In the guest room, Wang Yuan and Mr. Shen sat across from each other, and A Cai brought afternoon tea.
Shen Fucong took a bite of the pastry, sipped another sip of tea, and said with a smile: "Guizhou is not a slow learner, but its enjoyment is as good as that of Jiangnan."
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty and the poor at the bottom had two meals a day, but the emperor could eat all kinds of snacks and late-night snacks.
As for princes, bureaucrats, wealthy businessmen, and military officers, they have already had three meals a day. With the development of social economy, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, drinking morning tea and afternoon tea became popular in Jiangnan, which was hundreds of years earlier than the British tea culture.
Wang Yuan did not drink tea or eat cake, and continued to concentrate on practicing calligraphy.
Master Shen thought about the tea and asked: "This tea is very good, what kind of tea is it?"
A Cai replied: "Duyun has a tongue."
"Okay, please step back." Master Shen nodded with a rather arrogant air.
A Cai bowed and exited the guest room.
Master Shen asked: "Are you used to studying in the Song clan?"
Wang Yuan said with a smile: "I am like a fish in water. I fought a few times with the Song family's disciples and won them all. It's a pity that Master Liao's lectures are not as thorough as Mr. Liao. I hope that Mr. Liao can come here to teach as soon as possible."
Master Shen was holding a teacup, lying on the chair, and said proudly: "I have been playing with Mr. Xi these days, and by the way, I am assisting him in running social schools. Mr. Xi has just taken office, the shogunate has not yet opened, and he has no confidants. He also wants to invite me to be the guest of honor."
The officialdom of the Ming Dynasty had an assistant system.
Auxiliary officers are recognized by the imperial court and have a certain rank, which is equivalent to a formal worker. However, if the assistant officers are often not used smoothly, the chief officer will start the job on his own and recruit staff for his own use, which is equivalent to temporary workers.
If the governor opens the ceremony, he can even recruit people to serve as his staff.
Master Shen is so good at getting around. In just a few days, he actually gained the trust of Deputy Academic Officer Xi Shu.
Shen Fucong smiled and said: "I also followed Mr. Xi to inspect the health school in the south of the city. Do you know which school is the most exploitative within hundreds of miles of Guizhou City?"
"Isn't it the Song family and the An family?" Wang Yuan asked.
"It's the guard eunuch!"
Although Master Shen has never been a high official, he prides himself on the authenticity of Confucianism and is naturally resistant to eunuchs. He sneered disdainfully and said: "The eunuchs guarding Guizhou are the real common people. Even the local people who were involved in Cao's lawsuit were forced by him to almost rebel."
"I can imagine." Wang Yuan said.
Don't talk about the corruption of the Ming Dynasty civil servants. When it comes to corruption, even the flatterers can't keep up with the eunuchs.
Because when civil servants were corrupt, they had to follow some rules, but when eunuchs were corrupt, they were unscrupulous.
The chieftains here in Guizhou are so powerful that the guarding eunuchs dare not stretch their hands too far, but the chieftains in Yunnan are amazing.
During the Hongzhi period, the officials governed the Qingming Dynasty and the world was at peace.
Even in these years, the Yunnan garrison eunuchs dared to act recklessly, employing gangsters and run-down military households to occupy fields, mountains and ponds, and wantonly exploited local chieftains and people.
In twenty or thirty years, the chieftains near Fengxi were in trouble. Only a few chieftains were willing to inherit their positions, and the other chieftains could not bear it and fled. The population of the native people around the city was reduced by more than 80%; there were two to three hundred people around the city. Here, the native population decreased by more than 60%. By the end of Zhengde, the local area was made like the end of the world by the eunuchs. Both the chieftains and the native people rebelled, and even attracted the invasion of raw land barbarians.
Master Shen said: "I heard that your father fled from Qianwei, Guizhou, and your family's land may have been occupied by the guarding eunuchs."
"Alas." Wang Yuan sighed helplessly.
Guizhou is rotten to the core. The chieftains are exploiting the people, the generals are exploiting the military households, and the eunuchs are exploiting the chieftains, generals, civilians and military households.
Speaking of which, eunuchs are the most awesome.
"Let's not talk about this anymore," Master Shen said, "I haven't seen you for a few days. I'm here to test your homework."
Wang Yuan said: "I casually read "One Hundred Family Surnames", and I have fully mastered "The Thousand-Character Essay". I also asked Master Liao for advice on the allusions in the text."
"Then let's study "Little Four Books" next," Master Shen asked, "Do you know why it's called "Little Four Books"?"
Wang Yuan said: "Is it because it is important?"
Mr. Shen introduced: "All the contents of the imperial examinations and most of the Confucian classics are based on the "Little Four Books" as an outline. If you can learn the "Little Four Books" well, you will get twice the result with half the effort in studying the Four Books and Five Classics in the future. Don't do it because they are elementary books. And despised.”
"Students understand." Wang Yuan actually didn't understand.
But when he really opened "Little Four Books" and quickly browsed its contents, combined with modern educational theories, Wang Yuan instantly understood it more thoroughly than Master Shen. "Little Four Books" is the collective name of four books -
"Mingwu Mengqiu" introduces natural knowledge, social conditions and ethical common sense, and mainly cultivates schoolchildren's cosmology, world view and ethics.
"Xingli Zi Xun" is mainly based on theoretical knowledge and mainly cultivates schoolchildren's worldview, values and moral outlook.
The two books "Historical Abstracts" and "Mengqiu of the Past Dynasties" can be understood as "Up and Down Five Thousand Years (Ming Dynasty Edition)", which mainly cultivate schoolchildren's historical outlook and values.
As long as you finish studying the "Little Four Books" conscientiously, you will already have the basic qualities of an ancient scholar. It will be easier to understand and master the Four Books and Five Classics if you study them again. This stuff has an outlining effect on the entire study career of Confucian students.
It is a pity that most Confucian scholars in the Ming Dynasty failed to truly master the "Little Four Books" and only memorized it by rote with the "Collected Annotations of Zhu Xi" and reference materials!
Putting down the "Little Four Books", Wang Yuan said: "Sir, I have been practicing calligraphy for the past few days, and I have a doubt in my mind."
"What doubts?" Master Shen asked.
"In addition to Ouyang Xun's copybook, I also borrowed a Song Huizong copybook from Song Gongzi's study. Why did Song Huizong mostly use '无' when he wrote the word '无'?" Wang Yuan wrote on the paper smoothly. These two words.
Master Shen immediately laughed: "It's just the difference between traditional Chinese characters and common Chinese characters. Don't worry too much about it. You can write whatever you want. But during the scientific examination, you'd better be able to write traditional Chinese characters, otherwise you're afraid of encountering such pedantic The marking officer.”
"Isn't there any regulation on the formal and secular forms in the imperial examination?" Wang Yuan asked.
"Of course not." Master Shen said.
The simplification of Chinese characters began in the pre-Qin era, and reached its peak in the Song Dynasty.
Take the word "无" as an example. During the Liao and Song Dynasties, both emperors and officials, as well as traffickers and pawns, were more accustomed to using the easy-to-write "无".
There are various "nothings" in the works handed down from generation to generation by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. The occasional "nothing" appears very rarely.
In the Buddhist scriptures of the Liao Dynasty, there is "Namo Wugou-armed Buddha". The orthodox and secular forms are mixed and used continuously, because the name of the Buddha must be in the orthodox form to appear pious and solemn.
In the Ming Dynasty, due to the eight-legged essay, it was difficult for Confucian scholars to be creative in their writing, so they pursued retro style in the use of characters. They began to abandon a large number of commonly used common characters and instead pursued complex traditional Chinese characters to show their profound knowledge.
This is a retrograde phenomenon in the evolution of Chinese characters!
Even if it went backwards, the Ming Dynasty did not impose mandatory regulations.
The use of traditional Chinese characters in the imperial examination is a bonus point for metaphysics. In fact, the examiners don't care at all. However, if the use of conventional characters is used, it is a potential points deduction. If you encounter a pedantic examiner, you will be unhappy.
One day, Wang Yuan's brain suddenly went crazy and he accidentally used the word "无" in the examination room. Generally speaking, there is no problem.
If there are strict requirements for traditional Chinese characters, you will have to wait until the Kangxi Dynasty. By then, you can write as many beautiful articles as you want. Once you use common Chinese characters, it will be like handing in a blank paper.
The content of the elementary school textbooks was very simple for Wang Yuan, but he still studied it very seriously, mainly because he wanted to clarify this common sense issue.
Especially the correct use of traditional and simplified Chinese!
For example, among modern Chinese characters, the traditional Chinese characters for "里" include "里" and "里". In ancient times, only to express the directional relationship, the traditional Chinese characters (inside, there) were used. At other times, "里" (xiangli, Shilidi) was used directly. ).
Once Wang Yuan writes the wrong combination of "xiangli", it will be worse than using common Chinese characters.
"Hey, Wang Yuan, come out to fight!"
Wang Yuan and Master Shen were discussing their studies when Song Ling'er's shout suddenly came from outside.