Idle courtiers

Chapter 178
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, there was a Clan Mansion, and the prince was appointed as the Clan Order to manage all the affairs of the royal clan, which had great power.

After Jing Nan, Chengzu brought the power of the Clan Mansion to the central government, and the Ministry of Rites and Rituals was responsible for the management of the royal family. The main job was to make a jade certificate every ten years to count the population of the Zhu surname and distribute salaries.

Wang Ruoxu was a little surprised: "I've owed my salary for three years, it's really too much!"

Zhu Congchi said angrily: "I can still have vacations. I can only come to Beijing once a year, and each time I stay for less than half a month. It is for this reason that the Ministry of Rituals deliberately played sloppy and delayed so much until the day I had to leave Beijing. What a villain. .

It originally came from Chengzu's Jingnan battle, after his nephew Emperor Jianwen snatched the throne from him alive.As a result, the princes of the Ming Dynasty liked to rebel. After the death of Cheng Zu, his second son Zhu Gaoxu was upset that his father had passed the throne to his elder brother Zhu Gaochi, who was cowardly and disabled, and rebelled.In the year of Zhengde, there was the Huanhao Rebellion of King Ning.

The central government was really frightened by those ambitious princes, and imposed strict controls on the princes everywhere.After the prince and the county king come of age, they must leave the capital and take up the feudal domain.

The members of the royal family can only live in the city specially built for them for life, and they are strictly monitored by the officials of the palace, and they are not allowed to go out of the city.

In addition, all members of the royal family can only live with a monthly salary and are not allowed to engage in other industries.

Anyway, three words: raise pigs.

However, because they are descendants of the Zhu family, the Ming Dynasty ruled the world with loyalty and filial piety.During the Chinese New Year every year, relatives have to reunite in the capital and worship the emperors of all dynasties in the Taimiao.Therefore, every winter, the imperial court will order the local royal families to come to Beijing to worship.

Because the fiefdoms of the princes are near and far, and the roads in far places such as Huguang and Gansu have to travel for one month, so the remote and real Tian family will set off one or two months in advance.

Zhu Tsung-chim came the earliest this year, so he was supposed to ask for salary.

Obviously, Wang Ruoxu and Zhu Congchi had spoken to each other many times, and they knew each other well, so they had no scruples in speaking.Consolation: "In the past few years, the imperial court has used troops against the southeast, leaving the treasury empty. Once the southeast is settled, it will be replenished, so you don't have to worry about it."

"Why use troops against the southeast? Taicang's more than 200 million taels of silver every year is still less than [-] shi in my salary. You pretend that I don't know, the money has been taken away by gold to build palaces. Your Majesty is going to starve us to death." These royal families?"

Talking about the Son of Heaven in private, Wang Ruoxu was about to reason with him with a straight face.

Zhou Nan couldn't help sighing for a while: "What, Mr. Zhu, you are a general serving the country with a salary of only [-] shi per year. This is also..."

"That's too little, why, do you think I'm lying?" Zhu Congba said with his tongue wide open, "I can't get all the six hundred stones, half of it is true color, and half is folding color."

During the Ming Dynasty, there were two kinds of official salaries: one was converted into silver, which was called zhese, and the other was the real color, that is, rice and cloth.

Zhou Nan is an old grassroots person, so he was shocked when he didn't know this.Half of the true color, this is too ruthless!
How to calculate the quality of natural materials, whether the food is rice, millet or wheat, whether it is old or new.The most terrible thing is that the price of rice in the Ming Dynasty fluctuated greatly, and rice was cheap in a good year, and it cost a few cents a catty.In a calamity year, one tael of silver is possible.

In a good year, you get 1000 taels of silver, but in a bad year, you only have 100 taels, or even ten taels.

A child of the dignified Tian family, whose income is not even comparable to that of a yamen servant, a petty official, is indeed helpless.

The crux of the problem is that although the wages of government servants and small officials are low, they have extra money, the number of people in the family is small, and there are few receptions on the scene.

Take Zhu Congchi's annual salary as an example, even if it is fully converted into its original value, it is only 18 catties of grain per year.Converted into the RMB of later generations, three yuan per catty is only [-] yuan, which is only equivalent to the income of ordinary white-collar workers in modern society.

A royal family like him who is a general of Fengguo, with three wives and four concubines, must have many children and grandchildren, how can he support so many people.These six hundred shi grains are still millet with shells.In this way, 10% of the shells were removed, and he finally got only about [-] yuan.

The most terrible thing is that the country also stipulates that the royal family cannot be an official or do business, otherwise what is the dignity of the Tian family.

After calculating all the factors, it is estimated that Master Zhu's annual net income is only tens of thousands of dollars.

Is this still from the old Zhu's family? It's no wonder the clothes on this guy are so shabby.

Zhou Nan couldn't help but feel deep sympathy for him.

Seeing Zhou Nan agreeing with him, Zhu Congchi was even more excited, and was about to continue cursing.

After all, this is the capital city. He kept insulting the emperor for embezzling the treasury and the grand master to build palaces. Although the Ming Dynasty did not offend people with words, it is not good to spread the word and let others listen. Go to the Ministry of Rites to discuss, today you and my old friend meet, and we only talk about Fengyue. Zhou Zimu in Huai'an is a master of poetry, and this old man is willing to bow down. Mr. Zhu also has a good attainment in poetry, so you might as well continue the couplets for fun today. Poetry is completed, called Geishapu Come and listen to the song."

Zhu Congchi had a good drink, and he called out "Hi", he grabbed the girl who was singing just now and said with a smile: "Miss has a good voice, why don't you come up with a question."

The girl playing the pipa covered her mouth and said: "Master Zhu is indeed an expert. Gong Shangyu Huijiao, everyone has a different voice, breath is different, and the songs they can sing are also different. If you are not good at it, force yourself to sing it." , but ruined the scenery. My sister's "Linjiang Fairy" sings the best, Zhou Zimu's "Han Liu" is the most suitable for her, and she can write how much hatred of West Wind in her heart, and the high eyebrows that can't be blown away What a romantic person is Juezhi. I finally met him today, and he is as elegant and handsome as his poem. You might as well make another one today to make a couple."

As he spoke, he glanced at the dental woman.

The woman with the toothbrush in her hand turned red when she was told by the pipa girl, but there were two gleams in Zhou Nan's eyes.

Zhu Congchen was able to have a close relationship with an old man like Wang Ruoxu, and he was also a talented and dull person.Seeing that the woman in his hand was obviously held by him, but she looked at Zhou Nan with affection.

Feeling sore in his heart, he snorted: "It's not unusual for Xifeng to hate something, so listen to me."

After a little deliberation, he chanted: "Short spring shirt with double rolled sleeves."

Wang Ruoxu thought for a while, and then said: "Tune the zither and hang the embroidered curtains. Zimu, it's your turn."

"Good!" The two women praised at the same time.

It has to be said that these two people did a really good job. The wind of flashy gold and fascination in the Goulan tile house in the capital rushed to the face, making people feel as if they were bathed in warm wind, smoky, and there was a kind of carefree feeling after being slightly drunk.

The so-called joint sentence is a way of writing poetry in ancient times. It means that a poem is jointly written by two or more people, and each person has one or several sentences connected to form a poem.

Zhou Nan studied liberal arts in her previous life, specializing in Ming and Qing literature.

The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the era of novels, and poetry was not as good as that of Tang and Song Dynasties. The reason is very simple, the times are different.

He has memorized dozens of poems by Nalan Rongruo, Gu Yanwu, Zha Shenxing, and Gong Zizhen in his stomach, but now they are couplets, not a complete poem alone, even if he wants to copy it, he doesn't know how to copy it.

Immediately he got stuck, picked up the wine glass and drank it down in one gulp, which was regarded as admitting defeat.

"Why, Zhou Zimu can't do it anymore?" Zhu Congchi was dissatisfied when he heard Wang Ruoxu kept mentioning Zhou Nan's name in his ear, almost praising him as the reincarnation of Li Du.Seeing the two women's green eyes towards him today, I feel even more jealous.

He sneered with his drunken eyes sideways: "People say Zhou Nan that you are a generation of poets, but it seems that these are all arrogant words of Mr. Zhou, and you are also a person with nothing but appearances."

Seeing his rudeness, Zhou Nan suddenly felt angry.Ever since this person surnamed Zhu met me, he has targeted me everywhere.You got frustrated in the etiquette department when asking for salary. Everyone understands that you are emotionally unstable, but you can't take your anger on me?

Who do you think you are, librarian?
To be honest, Zhou Nan never thought of relying on the idea of ​​plagiarizing the classic poems of later generations like other traversers.For one thing, because of his status, he couldn't gain a foothold in the circle of scholar-intellectuals, no matter how good his poems were.When others mention other things, they just say "elegant official"; secondly, he is a mixed official, and now it is the Ming Dynasty, and the exam is stereotyped prose, and poetry is just for entertainment and entertainment, and has no practical use.

However, this person surnamed Zhu is clearly a narrow-minded person. If I lose to him today, maybe this guy will talk about it when I meet people, and it will greatly damage my reputation.

A person has only one face, how can you stretch out the right cheek when someone hits you on the left cheek?

At this time, many poems suddenly appeared in Zhou Nan's heart.He couldn't care less about that, and shouted: "What's the difficulty? I'll ask Brother Zhu today to see if I'm a person with superficiality."

After finishing speaking, he read the last sentence aloud: "Don't call Jin Lian Liu, block Mulan Zhou."

In fact, Zhou Nan didn't know the source of this sentence. When he was in college, he spent every day in the library, reading in the dark, and after reading it, his stomach was full of fragments of poems.

No matter, just take a sentence that fits the rhyme and rhyme it out to meet the emergency.

It has to be said that any verses that can be remembered by future generations are the most essential part of a poem, which is the eye of writing.Many people remember this sentence when they are studying, and forget the others/
For example, there is a famous line in one of Du Fu's poems, "You will be at the top, and you can see all the small mountains." Up to now, Zhou Nan doesn't even know the name of the title of this poem, and there are a few lines.

"It's a good one to block the Mulan boat." The face of the Yaban woman changed greatly, and the tenderness in her eyes was even more intense: "I'm afraid that the Shuangxi boat will not be able to carry many worries... Lightly untie Luoshang and go alone Lan Zhou... even if Li Yi'an came to do it, it's nothing more than that."

Wang Ruoxu also sighed: "Zhou Zimu of Huai'an is a man of literature, I'm not as good as him!"

Zhou Nan screamed in his heart, and then laughed triumphantly.

Standing up, he bowed his hands to the two of them: "Today's fun is over, and I'm taking my farewell."

"Wait." Zhu Congjin stood up and gave him a long bow: "Zimu Wencai will give it to me. I admire you. Please don't take it to heart when I offended you just now. There is still one thing to discuss, please be sure to agree." .”

He is also a person with outstanding literary talent and insight. Although he had spoken a lot of disdain for Zhou Nan before, it was just in the tradition of literati being dismissive.At this moment, the couplet is completely convinced.

Seeing his apology, Zhou Nan felt relieved, supported him, and said: "Brother Zhu, why is this so? The so-called Wu Wu is the first, and Wen Wu is the second. Poetry is a gift from heaven, and you can make good sentences when you feel inspired. Come on. If you don’t get the inspiration, there’s nothing you can do if you search through your brains, so what advice can Brother Zhu give you?”

Zhu Congchi straightened up and said, "I'm ashamed, I'm ashamed. Although I'm an emperor's relative and have a noble salary, my life is poor. I can't find a way to make a living. I set up a bookstore under someone else's name. Zimu's poems are double Jue, I want to engrave your poems into a book and combine them with other works of the same way into a collection, and ask Zimu to give me the manuscript."

Is this an appointment for me?Zhou Nan stood up.

Wang Ruoxu nodded and smiled at him: "This old man has always wanted to engrave his old manuscripts into books and pass them on to future generations. Scholars have three immortalities: meritorious service, morality, and words. Every literati takes "making words" as the first priority in order to achieve immortality. For example, Cao Pi's "On Classical Essays" said: Covering the great cause of the country, the great event of immortality. The life is sometimes exhausted, and the glory and happiness are limited to the body. , put one's life in brush and ink, see the ideas in the texts, do not fake the words of good history, do not rely on the momentum of galloping, and let the sound be passed on to the later generations."

"The old man has sorted out some manuscripts and handed them over to Master Zhu. If Zimu has the intention of making a statement, he might as well ask Master Zhu to help publish the book."

Zhou Nan was overjoyed. I also thought about publishing a book. It was a good opportunity to become famous, so I hurriedly said: "Thank you, brother Zhu. If this is the case, Zhou Nan will be disrespectful. I don't know how to improve the pen?"

Thinking in his heart, the few Nalan poems he copied are famous works through the ages, if they are really engraved into a book, they won't be sold as expensive as Luoyang paper?The ancients said that there is a word worth a thousand gold, and these few poems have to receive 100 taels of Zhu's surname.I just bought a house and have run out of money.I don't know how long I will stay in this damned capital. If I don't have income, it's not an option to just sit and eat like this, but I should think of a way to make money.

Zhu Cong was full of perplexity: "What about the embellishment pen? By the way, if Zimu wants to publish a book, he will pay for the printing fee, paper, and ink."

Looking at his face, Zhou Nan said: "Are you mentally retarded?" Almost blurted out.

He could only smile and say nothing.

Zhu Congchi was suddenly annoyed, and shouted: "Friend Zhou, what you said is insulting to the gentlemen. How can I, a scholar, get into A Duwu's eyes without polluting my ears? I am ashamed to talk to you For the team!"

Zhou Nan rolled her eyes in her heart, you don't want money, you are high-minded, why did you travel all the way from Datong to the capital to ask for salary?I finally understand that you are the kind of bad scholar who sells serial numbers and tempts you to publish books at your own expense.You are a down and out royal family, a peacock with a hairless hair is not as good as a chicken, why are you putting on airs with me?
He didn't bother to talk nonsense with Zhu Cong, so he just cupped his hands at Wang Ruoxu: "My lord, thank you for your hospitality, Zhou Nan has something else to do, so I'm leaving!"

Wang Ruoxu smiled and said: "I should go back to Yamen too, little friend Zimu, I'll see you off. Brother Zhu, let's leave today!"

(End of this chapter)