Zhuang Wei's hands were shaking.
He knew that he was acting on impulse and originally thought that even if Fang Yun counterattacked him, it would not cause any unpredictable consequences. So he came to cause trouble for Fang Yun, to vent the anger of the Liu family and to make his wife and the Liu family happy.
But who could have imagined that a university scholar would actually ask a mere student to revise his poems!
That was a poem by Li Wenying, a scholar who almost slayed a dragon, an official who dared to kill a Jinshi directly, and a madman who called the Left Prime Minister an old dog.
Zhuang Wei knew that even if the poem was smeared like this, Li Wenying would just laugh it off. After all, it was just a misunderstanding, and Li Wenying would not hesitate to target a juren student like him. But Li Wenying's old friends and students would not just laugh it off, all the officials of the Academy of Literature would not just laugh it off, and the literati in the entire Jiangzhou would not just laugh it off.
Those people would find ways to make things difficult for him, and once they caught him, they would not hesitate to use the most severe punishment. If he was not careful, he would be banned from participating in the imperial examinations. Zhuang Wei did not have the ability to ask the emperor to choose him.
The few people who had been following Zhuang Wei left silently. This was not abandoning old friends, but a man of insight and wisdom.
A lecturer who had always admired Li Wenying could not help but scold him, "You are a disgrace to scholars, a bug in the academy of literature. A scholar is going to slander a student and bring shame to all scholars! You will suffer the consequences if you do evil!" After saying that, he left with a dark face.
After experiencing surprise and ridicule, many people looked at Zhuang Wei with a bit of pity, knowing that he was finished.
Fang Yun continued eating as if nothing had happened.
Lu Yu smiled evilly and said, "Don't you want to say a few more words?"
"The joy of having a good meal and a good drink is better than kicking someone when he's down." Fang Yun smiled slightly and continued eating.
A group of students nodded one after another. This is the mindset that a scholar should have.
Many people only admired Fang Yun's talent and did not know much about his character, especially those children of wealthy and powerful aristocratic families. When they learned that Yan Yuewen's palace was destroyed and Liu Zicheng knelt down to apologize, they all thought that Fang Yun was too cruel. But now their attitude towards Fang Yun has changed greatly.
"As expected of a great talent who could write "Ode to the Humble Dwelling", the humble dwelling has a good aspiration, and the humble dwelling accommodates people even better."
"I will never look down on poor students again. I am not as magnanimous as them."
"We in Jiangzhou have finally found someone who may be one of the four great talents. We must not let this be ruined by ourselves. If anyone tarnishes Fang Yunwen's reputation again in the future, everyone remember to help him."
"Of course." Everyone nodded in agreement.
Zhuang Wei felt ashamed to death when he heard these discussions. Not only did they fail to harm Fang Yun, but they made Fang Yun famous in the state academy of literature.
He didn't dare to stay here any longer and left in a hurry.
Everyone left one after another.
After dinner, Fang Yun and his companions left and returned to Moxiangshe to study.
The first and second classes in the afternoon were still taught by Mr. Wang, but the last two classes were different from the usual ones, they were Danqing classes. Fang Yun was stunned when he first heard the name of this class, and then he realized that it couldn't be called "Chinese painting", so there was no such thing as Chinese painting.
Ancient Chinese paintings mostly used vermilion and cyan, so they were called Danqing.
Ten days make up a ten-day period. The last two classes in the afternoon on the first, third, fifth and seventh days of each ten-day period are held in the Academy of Literature, teaching painting, guqin, calligraphy and go respectively.
The better the calligraphy, the more powerful the poetry. This is a required art for all scholars.
As for painting, guqin and go, one can choose not to practice them, because they are not only more difficult but also extremely costly to cultivate.
Ordinary guqin and go have no power at all. Only after becoming cultural treasures can they possess great power.
Painting does not require literary treasures, but requires demon blood ink to bear the power of talent, and it often takes more than ten years of practice to reach the most basic realm of "poetic and picturesque", with a certain attack ability, and it is extremely difficult to become a talent. At present, only meticulous painting can be used in combat, and freehand painting cannot stimulate the power of talent.
However, the power of music, chess, painting and theory is far less than that of war, poetry and lyrics. With the same amount of talent consumed, the power of music, chess, painting and theory is only one third of that of war, poetry and lyrics.
Although Qinqi is not very powerful, its advantage is that it can launch attacks continuously.
Paintings can be preserved for a certain period of time, but the only way to preserve war poems is in the "holy book". Except for semi-saint families, anyone who wants to obtain the "holy book" can only obtain it through the mountain of books. Only one or two copies are published in a hundred years. Its rarity is even higher than the literary treasures of great Confucian scholars.
Fang Yun has decided to concentrate on practicing calligraphy. It would be a waste of time if he spent his time on playing the piano, chess, and painting. However, in order to master the basic usage of playing the piano, chess, and painting, he must be able to use the piano, chess, and cultural treasures. It is not advisable to study painting in depth at the moment.
Fang Yun had read some books before. Calligraphy was the first art to be valued in Shengyuan Continent, while the arts of chess, painting and zither had never been taken seriously. They only gradually developed in the past two hundred years. However, decades ago, even the battles of poetry were only regarded as minor arts, and the arts of chess, painting and zither were even more subordinate. Even though some talented literati worked hard to study the arts of chess, painting and zither, the development was still slow.
"Take painting as an example. Although it developed well, only a few people, such as the Grand Secretary Gu Kaizhi, were famous for their paintings. Later famous artists, such as the painting saint Wu Daozi, were not yet born. Only a small part of the eighteen strokes, ink wash strokes, and various dotting and dyeing methods that are well-known to later generations appeared."
Fang Yun was just thinking about this when Mr. Xiao, who taught calligraphy, walked in. This man was not a lecturer, but a seventh-rank idle official in the provincial academy of literature. He loved painting very much, but had little interest in calligraphy.
During the break, Fang Yun learned from Li Yuncong and others that Mr. Xiao had already reached the first level of Danqing, "poetic and picturesque", and had been striving to reach the second level, "lifelike", but had not been able to break through.
Mr. Xiao was a serious man. He walked behind the desk. Fang Yun and six others stood up to greet him. He nodded and motioned for everyone to sit down.
"Are you Fang Yun?" Mr. Xiao's expression was dull, but his tone was very kind.
"Yes." Fang Yun said.
"Have you ever learned painting before?"
“Never.”
Mr. Xiao thought for a moment with a blank expression, and said, "I can't delay other people's classes for you. I have a lesson plan here. You can take it and study it by yourself. If you don't understand anything, you can ask me after school. I am usually in the library. If there is no class, you can come and ask me at any time."
"Thank you, Mr. Xiao." Fang Yun walked forward gratefully, took Mr. Xiao's lesson plan, and sat in the back to study on his own.
While Mr. Xiao started his lecture, Fang Yun was looking through the lesson plan. The lesson plan first explained the knowledge needed for fine brushwork painting, such as brushes, ink, paper, inkstone, and pigments. As Fang Yun read on, a book called "Fine Brushwork Painting Lesson Plan" written by Yao Mingkui, a famous fine brushwork artist, automatically emerged in his mind. Many words appeared, and Fang Yun could compare them.
The beginning of Mr. Xiao's lesson plan involves many unique pigments and materials of the Shengyuan Continent, including monster hair or monster blood. When Fang Yun reads silently, a book will naturally form in the world of strange books.
After Fang Yun finished reading the basic knowledge, when it came to painting techniques, a problem arose. The lesson plans in Qishu Tiandi were more correct than Mr. Xiao's. Fang Yun had no choice but to abandon Mr. Xiao's and read "Mr. Yao's".
Fang Yun gradually became fascinated by reading. He mainly read the teaching plans in the Qishu Tiandi, and did not look at Mr. Xiao's teaching plans for a long time.
Mr. Xiao looked at Fang Yun several times during the lecture and found that he did not turn the page for a long time. It seemed that he was just daydreaming. He secretly sighed that this talented man had no interest in painting and was very disappointed.
A few students noticed the problem and secretly looked at Fang Yun, wanting to remind him, but he was keeping his head down and could not see their hints.
Time passed little by little. Fang Yun read books very quickly in the world of strange books. He had already finished the entire "Detailed Brushwork Painting Teaching Plan" before Mr. Xiao finished his lecture. Some of the terms that he did not understand could be explained in other books, which gave Fang Yun a great understanding of detailed brushwork painting and even an interest in it.
"It's a pity that I can't be distracted now. I'd better practice my calligraphy and read the classics of the saints. At least I have to pass the imperial examination before I can find time to learn painting."
Fang Yun’s mind left the world of strange books and began to look through Mr. Xiao’s teaching plans.
This time he was not studying, but comparing it with the "Detailed Brushwork Painting Teaching Plan". He flipped through it very quickly and found many loopholes and errors.
Mr. Xiao noticed Fang Yun's quick page turning. He just frowned slightly and said nothing.
After the lecture, Mr. Xiao said, "Fang Yun, since you have read today's lesson, let me ask you, what is the problem with Lu Yu's peony painting?"
Fang Yun didn't know that Mr. Xiao misunderstood that he didn't study, and thought it was a normal test. He turned his head to look at the painting on Lu Yu's desk and said casually: "Let's start with the flowers and leaves. The tip of the flower and leaves is too thick, while the root of the flower and leaves is too thin, which violates the basic light and shade."
Mr. Xiao couldn't help but widen his eyes, walked over quickly, and said, "You actually saw his problem at a glance! Light and dark? It's not in my lesson plan. Can you explain it?"
Five scholars were looking at Fang Yun. Lu Yu said, "Fang Yun, you don't even know about painting, do you? You just said you've never painted before. Can you get new insights just by reading the teacher's teaching plan?"
When Fang Yun saw that the six people looked at each other with strange eyes, he said hurriedly: "I was just saying it casually, please don't misunderstand me."
But Mr. Xiao said with a stern face: "Why, you, a former student of the Holy Spirit, became the prince's tutor, so you look down on me, a seventh-rank official who teaches painting?"
As soon as Fang Yun heard it, he knew that Mr. Xiao was serious. If it were Mr. Wang, he would have gotten away with it, but Mr. Xiao was too old-fashioned and could not be vague.
Fang Yun was secretly anxious, he had to say something, and what he said had to be reasonable. He was silent for a few breaths, and then an idea came to him. He remembered that when he gave "Fox's Rhymes" to Zhou Zhubu for filing, he said that he used to sit by the river and meditate, and Zhou Zhubu praised him as "enlightenment by the river."
"Although I have never learned how to paint, I often thought about how to write poems by the river when I was a child. If I got tired of thinking, I would pick up a branch and draw on the sand. At that time, I just scribbled and didn't understand anything. After reading the teacher's teaching plan, I suddenly realized something."
"Are you really reading my lesson plan? Then can you explain what light and dark are?" Mr. Xiao's expression eased a lot.
Fang Yun saw that he couldn't avoid it, so he could only bring out the theory of "yin and yang, light and dark" in traditional Chinese painting and the "three major aspects" of sketching, pointing at the painting and saying, "Light and dark have three aspects, namely the light side, the gray side and the dark side. Adding shadows can show the illumination of light, making the leaves more...real." Fang Yun almost said more three-dimensional.