Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 77 Secret Reading of Lingxing Pavilion

The twelfth year of Jiazhao in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The scorching summer heat has faded and autumn colors are gradually deepening.

The terrain on Luocang Mountain is winding, and the temperature is a little lower than that at the foot of the mountain. The lush forests on the mountain have gradually turned red and yellow.

The silver osmanthus next to the Lingxing Pavilion of Qingshan Academy is in full bloom. The branches are dotted with white flowers, and the sweet fragrance lingers, refreshing the heart.

The wind in August is neither hot nor cold, but clear and pleasant. It gently shakes the cassia branches that extend to the eaves, and a few silver osmanthus flowers scatter on the eaves of the attic.

On the lintel of the attic hangs a plaque made of old paulownia wood, with three bold characters "Lingxing Pavilion" inscribed on it.

Lingxing Pavilion is known as the gathering place of literary talent in Qingshan Academy.

Over the past sixty years since the establishment of the academy, all the students who ranked second or above in the imperial examinations were able to leave their names, as well as their life stories and masterpieces in the Lingxing Pavilion.

After a period of sixty years, hundreds of people's names have been left behind.

Leaving one’s name in Lingxing Pavilion is the highest honor for every Qingshan student and is worth savoring with pride for a lifetime.

These proud sons of Qingshan who left their names in Lingxing Pavilion have experienced ups and downs over the years, and most of them have become officials in the court, provincial governors, and pillars of the literati.

No matter the ups and downs of their careers, their loyalty and treachery, good and evil, success or failure, honor or disgrace, these people will eventually be the best among people.

They are also the source of the true heritage and prestige of this academy, which is known as the number one academy in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

All students admitted to the academy will, at the beginning, be led by their teachers and seniors to the Lingxing Pavilion with great interest to admire the style of their predecessors.

But few people come a second time.

So this place is only a little bit noisy in March every year, because this is the time when new students enter the school every year. The rest of the time, it is deserted and sparsely populated.

Come to think of it, this is the way it should be. Few people would be so bored as to spend every day in the "School History Exhibition Hall".

But two years ago, this Lingxing Pavilion, which is rarely visited, had a regular visitor, who seemed to have a discerning eye and was attracted by the unique spaciousness and tranquility here.

The classes in the college are mostly intensive in the morning, while the classes in the afternoon are mostly relaxed.

Whenever there were no classes in the afternoon, a handsome young man could always be seen reading quietly on the desk on the west side of Lingxing Pavilion.

Accompanied by the pioneering influences of the predecessors in the academic world and those memories of the past that have disappeared like smoke.

No matter the wind, frost, rain, snow, or fluttering butterflies and swallows outside the window, none of them can disturb the young man's concentration on his hard studies.

He was wearing a wide-sleeved green shirt, which was beautifully made with delicate stitching. It fit him perfectly, making his figure look more slender, like a jade tree orchid.

The shiny black hair was combed neatly and meticulously, and tied into a bun on top of the head with a Xiuyu hairpin.

The warm and bright afternoon sunlight shone on the west window. The young man had a face as beautiful as a painting, handsome and elegant, and an ethereal light, as if he was not from this mortal world.

There was a small Xiangfei bamboo bookcase on the desk, with two blue-covered books inside, with faint traces of old marks, probably from being read for a long time.

With his slender white fingers, he held up a wolf-hair brush, sometimes flipping through books and reciting silently, and sometimes writing quickly to write down his thoughts that came to him.

This young man was none other than Jia Cong, who had enrolled in the Bingwen Hall of Qingshan Academy two years ago.

When Jia Cong first entered Qingshan Academy, he caused quite a stir in the academy because the aura surrounding him was too eye-catching.

A descendant of the top noble family, the Duke of Rongguo.

Recommended by Liu Jing'an, the scholar of Emperor Wenzong, to enter the monastery

Before he was twenty, he was invited to participate in the Nanxi Literary Gathering in a letter personally written by Prince Jiashun. At the gathering, he shocked the audience with a poem about plum blossoms, which became a hot topic among the scholars in Beijing.

I heard that he was also a talented calligrapher. His handwritten Heart Sutra was not only exquisite, but also unique in style. It was even rumored that it was collected by the Imperial Palace.

No matter which of these things happened, it is a favor that ordinary people can hardly achieve.

Therefore, when Jia Cong first entered Qingshan Academy, he attracted attention and was labeled as a noble, a freak, and a monster by most of the students in the academy.

Where there are people, there is the world. Such people will most likely be envied and excluded in the group.

Fortunately, since Jia Cong entered the academy, he had not shown any arrogance of a noble son, and he was extremely low-key in his daily life. Apart from teaching his lessons, it was difficult to even see him during his free time.

Apart from some interactions with a few like-minded classmates, I have almost no interactions with other people.

The warden doesn’t even live in the college, so he has even fewer opportunities to interact with others.

He seldom attended the literary gatherings, banquets, and informal discussions held by the students in the academy. Even if he was dragged to attend, he would sit there like a fool, rarely speaking, let alone showing up in public.

This made it impossible to track down some students who were very competitive and had ulterior motives.

As the months passed, the halo that Jia Cong had when he was first admitted to the hospital slowly faded away.

If he had not always ranked among the top in quarterly and annual exams, many of his classmates would have almost ignored his existence.

This is also the effect Jia Cong wants.

When he first entered the monastery, he went to thank Master Jing'an for his recommendation.

The old man once talked to him about the severe droughts that have occurred in the south in recent years. The grain harvest in Huguang and Liangzhe has been reduced for two years, and people's livelihood is becoming increasingly difficult.

Your Majesty wishes to open up the sea borders, trade with the white barbarians in the distant seas, prosper maritime trade, bring wealth to the people, and improve people's livelihood.

Unfortunately, the old party in the court wrote letters of opposition in order to maintain the ancestral system of the dynasty. In addition, Japanese pirates were rampant and pirates were entrenched in the southeast coast, making it difficult to expand the territory.

However, the emperor still overcame all difficulties and, with great courage, established the Sibu Si (Commander-in-Chief) in Jinling, Ningbo and Fuzhou as pilot areas to manage foreign maritime trade. How effective it will be remains to be seen.

The climate in the northern part of the Great Zhou Dynasty was getting colder year by year, and even affected the entire territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Last year, even a hot place like the South China Sea had several heavy snowfalls that were two palms deep.

The grasslands also suffered from wind and snow disasters year after year, freezing countless livestock to death, and nomadic barbarians frequently joined forces to plunder the border.

Seventy years after the establishment of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the cycle of nature has changed, and the people's livelihood and national strength have begun to show signs of distress.

The idea of ​​reforming the old and establishing the new is gaining momentum in the court, and the new and old parties are fighting endlessly, and the situation has become hostile.

During this period of great changes in the court, Qingshan Academy, with its large number of scholars, was the place most likely to cause controversy over the current situation.

Using the opinions of scholars and the public to fuel party disputes is a common tactic used by some bureaucratic gluttons.

Qingshan Academy is the number one academy in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Among those who left their names in Lingxing Pavilion, many are still serving as officials in both the new and old party camps.

The students who can enter Qingshan are all talented students, and are the outstanding children of various states, counties and towns. Many of them are children or relatives of officials, and have unclear connections with officials of both the old and new parties in the court.

Liu Jing'an had been through ups and downs in his official career for half his life, so he was naturally well aware of the risks involved.

If you turn a deaf ear to what is happening outside the window at Qingshan Academy, then this will be the best place in the world to study and research.

But if one wants to show off here, seek fame, and get involved in party disputes, then this place will become a dangerous place full of ghosts and unpredictable situations.

After listening to the advice of this senior Wenzong, Jia Cong deeply agreed with it. He thought that he was not even a scholar, but he was trying to talk endlessly like others. Wouldn't it be a laughing stock?

Hence, this kind of response was adopted in the academy.

The effect is very obvious. For more than two years, he has been concentrating on studying scriptures.

With the annotations of Mr. Jing'an on the Four Books and the understanding of the classics by Mr. Tanhua, coupled with his diligence and hard work, he dared not slack off for a single day, and his knowledge improved greatly in the past two years.

Many of the teachers at Bingwenguan came from poor families and had studied hard.

I saw that the son of the Duke's Mansion did not go to the Imperial College to study, but instead went to Qingshan Academy to study.

I originally thought he was just going through the motions to gain fame, so I was a little repulsive to him at first.

But after a long time, they found that Jia Cong was low-key and hardworking. Not only was he not frivolous like the sons of nobles, but he also ranked among the top in the annual examinations in the Bingwen Hall. Only then did they start to look at him with new eyes.

Moreover, in April and June of this year, Jia Cong took the Tongshi examination and passed both the county examination and the prefectural examination. He even ranked first in the prefectural examination, becoming the student with the best performance in the Bingwen Hall of Qingshan Academy this year.

The Yongzhou Academy examination in Shenjing had just ended at the end of last month. Although the results have not been announced yet, the teachers in the academy all said that he would definitely pass, it was just a matter of ranking.

(End of this chapter)