I

No, no, no.

Fei Yinghuan boasted that he was talented in writing, but like Feng Zhixian, he had never read Su Dongpo's article?

I haven't read it yet!

The Ming Dynasty was imprisoned by Neo-Confucianism, and the early days were all moral articles.Even the mourning poems about his wife's death are not allowed to write about the love between men and women, only how virtuous the wife is.

During the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties, Wang Yangming and Zhan Ruoshui began to improve the study of psychology, and a large number of scribes were also improving the science.

Gradually, the study of the mind lost its vitality, and the study of reality came into being.

In the later period, the retro movement continued, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, it completely deviated: Wen must be Qin and Han, and poetry must be prosperous Tang!

The articles of the late Ming Dynasty imitated the ancient texts of the Qin and Han Dynasties, and even went to study the pre-Qin masters.They may have read "Mozi" and "Han Feizi", but they have not read the prose of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties. This is a very strange literary atmosphere.

Today, Qian Qianyi is engaged in the "New Culture Movement", highly respected by the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, calling for the return of poetry and articles to the essence, and can be regarded as the standard-bearer of the literary restoration movement in the late Ming Dynasty.

Take Fei Yinghuan as an example, of course he knew Su Shi and was familiar with Su Dongpo's poetry, but he just didn't read Su Dongpo's prose.

Everyone is the master of the world, and one word is the law of the world.

When Fei Yinghuan was young, these two sentences were memorized by reciting the eight-legged model essay.

Fei Yinghuan smiled and said calmly, "Have you studied Su Dongpo's prose?"

"I read it all." Zhao Han replied.

"Have you read the prose of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties?" Fei Yinghuan asked again.

In the retro movement in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Tang Shunzhi and Mao Kun belonged to the Tang and Song sects, and compiled "The Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties", so they have the saying "the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties".

This book had a great influence during the Jiajing period, and it was no longer available after Wanli. Many scholars only heard of its name and did not bother to read it.

Zhao Han said, "I've only read a few."

Fei Yinghuan asked, "Which one is your favorite?"

Zhao Han replied, "The Story of Yueyang Tower."

"Can you recite it?" Fei Yinghuan asked.

"Perhaps I forgot some sentences," Zhao Han began to recite, "In the spring of the fourth year of the Qingli calendar, Teng Zijing was exiled to guard Baling County. The next year, the government will be harmonious, and the waste will be prosperous..."

The more Fei Yinghuan listened, the more frightened he became. This article was so good that he hadn't read it and only knew some of the famous sentences.

"Okay, very good!" Fei Yinghuan repeatedly praised.

Zhao Han became more and more frightened, and carefully observed Fei Yinghuan's expression, this old man didn't know "Yueyang Tower"?

The lifting of people at the end of the Ming Dynasty is too watery!

It cannot be said that Fei Yinghuan is familiar with hundreds of scholars, and his family has collected many Qin and Han articles.

"Let's go, let's go," Fei Yinghuan concealed her embarrassment, and greeted the children to board the boat for a trip, and whispered to Qin Xin on the way, "Go and buy a copy of "The Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties", go and come back quickly, I'll wait for you on the boat."

Many people boarded the boat, and Qin Xin finally bought a book and came back.

"Dad, I went to several bookstores and finally bought a copy." Qin Xin's hands were full of dust, and she didn't know how many years this book had been rejected.

Set sail for Shitang Town.

Sitting alone in the cabin, Fei Yinghuan read several splendid essays in succession, and suddenly burst into tears: "I only know the true meaning of the essay today, I've wasted half my life!"

In fact, it is not too late. Qian Qianyi, the standard-bearer of the New Culture Movement, only read the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties after he was 40 years old.

Zhao Han sat on the bow, looking at the scenery on both sides of the strait, feeling extremely complicated.

This Ming Dynasty should not only provide food for the common people, but also provide spiritual food for the scholars of the world.

A very talented and famous Juren, he didn't even know about "The Story of Yueyang Tower"!

Chapter 045 [Ancient Prose Viewpoint]

Zhao Han roughly knows about the development of Ming Dynasty literature, because the teacher of the professional course has briefly explained it.

In nearly 300 years, Ming Dynasty has experienced three literary revival movements.

At this moment, the second retro movement has already ended, and the third retro movement is still in its infancy.

Between the two retrofits was the rise and fall of Romantic literature.

During the Wanli period, the government was corrupt and social contradictions were numerous.The publication of Burning Books (Li Zhi), which contained a large number of heretical ideas, laid the cornerstone of the romantic literary trend.

Immediately, Sanyuan Hengkong was born, and popular literature also blossomed, opening the most exciting chapter of Ming Dynasty literature.

There were three kinds of popular literature at that time: public security literature, erotic novels, and satire literature.

A large number of small yellow texts in the Ming Dynasty were mostly produced during this period.

Two of the three Yuan of Public Security died, and Yuan Zhongdao, the only surviving fruit, suddenly denied and corrected himself.He abandoned retroism and returned to the road (truth), and seriously fell back to retroism (weili false pretense), and the romantic literary thought came to an abrupt end.

Thus, the Jingling faction was born.

The Jingling School absorbed the spiritualism of the Gongan School while emphasizing the genres of classical poetry.

It is difficult to reconcile the two, resulting in the late Ming poetry full of ghostly interest, striving for obscurity, strange characters and dangerous rhyme, and has completely entered the evil way.

The same is true of the articles. The scholars like to study the ancient writings of the Qin and Han Dynasties, but they do not absorb the essence of the ancient writings of the Qin and Han Dynasties.Instead, he is keen on being obscure and treacherous, and especially likes to use uncommon words.

In the early years of Chongzhen, there was no connection between green and yellow, which belonged to the most withered age of the Ming Dynasty!

……

The boat docked in Shitang Town, and Fei Yinghuan was holding "The Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties". He had lost his interest in visiting friends and just wanted to stay on the boat and continue to read the article.

"Master, it's here." Wei Jianxiong reminded.

Fei Yinghuan had no choice but to walk away with the book in his hands, lingering and reminiscing about the real interest of the ancient texts, full of thoughts of "I hear the Dao in the morning, and it is enough to die in the evening".

Zhao Han followed behind, dumbfounded at the moment, thinking: How many super towns are there in Qianshan County?

Shitang Town, the largest papermaking center in China in the Ming Dynasty!

In this town alone, more than 1000 million pieces of paper are made every year, of which more than 30 pieces of memorial paper are tribute, which are specially used as memorial paper for court officials.

There are tens of thousands of paper workers in the town, while the entire Qianshan County has a registered population of just over 1 at this time.

After arriving at the luxurious mansion outside the town and handing in the famous post, Menzi immediately took them to the parlour.

"Brother Dazhao, which gust of wind brought you here?" Fei Zhaojia walked out of the courtyard to greet him.

Fei Yinghuan said, "The dog boy, I'll stop by for a walk with you."

Fei Zhaojia is Fei Yinghuan's clan brother, not from the main sect of Henglin, and the two characters are incompatible.

The Fei family in Shitang is also very strong, mainly engaged in the papermaking business. Fei Zhaojia’s family has thousands of papermaking workers.

After a few words of greetings, Fei Yinghuan couldn't wait to say, "My dear brother, let's read this book."

Fei Zhaojia is also quite talented, but unfortunately he is only a scholar.He glanced at the cover, then shook his head and said, "I've read this book, and it's not very helpful for imperial examination articles."

Fei Yinghuan thought for a while, then nodded and said, "That's true."

The imperial examination developed to the end of the Ming Dynasty, and every sentence of the Four Books and Five Classics was repeatedly tested many times, and it was impossible to write new tricks.

Then you can only blindly ask for blame, the more strange it is, the more attractive the examiner will be.

If you can use uncommon words, you will definitely not write common words.

There are many ways to write a word, so choose the complicated ones to write.

The Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties are all sincere, and their words and sentences are relatively straightforward.This style of writing is difficult to imitate, and if there is no solid foundation and rich experience, it is easy to write mediocre and superficial.

The imperial examination articles were most afraid of mediocrity. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, scholars simply did not read the Eight Great Masters.

To be precise, the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties were eliminated by the imperial examination...

Suddenly, Fei Yinghuan shook her head again and said, "This is the case for the township exam, but not so much for the skill test."

"Perhaps," Fei Zhaojia smiled bitterly, "I haven't passed the hometown exam, so I dare not imitate the Eight Great Families."

The whole set of imperial examination procedures, the township examination can be said to be the most difficult, especially in Zhejiang and Jiangxi!

Scholars from Zhejiang and Jiangxi, if they do not have outstanding talents and learning, take the rural exam with the style of the Eight Great Families, they will undoubtedly find their own way of death.

The national examination is different. You don't need to deliberately seek blame and novelty. If you can explain the truth clearly, it is a good article.

Fei Yinghuan stood with his hands behind his back: "I will be the Eight Great Masters, and I will go to the capital to take the exam in two years!"

"I wish you the title of the Golden List." Fei Zhaojia handed over his hands and smiled.

……

But it was said that Xu Ying walked out of the examination room, and it was already afternoon.

Feng Zhixian was not there at the time, and the master was very fond of Xu Ying, but he could not decide the admission, and only said that he would definitely help to recommend it.

You should have passed the exam. The county exam is not difficult, and admission is useless. The real difficulty is the government exam and the Taoist exam (ie, the college exam).

If you pass the government test, you can be a child.

If you pass the Taoist test, you can become a scholar.

Xu Ying was outside the examination room and couldn't find her little friend, so she walked home along the Yanshan River, and it was estimated that she would not arrive until midnight.

As she walked and recalled the article, Xu Ying became more excited the more she thought about it.

His "Chief Saying" broke the title: the words of the sages are taught throughout the ages, and the gentleman rules the country and the world by self-cultivation.

After the master looked at it, he asked happily, "How many years has it been since you opened the door?"

Xu Ying answered honestly: "The boy's family is poor, and he started late, only two years ago, and he has not finished studying the "Mencius". Fortunately, fortunately, today's two questions are from "The Analects of Confucius."

"You can write such an article after only two years of literacy?" The master became more and more surprised.

Xu Ying was both proud and shy, and replied: "My mother can know some characters. Before I was enlightened, I could already write more than 200 characters."

Seeing Xu Ying dressed in shabby clothes, the master couldn't help but think of his own childhood. He praised and encouraged: "If you are a good student, don't let down the expectations of the court. With your wisdom and intelligence, you will be able to go to the cabinet someday."

"Mr. praised it wrongly." Xu Ying felt like she had eaten honey.

The master watched Xu Ying leave the examination room, and couldn't help shaking his head and sighing, the imperial examination was not just about learning.He was also known as a child prodigy back then, but he was still a scholar after spending half his life, but Feng Xun, a scumbag, became a magistrate.

Walking happily along the river, Xu Ying dreamed of being named in the gold medal list, and then building a big house for her parents to enjoy.

As she walked, Xu Ying became worried again, looking at the seedlings along the way thoughtfully.

From the beginning of spring to now, there has been no serious rain. Today's exam is only a little, and even the clothes are not completely wet.

Fortunately, it snows heavily in winter, and the melting of the snow can replenish water, otherwise the seedlings this spring will not be able to carry it at all.

I hope there will be a few spring rains. If there is another month of drought like this, the family may not be able to pay the rent again this year.

Poor children always think more, unlike Fei Ruhe who only knows how to play.

……

After staying at Fei's house in Shitang for two days, Fei Yinghuan finally went home by boat.

Zhao Han pointed to the countless paper mills at the foot of the mountain and asked, "Sir, is our family's paper mill this big?"

"I'm still called Young Master, not Dad?" Fei Yinghuan asked with a smile.

Zhao Han said, "Respect is in my heart, not in my mouth."

"Slippery," Fei Yinghuan said with a smile, "our paper mill is not as prosperous as in Shitang. There are only two or three hundred workers in total, which is like a paper mill in Shitang, where there are hundreds or thousands at every turn. People? And the quality of the paper is not good, so I can't make the original paper for tribute, and I sent people to steal the teacher several times and didn't learn it."

The workers of the paper factory are all hired laborers, also known as slaves.

Moreover, the process of making this paper in Shitang is complicated. From picking materials to selling the paper, the production period is as long as one year. It is not easy to dig or steal teachers.

"Daddy, the wine is here." Jiupou came over with a bottle of wine.

Fei Yinghuan took the jug and blew it to his mouth, took a gulp and said, "Did Ling Zun really admire people during his lifetime?"

Zhao Han replied, "It's absolutely true."

"Which big family is he not from?" Fei Yinghuan asked suspiciously.

"It's just an ordinary scholar," Zhao Han said.

Fei Yinghuan became more and more confused: "Besides the Eight Great Masters and Fan Wenzheng, who else have you studied?"

Zhao Han said ambiguous: "I have learned a lot, but I can't remember it clearly, and I can't memorize it."

"Bring a pen and paper!" Fei Yinghuan suddenly shouted.