Weathered

Author: Xiao Jian / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Ma Xiaoxian, as seen from his physique, was by no means a pampered individual. He was neither overweight nor ruddy-cheeked, nor did he exude the leisurely air of someone who ate well all day and had nothing to do. He was a gaunt middle-aged man with a sallow complexion, and like others, his skin bore the marks of long exposure to the dust of the Loess Plateau, the color of which had deeply stained his body. If there was anything distinctive about him, it was that his horse jacket was made of genuine silk from Hangzhou, his shoes came from a century-old shop in the ancient capital of Xi'an, and the heavy, golden-yellow ring on his left middle finger was inlaid with an indigo-red sapphire the size of a pea. Of course, there was also his pair of eyes that could strike awe into the hearts of others, never revealing a hint of panic. These eyes, shaped by the sandstorms of northern Shaanxi, never widened fully. His long, thick eyebrows often overshadowed his slender, slightly drooping eyes that formed an "eight" shape, drawing more attention than his eyes themselves. Those black, bristle-like eyebrows were something he always took pride in. According to the sayings of countless fortune-tellers, such eyebrows were said to signify longevity and official fortune. Years later, when he met with a blood-soaked disaster at the age of fifty, he recalled the words of a fortune-teller who had sighed over a small, fine-haired mole on his right neck, saying, "Heaven’s secrets cannot be revealed." It turned out to be an ominous sign that could bring misfortune to his fortune and longevity.
Ma Xiaoxian, as a wealthy household head, never believed himself to be unrighteous in his wealth. At the age of twenty-five, when he took over the family’s account book from his father, who was frail and plagued by illness, it listed the entire assets of the Ma family: forty-eight acres of paddy fields, two hundred acres of dry land, sixteen caves, four horses, nine donkeys, seven mules, one hundred and five sheep, five hundred taels of silver, seventy taels of gold, and six hundred and twenty-seven strings of copper coins. Through nearly two decades of his management, these assets had more than doubled. Not only had eighty percent of the land in Ma Jiagou become private property, but he also owned land in over a dozen villages within a radius of more than ten miles. Within the county seat of Fu Jun and the town of Jin Cheng, he operated commercial enterprises and a mule trading business, dealing in daily necessities, grain and oil, tea, and cloth. He believed all this was due to his wisdom and hard work. He had once braved the scorching sun to inspect the harvest in the fields, nearly lost his life while trying to buy land from another village, and personally led his mule teams on long, dusty journeys to Xi'an for trading. He had never wronged anyone. His wealth was earned through hard work and saved through frugality. At one point, his son could only wear clothes with patches, and his wife could not afford new jewelry.
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