In addition to the six ministries in the three provinces, Liyang has added six halls. Most of the bachelors in the six halls are still vacant, but more than 20 people have entered the hall one after another. There is Dong Juran, a rising calligrapher who was commented by Tan Tanweng as "spiritual, bright and open, and the most refreshing", and Huang Quan, a young painter who was supported by Zhongshu Ling Qi Yanglong, who is good at painting ghosts and dragons. Fan Changhou, a ten-duan national champion, and after returning from Guanzheng Frontier, wrote a poem named Gao Tingshu, which was recommended by many scholars in the capital as the best of all seven poems in the twenty years of Yonghui. Poetry, Chess, Calligraphy and Painting won the first prize respectively. In addition, Du Ming, whose father was the right servant of the Ministry of Punishment, was a fellow Jinshi. He had served in the Ministry of Punishment for six years, and his family name was unknown. Not long after entering the Hanlin Academy, he submitted to the imperial court the even more brilliant and magnificent "Xiangfu County Chronicles", which is rich in content and well narrated, which is amazing. It is rumored that His Majesty the Emperor kept reading the scrolls so much that he read them at night and wrote it himself. sequence. The three Huang Menlang, including Yan Chiji, who were also in the Imperial Academy, were also extraordinary. Under the leadership of Qi Yanglong, Yao Baifeng, a number of literary giants, they successfully revised twelve Confucian classics. A total of eighty-one stone tablets were erected at the gate of the Guozijian, and the steles were connected so that scholars from all over the world could copy them. For a time, the gate of the Guozijian was brightly lit every night. The different deduction methods of first loss, eclipse and compound circle can be called the most precise of all calendars. At the turn of spring and summer, Emperor Liyang held a banquet for thousands of old people in the palace. He hosted all the old people in the capital who were over the age of seventy, and half of them were survivors from the Spring and Autumn Kingdoms.
All the citizens of Liyang in Tai'an City will probably have mixed feelings about such a prosperous and melodious atmosphere, so that many elderly survivors of Western Chu who have settled in the capital for many years shed tears, and trembling with dry fingers, they took off the Liyang on their heads. The imperial court has never banned the unique elegant crown of Western Chu.
Everyone in the world knows that the place where the son of the Son of Heaven and the grandson of the Son of Heaven studied is Qinjianfang, but I am afraid that few people except Beijing officials know that there is a sacred place for worshiping the Confucian saint Zhang not far from the east side of the house. The four-character plaque of "Heaven and Earth Co-participating" inscribed by the late emperor is enshrined with saints and accompanying sacrifices of Yasheng, Congsheng and Confucian sages of all dynasties. At this time, the young Emperor Liyang raised his head to face the three gods and the eight tablets. There were three people standing beside the emperor. They were Chen Wang, the prince in purple, and Song Keli, a young girl of the Song family who had two wives, but unfortunately he was late. , and a middle-aged Confucian scholar who is very unfamiliar to most people in the capital. The emperor said softly: "Song Keli, your family had hoped to match the two here, but both your grandfather and your father disappointed the late emperor. It's only three things. I don't want you to let me down again."
Song Keli bowed his head and said slowly, "I can only do my best."
The emperor stopped talking, Song Keli just kept his head down, until Chen Wang gently pulled his sleeve, and the two walked out of the room gently, Chen Wang turned and walked forward, Song Keli always backed away from the door. When Chen Wang and Song Keli went out to stay away, Song Tanglu, the eunuch in charge of the supervisor of ceremonies, quietly closed the door.
The young emperor finally showed a look of exhaustion, and the middle-aged Confucian scholar, who has been qualified to face the saint without kneeling since birth, couldn't help sighing: "Your Majesty shouldn't have indulged that Huishan woman. Although I am not in the temple People, but I also know that being a courtier, in the final analysis, is nothing more than accumulating prestige. If the word prestige is broken, it can be divided into the sound that is transmitted to the ears of the emperor. Extremely human minister, just around the corner. Furthermore, the people's popularity, which has always been valued by officials verbally and despised by the bottom of their hearts, is from the bottom to the top, and the most is to sail against the current. "Qi Yanglong is a master, followed closely by Tantan Weng Huanwen who lived in seclusion in the court. Yao Baifeng, who is only suitable for learning and not an official, is slightly inferior. Jin Lanting, the servant of the Ministry of Rites, has the intention but is powerless. Fu Chenzi's identity surpasses that of Yonghui's. It is Chen Wang who left with Song Keli just now. The Xu family father and son are not the Zhao family's courtiers in the orthodox sense. , it is even more difficult than the late emperor's suppression of Xu Xiao."
Zhao Zhuan said calmly: "Duke Yan Sheng said that Xu Fengnian was rebellious?"
The middle-aged man shook his head and said: "On the contrary, I never thought that the Xu family and his son would turn their backs. This was the case after the Battle of Xileibi. Now that the Battle of Liangmang has started, no matter how the battle situation changes, it is still the case."
Zhao Zhuan frowned and said, "Aren't you contradicting yourself?"
The only scholar in the world who can be "born holy" because of his surname and family status, this middle-aged Confucian scholar who was honored as Yan Shenggong by Emperor Liyang once again sighed, "No contradiction, your majesty shouldn't put your eyes on ten Within a few decades, it should be longer. Your Majesty, may I ask the origin of each dynasty's ups and downs?"
Zhao Zhuan smiled wryly and said, "Yan Shenggong's exam is so big, I really don't know how to solve the problem from a small point. If you say something empty, let alone Yan Shenggong, even I think it's ridiculous."
The Confucian scholar shook his head and said, "Your Majesty is wrong, very wrong."
Zhao Zhuan said sincerely: "I beg Yan Shenggong to clear up the confusion. Here, you and I, there is nothing that cannot be said, and there is nothing that must be said."
The middle-aged man of the contemporary patriarch of Yanshenggong Mansion did not have the slightest fear and fear of ordinary courtiers who had reached the realm of perfection, but said indifferently: "The Taoist sages respect the horoscope of 'absolute sage, abandon wisdom, and abandon righteousness'. From the perspective of later generations, even if you don't It is inevitable to be confused. The reason for this is that for thousands of years, reading has become easier, literacy has increased, and people's scheming has flooded. The Taoist saint's horoscope is like controlling a flood with only one block character. Water storage is not deep, it is feasible, but time has passed, it is not feasible. At the beginning, it was full of sweat and articles, and now it has become a childish child holding a book with tens of thousands of words. Your Majesty, I, Confucianism, talk about etiquette, music, and benevolence, for the sake of reading. People make rules, combine block and sparse, leave a gap between rules and rules, so that the world can follow the etiquette, it is not only following the trend, but also doing it as a last resort.”
The middle-aged man looked up at a memorial tablet, "If the first emphasis on ritual and music is a prescription for governing the country prescribed by my Confucianism for the emperor, then the sole respect for Confucianism is a return to Confucianism by the founding emperor of the Dafeng Dynasty. The rise and fall of the world The root of the matter is actually the collapse of ritual and music that many people... including His Majesty, regard as mere generality. , the separatism of feudal lords and towns, factional struggles to bring disaster to the country, and even the emperor's neglect of government, which one is not impolite? Maybe your majesty will say that knowing is easier than doing, and that everyone understands the truth that thousands of miles of dikes are destroyed by ant nests, but people You are not a sage, and the world is so big, the territory is so vast, and there are so many subjects, as a king, how can you tell where, when, and who was the first nest of ants? Does Your Majesty think so?"
Zhao Zhuan smiled and said, "Knowing the works in a small way, pointing to longevity, it means that the master of Xuan has the realm. My reading is still so-so, and learning martial arts is really killing me."
The middle-aged man would also smile heartily, stretch out his five fingers and grab it, "Speaking of which, the reason why Xu Fengnian is the confidant of this dynasty is not because he is unfaithful, not even unrighteous, and it is not because he is not polite. , this young vassal king may be unreasonable in many things, but in my eyes, he is more polite than too many scholars. It’s just that Xu Fengnian and Zhang Julu are exactly the same, seeking for the society, but not necessarily willing to seek for the king wholeheartedly. The world's underprivileged people set up a dragon gate, maybe within three hundred years, when the emperor sits on the dragon chair, he doesn't need to pay attention to his background at all, and with Xu Fengnian's invisible help, the deeper the imperial court suppresses Beiliang, the greater the Xu family's meritorious deeds. This trend will even be shortened by a hundred years or even two hundred years. I, Yan Shenggong, who is not a saint, can't see as far as Huanglongshi sees, so I can only do my best to do things under the nose. Many sages, The original intention was very good, and I did not hesitate to use my death to blaze a new path for future generations, but it is a pity that future generations may not be grateful for it. The more paths you can walk, the more you think about tricks. Governance by doing nothing is completely reduced to empty talk, and it is even more extravagant to dream of a king. Maybe one day in the future, our Confucianism will also be in such a deep predicament... As the king of a country, the first emperor was actually wise enough, but it is a pity to meet Xu Xiao and Zhang Julu..."
The middle-aged man did not continue, and said with some emotion: "I am just a scholar with no strength to restrain a chicken. I am far inferior to Zhang Julu in governing the country, far inferior to Yuan Benxi in seeking the country, far inferior to Xu Fengnian in defending the country, and far inferior to Xie Guanying in chaotic state. It is far inferior to Huang Longshi. But I have one thing that they can't do, or to be precise, they don't want to do it, and that is to abide by their duties. The reason why I asked His Majesty to bring Song Keli with me today is very simple, because I like him That name, and I also think that Chen Wang, whom His Majesty has placed high hopes on, can understand the painstaking efforts."
Zhao Zhuan turned his head to look at the scholar of the Zhang family who never left home all year round, and suddenly thought of a famous case involving the three religions. When Duke Yansheng was young, an eminent monk from the Southern Sect came from afar, and there were other guests in the house. Asked three questions in succession, kill one person and save a hundred people, monk, do you kill or not? Kill a hundred people and save ten thousand people, kill or not? To kill ten thousand people and save a million people, to kill or not? The eminent monk was silent, not sure if he was speechless or he had an answer but couldn't speak. It is said that the young man who had not yet hereditary Wangdai Yan Shenggong raised the case and became furious. He reprimanded the monk for being obsessed with becoming a Buddha himself and not daring to kill and save sentient beings. He was that "shit monk"!
The middle-aged man suddenly said: "This trip to Beijing, apart from promising His Majesty that he will go to Guangling Road to deal with Cao Changqing who has turned into a domineering one, I also want to tell His Majesty something."
Zhao Zhuan nodded and said, "Duke Yansheng, please tell me."
"Beiliang iron cavalry can be here."
After a short pause, the middle-aged man said in a deep voice, "But Xu Fengnian must die. This is especially true when Beiliang wins Beimang!"
Zhao Zhuan hummed expressionlessly.
The middle-aged Confucian scholar turned around and walked to the door first, pushed the door and walked out. After crossing the threshold, the sun was in the middle of the sky. He looked up into the sky, raised his hand to cover the glare of the sun, and murmured softly: "So it's a holy man who is shit."
…
Walking alone in the palace, Chen Wang stopped, took out the small piece of Qinan that became more fragrant over time, put it on the tip of his nose and sniffed it, looked up into the distance, and gave a soft feed.
There is no wind or rain in Tai'an City, where are you