My life skills in Daming Liver

Chapter 48 The Story of Yueyang Tower
Hai Rui led Su Ze and Lin Xianyang around the City God's Temple and walked towards the county government.

Walking out of the county school, I saw that the Town God's Temple was very lively. Today is the day when the new magistrate took office to offer sacrifices to the Town God's Temple, and many people gathered around the gate of the Town God's Temple.

Hai Rui is not a high-quality county school teacher, and most of the petty officials can't afford bearers these days, and they mainly travel on foot on weekdays.

Su Ze looked at his official boots that were about to wear out, and knew Hai Rui's poor life style, which also made Su Ze very admired.

The round-faced clerk in the county government last time had brand new clothes and boots, and a transparent jade pendant on his waist.

On the other hand, looking at Hai Rui, a majestic county magistrate, his official uniforms are all patched. You must know that the county magistrate has a salary, but the county clerk does not have a penny salary.

Hai Rui walked in front, Su Ze walked half a step behind, Lin Xianyang didn't dare to disturb the conversation between the two scholars, and followed from afar.

Hai Rui turned a blind eye to the bustling Town God's Temple, and Su Ze also asked suspiciously: "Hai Jiaoyu, the magistrate is offering sacrifices to the City God, why don't you go?"

Hai Rui just said coldly, "I'm an academic officer, and the magistrate is not offering sacrifices to the Confucian Temple, so I don't need to be present."

Su Ze was also speechless, he deserved to be the one who dared to insult even the emperor.

On important occasions when a leader takes office, officials from both the prefecture and county yamen are vying to show their faces. Hai Rui is a county magistrate and an official on record with the imperial government's official department, so he is also qualified to attend such occasions.

According to the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the officials of the Ming Dynasty had no salary except for the officials.

These treacherous subordinates are only temporary workers serving the county government, and they are not even a profession. While "maintaining their regular jobs", the officials also have to work for the county government voluntarily.

In fact, although the subordinate officials of the Ming Dynasty did not receive the salary of the court, they also developed various "routines" to take money from the yamen. money.

Hai Rui is an official, and it's a far cry from those officials in the county government. This is why Juren's status is so precious.

All the subordinate officials in Nanping County wanted to participate in today's sacrifice ceremony to make a good impression on the new magistrate, but they were not allowed to participate because of their low status.

However, Hai Rui, an official, can choose not to attend the ceremony. This is the difference in the status of officials and officials.

Although the academic qualifications of Juren were depreciated in the late Ming Dynasty, in the Jiajing Dynasty, the court issued many documents calling for Juren to come out to be officials.

As long as Juren is willing to be an official, he can get such a position as teaching instruction. If he is lucky, it is not difficult to fill the master register in a remote area.

Walking out of the street in front of the Town God's Temple, there were finally fewer people on the road, Hai Rui asked Su Ze:
"This year's county examination has ended, are you going to sign up for next year's county examination?"

Su Ze nodded quickly. The county examination is usually in February, but now it is April, and the county examination has passed long ago.

"Since you're going to take the county exam, have you ever read the Four Books?"

Su Ze said quickly, "I've read the four books."

His imperial examination has been promoted to Lv3, and the content of the Four Books has been recorded in his mind.

"Have you ever finished reading the Annotations of the Four Books?"

Hai Rui nodded slightly, but at Su Ze's age, finishing the four books can only be said to be the normal progress of a scholar. The four books only have a total of 17 words (not as many words as the free chapters of Qidian's novels).

However, the "Four Books Zhangju Jizhu" written by Zhu Xi for Si includes one volume of "University Zhangju", one volume of "Zhongyong Zhangju", ten volumes of "Analects of Confucius" and seven volumes of "Mencius Jizhu". But it is much more than the number of words in the Four Books itself.

Su Ze said honestly: "I've finished reading it, but the students only got through the Annotations of Mencius."

Hai Rui frowned and said:

"Zhu Zi said: first read "Great Learning" to determine its scale; secondly read "Analects" to determine its foundation; secondly read "Mencius" to observe its development; secondly read "Doctrine of the Mean" to find out the subtleties of the ancients. "

"Didn't your mentor tell you this?"

Su Ze shook his head. He didn't even have a teacher, and he relied on self-study and the system.

Besides, Su Ze didn't have much interest in reading the Four Books and Five Classics, especially Zhu Xi's "Four Books Chapters and Sentences Collection", which contains a lot of dross and Zhu Xi's own private goods.

Su Zegan's skills are also for the imperial examination, and they are learned entirely as an exam-oriented education. Naturally, they will not be regarded as a lifelong pursuit like the ancients.

Seeing that Su Ze didn't answer, Hai Rui thought he was trying to protect his mentor, but he liked him a little more.

Hai Rui continued: "But it's okay to read "Mencius" first. You said you have read "Mencius Collected Notes" through, and I will test you for a few sentences."

Then, Hai Rui selected a few chapters from "Mencius Collected Notes". Su Ze had a Lv3 imperial examination skill and had just eaten breakfast. The passive skill of "every grain is hard work" was also in effect, and the answers were fluent.

Now Hai Rui admired Su Ze even more. "Mencius" has more than 3 characters in total, and Zhu Xi wrote seven volumes of "Mencius Collected Notes" for it, which can be said to be the most difficult of the four books.

Su Ze learned "Mencius" first, and some students in the county school could not reach Su Ze's understanding if he could learn this level.

This also gave Hai Rui a little more love for talent, he asked:
"You are good at reading Mencius. How many years have you been studying?"

Su Ze thought for a while and said, "The students are all self-taught, and they have only read "Mencius" not long ago."

Hai Rui looked at Su Ze in surprise, but he didn't expect Su Ze to be completely self-taught.

But seeing Su Ze's shabby clothes, it is estimated that his family background is not very good, and it is normal for poor disciples to have no money to apprentice.

Hai Rui said sternly, "Without a teacher's guidance in reading the scriptures, it's easy to read wrongly. The imperial examination system has become stricter and stricter, and you will easily make mistakes when you read like this!"

Then Hai Rui sighed and said, "I was going to teach a class in the county school to give lectures to the poor scholars who failed the boy's exam, but I'm already ready to resign."

Su Ze asked in surprise, "Why did Hai Jiaoyu resign?"

Hai Rui had just entered the officialdom at this time, and the constraints of Confucian relationships were still very strong. Naturally, subordinates could not tell outsiders about their superiors' shortcomings. Why don't you resign and go back like Mr. Wuliu."

Unexpectedly, Hai Rui wanted to resign now, and Su Ze had never read this record in the history of the Ming Dynasty. Could it be the butterfly effect caused by his time travel?
Through the contact just now, Su Ze also knew that Hai Rui was indeed an upright official, and Su Ze didn't want Nanping to lose such a good official.

Su Ze thought for a while and said:
"Mr. Wuliu doesn't bend his waist for five buckets of rice, but the students prefer Fan Wenzhenggong's saying 'worry about the world's worries first, and enjoy the world's joys later'."

Hai Rui murmured and repeated: "'Worry about the world's worries first, and enjoy the world's joys later', this is indeed like what Fan Wenzheng said. Where did you read it?"

Su Ze was stunned, Hai Rui hadn't even read "The Story of Yueyang Tower"?
(End of this chapter)