Chapter 012
Author: Feast of Masks
Raws: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3185016
Translated by Gumihou
That’s right, so what if he happened to lose?
She just needed to go out and look for the money to finance his schooling. Didn’t she already resolve herself to do this?
After she was struck by this thought, Zhao’er immediately relaxed, saying, “Then you better prepare yourself. If you win, you win. Even if you didn’t win, elder sis will just find the money for you to study.”
Zhao’er had never been the type to dwell on her troubles. Especially troubles that could not be immediately solved. As for the solvable ones… she looked around the room and found that the cow dung was still littering their room and got out the brush to clean the kang bed and a broom to sweep the floor.
Outside, the chickens clucked and squawked. It was Sun’shi slaughtering chickens. Well, she was doing such a bad job of it that the chicken in her hands ran away with a bleeding neck with Sun’shi chasing after it.
Xue Tingxiang happened to look outside when he saw this scene.
He was not the only one, Old Zhao also noticed this awkward scene and came out of her room to give her two coins about the situation. This made Sun’shi even more anxious as she knew that the elders and patriarch were at the house. However, the chicken had wings, but she did not. When the chicken finally tired itself out, Sun’shi immediately grabbed hold of it and started cursing, “Run, run, run, your destiny is to enter the pot! See how far you can run!”
Xue Tingxiang looked away from the scene. There was no need to observe them any longer.
He knew why his uncle was so generous as to actually allow him to compete with Xue Juncai. That’s because unless something extraordinary happen, Xue Juncai would definitely win this little match.
He had already suffered a loss in that dream. In the dream, he did not compete with Xue Juncai for the right to enter Qinghe Academy, but was supported by Zhao’er’s hard-earned money. At that time, he was too stupid to realise what was happening and blamed his lack of success on fate, thinking that he would surely make it big if given the opportunity. He believed that everyone was out to get him and intentionally blocked his own road.
He first entered Qinghe Academy brimming with ambition and plans. He believed that he could definitely beat Xue Juncai, finally proving to the world that he was the most outstanding person in the Xue family. However, reality hit him hard. It was then that he finally realised his Eldest Uncle’s sinister intentions. That, back when he was being taught to ‘read’, he was never taught to ‘understand’ the meaning behind the essays he was reading.
It was later that he finally understood that after learning to read, students were expected to interpret the deeper meaning behind the essays and sayings in those works.
First learn [1] <<Three Character Classic>>, <<Book of Family Names>>, <<Thousand Character Classic>>, followed by <<A Thousand Masters’ Poem>>, <<Qiong Ling’s Primary Education>>, and <<Dragon Whip Shadow>>. It was only after studying all these classics that one could finally enter the university to study the Four Books and Five Classics.
At this stage, the teacher would not explain the meaning behind these essays. That is to say, students are expected to do rote memorisation, with emphasis on understanding the individual words in place of true understanding. That’s because people recently felt that children already have too much on their plate and that it is fine to gain a superficial understanding first. Later, once they have memorised everything and gained a better understanding through other books, they will eventually be able to understand the deeper meaning behind these essays.
This is the so-called ‘Read a Thousand Books to Gain An Understanding’ method.
Once you are able to recite these books fluently, you will be able to interpret the essays better. In short, it was similar to gaining twice the result with half the effort.
This time and labour-saving learning model is popular throughout the Great Xi Dynasty. From low-status families to aristocrats, rural students and private schools all practice this method of learning as it only requires one teacher for basic classes. After all, it is not realistic for a single teacher to properly explain the essays to dozens of students at once [2] when many of the so-called teachers barely passed the first two examinations.
[2] However, for aristocratic families who could afford proper scholars to teach their children, rote learning is rarely taught. That is because too many teachers overemphasised the rote-learning system and ignored the principles and thoughts that went into the essays.This was something ‘He’ later studied and analysed when he became the Grand Secretary.
However, when he first entered the private school, because Eldest Uncle put off explaining the meanings behind the essays, he had trouble understanding what was happening in his classes. When teachers asked him whether he had read the essays before, he answered ‘yes’. Unfortunately, his lack of understanding caused the teacher to scold him for being stupid, thus, causing his classmates to ridicule him for his lack of understanding.
As for today’s incident, it looks like Eldest Uncle was very clear about his shortcomings and hence deliberately proposed this match. He was, in fact, destined to lose this rigged match.
Too bad, ah. Something unexpected will happen now.
Because of the special guests, aside from Old Man Xue and Xue Qingshan who were sitting down, most of the family members were busy running around trying to get things in order.
After the people in the main branch room had eaten, the kitchen finally started preparing food for the rest of the family.
While the kitchen was busy, Xue Tao’er was called to pour wine for the guests. There was wine and meat on the table in the main family room. The men drank and toasted each other with no sign of hidden agendas. Patriarch Xue and Zheng Lizheng looked especially friendly with each other as they continued to drink and toast everyone, to the point of getting drunk.
“Alright, no need to see us off, we can find our way.” Patriarch Xue waved his hand at them.
After seeing the guests off, the Xue Family cleaned up the table, preparing to make and serve lunch for the rest of the family. Old Zhao was about to take the leftover meat dishes away when Old Man Xue stopped her, citing that everyone in the family could have the leftovers as an extra dish for the day. After all, the people in the countryside are not wealthy. Therefore, it is common to eat leftovers once the guests leave.
The adults were still able to control their eagerness, the ones who truly enjoyed the meal were Shuanzi and Maodan.
At first, Zhao’er wanted to collect their meals to eat in the second branch room, but Xue Tingxiang stopped her. Instead, the two ate at the main table with their heads down, not speaking to others.
Xue Juncai gave Xue Tingxiang a disdainful look.
He had already eaten his fill of the delicious meal while sitting next to Xue Qingshan at the main table earlier and naturally did not miss out on the food. Seeing Xue Tingxiang eating his leftovers, he could not help but feel contemptuous.
Remembering what his father had told him, and knowing that there was no way that this Xue Gouzi could ever beat him, his eyes flashed and after one final disdainful look, he said to Old Man Xue, seated on the kang bed, “Grandfather, I shall return to my room to study.”
Old Man Xue nodded. He had also been drinking earlier and was now sitting crookedly on the kang, smoking and a looking a little hung over.
While he was passing by Xue Tingxiang, Xue Juncai suddenly said, “Gou’er, you should eat a bit more. Elder brother looks forward to you winning against me in five days.”
Zhao’er immediately stood up to glare at him, “What kind of talk is that?! You’ve clearly wasted years of studies!”
Xue Juncai did not expect Zhao’er to suddenly attack him like this. His gentle, cultured expression flushed red, but, after a glance at Zhao’er’s angry face, he still managed to stop himself from lashing back.
Old Man Xue shouted, “Juncai! Go into the room!”
Zhou’shi had also gotten up to persuade Zhao’er and eventually, the matter was settled just like that.
After the meal, two people returned to the second branch room. Zhao’er was still fuming with anger as she said, “Gou’er, don’t you be angry. Just wait, once elder sis manages to earn some money, I will take you away from this place. We will split from this family and you won’t have to see them ever again.”
Xue Tingxiang felt a little moved, at the same time a little helpless as he said, “You called me Gou’er again.”
Zhao’er made a little ‘aiya’ sound before laughing and said, “I completely forgot, I promise not to do it again.”
Naturally, he could not be angry with her. After a bit, Zhao’er collected the two sets of clothes he had changed out of yesterday and took them out to wash. Xue Tingxiang took out his copy of <<Qiong Ling’s Primary Education>> to revise.
The book in his hand was transcribed on the poorest kind of bamboo paper and the edges of the pages were already curling up. Xue Tingxiang felt a little apprehensive, he was not actually interested in studying right now, but, if he did not have a book in hand, Zhao’er may feel that he was not putting in enough effort for the competition. She believed that the more he studied, the better his chances against Xue Juncai.
Little did she know that there are many different kinds of books in this world and that just studying this one book over and over again would not help him much. However, there was no way he would say this to her.
[3] He looked through the words one more time before putting it down and looked through the kang cabinet where he kept the bamboo paper and writing instruments that Zhao’er had bought for him. This kind of paper costs 40 coins per cut [4] of 25 pcs of paper. Such ‘expensive’ paper was barely good enough to practice calligraphy on. Even so, it was very precious to him. To the point that he was reluctant to write on it. So long as he could practice his writing on sand, he would write on sand. If he has no excess to sand, he will practice writing with water in place of ink on his desk.Xue Tingxiang touched the little stack of yellow bamboo paper and sighed.
The paper that was generally used by dream ‘Xue Tingxiang’ was the finest ‘Clear Heart’ paper, causing him to disdain this formerly treasured stack of paper.
Still, he spread out this paper on the kang table, folded a few sheets in half and cut them down to the size of a booklet with a bamboo knife. He also made sure to leave enough space on the side so that he could later stitch the papers into a booklet. He cut enough paper to make a booklet before looking through the cabinet again and found an inkstone with a missing corner as well as a small piece of ink stick.
These used to be treasures that he hardly dared to use, but today, Xue Tingxiang has no such compunction. After adding water to the inkstone, he properly grasped the inkstick and began to grind it against the stone. While grinding, he appeared to contemplate something.
Once the ink had been grounded, he wetted the slightly balding brush in a water bowl that was set out for brush cleaning. Then, he dipped the brush into the ink. Once there was enough ink on the brush, he raised the brush and wrote something on the paper.
A few words later, he suddenly put the brush down. He held the paper up to look at it before crumpling it.
In fact, the words written on could be considered fairly neat. Although he would never waste paper or ink, years of hard work and effort meant that his calligraphy could be considered not bad. However, for some reason, he did not like what he was seeing.
He slowly closed his eyes in an effort to calm himself down. A long while later, he opened them again. Right now, there was no one in the room to see the glimmer of light flashing in Xue Tingxiang’s eyes. At once, he grasped the brush and with movements that were as fast as lightning, but steady as though god was backing him, and a series of small characters appeared on the paper.
The small characters first appeared in [5] Yan style, before transforming into Pavilion style and then to the Skinny Golden style. His writing appeared at first blocky and soulless before eventually gaining expression and feeling. The more he wrote, the more his writing changed.
The Yan style of writing was square and dense, with strong brushwork that left straight and upright characters that were filled with vigour. The Pavilion style was strong and graceful, looking almost like engraving. The Skinny Golden style was as sharp and fierce as broken gold and shattered jade, prideful and draws the eye as golden hooks on iron plates.
These three styles of calligraphy represented the life of ‘Xue Tingxiang’. From the original square and forward Yan style to the painstakingly studied Pavilion style meant for imperial examinations and finally, to the Skinny Golden style of those residing within golden official residences.
He went on writing, completely forgetting himself. Zhao’er eventually entered the room but dared not disturb him as she sat quietly on the edge of the kang bed.
It was unclear how long he spent writing when he finally breathed in deeply and set down his brush.
He had fully filled two complete sheets of paper.
At this point, Xue Tingxiang had no choice but to acknowledge the miracle of the heavens which was the dream he had been granted. It was only a dream, but he had already gained so many things from this so-called dream.
In the beginning, Xue Tingxiang tried to understand why he had been granted this dream. Now, he understood that he had been given an opportunity to address all the dissatisfaction in that dream.
Because of the ‘him’ from that dream, his ambition suddenly grew so much loftier as a wave of pride and urgency lingered in his heart.
“You must be tired from writing, drink some water.”
Xue Tingxiang accepted the water from Zhao’er and took a sip. It tasted especially sweet.
It was only then that he finally looked down to examine his writing and discovered that he had actually used up two large sheets of bamboo paper. Perhaps it was because Zhao’er was right next to him that he suddenly recalled how she skimped and saved just to buy him the paper. Sudden distress and guilt overcame him as he flickered a glance at her and whispered, “To think I wrote this much…”
How could Zhao’er not understand his thoughts? She beamed and said, “That’s not much, you’ve only used two sheets of paper. Paper is meant to be used. Didn’t I tell you there’s no need to save on paper? We’ll just buy more later.”
“I’m thinking of transcribing a book. That’s why I wanted to test out my calligraphy first, otherwise, wouldn’t it just be a waste of more paper?”
“Transcribe what book? Aren’t books meant to be bought?” Zhao’er asked, puzzled.
Xue Tingxuang privately sighed. He felt incredibly stupid now. Before, he borrowed books from his Eldest Uncle or desperately memorised books from shops. To think he never thought of copying or transcribing the books.
Books sold at stores were rarely printed on engraved plates and were very expensive. Thus, a ‘Book Copying’ industry was spawned. This way, not only did poor scholars earn a little money from the work of transcribing these books. Those who wanted to purchase these books but suffered from a light wallet could get their hands on these books cheaply.
Of course, the work of transcribing books was not something that should be done casually. In the first place, one should at least have good calligraphy skills.
Xue Tingxiang considered his calligraphy as ‘not bad’. Back then, there were many who asked him to handwrite plaques and poems for display. What he needed now was books, so why not just copy them?
The most important part was…
He glanced over at Zhao’er.
[Gumihou: Sob, sob, this chapter is kind of difficult to translate, but I’m so satisfied to see actually intelligent, cunning and shrewd characters]
[1] Three Character Classic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Character_Classic
Book of Family Names
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Family_Surnames
Thousand Character Classic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Character_Classic
A Thousand Masters’ Poems
Dragon Whip Shadow
https://www.laitimes.com/en/article/16ek_16hh.html
[2] Expand on the reason why rote-learning is popular. [3] Added a little detail to make his actions appear more natural [4] A ‘cut’ of paper is generally 100 pcs, in ancient times ‘one cut’ could be 25 pcs or 70 pcs. For the purpose of this novel, we shall use 25 pcs per ‘cut’. [5] Calligraphy StylesYan style – Yan Zhenqing (709-785) was a Chinese calligrapher and a loyal governor of the Tang dynasty. His artistic accomplishment in Chinese calligraphy is equal to that of the greatest master calligraphers of history and his ‘regular script’ style ‘Yan style’ is often imitated.
Pavilion style – Unclear what kind of style this was, but there’s a transition between the ‘regular’ or ‘square’ Yan style to the more cursive ‘Skinny Golden style’ which was key for scholars to demonstrate their expressive creativity through their calligraphy.
Skinny Golden style – A distinctive Song dynasty style. Emperor Huizing (1082-1135), although politically fatuous and incompetent, was also a calligrapher and painter of great reputation. He originated the Skinny Golden Style featuring thin, sturdy strokes in contrast to the conventional norms.
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