In the afternoon, Nanxunmen Street adjacent to the Imperial City is still the most prosperous and lively place in Bianjing City.
Wei Chen went to the General Affairs Department to deliver the memorial. Because it was still early, he was not in a hurry to go home. Instead, he strolled around the bookstore on Nanxunmen Street.
This bookstore is called Songhezhai and is located outside Donghua Gate. Officials come and go frequently.
In the past, scholars who came to Beijing to take the Spring Examination, after going to the Ministry of Etiquette to submit their posts, would often go to Songhezhai to look for the latest Wenchao, Wenfu and other books related to the imperial examination.
Over time, Songhezhai became the largest bookstore in Bianjing, and perhaps the largest bookstore in Dazhou.
Wei Chen himself is a book lover, and he likes to buy and read books when he has nothing to do.
When he was at Shengshi Yixue in the past, he read almost all the books in the Yixue library.
However, Youyang is located in a corner after all, and the rise of Sheng's Yi Xue did not take long. Even though Sheng Wei spent a lot of effort to collect various classics, the collection of books in Yi Xue still lacked some foundation.
When he went to the Shengjia School yesterday, Wei Chen heard from Qi Heng that he accidentally found an authentic painting by Chen Ziang in Songhe Zhai, which was worth thousands of gold.
Wei Chen was interested at that time, and today he happened to be on his way to the General Administration Department to deliver the memorial, so he stopped by Songhe Zhai to take a look.
After getting off the carriage, Wei Chen asked the driver to wait while he, dressed in casual clothes, took Yuan An into Songhe Zhai.
As the largest bookstore in Bianjing, Songhezhai covers an extremely large area and is divided into more than a dozen different areas, selling various types of books.
Wei Chen walked around a few places after entering. All the books sold there were books related to the imperial examination.
All bookstores in Dazhou sell similar books of this kind, but Songhezhai just updates them faster.
Wei Chen won six yuan in a row. Regarding the imperial examination, there was no one more authoritative than him in the entire Zhou Dynasty. Wei Chen really had no interest in these cookie-cutter imperial examination textbooks. On the contrary, they were just idle books in the eyes of some scholars, and even more so.
It can make Wei Chen's eyes light up.
After walking through several large rooms in a row, Wei Chen couldn't find the book he wanted. He couldn't help but feel a little depressed. He thought to himself that Songhezhai was known as the No. 1 bookshop in Bianjing, which seemed a bit unworthy of its name.
】
At this moment, Wei Chen was attracted by two young men dressed as scholars.
I only heard one of them waving the literary notes in his hand and sighing: "Look at this volume of "Essential Notes of Famous Masters of the Past Dynasties", there is not a single article from this dynasty selected. The poetry of the Zhou literati is not as good as that of the ancients, even
The imperial examination articles are not as good as each other. Each generation is really inferior to the last!"
Another person nodded seriously: "This is reasonable. Literary minister Liu Wending (Liu Tingxi, a Hanlin scholar) has been the leader of Zhou literary circles for decades, but not a single article has been selected. This shows that today's people are indeed far inferior to the ancients." Wei Chen heard what the two were talking about behind him and almost couldn't help laughing.
This "Famous Writers of the Past Dynasties" contains articles written before the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. Of course, no one from this dynasty will appear in it.
It is really ridiculous that these two young scholars actually came to the conclusion that one generation is inferior to the other based on this.
It can be seen that most of these two people do not have any real talent or knowledge, they are just talkers, "supporting each other and nagging" here.
Wei Chen had neither the time nor the interest to have a meaningless argument with the two of them. He just shook his head and silently walked aside to continue looking for books.
However, when the shopkeeper who was arranging books heard their remarks, he frowned slightly and couldn't help but said: "If you two guests want to find articles by famous writers of this dynasty, our store has "The Complete Works of Famous Masters of the Emperor Zhou Dynasty".
There are twenty-five volumes in total, which include selected articles by eighteen famous figures including Liu Tingxi, Luo Bingkun, and Yan Xiren."
The shopkeeper deliberately paused when he mentioned the word "Emperor Zhou". The two young scholars were stunned for a moment when they heard this, and then realized that they had made a big mistake and looked embarrassed.
One of them coughed lightly and said: "You don't even have any articles by Wei Liuyuan, how dare you claim to be the complete works of famous writers of this dynasty?
Another person quickly echoed: "That's right, I can only read this book, so I don't care if I don't read it."
Wei Chen was secretly amused when he heard this. These two people were really tough-tongued. However, they respected Wei Chen in their words, which made Wei Chen feel very happy.
It seems that I still have some weight in the hearts of scholars all over the world. After all, these years have not been in vain.
"Although Wei Liuyuan's literary talents are not inferior to those of famous writers such as Liu, Luo and Yan, he is a rising star in recent years. This complete collection of famous writers of the Huangzhou Dynasty was compiled by members of the Jiangning Mansion seven years ago, so it is included
His articles are not included."
The shopkeeper smiled and said: "If you two guests want to read new articles, our store just happened to have an article about Wei Liuyuan, which is guaranteed to be fresh."
The two scholars glanced sideways at the shopkeeper: "How new can it be? Don't bring Wei Liuyuan's collected works from before to trick us!"
"This is Wei Liuyuan's memorial, which was just submitted to the General Affairs Department this afternoon."
The shopkeeper lowered his voice and said: "We also relied on a lot of connections to get it. I guarantee that this is the only one in Bianjing, and there is no other store!"
"You actually have such ability?"
The two scholars couldn't help but look at the ordinary shopkeeper in front of them with admiration, and unconsciously restrained their contempt.
To be able to obtain the memorials submitted by courtiers as soon as possible, even if they are public memorials, one must have a profound background.
It is worthy of being the first bookstore in Bianjing. It is indeed a place where one’s hands and eyes can reach the sky!
Wei Chen, who had been watching the excitement, was secretly surprised when he heard the shopkeeper's words.
He handed the memorial in person, so he knew it better than anyone else. From the time he sent the memorial to the General Affairs Department, it took no more than an hour.
In just one hour, this memorial had already arrived at Songhezhai outside the imperial city. Isn't this efficiency too fast?
At this time, the two scholars could not wait to ask the shopkeeper for this fresh memorial.
The shopkeeper smiled and quoted an astonishingly high price. Although the two men felt a little pain, they still reluctantly took out the money in order to see it first.
However, when they saw the "Appreciation Form" handed over by the shopkeeper, the reluctance of the two scholars when they paid the bill disappeared. There was only one thought in their minds, the money was well spent!
Just reading Wei Chen's self-narration of his study experience in the first half of the article, the two of them were already moved by the sincere and simple writing in the article.
And when they read the second half of the article, they felt Wei Chen's unyielding determination to serve the country. They felt that the surge in their chests and the blood all over their bodies spurred, and they immediately exclaimed: "This is truly the best among the world's scholars.
Fan Ye!"
Soon after, the two of them hurried out as if they had found a treasure.
Needless to say, the two of them can't wait to find other friends to share this joy.
Wei Chen stood there, silently watching the two of them leave, scratching his head helplessly. It seemed that he was going to become famous again this time...