Established a thousand-year family from the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 526 Huang Zongxi ([-])
one year later
Spring of the third year of Duke Yan 320 (533)
Chang'e City

When the Central Plains was still full of heroes competing for the throne, enthusiasm for "Journey to the West" arose within the Yan Kingdom.

Before Lin Zhi died, he relayed the contents of "Journey to the West" to his students, and these students secretly edited it by themselves, and spread the contents ten or ten times, and the spread became more and more outrageous.

There are a lot of folk legends about Journey to the West, and various myths and stories have emerged, such as a monkey that can change at will, a fat pig that eats and is lazy, an elephant monster that eats people, a cave spider that can turn into a beautiful woman to seduce men, and people who can prolong life. fairy fruit.

Folk storytellers, in order to ask for a reward, spontaneously adapted Journey to the West, integrating a lot of Taoist metaphysics, Buddhist interpretation, and Confucian ethics, and added their own strange fantasies.

"I really want to go to the world of those gods." Huang Zongxi, who is 13 years old, has just completed two basic educations of literacy and arithmetic, both of which are tutored by his uncle.

During this period, there was no basic education such as schools. Only in some cities did basic literacy and basic arithmetic education such as elementary schools. Official educational institutions such as schools accepted only those who had already accomplished their studies.

The difference between Yan State and the Central Plains is that there are more elementary schools, more schools, and richer content of professors, that's all.

Small landlords, small tyrants, rich peasants, etc., usually send their children to the city to learn basic knowledge, while the upper class directly invite tutors to teach at home. In the end, their goals are Entering a school for further study, some powerful families will give their children to Confucianism as disciples, and some Confucianism families rely on monopolizing Confucianism, and make friends with a large number of dignitaries, because those dignitaries want to let their family children learn Confucianism, they can only do it. Making good friends with these families with family traditions of Confucianism is also an important reason why Xuebao can become an aristocratic family.

But for ordinary people, there is no way to learn. They can't even afford elementary school, let alone talk about Confucian classics.

Huang Zongxi had tutors hired by his uncle since he was a child, so his learning efficiency is higher than that of Meng Xue.

His uncle also specially bought various editions of "Journey to the West" for him, all compiled by different scholars based on folklore.

There are also some people who obtained hand-copied "Journey to the West" and then adapted it. After all, "Journey to the West" written by Xu Xiake himself is really too boring. It is a pure travel log without any ups and downs.

Not only that, but also corresponding derivative products. For example, because Xu Xiake passed by Liu Song and met Liu Chuyu, the most beautiful princess in the Southern Dynasty, some scholars of Yan State compiled many erotic stories for the Empress Dowager of Jin State, and even drew erotic pictures. .

"The Secret History of Shanyin Princess", "The Legend of Liu Chuyu", "Secrets of the Song Palace", "Forbidden Love" and so on.

All kinds of unofficial history are flying everywhere, such as the erotic stories of Liu Chuyu and Liu Ziye, and the forbidden love between Liu Chuyu and his biological father Liu Jun.

There is also a troupe who starred in the unofficial history of the Shanyin princess, and played Liu Chuyu, an ordinary woman, as an infatuated woman.

In fact, she is just a princess with a strong sexual desire and a beautiful appearance. Other than that, she is no different from ordinary women, timid and fearful, greedy for power, lack of assertiveness and so on.

However, the scholars dared to write the unofficial history of Princess Liu Song's erotic love affairs, but none of them dared to reverse the verdict for Lin Zhi.

Because writing about Princess Liu Song's lewd life is at most looked down upon by others, but if Lin Zhi dares to reverse the case, he will lose his head immediately.

While flipping through various versions of Journey to the West, Huang Zongxi accidentally saw this sentence in one of them: To my respected teacher Lin Zhi, you inspired me and gave me the idea of ​​writing this book.

"Who is Lin Zhi?" Huang Zongxi, who was only 13 years old, asked his elementary school teacher.

That Mengxue teacher was a talented scholar of Yandu Academy and a senior Confucianist. When he heard the name Lin Zhi, his first reaction was disgust, extreme disgust, so he said to his student Huang Zongxi: "A A madman without a king or a father, he was executed by the court for rebellion more than ten years ago."

After finishing speaking, he asked Huang Zongxi again: "Where did you know this person's name?"

"Here~." Huang Zongxi pointed to a sentence in the book: "Here."

Teacher Mengxue picked up the book to read, then frowned, burned the book under the oil lamp, threw the burning book into the brazier, and told Huang Zongxi: "This is a forbidden book. I don't know where your uncle's servant bought it from." of."

"But he didn't say anything, why is the book banned?" Huang Zongxi didn't quite understand.

"Don't worry about it, it's a banned book anyway." Teacher Mengxue shook his head, and then continued to teach Huang Zongxi the Four Books and Five Classics.

After the incident more than ten years ago, the court of Yan State, which had been laissez-faire with Confucianism, suddenly increased its emphasis on Confucianism, encouraged the development of Confucianism, and added the content of Confucian monarchs and ministers to the official examinations, requiring subjects Pledge allegiance to the court.

Although Confucianism has always been the official school of Yan State, because of the Wang Ting Rebellion, the nobles of the royal family were frightened by Wang Ting, a lunatic who studied Confucianism, so they let Confucianism go, neither supporting nor opposing it. This has been developed for hundreds of years, and without the support of the official government, it has become the most prominent school, overwhelming other studies.

Now, they have finally received the full support of the government of Yan State, and their development is naturally faster.

When the Central Plains itself gave up Confucianism and turned to Taoist metaphysics and Buddhist interpretation, Confucianism flourished in remote Liaodong.

Once upon a time, when King Yan’s family was still being ruled, they looked down on Confucianism at all, thinking that Confucianism restricted their family from achieving a class leap. After the Wang family themselves became rulers, even if Wang Ting’s rebellion happened, they still advocated Confucianism very much, because the Wang family It is found that this knowledge is really effective in maintaining the rule.

As the Wang family was promoted from the ruled to the ruler, the Wang family's attitude towards Confucianism was gradually changing.

Hate Confucianism, understand Confucianism, and develop Confucianism.

"Study the Four Books and Five Classics carefully, and study the scriptures of the sages. In the future, you can rely on these classics to take the official examination of the imperial court. If you pass the examination, you can become an official official of the Yan Kingdom. From now on, you will have no worries about food and clothing. This is what we scholars should do matters." Teacher Mengxue taught the young Huang Zongxi in this way.

"Okay~~" Adhering to the principle of respecting teachers, Huang Zongxi agreed on the surface, but he was thinking in his heart: Why do we need to learn these things?Is learning these things just to become an official?But my family is so rich, and I can live comfortably without being an official. Why do I have to be an official?
(End of this chapter)