Walk up the hillside for more than ten meters to the middle, where the terrain is slightly flat. There is a bamboo forest in front, and behind the bamboo forest is the school of Shanghe Village.
Zhu Ping'an tied the cow to a tree, letting it leisurely eat the tender grass, while he continued walking forward with his short legs.
A path appeared in the bamboo forest, winding its way to the school gate. Zhu Ping'an walked towards the school along the winding path. He could smell the faint fragrance of bamboo leaves and fragrant grass, which made him feel like he was in nature and calmed his mood.
An eight-year-old boy, following his teacher to school, sat upright and recited aloud. Just as the poem goes, as soon as he left the bamboo forest, Zhu Pingan heard a burst of reading aloud.
"The sky and earth are dark yellow, the universe is vast and boundless, the sun and moon wax and wane, the stars are lined up, winter comes and summer goes, autumn harvests, winter stores..."
This is a private school with a wooden structure and bricks and stones as supplements. It has an ancient style and charm. The private school is surrounded by half-person-high windows. The windows have rolled up bamboo curtains to let the sunlight in, making the whole private school bright. The curtains can be put down when necessary. There are about 20 children in the room, all of them are about seven or eight years old, reading aloud with their heads shaking. Two children share a table with stools, and there are pens, inkstones, and paper on the table.
A portrait of Confucius hangs in the east of the house, below it is a large table, behind the table is a chair, on the table besides writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone there are also poetry and book teaching materials, and a pot of strong tea.
Sitting on the chair was an old scholar in his fifties who looked very energetic. He should be the old scholar Sun that my aunt had mentioned.
Zhu Ping'an sat on the ground away from the door and listened for a while.
Mr. Sun was talking about the Thousand Character Classic, which can be said to be the most outstanding enlightenment textbook in ancient my country. The whole text is coherent, the rhythm is harmonious, and it is easy to read.
Mr. Sun's lectures were not at all as rigid as what people in modern times believe ancient lectures were. He did not simply lead the children to recite over and over again, he also gave explanations, which should have been rare and valuable in ancient times.
"The sky and earth are dark yellow. This sentence comes from the Book of Changes. It is wonderful. Dark yellow does not just refer to the color. It is mysterious and unfathomable. This is the high way of heaven and the deep way of earth..."
Although Mr. Sun gave an explanation, his language was based on ancient sayings and the Book of Changes. To a child who had just started learning, it was really mysterious.
Look, some children have fallen asleep on the table.
Uh, wait.
Isn’t that Brother Jun!
Zhu Ping'an discovered that there were children sleeping in the private school, and there was more than one. They happened to be his deskmates, and one of them was his cousin Zhu Pingjun.
If Zhu Ping'an can discover it, so can Mr. Sun, the old scholar.
Mr. Sun, a scholar, was a man who could not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes. He walked up to the sleeping Jun Ge and another child with a ruler, and knocked on the table with the ruler, waking up the two children.
The other child was a little fat boy. Like Jun Ge, he was frightened and timid when he saw the teacher.
"Stretch out your hand." Mr. Sun said expressionlessly.
The two men timidly extended their hands.
Snap Snap
"Listen carefully, and don't meet Zhou Gong again."
Mr. Sun didn't use much force but hit each of the two men's palms three times as a punishment.
"Duke Zhou, who is Duke Zhou? I don't know him?" Zhu Pingjun touched his head, confused as a monk, and muttered.
The children around laughed when they heard it. These children came a few days earlier than Zhu Pingjun, and some of them had been taught by the Master. Although they did not understand what Zhou Gong meant, they knew it was about sleeping. Seeing that Zhu Pingjun did not understand, they laughed one by one.
When Mr. Sun heard this, he did not get angry and say something like "this child is incorrigible". Instead, he helplessly stopped the child from laughing and started explaining.
"Duke Zhou was a wise man in the Western Zhou Dynasty. He assisted King Cheng in governing the country and made great contributions to the Zhou Dynasty. He was revered as a wise man in later generations. Confucius admired Duke Zhou so much that he often dreamed of him. Since when did sleeping become known as meeting Duke Zhou? Do you understand? If you want to become a wise man, you must read books all the time and never waste your youth. Especially the two of you. If I catch you sleeping again, you will be punished."
After Master Sun finished his lecture, he began to teach the children to recognize words. Recognizing words is their first step, and only when they can read can they go to school.
"Today we will learn the eight characters, the universe and the sky. I will check them one by one after the class, so don't be lazy. Let's start with the first character, Tian. Tian means the top of a person..."
In modern times, I am used to using simplified characters. Although I have learned ancient Chinese and know traditional characters, I still have some problems when writing. I will subconsciously use simplified characters. These need to be corrected slowly to develop the habit of using traditional characters.
Zhu Ping'an sat on the ground outside the school, writing and drawing on the ground with a small stick, and then wiping it off with his feet.
Scholar Sun also saw Zhu Ping'an, but he thought it was some naughty boy who came up the hill to play. Especially when he saw Zhu Ping'an scratching the ground with a stick and stomping on it, he thought it was a naughty boy playing with ants or something, so he didn't pay much attention to it.
Recognizing characters is easy, but the difficulty comes later when you are reading, reciting, reciting, and writing essays. Recognizing only eight characters a day is too easy for Zhu Ping'an. After listening for a while and seeing that there is nothing new, he turned around and went back to herd cattle.
I have to make a simple writing brush myself, and also bring a piece of black lacquered wood board so that I can practice calligraphy well.
After passing through the bamboo forest, we came to the old ox. The old ox was still leisurely eating grass, wagging its tail, and had no idea that its tail had been targeted.
The brush is the wisdom of the ancients. It is simple and easy to make. The brush head can be made of wool, cow hair, weasel hair, in fact, any longer hair of an animal can be used. The pen holder can be made of bamboo. It takes hundreds of steps to make a fine brush, but it is also OK to make a simple one. Just make the brush head and pen holder, and then insert the brush head into the pen holder to fix it. It is OK to use it simply. It seems that you need to put the hair into the pen holder in a basin of water to make the brush head. You can do it slowly when you go back. Anyway, you don’t ask for it to be very good, as long as it is strong and can be used.
I wonder what happened to that evil little girl down the hill? She wouldn't really ask her brother to beat me up, would she? Generally speaking, children, after being provoked, usually won't go there again.
The cow has been eating grass for a long time, it's time to go drink some water. There is a clear stream at the foot of the slope anyway, so take the old ox to drink some water, then let the cow eat some salt-rich grass, and by the way, check to see if that black-bellied little loli is still there.
In this era, people eat two meals a day, which I am not used to. I feel hungry after noon, so if possible, I will catch one or two small fish by the river and grill them.
He untied the noose and led the old ox slowly down the slope.