The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

"Can you really do it?" Shopkeeper Tang Da opened his eyes. Not to mention the status of "The Romance of the West Chamber" in literature, even in terms of sales volume for decades, there may not be a popular novel that can match it.

"We can sign a contract. If we can't do it, I'll compensate you. How about that?"

"Okay!" Shopkeeper Tang Da said happily.

Fang Yun said: "As far as I know, if a book is priced at ten cents, then the literary academy and the imperial court will account for four cents, and the author, bookstore and bookstore will each account for two cents. If I want to open a bookstore, I don't know how long it will take. At the level of Xuanting, not only will the spread of the name be slowed down, it may even delay my own position, so I will choose to cooperate with your bank. But can the share ratio be adjusted? "

"I can make the decision. We will give you half, but you will get 25%." Shopkeeper Tang Da said.

Fang Yun smiled and said: "Tang Da shopkeeper, you are not being smart. The sales volume of this book must be good. Your share to each bookstore will be reduced from 20% to 15%, which is equivalent to your own share remaining unchanged. I don't have much either." Yes, just 28%, how about it?”

Shopkeeper Tang Da lowered his head, as if he was calculating carefully. After a long time, he raised his head and said, "Okay! It's settled. I will contact the general shopkeeper immediately to finalize the contract details and come back to you tomorrow. If another bookstore comes to find you, I hope you can abide by the gentleman’s agreement.”

"That's natural. Unless you, Xuanting, give up first, I will not discuss popular novels with any other book publishers."

"Fang Shuangjia is a happy man, farewell!"

Not long after shopkeeper Tang Da left, the servants from Li Wenying's mansion came with the demon pen. In addition to the two strong servants escorting Wenbao, there was also a powerful and powerful general.

Fang Yun realized that something was staring at him. He subconsciously looked up and saw a huge hawk flying high in the sky. The hawk chirped and fluttered its wings away.

"As expected of a great bachelor, even if he sent two barbaric monsters to deliver something, his private soldiers alone might be able to massacre a county." Fang Yun thought to himself.

After the servant gave Fang Yun the brocade box containing the Dangyao pen, he handed over two small boxes and said that there were two pieces of Tianhuang stone inside for Fang Yun to use as seals. Finally, he said that Li Wenying asked Fang Yun to carry the Dangyao pen with him, especially In town.

Fang Yun didn't know Li Wenying's intention, but he knew that he would not harm himself, otherwise his literary courage would definitely have problems.

After counting the things given by the Queen Mother, several people in the family started to light a fire to cook.

Mrs. Jiang and Fang Daniu were much more excited than Yang Yuhuan. They kept talking about the reward from the Queen Mother and praising Fang's luck. Mrs. Jiang volunteered to make a cloth bag to wrap the Queen Mother's decree, and said that it was Shang Fang's sword.

Yang Yuhuan took a thin piece of Longgong blood ginseng, washed it and soaked it in water. He took out half of the water in which the blood ginseng was soaked and cooked a small casserole porridge for Fang Yun alone.

After the porridge is cooked, it is fragrant, and the whole room is filled with a slightly sea-like aroma. Just smelling it makes people feel comfortable all over.

Yang Yuhuan put the porridge in front of Fang Yun's table and said: "The person who gave the gift told me that ordinary people cannot eat Longgong Blood Ginseng directly. They can only drink it by soaking it in water for about ten days before eating it bit by bit. This thing After all, it is eaten by dragons. A small dragon is ten feet long, and we humans can’t stand it.”

"You are weak, and each of us is half as strong." Fang Yun said.

Yang Yuhuan hurriedly declined: "You are a child and can bear it. I'm afraid that my current body cannot bear this great tonic."

"Well, you can drink it in a few days."

Nunu looked at Fang Yun's porridge eagerly and gently licked her lips with her pink tongue.

Fang Yun saw its greedy look and asked with a smile: "Do you want to drink?"

Nunu's eyes really struggled for a while, then she shook her head firmly and pointed at Fang Yun with her furry white paws.

"You want me to drink?" Fang Yun asked.

Nunu nodded, put his two little paws to his mouth to make a eating gesture, then raised his arms and stood up straight on his legs. The white fox fur on his body stood up and became fluffy, making him look even bigger.

"You let me eat by myself so that I can become stronger?"

Nunu nodded vigorously.

Fang Yun smiled and touched Nunu's head and said, "It seems that you are a little fox with only a conscience."

Nunu immediately grinned and jumped with joy.

After dinner, Fang Yun returned to the house and picked up the demon pen to observe carefully.

This is an ordinary regular script writing brush with a light brown barrel and a gray-white tip. The barrel of this writing brush is obviously an ordinary bamboo, but it feels like jade in the hand, and it weighs a full pound.

Fang Yun took a deep breath and wrote with ink. He found that writing was awkward because the brush was too heavy. However, he might have to use Wenbao pen to write more often in the future, so he decided to practice calligraphy with Danyao pen.

It's a pity that he is still a child and cannot use paper talks to inspire the power of the demon pen.

Fang Yun thought as he wrote: "After what happened today, Liu Zicheng will definitely use other means to attack me. I must be careful not to leave the city before mastering the tactics on paper. As long as he is within the scope of the holy temple, he will not dare to kill Me. I will try to keep a low profile on the enrollment report on the 10th of this month, otherwise he will definitely take advantage of me.”

"Right now, my foundation in Fucheng is still weak, and I don't have a strong supporter. When I become a scholar before the Holy Spirit, even if you, Liu Zicheng, don't come to me, I will take the initiative to come to you and solve this serious problem of yours!"

After practicing his calligraphy, Fang Yun picked up a book called "Explanation of Classics and Meanings", which was a book that taught children how to write classics and their meanings to test scholars.

Fang Yun found an article titled "Ask and You Will Receive" from above. Instead of using Qishu Tiandi, he wrote an article using the method taught to him by the county magistrate Cai He, and then used the method in the book to evaluate it.

Fang Yun analyzed carefully.

"The grade of my scripture meaning should not be D, but at least C-middle, and maybe even C-level. The shortcoming of my scripture meaning is that it is not deep enough, fails to comprehensively explain Mencius's sentence, and is not strong enough to solve the problem. But the advantage is that as a modern person, I have been baptized by a large amount of information, and I am beyond the level of ordinary scholars in terms of 'conception' and 'enumeration', and conception is one of the important aspects of classic meaning and policy theory."

"To put it simply, the meaning of the scripture is to explain the topic first, then use your own examples or opinions to confirm the previous explanation, then quote the opinions of some famous experts to support it, and finally finish. The meaning of the topic "Ask and You Will Receive" is to If you seek and work hard, you will get it. I demonstrated it through the pursuit of three types of people: innocent children, reckless youth and wise old people. Then I quoted the words of the semi-sage I learned a few days ago to prove my point. In the basic structure There were no problems.”

“Next, I need to practice my ability to solve questions and learn to use the sharpest sentences to dazzle the examiner at the beginning. Then I will use novel ideas to attract the examiner. Then I will understand the examiner’s philosophy and write quotations from all the saints that the examiner likes. "

"However, even if I have to cater to the examiners, I cannot violate my own ideals! I am writing scriptures for my holy way, not for the imperial examination!"

When Fang Yun thought of this, he immediately noticed that Wen Gong trembled slightly, and his talent became more condensed, which was more effective than studying hard for three consecutive days.

Fang Yun is more convinced of his choice.

Fang Yun continued to read the "Sutra and Interpretation of Classical Meanings" for three hours before he finally figured out some clues.

"The author of "The Interpretation of Classical Meanings" was originally an ordinary Jinshi in Jingguo. He knew the patterns of the Classical Meanings very well and was of great help to me. However, the flaw was that his thinking was too rigid and he paid too much attention to ' "Technology" is a bit inferior when it comes to "skills", let alone "Tao".

"The structure of a sutra, its upheaval, its succession, and its connotation are all techniques, and how to make the topic profound and the idea novel is the category of technique. As for Tao, it is a thought that is on par with all the saints. I don't dare to expect it yet. According to my experience It can be deduced that as long as you master the skills, you can be a scholar, and to be successful, you must have your own skills. If you want to be a Jinshi, you need to practice both skills to the level of perfection. "

"As for Taoism, at least one has to be a member of the Hanlin Academy to get to the threshold. No wonder the imperial examination only goes to Jinshi, because Taoism cannot be distinguished by examination."

"I understand that 'techniques' can be explained clearly, but 'Tao' and 'Art' are difficult to learn using a fixed model, so I discovered the flaws of this book. If you want to learn the real Techniques and Tao, Others can’t teach it, and there are no shortcuts.”

"Read more. Read a lot of scriptures by celebrities and even saints, even if their scriptures are not suitable for imperial examinations. Their scriptures are like seeds. They may not be useful at ordinary times, but they will definitely take root and sprout at critical moments. inspiration."

"Think more. Think about what is good about other people's scriptures, think about your own shortcomings and how to correct them, and think about how to strengthen your own strengths."

"Write more. Reading and thinking are all about 'retracting' and not 'releasing'. Only by writing continuously can you master how to express your ideas and thoughts correctly and achieve retracting and releasing freely."

"Read all of this "Explanation of Sutra's Meanings"."

Fang Yun did not hesitate to send this book to Qishu Tiandi. Even if he read it again in the future, he would only read it extensively and not intensively.

Fang Yun continued to read other related classics and meaning guidance books. With experience, he no longer read them word for word, but skipped them.

The moonlight at the beginning of the month was dim and the room was dark with no lights or candles, but it did not affect Fang Yun's reading at all.

Not long after, Fang Yun came across the early works of Zhu Hongzhi, a great scholar of the generation, and actually mentioned related concepts such as reading more, thinking more, writing more, etc. As if he had found a treasure, he immediately decided to buy Zhu Hongzhi's collected works tomorrow.

"As expected of a great Confucian of his generation, this man can not only write but also teach others. His scriptures can be regarded as models, with strict structure, clear organization and novel ideas. He is completely teaching people step by step. This "Starry Sky Collection" is really Candidates must It's a pity that other candidates can't read quickly as I can, or they are not lucky enough to read it, or they can't understand its meaning. It's a pity that if they can understand this book and supplement it with other knowledge, it will be more than enough to become a scholar. ”

Fang Yun solemnly put "The Starry Sky Collection" into Qishu Tiandi, then closed his eyes and read it over and over again.

When I opened my eyes, it was already four o'clock in the morning and the sky was dark.

"Dragon Palace Blood Ginseng is indeed a good thing. I am still energetic to this day. If the Dragon Palace Blood Ginseng continues, I only need to sleep for two hours a day! In this way, my chances of becoming a scholar this year will be greatly increased."

Fang Yun left his desk and went to sleep on the kang.