Through the two finger holes made by Chen Jingzong, Huayang looked inside with a little trepidation.
She saw her father-in-law sitting at the table in front of her, explaining the "Governance" chapter of the Analects of Confucius to the children.
"The Master said: 'Govern them with laws and regulate them with punishments, and the people will avoid punishment but will have no shame.'"
"'Dao' means to guide and govern, 'zheng' means government orders, 'qi' means to regulate, and 'xing' means punishment. Do you remember that?"
"remember!"
"Well, Dalang, tell me what this sentence means."
Dalang stood up. From Huayang's perspective, he could only see Dalang's profile, and his little face was very tense.
He was facing the book in his hand, perhaps still organizing his wording, and during this time, Chen Tingjian was always looking at him, with a majestic look without even getting angry.
Finally, Dalang spoke up: "It means, it means, use political decrees to guide the people, use punishments to discipline the people, then the people will not violate the law, and will not feel ashamed."
Chen Tingjian had a blank expression on his face. He turned his gaze and asked Erlang, "Is your elder brother's explanation correct?"
Erlang stood up, thought for a moment, and said, "The previous part is correct, but 'people are free but shameless' is wrong. This part should mean that although people are afraid of punishment and dare not commit crimes, they have no sense of shame and do not know what is propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame. It's like killing someone is against the law. No one dares to kill innocent people. Temporary insults are not punishable, but they are not in accordance with propriety. People with a sense of shame should consciously observe propriety."
Huayang nodded involuntarily. Erlang spoke very well and gave examples to prove his point, making it clear and easy to understand.
She looked at Dalang worriedly again.
Dalang's face turned red and he lowered his head.
Chen Tingjian snorted, looked at his eldest grandson and said, "You are the elder brother, but you don't understand it as well as your younger brother. First of all, the meaning of this sentence is not difficult at all. Even if you are not sure about the meaning of the last sentence, you should know that these two sentences are in contrast by comparing them with the following 'governing people with virtue, regulating people with propriety, and having shame and standards'. Furthermore, Confucius advocated governing people with virtue, which is something every teacher would emphasize again and again before lecturing on the Analects. How could a saint who preached propriety and benevolence think that it is enough to govern the people by law alone? If you were willing to use your brain a little more, you would not make such a small mistake."
At this moment, Dalang's face was no longer red, but turned pale. Huayang suspected that if his father-in-law continued talking, Dalang would cry.
Fortunately, my father-in-law spoke up.
Dalang sat down, and Wanyi, who was standing next to him, quietly held her brother's hand.
After finishing this passage and explaining its meaning, Chen Tingjian asked the children to recite it three times.
Huayang breathed a sigh of relief for some reason and left the two finger holes.
Although Chen Jingzong did not come closer to see, he heard the voice inside. Looking at Huayang, he whispered, "If he said this to you when you were a child, what would you do?"
Huayang pursed his lips.
If she were seven years old, she would definitely cry if she was scolded so mercilessly in public by her father-in-law.
"Father, don't you know how to take care of Dalang's face?" she asked in a low voice.
Chen Jingzong sneered: "How could he think of these things? He would only think that this is the consequence that Dalang should bear after making a mistake. If he knows shame, he should not make the same mistake again next time."
Hua Yang was silent for a moment, then sighed, "Perhaps only a smart child like Er Lang can satisfy his father. As long as he doesn't make mistakes, he won't have to worry about being scolded by his father."
Huayang felt fortunate again. In terms of intelligence, his younger brother was not inferior to Erlang.
Chen Jingzong just looked at her as if she were a "silly fairy".
When the recitation inside ended, the class began again.
Huayang "bribed" Wanyi to achieve today's eavesdropping, so he wanted to observe for a while longer and continued to move closer to the finger hole to look inside.
Chen Tingjian was about to talk about the next paragraph, so he asked Erlang to read it first.
Erlang had just performed well, and knowing that his grandfather was very satisfied with him, he couldn't help showing a bit of pride on his face. He picked up the book and read it in a rhythmic manner: "The Master said: 'At fifteen I set my mind on learning, at thirty I stood firm, at forty I had no doubts, at fifty I understood the will of Heaven, at sixty I became hard of hearing…'"
Before Huayang realized anything was wrong, Chen Jingzong suddenly laughed beside him.
At the same time, there was a "bang" sound of something slapping on the table from inside, which scared her so much that she trembled all over.
Without caring about Chen Jingzong, Huayang quickly looked inside.
Then she saw her father-in-law's furious look. When people are angry, their breathing becomes heavy. As expected, a wisp of her father-in-law's beard fluttered slightly when he breathed heavily.
Chen Tingjian's anger was directed at Erlang: "Say it again, sixty and what?"
Erlang's face was also pale, with a hint of bewilderment. He leaned close to the book and nervously repeated, "At sixty, I am hard of hearing. No, I am more familiar with hearing!"
Oops, he pronounced a word wrong!
Moreover, "hard of hearing" is not a nice word. When he was playing in the garden, he often heard some stewards scolding the maids and servants, asking if they were hard of hearing and could not hear instructions clearly!
"It's written clearly in black and white. If you can't even do such a simple thing, how can we expect you to serve the country in the future!"
"Don't be complacent just because you are smart. There are countless people in the world who were gifted when they were young but grew up to be mediocre. If you don't curb your arrogance, you will be the next one in the future!"
Erlang's face turned red, but he was more cheerful than Dalang and not as thin-skinned. Although he was scared, he was not scared to tears by his grandfather.
Huayang, who was standing outside the window, felt that there was no need for him to listen any longer.
Not long after, the couple returned to Siyi Hall. Chen Jingzong went to the bathroom, washed his hands, and came out to see her leaning on the couch in the second room, tilting her head and looking out the window, wondering what she was thinking.
Chen Jingzong did not disturb her. He sat at the end of the couch and observed her silently.
Huayang was thinking about his brother.
The younger brother has both Erlang's intelligence and Dalang's quickness, but he was made crown prince at an early age, so he is not as timid as Dalang.
In other words, the younger brother is more like Chen Jingzong. He has the courage and guts to rebel against his father-in-law, but Chen Jingzong only needed to rebel against his father-in-law, and there was no one else to suppress him. The younger brother is different. He has his father and mother above him. In addition to being parents, his father and mother also shoulder the imperial power. The longer the younger brother has been the crown prince, the longer he has been bound by the imperial power and etiquette. If he openly rebels against his father-in-law, his father, mother, and the heavy shackles of etiquette will come down on him.
In his previous life, Huayang always thought that his younger brother truly respected his father-in-law.
The emperor enjoys privileges. Like my grandfather and father, if they want to favor a minister, even if someone puts the minister's crimes in front of them one by one, my grandfather and father will always find a way to get around it and protect the person they want to protect.
Therefore, even if the father-in-law really committed those crimes in the previous life, as long as the younger brother is partial to the father-in-law and as long as the younger brother is willing, the younger brother can let bygones be bygones.
The younger brother did not protect his father-in-law, either because he hated evil and could not tolerate any injustice and did not want to be a biased emperor, or because he harbored hatred towards his father-in-law.
In the past, Huayang always felt that his younger brother had no need to hate his father-in-law, because it was his father-in-law’s reforms that made the national treasury sufficient and the people well-fed and well-clothed. Why should the emperor hate such a good minister who was loyal to the court
But today, Huayang, who witnessed with his own eyes how strict his father-in-law was in teaching, suddenly realized that his younger brother had reason to hate his father-in-law.
Chen Jingzong hated his father-in-law when he was a child, but the two had a father-son relationship. Chen Jingzong understood that his father-in-law was strict because he wanted him to be successful, so when he grew up, he was only disrespectful to his father-in-law according to etiquette, but he did not really deny this father.
My younger brother and my father-in-law are just the relationship between the ruler and his subject. The teacher-student relationship should have been the icing on the cake for my father-in-law, but it was turned into hatred by my father-in-law's severity.
Should I blame my younger brother for losing the greater good due to personal grudge
Huayang could blame others, but he was her brother, a brother of flesh and blood. Everyone asked him to be a wise ruler, but apart from being the crown prince, he was also an ordinary child. He would get angry and feel wronged. He suppressed his anger for a long time, and was too impulsive when he was young...
The Chen family and descendants can all blame the younger brother. As an elder sister, Huayang is annoyed by her brother's impulsiveness, but she can also understand the distress that he has to endure and cannot vent.
She also hoped that she could change her father-in-law's way of teaching in this life, so that it would be good for both her brother and her father-in-law. One could be happy, and the other would not be let down and affect the whole family.
The palms and backs of the hands are all made of flesh. My younger brother is destined to be the next emperor, and the people of this dynasty cannot do without my father-in-law.
In the face of the overall situation, Huayang's feelings for his brother and admiration for his father-in-law are nothing.
The turbulent emotions gradually calmed down. Huayang exhaled lightly and withdrew her gaze from the blue sky outside the window. She found that Chen Jingzong had been sitting opposite her. She was leaning against the west wall and he was leaning against the east wall. One hand hung at his side and the other hand rested on his bent left knee. He looked at her with an indecipherable expression.
Huayang: "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Chen Jingzong: "What do you think of this?"
Huayang: "Anyway, it's different from your usual frivolousness."
Chen Jingzong: "Maybe I have become serious a long time ago, and you just noticed it."
Huayang: …
She glared at him and glanced at the teapot on the table.
Chen Jingzong got off the bed, poured a bowl of tea and brought it to her.
Huayang moved to the edge of the couch and wanted to take the tea bowl, but Chen Jingzong pushed her hand away and insisted on feeding her.
Huayang drank two sips, and Chen Jingzong drank the rest in one gulp. He put the tea bowl aside, sat down, looked at her and said, "You seemed unhappy just now. Did you find that the old man is not as good as you thought? You no longer admire him, and even his love for me is gone. Are you regretting this marriage?"
Huayang: …
She was really impressed by him: "You think more than I do."
Chen Jingzong: "After all, you are a princess, and I am your consort who can be divorced at any time. If we were just an ordinary couple, would I still worry about you running away?"
Hua Yang raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean? If I were an ordinary lady, would you dare to beat and scold me at will?"
Chen Jingzong: "Why should I hit you? What ordinary couples mean is that even if you want to divorce one day, I won't let you go, and you can only be my wife for the rest of your life."
Huayang felt the word "daughter-in-law" sounded vulgar and rustic.
"Don't worry, I still admire my father, and I don't regret marrying into your Chen family."
Chen Jingzong showed a complicated look instead: "He is like that, and you still think he is good?"
Hua Yang smiled: "Yes, he is too harsh, but he is not harsh towards me. Why should I hate him for this?"
Chen Jingzong was irritated by her gloating smile. He walked away a few steps, then turned around, looked at her and said, "They say husband and wife are one. I thought that after you see his true face, you would feel sorry for the suffering I went through in my childhood." Then he would never be partial to the old man again!
Huayang: "Da Lang is indeed very lovable. You are thicker-skinned than a city wall, so you don't need anyone to feel sorry for you."
Chen Jingzong: …
(End of this chapter)