Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

No. 11 Famous

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the capital of Hebei Province was in Zhending (less than 20 miles away from Shijiazhuang city).

In order to control Youyan and guard against the southward advance of the Jin army, the capital of Hebei Province was soon moved to Baoding, and this setting has continued to this day.

Today, Hebei Province is very large, including the Balin Left and Right Banners, and there is even a Linhuang General Army.

The Tianjin area is also under the jurisdiction of Hebei Province.

However, Zhangjiakou, Zhuolu, Huailai, Kangbao, Guyuan, Chicheng, Fengning, Luanping and other places were cut out and assigned to Beijing Yanshan Prefecture.

Today, Beijing, Baoding and Linhuang (Balin Left Banner) are all important political, economic and military towns in the north.

Another important town is Zunhua.

Zunhua County alone was set up as Jingzhou, a direct-controlled prefecture under the jurisdiction of Hebei Province.

Nothing else, just iron ore!

Zunhua Iron and Steel Plant, second only to Xuzhou Iron and Steel Plant, has a railway directly connected to Beijing and Baoding.

…

Xie Yan’s hometown is in Duliu Town, Jinghai County, Cangzhou.

Jinghai County is the later Jinghai District of Tianjin. It was first called Jinghai County during the Northern Song Dynasty, but the county-level division was soon abolished.

Why?

Because the Yellow River flooded and the county town was gone!

It was on the border between the Song and Liao countries, and a bunch of military forts were set up there. Duliu Town originated from Duliu East Village in the Northern Song Dynasty.

When the Ming Dynasty just recovered this place, it was barren and sparsely populated, and the Yellow River often flooded.

It was not until Zhu Ming ordered the management of the Yellow River and artificially diverted the Yellow River to flow east that Jinghai County gradually recovered.

Xie Yan’s ancestors were initially dismantled and moved to Duliu North Village, where the living environment was better. As their descendants multiplied, they crossed the old course of the Yellow River and separated a branch to move to Duliu East Village to reclaim wasteland.

Both branches of the Xie family are in the territory of Jinghai County, Cangzhou.

By the way, the Yellow River project during Zhu Ming's reign calmed the Yellow River floods for a hundred years. Now there are problems every now and then. In the past twenty years, there have been small-scale breaches from time to time.

There is no way. The long-term sedimentation of silt has raised the riverbed downstream.

The people in the prefectures and counties that are often affected by disasters all miss the reigns of Taizu and Taizong. It is even widely circulated among the people that there were saints ruling the world at that time, so the water of the Yellow River was clear and the Yellow River floods never occurred.

There are still many privately built temples in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, dedicated to Taizu, Taizong and the heroes of river management at that time.

Local officials turned a blind eye to this because they could not manage it at all.

As the Yellow River floods increased, in order to let the people vent their emotions and pray for peace, local officials even acquiesced to large-scale sacrificial activities held by the people. It seems that worshipping Taizu, Taizong and the heroes of river management will make the floods recede quickly.

Cangzhou Prefecture, outside the Gongyuan.

Xie Kan and his friends are looking at the list.

He passed the county exam successfully and was checking the list of the prefectural exam.

The first list was posted, and Xie Kan observed it repeatedly, but did not find his name.

The second list was posted, but still not.

Xie Kan was too lazy to look at it again. The later the list was posted, the higher the exam ranking was. It was impossible for him to be ranked so high.

He failed the exam, and failed the first time to take the exam for a scholar!

Xie Yan's friend Wang Sheng was also looking at the list at this time, and he also failed the exam.

"I passed, I passed!" A candidate from the same county shouted.

Although Xie Kan, Wang Sheng and others were frustrated, they could only come forward to congratulate: "Congratulations, Wang Balang!"

Wang Balang's name was Wang Pan, from the Wang family of Sanhuai Hall. At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the court forcibly demolished the clan and moved here. At the beginning, it was very hard to reclaim the wasteland, and the imperial examination was completely put aside. It was not until two or three generations later that the imperial examination was taken again.

Someone else shouted: "I passed too, I passed too!"

Xie Kan recognized this person, he was Zhu Qingfan, a scholar from Sannu Town, Jinghai County.

This surname is related to the Ming Dynasty's national surname.

But he is not from any royal family, but a descendant of a foreign race who changed his surname to Zhu.

Zhu Qingfan's ancestors were Xi people. Now there is no Xi people, and all Xi people have been assimilated into Han people. They don't even admit that their ancestors are foreigners, and they randomly find their ancestors, even Zhu Wen.

Although Jinghai County is large in territory, it is a small county in terms of population, with only 10 places for scholars in each session.

There is also a member of the Xie family who passed the exam, but he is not from Xie Yan's branch, but from the Xie family on the other side of the Yellow River. In terms of seniority, he can be regarded as Xie Yan's distant cousin, so distant that the clan members are not ranked together.

"Xie Erlang, let's go have a drink together!"

"I'll forget it."

"This is your first time taking the imperial examination, it's normal to fail, don't be discouraged. Let's go, let's have a drink!"

"..."

Xie Kan, Wang Sheng and other failed candidates were dragged to the restaurant by scholars from the same county. The main purpose was to celebrate those who passed the examination and to maintain the friendship of fellow townsmen.

Everyone talked loudly along the way, and Xie Kan listened silently with a bad taste.

He thought he would definitely pass the examination, and he was planning to take the examination with his elder brother. Who knew that he failed the provincial examination.

There were many scholars at the dinner today. It was only halfway through the morning, and they had found several restaurants in a row, but they were all full. In desperation, they could only run to the suburbs, and people left one after another on the way.

Finally, a restaurant was selected, and there were only more than 20 scholars from Jinghai County who were having dinner.

Everyone asked the bartender to put the tables together, agreed to the AA system, ordered a table full of wine and food, and started chatting.

As they chatted, Cheng Gu, a failed scholar from the same town, asked: "Second Brother Xie, why didn't Liu Lang return to his hometown to take the imperial examination? He and I started the study together, and we went to elementary school together for four years. It stands to reason that he should have taken the imperial examination this year."

Xie Kan explained: "Sixth brother went to Luoyang and was invited to attend the Royal Academic Conference."

Everyone laughed.

Wang Pan, who was admitted as a scholar this year, said: "Brother, don't tease me. I've seen your Liulang, too. What academic conference is he participating in?"

Xie Kan sighed: "You don't read academic journals, and you don't know the secrets of the academic world. I can't explain it to you."

The distant family member who was admitted as a scholar thanked Yiyong and said, "Is your sixth brother a child prodigy? More than a hundred years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there was only one child prodigy in the entire Cangzhou Prefecture."

"Believe it or not." Xie Kan didn't bother to explain.

Even if you bring an academic journal and point to the name of the author of the paper, these guys will think they have the same name.

There are more and more people in the restaurant. It is still early for lunch, but it is full again very quickly.

For more than 130 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, prices have been rising overall.

However, the prices of some commodities have remained stable, such as grain, with almost no major fluctuations and have only increased by about 40% in more than a hundred years.

This is of course the result of the crazy transportation of grain from overseas. Even if it is not a colony of the Ming Dynasty, there are still many countries selling grain to the merchants of the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the northern grasslands and Australia also continued to sell meat to the Ming Dynasty. It doesn’t matter if the preservation technology is backward, as long as it can be made into cured meat products. Even urban civilians can often eat cured meat.

The prices of salt and cloth have even dropped compared to the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. This is due to the development of productivity and the reduction of transportation costs.

The prices of daily necessities are stable, and the overall income is rising. As a result, almost all scholars who can afford to study can afford to go out to restaurants for dinner - there are also poor scholars who have left long ago and do not come together at all.

The restaurant lobby was bustling with activity. Gradually, chatting was not limited to tablemates, but also exchanged greetings with neighboring tables.

A scholar named Ye Xianzhi became the center of attention because he ranked ninth in the exam, the highest in the restaurant.

Ye Xianzhi raised his glass and stood up: "Since you have asked me to talk about the topic of this government trial, I will briefly explain it. The question is about industry and commerce, and the argument is nothing more than the debate between justice and benefit. This is easy to answer. The real answer is The difficulty is how to compare it with the current situation. The southern coastal provinces are indeed prosperous, but there are many problems. I have been to Zhejiang, and many wealthy merchants there are more extravagant than our salt merchants in Cangzhou Prefecture..."

All the scholars listened carefully and nodded in agreement from time to time.

Ye Xianzhi spoke for more than ten minutes, and the entire tavern applauded.

Xie Kan curled his lips. He thought his policy article was more profound and exciting than what Ye Xianzhi said. It's a pity that my exams for the Four Books, Six Classics, and Laws were too bad and held me back.

After a while, the restaurant became noisy again, and the scholars toasted each other and talked.

A scholar who was sitting in the corner reading a newspaper boredly suddenly stood up and shouted: "Does anyone know Xie Yan from Jinghai County?"

The scholar at the same table was stunned, not knowing what he was crazy about.

This person actually climbed up to the counter with a newspaper. With the shopkeeper's confused expression, he stood on the counter and shouted, "Does anyone know Xie Yan from Jinghai County?"

After shouting several times in succession, more and more people noticed him, and the entire restaurant lobby gradually became quiet.

The man shouted again: "Does anyone know Xie Yan from Jinghai County?"

Wang Sheng stood up quickly: "That's my husband!"

Xie Kan stood up and walked over: "Xie Yan is my brother, what happened to him?"

The scholar was still standing on the counter, waving the newspaper and saying: "Xie Yan, courtesy name Chaozong. A native of Jinghai County, Cangzhou Prefecture, Hebei Province. He was only seventeen years old. He made an agate short-arm damping balance and was thanked by many scholars. Ministry of Industry A special scholarship of 1,000 yuan was awarded to him. He was awarded the Bachelor of Furong degree by the Royal Society and was specially recruited to study in the Imperial Academy of Luoyang."

The whole place was in an uproar!

The scholars at the same table who thought Xie Kan was joking just now all had shocked expressions on their faces. Their table is all from Jinghai County, and they are all from the same hometown as Xie Yan.

Scholars from other counties in Cangzhou Prefecture were also surprised. They were also Xie Yan's fellow townsmen.

How do you describe the impact of this news?

A group of students had just finished taking the college entrance examination and got together to compare their scores over a drink. Suddenly, the Central Newspaper published news that their fellow countrymen and peers had been awarded academicians because of their outstanding contributions...

That’s ridiculous!

Ye Xianzhi, who ranked ninth in that government examination, said in disbelief: "You are really right?"

The scholar standing on the counter turned the page of the newspaper and said:

"There's more. Xie Xie demonstrated his balance in public at an academic conference. Scholars questioned its precision. Xie Xie said: My balance can weigh all things in the world. Please choose any object and try it."

"The eldest princess was also present at that time. Just when the scholars were struggling to find something subtle, Her Royal Highness took out her hairpin and untied her bun. Her hair was spread like clouds to her waist. She cut off a strand of black silk and asked: Can you measure its weight? Thank you. Scholar Yan said: This is easy to hear, so a strand of the princess's hair is 0.615 millimeters."

"This matter has spread throughout Luoyang, Xijing, and even has an idiom. As the saying goes: cut off the hair and ask the scale, and weigh the hair by weighing it!"

"Her Royal Highness Princess Xie admired Bachelor Xie so much that she invited Master Xie to a polo club hosted by the powerful people in the capital, and personally selected good horses for Master Xie to practice riding skills. Now, Bachelor Xie is the daughter of Princess Xie. Regular customer!”

The whole place was quiet, and all the scholars were dumbfounded.

"What a man who can praise all things in the world. Bachelor Xie is truly an unparalleled genius!" A science student clapped his hands on the table and exclaimed.

Another liberal arts student said: "Weighing a green silk hair is no less than that of a noble concubine holding an inkstone. This elegant event should be passed down through the ages. Have a drink to thank the bachelor!"

"Mr. Xie is a role model for scholars in Cangzhou!"

"He is a role model for scholars in Jinghai County, so I am from Jinghai County. Which county are you from?"

"What do you care about my county? We are all Cangzhou people anyway."

"Just listening to it makes me yearn for it. How shocking the scene must have been."

"Everyone, drink this cup. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the only 17-year-old Furong scholar came from our Cangzhou Prefecture!"

"Congratulations to Mr. Xie!"

"..."

Xie Kan was already confused.

How could he not know what level his own brother was at? How could he become a young genius after being hit on the head by a carriage?

Last year, when he was awarded the Jade Scholar, Xie Kan already felt it was outrageous, but he was mainly happy for his brother.

This year, he was promoted to Furong Scholar again, and there was a good story with the princess?

Xie Kan looked at Wang Sheng.

Wang Sheng was also incredulous: "I have been following Liu Lang, and... I haven't found anything. But since last summer, Liu Lang has been like a madman, making things with the craftsmen in the backyard all day long."

"Of course I know he is making things," Xie Kan muttered to himself, looking at the bustling tavern lobby with a dizzy head, "My Xie family has produced a talented person!"

The distant relative Xie Yiyong also drank and shouted at this moment: "Master Xie is my nephew!"

Cheng Gu shouted: "Master Xie is my We were classmates in elementary school. I studied with him for four years!"

Even the shopkeeper came to Xie Kan with a brush and ink: "My shop is very prosperous today. May I have the honor to keep Mr. Xie's calligraphy?"

Xie Kan said: "I am not a scholar of Furong."

The shopkeeper said: "The brother of Wenquxing will sooner or later pass the imperial examination."

Xie Kan liked to hear this, and took the brush and said: "I'll lend you my good wishes."

When the small restaurant in Cangzhou Prefecture was in a commotion, Xie Hong, who was preparing for the provincial examination in his hometown of Jinghai County, was also holding a newspaper in a daze.

Xie Hong looked confused: "I just left Beijing and just returned to my hometown. Why did my sixth brother make such a big fuss?"