Chapter 48 Yueyang Tower Records
Hai Rui took Su Ze and Lin Xianyang and walked around the City God's Temple towards the county government office.
When I walked out of the county school, I saw that the City God's Temple was very busy. Today was the day when the new magistrate took office to worship the City God's Temple. Many people gathered at the gate of the City God's Temple to watch.
Hai Rui was a low-ranking county magistrate. These days, most petty officials couldn't afford to hire bearers, so they usually traveled on foot.
Su Ze looked at his official boots that were almost worn out and knew Hai Rui's poverty-stricken lifestyle, which made Su Ze admire him very much.
The round-faced clerk from the county government last time had brand new clothes and boots, and was wearing a transparent jade pendant around his waist.
On the other hand, looking at Hai Rui, a dignified county magistrate, all his official uniforms were patched. You must know that county magistrates are paid a salary, but county government clerks are not paid a penny.
Hai Rui walked in front, Su Ze walked half a step behind, and Lin Xianyang did not dare to interrupt the conversation between the two scholars, so he followed from a distance.
Hai Rui turned a blind eye to the bustling City God's Temple, and Su Ze also asked in confusion: "Hai Jiao said, the prefect is offering sacrifices to the City God, why don't you go?" Hai Rui just said coldly:
"I am a scholar, and the prefect is not You don't need my presence to offer sacrifices to the Confucian Temple."
Su Ze was also speechless, and he was worthy of being criticized even by the emperor.
On important occasions when a leader takes office, officials from both prefectures and counties rush to show their faces. Hai Rui is a county magistrate and an official registered with the imperial staff, so he is also qualified to attend such occasions.
In the Ming Dynasty, officials had different careers. According to the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang, officials except for the officials had no salary.
These treacherous subordinate officials are just temporary workers serving the county government, and are not even a profession. While the officials "keep their regular jobs", they also have to work for the county government voluntarily.
In fact, although subordinate officials in the Ming Dynasty did not receive salaries from the court, they also developed various "routines" to take money from the yamen. If the yamen really had no funds, the officials would acquiesce to these officials using some gray means to make money from the people. money.
Hai Rui was an official, and he was completely different from the officials in the county government. This was why the status of a civil servant was so valuable.
All subordinate officials in Nanping County wanted to participate in today's ceremony to worship the City God and leave a good impression in front of the new magistrate, but they were not allowed to participate because of their low status.
However, the official Hai Rui could not attend the ceremony at will. This is the huge difference between the status of officials and officials.
Although the academic qualifications of candidates were devalued in the late Ming Dynasty, during the Jiajing Dynasty, the imperial court repeatedly issued documents calling for candidates to become officials.
As long as a person is willing to be an official, he can get a position like teaching. If you are lucky, it is not difficult to fill the position of chief registrar in a remote area.
Walking out of the street in front of the Chenghuang Temple, there were finally fewer people on the road. Hai Rui asked Su Ze,
"This year's county exam has ended. Are you going to sign up for next year's county exam?"
Su Ze nodded quickly, "The county exam is for the county exam." It's usually February, but now it's April, and the day for the county examination has long passed.
"Since you have to take the county examination, have you read through the Four Books?"
Su Ze said quickly: "I have read through the Four Books."
His imperial examination has been promoted to Level 3, and the contents of the Four Books have been memorized in his mind.
"Have you ever finished reading the four books with annotations?"
Hai Rui nodded slightly. However, Su Ze's age of reading four books can only be said to be the normal progress of a scholar. The four books total only 170,000 words (not as many as the free chapters of the Qidian novel). .
However, the "Collected Commentary on the Four Books" written by Zhu Xi for Si includes one volume of "The Great Learning", one volume of "The Doctrine of the Mean", ten volumes of "Analects of Confucius" and seven volumes of "Collected Commentary of Mencius". The total number of words exceeds twenty-seven volumes. Ten thousand words is much more than the number of words in the Four Books themselves. Su Ze said honestly: "I have finished reading, but the student has only passed the "Collected Commentary of Mencius"."
Hai Rui frowned and said:
"Zhu Zi has a saying: first read "The Great Learning" to determine its scale; secondly read "The Analects of Confucius" "To determine its roots; read "Mencius" for the first time to see its progress; read "The Doctrine of the Mean" for the second time to find out the subtleties of the ancients." "Didn't
your mentor tell you this?"
Su Ze shook his head. Shaking his head, he didn't even have a teacher, so he relied on self-study and system.
Besides, Su Ze didn't have much interest in reading the Four Books and Five Classics, especially Zhu Xi's "Collected Commentary on Chapters and Sentences of the Four Books", which contained a lot of rubbish and Zhu Xi's personal stuff.
Su Zegan's skills were also learned for the imperial examination. They were learned entirely as an exam-oriented education. Naturally, they would not be studied as a lifelong pursuit like the ancients did.
When Hai Rui saw Su Ze not answering, he thought he was trying to protect his mentor, so he felt a little more favorable to him.
Hai Rui continued: "But it doesn't hurt to read "Mencius" first. You said you have read "Mencius Annotations" thoroughly, and I will test you on a few sentences." Then, Hai Rui selected a few excerpts
from "Mencius Annotations". In this chapter, Su Ze has Level 3 imperial examination skills, and he has just had breakfast. The passive skill "Every grain of hard work" is also in effect, and he can answer questions fluently.
Now Hai Rui admired Su Ze even more. "Mencius" has a total of more than 30,000 words. Zhu Xi wrote the seven-volume "Collected Commentary on Mencius" for it. It can be said that every word is subtle and profound, and it is the most difficult to learn among the four books.
Su Ze first studied "Mencius" and was able to reach this level. Some students in the county school could not reach Su Ze's understanding.
This also made Hai Rui love talents a little more. He asked:
"You are good at reading Mencius. How many years have you been studying?"
Su Ze thought for a while and said, "Students are all self-taught. "Mencius" not long ago."
Hai Rui looked at Su Ze in surprise, not expecting that Su Ze was completely self-taught.
However, seeing Su Ze's shabby clothes, it is estimated that his family background is not very good, and it is normal for disciples from poor families to have no money to become a disciple.
Hai Rui said sternly: "It is most likely to go astray when reading the Bible without the guidance of a teacher. The imperial examination system has become more and more stringent since the imperial examination system was established a hundred years ago. It is easy for you to make mistakes when you study randomly like this!" Then Hai Rui sighed and said: "
I I was planning to open a course in the county school to give lectures and answer questions to the poor students who failed to pass the boy examination, but I was already ready to resign." Su Ze asked in surprise
: "Why did Hai Jiaoyu resign?"
Hai Rui At this time, he had just entered the officialdom, and the Confucian rules and regulations of relationships were still very strong. Naturally, subordinates could not talk about the shortcomings of their superiors in front of outsiders. Hai Rui just said vaguely: "If you are not satisfied with being an official, and you still have a few acres of farmland at home, it is better to learn from it." Mr. Wu Liu resigned and went back."
Unexpectedly, Hai Rui wanted to resign now. Su Ze had never read this record in Ming history. Could it be the butterfly effect caused by his own time travel?
Through the previous contact, Su Ze also knew that Hai Rui was indeed an upright official, and Su Ze did not want Nanping to lose such a good official.
Su Ze thought for a while and said,
"Mr. Wu Liu will not give up for five buckets of rice, but the students prefer Fan Wenzhenggong's saying, 'Be worried about the world's worries first, and be happy after the world's happiness'."
Hai Rui murmured and repeated: "'Be worried when the world is worried first, and be happy after the world is happy'. This is indeed what Fan Wenzheng said. Where did you read this?" Su Ze was stunned. Hai Rui even mentioned "Yueyang
Tower" Haven't read it yet?
(End of chapter)