Song Ling'er was curled up cross-legged in a Taishi chair, with cement lying on her legs. She and the cat were both taking a nap.
The Taishi Chair in the Ming Dynasty is different from the Qing Dynasty. It specifically refers to an armchair, which forms a semicircle from the back of the chair to the armrests. It is more comfortable to lie down on than the Taishi Chair in the Qing Dynasty.
Suddenly, the shouts of his companions came from the yard, and Cement's ears immediately stood up. The guy used his legs on Song Ling'er's belly, kicked hard, and jumped into the yard quickly.
The three civil engineering heroes joined forces gloriously, but they didn't know what bad things they were going to do.
Song Ling'er opened her eyes drowsily, yawned, stretched her hands up high, threw off the clothes on her body, twisted her neck and said: "What time is it? I feel a little hungry... Hey, why did your clothes fall on the floor?"
Wang Yuan didn't say anything, but read "Zhu Zi Yu Lei" with gusto.
Song Ling'er bent down to pick up the clothes and murmured to herself: "You have a conscience, but you are still afraid that I will catch a cold."
Wang Yuan is still reading.
"bookworm."
Song Ling'er muttered something and shouted at the top of her voice: "A Cai, bring some food over here!"
Not long after, A Cai brought a plate of cakes and made them two cups of tea.
Song Ling'er was eating snacks by herself, showing no ladylike image. While chewing, she said: "Hey, you haven't been hunting with me for the past two days. What kind of ghost book are you reading?"
Wang Yuan finally closed the book and said with a smile: "It's a very interesting book."
"Are you afraid that you won't be able to become a scholar if you work so hard?" Song Ling'er asked.
Wang Yuan shook his head and said: "This book has nothing to do with the examination of scholars."
"Then you're talking nonsense." Song Ling'er said she couldn't understand.
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "You don't understand. This book is very interesting. I may have to rely on it to make a living in the future."
After being awakened by Shen Fucong that day, Wang Yuan went to buy a copy of "Zhu Xi Yu Lei". He borrowed the money to buy the book from Song Ling'er. Anyway, the debt was large and he didn't have to worry about it. He would just find an opportunity to repay it together in the future.
As soon as this book was opened, Wang Yuan entered a new world.
Before the Song Dynasty, Confucianism was prolific, and it was also a mixture of various schools of thought and Buddhist and Taoist theories. The content was complex and lacked systematicity.
On the basis of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi used the "Book of Changes" to build the foundation and framework, used Tai Chi, Yin and Yang and the Five Elements to construct the cosmology, and also threw in Confucian classics such as the Four Books and Five Classics to form Neo-Confucianism with a complete theoretical system.
The great principles taught by Neo-Confucianism are all correct in humanistic aspects, and you will not be able to find fault with them in a thousand years.
Unfortunately, it is too pragmatic.
Wang Yuan roughly finished reading "Zhu Xi Yu Lei". At this moment, he couldn't help being happy. He picked up the brush and wrote four words on the paper.
Song Ling'er chewed the cake and turned her head to take a look: "Physics, chemistry... what does this mean?"
Wang Yuan said with a bad smile: "Zhu Zi said that we should 'investigate things and understand their principles', so I call it 'physics' for short; Zhu Zi said that all things are made of yin and yang 'qi-manifold', I call it 'chemistry' for short. Physics and chemistry are what I call them.
It is the foundation of a lifetime of knowledge. But it is of no use now. I have to wait until I pass the Jinshi exam and become famous before anyone will believe me."
"I don't know what you are talking about." Song Ling'er became more and more confused.
What does Wang Yuan want to do?
Of course it is tampering with the Neo-Confucian classics.
This thing is so easy to modify. Who told Zhu Xi to always bring scientific research thinking into his studies - this is the case with objective idealism.
Wang Yangming was actually doing the same thing, quietly tampering with the classics and meanings of Neo-Confucianism, but he still wore the name of Neo-Confucianism, and "Xin Xue" was openly called out by his disciples and disciples.
Wang Yuan planned to follow Wang Yangming first, use Uncle Wang's reputation to promote himself, and then package Neo-Confucianism and Xinxue together to tamper with them to create his own theory.
Well, if the fusion of psychology and Neo-Confucianism is called psychology?
Psychology master Wang Er, this nickname is quite good.
Wang Yuan took a sip of tea, then opened "Book of Rites and Justice" and read hard.
Song Ling'er complained: "Why are you reading again? It's boring!"
Wang Yuan said excitedly: "I will work hard to take the imperial examination and spread my theory as soon as possible! The most urgent thing is to pass the Taoist examination."
…
The road test is much more formal than the county test and government test.
Wang Yuan and Liu Yaozu received blank test papers from Guizhu Division three days in advance and filled in their names, ages, places of origin and three generations of ancestors. Then they could get the test paper results, that is, the admission tickets. They could use the admission tickets to collect their own test papers on the day of the exam.
Under normal circumstances, children from all states and counties must gather together to take exams.
Provinces with too many candidates will be divided into several exams on a county-by-county basis. Each exam will have different questions. This will prevent those who take the exam first from leaking the questions. Moreover, the order of exams is also particular, with the best prefectures and counties taking the exam first.
This arrangement rule is called the "county outline".
However, transportation in Guizhou is inconvenient. In order to take care of remote areas, Xi Shu took the initiative to go to various places to invigilate the exams separately, thus saving the children the pain of traveling.
At four o'clock in the morning, which is equivalent to five o'clock in the morning, the children came to the gate of Si School in the dark.
This troublesome rule actually made it easier for the vendors, who set up stalls to sell breakfast.
Liu Yaozu was extremely worried. He gnawed on the meat pie bought by Wang Yuan and said, "I will definitely not be able to do it this time. I just managed to memorize the first chapter of the "Book of Rites" last night."
"It's definitely possible to sharpen a gun before the battle. If you don't like it, it will be a waste." Wang Yuan said with a smile.
While the two were chatting and joking, a group of poor people came with their hands behind their backs and walked directly into the gate of Si School.
The leader is Zhang Bangchen, a professor of science in Xuanwei, Guizhou. "Professor" is an official name, which is equivalent to the principal and teaching director of a provincial public school.
If Wang Yuan can pass the examination as a student member, he will definitely enter the Department of Education and study under our Professor Zhang.
In ancient times, all teachers at any level of government education were poor.
For scholars, poverty can naturally evolve into aloofness, and these teachers are very aloof. No matter how big an official you are, I will listen to your orders if they are correct, but don't think that I will give you a good look, even if the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty comes, I will do the same
put on airs.
Why?
Because teachers cannot be promoted and are extremely poor, there is no need to fawn over anyone. It doesn’t matter if you contradict the superior, it’s just a teaching position. Whoever likes it can be dismissed from my position if you are awesome, not to mention the local government.
Officials have no power to fire teachers.
Taking the above factors into account, even a dignified envoy of a province can be treated politely when he meets a professor of official studies - why should he care about a poor man? There are no benefits at all, and he will get a bad reputation.
Zhang Bangchen was born in Gongsheng, and he was born in Suigong.
That is, a scholar who has not passed the examination for decades is recommended by the local government to study in the Imperial College. Then he waits for the imperial court to assign him a job, and he is usually assigned to work as a teacher in various places.
Once you accept the position of teacher, you will have no hope of promotion in this life.
It's even worse for people like Zhang Bangchen, whose wages are not enough to live on, and they have to wait for the harvest in their fields to survive. If there is a drought or something, they will go hungry.
But at this moment, Zhang Bangchen was majestic.
He and other teachers walked all the way, walking vigorously, and all the students bowed and saluted along the way. It was like a club leader leading his men on a street patrol, and the younger brothers greeted him along the way: "Hello, Brother Bang, thank you for your hard work, Brother Bang!"
Professor Zhang arrived in front of the Si Xue Hall. There were already more than ten people standing here, all of them were adjutants from various lawsuits and local students who had secured guarantees for children.
Under normal circumstances, the prefects of various places and the magistrates of the first county should be present in person to participate in the invigilation. However, the chieftains in Guizhou were so arrogant that they only sent an adjutant to deal with it, and Xi Shu was too lazy to worry about it.
"Promote the officer!"
Some officials were shouting in the west hall, and Xi Shu, deputy envoy of Tixue, was sitting in the west hall.
It is also important to recommend that academic officials sit in the West Hall. The origin of the Western Hall is the same as the origin of the Western Seat. It all originated from the fact that Emperor Han and Ming respected Huan Rong as his teacher and asked Huan Rong to sit in the west and face the east.
Officials from all walks of life entered the west hall one by one and bowed to Xi Shu, who sneered and ignored him.
According to normal circumstances, the first batch of people to enter should be the prefect. And the prefect does not use the bow, and the academic officials must bow in return. When it comes to Guizhou, it happens to be the other way around, because all the people who come are adjutants.
There is only one exception, and that is the prefect of Cheng Fan Prefecture.
Xi Shu walked directly in front of Magistrate Cheng Fan and bowed in salute. Magistrate Cheng Fan also violated the rules and returned the salute.
The prefect of Cheng Fan was held by a Han official and belonged to a prefecture attached to the provincial capital of Guo. However, most of its jurisdiction was actually controlled by chieftains. Because the same prefect of Cheng Fan was surnamed Song, the prefect felt very aggrieved - Cheng Fan Prefecture, which later became
Guiyang Prefecture in Guiyang, hence the place name Guiyang.
Xi Shu and Magistrate Cheng Fan bowed to each other before returning to their seats.
Then the Si Xue teachers came in, and Xi Shu stood up and saluted again. Professor Zhang and other poor people stood with their hands behind their hands. They obeyed the rules and did not need to return the salute. This was a rare moment of glory for the teachers.
Finally, all the students who are guarantors for the children have to stand in front of the west hall and bow to the academic officer. The official does not need to stand up, let alone return the gift.
The next normal procedure is to call the name of the county, and when called to a certain county, the instructor from that county will answer the call, and then run to stand behind the instructor. But in Guizhou, this procedure is simply omitted, because there are not many here today.
A county-level official school teacher.
Then the names of the guarantor students were called out, and they all stood behind the academic officer.
Finally, it was the candidates' turn to call their names.
"Guizhou Guard Li Xun!"
"have."
"Zhong Caosi Zhang Zhong!"
"have."
Candidates came in one after another and stood in the yard in front of the west hall. They immediately took their admission tickets to get their answer sheets. Then they went to the inspection office and underwent a body search to prevent cheating.
You cannot choose your own seat for the road test. The answer sheet, admission ticket and test table all have numbers. The three numbers must be the same to pass the verification and start the test.
Wang Yuan studied ink slowly, and soon he got the title: a question on the Four Books, no less than 200 words; a question on the Five Classics, no less than 300 words.
The title of the four books is: Why should we call it profit? There is only benevolence and righteousness.
Sure enough, as Mr. Shen said, Xi Shu only tests the first chapter of the Four Books and Five Classics, and this question is the first chapter of "Mencius".
When Wang Yuan writes eight-part essay, it is just like doing civil engineering. He first determines the overall design, then breaks it down to design it in sections, and then carries out the construction step by step.
This topic talks about interests and benevolence. It is very simple, but it is difficult to write it well.
Wang Yuan first determined the central idea, that is, a gentleman does not talk about benefits, but only talks about benefits, which can cause great harm. When he talks about benevolence and righteousness, he does not seek benefits and achieves great benefits.
"A gentleman who only speaks of benevolence and righteousness but does not speak of profit is the beginning of chaos." This is to break the point.
Next, let’s continue the topic and briefly describe the dangers of talking only about profit.
Then he started to explain the benefits of benevolence and righteousness.
The eight chapters in the middle discuss in detail the dialectical relationship between interests and benevolence.
The final conclusion is that in prosperous times, benevolent government will benefit the world, and gentlemen will practice benevolence and righteousness to benefit the family and the country, so that all people can enjoy great benefits. In the last days of the dynasty, everyone talks about small benefits and does not pursue great benefits in the world, which will lead to great harm.
Therefore, we must learn lessons and listen carefully to the wise words of our sages.
By the way, he also flattered Zhu Xi, saying that benevolence and righteousness are the principles of heaven, and we must all understand and practice them carefully.
In fact, Wang Yuan's real thoughts are that although he agrees that benevolence and righteousness should come first, he must rely on profit to promote him at critical moments. It is a pity that such words cannot be written on the examination paper.
(ps: I couldn’t find the eight-part essay. I wanted to write one myself, but it took me half an hour to solve the problem. I’ll just omit the content.)