Chapter 1: Public Opinion of the Divine Will
After the late fall, although there was no snow, the cold air was getting heavier and heavier day by day.
This is from the Yujing City inside the eaves of every house that a long slip, thick as a child's arm, crystal clear, such as a sword sharp ice prongs can feel the harshness of winter.
Yujing is the capital city of the Daqian Dynasty.
And this year is the sixty years of the founding of the country. Ding Ding the world for a year!
These sixty years, four generations of emperors of the Great Qian Dynasty, has reached a flower brocade, fire cooked oil of the heyday.
"Marquis Wu" House in the southeast of Yujing City, covers an area of 100 acres, open terrain, the entrance to a pair of three people high red lacquer stone Qilin, vermilion door, shiny copper nails, copper ring, the doorway, brightly dressed, full of energy, sharp-eyed servants and so on, can show the status of the Marquis of Wu Wen.
"Marquis Wu Wen" is a prominent figure in the Great Qian Dynasty, surnamed Hong, first name Xuanji.
This person is not only a grand title, but also a very important person, the official cabinet scholar, the crown prince. Both military and civil, when young, can open nine stone strong bow shooting, riding a big horse to kill hundreds of enemy troops like a leisurely walk. {One stone is one hundred pounds in the Daqian Dynasty, and nine stones is equivalent to nine hundred pounds.}
At the age of twenty-two, after making great achievements in battle, he gave up martial arts and practiced literature, and was awarded the title of high school scholar. He was awarded an official position and participated in the government. He was once recognized by four generations of emperors of the Daqian Dynasty as "able to rule the army from a horse, and able to pacify the people from a horse." The highest evaluation of the cross.
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"Heaven sees what the self people see, heaven hears what the self people hear ....."
Early in the morning, in the northwest corner of the Marquis Wu Wen's residence in the remote small courtyard inside came the sound of reading.
Hong Yi he opened half of the window, inside the house built a pot of charcoal fire, is reading at the table, a ready to cope with the examination, speculate on the posture of the scriptures.
He was wearing a green shirt, his eyebrows were clear, his age was between fifteen and sixteen, and his body was slightly thin.
Inside the room was very simple, the pot for burning fire was an iron pot, and the charcoal was also ordinary charcoal, not the exquisite tripod footed copper pots used by big families to make fire, and the "animal charcoal" carved out in the shape of various wild animals.
When he was reading, there was no servant boy beside him, and the servant girl was researching ink and spreading paper. All of this shows that Hong Yi in the marquis house status is not high, but still have time to read, not the kind of slave stream.
"Whether or not I can right the name of my dead mother depends on the Enkei exam in the beginning of spring and the Congress exam in the fall. First, I will win the examination, then I will win the jinshi, and I will win the gold medal, and I will be crowned for three generations ..... The court will issue a decree naming my mother as a lady. Mother's grave will be able to be drawn into the Hong family's ancestral tomb, and the spirit tablet will be enshrined in the ancestral hall."
Hong Yi opened a book and read two sentences, but in his heart, he remembered his mother who died when he was seven years old.
Before Hong Yi's mother married Marquis Wu Wen, she was a famous talented woman in Yujing City, skilled in qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, poetry and song is even more literary, selling her skills, and Marquis Wu Wen in a hall meeting, singing poetry and met, and later married into the marquis.
Said to be a talented woman, in fact, is a "cheap" in the greenhouse. After joining the family, her status was very low.
What's more, when Hong Yi's mother married into the Marquis' family, Marquis Wu Wen already had a wife, and she was a concubine.
The law of the Daqian Dynasty, one hair wife, two flat wives, and four concubines. The status of concubines was very low, and some powerful nobles and scholars gave concubines to each other for fun.
Concubines were not even allowed to sit down during meals, they had to stand like maidservants.
Hong Yi, as the son of a concubine, had no right to inherit the title or the family property. The only way out was to pass the imperial examination.
Hong Yi is also very clear in his heart, if he can pass the entrance examination, not only can he get out of this marquis to be an official, the most important thing is that he can add a "Mrs." for his mother's name.
Daqian dynasty heavy examination, once the gold list, it is possible to add three generations.
The name "Mrs." is not simple. Now there are three wives in the marquis. This is still Wenwu Marquis Hong Xuanji repeatedly made great achievements, the court special gift.
Among the general nobility, only the first wife is a "madam".
Among the dignitaries, the court rewarded the wife of the family as a wife, but it is a great honor, more virtuous than a title.
"If I win the scholarship, if I win the scholarship, the imperial court will confer the title of Mrs. on my mother. At that time, I wonder what kind of expression that main house, Mrs. Zhao, will have?"
Hong Yi muttered two sentences "Mrs. Zhao, Mrs. Zhao..." and his eyes flashed with hatred.
Hong Yi can never forget, he was seven years old when he just understand, the Marquis inside the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival held a banquet, the time, his father and the guests poems, just because his mother and a sentence, immediately by the main lady of the public reprimand, "frivolous behavior, do not abide by the way of women, the habit of the greenhouse does not change."
That night after going back, his mother was so angry that the blood vessels were stagnant, vomiting blood injuries, two months after the death of disease. When she died of anger, her own mother was only twenty-five years old.
"This time, the exam after the beginning of spring, I am almost ready, but I still need to speculate on it."
Hong Yi thought in his heart, closed the scripture and curricula, and flipped open a copy of the Notes on the Grass Hall.
The book's cover was new, but the paper was old, obviously an old book that no one had read. Because the "Cao Tang Notes" is not the readers of the science examination of the scriptures, etiquette, curricula, but belongs to the absurd and uninhibited notes of gods and monsters.
Readers do not say strange, forceful, chaotic, God. This kind of book is not read by those who are preparing for the imperial examinations.
But Hong Yi read it precisely to prepare for the imperial examinations.
Because this book, a notebook of the former Chancellor Li Yan, was written about demons and devils, Taoist gods and goddesses, talented men and women, and female immortals and foxes.
"Although this Cao Tang Notebook is full of talks about gods and monsters, foxes and ghosts, talented men and women, and female fairies and foxes, in fact, each one of them is a fable, worthy of being the prime minister of the previous dynasty and the founder of Li's school of thought."
"Now although Li Yan has already done ancient, but most of the officials born in the imperial court in the imperial examination, are his disciples, this time presiding over the examination of the examiner, but also certainly his Li's school of people. Good speculation in this Li Yan with the help of foxes and ghosts and expressed allegorical ideas, catering to the tastes of his disciples, will certainly be able to all high school."
"Those Zongxue scholars, even if they are excellent, they only know how to read, but don't know that human feelings is the article, even if your paper is wonderful, and the examiner's school of thought is not in rhythm, it will definitely brush you off."
Before the examination, it is extremely important to make an essay by guessing the examiner's school of thought, thoughts and preferences. Although Hong Yi was young, his heart was bright.
"What a heaven's will is public opinion, so there is such an explanation."
Hong Yi suddenly saw a story, read it carefully and was surprised.
The story was like this:
When a folklore daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law were sleeping at night, the wall suddenly collapsed, and the daughter-in-law slept in it, supporting the collapsed wall with her death, allowing her mother-in-law to escape, and being crushed to death herself. After the daughter-in-law's death, the mother-in-law was very sad. So everyone in the village consoled her, saying that they had a dream that the daughter-in-law was ordained as a city god by heaven.
At that time, Li Yan discussed this matter with a group of scholars. The group of scholars thought that the daughter-in-law's filial piety was commendable, but the language used to seal the god was the language of the village people.
However, Li Yan argued that the daughter-in-law had become a god, because in the book of sages, there is a saying that "Heaven sees what the people see, and Heaven hears what the people hear", and the people thought that the daughter-in-law had become a god, which is the will of Heaven, and then she became a god.
All the scholars laughed at Li Yan for being too pedantic in reading, but Li Yan spoke out some great truths: "In fact, the gods are just the thoughts of people, the gods and Buddhas inside the temples, the reason why they can be manifested time and again is because of the people's incense offerings and beliefs. Originally, there is no God in this world, but with more people believing in it, people's thoughts are gathered, and God and Buddha are born. It's also very simple to extinguish a God or Buddha, as long as you tear down its temples so that people no longer believe in it and make offerings of incense and fire to it, it will naturally disappear over time."
One of the scholars nodded and asked again, "Tearing down the temples of the Gods and Buddhas so that people no longer believe in it, what if the Gods and Buddhas retaliate?"
Li Yan added, "The Sage Book says that uprightness and cleverness are gods, so as long as a scholar is upright and strict in his heart, his thoughts will naturally be as powerful as those of the gods, so how can the gods and Buddhas retaliate against you?"
"Readers are upright and strict, their own thoughts are powerful and pure, already close to the Yang Shen Heavenly Immortals in Taoism. Than those who can not manifest, can only dream, retribution of the Yin God is much more powerful."
Hearing Li Yan's eloquent speech, the crowd of scholars all felt admiration, so they asked him about the reasoning behind cultivating the Heavenly Immortal Yang God among the Taoists.
Li Yan said: "Yin God can be out of the shell out of the swim, human eyes can not see, formless, no quality, the soul of a group, can only rely on external objects to show the spirit, while the Yang God is no different from the living, manifestation of all kinds of phantoms, flying to the sky and the earth, immortality."
When the crowd of scholars was about to ask further questions, Li Yan but squarely said: "readers only talk about people's livelihood and government, benevolence, righteousness, etiquette and law, the gods and ghosts completely aside, today is already over the top."
"Gods and Buddhas were not originally there, but were born out of human thoughts and beliefs? The book says 'Heaven sees what the people see, Heaven hears what the people hear, and Heaven's will is what the people think', and there is such an explanation? Righteousness and cleverness as gods? Yin God and Yang God?"
Hong Yi felt refreshed, this story seemed to have opened the door to mystery for him.
Bang bang bang!
Just as Hong Yi was contemplating, suddenly a knocking sound came from outside the door.
It was someone knocking on the door, but it was loud and was kicking with their feet.
Hong Yi frowned and got up to open the door.
