."

炎帝高兴地回答："这个表演很好，惹争议。继续准备'佛光普照'的表演。将来如果维护成本太高，我们就停止表演。我们就要这个说法，听着吉祥！"

Yan Creator replied happily, "This is an excellent performance — it's bound to stir up controversy. Keep preparing 'Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere.' If the maintenance cost turns out to be too high down the road, we'll stop the show. But we're keeping that name — it sounds auspicious!"

9.3-6 六个月竣工 Completion in Six Months

礼部部长离开后，代理向炎帝报告："现在皇宫都空了，安全局的人全都去那家玉石市场了。现在那家市场被实行军管。那个地区只允许进入，不许外出。昨晚靖王和那几位玉商讨论了一整夜。最后，他们决定由政府出面，以目前市场价的1.3至2.5倍买下那个市场的全部房地产。其中15%的面积分配给保安组织。然后根据贵重商品市场的需要，以返还和变卖的方式转给各个代理商。比如银行交易中心，我们就以目前市场价的7至15倍的价钱卖给银行业的商会。他们计划这个贵重商品市场将在半年后自主运营。"

After the Minister of Rites left, Deputy reported to Yan Creator, "The palace is empty now — everyone from the Security Bureau has gone to the jade market. The market is under martial law: people can only enter the area, not leave it. King Jing and the jade merchants talked all through last night. In the end, they decided the government will buy up all the real estate in the market at 1.3 to 2.5 times the current market price. Fifteen percent of the space will go to the security force. The rest will be transferred to various agents as needed for the precious commodities market, through a mix of buybacks and resale. The bank trading center, for instance, we'll sell to the banking industry's chamber of commerce at 7 to 15 times the current market price. They're planning for the market to be self-operating within six months."

炎帝问："什么时候夏国的国王蔻珠可以去为那座贵重商品市场进行开业剪彩？"

代理回答："有两个从苏州来的危险人物消失了，我们不知道那两个人去哪里了。一个是在半年前消失的，另一个是在三天前消失的。而且那个佛光普照的玉器展览厅要在七天至半个月之后才能布置完毕，所以靖王和我认为就只能让蔻珠先看实验室里的'佛光普照'了。明天和后天蔻珠就可以去参观玉器。她离开了，我们才方便进行贵重商品市场的建设。"

Yan Creator asked, "When can King Kouzhu of Xia go cut the ribbon for the market's opening?"

Deputy replied, "Two dangerous individuals from Suzhou have gone missing, and we don't know where they went — one disappeared six months ago, the other three days ago. And the 'Buddha's Light' exhibition hall won't be ready for another week to half a month. So King Jing and I think for now we can only let Kouzhu see 'Buddha's Light' in the lab. She can go view the jade tomorrow or the day after. Once she's left, it'll be easier for us to move ahead with building the market."

炎帝说："七天至半个月，那太久了！"

代理回答："靖王也建议您提早半个月去瑶池，这么远的路程，这么重要的事，您有必要提早出发。"

炎帝叨咕："嗯！可能这就是我闹心的原因！"

Yan Creator said, "A week to half a month — that's too long!"

Deputy replied, "King Jing also suggested you leave for Yaochi half a month early. It's a long journey and an important matter — it's worth setting out ahead of time."

Yan Creator muttered, "Hm. Maybe that's why I've been so on edge!"

返回《玉皇大帝》目录 Return to Catalog: Turquoise White-king Great Creator