The Rise of the Cold Gate in the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Chapter 139 Xiao Qin's Cursing

The next day, in the morning, the Zhongzheng of Jinling County began, and the location was temporarily changed to the bamboo garden of the manor outside the city. The small bridge was flowing, the forest was listening to the wind, the shadows were sparse, and the shade was sheltered from the sun. The little official had to rearrange overnight.

This time, the state center was opening to the outside world, so it attracted a large number of wealthy and famous people to come to watch. Early in the morning, horse-drawn carriages rushed to the manor outside the city, so as to occupy a front seat and see the talents and romance.

At about Chen, in the bamboo forest, a total of more than a hundred famous scholars from the eight counties of Jinling, well-dressed, standing with bamboo in their arms, crowded together, and gathered here. The county officials began to check the native places of the scholars one by one. A bamboo tablet with a name engraved on it, representing identity.

According to the division of scholars according to the counties, the eight counties of Jinling are arranged in order from north to south, orderly, kneeling in front of the desk, and a set of four treasures of the study provided by the county government.

The first is the re-examination, which is a written test. The Zhongzheng official will choose questions from famous classics. Scholars need to explain this, or put forward their own arguments, and they need to complete the written answer within the specified time.

This is mainly to assess calligraphy and the knowledge of scholars.

The second re-examination is a discussion. The Zhongzheng official will discuss one or two with the answering scholars from the written examination papers, focusing on the assessment of speech and appearance.

Hundreds of scholars have already held the bamboo plaques and are set to take their positions. In the high hall are Yu Xi, the Zhongzheng official, Diao Lun, the prefect of the Jinling Mausoleum, and the rest are county magistrates, chief officials, county magistrates and other subordinate officials.

Yu Xi thought for a while, and wrote the title "National Style · Beifeng · Drumming", "Death and life are in harmony with Zi Cheng. Hold your hand and grow old together with you." to discuss, and then the county government staff will accurately test the test questions. Send it to the ears of every scholar, and ask to meet the meaning of the question, and not to answer irrelevant matters. There is a time limit of three quarters of an hour, and the answer is handed in.

This is a famous love quote, but after analyzing the whole poem, it will be found that this is the poet's way of expressing his dissatisfaction with the war. In other words, this is a war-weary poem, expressing his resistance to the war.

Yu Xi's intention of writing the question is related to the current affairs of the dynasty. It is not difficult to know that this is dissatisfaction with Huan Wen's leadership of the Northern Expedition, which is in line with the value orientation of the entire gentry group. It is Yu Xi who took this opportunity to personally vent his dissatisfaction with Huan Wen. I dare not say it explicitly, I can only raise it implicitly.

But the problem is that the aristocratic families only dare to talk about what the Northern Expeditionists want in private. No matter what their standpoint is, they must shout the Northern Expedition publicly, otherwise it will be against public opinion and will be targeted.

Therefore, as soon as this question came up, the scholars all had headaches, scratched their heads, and wondered whether they could use a more graceful language to express their wishes for the Northern Expedition without violating Yu Xi's taboo.

Everyone was hesitating and hesitant, even Xu Miao was secretly distressed. As a child from a poor family, he couldn't be as willful as Xiao Qinzhi. If he didn't deal with it, he could be dismissed by Yu Xi.

Only Xiao Qinzhi didn't care at all. The patriarch's report last night made Xiao Qinzhi keenly aware that because of Xie Daoyun's refusal to marry, he would definitely be made things difficult in public by Yu Xi today.

Since you can't escape, let's make things difficult.

It's nothing more than asking some uncommon questions, but they are always within the scope of the "three classics of metaphysics", Confucian classics, and Mao's poems. Besides, Yu Xi dared to dismiss the qualifications of the poor family's children, but he did not dare to dismiss the qualifications of the nobles.

Xiao Qinzhi dipped his pen into the ink and wrote without any hesitation, and within a quarter of an hour, he finished his answer. The theme of the whole article was advocating the Northern Expedition.

As the governor of the prefecture, Xiao Qinzhi was the scholar who received the most attention. He finished his answer first, which aroused the attention of many people. Among the onlookers not far away, because they could not make any noise, they all felt itchy Unbearable, they wanted to see how Xiao Qinzhi would answer.

The county official also found out immediately. After the ink on the scroll was dry, he carefully put away the answer sheet and put it in the first file of Wujin County. He began to answer the paper, and for a while, the fragrance of ink overflowed under the forest, and the wind roared with his pen.

The subordinate officer next to Yu Xi's ear looked at Xiao Qinzhi, whispered something in his ear, and then Yu Hopeful turned to the young man in white who was sitting in the forest not far away, and said to Diao Taishou: "The one who first Who is the young man who finished the answer?"

Eunuch Diao stroked his beard and smiled, "It's Xiao Qinzhi."

Yu Xi said in surprise: "Oh! Since that's the case, please submit it quickly."

The subordinate official went to Wujin County and took out Xiao Qinzhi's answer sheet for Yu Xi to read in person. It was a majestic frontier poem, and Xiao Qinzhi's "Yan Kai" was square and upright with a strong flavor The charm of ancient official scriptures is strong and vigorous, which just fits the style of frontier poetry.

Yu Xi really wanted to find fault, but Xiao Qinzhi didn't give him the chance at all. After a while, the poem spread among the officials in the high hall, and they all spoke highly of it.

This matter is temporarily suspended until the hundreds of famous scholars have finished answering, and the county officials have finished collecting the files, filing them one by one, and submitting them to Zhongzheng official Yu Xi for face-to-face reading.

The scholars whose names were sung had to stand up and approach the hall to salute the officials, and then accept Yu Xi's hearing and inquiry.

Generally speaking, the children of the gentry will pass it on in a word, while the children of the poor family should pay more attention to their appearance, conversation, knowledge, and calligraphy, as long as they are not crooked, most of them can pass.

Wujin County was ranked among the eight counties, and it would be his turn in less than an hour, and because Xiao Qinzhi's county was ranked the highest, Xiao Qinzhi was the first to be questioned.

The county clerk reported Xiao Qinzhi's name, only to see Xiao Qinzhi stand up, stretch out his arms, the breeze blows, his clothes were loose, and he walked down the hall, saluting respectfully.

Yu Xi took a close look at Xiao Qin's eyes, he was a young talent, but he was entrusted by others to do things, and chanted:

"The bright moon in the Qin Dynasty is in the Han Dynasty, and the people on the Long March have not yet returned. But the Dragon City will be here, and the Huma will not be taught to pass the Yin Mountain."

Diao Taishou and a group of Jinling officials all nodded in praise, feeling honored, the patriarch standing behind accepted the congratulations from everyone, the rest of the talents couldn't help admiring, and the rich and famous who came to watch sighed that they were lucky to witness the famous work.

Yu Xi said calmly: "This poem is very good. Let me ask you, is the poem expressing ambition, and is the ambition on the battlefield?"

This is digging a hole. Most people in Jin despise warriors as literati. Prefect Diao was taken aback for a moment, feeling vaguely bad, but he heard Xiao Qinzhi reply: "If you are loyal to the country, you will die with no regrets."

Xiao Qinzhi gave an ambiguous answer, if he answered it, he didn't answer it, and if he didn't answer it, he answered it again, making it impossible to find fault.

Seeing that one plan failed, Yu Xi continued: "This poem and "Guofeng · Beifeng · Drumming" go back and forth, which is called the opposite. "Laozi" says: The opposite is the movement of the Tao. What is the difference between the two? ?”

Using poetry to draw out the conversation, Yu Xi used the famous questions in "Lao Tzu" to assess as soon as he came up, and the difficulty of the previous assessment suddenly increased several times.

Obviously, it was just for a show, but it turned out that Yu Xi seemed to be coming for real. This made everyone feel surprised, but at the same time, there was a little more expectation, looking forward to one of Xiao Qin's famous official careers. After all, in this era, compared with the mainstream "Clear talk" and "poetry" are all trivial.

Xiao Qinzhi was prepared early, and explained in "Wang Bi's Notes": "High and low are the foundation, nobleness is based on lowliness, and what is useful is useful, and this is the opposite."

This explanation is too simple to understand its mystery, Yu Xi stared at it closely, and then asked: "Is this the only skill?"

Xiao Qinzhi remained calm as usual, thinking: "I know it's not that simple." He said: "'combine all subjects' in 'one word', and "reverse" has two meanings. One is positive and negative and the other is contrary, which violates it; two Those who go back and forth (back) back, back to back (return) too! The two antis are used together here."

Yu Xi increased the difficulty and asked: "Second meaning, use "The Doctrine of the Mean" to answer."

"Huh~" The audience sighed, this is really serious.

The first meaning is easy to understand, but it is the opposite. The meaning of violation is difficult in the second meaning, and this problem also crosses Taoism and Confucianism. It requires a very high understanding of "rebels, the movement of Tao" before extradition to Confucianism.

Patriarch Xiao Qing clenched his hands tightly, feeling very nervous. Eunuch Diao looked displeased and was about to say something to stop him, but seeing Xiao Qinzhi calmly replied: "Born in this world, go against the old ways, so Zhe Tuan and his body are also. Zheng Xuan's note: I don't know if the king's new policy can be followed."

Here, "anti-ancient way" means "the new policy can be followed, and the word "anti" means that it is in line with the ancient way, obeying the ancient way, and can be answered in the second sense and pass the test perfectly.

Yu Xi pursued closely, and continued to ask sharply: "According to what you said just now, the 'reverse' words followed the words, and the later 'reverse' words violated the words. In one word, use "Lao Tzu" to show it."

It is to ask Xiao Qinzhi to use the original sentence of "Lao Tzu" to reflect the ambiguity of a word. Since Yu Xi asked this question, he naturally has his intentions. Dao. The name of the strong is great. Great is death, death is far, and far is reverse."

""Big" is positive; "passing away" means leaving, which is contrary to the big and different from itself, that is, "reverse"; "far" means the extreme of going, the extreme of opposite; , that is, the opposite is reversed, and "Zhi Shun" means "combining" with the positive. Therefore, "reverse (return)" is a violation of the reverse, and it is reversed (return) when it is positive."

"Anti" is used in both meanings and has opposite meanings, which means contradiction. In Laozi's dialectical thought, contradiction is the driving force and vitality of the operation of all things in the universe, as well as the basis and driving force of "the movement of Tao". At first, the running track deviates from the "positive" and tends to go far, and then turns around and starts to return when it is far away. The return is the "reverse" of "reverse", drawing a circle.

Up to this point in the question and answer, Xiao Qinzhi's performance was very decent, neither humble nor overbearing, but in fact, anger had already ignited in his heart.

Prefect Diao coughed a few times, reminding Yu Xi that he could stop. Unexpectedly, Yu Xi didn't care, how could he stop before he could beat Xiao Qinzhi?

"Mr. Xiao Xiaolang, I have another question, would you like to answer it?" Yu Xi said with a smile.

"Ahem~" Prefect Diao interrupted, "Yu Zhongzheng, the weather is hot, why don't you rest for a while."

"Mr. Xiao Xiaolang, what do you think?" Yu Xi threw this proposal to Xiao Qinzhi, and there was something in his words.

Diao Taishou was slapped in the face one after another, and his face was gloomy.

In front of so many people, does Xiao Qinzhi dare to save face and say no to answer?
Obviously not possible.

"Please!" Xiao Qinzhi held his breath.

"'Movement of Tao', "Yi" answers."

What kind of difficult question did Xiao Qinzhi think it was?

However, it is not difficult for Xiao Qinzhi who can recite the complete "Book of Changes" to find the thoughts and discussions that are in harmony with the "movement of Tao" in the "Book of Changes". Movement" is a philosophical topic that Xiao Qinzhi really doesn't understand.

But Prefect Diao was already very displeased. Everyone agreed to follow the rules, but Yu Xi had obviously violated the rules, and deliberately learned the "Book of Changes" from his family to make things difficult for others. The target was too obvious, and he immediately said: "Yu Zhongzheng, It's very elegant, but there are still scholars from the three counties who are waiting hard, if you want to talk about it, the Japanese prefect will set up a bureau tomorrow to reappear the Huqiu Wenhui, how about it?"

Diao Taishou didn't give any face, and secretly mocked Yu Xi for using his good "Talk Xuan" to make things difficult for others, and the victory is not martial.

Yu Xi couldn't help blushing when she was ridiculed by Chi Lulu, and the next question naturally ended without a problem. After a dark sigh, she said with an embarrassed smile: "I was so excited, but I forgot the occasion."

But Xiao Qinzhi has been bullied to such an extent, how can he suffer from being dumb, his heart was already burning with anger, and he immediately replied respectfully: "I also have an answer to Yu Zhongzheng's question, "Yi Tai" hexagram: " no return'. "

After a pause, he said again: "Thanks to Yu Zhongzheng's great love, I am not talented, so I have a few questions and I would like to ask for advice."

"Hey!" There was a burst of exclamation at the scene, and the atmosphere reached its peak in an instant. Xiao Qinzhi seemed to be angry at being asked, and it was time to fight back on the spot.

Diao Taishou was happy, at this time, silence is better than sound, he thought: "Since you don't obey the rules, then I won't obey the rules either. If this kid really makes you questionable, he can just vent his anger on Jinling County. Well, young people, young and frivolous, being humiliated, retaliate with an eye, that's normal."

Being watched by so many people, how could Yu Xi get the title of a timid young man, and immediately showed his elegance and said, "Please!"

Xiao Qin's way: "Tao is based on virtue, and harmony is based on propriety. What is propriety?"

Yu Xi replied: "Restrict!"

Xiao Qinzhi smiled without saying a word, and continued to ask: "It is because a sage is square but not cut, honest but not rough, straight but not unruly, bright but not dazzling. What is honesty?"

Yu Xi said: "Qing!"

Just this simple second question, no more questions, everyone is very puzzled, how could Xiao Qinzhi ask such a simple question?
Xiao Qinzhi bowed his body and saluted: "Just now I explained the meaning of 'meaning', here, I already understand, Xie Yuzhong is pointing out."

Yu Xi didn't react for a while, and after the scene was silent for a while, suddenly there was a monstrous sneer, and they all understood that this was not asking a question, it was clearly a curse.

What Xiao Qinzhi asked was about the three dimensions of "Guanzi Herdsman Four-dimensional", but he did not ask shame, the meaning is self-evident, don't ask shame, since "shameless" is too "shameless" to want to ask.

After the official said something embarrassingly in his ear, Yu Xi finally understood that he felt that he had suffered the greatest humiliation he had ever experienced in his life, and that he was about to be ridiculed by the world. Qi and blood surged, spit out a mouthful of old blood, and fell straight to the ground, unconscious.

There was an uproar at the scene, and everyone was dumbfounded.

(End of this chapter)