Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The emperor of the Song Dynasty gave a banquet to the new scholars. Because it was held in Qionglin Garden, it was called the "Qionglin Banquet".

But when Zhu Ming was admitted to Jinshi, Qionglinyuan was undergoing extensive construction and expansion. From then on, the banquet given by Jinshi changed its place, and its name was changed to "Wenxi Banquet" by Song Huizong.

This year, it is officially restored.

The Jinshi did not ride horses or cars, but walked out of the city on foot chatting all the way. They could also enjoy the spring scenery outside the city.

When we arrived at our destination, we found two plaques.

The top piece is the "Qionglin Garden" of the old Song Dynasty.

The lower piece is the "Agricultural Encouragement Division" hung in the Ming Dynasty.

"The famous Yamen of the Agricultural Affairs Bureau is actually located in Qionglin Garden!" someone said in surprise.

"More than that. I heard that there is still a house here. Officials often come here to rest on their holidays and instruct the officials of the Agriculture Department on how to farm."

"I am a native of Kaifeng, and I am quite familiar with this place. The three hundred acres of land to the west of Qionglin Garden are all owned by the Agriculture Department, and all kinds of grains, fruits and vegetables are grown here."

"..."

An official from the Agriculture Department stood at the door and said, "You can go to Qionglin Garden to enjoy the scenery, or you can go for an outing in the countryside. You can just come back in the evening to attend the Qionglin Banquet."

After hearing this, the Jinshi quickly divided into two groups, each with officials from the Agriculture Department to guide them.

Some people want to appreciate the scenery of Qionglin Garden and can't wait to go in and play, such as Hu Quan, Yang Ji, Li Yi and others.

Others were interested in the experimental fields of the Agriculture Department and invited friends and companions to see what was being grown there, such as Li Dong, Li Gongmao, Zhang Jiucheng and others.

Not long after, I walked to a field and saw that the small trees had been cut down and two agricultural officers were doing grafting.

Zhang Jiucheng couldn't help but ask: "What are you talking about?"

The agricultural officer responsible for guiding them explained with a smile: "Grafting mulberry trees. Mulberry trees are excellent for grafting, and you can harvest mulberries after a year. In the past, in Hanzhong, several types of trees have been experimented and summarized to graft mulberries. At this time What was tested was grafting mulberry trees onto mulberry trees."

"How?" Li Gongmao asked.

The agricultural officer said: "In the past, Gou trees were used for grafting in Hanzhong. The survival rate was not very high, but some survived. This shows that mulberry and Gou trees can be married, but the skills are still unexplored. Once all the tricks inside are figured out, If you understand it, you can benefit the people. The mulberry tree will grow quickly without picking up the ground. If you graft the mulberry tree on it, it will grow into a large mulberry forest in one or two years."

The Song Dynasty was the period of explosive growth of agricultural technology in China, and various agricultural books sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

Tree grafting has existed since ancient times, but more attempts appeared during the Song Dynasty.

By the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, four mulberry grafting methods had emerged. By the Yuan Dynasty, six mulberry grafting methods had been summarized.

The scholars watched for a while and had some thoughts in their minds.

Next, I will stay in Tokyo to observe the government, and I will visit the Agriculture Department frequently to see if there are any technologies worth promoting. In the future, I can develop agriculture by working as a local official.

Watching and asking along the way, we soon came to a paddy field.

The agricultural adviser took the initiative to introduce: "Friends from the south must have seen wild rice (wild rice), but your majesty wants to grow annual wild rice in Kaifeng!"

Wild rice was listed as one of the six cereals in "The Rites of Zhou". It was often eaten in the Tang Dynasty and was called Diaohu in Chang'an. Wild rice, also called Diaohu rice, was a food used to entertain distinguished guests in the Tang Dynasty.

With the development of wheat and rice, wild rice production has been reduced, and the planting area has gradually been reduced.

Its disease variant, wild rice, has also existed for a long time.

However, everything occurs in natural lesions, and it often takes more than three years for large-scale lesions to develop.

When planted in the north, it is difficult for wild rice to survive the winter. Only wild rice can be harvested, but it is difficult to harvest wild rice. Even if wild rice can be harvested, the yield is relatively low and the size is not very large.

Therefore, there are many wild rice plants in the south, but almost none in the north.

The agricultural officer said: "Your Majesty has said that the growth of wild rice is not caused by depression. Rather, it is the same as the mushroom, which is parasitized by fungi. All wild rice is born from diseased wild rice. It can be inoculated by people. . If this thing can be cultivated in Kaifeng, top-quality vegetables from the south can appear on the tables in the north, without having to be transported all the way to the expensive price."

The scholars nodded after hearing this. There were indeed not enough varieties of vegetables in the north, and it would be great to be able to buy cheap wild rice (wild rice) in Tokyo.

The more people watched, the more interested they became, and they felt extremely strange.

Soon we encountered a large wheat field, and the wheat seedlings were obviously uneven.

A Shandong scholar knelt down to examine it carefully, pointed to a row of wheat seedlings in the middle and said, "Is this wheat?"

The agricultural officer smiled and said, "Brother, you have good eyesight."

The scholar said: "If you mix wheat with wheat, won't you worry about harming everything?"

The agricultural officer said: "This is to allow them to cross naturally. After many years of continuous breeding, we may be able to cultivate better quality wheat seeds. Oats are also interplanted there, also to allow wheat to hybridize with oats."

Everyone walked over and saw some oats growing in the wheat field.

At least wheat is still a traditional Chinese medicine, while oats are closer to weeds. This thing is only useful in years of famine.

"Brother Yan, why are you here?" The Shandong scholar who recognized Jianmai suddenly shouted in surprise.

But in the experimental field, there was a young farmer dressed as a farmer, who was listening carefully to the agricultural officer's explanation of knowledge.

"Congratulations to Brother Yuanji for high school!"

"Haven't you already returned to your hometown?"

"I was going to leave, but when I saw that the Agriculture Department was recruiting people, I stayed again."

"You won't take part in the imperial examination?"

"It will be the same as becoming an agricultural officer in the future."

"..."

This year, the Department of Agricultural Development posted a recruitment notice to recruit those who failed to be admitted as apprentices.

Once you become a regular official, you will no longer be allowed to take the imperial examination!

Very few people are willing to sign up. After all, it is tiring to persuade agricultural officials, and the development prospects are limited, which is far less glamorous than taking the Jinshi examination.

The South failed to take the exam and no one was hired.

However, more than ten people from the north signed up, half of them from Shandong Juzi.

The two Shandong scholars went to the side to chat alone.

"Brother Yan, you Jin persuaded the agricultural secretary to become an apprentice. Have you written to your family to tell him?"

"I've already written it and asked my fellow countryman to take it back."

"Will Shibo agree?"

"If the rice is cooked, can my father still ask for help from the Agriculture Department?"

"Han Chuang has studied hard for more than ten years, isn't it in vain?"

"How can you say it was in vain? Although the Agricultural Advising Department is farming, it also needs to be educated and literate. Otherwise, we can just recruit old farmers, so why recruit those who failed to pass the examination? It was a fluke that I was admitted to the Juren Examination. I no longer have the extravagant hope of being able to do the Advising and Agricultural Examination. The agricultural officers are also excellent.”

"After all, it's not the right way to take the imperial examination."

"Haha, but you don't know that the people around me respect the agricultural officer very much. They know that I am an apprentice of the agricultural officer, and they will avoid me and salute when they meet me on the road."

"Common people will avoid officials when they see them."

"It's different. No one blows the gong here to clear the way, and the people respect it from the bottom of their hearts."

"..."

After walking around for a while, everyone returned to Qionglin Garden together.

The Jinshi who wandered around Qionglin Garden before also gained something. By persuading agricultural officials, they learned how to understand the characteristics of plants and how to care for and cultivate those exotic flowers and trees.

In Qionglin Garden, there are a large number of exotic flowers and trees collected by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, and now they have all become experimental products for agricultural officials.

Before the emperor and the prince arrived, the scholars had already begun to take their seats.

Li Tong and Zhang Jiucheng chatted very well and engaged in academic debates every day. Sometimes they argued so much that they wanted to start a fight. After the argument, they felt sympathetic to each other.

The two did not sit down, but squatted by the pool and chatted.

Li Tong sighed with emotion: "These agricultural officials are all the disciples and grandsons of the official family. The agricultural achievements of the official family are truly amazing."

Zhang Jiucheng said: "In the old Song Dynasty, the emperor of the Song Dynasty built a lot of construction projects, so that the people of the world had no life. The sage emperors of the Ming Dynasty focused on farming, and what was good at the top was effective at the bottom. In less than 20 years, agriculture will be the leading science of the world, with abundant grains and prosperous livestock. Just around the corner.”

"We still need to upgrade the agricultural officers." Li Tong said.

Zhang Jiucheng said: "When the number of agricultural officers increases, they will definitely be promoted. In the end, they should be high-grade and low-ranking. Recruiting those who failed to be promoted as agricultural officers will also leave a way out for scholars. Wait for those who are willing to learn farming. If there are too many people who fail the exam, I'm afraid a special exam will be held."

Li Tong said: "While we are taking a break from watching the government, we should come more often to persuade the agricultural officials. When we become local officials, we should also ask the agricultural advisers for advice on which crops should be promoted in a certain state or county. The new dynasty When we were first established, the people’s strength was exhausted, so we should still focus on agriculture so that everyone in the world can have enough to eat.”

"This is absolutely true." Zhang Jiucheng nodded in approval.

The two chatted for a while, and suddenly a courtesy officer came to remind them, so they quickly returned to their seats.

"The emperor has arrived!"

"The prince has arrived!"

Amidst the sound of ritual music, lanterns were lit everywhere in Qionglin Garden, and the emperor's guard of honor moved from far to near.

The Jinshi quickly stood up and greeted him with salutes and salutes.

Zhu Guoxiang sat down with his son, said some words of encouragement, and then said: "I am not good at eloquence, and I don't like others to take my place. Today's imperial poem is a work of oil, I am afraid it will make the magnanimous people laugh. Bring me the pen and ink!"

The eunuch served him with pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and the next step was to give imperial poems to the Jinshi.

Zhu Guoxiang finished writing, and the eunuch recited on the spot: "The sacred tree planted in the country is the first one this spring. When the Haiyan River is clear, the Qionglin is full of fruits."

All the Jinshi were stunned when they heard this, and many of them lowered their heads immediately, fearing that they would laugh out loud at the limerick.

Ju Ming couldn't help but smile. His father really didn't copy poetry, and he was too lazy to let a knowledgeable person do it for him, so he actually wrote a limerick by himself.

Although it is difficult to reach the level of elegance, this poem has a lofty intention, and it is very convenient for Jinshi to write poems in response to it.

The Jinshi wanted to laugh at first, but they soon got used to it and were in awe of the emperor.

The emperor's limerick compared the imperial examination culture and education to the sacred tree of the country, and all the Jinshi present were the first branches of the sacred tree to grow. Encourage everyone to be good officials and create a prosperous age with clear seas, rivers and rivers.

The first three, second and third grade Jinshi, represented by the top three, wrote poems on the spot to express their gratitude to the emperor, expressing that they would live up to the emperor's ardent expectations.

The king and his ministers get along well with each other, and they enjoy themselves drunkenly.

At the end of the banquet, each Jinshi received 10 silver coins, 10 silver coins, 10 silver coins, and 10 copper coins.

The five-cent silver dollar and the one-cent silver dollar were both newly minted this year in order to facilitate the replacement of silver coins.

Among them, the silver dollar contains less silver, but more copper.

Nowadays, the three types of silver coins have common names, namely one yuan (one tael), five jiao (five coins), and one jiao (one coin).

Zhang Jiuzheng put the silver coins in his arms, wrapped the heavy copper coins around his waist, and walked back to the city happily and drunkenly.

The next day, the emperor's limerick spread and became the talk of the town throughout Tokyo.