Because Master Jijiu was there, Assistant Teacher Yue kept patrolling all the students with stern eyes, and the lecture hall of Renzi Class in Guangye Hall was silent——
Gu Qiyuan finished reading Zhang Yuan's four questions on classics, history, policy, and judgment. He closed his eyes and meditated for a moment. He handed the examination paper to Dr. Zhao. He looked at Zhang Yuan who was standing respectfully on his side and said lightly: "Beware of arrogance and impetuosity.
Keep studying hard. Holy Church”
Zhang Yuan bowed and said: "Yes."
Gu Qiyuan signaled to Zhang Yuan that he could leave. After Zhang Yuan left the lecture hall, Fang said to Dr. Zhao and Assistant Professor Yue: "With this strategy and judgment, we can go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to select officials."
Zhu Yuanzhang decreed the prison regulations, which stipulated that the prison students must study in the Imperial College for at least three and a half years before being allowed to elect officials after graduation. Zhang Yuan had only been in prison for eight days, and Gu Qiyuan said that Zhang Yuan could go to the Ministry of Personnel to select officials. What a praise!
Of course, Zhang originally knew that the Imperial College was not for selecting officials. In the Ming Dynasty, without a background in the Department of Civil Engineering, one could not hold an official position for a long time, and would not be able to hold a high position, and would be looked down upon by others——
Dr. Zhao said flatteringly: "The old man presides over the South Prison, and the atmosphere is completely new. All students are working hard and willing to learn, and Zhang Yuan is a role model for all students."
Ruan Dacheng saw that Gu Jijiu had read Zhang Yuan's test paper and hurriedly came up to hand in the paper, hoping to get a commendation from Master Jijiu. Wei Dazhong also handed in the paper. Their craftsmanship was also outstanding, but it was a pity that Gu Jijiu read it first.
Without Zhang Yuan's cooking skills, it's like Zhang Dai tasted Xizhang's delicacies and then tried other foods, which were just to satisfy his hunger. Therefore, Ruan and Wei's cooking skills gave Gu Qiyuan the impression that Ruan's writing was frivolous and fancy.
Wei Yili was stubborn and could not be harmonious, but Gu Qiyuan nodded and still praised and encouraged the two of them. However, he did not praise Zhang Yuan much in person.
…
As a rule, on the day after the ten-day exam, those who excel in their studies can get a day off. Zhang Yuan, Zhang Dai, Wei Dazhong, Ruan Dacheng and other eight people are the top students in the Renzi class who won the ten-day exam. They do not need to go to school on June 29th.
, but if you want to leave the prison, you still have to get the "Come out and enter the respectful card". There is only one card, and it is in charge of the chief of the prison, Wei Dazhong. On this day, Zhang Dai received the "Go out and enter the respectful card" from Wei Dazhong and went out to enjoy the delicious food——
In the morning, Zhang Yuan was reading Wang Xianzhi's "Thirteen Lines of Jasper Luo Shen Fu" in small regular script in the room. Ruan Dacheng came in and said: "Brother Jiezi, you have a day off today. It is against the rules for you to post the post. Be careful of Mao Jiancheng correcting you. Haha, don't do it."
Having said that, let’s take a tour of the Imperial College. After being in prison for many days, we only came and went in three places: the lecture hall, the dormitory, and the dining hall. (《》7*”
Zhang Yuan smiled and said: "Brother Ruan, please wait a moment. I have three more lines. I will go as soon as I finish writing them."
Ruan Dacheng stood behind Zhang Yuan and looked at Zhang Yuan's calligraphy, thinking: "Zhang Jiezi's calligraphy is mediocre, not as good as mine and Wei Dazhong."
Zhang Yuan finished copying the thirteen lines of Wang Xianzhi's Luo Shen Fu, dipped his brush in the brush wash, and then followed Ruan Dacheng out of the room. He called an Imperial Academy officer and asked him to lead the way, so that he could go there and where he couldn't go.
The executive will inform you accordingly.
The deacon led the two people through the west lecture hall and pointed to the three corridors: "That is the pharmacy. Supervisors can go there for treatment if they are sick." As he walked, he introduced that this is the drum room and that is the warehouse.
House, vegetable garden, next to the vegetable garden is the shooting garden——
"Shooting?"
Zhang Yuandao: "What is the shooting garden used for?"
Before the officer could answer, Ruan Dacheng said: "The six arts of a gentleman are etiquette, music, archery, chastity, calligraphy, and mathematics. In the early days of the Republic of China, all prison students had to learn archery. After Yongle moved the capital, the archery skills of Nanjian were basically abandoned."
The steward said: "What Ruan Jiansheng said is absolutely true. Very few of our Ming Dynasty supervisors learn archery. Most of the supervisors who go to the archery garden to learn archery are students from Siyi, Yunnan and Sichuan native officials, and students sent from Jiaozhi and Ryukyu.
Those barbarians are not polite and like to shoot arrows."
Zhang Yuan shook his head. Confucius advocated the Six Arts of the Gentleman, which cultivated all-round talents. In later generations, as long as they can read and write, it will be enough. Especially when recruiting scholars with eight-legged essay writing, what will be created is not sages and gentlemen, but people who seek fame and profit and put their knowledge to the test.
It is closely related to fame and fortune. Regardless of virtue or hard work, as long as the eight-part essay is done well, there will be a golden house, a face like jade, and a thousand bells of millet...
Of course, the imperial examination was a huge improvement compared to the hereditary nobility system and the nine-rank Zhongzheng system. This made the Ming Dynasty's class levels blurred and fluid. Children of farmers, merchants, and military families could all join the gentry class by relying on the imperial examination. Lower-level classes had
The opportunity to change one's own destiny, so the whole society has a positive driving force. Using eight-part essay to train and select talents is relatively fair, but blindly advocating literature and depreciating military force makes the entire gentry class weak and lacks blood. The Imperial College
Even the archery classes for students have been abandoned, and all they have produced are a group of weak scholars who have no strength to restrain themselves——
Zhang Yuandao: "Take me to Shepu to see the holy church" and asked Ruan Dacheng: "Brother Ruan, do you want to go with us?"
Ruan Dacheng smiled and said: "Why, Brother Jiezi wants to learn archery?"
Zhang Yuandao: "I have been studying all day, and my hands are stiff and my back hurts. It's time to learn to ride and shoot to strengthen my body."
Ruan Dacheng looked at Zhang Yuan with great interest. Xiao Sanyuan, a young man with a profound knowledge of the city, always had different ideas. Apart from Zhang Yuan, Ruan Dacheng had never seen any scholar get up early in the morning and practice boxing, jumping, and making his head full.
Khan said: "Okay, let's go together."
The steward led Zhang Yuan and Ruan Dacheng through the vegetable garden to the shooting garden. The shooting garden was in the shape of a long text, three hundred paces long, two hundred and forty paces wide, and one step was five feet, which means it was 150 feet wide from east to west.
, one hundred and twenty feet from north to south, is a very large area, but at this time, under the scorching sun at the end of June, a row of vegetables and melons was planted on the south side of this wide shooting garden adjacent to the vegetable garden, and
The other places are knee-deep in grass, and a few archery targets at the north end stand alone in the grass, which is particularly desolate——
The officer had received a lot of reward from Zhang Yuan, and he said diligently: "Master Zhang, there are two old soldiers guarding the archery storehouse over there. These dishes are from the old army. If Master Zhang wants to learn archery, he should ask the old soldiers. There are two veterans in the storehouse."
There may be bows and arrows in there."
Zhang Yuan and Ruan Dacheng followed the officer to the warehouse at the north end of Shepu. They saw a gray-haired old soldier coming in from the small door carrying a load of dung and preparing to water the vegetables. The smelly smell came from afar and Ruan Dacheng hurriedly covered his nose to hide.
Afterwards, Zhang Principle and the officer came forward to ask questions. The old soldier placed the dung bucket by the wall, pulled some weeds and spread it on the surface of the bucket, so that the smell of dung could be covered up -
After hearing what the officer told him about his purpose, the veteran looked at Zhang Yuan. He had been in the Imperial College for more than 30 years and had a lot of people. The prison students came and went, and there were often new and interesting prison students who would come here to ask him for bows and arrows to try.
He wanted to shoot, but he stopped playing within two days. The old army refused and said: "There are no more bows and arrows in the warehouse. The two supervisors should go back to study."
The officer looked at Zhang Yuan and saw that Zhang Yuan refused to leave, so he said to the old soldier: "Old Zhou, don't hide it from us. A few days ago, I saw some barbarians from Ryukyu shooting arrows here."
The old soldier said: "Those are the bows and arrows they brought with them."
Zhang Yuan said: "Old man, I really want to learn archery. If you have a bow and arrows, please lend me a bow and arrows." He took out a small piece of broken silver, about six or seven coins, and gave it to the old soldier.
Silver is really a good thing. The old soldier's dark wrinkled face suddenly smiled and said: "To be honest, sir, there are indeed some bows and arrows in this warehouse, but they are of no use. The strings are loose and need to be re-strung.
"
When the steward saw that Zhang Yuan was rewarded with more than half a tael of silver, he was very jealous and said to Zhang Yuan: "There are craftsmen who make and string bows in Nanjing City. I am willing to repair and string the bow on behalf of Mr. Zhang."
The old soldier said: "Since you said that, let's pick up a bow."
The old soldier opened the warehouse. There were dust and cobwebs everywhere. There were more than ten bows hanging on the north wall. Zhang Yuan could not tell whether the bows were good or bad, so he said to the old soldier: "Please choose two bows for me.
I'll give you another two taels of silver later, and we'll have to come to the shooting garden to learn shooting from now on, so we'll have to disturb you."
When the old army saw that the young supervisor spoke modestly and was not as arrogant and bossy as other supervisors, he kept saying, "Thank you, Master. Thank you, Master." Then he picked two bows off the wall and wiped the dust off the arms of the bows.
Then he held both ends of the bow arms and twisted them, and said: "One is a small tip bow, and the other is a hemp-backed bow. The bow arms are intact. You can just change the strings. If you want arrows, they are here. Come to me anytime."
People are like that." He took out a book and asked Zhang Yuan to sign and stamp it. After all, this bow belongs to the Imperial College, so if you want to lend it out, you need a certificate——
Zhang Yuan took a look at the book and saw that there were many people's names signed on it. It seemed that some supervisors had borrowed bows and arrows from the old army before. Taking a closer look, these signatures were very strange. Some signed "Yang Youji" and some signed "Yang Youji".
Some signed "Hou Yi" and "Li Guang", clearly bullying the old army who was illiterate and signing randomly to deal with it——
The old army found a bald pen from nowhere. There was no ink, so he wet the tip of the pen in his mouth and handed it to Zhang Yuan. Zhang Yuan smiled and signed his name, thanked the old army, and took one with the conductor.
After the bow left the warehouse, Ruan Dacheng walked over from the shade of the tree and said with a smile: "There really is a bow."
Zhang Yuan said: "The string is useless and needs to be changed." He walked to the target, stretched his bow and said: "Take it, take it, take it, the arrow will hit the red heart." After saying that, he laughed and returned to Ruan Dacheng.
The officer came out of Shepu and came to the room of Guangye Hall. He walked through the west lecture hall and met Mao Jincheng, a purple-faced man in Oriole official uniform and two official servants. Zhang Yuan and Ruan Dacheng came over.
As they stepped aside, Superintendent Mao shouted loudly: "Zhang Yuan, I'm looking for you. Please follow me to the Shengxing Hall for trial."
Zhang Yuan bowed and asked, "I wonder if the Master, Master Jian Cheng, has anything to ask the students?"
Mao Jiancheng sneered and said, "I'll ask you again when we get to the Shengzhen Hall. Now, shut up." He ordered the guards to take Zhang Yuan to the Shengzhen Hall.
Zhang Yuan handed the bow to Ruan Dacheng and whispered: "Brother Ruan, please go find Dr. Zhao quickly."
Ruan Dacheng took the bow, nodded, and left quickly, but he heard Mao Jiancheng shout: "Wait a minute, where did this bow come from?"
Zhang Yuan took back the bow from Ruan Dacheng and said to Mao Jiancheng: "This is the bow the student borrowed from the veteran soldiers of Shepu. The student is going to learn archery."
Mao Jiancheng said: "The bows in the shooting garden are not allowed to be loaned to outsiders. You are stealing something from the prison."
Zhang Yuan knew that Superintendent Mao wanted to punish him and it was useless to argue, so he said: "The student is willing to go to the Shengqi Hall to report the incident in detail to Mr. Superintendent." After saying this, he walked towards the Shengqi Hall.
.
Superintendent Mao thought to himself: "This boy is quite obedient." He immediately snorted coldly and led two supervisors to escort Zhang Yuan to the Prison Hall.
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I will make up for yesterday’s update, and the night update will be uploaded before midnight as usual.