Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

After returning from the wedding banquet, Ju Ming's focus was not on the emperor, but on renting a house happily.

I keep staying in inns, and the money in my pocket can’t bear it!

As we all know, prices in Tokyo during the Song Dynasty were extremely high, and buying and renting a house was also very expensive.

But the housing prices in the Huizong Dynasty had reached an unbearable level.

As the royal family and the powerful occupied land in the city, even the houses of some wealthy businessmen were forcibly demolished.

It is naturally impossible for these wealthy businessmen to live in shacks along the Cao River. They all spent money to buy houses in the city, which suddenly made the supply of large-scale houses tight, and house prices soared like a rocket.

There are also many middle-income families who, after being forcibly demolished by the imperial court, bought ordinary apartments.

There are also many well-off families who choose to rent houses in the city.

As a result, the prices of all large and small houses have increased, and rents have also increased.

As early as eight years ago, the rent of houses in Tokyo had doubled from when Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty came to the throne.

This caused many petty officials in the capital to complain that they could not afford to rent houses. Therefore, Song Huizong issued an edict and accused the governor of Kaifeng of not doing a good job.

The court attributed the increase in rents to the owner's random renovations, which doubled the rent and showed a very bad conscience. Therefore, it is stipulated that if the house area is not increased during renovation, the owner is not allowed to increase the price without permission. Violators will be punished as exceeding the limit.

Is there any use for eggs?

The current rent price in Tokyo is three times what it was twenty years ago!

Moreover, it is difficult to rent a house even if you have money, otherwise Ju Ming and the others would have moved out of the inn long ago.

"Everyone, come in and sit down!" Tang greeted warmly.

The Tang family before her was the evil mother-in-law who forcibly broke up Lu You and Tang Wan. She is only twenty-five years old this year. She has a dignified and beautiful appearance and is full of the charm of a young woman.

Lu Zai was about to go to Huaixi to promote Changping envoy, and the house was empty. He heard that Ju Ming and the others did not have a house to live in, so he was willing to rent it out at a low price.

Mrs. Tang ordered her servants to boil water and make tea, and personally brought out some snacks to entertain them.

Lu Zai introduced: "This house was bought by my father when he was the minister of the Ministry of Rites. Later, he was promoted to Zuocheng (deputy prime minister), and he did not buy a new house. The house is not big, and there are only two courtyards. If you think it is expensive, Well, you can also invite two more people to share the room."

"Excuse me, Lu Changping, how much is the monthly rent?" Bai Chongyan couldn't help but ask. Although he made a lot of money selling tea, he spent a lot of money in the inn for three months. Moreover, I still don’t know when I will be dispatched, and I can’t predict when I will get paid.

Lu Zai thought for a while: "Since we are both Jinshi, it should be cheaper. The monthly interest rate is one hundred guan."

It is indeed difficult to find a house at this rent price. After all, the house is quite large and can be shared by several people.

Moreover, it is located in the inner city and is a prime location. For an inner-city house with two courtyards, the monthly rent would be at least 200 guan based on the market price.

Ju Ming cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for taking care of me, senior."

Tang said: "If you want to hire slaves, there are ready-made ones here. Go and pick a few, and I will resell the rest. They are all under ten-year contract. I bought them three years ago, and there are more than six years left on the contract. ."

Zhu Ming discussed with Bai Chongyan and Min Zishun and decided to invite Chen Yuan over and share the rent of 25 guan each month.

We all bought two maids together, one to buy groceries and cook, and the other to wash and mend.

As for daily cleaning, they have their own entourage, so they can't leave Bai Sheng, Gu San and others to do nothing.

At noon, the Lu family had guests for dinner.

Lu Zai has not taken any concubines yet, and has only one son with the Tang family, Lu You's brother Lu Song.

Lu Song is seven years old this year and already knows etiquette quite well. He bowed and said, "See you, Song..."

Well, it’s hard to talk about seniority.

Because of Lu Tixue's relationship, Zhu Ming regards Lu Zai as his elder.

But Lu Zai is only twenty-seven years old this year, about the same age as Bai Chongyan, while Min Zishun is already in his thirties.

Zhu Ming, Bai Chongyan and Min Zishun are equal to each other.

This doesn't make sense.

Lu Zai said: "Call me sir."

Lu Song bowed again and said, "Song greets you gentlemen."

Everyone sat down and Mrs. Tang poured the wine herself.

After drinking a few drinks, Mrs. Tang asked about their marriage status. When she learned that Ju Ming had not married yet, she said, "It's a pity that I have to leave the capital with my husband, otherwise I will have to find a good wife for success."

Ju Ming declined: "I'm young, so there's no rush for now."

Lu Zai said: "There is no rush to succeed. Some people are very anxious. If the official family hadn't been offended by hearing about the wedding banquet, I'm afraid someone would have come to propose marriage."

…

Zhu Ming and others went to see the house, but Xue Daoguang was ordered to enter the palace.

Several eunuchs and guards surrounded Xue Daoguang and escorted him all the way into the city, as if they were afraid that the Taoist priest would escape.

Zhu Gong, who had just been demoted to the magistrate of Dazhou, took a carriage out of the city to take up his post. He was extremely happy.

He raised the curtain of the car and saw Xue Daoguang entering the city. He sighed sympathetically: "Another one who was forcibly conquered, pitiful, pitiful!"

Then, the old gentleman came to the dock and boarded the ship to escape Tokyo with joy.

Zhu Gong was awarded the Jinshi title twenty-seven years ago. He was dismissed from office by Zeng Bu for criticizing the current malpractice. From then on, he devoted himself to the study of medicine, and even revised and annotated "Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases" and renamed it "Nanyang Living Man's Book" in twenty volumes.

This book has become a guide for doctors. As for Zhu Hu, he was forcibly recruited by Song Huizong and became a doctor of medicine in a daze.

He was obviously a doctor, but Song Huizong actually came to him from time to time to ask him how to practice Taoism. (Zhu Gong also compiled "Two Views of Internal and External Scenery", which is an acupuncture book, but it was regarded as a Taoist spiritual map by people at the time, and the author Zhu Gong was also mistaken for a Taoist monk.)

Zhu Gong couldn't bear the disturbance, so he openly copied Su Shi's poems and promoted Su Zi's learning to everyone he met. If you ask for a hammer, you will get a hammer. If you succeed, you will be demoted. You will be released to live happily in Dazhou.

There were many people who had the same thoughts as Ju Ming and deliberately angered the emperor in order to seek release.

But he said that Song Huizong was reading "Journey to the West". He had been reading this book for two days, and it could be said that he forgot to eat and sleep.

There were no long novels in the Tang and Song dynasties. For ancient people, "Journey to the West" was too powerful. Song Huizong was not only fascinated by the plot of the story, but also fascinated by the gods in the book. Various gods, Buddhas, fairies and ghosts were completely in line with his imagination of cultivating Taoism and becoming an immortal.

"Guan family, Master Xue is here." The attendant reminded.

Song Huizong was overjoyed, put down the novel and stood up: "Please invite the real person in quickly!"

Xue Daoguang recently found a job and worked in a printing house. He was currently wearing the clothes of a workshop clerk.

Dressing up like this was beyond Song Huizong's expectation.

In the past, Taoist priests from all walks of life wore Taoist robes and wore Taoist buns when they entered the palace. As for Xue Daoguang, he had nothing and had nothing to do with the Taoist priests.

Song Huizong suspected that this was a fake Taoist priest and couldn't help but ask: "Why does the real person dress up in Guizhou?"

Xue Daoguang made a Taoist bow and replied: "Reporting to Your Majesty, this poor Taoist is cultivating the Golden Elixir Dao. He does not pay attention to Taoist rituals, nor does he care about the clothes he wears or the bun he wears."

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty saw that his face was glowing red and his complexion was better than that of most Taoist priests. He asked again: "Can a real person pass on the Taoism?"

Xue Daoguang took out a book and said, "I want to present it to the official family."

Song Huizong glanced at the cover, but it was "Notes on the Enlightenment of Truth".

He had seen "Enlightenment of Truth" before, but no one had annotated it and many parts were incomprehensible.

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty said: "Master, please wait for a moment and let me take a look."

Xue Daoguang sat down cross-legged and said nothing.

When Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty opened this book, it was full of Taoist poems.

After Xue Daoguang's annotation, the first poem talks about the difficulty of finding a famous teacher and the difficulty of finding the true way. It also writes that cultivating Taoism and becoming an immortal is extremely desirable. The second poem says that after meeting a famous teacher, you should quickly learn Taoism. If you don't learn, you will be a fool.

Does this rhetoric sound like a real estate advertisement?

The first two poems, with Xue Daoguang's provocative annotations, had fascinated Song Huizong.

Looking at the third poem again, Song Huizong was so excited that he was breathing rapidly.

It was here that Xue Daoguang distinguished the heavenly immortals, earthly immortals, human immortals and ghost immortals.

And what about Song Huizong?

In the past, we only knew that there were heavenly immortals, earthly immortals and corpse-dissolving immortals.

After Xue Daoguang's annotation, Song Huizong finally figured it out.

It turns out that the inner alchemy Taoist priests under him can only cultivate low-grade ghosts and immortals with their cultivation methods.

As for those Taoist priests from the Waidan sect, they achieved Taoism through talismans, alliance power, magical methods, swordsmanship, and methods of dismembering corpses. In the end, they could at most become Nangong Immortals (middle-grade immortals).

You must follow Xue Daoguang's method to become a supreme ninth-level immortal.

Next, there was a detailed explanation of the method of Jindan Dao. Although Song Huizong did not fully understand it, his soul was greatly shocked. My previous path of building roads was wrong!

After reading the annotation of the fourth poem, Song Huizong asked: "Isn't this a way for men and women to take supplements?"

Xue Daoguang asked back: "Who explained to the officials that men and women take supplements? It is a heretic! When a man leaves a woman, it is divided into heaven and earth, yin and yang, host and guest, and essence and blood."

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was a little unconvinced, and commented that “the combination of two emotions and the exercise of martial arts will naturally condense the essence of the true qi.” Previously, there were also phrases such as “Lifan is a woman, Kanfan is a man”, which is obviously the way to supplement yin and yang. ah. If you cooperate with the magical medicine offered by other Taoist priests and take supplements every day, you will definitely be able to cultivate the golden elixir.

Let’s look at the next poem. Well, the previous one was just about practicing the outer alchemy, but this one is really about practicing the inner alchemy.

As he read it, Song Huizong felt that the external alchemy method and the yin and yang tonic were really rubbish compared with the inner alchemy.

Xue Daoguang's Taoist skills can be used to cultivate both inner and outer elixirs!

While reading "Annotations to the Wuzhen Chapter", Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty expressed his doubts, and Xue Daoguang gave detailed answers to them all.

The two chatted until dark. Song Huizong left Xue Daoguang to eat, took his hand and said: "Today we have to meet a real person to know the true way of the world. It's too late to meet!"

Xue Daoguang advised: "To cultivate Taoism and become an immortal is to be born into the world. Before being born into the world, you must enter the world. Officials must be benevolent and love the people. Otherwise, if the Taoist heart is not stable, even if you cultivate the golden elixir, you will not be able to achieve great perfection."

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty said sincerely: "What the real person said is absolutely true. I have always governed benevolently and loved the people."

Xue Daoguang wanted to roll his eyes after hearing this.

At the dinner table, Song Huizong asked again: "I heard that the real person met Zhu Guoxiang. Did he meet the immortal overseas?"

Xue Daoguang was sold by Ju Ming, and now he finally had the opportunity to sell it back. He replied: "The Bodhi Patriarch in "Journey to the West" is most likely the poor Taoist master Ziyang Zhenren. And the person Zhu Guoxiang met overseas is very likely Maybe he’s also my master Ziyang Zhenren.”

Song Huizong exclaimed: "Zhenren Ziyang has become an immortal?"

Xue Daoguang guessed: "Most of them have cultivated to the realm of earthly immortals. They can fly in the air and walk through the mist. They are neither hungry nor thirsty. They are not affected by cold or heat. They can travel around the islands and live forever."

Song Huizong immediately said: "I want to canonize Zhenren Ziyang as the righteous god."

Xue Daoguang shook his head: "The Earth Immortal does not need to be enthroned as a god, as he is not the same as the Nangong Immortal."

"What a pity." Song Huizong expressed regret that he could not do anything for Master Ziyang.

That night, Xue Daoguang stayed in the palace.

The next day, the emperor issued an edict, canonizing Xue Daoguang as Zixian Yuanming Zhenren, his ancestor as Ziyang Zhiyuan Zhenren, and his master Cuixuan Huanyuanzhenren.

Several more Taoists were given to Xue Daoguang to live in Nanyuan.

Nanyuan was the house given to Cai Jing by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty when Cai Jing resigned as prime minister for the second time.

The emperor seemed to regret a little. Shandong Taoist Wang Laozhi was favored and allowed Wang Laozhi to live in Nanyuan. In just over a year, Wang Laozhi reported illness and returned home. It was most likely that he was forced to leave by Cai Jing. "History of the Song Dynasty" also mentioned that Cai Jing warned Wang Laozhi.

Now, Song Huizong let Xue Daoguang live in it again and become neighbors with Cai Jing's family. In essence, he occupied Cai Jing's house.

Regarding this situation, civil and military officials and the people of the capital have long been accustomed to it. Anyway, there are always one or two Taoist priests who are favored every year.

While Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was practicing Xue Daoguang's Taoism, he also summoned other Taoist priests to study the art of collecting tonic from the "Notes on the Wuzhen Chapter". Coupled with aphrodisiacs, I can practice every day with great pleasure.

When Xue Daoguang learned about the situation, he could only laugh it off and regard the emperor as a villain.

Zhu Ming and others also moved into Lu Zai's mansion, and the day for the new Jinshi to be conferred has come.