When everyone saw Fang Yun appear, they all stopped talking and moved closer.
Most of the male scholars were a little restrained, fearing that what they said or did would offend Fang Yun, while the women who rode horses were outgoing and relaxed. In this era of male chauvinism, only women with this kind of personality could break through all kinds of constraints and join the famous Women's Society.
Fang Yun swept his eyes over thousands of people, quickly imprinted all of them in his mind, and recognized most of them immediately.
Although those women had no literary titles, they were members of the Jingguo branch of the "Women's Society", the first literary society of the human race.
Women had no literary status, so those talented women were particularly united and founded the Women's Society in Kongcheng, and also established branches in various countries.
Jinguo is a kind of accessory. In the Han Dynasty, it became a headscarf and hair ornament exclusively for women. Therefore, Jinguo is used to refer to women.
Every woman in the Women's Society is well-educated, and many of them are proficient in classics, literature, poetry, songs, music, chess, calligraphy and painting.
All educated people admit that if the women in the Women's Society became men, they would at least reach the level of a juren, and it would not be surprising if they became great scholars in the end.
Unfortunately, due to their lack of talent, the women in the Women's Society found it difficult to achieve real success despite being full of knowledge and poetry.
Recently, due to the heaven-sent gift of Wenqu, the talent of the human race has greatly increased, and the Women's Society has become more active. Some members even walked at the foot of Daofeng Mountain with banners, petitioning for women, hoping that the human race can open the lowest level of Tongsheng to women, so that women can also serve the human race.
Ninety-nine percent of scholars regarded this as a joke. After all, there had never been a precedent of a woman becoming a scholar.
The other ten percent is just sympathy.
Only Fang Yun published an article on the discussion board, supporting the women of the Jinguo Society and believing that women should be allowed to participate in the imperial examinations once they have enough talent.
Most readers who responded to this article were neutral, and no one particularly supported Fang Yun.
A small number of scholars opposed and even attacked Fang Yun, believing that unless every man could become a Tongsheng, women should never be allowed to participate in the imperial examinations. Some scholars even quoted the content of the saints' classics that favored men over women to refute Fang Yun, scolding him.
There were even a few extreme scholars who went to the Li Hall to denounce Fang Yun, believing that Fang Yun was shaking the foundations of the human race.
The people in the Lidian were the most old-fashioned and conservative, and all the reforms in the Lidian were forced by the scholars. Although they didn't like Fang Yun's remarks, Fang Yun didn't curse anyone, attack anyone, or belittle anyone in the discussion list. He just put forward a novel argument that the Lidian had no right to govern.
Although women were not allowed to read the discussion list, they all had male relatives, and the news quickly spread to the Women's Society, making all the members of the Women's Society ecstatic. They even copied Fang Yun's article and placed it in the main hall of the Women's Society headquarters as the "treasure of the society", and named Fang Yun as "the great sage of women" and "the friend of beautiful women".
Fang Yun smiled after hearing this. He didn't expect that he would become a friend of women.
However, Fang Yun did not write the article casually. Instead, she wrote some reasons why women could participate in the imperial examinations, put forward the idea of step-by-step opening, and even pointed out the right direction for women to pursue their rights. The women of the Women's Society extracted these contents and wrote them into the general outline of the Women's Society. They also wrote Fang Yun's name after Confucius, making her the second "honorary head" recognized by the Women's Society.
Except for Confucius and Fang Yun, even the six sub-saints and all the half-saints were not regarded as honorary leaders by them.
There are rumors that in a while, the Women's Society will formally invite Fang Yun to participate in their internal literary gatherings and join in the celebration.
The women of the Women's Club took this very seriously, and Fang Yun was not joking. However, this incident made all the scholars in the world laugh. Even those with high cultivation did not laugh even if they disagreed, but many scholars regarded this incident as a joke, believing that it would become a stain on Fang Yun's life. Some even hoped that Fang Yun would draw a clear line with the Women's Club to avoid becoming a laughing stock and affecting his literary reputation.
These people thought that Fang Yun would either decline the honorary position of society leader or remain silent, but Fang Yun gladly accepted it and said that if he had free time in the future, he would definitely discuss literature and classics with the female scholars in the Women's Society to promote the development of the Society.
Many scholars could not accept Fang Yun calling women "female scholars" and launched a refutation on the discussion board.
When Fang Yun accepted the honorary title of society leader last month, his literary reputation was immediately damaged. If Fang Yun had not become the unprecedented top ten scholar a few days later, this incident would have been enough to reduce his literary reputation by one-fifth.
Even though Fang Yun's reputation is at its peak now, due to the promotion of some people in secret, Fang Yun has lost a full one-tenth of his literary reputation, causing dissatisfaction among many scholars.
Many people tried to persuade Fang Yun, but he refused to retract his remarks. As a person who had lived in another era and had traveled through thousands of years of history, if he did not even have the vision and magnanimity to support women's imperial examinations, then he would be insulting the ancestors and betraying the past era.
Later, Fang Yun was annoyed by some people's advice, so he just said that if he took back those remarks, it would damage his literary courage, and those people stopped mentioning it.
When these women saw Fang Yun, they immediately shouted loudly.
"Meet the head of Fangshe!"
Some of the women laughed, apparently finding the name amusing.
Fang Yun smiled and nodded, indicating that he accepted the title.
The other men looked helpless, but Fang Yun was known as the Mad King after all, and if he didn't do something against common sense, others would find it weird.
Fang Yun's gaze fell on Zhao Hongzhuang in the crowd. Their eyes met, and they nodded slightly and smiled at each other.
A young candidate asked loudly, "Fang Xusheng, why are you holding this horse literary gathering? Can you tell me in advance?"
"Yes, you are so mysterious this time, we don't know what's going on."
"Alright, keep your words to yourself. His Royal Highness Prince Ji knows his limits."
Fang Yun did not speak immediately, but thought in his mind.
Because riding and archery are one of the six arts of a gentleman, and riding and archery can cultivate the bloodiness and bravery of the human race, the human race has always attached great importance to it, and thus the term "Junma Wenhui" was used.
The Horse Literary Meetings were usually held only among young people, and scholars from military families loved this kind of meeting the most. Especially in the Wu Kingdom, which advocated fighting, the proportion of Horse Literary Meetings accounted for 10% of the total number of meetings, while in other countries, the proportion of Horse Literary Meetings was less than 1%.
The Junma Literary Meeting focuses primarily on horse riding and archery, and secondarily on battle, poetry, and verbal battles. Generally, many venues and facilities have to be prepared before the meeting.
Fang Yun had not originally intended to hold the Junma Literary Contest, but now that everyone is looking forward to it, he might as well go with the flow.
However, Fang Yun looked at the sky. It was late in the winter and the sun had not risen yet. There were not many pedestrians on the road. There were not many people traveling between the capital and Tongshan. Moreover, there were great scholars and university scholars protecting them in secret, so it could be guaranteed that no pedestrians would be hurt.
Fang Yun smiled and said, "We returned to Beijing in a hurry and were not well prepared. The Horse Literary Contest does not need to be too complicated. We can just keep it simple. We will ride the dragon horse for 300 miles. The first person to reach Tongshan will receive a Hanlin Literary Treasure. The second will receive a Jinshi Literary Treasure. The third will receive a Juren Literary Treasure. You can choose how to use the treasure. As for the rest, just take a look."
Everyone laughed.
Those children of aristocratic families did not care about Fang Yun's prize, but the others were tempted. Even if they were descendants of wealthy families, as long as they were not outstanding legitimate sons, it would be difficult for them to get a Hanlin literary treasure. Even if they got one, they would only get one at most. What's more, Fang Yun said that they could choose the type, which meant they could choose what they lacked.
No one doubted Fang Yun at all, because after becoming a virtual saint, Fang Yun received many gifts from aristocratic families. Although he did not receive many cultural treasures from great Confucian scholars, he did receive a lot of cultural treasures from university scholars or below.
Everyone knows that Fang Yun will be getting married soon, and he will definitely receive many treasures at that time. This amount of cultural treasure is just a drop in the bucket for Fang Yun.
Suddenly, Zhao Hongzhuang raised her chin and said loudly, "May I ask Your Highness Prince Ji, if we women win the championship and cannot use the treasure, what should we do?"
Some male scholars burst into laughter, and one of them laughed loudly: "Princess Hongzhuang, this place is full of young talents from the capital. If we lose to your Jinguo Society, we will be too ashamed to face people in the future!"
Zhao Hongzhuang said proudly: "Women like us are also among the young talents!"
Some of the male readers started laughing again.
"My fellow writers, are you willing to hand over the title of today's Junma Literary Society to someone else?" Wucuo Novel Network does not skip words.
"I don't want to!" The male scholars laughed.
Fang Yun said, "Princess Hongzhuang, literary treasures are common prizes at literary gatherings. You may not be able to use them now, but that does not mean you cannot use them in the future. Moreover, literary treasures are the most precious things of the human race and can be exchanged for anything you like. In the Junma Literary Gathering, there is no distinction between men and women. I should treat everyone equally. If I give you extra care, some of you will definitely think that I look down on women. Since some people do not believe that women can win the championship, then as a participant, I would like to make a suggestion. How about this, if a woman from the Women's Society wins the championship today, then every man present can be asked to do something within their ability for the Women's Society."
The women of the Women's Society's eyes lit up, and then they secretly praised Fang Yun for being worthy of being the Virtual Saint, who was different from ordinary men.
Fang Yun does not favor women over men in lottery because of the difference between men and women. This is the basic quality that a founder of a literary gathering should have. It is both fair and respectful to women.
But then he spoke up as a participant in the literary gathering to defend these women, which was to acknowledge an objective fact: compared with those male scholars who had been enlightened by talent, women's bodies were indeed much inferior.
The rewards are fair, but the competition itself is not fair, and once the women win, it's only natural to give them more benefits.
Some experienced men also realized that Fang Yun was still helping the women, because Fang Yun did not mention a word about what would happen if the women did not win the championship. Since the dignified King Ji and Xu Sheng had already said it, there was no need for them to stand up and remind him, which would be annoying.
A gentleman should be harmonious but different. At this moment, even if he disagrees with Fang Yun's support for the woman, they should still get along with each other, because Fang Yun's behavior is in line with the etiquette of a gentleman. At most, he should be a bystander. He should not embarrass the dignified Xu Sheng because of an insignificant matter.
Zhao Hongzhuang immediately said, "Okay! Then let's do as Fang Xusheng said. If we women win, every man present must do something within their ability for our Women's Club!"
Fang Yun looked around at everyone and asked, "Who among you, the good men of Jing State, disagrees?"
Although some men were unhappy, they did not like to oppose anything in public, as it was against the doctrine of the mean, so they did not say anything. (To be continued...)