roccoschili Chapter 91 0089 [Using the Three Principles and Eight Rules to Educate the Prince]
Chapter 91 0089 [Using the Three Principles and Eight Rules to Educate the Prince]
Chapter 91 0089 [Using the Three Cardinal Guides and Eight Virtues to Educate the Prince]
"Drink some more!"
"Let's do it!"
Inside the donkey cart, the Yu family uncle and nephew were already dazed, still thinking they were in a restaurant.
Xu Lai himself had also drunk quite a bit. He paid the fare and helped the two men stagger off the donkey cart.
When you're not famous, you always think about becoming famous as soon as possible.
Once you gain fame, you can't avoid social engagements; otherwise, you'll be ridiculed for being a hypocrite.
Xu Lai is still unsure how to balance this matter.
He helped up the Yu family uncle and nephew on either side, the two of them practically clinging to him, and dragged them toward the gate of the house in the snowy night.
"How much did they drink?!" The old doorman quickly came to help.
Xu Lai settled them in, then leaned against the wall and went back to his room. He was too exhausted to take a shower, and too lazy to even take off his clothes, so he wrapped himself in a quilt and fell fast asleep.
The winter break starts after the year-end exams, and school will resume after the Lantern Festival next year.
Xu Lai slept until he naturally woke up, a feeling he hadn't experienced in a long time.
If I don't want to study, what should I do?
Let's make steamed buns!
Xu Lai's cooking skills are decent, but he doesn't actually enjoy cooking.
After coming to Tokyo, he developed a habit of using cooking time to clear his mind. Because he was always reading and thinking, he was particularly prone to mental fatigue.
After buying pork, vegetables, and eggs, Xu Lai strolled home.
"Chop chop chop chop————"
Yu Shuying was awakened by the sound of mincing meat. At first, she felt quite annoyed, but once she lost her sleepiness, she ran to the kitchen to help.
Before long, Yu Sigong also arrived, and Xu Lai directed them to assist him.
The cleaning maid was also there, secretly learning how to make dough.
Don't think that steamed buns are easy to make. In Tokyo during the Jiayou era, almost everyone knew how to make steamed buns with unleavened dough, but steamed buns with fermented dough had not yet spread to every household.
Many cooks in restaurants, or even private cooks, deliberately kept their dough-making techniques secret. This led some scholars to inquire about them out of curiosity and record their findings in their notes.
This includes foodie Su Shi, who also learned the technique of making dough.
"Young Master Xu, where can I buy this kind of yeast?" the cleaning lady asked.
Xu said, "We can't buy them. Everyone is so protective of their possessions, hiding them away and not letting anyone see them."
The cleaning lady asked, "So how did you buy it?"
Xu said, "I begged for it; I asked the shopkeeper to give me one."
Everyone: "————"
They won't even let you see it, and you can't buy it either, so why should you expect them to give you one?
Why is your face so big?
"When I visited Xu Anshi's family a while ago, I learned that their cook knows how to make dough," Xu said. "I specifically asked him, and he said that dough can be made using both starter and yeast."
"A starter is simply a lump of kneaded dough left to rest for two or three days. But it needs sufficient temperature and moisture; it's not easy to make one in the dry and cold winter. Moreover, this kind of starter cannot be stored for long periods of time."
"Yeast can be stored for a long time, and its production is more complicated."
"Take me for example today. I'll find a shop that sells leavened bread, go in and say that I know how to make my own starter, and explain the process in detail. If they don't give me a piece of starter or yeast, I'll write it down on paper and spread it all over the streets so that all the people in Tokyo can learn it."
"Then, the shopkeeper gave me a piece of yeast."
Everyone: "————"
This thing will spread sooner or later; it can't be hidden forever.
It is estimated that in a few years, all the people of Tokyo will have learned how to make it, and there will even be merchants who specialize in making and selling yeast.
The cleaning lady kept these words in mind and planned to make her own starter when she got home someday.
At noon, two steaming baskets of meat buns were ready.
The Yu family uncle and nephew wolfed down their food, praising Xu Lai's steamed buns as even better than those in the restaurant. They were also complimenting the chef.
In the afternoon, Yu Shuying lit a brazier to keep warm.
Xu Lai, wanting to save some money on coal, took the book to their room and read it slowly.
Yu Sigong fell asleep quickly while holding the book.
Yu Shuying flipped through the "Huangji Jingshi" book, his expression pained, and said, "This square and circle diagram is too hard to memorize."
Xu Lai was quite surprised: "You're already on holiday, yet Brother Zehan is still studying so hard?"
Yu Shuying said, "This is not a book for the imperial examinations."
Well, because it's a book for leisure reading, I'm willing to learn it, and even study it to the point of scratching my head.
Xu Lai ignored him.
Yu Shuying said, "Xingzhi, your math skills are so good, let's see if there are any patterns to be found in the square and circle diagram."
Xu Lai walked over and looked at the square and round diagram for a while, then flipped back to look at the pre-heaven diagram. He quickly summarized the pattern: "You number the sixty-four hexagrams according to the order of the eight trigrams in the pre-heaven diagram."
"How should we number them?" Yu Shuying asked.
Xu Lai suggested, "In the Pre-Heaven Diagram, Qian is number one and Dui is number two. The Lü hexagram has Qian above and Dui below, so it is numbered one and two. Number all the hexagrams in the square diagram according to this method."
Yu Shuying quickly did as instructed.
After a while, without Xu even needing to explain, he had already figured out the basic pattern.
Xu Lai said, "We take the Qian hexagram as the initial coordinate point. Both the horizontal and vertical axes increase according to the sequence of the innate hexagrams."
"Sit down—what are the coordinates?" Yu Shuying asked timidly.
Xu Lai had no choice but to draw a cross coordinate graph again and teach Yu Shuying some basic concepts.
After Yu Shuying fully understood the square diagram, Xu Lai asked him to number the circular diagram and find patterns by comparing it with the innate diagram.
In just a quarter of an hour, Yu Shuying mastered Shao Yong's "Fuxi's Sixty-Four Hexagrams Square and Round Diagram".
Yu Shuying was dumbfounded: "It's that simple?"
"A numbers game," Xu said.
Yu Shuying said, "Before, when I looked at this diagram, it was like looking at a book from heaven; I couldn't understand why it was arranged that way. With your explanation, everything became clear. Xingzhi, have you studied the I Ching before?"
"No," Xu Lai shook his head.
Yu Shuying was utterly speechless.
Why are there such big differences between people?
Such a mysterious and profound square and circle diagram, yet the pattern can be found with just a few glances.
Xu Lai looked at the Innate Diagram and the Square and Circle Diagram repeatedly, feeling that something was still missing.
Damn it, there's no Yin Yang Pisces.
Xu Lai asked, "Do you know about Yin and Yang, the Pisces?"
"What is that?" Yu Shuying asked in return.
"It's nothing." Xu Lai didn't continue.
Let's talk about it when I study the Book of Changes later; the Three Cardinal Guides and Eight Principles haven't even been widely disseminated yet.
Luoyang was the academic center of the Northern Song Dynasty, but it has not yet fully flourished.
At this time in Luoyang, only Shao Yong was carrying the main beam.
Sima Guang, the Cheng brothers, and Zhang Zai were all serving as officials at that time. It wasn't until Wang Anshi's reforms, which resulted in the dismissal of a large number of scholars, that the academic era in Luoyang truly began.
Therefore, Xu Lai's "Three Cardinal Guides and Eight Principles" were probably sent to Ouyang Xiu by Yu Jing in a letter around the spring or summer of this year. However, at that time, Emperor Renzong of Song was critically ill, and Ouyang Xiu's attention was not on academic matters; he only chatted casually with his eldest and second sons.
It is still only spreading in a small area because Kaifeng does not have enough academic atmosphere, unless some big shot steps forward to promote it!
However, Xu Lai's poem "On Poetry" and his recent top score in the Imperial Academy examination have slightly accelerated the spread of the "Three Cardinal Guides and Eight Virtues".
"The Three Cardinal Guides and Eight Virtues?" Gong Dingchen looked at Ouyang Xiu.
Ouyang Xiu found Yu Jing's letter, took out the attached article, and said: "This is Xu Lai's essay on righteousness when he took the exam at the Guangzhou Prefectural School."
chapter."
What is Gong Dingchen's academic background?
Sun Fu, Shi Jie, and Hu Yuan were collectively known as the "Three Masters of the Early Song Dynasty," and Gong Dingchen was a direct disciple of Sun Fu and Shi Jie.
Even after the Qingli Reforms failed and Shi Jie died of illness, Xia Song was still unwilling to give up. He claimed that Shi Jie had faked his death and was sent by Fu Bi to the Liao Kingdom to borrow troops in order to rebel and overthrow the Song Dynasty.
Emperor Renzong of Song even sent people to open the coffin and examine the body.
It was at this critical moment that Gong Dingchen risked his life to successfully prevent the emperor from opening his teacher's coffin.
Gong Dingchen's Taishan School, which originated from the Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties, is the ancestor of all Neo-Confucian schools!
In other words, the Taishan School is the ancestor of most Song and Ming Confucianism. Both Wang Anshi's New Learning and Su Shi's Sichuan Learning drew inspiration from the Taishan School.
At this moment, Gong Dingchen remained silent for a long time after reading the article, carefully recalling the relevant classical texts.
"How is it?" Ouyang Xiu asked with a smile.
Gong Dingchen said, "Wang Ledao, Han Chiguo, and Sun Yanxian will definitely like it. The Three Cardinal Guides and Eight Rules can be used to teach the princes."
This fellow intends to present the article to Zhao Xu's three teachers, using the Three Cardinal Guides and Eight Virtues to guide the future emperor.
"Don't take the article away; make a copy for yourself," Ouyang Xiu reminded him.
Gong Dingchen, too lazy to chat with his old friend, picked up his pen to copy the article while commenting on it: "Xu Lai was still a bit immature when he wrote this important piece. It seems you've done a good job teaching him, Ou Jiu; he's improved so much in just two or three months."
Ouyang Xiu said, "When he wrote this article, he had only seriously read the Analects; he had only spouted off about the other classics. Do you still think he's naive?"
Gong Dingchen looked up in astonishment: "Back then, he only studied the Analects?"
"He was the son of a farmer in the mountains of Qingyuan County. He was so poor that he couldn't even get enough to eat. He would only occasionally go down the mountain to eavesdrop on the village school teacher's lectures," Ouyang Xiu said in detail. "Later, when bandits robbed the shipping convoy, he, as a temporary soldier, ambushed and killed the bandits to protect the convoy. He was rewarded with money by the county magistrate. With this reward money, he was able to buy a copy of the Analects with commentary."
The story has been distorted.
Xu Lai's "Commentary on the Analects" was clearly a gift from Yang Shu, and what he bought with a reward was "Rhyme Summary of the Ministry of Rites".
Gong Dingchen was dumbfounded: "He only studied the Analects, and by eavesdropping on lectures, he could write down the Three Cardinal Guides and Eight Principles?"
Ouyang Xiu laughed and said, "Yu Andao never accepts disciples. Why do you think he made an exception and accepted Xu Lai?"
"Unbelievable, unbelievable!"
Gong Dingchen was shocked for a while before exclaiming, "Such a poor boy, yet he is so devoted to his studies, he can be a role model for scholars all over the world. What's even more rare is his talent; I even want to take him as my disciple."
Ouyang Xiu chuckled, "Aren't you afraid that Yu Andao will pull your beard and beat you up after he returns to the capital?"
"When have I ever been afraid of that shorty Yu?" Gong Dingchen thought for a moment, "Fine, a gentleman's servant has taken the credit for someone else's work, so let him keep the disciple."
Gong Dingchen finished copying the article while chatting, then patted his behind and left, intending to give it to Zhao Xu's three tutors, Old Jiang. He also wanted the tutors to tell the prince how Xu Lai had studied so diligently.
For example, Ouyang Xiu just mentioned using chicken feathers as brushes, dipping them in clear water, and practicing calligraphy on stones.
They could even make up other stories, since they would only tell them to the prince.
The more motivating, the better!
(Thanks to the two book lovers for pointing out the mistake in the idiom "惊才绝艳" (jingcai jueyan), as this was the first time I encountered it.) This idiom appeared in pirated martial arts novels. I always thought "惊才艳艳" was correct.
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