Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 80 If you get a treasure
Zheng Jingxue had a father who was an official, and he himself was recommended to study at the Imperial College, so his talent was definitely there.

You can basically tell whether an article is good or bad just by looking at it.Just like some ordinary people who look at big girls on the street and can tell whether they are beautiful or not at a glance!
I saw him quickly picking up the papers in front of him and immediately started reading: "Disciples' rules, saints' instructions. The first is filial piety, the second is sincerity..."

Zheng Jingxue's expression was very serious, and he read almost word for word, as if he was reading a saint's classic.

In the meantime, when he read the next page and felt something was wrong, he immediately turned to other pages, found the one he thought he was satisfied with, and then continued reading.

After he finished reading them all, he couldn't help but patted the paper and praised: "What a great article, what a great article!"

Afterwards, Zheng Jingxue became suspicious again.

Judging from the handwriting, this was definitely written by Zhang Yifan, and there is no mistake.

However, such a good article, a long three-character rhyme, easy to understand, expounding the content of "The Analects", could it be Zhang Yifan's original creation?

But if it wasn't written by Zhang Yifan, who would it be?

Zheng Jingxue has been here for a while, and he knows Liujia Village well. He knows that there is not even a social science school here, let alone any books.Even if Zhang Yifan copied someone else's work, who would get it if he could copy it?

Thinking like this, he couldn't help but think about Zhang Yifan's words and deeds.

Speaking of which, after dealing with this Zhang Yifan for a long time, he really couldn't understand Zhang Yifan more and more.

You can say that Zhang Yifan is uneducated. Many of his remarks are very reasonable and he sees things very thoroughly, even better than Zheng Jingxue himself. But you can say that he is knowledgeable, but that's not the case. He doesn't even know a lot of words. !
Call him stupid, he can recognize so many words very quickly; call him smart, after writing calligraphy for so long, he still can't achieve what he expected!
In short, this Zhang Yifan is really fascinating!

But one thing Zheng Jingxue can guarantee is that he has never seen or heard of this article.Basically, it is certain that it was definitely not written by a saint or a famous Confucian.

Looking at the stack of paper in his hand, he couldn't help but thought to himself: "Could it be that I taught him the Analects before, and then he wrote it according to his own enlightenment needs?"

Zheng Jingxue wanted an answer to the doubts in his heart, so he took the stack of paper downstairs, asked the guards, and then went out to ask the villagers. Then he found that Zhang Yifan had gone up the mountain, supposedly to catch pheasants.

This left him speechless. After thinking about it, he felt that this article could not be written by anyone else besides Zhang Yifan.

Because this house is always guarded by the guards of King Yan, no outsiders have been seen. There are also guards accompanying Zhang Yifan out, and it is not known who he went to discuss knowledge with.

Zheng Jingxue thought about this and couldn't help but think of his own affairs again.

As the King of Yan became disappointed with Zhang Yifan, he gradually stopped paying attention to Zhang Yifan's studies. Therefore, the King of Yan's original promise to Zheng Jingxue to give Zhang Yifan a generous reward after teaching him was no longer settled.

But at this time, Zheng Jingxue saw hope again.If you submit this article, King Yan may be overjoyed and reward you heavily!
Thinking about the letter from home, he finally hesitated for a moment, then hurried back to the city without waiting for Zhang Yifan to come back to confirm.

Zheng Jingxue met King Yan in the school grounds. What made him a little disappointed was that after King Yan looked at the stack of papers, he still said dissatisfiedly: "It seems that there is no progress at all, you still feel like you have found a treasure?"

"No, Your Highness!" Zheng Jingxue didn't remember until this moment that His Highness King Yan's academic level was average, and he couldn't see the benefit of this article at all, so he quickly explained, "This three-character rhyme is extremely good. The essence of "The Analects of Confucius" can be said to be an explanation of the "Analects of Confucius" in easy-to-understand words. It summarizes the etiquette and norms that children should have when at home, going out, treating others, receiving things, conducting themselves in society, and studying. It is the best article for enlightenment. [-]. From a student’s perspective, this article should be comparable to The Thousand-Character Classic and The Three-Character Classic!"

Zhu Di still knows the status of "Thousand Characters" and "San Zi Jing".Because, when he heard it, he was surprised and asked incredulously: "You said that after he learned it on his own, he wrote an enlightening article that is similar to the "Three Character Classic"?"

"The students haven't asked him for the final confirmation, but basically they can be sure, it should be him without a doubt." Zheng Jingxue said, and then explained his reasons.

Not to mention, Zhu Di had been exposed to Zhang Yifan earlier than Zheng Jingxue, and he understood Zhang Yifan's weird words and deeds better. He had never heard of many things before, but he could still explain them clearly.

A simple example is what microbes say.Although he didn't believe it, he ordered in the army that all boiled water must be drunk. Not to mention, things like illness and diarrhea in the army are much less.

Hearing Zheng Jingxue praising the quality of this article again, Zhu Di became suspicious and said to him: "Just wait here while I find someone to see how good this article is? If it is really as you said, Naturally, you have contributed to this, and I will definitely reward you!"

After finishing speaking, he took this article and ran to the East Palace.

Among the people Zhu Di knew well, only his elder brother was the most knowledgeable.Since this article can be compared with "Thousand Characters" and "San Zi Jing", then he can't see it, but his elder brother must be able to see it.

If this matter can be confirmed, I would like to ask my sister-in-law to tell my sister the good news.

On Zhu Biao's side, he heard that Zhu Di had brought an article for him to review, and he was immediately interested.Most of his younger brothers like to dance with guns and sticks and don't like to read and read, including his fourth younger brother.What kind of article was that that I asked this fourth brother to show to me for appreciation?
With such curiosity, Zhu Biao put aside other things to meet Zhu Di. After taking a look, he immediately raised his head unhappy and said to Zhu Di: "Such an ugly calligraphy was written by Zhang Yifan, right? His article has What’s good to see?”

"Don't read the words, read the article, read the article!" Zhu Di reminded him quickly after hearing this.

He didn't want to get too hung up on Zhang Yifan's words, because he had experience and would be able to talk about the words he wrote.Because his handwriting is no better than Zhang Yifan's!
After hearing this, Zhu Biao had to reluctantly lower his head to read the content of the article.

As a result, once I saw it, I was immediately attracted.He turned over page after page with an extremely serious expression.

When Zhu Di saw it, he immediately understood. I guess Zheng Jingxue was right. This was indeed a good article!

After Zhu Biao finally finished reading, when Zhu Di was about to ask how it went, he heard Zhu Biao speak first: "I want to take this article to my father for review immediately! Are you going?"

When Zhu Di heard this, he was a little dumbfounded.

Even if this article can really be compared with "Thousand Character Classic" and "Three Character Classic", in the final analysis it is only an article for enlightenment. As for such an exaggeration, after reading it, I will show it to my father immediately?

Seeing Zhu Biao's posture, he was a little scared, and quickly reminded: "I haven't finally confirmed whether Zhang Yifan wrote this by himself!"

"This is not important!" Zhu Biao had already stood up and was about to leave. "Are you going or not? Are you afraid that your father will ask about your studies, so you don't dare to go?"

Not to mention, Zhu Di was really afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang would question him about his article!
Zhu Biao knew his brother and guessed it, so he walked out and said to Zhu Di: "Then you go back first. I will send someone to tell you what happens next!"

Seeing Zhu Biao run away, Zhu Di was speechless.

He never expected such a drama beforehand, and he felt that his elder brother was exaggerating a bit.As for what?

Actually, that's really it.

For various reasons, others are not clear about it, but Zhu Biao, as the prince, knows it best.

No, as soon as he saw Zhu Yuanzhang, he immediately asked happily: "Father, what do you think of this article?"

Seeing Zhu Biao looking so happy, Zhu Yuanzhang was also surprised.My son has always been the calmest among all his sons. What article made him so happy?

With this in mind, he put down the memorial in his hand and took the stack of paper handed over by Zhu Biao with both hands.

As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang just glanced at those words and immediately became dissatisfied just like Zhu Biao at the beginning. He raised his head and said to Zhu Biao: "This is what Yifan wrote. Can you read it?"

Anyway, among the writings he had seen, apart from his sons, Zhang Yifan's handwriting was the ugliest, and you could tell at a glance that it was written by him.

"No, Father, please read the content of the article!" Seeing this, Zhu Biao quickly reminded, "My son, if you read this article, it can be regarded as a must-read article for the enlightenment of Ming Dynasty students!"

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang finally became serious and looked down.

Sure enough, after he finished reading it, he was also surprised and said: "Okay, it's really good!"

If you want to say how wonderful this article is, it’s absolutely not!
The most important thing about this article is that it is exactly what Zhu Yuanzhang needs!
At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was actually still in a period of confusion.There is no final conclusion as to what Ming Dynasty regarded as orthodox.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he advocated Buddhism, named Zhang Tianshi, and also promoted Confucianism. In short, he was weighing Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and other learnings, but there was no final conclusion yet.for example:
In February of the first year of Hongwu, people were sent to Qufu to worship Confucius.However, in the first month of the previous month, he had decreed the establishment of Shanshiyuan, with Huitan, a monk from Baoning Temple in the south of the Yangtze River, in charge of Buddhist affairs throughout the country.

In order to promote Buddhism, Zhu Yuanzhang personally organized people and spent a lot of money to collate, annotate, and publish Buddhist classics.In the fifth year of Hongwu's reign, he ordered famous monks from all over the world to revise the Tibetan Sutra and so on.

Also in the first year of Hongwu, he decreed the establishment of the Xuanjiao Academy, with Taoist Jing Shanyue as the real person to take charge of Taoist affairs across the country.He issued decrees many times to protect Taoism, and granted land to the palace and exempted him from taxes, grain, and labor.He also personally wrote two volumes of "Imperial Commentary on the Tao Te Ching" and "The Biography of Immortal Zhou Dian", published them widely, and often ordered Taoist priests to hold various Taoist rituals.

By this time in the ninth year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude was actually somewhat biased towards using Confucianism to educate the people of the Ming Dynasty.Zhu Biao knew this, so he found the "Disciple Rules" as a treasure and hurriedly sent it to him for reading.

(End of this chapter)