Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The father and son ran all the way back and found that there was no one in the pavilion. They became more and more anxious and could only ask the nearby tea merchant.

Tea households all said that Brother Qi had gone home.

Children in the countryside are not that refined. As long as they don't encounter wild animals, they can run all over the mountains at a few years old.

But Bai Qi waited patiently for them to come back, so he went to the tea-making workshop, where many villagers down the mountain were helping. After asking casually, I found my grandmother and mother, and they even had a working meal outside the workshop.

The father and son went down the mountain in the dark. Shen Yourong was feeding silkworms, and Grandma Yan was feeding chickens.

The child almost lost sight of him. Zhu Guoxiang was quite ashamed and said with his hands raised: "Old madam, we were busy buying land and forgot about Brother Qi..."

"It doesn't matter." Grandma Yan was slightly unhappy about this, but she was not angry. She asked instead, "Has the land been bought?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Including the barren slopes, there are more than 20 acres."

Grandma Yan was sincerely happy for them and completely gave up the idea of ​​marrying a daughter-in-law. She said, "This is really a time to celebrate. Mr. Zhu finally bought a property and settled down. Is Mr. Zhu more expensive this year?"

"Excuse me, thirty-five years old." Zhu Guoxiang casually named his age.

Grandma Yan said: "You are only thirty-five, it's time to find a wife. There is a cousin outside the old Bai family. The granddaughter is eighteen years old. Her family lives next to the Bai family's mansion and has several tile-roofed houses. The girl originally After they got engaged, they were looking forward to a good life, but the man got drunk and drowned in the river. Later, they talked about a marriage, and the man suddenly got promoted to Beijing and was attracted by a rich man from Yangzhou. He shamelessly regretted the engagement and married another man. One and two times, until now, he is a good match for Mr. Zhu."

"There's no rush to renew the relationship for the time being." Zhu Guoxiang actually wanted to say, I think your daughter-in-law is quite suitable.

"How can we not be anxious?" Mrs. Yan became more and more enthusiastic, "Xiangong Zhu nodded, and the old woman went to find out the news another day. The girl has also read books, and she knows "Women's Precepts" by heart. She is an ordinary man. I don’t like her, it’s hard to find her husband’s family in the countryside, so I can probably negotiate the marriage.”

Shen Yourong suddenly came out with silkworm sand: "Aunt, Second Sister Bai has already said we will kiss you."

"Did you talk about kissing again?" Mrs. Yan was stunned.

Shen Yourong said: "It was only when I was picking tea today that I found out that she was engaged to the nephew of Mr. Yu from Yu Family Ao. I heard that Yu Silang studied abroad all year round and never returned to his hometown to get married. The woman changed her mind in anger. Kissed. Yu Silang is twenty-two this year, and Second Sister Bai is eighteen, so they are a perfect match."

Grandma Yan thought about it carefully and said to Zhu Guoxiang: "Ms. Zhu, don't worry, I will help you find it later."

Zhu Guoxiang couldn't laugh or cry: "I'm not in a hurry."

Zhu Ming counted money in the room with an oil lamp, and strung together five hundred coins and came out: "I've been bothering you two these days. In addition to eating and drinking, I also borrowed beans and salt to feed the horses, and waited until the villagers finished planting the rice seedlings before they could build a house. These five dollars Please accept the hundred cents, we have to stay here for a while."

"It's too much, it's too much. If you really need money, just give me a hundred coins." Grandma Yan quickly refused.

Ju Ming pushed it over and said, "Not much. That skinny horse can eat quite a lot. It has beans, salt, and a lot of straw. It can feed two people a day. I have been practicing martial arts these days, and my strength is used up quickly. Madam Shen Don’t sell the eggs you saved, please boil an egg every day from now on.”

Five hundred coins were pushed back and forth, but Mrs. Yan couldn't bear it, so she had to accept it reluctantly.

Shen Yourong glanced at Zhu Guoxiang and said with a smile: "Then I boil two eggs every day, and Mr. Zhu should also make up for it."

"Cook three. Brother Qi is growing, and the three hens at home are just right for laying eggs." Zhu Guoxiang liked the child very much, and was much more obedient than his own brat.

"Then cook three." Grandma Yan also wanted her grandson to eat better.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law took the money into the house, took out a locked box, opened it, and counted the deposits in the box.

They worked hard today, Mrs. Shen earned 28 cash, and Mrs. Yan earned 21 cash, and they were able to get two free working meals. In the next two or three days, I will go to the mountains to pick tea. I estimate that I can earn about 200 Wen in total.

Of course, this kind of money-making thing only happens a few times a year, and their help is only needed for large-scale tea picking.

Especially late spring tea, the quality is not very high and cannot be sold at a high price, so the wages for tea pickers are correspondingly reduced.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law counted and counted, and after including the five hundred coins given by Ju Ming, the total cash at home was more than six thousand yuan.

Fortunately, Bai Sanlang has been helping to reduce Mrs. Shen's family to a fifth-class household. She does not have to pay many exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and she does not have to serve the male labor service. Otherwise, how could the orphans and widows save all this money?

Grandma Yan took a piece of soft linen cloth, moistened it with some vegetable oil, then untied the rope stringing the money, and wiped it carefully one by one.

Shen Yourong also helped maintain the iron coins to prevent them from rusting when used in the future. While wiping them, he smiled and said, "Today in Chashan, Bai Sanlang told me that he could help Brother Qi to go to elementary school without having to pay tuition."

"You don't have to pay tuition? That's great!" Grandma Yan was even more happy.

The Sanshe method founded by Wang Anshi divided the country's official schools into four levels: primary school, county school, state school, and Taixue. Each school has five grades. Each student takes a test every 100 days and can graduate in 500 days at the fastest. However, if you fail the exam, you may be punished by being demoted, and the students can be directly sent back to the state to study.

After Cai Jing came to power, he immediately restored the Sanshe method and promoted official schools across the country. The ultimate goal was the same as Wang Anshi - to abolish the imperial examination!

In other words, it has been abolished.

Nine years ago, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty issued an edict officially abolishing the imperial examination. Scholars must study in official schools and be appointed as officials from the graduating class of Taixue.

If you take too big a step, you will easily lose your temper. In the face of numerous objections, you can only adopt the dual-track system of higher education and imperial examination.

The current situation is: the imperial examination is held every three years, with 700 or 800 Jinshi candidates. There is a tribute examination held every year, and more than ten Tai students are selected, which is equivalent to being a Jinshi.

Shen Yourong continued: "A few years ago, not only did official students not have to pay tuition, but they could also live and eat at school for free. When Cai Xianggong (Cai Jing) lost his official position, the court changed the rules. All students from the prefecture level to the lower level had to pay for food. live."

Grandma Yan was a little confused: "They say Mr. Cai is a traitor, how can he treat his students so well?"

"I don't know," Shen Yourong speculated, "Maybe bad people sometimes do good things, just like those powerful men who build bridges and pave roads."

Grandma Yan said: "It would be great if I could continue studying at a government school. It would save a lot of tuition fees."

Shen Yourong said: "I asked Bai Sanlang and he said that you can't go to the state school. Students from the state are not allowed to take the imperial examination and are only allowed to continue to advance to the Imperial College. The Imperial College is only available in Bianliang. We, the state colleges in Yangzhou, only need two or three years. Only then can I get a quota for tribute. So I entered the Imperial College to study, and I can only be an official through connections. Unless I have learned a lot, I can't be suppressed by others."

"Then we must not let Brother Qi study at Imperial College. We don't have money to give gifts. We will be trapped when we go to Bianliang." Grandma Yan said quickly.

Shen Yourong said with a smile: "Don't worry, aunt, because the education is so expensive that even a farmer can't get in."

Grandma Yan carefully wiped the iron coins, looking forward to her grandson growing up quickly and taking the imperial examination like her son. He would not be able to pass the imperial examination, but as long as he passed the imperial examination, he could still find a decent job in the city.

By then, even if she died of exhaustion and illness, she would be able to rest in peace.

Outside, Zhu Guoxiang sent Bai Qi to the door: "Brother Qi, go in and play with your mother. I have some things that I need to read."

After sending the child away, Zhu Guoxiang took his son back to the house, lit an oil lamp and asked, "Was there a dictionary in ancient times?"

"What does Dean Zhu want to do?" Zhu Ming asked.

"I'll choose a new name myself." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Ju Ming said: "There are only rhyme books, which are barely equivalent to dictionaries."

Zhu Guoxiang dragged out the box under the bed and rummaged around, and finally found "The Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites", but unfortunately there was only one incomplete volume.

This thing could once be brought into the examination room.

Because there were too many people taking advantage of the opportunity to bring in cheat sheets, Song Zhenzong banned it and instead asked the examiner to prepare a few rhyme books so that candidates could borrow and search them at any time. There were too many candidates and they often couldn't borrow them, so the poetry and prose exams were a tragedy.

Don't think too much about the ancients. Even the famous ministers and scholars of the Song Dynasty had a lot of mistakes in poetry and poems because they could easily remember the rhymes and poems because they were complicated.

When writing poems, you can use rhyme, even if you don't follow the rules.

The poetry examination is more rigid than the eight-part essay.

Take Fu as an example. The title comes from Jing Shizi. It's possible that you haven't even heard of the name of that book. Not only does it restrict the rhymes, but it also stipulates the order in which the rhymes should be used, and the eight rhymes must be connected.

Except for talented writers like Su Shi, all officials who came from the Jinshi Department hated the poetry in the imperial examination. Therefore, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, despite the party disputes, joined forces to cancel poetry and Fu from the imperial examination.

After opening the rhyme book and looking at it for a few times, Zhu Guoxiang threw it back.

He can not understand……

When the book comes to use, I will regret it. Zhu Guoxiang planned to choose the word "Biao" again, but he didn't know what to choose.

Picking words randomly is going to make a joke.

Seeing his father's depressed face, Ju Ming sat next to him and suppressed his laughter. Finally, he couldn't hold it in anymore and went to the latrine to pee.

Zhu Guoxiang thought alone: ​​Xiang means good omen, and Guoxiang means national auspiciousness. Should I call it Anbang or Xingbang? It doesn’t seem to sound good, and it’s not as good as Yuan Zhang… Oh, it’s so annoying, that bastard is just bullying me for not being good at classical Chinese!

…

Rich people in the countryside usually eat two meals, but they have snacks to fill their stomachs.

The meal tonight is very sumptuous, both to celebrate the tea harvest and to entertain two distinguished guests.

The old lady of the Bai family took the main seat, the two distinguished guests took second place, and all the female relatives of the family also attended the table.

The family status of women in the Song Dynasty was much higher than that in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Especially in the Northern Song Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism not only was not distorted, it was not even fully formed. Later generations also attributed Wang Anshi's new learning to the category of Neo-Confucianism, but at this time, the new learning and Neo-Confucianism were sworn enemies.

The distortion of Neo-Confucianism began in the Yuan Dynasty.

"The white-headed old man wears red flowers in his hairpin, and the black-headed girl has three buns. She goes up the mountain with her children sleeping on her back, and she is already free to pick mulberries and pick tea..." Bai Chongyan's first wife is called Zhan Youniang. She recited the poem twice and said with a smile, "This scholar, Xiao Zhu, writes very interesting poems. It seems that he is indeed a talented man."

Bai Chongyan highly praised him: "Not only is he talented in poetry, he is also very proficient in classics and history."

Li Hanzhang interjected: "This man casually drew the directions of Pengcheng, Xiayi, and Lingbi cities. It can be seen that he has already been familiar with geography, which is beyond the reach of ordinary scholars."

"Indeed." Bai Chongyan nodded in agreement.

Take Bai Chongyan himself as an example. Although he knew the names of these cities, it was absolutely impossible for him to tell their locations.

Bai Dalang's wife, Lady Liu, suddenly said: "I heard from the maid that Mr. Zhu traveled all over the world, even overseas by boat. The sea is like the Han River. There are water bandits, what they call pirates. Zhu My husband once led a merchant ship to fight against the pirates in Nanyang. Further south in Nanyang, there is a large island with cannibals on the island..."

Bai Chongwen didn't like hearing this, so he interrupted his wife and said, "Make up some stories to deceive that stupid man and woman, and you actually believe it?"

"It's so vivid. Even if it's made up, I'm afraid someone has actually sailed a boat and gone to sea." Mrs. Liu said.

Li Hanzhang said: "The father and son must have been to many places, and it must be true that they sailed to sea. My family is in Chuzhou (Huai'an). I traveled to the south of the Yangtze River when I was young, and I also heard a lot of overseas experiences in Hangzhou."

Zheng Hong, the little fat guy, became interested and asked: "What is the sea like? Is it really all water? Can you get to the other side of the sea by boat? What is on the other side of the sea?"

Li Hanzhang thought: "Perhaps, there are many islands. I heard from merchants in Hangzhou that there are also small countries overseas with different customs and different languages."

"I met the Western Yi in Bianliang," Bai Chongyan said. "They have settled in Tokyo for many years. I heard that their ancestors came from further west in the Western Regions. Some people also say that Persia in the far west can also come to our Song Dynasty by boat. .”

Zheng Hong asked Bai Dalang's wife: "What other overseas stories has Madam Liu heard?"

Madam Liu replied: "I also heard what the maid said, and the maid heard what others said, and she couldn't understand it even after passing it on. What kind of daughter country is there? There are only women in the country, and there is not a single man. Even the country The Lord is also a woman.”

"The country of daughters," Zheng Hong said sadly, his eyes gleaming, "I wish I could come here in person!"

Madam Liu said: "Xiao Zhu Xiucai also told many stories. I can't remember them all clearly. I still remember the story of the Monkey King. It was said that Empress Nuwa made stones to mend the sky, and there was a five-color stone that she didn't use up. …”

Madam Liu spoke very briefly, with dry details and nothing to do with vividness.

But with just this, Zheng Hong became interested and eager to know the follow-up plot.

This guy only has two hobbies, one is eating and the other is playing. He has already read all the poems and dramas on the market. How can he hold back when he hears new stories?