"The emperor values heroes and teaches his children literature. All other things are inferior, only reading is superior."
When Zhu Ping'an returned to the window of the school with the brush and the black board, Mr. Sun was teaching the children to read this poem to encourage learning. It can be seen that the private school education in ancient times had a lot of freedom. Of course, this freedom refers to the freedom of the teachers. They can teach according to their wishes, unlike modern education which is still restricted by the syllabus.
The teacher wanted to instill in the children the importance of reading, so that they would be proud of reading and could concentrate on their studies.
The children below did not understand the meaning of the poem, but they still followed the teacher as he read word for word, nodding their heads.
Zhu Ping'an had memorized this poem of encouragement to study, and he understood the meaning of "everything is inferior except for studying" better than these children. He had hundreds of years of experience in ancient times, but it was not that big. You, a college student, would definitely have no problem taking the elementary school entrance exam, but after you graduate from college, if you were asked to take the college entrance exam again, would you still be confident? The same is true. The ancient imperial examinations were much more difficult than the college entrance exams and postgraduate entrance exams. Although he had seen the luck twice, it was just like that. It was useless and did not bring any changes to himself. Besides, he could not see the luck on his own.
Thinking of this, Zhu Ping'an put the black wooden board on the stone again and poured the water in the bamboo tube into the groove, preparing to practice calligraphy hard. Calligraphy is very important in the imperial examination. This is the first impression he gives to the examiner, so naturally he has to practice diligently.
When Mr. Sun, an old scholar, was reading a poem to encourage learning to his students, he inadvertently saw the chubby boy outside the school playing the game of pouring water on stones again. He was so naughty. Alas, a child of his age in the county town should have started to learn. He is really falling behind step by step.
The teacher sighed deeply, and felt more and more that he should strictly discipline these children in the school, so he led the children to read it over and over again.
Outside the school window, Zhu Pingan picked up his brush, dipped it in water, and began to practice the traditional Chinese characters he had recently learned on the black wooden board. He was not tired of watching his brush writing change from twists and turns to gradually take shape, and his interest in practicing calligraphy became even stronger.
Another day was almost over. Zhu Ping'an saw that it was getting late and it was time for the teacher to assign homework to the children, so he packed up his things, walked through the bamboo forest, led the old ox, and walked down the hill.
The old ox was taken out to eat grass by Zhu Ping'an these days. Its fur was shiny and oily. The ox forgave Zhu Ping'an for cutting its tail hair and licked Zhu Ping'an's little hand affectionately with its tongue.
When they arrived at the foot of the hillside, Zhu Ping'an let go of the old ox and slowly walked to the river where he put down his backpack to catch fish.
The stream was shallow and rippling, and the water plants and small fish and shrimps under the water were clearly visible. Zhu Ping'an walked barefoot into the stream. The water just covered his calves, and it was warm and cool, very comfortable. He walked to the place where the fish basket was placed in the morning, stretched out his hand to pick up the fish basket, and just as he lifted the fish basket, he heard a fierce crackling sound in the fish basket. This was the sound of the fish hitting the fish basket, and the crackling water splashed on Zhu Ping'an's face.
There was actually a yellow catfish in the fish basket that was almost as thick as his wrist, swinging its tail angrily. There were also five or six silver carps, each about seven or eight centimeters long, also jumping around in the basket, but the exit was too small and had bamboo barbs, so they could do nothing.
Don't be angry, you will make your outstanding contribution to enriching our family's dining table.
Seeing you guys are jumping so excitedly, let’s braise it. Braised crucian carp is the most delicious.
However, when I saw these fish being caught because they were greedy for the bait in the fish basket, I thought about it and realized that the reason why I was repeatedly teased by the evil little girl was because of my greed. However, when I thought about the fragrant chicken legs and the soft and crispy snacks, it seemed that it would not be bad for me to be teased a few times.
He picked up the fish basket, put on his shoes, took the brush and the black wooden board, climbed onto the cow's back and went home.
When he got home, his family was preparing dinner. Seeing Zhu Ping'an carrying a basket of fish back, his grandmother praised him for a rare moment.
"Oh, this catfish is really big, it's big enough for a good fish soup." The aunt came out of the house and took a look at it with a smile on her face, "Well, Zhu'er is great, I said Zhu'er must be good at herding cattle."
After a while, the grandmother put the fish in a basin, dripped two drops of oil into it, saying that it would help the fish spit out the mud and sand, and then led several daughters-in-law to prepare dinner.
Zhu Ping'an stood in front of the basin and thought about it. He happened to see his uncle coming out of the room. He must have heard that there was fish and he could have a meat dish for dinner. This made his uncle, who had been eating vegetarian food for several days, look happy.
Zhu Ping'an rolled his eyes, then trotted forward, grabbed his uncle's sleeve, dragged him to the basin and spoke.
"Uncle, look how well the little fish are swimming in the basin. They are so happy." He spoke in a completely childish tone.
My uncle nodded disapprovingly.
"But grandma said you like fish stew, so we'll cook them later!"
Seeing that my little nephew was almost crying, I saw my sister-in-law Chen who came over here after hearing the noise. This sister-in-law is a hot-tempered person. I can't let her think that I made Zhuer cry, otherwise there will be trouble again.
"Okay, okay, don't be sad, uncle doesn't want to eat fish stew anymore."
So the uncle just answered perfunctorily, thinking to himself that children's moods are like the wind, so he will try to coax him now and ask his mother to stew the fish later, and when the meal is ready, he might forget about it, and even if he remembers, no one can say anything.
"Really?" Zhu Pingan suddenly raised his head and ran to the kitchen and said loudly, "Grandma, Grandma! Uncle doesn't want to eat the fish soup. I caught the fish, I want to eat braised fish!"
The uncle, who was still trying to fool his nephew outside, was disheveled in the wind.
However, Zhu Ping'an still ignored the degree of his grandmother's partiality. Even though his uncle had just said that he did not want to eat fish stew, his grandmother still made fish stew... Fortunately, it was only stewed catfish, and the remaining six small silver carp were made into braised fish, which made Zhu Ping'an feel a little more balanced.
There was a moment of silence during dinner. He caught all the fish himself, and even fought for the braised fish. In the end, for dinner, his grandmother only gave Zhu Ping'an a bowl of catfish soup, which had only one piece of catfish meat in it.
Six braised silver carps, one was given to grandfather, two to my uncle, saying that my uncle had to work hard to study. Similarly, one was given to Zhu Pingjun, which made Zhu Pingan speechless. Junge was always spanked by the teacher for sleeping in the school. He had to work hard, but I had to work hard to herd cattle. Of the remaining two, one was given to my fourth uncle, saying that my fourth uncle was still sick. Oh, I forgot to mention that my family was clearing the ditch today, and my fourth uncle fell ill again. They said that he had hemorrhoids. Can you believe it? Catfish is an irritant, okay? The catfish soup that my grandmother gave to my fourth uncle was full of big pieces of catfish. My fourth uncle ate it more deliciously than anyone else, and he had no problems.
As for the other fish, the grandmother divided it into two halves and gave them to the third uncle and Zhu's father. Zhu's father gave the other half to Zhu Ping'an. Zhu Ping'an gnawed on half of the silver carp and watched Zhu Pingjun happily gnaw on two silver carps. He had a new understanding of the degree of his grandmother's partiality.
Next time, I will grill two fish by the river and bring the rest back, so that I don’t have to bring back fish with nothing to eat.