There are not many people living on campus at Xianshan Academy. The houses are big and empty, so you basically live alone.
And there was no one here to accommodate or take care of him. When I heard that a new nine-year-old child had arrived, the students all looked at him with curiosity, and no one wanted to come and interact with him.
After all, the students who study here are at least teenagers or even students in their twenties and thirties. If you are with a child, you are afraid of being thought to be naive.
Shen Chen didn't care at all. After getting up, he simply washed up and went to find Song Zhong, the dean of the academy.
Since summer has arrived, Song Zhong has been busy publishing books during this period.
Previously, he studied the Five Classics with Qi Wukai, commented on the five Confucian classics "Poetry", "Book", "Li", "Yi" and "Spring and Autumn", and wrote the "Five Classics Chapters".
So some time ago, he didn't have much free time to teach. After summer, he had to take out the books to dry, but he had a little more free time than usual.
Yesterday, he told Shen Chen to go directly to him the next day.
When they came to the middle hall, they happened to see Song Zhong and Wang Can rummaging through the boxes and taking out new piles of dusty bamboo slips from the boxes.
Wang Can opened a large box, and dust suddenly came up. After waving his hand to disperse the dust, he took out a book from the inside. Before he could take it outside, the rope holding the book broke first. The pieces fell down with a clatter.
"Mr. Zhongzi, you haven't opened this box for several years." Wang Can said while picking up bamboo pieces: "This "Liju" seems to have been gnawed by rats, and several pieces have been damaged."
Song Zhong said with some embarrassment: "When I was young, I studied abroad and copied a lot of articles in various houses. Because I copied too many articles and there were many bamboo slips, maybe tens of thousands of volumes, I didn't have so much time and energy to publish them. Recently, I I just moved out because the weather was good."
Shen Chen came over and saluted respectfully: "Two gentlemen."
"Chen Chen, you came just in time."
When Wang Can saw him, his eyes lit up and he said, "You can tie up these bamboo slips and you can do this little thing."
Shen Chen thought to himself that they were using child labor, but there was no such thing as child labor in the Han Dynasty. Ordinary people had to work in the fields with their parents at the age of eight or nine, so he had to bite the bullet and said: "We can do it."
"Go to the backyard and get some rope."
"yes."
"Remember to ask for string."
"knew."
Shen Chen went back to the backyard and asked the servants of the academy for some ropes.
When he arrived, Song Zhong and Wang Can had already emptied the box.
As a great scholar at that time, when Song Zhong traveled around in his early years, he copied a large number of classics from various schools.
It feels a little distressing to say that he copied so many books, which may add up to millions of words, and there are tens of thousands of bamboo slips.
At that time, these things were extremely valuable assets.
But in later generations, one computer folder can hold all these things and it will still be very wealthy.
There are so many classics that countless people in later generations have dismissed, and are not even willing to take a look at.
This is not a tragedy.
But it is precisely because of the countless predecessors who have worked tirelessly to write so many books over countless years that the thousands of years of splendid history of Chinese civilization can be achieved.
No matter how many things are stored in computer folders, how can they compare with the weight and meaning that these books can carry?
When Shen Chen walked over, Wang Can ordered him to clean out the scattered bamboo pieces in the box first.
Song Zhong dipped a linen towel in water and wiped the rolls of bamboo slips.
The three people were busy all morning. Song Zhong was responsible for cleaning, Wang Can was responsible for placing books, and Shen Chen was responsible for stringing the bamboo pieces sorted by Wang Can back together in the order he arranged.
It took almost two hours to get one box, but what was disappointing was that there were dozens of boxes of books sent by Song Zhong and other famous Confucian scholars, plus Liu Biao, including various Confucian classics and books from other authors. Its number.
Fortunately, Song Zhong and Wang Can were not so crazy about manipulating a child like this. After working for an hour, they arranged breakfast. Taking advantage of their free time, Song Zhong personally taught him lessons.
The two people were kneeling and sitting on the mat facing each other. There was a big tree in the yard. Although the sun was hot, it was quite shady under the big tree. In addition, Xianshan Mountain faced the Han River to the north and east, the Jianghan Plain to the south, and the Qinling Mountains to the west. In Yumai, the mountain breeze comes slowly, which is very cool.
"I'll teach you Xiaozhuan today."
Song Zhong took out a volume and said to Shen Chen: "This is "Shi Zhou Pian", written by King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty. It has more than 2,000 words in total. Have you ever heard of it?"
Shen Chen scratched his head and said, "I could memorize this book when I was three years old."
This book has been lost in later generations, but in the Han Dynasty, this book was a children's literacy book with the same name as "Cangjie Pian", and its status was the same as the later "Thousand Character Classic" and "Three Character Classic".
When Song Zhong heard that he could recite, he immediately became interested and said, stroking his beard: "Then recite a few sentences and listen."
Shen Chen memorized a few sentences.
The classics brought by the clan were all books with very few words, so naturally they also brought these children's literacy books. When he was enlightened, he was taught by his grandfather himself.
Later, his grandfather died of illness and recommended him to his cousin Deng Mao. Deng Mao was very surprised that a four-year-old child in the family could know so many words, so he took out other classics in the family and taught him. When he was six years old, Deng Mao and Deng Hong The elders can no longer teach him.
Song Zhong was surprised to hear that Shen Chen could really recite it, and asked: "Can you recite "Cangjie Pian"?"
"Me too."
Shen Chen replied, and recited a few lines from "Cangjie Pian" as he spoke.
Wang Can on the side praised him: "That's good. I know so many characters at the age of nine. It seems that it will be easier to teach you both big and small seal scripts."
Because he knew the "Shi Zhou Pian" in official script, even if he didn't know Xiaozhuan, he knew what the character was. Even if Song Zhong didn't teach him, he could still figure it out on his own.
Just like you can recite Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thoughts" and know that the moonlight is bright before the bed, you will definitely read the small seal version of "Moonlight Before the Bed". After all, the words are still the same, but the form is different, but the number of words, ordering, and sentence segmentation are exactly the same. No matter how stupid you are, you should know which word is which.
Song Zhong said happily: "That would save a lot of trouble. Come on, I'll teach you the first word."
After that, he spread out the bamboo slips and began to teach Xiaozhuan.
With the foundation of memorizing the "Shi Zhou Pian" in official script, Shen Chen made rapid progress and quickly learned the first chapter.
Seeing his rapid progress, Song Zhong was also very satisfied, and his teaching speed also accelerated a bit.
In the next few days, Song Zhong was not stingy. He took Shen Chen through boxes and cabinets every day to take out books to dry. At the same time, he began to teach him the large and small seal scripts. However, in seven or eight days, Shen Chen had almost mastered the large and small seal scripts.
However, after he finished studying "Shi Zhou Pian" and "Cang Jie Pian", Song Zhong did not teach him new articles. Instead, he asked him to walk around the yard every day and fetch the books that had been dried for him.
After another half month, I was already familiar with all kinds of seal scripts, both large and small. I also knew which books Song Zhong had posted on the floor. I could read and write, and my progress was rapid.
It started to rain that day, so I finally had some free time.
Unexpectedly, the servants in the academy came to him and said that he had guests who were waiting for him in the hall of the atrium.
At first he thought it was his uncle Deng Hong, but when he arrived, Shen Chen was pleasantly surprised.
It was actually Zhuge Liang.
"Brother."
"Good brother."
The two hugged each other happily as soon as they met.
After they separated, Shen Chen looked up and down and saw that Zhuge Liang was wearing a blue silk robe and a Confucian scarf on his head, still looking handsome and elegant.
"Brother has grown taller after not seeing me for a year."
Shen Chen gestured and found that he was more than ten centimeters shorter when he reached Zhuge Liang's neck.
Historical records record that Zhuge Liang was eight feet tall, nearly 1.9 meters tall. He was a standard Shandong man. Although he was not eight feet tall now, he was now more than seven feet tall. He was taller than Wang Can when he was only fourteen years old.
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "You have grown taller and a little darker."
Shen Chen rolled his eyes and said, "In the past month, Master has always asked me to dry books for him in the sun. I will definitely get tanned."
The two of them sat at the banquet in the hall.
It was still raining outside, and Shen Chen asked, "Why is brother here suddenly?"
Zhuge Liang said: "Zhu Hao came to Yuzhang at the beginning of this year. As you expected, Yuan Shu did not come to rescue, so my uncle had to take us to Jingzhou. I originally wanted to go to Nanyang to find you, but my uncle was serving in Liu Jingzhou and could not travel, so we had to Give it up. I heard that you came to Xiangyang some time ago, and I wanted to come and look for you, but I was afraid that you would be busy when you first entered the academy, so it rained today, so I came over."
Shen Chen saw that some parts of Zhuge Liang's body were wet, and complained a little: "Next time, it's better not to come in the rain. In case you get cold, I'll go find suitable clothes for my brother to change into."
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, I'll go back later. I'm here to see you this time."
Shen Chen thought for a while and said: "Xianshan Academy has a lot of books, why doesn't my brother enroll in it? Wouldn't it be wonderful for us to study the scriptures together every day?"
Zhuge Liang said: "My uncle doesn't get along with some people in the academy."
"That's it."
Only then did Shen Chen understand that no wonder there was no record in history that Zhuge Liang studied at Xianshan Academy. It only recorded that after Zhuge Xuan died, he farmed alone in Longzhong, working with Shi Tao, Xu Shu, Meng Jian and others every day. Together, it turns out this is the reason.
Zhu Ge
But at the same time, it will also offend some people. It is normal to have friends and enemies. It was Zhuge Xuan who did not get along with some people in the academy, so Zhuge Liang was not allowed to come.
Zhuge Liang didn't want to talk more with Shen Chen on this issue, but changed the subject and said, "What has Brother Xian been doing recently?"
Shen Chen said: "Posting books every day is boring to death, and the old master doesn't teach me any other classics."
"Teach nothing?"
"That's not true. Teach me Xiaozhuan and Dazhuan."
"Isn't this teaching?"
Zhuge Liang laughed: "My dear brother, don't you know that the classics in the past were all written in small seal script and big seal script? Master taught you these to prepare you for teaching the classics in the future."
"is that so?"
Shen Chen wondered: "But I don't seem to have learned any useful knowledge by posting books like this every day."
Zhuge Liang said: "Tai Shigong said: If you don't talk about peaches and plums, you will make mistakes. It seems that the wise brother has not learned knowledge, but he has found the direction of learning knowledge, entered the threshold, and learned writing, only then can he understand knowledge, isn't it? ?"
Shen Chen curled his lips and said, "But I have already learned the big and small seal scripts, but Master still didn't teach me."
Zhuge Liang thought for a moment and said, "Maybe the master is sharpening your mind. You have just mastered writing. How can you come up and learn advanced knowledge immediately?"
Cheng Men stands in the snow, and the Monkey King kneels on the mountain?
I don't know why, Shen Chen thought of these two things.
Maybe Zhuge Liang was right, Song Zhong was testing him and teaching him how to learn knowledge.
If you learn both big and small seal scripts, won’t it be much easier to learn knowledge in the future?
Thinking of this, Shen Chen suddenly realized: "I understand, Master must be testing me. I can no longer complain. I should listen to Master. One day he will teach me my lessons."
Zhuge Liang showed a cowardly expression, smiled and nodded.