Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

Chapter 332 Kang Qi Rui's Appreciation of the Three Kingdoms
"Mom, Xiu Gu, are you guys going to buy some groceries?"

The next morning, when Da Lao Guang got up early, he saw Mazi and Xiu Gu going out to buy vegetables, so he stopped them and said, "A Di's family is very poor, and it is rare for them to eat meat. You should buy more meat today. Also, don't buy any non-fat pieces, because she likes fatty pork the most."

"Okay, okay, don't worry." The nanny said with a smile.

Just after sending Mazi and Xiugu out to buy groceries, Da Laoguang saw Kang Qirui coming out of the room, wearing an Armani suit. Da Laoguang stopped him and asked, "It's only 7 o'clock, why are you here so early today? And you're dressed so formally, where are you going?"

Kang Qirui smiled and said, "I'm going to the TV station to record a program today. I'm leaving first."

At the beginning of this year, the people from CCTV's Arts Channel approached the school and wanted to invite Kang Qirui to do a program, but Kang Qirui proposed not to go to Beijing to record but to record at Guangdong Provincial TV Station, so the deal was not reached in the end. At that time, the people from CCTV thought that although Kang Qirui had a deep knowledge of ancient literary history, he was more focused on the study of ci poetry, so they did not agree to Kang Qirui's request.

However, in the middle of the year, Kang Qirui was selected as an outstanding talent of the new century. His Xiyangyang Film and Television Company also shined at the Shanghai Film Festival. Hu Fei, the producer of CCTV Art Channel, also appeared at the dinner of the Shanghai Film Festival, and the two hooked up again.

That day, Kang Qirui proposed to Hu Fei that the history column must be interesting and topical. This is not disrespecting history. It is precisely because of respecting history that we must find ways to promote history to everyone and let everyone have a deeper understanding. What do we rely on? It is not long speeches and quotations! It depends on certain factors that can attract the audience and make them involved!

Hu Fei agreed with this view and asked Kang Qirui which period of history he would talk about if it were him. Kang Qirui said that if it were him, he would mainly talk about the Three Kingdoms, because most people's historical knowledge of the Three Kingdoms comes from the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which is not history at all, and they don't understand the real Three Kingdoms at all. And because of this, it will bring natural topicality to the program.

Hu Fei and Kang Qirui hit it off immediately and vigorously promoted cooperation after returning. After much discussion, they decided to record the show at Guangdong Provincial TV Station, which would be broadcasted simultaneously with CCTV's Arts Channel, and the production funds would be sponsored by Xiyangyang.

Today was the first day of recording this program. Therefore, Kang Qirui went out early and came to Guangdong Provincial TV Station, but he didn't expect Hu Fei to come earlier than Kang Qirui. "Producer Hu, why are you here so early?" Kang Qirui asked with a smile as he walked into the studio.

"Since we have nothing to do in the hotel, let's come early to prepare." Hu Fei turned around and waved his hand, saying to Kang Qirui. Although the recording venue was set at Guangdong Provincial TV Station, the main producer was still CCTV Arts Channel.

The two chatted for a few more words, then separated to prepare for their own things. The recording time was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Kang Qirui came in the morning mainly to recite the script and rehearse in advance. At 55: in the afternoon, the audience (extras) had already entered the venue. For a new program like this, generally there are not many real live audiences in the first show, and most of them are extras.

At 3 pm, the recording officially began. The program title was played on the big screen at the scene, with a battlefield in the background. The narrator read: "This is an era of heroes, and this is a complicated history. Official historical records, unofficial historical legends, novels, and drama arrangements have different comments in different periods, different works have different descriptions, and there are many different opinions on right and wrong, and many doubts about success and failure."

Kang Qirui walked slowly from the backstage to the podium and spoke the opening words: "Use stories to describe characters, use characters to describe history, use history to describe culture, and use culture to describe human nature. Hello everyone, I am Kang Qirui, professor of ancient literature and history at CUHK. Welcome to the first episode of "Lecture Room: Kang Qirui on the Three Kingdoms": The Eastward Flow of the River."

Some of the extras below also became interested after hearing this. It's good to make money while listening to historical stories. Kang Qirui continued, "What kind of era was the Three Kingdoms? It was an era of turmoil, an era of suffering, and an era of heroes. Cao Cao once wrote a poem about this era, with bones exposed in the wild, no roosters crowing for a thousand miles, and no roosters crowing within a thousand miles. In such an era, many people devoted their wisdom and talents to the reunification of the country, such as the ambitious Cao Cao, the devoted Zhuge Liang, the elegant Zhou Yu, and the persevering Liu Bei, all of whom were heroes of this era!"

Many absent-minded extras now started paying attention. They thought this show couldn't tell anything real, but they didn't expect it to be so good.

"Let's talk about Zhou Yu first. People who have read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, listened to Three Kingdoms storytelling, and watched Three Kingdoms dramas often have an illusion that Zhou Yu is a narrow-minded person. Because we remember the story of 'Zhou Yu was angry three times', we remember 'Why is there Liang if there is Yu', we remember 'Zhou Lang's clever plan to pacify the world, but he lost his wife and his soldiers', which has become our daily mantra." Kang Qirui said slowly: "But the actual situation... is not like this!"

"Zhou Yu was a very loyal and heroic man. When he was 24 years old, he was appointed by Sun Ce as Jianwei Zhonglang Jiang and began to make great achievements. In the same year, Sun Ce, who was the same age as him, married two beautiful women at that time, Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao. It can be said that Zhou Yu was a young man who achieved success and was in high spirits. He was handsome and did things well. At that time, people in Wuzhong called him Zhou Lang. The original meaning of Lang is young man, but here it is a compliment. At that time, people in Wuzhong called Sun Ce Sun Lang and Zhou Yu Zhou Lang, which means 'handsome Sun' and 'handsome Zhou'."

"So you think." Kang Qirui looked around the room and said, "Zhou Yu was already a General of Jianwei when he was in his twenties. He was also very handsome and married the most beautiful girl at the time. He was successful in the battlefield, officialdom and love affairs. How could he be jealous of others? It's almost the same as others being jealous of him! So when I read Su Dongpo's poem 'Thinking of Gongjin in the past, Xiao Qiao was just married', I was also a little jealous."

The extras had been listening more and more seriously, but they couldn't help laughing when they heard this.

"In fact, Zhou Yu in history was very magnanimous." Kang Qirui said, "Chen Shou said in The Records of the Three Kingdoms that he was magnanimous, and his contemporaries also spoke highly of him. Liu Bei commented that he was magnanimous, and Jiang Gan commented that he was magnanimous. So it is unfair to describe Zhou Yu as a petty person with a narrow mind!" Kang Qirui said this and saw that the audience all showed puzzled expressions. He smiled and said, "Some people may not agree, but I can say for sure that the romance novel is not history. Why is Zhou Yu's image so different from the image we have in our minds? Why are we both familiar and unfamiliar with this period of the Three Kingdoms?"

"There are three reasons, because there are three kinds of images of the history of the Three Kingdoms. The first is the image recorded in history books, mainly the image recorded in official history, which is the image advocated by historians. I call this image the historical image. What needs to be explained here is that the historical image is not equal to the historical truth, because historical records are not necessarily reliable. The second is the image in literary and artistic works, which I call the literary image. The third chapter is folk legends and beliefs, which I call the folk image."

Everyone listened and thought at the same time.

"This can actually explain why Zhou Yu's image is completely different from what we have in mind, because everyone has their own impression and evaluation of this person. Once this image is established, some people cannot accept other images. If what you say is different from what they have in mind, they will say that you are wrong. So when we watch a historical drama, there will always be viewers commenting, 'Oh, this Zhou Yu doesn't look like him.' Oh, this Zhou Yu doesn't look like him? Have you seen the real Zhou Yu?"

The extras were completely attracted by Kang Qirui's lecture and listened carefully. Soon, Kang Qirui finished recording the first to third episodes. He planned 58 episodes for the whole program, which will be recorded in three times. The first recording will be 15 episodes for five consecutive days this week. Then the staff of CCTV Art Channel will return to Beijing for post-production, and then come back to Guangzhou for the second recording. The program will be officially broadcast on New Year's Day 2006.

After recording the show, Kang Qirui returned to the Kang family just in time for dinner. He washed his hands and sat down to eat. "Adi, these roasted meats are your favorite." The big man picked up a piece of meat for Adi, "Look, it's fat and big, come on"

"How can we finish all these dishes? You are too polite." A-Di smiled and said, "I have eaten less meat in recent years, especially fatty meat. Eating such fatty meat will increase triglycerides. I advise you not to eat so much. It is not good for you. Green vegetables are better. Eat more green vegetables, everyone."

After a pause, she said, "I'm full, you guys take your time, I'll go make a phone call first." Then she stood up and walked out of the dining room. When her figure was completely out of sight, the second brother whispered, "She even knows about high cholesterol, does she know about fatty liver?"

"That's not serious." The old man said to the second brother, then turned to look at the eldest brother and asked: "Didn't you say that she likes to eat fatty pork?"

"Yeah, why would I lie to you?" Big Brother Guang guessed, "Could it be that she believes in Buddhism now?"

"Even if you believe in Buddhism, it doesn't mean you have to be a vegetarian. You're not a nun. And she just ate chicken. Look at the bones she spat out on the edge of the bowl." Kang Qirui pointed and said, "Boss, you haven't seen her for more than 20 years. It's normal for her habits to change."

The second sister-in-law shook her head and said, "I don't think so. What I said is that she is pretending to be gentle and innocent."

"That's right. If you ask me, she wanted to eat cheese-baked lobster and abalone, shark's fin and bird's nest, but she was too embarrassed to say it, so she decided to throw in pork to attract seafood." A-Zu shared a similar opinion to the second sister-in-law.

"Hey, don't say that about her. I don't think she's that complicated." Zhu Wanling said this, trying to stop everyone from continuing to make malicious speculations about people's minds.

Everyone else stopped talking, so Er Lao had no more scruples. He said, "No, I think she's just a pineapple chicken."

"What is pineapple chicken?" The boss was confused.

"She's crazy." The second brother said, "The boss said she didn't have much money, but what about her? She wants to stay in a hotel and eat seafood. Don't you think she's crazy? She's crazy about food and drink!"

The second sister-in-law nodded and said, "Uncle, you are lucky. If you had continued your relationship with her, you wouldn't have been able to afford her even if you cut your own meat."

Da Lao Guang secretly looked at Xianglan, picked up a piece of fatty pork and put it into the second sister-in-law's bowl, and said unhappily: "There are so many things here, but they can't fill your mouth?"

(End of this chapter)