Don't think that the life of a Taoist chanter can be very leisurely. Leisure is okay, but you must keep up with the homework of chanting, otherwise your future will not be good.
According to the rules of Wujiyuan, which is actually the rule of the entire Daomen Palace, there are monthly exams in the Sutra Hall and annual exams every year, and the results obtained will be recorded in the file. Ranked as first-class, you can go out with high-level practitioners to perform rituals.
It is a lucrative job, and there is hope for success in the future; if you are ranked second class, it doesn't hurt, so you can do whatever you want; if you are unfortunate enough to fall into third class, your monthly salary will be halved, and you will be third class three times in a row, and you will have monthly salary throughout the year.
If the penalty is confiscated, if you do it again three times in a row, you will be punished with an ultimatum and be discharged from the hospital!
Of course, the chance of the last situation happening is extremely small. Unless you are really stupid and have offended the professors in the sutra hall, from high-level experts to sutra masters and quiet masters, generally speaking, you will raise your hand at critical moments.
, let you go.
Although Taoist monasteries generally rarely dismiss Taoist priests, if their performance is poor, it will have a great impact on their future prospects. At least when there is an opportunity to transfer, for example, which steward position among the "Five Lords and Eighteen Heads" will be replaced?
If there is a vacancy, if the record-keeping result is not good, then you should not even think about it.
However, it cannot be generalized. There are also some positions where people with poor performance are selected. For example, Zhao Ran’s earliest supervisor, Zhou Yutou, had extremely poor results in the monthly examination and annual examination when he was reciting sutras in the sutra hall. He recited sutras for ten years and took three monthly examinations.
He was ranked in the third class more than ten times, and half of his annual examination scores were below the red line. When the prison found out that he was really not good at chanting sutras, they simply put him in charge of cleaning. This was definitely a punishment rather than a reward.
Zhao Ran and Zhu Meng are both new chanting Taoists. They don't have to take the monthly exam for three months, but after this period, they have to take up writing, but the first test paper they answer is B grade——
This is an exam prepared by the Sutra Hall for sutra-reciting Taoist boys with less than three years of experience. After three years, it will be replaced by A-level examination questions.
Zhao Ran did not delay his homework and spent the first night reading scriptures in the Sutra Library until late at night. It was on this night that he confirmed his changes - his memory was excellent!
After reading the Tao Te Ching for two months, Zhao Ran had never been able to recite it in order. But tonight he read it twice and recited it silently without any mistakes! He was so moved that his eyes filled with tears. This is a killer.
Ah, once the golden finger is opened in the future, the vast Taoist scriptures will no longer be mentioned. The monthly exams and annual exams are just like playing, they are definitely at your fingertips!
The next day, as soon as Zhao Ran finished his homework in the morning, he immediately rushed to the Sutra Library. He first recited the "Tao De Zhen" silently once, and found that his memory had not faded. He immediately calmed down and then read "I Want to You".
Note》Find it out and start reading it again.
The "Xiang'er Commentary" is no better than the "Tao De Zhen". It is an explanation and development of every sentence in the "Zhen Jing". The full text is much longer. The "Zhen Jing" only has two volumes, but the "Xiang'er Commentary" has ten volumes.
Zhao Ran piled multiple volumes on his chest, with the top volume almost touching his chin. It took him seven days to recite the entire set of "Xiang'er Zhu", and then another three days to recite "Xiang Er Zhu".
"Xiang Er Zhu" was compared with the "Tao De Zhen", and I recited it silently before and after, and I understood it correctly, and then I picked up "Laozi Xisheng Jing" again.
In the meantime, Zhao Ran saw Zhu Meng in the Sutra Collection Building every day, but this guy was far less diligent than Zhao Ran in studying the Scriptures. He usually made a pot of tea leisurely on the second floor of the Sutra Collection Building, picked up a few scriptures, and read at will.
When I was in a good mood, I read for two hours. When I was not in a good mood, I stayed in the Sutra Library for less than half an hour.
Every time Zhao Ran sees Zhu Meng leaving early, he secretly laughs in his heart, and at the same time becomes angry - I have a golden finger and am more diligent than you, so I want to see how you do in the monthly exam.
How on earth are your bones stronger than mine!
In addition to studying hard, Zhao Ran also looked for channels to understand what "roots" and "qualifications" are. He asked Zhiyuan for advice, but Yu Zhiyuan was not a person with roots, so his explanation
It's also very vague - the speaker doesn't even understand himself, but you want the listener to understand it, is it possible?
Not finding an answer from Yu Zhiyuan, he asked Yumo in a letter.
Yumo's explanation was very detailed, but Zhao Ran still found it very mysterious. Yumo's explanation was: the so-called "good bones and bones" means that the bones and meridians in the human body are in line with the way of heaven, and "good aptitudes" means a person's understanding
If the power is strong, one point will reveal everything. To sum up, it means that this person is in harmony with the way of heaven, has no stagnation in internal and external communication, and has a strong ability to understand the way of the Tao.
For example, when it comes to learning spells and spells, people with good skills and good qualifications will be able to learn it immediately, while others will not be able to learn it no matter how hard they learn it. Yu Mo’s experience is that it feels like everything “just falls into place”
”.
Zhao Ran could understand this explanation, but he couldn't understand it, so he changed his angle and asked Yumo, what are the most prominent symptoms of those cultivators with good foundation and good qualifications when they practice, such as
——For example, do you feel that your brain is particularly clear, your memory is very good, and your eyesight and ears are particularly strong?
Yumo's reply said that good memory, strong eyesight and ears are the "results" of practicing Taoism, not the "causes", which are the symptoms that appear after practicing. The root and aptitude are the "causes", which are the things that practice can achieve.
The reason for the smooth progress is just like the reason why a peach tree bears peaches is because the tree is a peach tree. If it is a pear tree, the fruit it bears is a pear. A good memory, strong eyesight and ears are peaches or pears, and the roots and bones are
Qualification is a peach tree or a pear tree.
With this explanation, Zhao Ran roughly understood. It turned out that he still had no qualifications. But he soon became confused again. He was neither a peach tree nor a pear tree, so how could he bear peaches and pears? This is not the case.
Science!
If he didn't understand, he didn't think about it for the time being. Zhao Ran decided to ask him face to face when he had the opportunity in the future. He remembered that Chu Yangcheng looked at him and said that his bones were not good and his qualifications were poor. This meant that those who were practicing should
There is a way to visually determine whether a person has a bone. When the time comes, just ask Yumo to take a look at it again.
Because opportunities are hard to come by, Zhao Ran wants to seize them with all his strength. For a "pseudo-backstage" person with a golden finger of memory, Zhao Ran's only choice is to study hard, hoping to use "the scriptures"
"This true skill is based in Taoism.
In the next three months, he spent all the time at his disposal, piled it all into the Sutra Library, and recited five or six important classics and more than ten related commentaries.
Among them, the "Tao De Zhen Jing", "Nan Hua Zhen Jing", "Chongxu Zhide Zhen Jing" and "Tong Xuan Zhen Jing" are particularly important. These four classics are also known as "Laozi", "Zhuangzi", "
Liezi" and "Wenzi" are regarded as the "Four Sons True Scripture" by Taoists. They are the most fundamental core works of Taoism and the basis for all Taoist scholarship, rituals, spells, magic, and even self-cultivation.
In the view of "false believer" Zhao Ran, the "Daode Zhenjing" is the most mysterious, the "Nanhua Zhenjing" is the most literary, the "Chongxu Zhide Zhenjing" has wonderful meanings, and the "Tongxuan Zhenjing" has the most famous quotes and aphorisms.
It is very interesting to read and recite it carefully and calmly.
What he dislikes the most is the annotations and interpretations of these four scriptures by latecomers. From the perspective of a traveler with pseudo-beliefs, they are mixed with a lot of far-fetched and forced words, which makes the reading taste like wax. But the butt directs the head.
, since Zhao Ran sat on the seat of the chanting Taoist boy, he had to memorize these things.
In three months, he studied and memorized more than 20 works, totaling hundreds of thousands of words. If this skill were placed in the world that Zhao Ran traveled through, it would have been enough to make him famous and prosperous. You know, this is
The most obscure Taoist classics! Even if the Taoist priests in Wujiyuan have read more scriptures than him, there are definitely only a handful of them who can recite these scriptures and commentaries word for word.
In the sutra-reciting building, among the sutra-reciting Taoist boys Zhao Ran met, only Ma Zhili had such a foundation. However, Ma Zhili had been in the sutra hall for nearly eight years, and their learning progress was not the same. Most of the others, especially
It was the young, fat Taoist priest and the skinny old Taoist priest that Zhao Ran had noticed during the evening class at the Sutra Hall, but they had already been left behind by Zhao Ran.
As for Zhumeng, one night Zhao Ran couldn't help but provoke this guy, and then humiliated him in every way while reciting scriptures. This guy also started to work hard, and the time he went to the Sutra Library to read scriptures doubled every day.
Zhao Ran has never been so looking forward to the first monthly exam in his Taoist career as he is today. This is the arrogant pleasure of having a golden finger. This feeling... is really good!
Thanks to two book friends, yangzhigang and Ting Hai’s song, for the tip. I’ve been very busy with work recently, so it’s hard to update. Please forgive me. I’m really sorry and ashamed!