To be fair, Qingden was really indifferent to this so-called "high-end banquet".
Because it is a very high-end banquet, you must pay attention to your image.
Crossing your legs and slumping your waist will definitely not work.
Eat a lot of meat and drink a lot, let alone think about it.
The food on the table is kaiseki cuisine with no other merits except that it looks great.
The guests around him were just playing for the occasion. They raised their cheek muscles and skillfully forced out decent but artificial smiles.
To be honest, for Qingdeng, attending this type of banquet is no different from being punished.
The most vulgar and low-level dinner parties he usually held with his brothers in the imperial examination hall were much more interesting than this banquet.
Warm wine, perfectly grilled saury...are these not as delicious as kaiseki cuisine?
Harada Sanosuke tells his 800-year-old hara-kiri joke, Kondo Isamu and Nagakura Shinpachi's passionate dance, Souji's drunken and cute appearance... none of these are as good as the picture before Aoto's eyes.
Want to make a "smile mask" interesting?
In addition, he can secretly flirt with the general secretary, pinching the general secretary here and rubbing the general secretary there.
The people currently sitting on the left and right of Qingnobu are Rintaro Katsu and Seiichiro Otani respectively.
You can't let Qingdeng flirt with them, right?
Looking at the entire audience, the only person who knows Qingdeng well and can play with Qingdeng openly and honestly... is the only one in Tianzhang Academy.
Thinking of this, Qingdeng turned his head sideways without leaving a trace, and quietly looked at Tianzhang Yuan, who was sitting on a high seat a little far away from him.
Today, she wears elegant light makeup on her face, wearing a bamboo green furisode underneath and a crimson blouse on top.
Because she is already a nun, she cannot wear gold and silver, but she still looks good enough.
A good-looking person will look good even if he is just wrapped in a sheet - this is a truth in the world. Even if the "theorem of conservation of energy" is overturned, this truth remains unchanged.
Today's Tianzhang Yuan is in full swing of the "Dayu Taishuo Mode".
Her pair of slender, white and tender catkins rest naturally and generously on her legs.
Her waist is not as straight as a soldier's, as if a washboard had been inserted into her lower back.
But it has a soft curve.
Not only does it not make people feel out of shape, but it also exudes a gentle atmosphere...a very graceful sitting posture.
Obviously she didn't say anything or make any expression, she just sat there, but she could feel an outstanding aura from her body.
People who don't know about it will definitely sigh like this after seeing the graceful and elegant appearance of Tenjoin - she is indeed the princess of the Satsuma Domain and the Grand Odaisho of the Edo Shogunate! She is really extraordinary!
In fact, Qingdeng, who had a very close friendship with Tianzhang Yuan, couldn't help but feel in a trance at this moment.
He was used to seeing the other party's quirky and charming appearance.
But now, the quirky spirit has turned into a lunatic, the charming has turned into a reserved one... Faced with such a huge contrast, Qingdeng felt a little uncomfortable for a moment.
Aoto is also very familiar with Tokugawa Iemo.
But the time he spent with Jia Mao was obviously not as long as the time he spent with Tian Zhang Yuan.
As for Katsurin Taro...
Rintaro Katsu, who was born in the sixth year of the Bunsei reign (1823), is 39 years old this year, almost twice as old as Aoto.
There is no doubt that Aoto and Katsurintaro are good friends who share the same goals.
The relationship between the two is a very typical friendship between gentlemen.
They can share interesting things they have encountered recently, and they can talk freely about each other's ideals, but when it comes to private entertainment... two people with a huge age difference cannot actually have fun together.
On such an occasion, it was naturally impossible for Qingdeng to walk up to Tianzhangyuan in a swagger, let alone laugh and play with her without any scruples as usual.
In private, the two of them can do whatever they want.
But in public places, they still have to obey the etiquette of monarchs and ministers.
Although the banquet was extremely dull, it was undeniable that the scenery blowing up to the courtyard was very charming.
It is now the season when plum blossoms are in full bloom.
Plum blossoms, dyed bright red, were scattered throughout Yu Qingdeng's field of vision.
The plum blossoms on the branches are as dazzling as if they have been washed in water. They are eye-catching, colorful, and red like fire. From a distance, they look like a patch of red clouds under the blue sky. The breeze blows, bringing bursts of fragrance.
If you raise your sight a little higher, you can see the mountains in the distance.
The green mountain is like a long screen, stretched across Qingdeng's field of vision.
Not far away, the white water channel winds and flows, and water mist rises up to an inch high.
Watching the beautiful and delicious scenery has the effect of cleansing the soul.
It would be nice to relax for a while... Qingdeng thought to himself.
As a result, he simply put his whole body and mind into appreciating the plum blossoms and the scenery.
His body and mind, which had been tortured by red tape and unappetizing food, immediately improved a lot.
…
Today's banquet is purely entertainment and not a political rally.
Therefore, whether they are ministers of the imperial court, daimyo of the vassal state, or the "Ichibashi School" or the "Nanki School", they all consciously avoid topics that are likely to cause quarrels.
For this reason, although the atmosphere at the scene was a little subtle, it was generally harmonious.
The topics that everyone talked about were nothing more than "Oh, what a beautiful plum blossom!", "Oh, what a beautiful scenery!", "Oh, what a beautiful everything!"
After enjoying the five flavors, at every banquet - no matter what level of banquet it is, whether it is an upper-class banquet for nobles or a vulgar banquet for ordinary people - there is a link that will inevitably appear: playing games.
Boxing, drinking, strength competition... these vulgar games that are not worthy of being refined naturally cannot appear here.
Incense ceremony, tea ceremony, and poetry writing—these three are the "three-piece set" necessary for high-end banquets in Japan.
The basic process of the incense ceremony played by the upper class in the Edo period was to put spices into the incense burner first. After the fragrance floated out, they took turns tasting the fragrance with the banquets, and then said "Oh! It smells so good!"
"This spice is so powerful!" Wait for bullshit.
The tea ceremony is also similar.
There are two forms of tea tasting in Japanese tea ceremony: "round drinking" and "single drinking".
As the name suggests, round drinking means that guests take turns tasting a bowl of tea, while single drinking means each guest has a separate bowl of tea.
According to the practice of the Edo period, tea masters would brew strong tea first and then weak tea.
The drinking form of strong tea is mostly "drinking in rounds", which means that all the guests present need to drink together, and each guest must drink from the same place in the tea bowl.
After drinking the strong tea, add a light tea.
When drinking weak tea, we usually switch to "drinking alone", with each person holding a bowl of tea.
Qingden also likes incense. The smell of expensive spices is really refreshing.
As for the tea ceremony...he was really afraid of avoiding it!
Never mind that Japanese tea is not to his liking at all.
No matter how bad the tea is, you can still force it into your stomach by pinching your nose.
But the form of drinking tea... to be precise, the "round drinking" in the Japanese tea ceremony, he really couldn't accept it!
So many people drinking the same bowl of tea together... To be honest, he felt disgusted.
Especially since his last tea drinker was Rintaro Katsu - this made him feel even more uncomfortable!
It’s really not that he dislikes Rintaro Katsu, but he really doesn’t want to touch his uncle’s saliva!
…
After tasting the precious spices and drinking the hot tea, everyone finally ushered in the most indispensable part of an elegant banquet like today - composing poetry.
Poems, notes, pen and ink were distributed one by one.
"Everyone, have you got paper and pen?"
Tokugawa Iemo said with a smile while looking at Merlin not far away:
"Since we are gathered here today to appreciate plum blossoms, let's take 'plum blossoms' as the theme! There is no limit to the subject matter, you can paint as much as you like!"
As Tokugawa Iemo finished speaking, everyone, including Aonto, picked up their pens and buried their heads.
There are three main categories of poetry most commonly created by literati in ancient Japan: Chinese poetry, Waka and haiku.
Chinese poetry is easy to understand, it is Chinese style poetry.
As for the latter two, they are unique Japanese poetry genres.
Waka is a kind of Japanese poetry, which was developed from ancient Chinese Yuefu poems through continuous Japaneseization, including long songs, short songs, sheet songs, connected songs, etc.
As for haiku, it is a kind of classical short poem in Japan. It is a poetic form of quatrains in ancient Chinese poetry that was developed through Japaneseization.
It is composed of "five-seven-five", a total of seventeen syllables. That is, the first sentence has five syllables, the second sentence has seven syllables, and the last sentence has five syllables. The requirements are strict. Of course, this is based on Japanese (kana) as the standard.
Ayoto has always had little interest in Japanese classical literature.
He was in no hurry to write...and had no intention of writing.
In his previous life, he loved reading and flipped through several haiku collections when he was bored. Thanks to this, he had many high-quality works in his mind.
If he wanted to, he could directly copy some of the great works of later generations onto poetry paper.
But there was no point in doing so, and he had no reason or motivation to do so.
——Let’s fish!
Qingdeng said this to himself in a decisive tone.
When the time was almost up, he said that he did not know how to write and could not write... Having made up his mind, he raised his head in a comfortable mood and looked around.
Some people have already started squandering it.
Some people are still thinking.
Qingdeng could see that there were many people who didn't know how to compose poetry at all. They just took paper and pen and pretended to be thinking hard, but in fact they didn't intend to write a word at all - such as Tianzhang Yuan.
I saw this powerful and powerful man with his eyebrows furrowed and his head tilted.
I have to say that her concentrated look is really endearing.
Although at first glance, Tianzhangyuan looked like she was thinking deeply, Qingdeng knew very well: She must be empty-headed now!
Although it is slightly rude to say this, Tianzhangyuan's nature is completely consistent with the stereotype of Gyeonggi people towards the daughter of the martial arts family.
He doesn't like to sing in the wind and make fun of the moon, he just likes to have fun and play.
He doesn't like to sing poems and write poems, he only likes to dance with swords and guns.
How could she know how to compose poetry like this!
For such an elegant thing as poetry, it cannot be said that she has no understanding of it. It can only be said that she knows everything about it - she knows nothing about it.
Your Highness, I am really embarrassing you... Qingdeng joked in his heart.
Soon, some people put down their pens one after another, and then enthusiastically recited their masterpieces in public.
Their works are all haiku.
In terms of form, they all strictly adhere to the "five-seven-five" format of haiku.
But the content is... really lackluster.
It's either empty and useless, or it's moaning for nothing, basically on the same level as the "Sealing Madman" Qianlong.
At this moment, Wagoniya put down her pen.
Suddenly, most of the eyes of the audience fell on her.
Upon seeing this, Tokugawa Iemo immediately asked happily:
"Master Wagong, have you finished writing your poem?"
He Gong nodded lightly.
Tokugawa Iemo asked:
"Can you let us have a look?"
According to the traditional ethics of "men are superior to women", the person who occupies the dominant position in the family should be Tokugawa Iemo as the husband.
However, in terms of status, Wakomiya, who was the imperial daughter, was above Tokugawa Iemo.
Therefore, even though Tokugawa Iemo had the dual status of "General of the Conquest of Barbarians" and "Husband", he had to respectfully call Wagongiya "Wakomiya-sama".
Everyone at the table cast expectant glances at He Gong.
Hegong, who was born in the royal family, has always shown himself to be elegant and "well-educated, well-educated, and good at poetry and prose".
Everyone wants to know what kind of poems such a talented woman can write.
While everyone was waiting patiently... Wamiya made a move that was contrary to the high expectations of Tokugawa Iemo and others.
I saw her gently covering the poem paper in her hand by her knees, and then she said slowly with Jing Yanye's unique soft and slow tone without any expression on her face:
"It's just a humble work, not worth mentioning."
The moment after Wagongong spoke, Qingden instantly shuddered - he had been given PTSD by the troublesome gangsters around Wagongiya.
As Wagongiya finished speaking, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became awkward.
The general of the shogunate asked you to present a poem, but you refused in front of everyone without thinking... Even if you are the princess, it is too disrespectful, right?
In the blink of an eye, the faces of the pro-shogunate ministers, ministers, and feudal lords present at the banquet became ugly one by one.
However, Tokugawa Iemo, as the person involved, turned sideways indifferently and looked into Wakong's eyes, with a gentle smile on his face:
"Master Wagongiya, I really want to see your work!"
Wagongong was stunned for a moment.
Immediately afterwards, a faint blush flew up from her cheeks.
After hesitating for a while, she silently picked up the poem paper she had just covered.
Everyone consciously stopped what they were doing.
Wagongiya's soft voice echoed in the sky above Merlin.
"In the Plum Grove"
"The red light is swaying"
"It's a flame"
The banquet hall fell silent for a while.
Then, exclamations and praises came one after another.
"Wow! It's really well written!"
"As expected of Lord Wagongiya!"
"In comparison, our bad work is really unbeatable!"
…
All kinds of rainbow farts are pouring towards the palace.
Wagoniya seemed to be used to other people's compliments...or rather, he didn't care about these people's compliments at all. He calmly put the poem paper in his hand back to his knees.
There is a saying that this poem can only be regarded as a mediocre work, not very outstanding.
Even someone like Ainoto, who has not studied Japanese classical literature, can tell that haiku of this level are mediocre works that will never make a splash in the long river of history.
However, it is much better than the previous works.
At least Wagongiya's work depicts a sense of picture, rather than forcing new words to express sadness.
With He Gong taking the lead, those who are determined to write a blockbuster masterpiece continue to think hard.
The fishermen headed by Tianzhangyuan and Qingdeng continued to pretend to be meditating hard.
At this moment... Hitotsubashi Keiki secretly raised his gaze and looked at Matsudaira Harugaku who was sitting next to him.
The two exchanged a look.
"His Royal Highness Tianzhangyuan."
Suddenly, Songping Chunyue straightened his back and said respectfully to Tianzhangyuan:
"I've heard for a long time that His Highness is very smart and smart. Do you have any masterpieces for us to take a look at?"
*******
*******
Damn it! Why is it still so short today! (Leopard Leopard Head crying) Obviously Leopard Leopard has worked hard to code! (Leopard Head crying)
PS: Wagongiya’s haiku is an original piece written by Leopard Leopard.
