The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 412

Chapter 142: The Next Journey: Ghost Poetry to the Rescue
If it were just an ordinary contest of talent, it wouldn't be a big deal.

The problem is that people all say that Su Xiaomei's talent is even better than her "brother" Su Shi, and that she is an unparalleled talent who can overshadow all the other talented people in the world.

There are even many short stories about Su Xiaomei helping Su Shi out of trouble.

Especially the stories about Su Shi being at a disadvantage in an argument with his good friend the monk Foyin without realizing it, and Su Xiaomei discovering and even rescuing him, which are simply deliberate attempts to damage Su Shi's reputation.

The two most representative short stories are "Buddha and Cow Dung" and "Crossing the River with a Fart".

Buddha and Cow Dung:
It is said that Su Shi had a friend named the monk Foyin.

One day, the two of them were meditating in the forest.

Foyin said: Looking at your sitting posture, you resemble Buddha very much.

Su Shi was overjoyed, but when he saw the monk wearing a brown cassock hanging down to the ground, he joked: The monk's sitting posture is even worse than cow dung.

Foyin replied with a smile: I see that you still resemble Buddha.

Su Shi felt proud of himself and went home to show off to his family.

Su Xiaomei heard this and said, "Brother, you are inferior! The Buddhist scriptures say: What the mind thinks, the eyes see. Foyin has Buddha in his heart, so he sees you like Buddha; brother, you see Foyin like cow dung, but it is cow dung in your heart!"

So Su Shi felt very ashamed.

【One Fart Across the River】:
When Su Shi was the magistrate of Yangzhou, he often visited Guazhou (Zhenjiang) and debated with Foyin, the abbot of Jinshan Temple who was separated from him by a river.

One day, Su Shi had a flash of inspiration and wrote a poem: I bow to the highest heaven, whose light shines upon the universe. I am unmoved by the eight winds, sitting upright on the purple lotus.

Su Shi was very pleased with himself, so he sent his servant across the river to present the poem to Foyin for his appreciation.

After seeing this, the Zen master picked up his pen and wrote the two words "fart" and asked his servant to send it back.

After reading the reply, Su Shi became furious and wanted to cross the river to find the Zen master to argue.

Only Su Xiaomei advised her brother not to cross the river, otherwise he would be humiliated.

Su Shi refused to listen and sailed to the outside of Jinshan Temple, where the Zen master was already waiting for him.

When Su Shi saw this, he angrily blamed Foyin for being rude.

Foyin laughed and said: "Since you are unmoved by the eight winds, how can you cross the river with just a fart? !"
Su Shi suddenly realized and felt ashamed.

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In all related short stories like this, Su Shi is basically the clown. He is either suppressed by Su Xiaomei or suppressed by both Su Xiaomei and Foyin. He is either made fun of, or made fun of, or always made fun of.

Most people would just treat these little talks as anecdotes and laugh.

But for Su Shi's disciples who admired Su Shi extremely, it was tantamount to committing the evil of betraying their teacher and ancestors in front of them.

This is like someone commenting on Hua Tianwang's ugliness and bad singing in front of Hua Tianwang's diehard fans. This is an attempt to start a war!
Especially Qin Guan, he was Su Shi’s number one fan and a model of true loyalty.

How could he tolerate someone slandering and degrading his mentor like this? !
Given Qin Shaoyou's temperament, and the current trend of his literary battle with the so-called "Su Xiaomei", Chen Shen had almost predicted the fate of Master Qin.

There is no doubt that once Qin Guan was completely defeated by "Su Xiaomei" with overwhelming advantage in the field he was good at, what Qin Guan lost was not only his own reputation, but also the pride and dignity of Su's disciples and the glory of his master Su Shi.

Under such circumstances, dying of grief and anger was almost the only outcome for Qin Guan.

Of course, this is under the premise that Chen Shen did not appear in time.

Chen Shen's arrival means that everything can still be salvaged.

After understanding Mr. Qin's situation, Chen Shen did not dare to delay any longer and immediately took Dou Chong'er to the inn in the city.

The original meaning of "Jiujian" is an official in charge of supervising drinking.

However, in the Song Dynasty, the Liquor Inspector was also called the Supervisor, who was responsible for managing tea, salt, and liquor taxes, which meant he was the one who supervised tax collection.

This is a very interesting position, and is considered to be the most performance-oriented position among all official positions in the Song Dynasty.

How well you perform in other positions requires comprehensive measurement and evaluation, and even your superiors' opinions of you must be considered.

However, for the position of supervisor, apart from performance, that is, how much tax you have paid to the national treasury this year, there is no need to consider any other messy things.

You don't even need to consider the adverse effects that excessive taxation would have on the national and local levels.

People have always rebelled if they cannot afford food, but I have never heard of people rebelling because they cannot afford tea or wine. Even salt, which is a basic necessity for people's lives, would not cause too many social problems if they eat less for a few meals.

In order to achieve their own performance goals, the officials in charge of the Song Dynasty also used all means to stir up trouble while in office.

In particular, the wine inspector, who is the most outstanding official, is the most romantic one among them.

For example, the Qingmiao Loan, the most core item in the reform system of the stubborn Prime Minister Wang Anshi, was ruined by the supervising officials using alcohol.

Originally, ordinary people borrowed money to help their families survive famine when crops failed to grow. However, the supervisors were not good people and sent their subordinates or even personally to persuade the borrowers to drink excessively and then collect taxes.

The result was that the people who borrowed the Qingmiao Loan not only failed to solve their own problems, but instead got themselves into a huge debt.

The money loaned by the court went around and came back again, and also brought in a bunch of debts, which was a huge win.

Of course, these can only be considered unorthodox ways.

The most romantic thing is to have these literati and scholars serve as wine supervisors.

Especially those more famous poets, they would hold a poetry gathering whenever they had nothing to do, and everyone, whether talented or not, would come to join in the fun. The talented ones would learn from Li Bai to drink a hundred cups of wine and write a hundred poems, while the untalented ones would just drink three hundred cups of wine and then shout "I'm drunk".

If there were a few such gatherings every month, the performance of the wine inspection department would increase dramatically.

Especially for the talented and elegant descendants of the Su family, this major is very suitable.

But for Qin Guan at this moment, such a banquet and gathering was as despairing as hell.

Thanks to Mr. Li, Mr. Qin is already fifty-five years old this year, which is definitely much luckier than him in the other timeline.

But luck does not mean happiness.

Su Shi is dead!

Whether it was an illusory dream or the real world, for the entire Song Dynasty people, they had lost the greatest literary giant of their time.

Qin Guan was devastated by the loss of his mentor and best friend. Since then, the talented Qin Shaoyou has been depressed, confused, and sad. It can be said that there is no greater sorrow than a dead heart.

Just at this time, a woman who claimed to be Su Dongpo's biological sister suddenly appeared in Qin Guan's life.

Qin Guan naturally did not believe the identity that the woman claimed.

Not to mention other things, just talking about age, Da Su is sixty-seven years old this year, and Lao Su has been dead for more than forty years. How can you, a girl who looks only twenty-eight, be the sister of Da Su or the daughter of Lao Su?

Could it be possible that Old Su could still remarry and take a concubine in the underworld to continue the lineage of the Old Su family? !
What a joke!
At the beginning, Qin Guan had never even met this "Su Xiaomei" who was obviously a liar. However, out of natural kindness, Qin Guan did not pursue the other party and just treated it as a joke and put it behind his mind.

Who would have thought that the stories about Su Xiaomei would soon spread wildly in Tengzhou City, such as Su Xiaomei's three trials for her lover and Su Xiaomei and her brother Su Shi writing poems to satirize each other. These interesting remarks immediately aroused the gossip curiosity of the people of Tengzhou.

Qin Guan never imagined that he would be taken for granted by others for his wife while he was the only one who knew that she was a fake wife.

What made Qin Guan most angry was the vilification and slander of Su Shi by this woman of unknown origin.

How could he tolerate such a perverse act by a thief? !
Then the furious Qin Guan went to find Su Xiaomei to argue!

theory?

Well! I can only say that Mr. Qin is really a gentleman.

I won’t go into detail about the argument between the two sides. To bystanders, it just looked like a couple of literary young men flirting with each other, and it suddenly became a competition of talent.

The two people fought fiercely in poetry, songs, calligraphy, painting, essays and strategies.

As for the results, except for poetry, Qin Shaoyou did not lose, in other aspects he was completely defeated.

Master Lu said it well: If you can’t match them in terms of hard power, you won’t be able to speak with confidence.

Since Qin Guan could not compete with his mentor Su Shi in terms of talent and learning, he could not seek justice for the reputation and dignity of his mentor Su Shi.

On this day, Qin Guan and Su Xiaomei met again at Guanghua Pavilion outside Tengzhou City to compete in poetry.

This was the ninth literary dispute between the two sides and the third battle of poetry.

Even though Qin Guan was a very talented poet, after three days of hard work, his ideas had dried up and his artistic conception was decaying. He could not write a single good poem.

When Chen Shen rushed to Guanghua Pavilion, the struggle between the two sides had reached its final moment.

But in the pavilion, a beautiful woman wearing a gauze and green, with a scarf covering her face, said: "Mr. Qin, I heard that people have souls after death, and the souls become ghosts. My brother has always been known for his heroic deeds, but he entered the ghost realm this morning. Can you write a heroic poem to cheer up my brother's ghost?"

Opposite the woman sat an old man with a haggard face. Judging from his features, he must have been a handsome man when he was young. But now he looked haggard, with messy gray hair and a dead look in his eyes, as if his end was approaching.

Qin Guan was so desperate in his heart. He was so proud of his talent. His mind, which used to be full of ideas, was now empty.

Not to mention a wonderful poem, he couldn't even think of a single line of doggerel, which Qin Guan used to despise the most.

With just one sentence, Qin Lang's talent was exhausted.

The desperate Qin Guan felt a severe oppression in his chest. He gasped for breath desperately, as if an inexplicable restless energy was about to penetrate his chest.

He wanted to let out his anger, but he always felt like he was just a little bit short of it.

But the girl laughed and said, "My dear, why don't you say anything? Are you illiterate and unable to compose a poem? If you really can't, just admit defeat. Don't be so angry that you spit out blood!"

Qin Guan's eyes widened in anger, he pointed at the woman and said angrily: "You...you——"

At this moment, he suddenly felt his chest churning and he really wanted to get it all out!

At this moment, a clear and sharp voice suddenly sounded, saying: "Such a heroic poem, why does Qin Xueshi need to do it! I can do it for you!"

Just that voice, like a sharp sword piercing through the dark clouds, slightly suppressed the surging breath in Qin Guan's chest, and made his brain seem to have broken through a barrier, and a cool feeling spread between his eyebrows.

Before Qin Guan and the woman could speak, the person who interrupted began to recite a poem:
Born as a great man,
Death is also a ghost.

I still think about Xiang Yu,
Refused to cross Jiangdong.

As soon as this line of poetry came out, Qin Guan felt his heart moved, the lump in his chest suddenly disappeared, and the irritability was completely gone.

But the woman turned around and glared at the poet, and couldn't help but roar in her heart: Where did this bastard come from? He plagiarized the poem I prepared first! He deserves to die!

She couldn't help but yelled angrily, "Who are you? How dare you interfere in the literary dispute among my disciples? How rude!"

But the poet ignored the woman's questioning, straightened his clothes and hair, strode to Qin Guan's side, helped the old scholar up, and led him to sit down before bowing and saying, "Junior Chen from Xiangzhou, greetings to Uncle Qin!"

At this time, another thin boy also came forward and bowed, "My little nephew Douchong greets you, uncle!"

These two people were none other than Chen Shen and Dou Chong'er. Chen Shen had previously instructed Dou Chong'er not to mention his real name when meeting Qin Guan, so as not to alert his opponent. Therefore, Dou Chong'er only referred to Qin Guan by his nickname when they met.

Chen Shen suddenly appeared and used his spiritual power to break the delusion, which made Qin Guan's brain much clearer.

He looked at the two young men who came to pay him a visit, and could not help but burst into tears.

Qin Guan not only saw Douchonger, but also held him in his arms when he was a child. Now looking at his face and eyes, he seems vaguely familiar.

As for Chen Shen, Qin Guan had never seen his true appearance, but his reputation had long been spread among Su Shi’s disciples, especially the name Chen Shen, which was given by Su Shi himself.

Therefore, when Chen Shen introduced himself as Chen Sheng from Xiangzhou, Qin Guan immediately knew his identity. At the same time, he was not surprised at all that Chen Shen could compose such a heroic ghost poem.

For several years, Chen Shen kept in touch with Miss Qingzhao through correspondence, and they exchanged poems with each other. His (copied) works were not only enjoyed by Miss Qingzhao, but his future father-in-law Li Gefei also sent letters to show off to his friends and classmates. So although Chen Shen did not pursue a career in poetry, he had already made a name for himself in the poetry world.

Seeing Chen Shen appear, Qin Guan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. In his opinion, with Chen Shen around, even if his own literary ideas dried up, the reputation of Su Shi's disciples would at least not completely collapse.

Feeling this, Qin Guan felt relieved, just like a wronged child who saw his family close to him and couldn't help but burst into tears, almost crying bitterly.

The masked "Su Xiaomei" couldn't help but frown when she saw the three people like this, but she didn't want to continue to scold the three people for disrupting the fight, so she cast her gaze on the audience next to her.

There are not only Qin Guan and Su Xiaomei in Guanghua Pavilion, but also officials from Tengzhou, and top scholars and celebrities from Guangdong and Guangxi. Otherwise, who could have witnessed Su's "tragic defeat"!

At this time, all the officials and celebrities were shocked by the poems recited by Chen Shen.

After all, it is a masterpiece of all ages written by Miss Qingzhao. Even without the addition of the Jingkang Shame, it is still enough to make people marvel at the spirit of the poem.

There was one of Su Xiaomei's "own people" in the audience. A local scholar who was quite famous in Guangnan area got the hint and said, "You young man, this is a literary dispute between Mr. Qin, a student of Mr. Su, and the young lady of the Su family. Who are you to interfere?!"

Chen Shen motioned Douchong'er to take good care of Qin Guan, and stood up and said in a loud voice: "I am Chen Shen from Xiangzhou, the son-in-law of Li Gonggefei, a scholar of Su Shi's school!"

(End of this chapter)