Chapter 37: Poetry Becomes
"If Yang Ziqian has not gone to Qingzhou, this job can be pushed to him." Zhang Shen said:
"Of the few of us, he is the best at this."
The mountain breeze fluttered into the room, blowing Chen Tai's long beard as he laughed: "Brother Jingyan is better suited to serve as an official in the dynasty than I am."
"Old piker, are you mocking me for kicking the can down the road?" Zhang Shen did not get angry, with a patronizing stance, "If you can do it, you do it, I'm all ears."
Seeing another quarrel, Zhang Shen's scribe lowered his head and walked in, bowing and saying, "Sir, your student Xu Ruixu is here."
What is he doing here? What is he doing here, has he finished copying the Sage's Quotations 300 times? Zhang Shen nodded, "Invite him in."
When the book boy left, Zhang Shen looked at Chen Tai across the chessboard and said smilingly, "Speaking of which, I have recently accepted a new student, who is Xu Ruixu's cousin, and his poetic talent is astounding."
Li Mu Bai immediately added, "That is also my student."
Chen Tai glanced at the one surnamed Zhang, and then at the one surnamed Li, and his heart stirred, "The poet of the song "Mok Ching has no friend in front of him, and who in the world does not know him"?"
Li Mubai and Zhang Shen laughed triumphantly.
"Hahaha ...." Chen Tai laughed out loud, pointing his finger at his two best friends.
"What are you laughing at?"
"I'm laughing that you guys are blinded by fame and fortune, oh, and jealousy." Chen Tai stopped his smile, half admonishing and half mocking:
"Yang Ziqian's name must have been passed down to future generations because of this poem, which is indeed enviable. But you two don't think about it, good lines are rare, how many readers only have a few good poems in their lives, and the ones that can go down in history are even less."
"Out of a line "Mo worry about the road ahead without a friend, the world who do not know the gentleman" is already a stroke of genius, heard the glad, still expect another, no, two, so that you two together in the history of the world?"
"If you care too much about fame and fortune, how will the righteousness in your stomach survive over time?"
After a taunt, Li Mu Bai and Zhang Shen were a bit embarrassed.
In the bottom of their hearts, they knew that Chen Tai had a point, the best lines that have been passed down through the ages can't be made casually, besides, the other party wasn't a scholar, and the fact that they got a song by chance was a great fate.
Expecting a Xu official to come up with a good poem to make them famous in history is indeed a bit too delusional.
"What You Ping said is very true." The two of them made a bow and said in a deep voice, "The three immortals of the readers, even if they want to be famous in history, they should walk the avenue in a dignified manner and not take shortcuts, it is the two of us who have been biased."
"Knowing one's mistakes and correcting them is good." Chen Tai nodded slightly.
A few moments later, the scribe led Xu Qi'an and Xu Xinnian into the elegant room.
Both of them bowed at the same time, "Students have met teacher."
Li Mu Bai and Zhang Shen glanced at each other, both surprised and delighted by Xu Qi'an's arrival.
"Have a seat!" Zhang Shen said.
"Ning Banquet, you've come to the academy because you have a good sentence for my teacher to appreciate?" Li Mubai said tentatively.
Xu Qi'an shook his head and said, "The student came here because he has a favor to ask."
"But there is no harm in saying so."
Xu Qi'an told the two teachers about his intention to come, concealing the idea that he wanted to take revenge on the Minister of the Household, only saying that the mastermind behind the tax and silver case was most likely Minister Zhou, and that the other party would surely retaliate against the Xu family if they were to suffer through the Beijing inspection.
"This ...." Li Mubai looked at Zhang Shen who also showed a difficult face, and helplessly said, "The academy prohibits outsiders from staying overnight, this is the rule."
Book readers were the most disciplined.
Xu Qi'an had just demanded, when he heard Xu Xinnian say, "Doesn't the Eldest Princess also live in the academy at times."
Zhang Shen shook his head, "What is the status of the Eldest Princess."
Xu Xinxin nodded, "The academy prohibits outsiders from staying overnight, unless they are royal relatives."
Heh! This rash young man was as usual unable to speak.
The three great scholars present gasped and laughed.
Xu Qi'an almost laughed out loud, Er Lang's poisonous tongue was still as sharp as ever.
Li Mubai shook his head, "Brother Jingyan, this student of yours, I'm kind of looking forward to him stepping into the Life Establishment Realm in the future."
That would be horrible ..... The corners of Zhang Shen's mouth twitched.
Only Chen Tai, smilingly scrutinizing Xu Qi'an, interjected at this time, "You are Xu Ningyan?"
"Precisely the student." Xu Qi'an, who was wearing a Confucian shirt to pretend that he was really a scholar, made a bow.
"I've heard that you are quite talented in poetry, how about this, if you can make a poem on the spot that satisfies all three of us, I'll make the decision to allow the female family members of the Xu family to stay at the academy temporarily and keep them safe."
Permitting the female members of the Xu family to stay at the academy was not the point, the point was his last sentence, to keep them safe.
This was the purpose of Xu Qi'an's brothers coming here.
Xu New Year's face was slightly pleased, turning his head to look at his cousin, "Big brother ...."
He was both elated and apprehensive, composing a poem wasn't difficult, every scholar could make a neat poem, what was difficult was to make the three great scholars happy.
Was it difficult?
This is too difficult.
Writing poetry? Are you forcing me to whore myself out to you? Xu Qi'an didn't agree immediately, but said with deliberation:
"Compose a poem in a straightforward manner, or fix the subject matter."
The three great scholars exchanged glances with each other, and Zhang Shen said, "Persuasion!"
Sure enough, it's impossible to compose a poem in a straightforward manner, otherwise, I'll come up with another song for the ages in a minute .... Xu Qi'an sighed in his heart.
At the same time, he was relieved because the question did not go beyond the syllabus, and his little literary background could still handle it.
The word Persuasion, the first thing that made Xu Qi'an think of it was the Persuasion he read in high school, but since it was a poem, this ancient text was not applicable.
There was a golden house in a book, and there was a face like jade in a book!
In Xu Qi'an's mind, this abstruse and circulating poem of persuasion immediately surfaced.
In persuasion-related fields, there weren't many that could be compared to it in terms of popularity.
He was just about to decide to use this poem to white whore the three great Confucian scholars, when he suddenly thought of the situation of Yunlu Academy over the past two hundred years.
"This poem seems to have been written by a Song Dynasty emperor if I remember correctly? It's laced with the flavor of merit and fame, and the students who graduated from Yunlu Academy have always had a difficult career path."
"I lamented when I resigned and passed the examination as a lifer, I don't know that in the future I will be sent out to that poor countryside ...."
"I copied this poem, is not poking the heart of Yunlu Academy, counterproductive ...."
Seeing his prolonged silence, Xu New Year's frown grew tighter and tighter, and of the three great Confucian scholars, Zhang Shen and Li Mubai had been looking forward to it, while Chen Tai smiled and sipped his tea.
Xu Qi'an retrieved his thoughts, arched his hand and said, "The student has made a fool of himself, Resignation, sharpen the ink for me."
Xu New Year found a pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, set them on the table, and personally ground the ink for his cousin, holding the pen in one hand and pulling up his sleeve in the other, he dipped the tip of the pen in the ink, and twisted his head to signal his cousin to take the pen.
I will not be ashamed of my scanty calligraphy .... No, I don t know calligraphy at all ..... Xu Qi'an spat in his heart, and on the surface, he assumed the posture of a scholar pointing out exciting words and said:
"Resignation to write for me."
Xu New Year nodded and sat upright in front of the case.
"Three nights of lights and five nights of chickens."
"It is the time for men to study."
"Black hair doesn't know that he studied hard in the morning."
"The gray head regrets being late to study!"
Xu New Year finished writing, put down the pen, gazing at the handsome handwriting on the rice paper, his eyes brilliantly bright, his face slightly excited.
The room was briefly silent as Xu Xinxin experienced the afterglow of the poem, and the three great scholars walked briskly to the shore, staring at the rice paper in silence.
Silent staring.
