Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

"It feels so good, I've never had such a great time taking a shower!"

Zhu Guoxiang returned to the guest room with the oil lamp, and Zhu Ming followed behind him, stretching his arms and legs, and doing gymnastic movements from time to time.

After wandering around in the mountains for half a month, I was tired, hungry and nervous. One after another, I encountered ferocious beasts and bad guys, and my psychology and physiology were stretched to the limit. Now I can finally relax for a while.

Taking a bath can relax you, and playing with your children during the day is also a way to vent your emotions.

Human beings are not machines after all.

There was desk-like furniture in the room. Zhu Guoxiang put the oil lamp away and turned around to look at the surrounding furnishings.

Zhu Ming was also wandering around, and saw a box in the corner, which was the thing Ning Caichen from "A Chinese Ghost Story" was carrying, and thought: "This may be the male master's study."

Zhu Guoxiang picked up a book on the table, with "Young Words and Miscellaneous Characters" printed on the cover.

When you open it and take a closer look, you will see that they are all children's song-like limericks, composed of commonly used characters, making it easier for children to learn simple words.

The bed against the wall is relatively narrow and may be used for taking a nap when you are tired from reading.

Ju Ming commented with a smile: "The male owner is quite stylish. There are only a few thatched houses, but there is a dedicated study room and a small bed for resting."

Zhu Guoxiang turned around to take a look and stopped him: "Don't rummage through people's boxes."

"It's not locked. Find a book to read." Zhu Ming dragged out a wooden box from under the couch.

Open the lid of the box and there are books inside!

In order to prevent moisture, straw is placed on the bottom and walls of the box.

Zhu Ming picked up a few books and looked at the titles of the books. He was amazed: "From a scholarly family, all the imperial examination textbooks of the Northern Song Dynasty are here."

"Let me take a look." Zhu Guoxiang suddenly became interested.

Ju Ming picked out the imperial examination textbooks and stuffed the remaining books back into the box.

A total of seven Confucian classics were selected, namely The Analects of Confucius, Mencius, The Book of Songs, Shangshu, The Book of Changes, The Rites of Zhou, and The Book of Rites.

Zhu Guoxiang carefully browsed through the titles of the books and said, "Sure enough, it is different from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is not a test of the Four Books and Five Classics."

Ju Ming elaborated: "The Analects and Mencius are compulsory exams. People in the Song Dynasty called them Jian Jing. The other five are called Da Jing. You can just choose one of them to study. Therefore, for the imperial examination in the late Northern Song Dynasty, you only need to study three classics to pass the exam." examination room."

"That's easy. It takes ten years to memorize three books." Zhu Guoxiang nodded.

"This is after the reform," Ju Ming said. "Before Wang Anshi's reform, not to mention the books on the imperial examination, even the subjects could make people dizzy."

Zhu Guoxiang asked in confusion: "Subject?"

"You can understand it as a certain major," Zhu Ming explained. "The best major is the Jinshi subject, and the other majors are collectively called Zhuke. What are the Nine Classics subjects, the Five Classics subjects, and the Three Chuan subjects? There are a lot of them. The textbooks for each subject are not the same.”

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Weren't the achievements of Wang Anshi's reform abolished by his political opponents?"

Ju Ming said: "The content of the imperial examination reform has not been abolished, because Wang Anshi and Sima Guang agreed on the imperial examination reform. Only one famous official at that time opposed it. Guess who?"

"Su Shi?" Zhu Guoxiang said a name.

Ju Ming was surprised: "How do you know?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The famous officials at that time, I only know Wang Anshi, Sima Guang and Sansu father and son."

Ju Ming was speechless for a moment.

"So, Su Shi seems to be a die-hard." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Ju Ming explained in detail: "Su Shi was not opposed to all the reform of the imperial examination. He was only opposed to the abolition of poems and poems. But this is the focus of the reform, because before the reform, poems and poems played a very important role in the Jinshi examination. A poem, a poem, and a poem , If you don’t write these two well, you will definitely fail the Jinshi exam.”

Zhu Guoxiang expressed his opinion: "It is true that poetry and poetry should be abolished. How can we rely on literary works to select officials? What has poetry been changed to?"

"Applying arguments." Ju Ming spit out a modern word.

"Uh... okay, very reasonable." Zhu Guoxiang made his final evaluation.

Su Shi also objected to the anonymity of the examination papers on the grounds that moral depravity might be selected.

Zhu Ming picked up the "Mencius" casually, walked to the desk, and read through it with the help of the light of the oil lamp.

To be precise, this is a "Mencius Chapters" annotated by Zhao Qi, a classics scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Zhu Ming had only read Zhu Xi's "Collected Commentary on Mencius". When he was in college, he read a few chapters and then threw it in a drawer to collect dust.

Later, he engaged in self-media, and in order to make a series of Neo-Confucianism videos, he tore through the "Annotations on the Four Books". The level of ancient prose has improved a lot, but unfortunately the click-through rate is worrisomely low, and the fan loss is very serious, because if you objectively evaluate Zhu Xi, he will be blocked by keyboard warriors.

At this moment, when reading Zhao Qi's "Mencius Chapters", Zhu Ming naturally thought of "Mencius Annotations".

Zhu Xi's various comments clearly came to mind, contrasted with Zhao Qi's comments.

After flipping through a few pages, Ju Ming probably understood.

Zhao Qi's annotations are precise and precise, and he is particularly disciplined when writing. Zhu Xi's annotations, on the other hand, contain private information and perfectly embody what "Six Classics Annotated Me" means. Throughout the text, Mencius is used to explain Neo-Confucianism.

Just as he was about to put the book back, a piece of paper suddenly fell out of the book.

Zhu Ming picked it up and read it. Wang Anshi's "On Overlord" was copied on the paper. At the end, there is also the scribe’s reflection after reading: If you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die in the evening!

Wang Anshi was not only a reformer, but also a very important Neo-Confucianist.

"New Meanings of the Three Classics" was the ideological weapon of the reformists and was established by Wang Anshi as the only designated reference book for the imperial examination. When Sima Guang later gained power, he only dared to ban Wang Anshi's "Zi Shuo" and still allowed candidates to quote "New Meanings of the Three Classics" to answer questions.

Without him, these three books are amazing!

Even when Zhu Xi later wrote the "Collected Commentary on the Four Books", he also followed the path of the "New Meanings of the Three Classics".

Ju Ming quickly rummaged through the complete book and found that there were many cheat sheets in the book. In addition to Wang Anshi's articles, there are also works by Er Cheng, Zhang Zai, Sima Guang, Lu Huiqing and others, all of which expound the meaning of Mencius.

Ju Ming sighed: "The owner of this book seems to be sincere in learning."

Information spread slowly in ancient times, and the spread of books was also limited by geography. If you want to collect the opinions of various schools, you must travel around to study, and you can imagine the hardships involved.

Zhu Guoxiang was not in the mood to read. He was already sitting on the bed.

The cover of the quilt is obviously made of linen, but it is not rough and is extremely soft. I don't know what kind of craftsmanship was used.

The lining of the quilt was also soft. Zhu Guoxiang thought it was stuffed with cotton, but when he touched it carefully, he found something similar to straw.

After researching for a long time, Zhu Guoxiang couldn't figure it out. He couldn't help but ask: "What was used to fill quilts in ancient times?"

"Cotton." Zhu Ming was still reading.

"What about cotton?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Ju Ming said: "The rich use wool, goose feathers, and duck feathers; the poor use rice straw, wheat straw, and reed flowers. Anyway, use whatever you can."

Zhu Guoxiang shrank into the quilt and asked: "What did you find after reading for a long time?"

"I didn't find anything special. The owner of this book made a lot of cheat sheets." Ju Ming said.

Zhu Guoxiang warned: "Go to sleep, save the oil, it's not good for your eyes."

Ju Ming stuffed the book into the box, leaned over and pushed it back under the couch.

Sleep with the lamp on.

I slept very soundly this time. I have been scared since time travel and I have never slept soundly.

When Ju Ming opened his eyes, it was already mid-morning of the next day.

Zhu Guoxiang is wearing clothes, which are a little short and suitable for wear. The shoes also belong to the male owner of the family. Zhu Guoxiang's feet are so big that he can't lift up the heels, so he can only wear them as slippers.

Ju Ming yawned, got dressed, went out sleepily, and found his father gargling his mouth.

"Just the two of us?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang spat out the water in his mouth: "I didn't see anyone. I guess they went to work." He pointed towards the middle of the yard and said, "There is also the horse."

The horse drank salt water last night and seemed much more energetic. He shook his head and snorted at Ju Ming.

More than ten minutes later, Mrs. Yan returned home carrying a wooden bucket. The bucket also contained the clothes that the father and son had changed.

"Ms. Zhu, Zhu Dalang, did you sleep well last night?" Mrs. Yan greeted with a smile.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Thanks to the old lady, I slept very soundly."

Grandma Yan picked up Zhu Guoxiang's trousers. The trousers had been washed clean. She asked with great curiosity: "Ms. Zhu, what is this material? It's not like silk or cotton. It's very strong. I'm afraid of the price. It’s also very expensive.”

"It's torn and not worth much money." Zhu Guoxiang didn't know what the pants were made of.

Grandma Yan said enthusiastically: "The trouser legs are torn in several places. After they dry, I will find a good piece of cloth to patch them up with Mr. Zhu."

"Thank you!" Zhu Guoxiang said quickly.

Grandma Yan started to set up a bamboo pole to dry the clothes. When she found Ju Ming's T-shirt to dry, she said to herself: "This little man is printed very finely. The printer and dyer put a lot of thought into it. It's just that his face is not good-looking. I can't tell you." Weird, very weird!”

Zhu Ming couldn't help but laugh. He likes to wear T-shirts close to his body, and the front of this T-shirt has a pattern of a celebrity singing, dancing, rapping and playing basketball. As for the star's head, it was replaced with Yao Ming's embarrassingly smiling panda face...

After drying her T-shirt, Mrs. Yan hung her shorts to dry.

Ju Ming was extremely embarrassed. Those pants were his and they were really dirty after wearing them for half a month.

There are many ways to cover up embarrassment, and Ju Ming chose the one that showed off. He went back to his room and took out "The Chapters of Mencius" and sat under the eaves to read it carefully to show that he was a person who loved reading.

When Grandma Yan saw him, she had a better impression of Ju Ming. She kept looking at him intently, as if she saw her dead son.

Once upon a time, my son was the same age and was sitting under the eaves reading.

A smile appeared on Mrs. Yan's face, and she shed tears as she smiled. She wiped her tears with her horizontal sleeves and went to the kitchen to cook.

Zhu Guoxiang followed him to the kitchen to help, but Mrs. Yan declined and finally asked him to sit in front of the stove and light the fire.

Holding the fire sickle in his hand, Zhu Guoxiang fought for a long time. A lot of sparks flew up, but he couldn't ignite the firewood.

Taking advantage of Mrs. Yan's break to wash rice, Zhu Guoxiang quickly took out his lighter.

Modern technology is better!

When the meal was almost ready, Shen Yourong came back with the child.

This young and pretty widow was wearing a burlap skirt, carrying a large bundle of firewood, and a basket of mulberry leaves on her back. She walked as fast as flying. The little kid Bai Qi followed behind, also carrying two bundles of firewood, carrying "The Beginning of Man" on his back as he walked.

Zhu Ming quickly put down his book and went to greet her: "Ms. Shen, let me come."

"Already arrived." Shen Yourong said.

Zhu Ming had no choice but to open the courtyard door and take the firewood from the child.

Shen Yourong unloaded two large bundles of firewood, untied the ropes, placed them neatly under the eaves outside the kitchen, and moved a basket of mulberry leaves to the silkworm room.

She patted the dust on her hands and said with some difficulty: "Da Lang, I have never learned many allusions to the Three Character Classic before. Can you...can you tell Brother Qi about the Three Character Classic?" As if he felt it was too abrupt and rude, he quickly added, "While chopping firewood, I asked Brother Qi to memorize the first few sentences."

"You should, you can't live and eat for free." Zhu Ming said cheerfully.

(PS: Have you forgotten about Ju Ming’s ridiculous words and deeds during the live broadcast before time travel? When he is free, he is always a jerk, and teasing children is just bad taste. In addition, neither the protagonist nor his son will marry each other.)

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