Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination

Chapter 44

Views:

Why don't you have a pair of sentences

Ashamed to say, after he copied the collection of couplets to Xie Qianhu, he wanted to engrave and publish it. However, when I wanted to sell the Diamond Sutra later, I compared the two, I felt that the book was not easy to add pictures, and it was not as mature and easy to promote as the scripture market, so I postponed the plan to print the book.

But Guo Yong looked at him as sternly as Mr. Lin, as if he would be punished for copying the book if he uttered a wrong word, he dared not tell the truth, lowered his eyes slightly, and thoughtfully replied: "I am still young, knowledgeable It's also shallow, and you are qualified to compile a book anywhere. Besides, these are the words and phrases in the sage's book..."

Guo Yong shook his head, and said decisively: "It's just when I'm young. A fifteen-year-old boy who can collect the chapters and sentences of the Four Books can be called a prodigy; It's a game of excerpts!"

He is still the youngest among the group of scholars, only in his early twenties, and saying such words would pierce the hearts of those who are running three students.

Fortunately, it is not too old to write at the age of 30. The sentient beings secretly felt pain in their hearts for a while, and then they endured it, and then persuaded Cui Xie: "This is the right thing. If you published this book two months earlier, the fourteenth A child prodigy of 20 years old is even more important. Since Brother Guo Xian said that your book can be published, it means that there is nothing wrong with it. This boy's identity is valuable."

It was a pity that the county magistrate of Qi failed to become a 14-year-old scholar. Now these scholars are urging him to publish a book. It seems that the prodigy was really valuable in the Ming Dynasty. Then again, when will the prodigy be worthless? ? He was blessed by the original body, and he is still at the age of a child prodigy. With so many people planning for him, he should cherish the good years anyway, and don't waste time easily.

Cui Xie stood up and bowed his hands to a few people: "I'm a late-born student and I'm not good at reading. I'm afraid that there are many mistakes and omissions in the book, and I have to ask the seniors to correct me."

Tang Ning jokingly said: "You're welcome, aren't we still sitting on your sofa and looking at your collection of books? Besides, our hometown exam is just around the corner, so if you look at this pair of sentences, it will be considered a review. You print the book first and call it Guo Guo. The talented person wrote the preface for you, and next year he was admitted to the jinshi examination and became an imperial court official, and your prodigy work has become famous."

Cui Xie couldn't help laughing: "That's right, if I don't get into the jinshi in the future, I'll be a scavenger under Mr. Guo, specializing in compiling books for schoolchildren, and becoming a celebrity."

An older student, Wang Zhining, was about to persuade him to stop saying such unlucky words, but Tang Ning hurriedly shouted: "No! What can I print on the Mongolian book, I'm still waiting for your family's color embroidery to look like a novel. "Lianfanglu" I'm going to rot, so you don't have any new books to print?"

Cui Xie replied: "Yes. I will have the scriptures printed recently, and I plan to draw a few more famous generals of the Three Kingdoms and print an embroidered version of the Three Kingdoms. I also want to trouble the seniors - if any seniors wrote an eyebrow critique when they read the Three Kingdoms, or It was written by a well-known celebrity, and the younger generation also wants to collect it and print it in the book."

Criticism books became popular at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Jin Shengtan's criticism of the Water Margin was still being sold in bookstores in the 21st century.

However, when printing, we also need to pay attention to the typesetting. Not only one person will criticize a paragraph, but several experts will be required to comment on it together, using different colors of ink to distinguish it, just like a video barrage. Experts have different criticism styles, different inclinations towards characters in the Three Kingdoms, readers have different likes and dislikes, or criticize critics, or write articles and comments, it is easy to stir up the heat.

If he sells books, he is not afraid of pinching, but he is afraid that he will not be able to pinch!

He said to the seniors in a frank and upright manner: "Just ask the seniors to check, and the comments received must be reasonable and well-founded, or spicy and powerful, or witty, or thought-provoking. The manuscript fee for writing the novel will be printed here in the future as a critical edition of "Three Kingdoms", so that readers can read the book while reading the criticism, which can not only add interest to reading, but also show the talent of the critics."

"It's like... It's like that "Lianfang Lu", with pages and pages of criticism behind the main text?" Tang Ning said in surprise, "I have written an article on the Three Kingdoms! There are also essays in the book. The eyebrows in mind, I will ask someone to send my book to you, and I don't want your money, you just need to criticize the Qian'an genius Tang Yi'an on the inner seal!"

Lu An and Xu Liyan, two students who also love to read novels, are also vying to give him the "Three Kingdoms" that they have annotated. Only Guo Yong still insisted on the "Four Books and Sentences" unswervingly, and told him to print dozens of books first, send all the famous people from all over the county to the top, and confirm the name of "prodigy" before doing other things.

Cui Xie was a little helpless at his stubbornness, but he was more moved by his care. He nodded his head and replied, "Senior Guo, don't worry, I will call them engraving tomorrow."

After speaking, Sister Huang came to deliver the food. The bookboys and servants brought by the students outside helped bring them in, and a table was lined up. When they talked earlier, they ate a lot of pine-fleshed biscuits and cloud-flavored cakes with tea. They padded their stomachs, and returned to the table full of new hard vegetables such as pearl balls, fried crispy crucian carp, red-simmered lamb trotters, and steamed lamb tails. Take it easy, drink and eat food, chat about poetry and articles, and occasionally talk about exams.

Cui Xie came back after he was full and didn't want to use it any more, so he sat next to him and poured wine, occasionally picking up a chopstick of vegetarian food. He couldn't talk about those poetry and prose, but when everyone talked about the exam, he couldn't help but ask about his experience.

Wang Zhichang smiled and said, "That's true. Although I'm not a scholar for many years, luckily I also have some experience in child exams, so I have to tell Xiaoxian brother."

He tapped the mouth of the wine cup with chopsticks, thought for a moment, and then said, "Let's talk about the rules in the examination room. The county test paper and draft paper should be bought in advance at the Yamen ceremony room. The book office of the ceremony room will stamp the riding seal. Your own piece of paper is not allowed to be brought into the county school. The official test day is in February these few days. , I had to take it off and freeze it during the inspection, but sitting in the examination room, with this clothes, it will be a lot warmer."

Guo Yong also said slowly while recalling: "The county government is not anonymous in both tests. As long as the papers have merits, the county and the government can record you in a low-key manner, looking at your age." This test is not necessarily the case. The Xuezheng adults all came down from Beijing. Some love young scholars and some mature scholars. Seeing that you are too young, in order to make your knowledge more solid, they will pressure you. ."

He looked up at Cui Xie, smiled and said, "But if you are a prodigy who can engrave the "Four Books and Couplets", then it is different. When Lord Tixue came to Yongping Mansion, it was not only to preside over the academy exam , and also inspect the local style of study and assess the students in the prefecture... If you heard about such a prodigy at that time, and read the couplets extracted from this scripture, you will naturally feel that you are young, but you are serious and prudent. Scholar. When you hand in the papers, if you answer correctly and calmly, he doesn't have to be afraid of you being arrogant, and naturally he won't deliberately pressure you."

Senior Guo is about the same age as him, and he has a deep understanding of the subject field. It is no wonder that officials and scholars in the county regard him as the most likely candidate!

Asking him to analyze it like this, he himself felt that Tong Sheng was trying to find something!

Cui Xie blushed with excitement, poured a few glasses of wine for these scholars, and waited eagerly for them to say more.

The rest of the three also talked about some taboos in the examination room, such as preparing meals in advance and giving loose money to the patrolling officers when entering the examination room; only letting examinees go out twice a day; Only the number of people can go out... What is more special is that it is forbidden to describe the hometown in the text or the difficulty of reading. As long as there is a slight hint of such meaning in the scroll, you will be immediately dismissed.

Cui Xie remembered the miserable part of all kinds of draft competitions and interviews, and couldn't help but admire Zhu Yuanzhang who set this system: Everyone is not allowed to sell, candidates don't have to spend all their anger and make up a miserable childhood, and the examiners who judge the papers don't have to be there. Taking care of vulnerable candidates and swaying according to the grading.

He listened with great interest to those people talking about the rules of the examination room, and the words were almost finished. The scholars' thoughts came out. Tang Ning raised his glass and said, "Our room is either a student or a prodigy, and it can be regarded as a 'joke'. There are Hongru, there is no white ding in the exchanges, why don't we also learn the "Four Books of Contradictions" by little Cui Gongzi, and extract some words and phrases from ancient poems to make joint sentences? Those who do not agree will be punished with wine..."

Wang Zhichang said: "Drinking so much wine at Cui Gongzi's house is not causing trouble for others? According to me, if you don't get it right, you will be punished to arrange a book for him. Put these books back in, and everyone will wake up after drinking. Now that we have enough food, it is time to go home."

This punishment was very elegant, and everyone agreed. He first said to Liu Yuxi: "When will the copper kettle leak?"

Tang Ning was beside him, and he replied, "The sound of the anvil in the Royal Garden is more and more late." After meeting him, he sent out the first couplet to Xu Liyan beside him: "The light of the candles in the sill spit out the sun."

These scholars turned around one by one. Cui Xie didn’t study poetry anyway, so he worked as a supervisor next to him, taking notes and writing couplets. If anyone couldn't agree, they handed over a book and asked them to put it back on the shelf according to the sticky note on the back.

A few people were very fluent at the beginning, but after a couple of minutes, they gradually lost their minds. They were slowly squeezed to the bookshelf to work several times, and the feeling of drinking was dried up with sweat.

When parting, a few scholars rubbed their waists and legs, and said regretfully, "Well, I'm coming to your house to rest and read a book. It's even more tiring? Brother Wang's idea is really tiring, why not? I've finished drinking and packed up together, so I don't have to sit up and down like this."

Cui Xie held back his smile and sent them out. He went back and neatly copied a copy of the "Four Books of Dialogues" in the pavilion style, and took it to the studio for the engravers to carve it. These couplets add up to more than 500 sentences, most of which are two-character pairs or three-character pairs, which are shorter than the Diamond Sutra, and there are no pictures or texts to add. Lu Bu's Playing Diaochan" and other color pictures pushed back, and rushed to carve them out for him.

Cui Xie thought about the packaging of the teaching supplementary books in later generations, and he really wanted to carve his own avatar on the inside of the cover, so that elementary school students could grow up in their shadows. After thinking about it, he felt too ashamed. "Qian'an Cui Xie Catalogue" is printed on the side, because it is mainly for giving away, and there is no sign.

One hundred copies of the engraved book were printed, and one each was given to the county magistrate, the county magistrate, the county’s decree, instruction, and acquaintance with the students and students, asking them to criticize the school. Guo Yong and others asked for a few more sets, saying that they wanted to find someone to write the preface and comment on his behalf. It's a pity that he doesn't usually go out to socialize, and there are not many literati he knows well. Even the elder brother of Zhao's neighbor's family who went to school in Fucheng sent it.

However, he knew in his heart that throwing this masked book over was just a matter of putting ashes in another place. Generally, private school teachers have familiar Mongolian books, and it is difficult for them to change books without vigorous promotion. As for promotion, the time and cost will outweigh the gain. It is better to put it on the "Diamond Sutra" for quicker returns.

What's more, Cui Jian and novels in the store are selling very well. The shopkeeper Ji has money in the account, and he has sent his son to Beijing to enter a lot of rural tests. When he handed over the book to Fang Fang, who came to get the goods, he also explained with understanding: "If you can't sell it, you can't sell it, so let's put it on hold."

Although Cui Xie said so, how could a guy not sell his boss's own books well? After Mr. Fang went back, he discussed it with the shopkeeper Ji and his son. Then he put up a big sign outside the store, and wrote "Fantastic Books of Mongolian Learning, Collection of Fifteen-year-old Prodigies in This County "Four Books and Sentences", put the book below, and called A teenage apprentice stared at him.

There is no beauty on this sign, only a few lines of bare ink characters, not many people read the sign, and no one wants the book underneath. Several Confucian boys from Mr. Lin's family saw such a desolate situation when they went to buy the paper.

After a few days, the shopkeeper Ji approached him to explain the accounts of the alms scriptures in various monasteries. After speaking, he mentioned the situation in the shop. When he mentioned those "Four Books and Sentences", his face suddenly became a little strange.

Cui Xie said strangely: "If you can't sell it, you can't sell it. I have the bottom line, and I don't blame you. Why are you so concerned about it?"

Shopkeeper Ji looked like he had just swallowed a ginseng fruit, his brows were wrinkled from choking, he didn't know whether he liked it or felt uncomfortable, smacking his lips and said, "It's not that it can't be sold, but the strange thing is that it has been sold. It was bought by an out-of-town merchant - Cui Jian and "Lianfang Lu" were the best in our store. He didn't want any of the things that the merchants were rushing for. He only picked out some long-left poetry and book collections and the "Lianfang Lu". Duoyu, I didn't even pay back the price, I took all the more than 30 copies."