Records of the Lost Cases of Helaitang in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 84 Wang’s second pick
The mountain hides the White Tiger Yunzang Temple and the old plum branches on the pond.Dongting returns to the Xing Dynasty, with citrus mangroves and silver fish.

The Baijia Chi Pavilion and the flowers and plants of Wu Palace are just like those of that time.The most pitiful place for people is to crow at the night moon and still blame Xi Shi.

This little poem "Wu Men Nostalgic for the Past" written by Zhang Xiaoshan of the Yuan Dynasty talks about the scenery of Suzhou and the beauty of Taihu Dongting.

Suzhou Prefecture has the most majestic scenery in the southeast, and it is also prosperous in culture and education, with numerous academies.

Among them is Ziyang Academy, which is located in Gusu City at the former site of Suzhou Fuxue founded by Fan Wenzhenggong in the Northern Song Dynasty.

During Zhang Shicheng's rebellion at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it was abandoned as a monk's residence. After Taizu established the country, the academy was owned by the Yuan family, a wealthy family. Some of the old institutions were restored and private schools were opened.

In the early years of the Wanli Dynasty, Zhang Xianggong of Jiangling came to power, destroyed the academies all over the world, banned lectures, and Ziyang Academy was abandoned again.

Nowadays, Suzhou Prime Minister Shen Gong is in charge of the country and government orders are relaxed. Ziyang Academy is running a school again, on a small scale, just to benefit Sangzi.

In the same year that his first assistant was Xianggong Shen of Suzhou and his second assistant was Xianggong Wang of Taicang, Yuan Daye resigned from his post and returned to his hometown to travel in the forest. The head of the Yuan clan appointed him as the mountain chief.

Although Yuan Shanchang was very knowledgeable, he was lazy. He was already struggling at ten o'clock and one o'clock. All affairs in the academy were decided by several deans.

Ziyang Academy follows the three-house system of the Song Dynasty, which is divided into outer house, inner house and upper house according to the level of learning.

Wang Heng, the nephew of the second auxiliary Wang Xianggong of Taicang and the son of Mr. Wang San, a low-level official in Lanxi County, had no one to teach him how to study in his hometown. He followed the arrangement of his uncle Wang Xianggong and went to the academy to attend lectures while waiting for a place to be a student in the Imperial College.

He first entered Ziyang Academy and was assigned to study in a foreign school.The two servants who escorted Wang Heng to register at the end of August had been sent back to Wang Yamen in Taicang because there was nothing going on in the academy.

The students enrolled in Ziyang Academy were mainly from high-ranking families, and they behaved in a rather extravagant manner. Mr. Yuan advocated simplicity and advocated doing everything by himself. He did not bring servants to live in the academy, nor did he encourage students to bring companions. The academy was also equipped with Zhaifu, The servants were at the disposal of the students, so the king was free.

Li Xiucai, the teaching assistant, was a disciple of Yuan Shanchang. He came from a poor family and ran an elementary school class to supplement his family income. He took in a few children from the neighborhood for enlightenment. He was not counted as a student of the academy, but just borrowed space from the academy to attend classes.

Seeing that Xiaocai was idle, Wang Heng persuaded him to study in Li Xiucai's class.Wang Cai saw that the other children in the class were several years younger than him, and he was not very happy at first. After thinking about it, he felt that the opportunity was rare and he could not be ashamed, so he happily went to school.

After arriving at the academy, Wang Heng wrote a family letter and sent it to Lanxi to inform his parents that he was safe. Ten days later, he received a reply from his family. His father took a somewhat reproachful tone and blamed him for not serving Wang Yamen well. My uncle and aunt went to Fucheng to study at Lao Shizi Academy, which was a waste of money.

The funny thing is that his father also knew that the academy wanted money, but he never sent a tael of money.

When I left for Suzhou Fucheng, my eldest aunt, Mrs. Zhu, presented me with 200 taels of silver, and my eldest brother, Mr. Chen Yu, presented me with 50 taels of silver. After handing over a year's work, I still had more than 100 taels left. I thought it would be more than enough to last for one or two years, so he When he lived in Wang Yaqian, he still had one tael of monthly money left over. Who would have thought that all his classmates in the college spent a lot of money. For example, he brought newly cut four-season clothes from the countryside, but the college had to buy several new sets at the same price. The tin is naturally expensive.

Ziyang Academy did not take the imperial examination as its only goal. Assemblies and associations were extremely active. The academy hired famous Wuzhong scholars. Students had to join one or two clubs to be decent.

Wang Heng was not good at composing poetry. He heard that the academy invited the famous poet Wen Chongguang to give him guidance. He originally wanted to join the poetry club, but the poetry club had to pay three taels of silver every month to fund the poetry club.

There is also the Yinglian Society, which Wang Heng is more interested in. Who knows that the Yinglian Society has more gatherings and needs one or two more funds.

The Qin club needs a certain foundation. The Kyudo club does not accept outsiders. The only one left is the Cuju club. You signed up and paid [-] Wen to receive two pairs of Cuju boots.The speed at which the wallet shriveled was visible to the naked eye. Wang Heng was frightened and miserable every day.

It can be seen that if he intends to take the imperial examination, even if his qualifications are acceptable, he will never be able to afford it based on his family resources.

One or two months after school started, Mrs. Zhu sent someone to give away clothes and cakes once. In terms of the relationship between relatives, it was already enough. If the money was not available, he would be embarrassed to ask for it again, so Wang Heng decided to be frugal. some.

"The temple is small and the demons are strong, but the pool is shallow and there are many bastards." It was Wang Cai who was talking loudly in the studio, and he came up with this evaluation of Ziyang Academy.

"Ziyang Yingxiu, Wang's second pick." Wang Heng said, hiding his face.

"Seventh brother, Mr. Chu will be inviting drinks at Canglang Pavilion tomorrow. I won't go anyway, and I'm not a student of yours." Wang Cai went to the elementary school to study, and everyone in the academy heard that he was As a younger brother of Wang Heng's clan, it was common for brothers, uncles and nephews to go to the city to study together, so Wang Heng became a brother.

Mr. Chu is the son of an official from Guo Changzhou County, Suzhou Prefecture. He is a few years older than Wang Heng. His father works as an official while his mother follows him to serve him. He lives alone in his ancestral home with his uncle and aunt. Without anyone to control him, he chases chickens around the house every day. Dogs are so annoying.His father specifically told him that he must go to college and teach him more discipline.

Mr. Chu has a lot of money. Less than two months after school started, he has already made three or four trips to the East.

Wang Heng shook his head and said: "I have already declined once before. Mr. Chu has invited me again and again. It is really difficult to refuse. Canglang Pavilion is also close to the academy. I will go and see it."

Wang Cai said: "Mr. Chu is not annoying, and he has no evil intentions in spreading money all over the sky. What is hateful is the few gangsters surrounding him. I have never seen such a foul-mouthed and snobbish scholar."

The previous ten days, Mr. Chu invited his classmates from outside the school to go to Huqiu to hold a chrysanthemum appreciation party. He knew that the Wang brothers were coming to the academy, so he also invited Wang Cai to participate.

Appreciating the chrysanthemums was just a pretext. The servants of the Chu family brought tables, chairs and dinner plates up the mountain early in the morning. The stove was built next to the Thousand People Stone. When the students from the academy came at noon, they first served a few plates of lake crabs with shells as big as plates. The accompaniments include fat cured duck, drunken clams, cabbage in duck sauce, pickled yellow croaker, etc., paired with ten years of mellow Shaoxing wine. After drinking the wine, I started to write little sour poems.

Wang Heng and Xiaocai were not good at writing poems, so they went for a walk in the mountains and forests. At that time, the autumn leaves were better than the spring flowers, and the wild wolfberries were bright red and lovely. They were so delighted that they picked two big cloth bags.

Mr. Chu's follower Yang Dalang had sharp eyes and somehow decided that the two of them were soft persimmons. The next day he took the opportunity to go to Wang Heng's studio and saw a bamboo plaque of wolfberry drying on a small terrace facing south of the studio. He immediately felt contempt in his heart. , it is indeed the style of small farmers in the countryside.

When they returned to Thousand People Stone, they heard from their classmates that a strange man had just arrived. He was wearing a straw hat and a short-sleeved shirt. No one at the table knew him, but he came up to him and said, "I love this too." Is it okay to hold the chela against the chrysanthemum and accompany the last one?"

All sentient beings were astonished. Mr. Chu was such a generous person, so they happily invited him to take a seat.

When asked his name, Xianxiang didn't answer. After drinking and eating, he suddenly jumped up and disappeared into the mountains and forests.

They were both devastated that they had not seen such a strange person with their own eyes.

A day or two later, a saying spread among the classmates in the outer dormitory: "Zi Yang is a handsome man, Wang is a good man." For several days, strangers in the academy saw them, and they all showed intriguing expressions, as if to say: " Oh, this is Wang’s second pick.”

　I wrote this in No. 80 two days ago. Please give me your valuable feedback.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)