The First Uncle of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 178 The Scholars with Many Thoughts

There are great scholars among the people talking and laughing, and there are no unlearned people among the people.

At this moment, Song Lian's mansion is the embodiment of "Praise of the Humble Dwelling". His mansion is indeed not luxurious, but it will make countless scholars yearn for it.

The great Confucian scholar Song Lian, the Minister of Rites Tao Kai, the Minister of Personnel Zhan Tong, and the chief academic officer of the Imperial College Wang Yi were all famous Confucian scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

There was also Liu Bowen, who came to visit with his uncle, and he was also one of the leaders of the Ming Dynasty scholars.

Ma Xun was not surprised at all by such an occasion, as he had guessed it before coming.

Liu Bowen smiled and said, "I have been free since I retired, but Brother Tao and Brother Wang are busy with state affairs and have little free time. Today we will only talk about romance and literature, not politics, so as not to upset them."

Liu Bowen's attempt to block some people's conversation from the very beginning naturally caused some people to be dissatisfied.

This is the "Hongmen Banquet". The civil officials and the top scholars of the Ming Dynasty all want to catch the slippery uncle of the emperor. After all, they usually have no chance to talk to him.

But what Liu Bowen said seemed to make sense. Tao Kai and Wang Yi had been quite busy recently. One of their official duties was the imperial examination. After all, it was impossible for the imperial examination to only involve Ma Xun, the chief examiner.

Other government offices also need to cooperate. The Ministry of Rites and the Imperial College are among the busiest government offices, and the Ministry of Personnel is essentially unlikely to have any free time.

Song Lian's son Song Yan brought the tea, the soup was bright green.

Ma Xun asked, "Is this Longjing?"

Song Lian was quite proud and happy. "My uncle is indeed born in Zhejiang. This is my famous Zhejiang tea."

Later, Longjing tea was considered the most famous tea in China, and it can even be traced back to the Jin Dynasty. However, Longjing tea was only slightly famous in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was elevated to the highest position during the Qianlong period.

Ma Xun smiled and said, "Longjing is famous. Beijing is not far from Hangzhou, and I have heard of it. Fujian also has Oolong tea, which I think is good too."

Da Hong Pao is still not famous at all, and even this tea has not been named yet. The mother trees in Wuyi Mountain are just ordinary tea trees now, and they do not have the status they will have in later generations.

Wang Yi said, "Speaking of tea, my Zhejiang Kaihua and Huiming teas are both very good."

Tao Kai smiled and said, "Lu Taizhu lived in seclusion in Tiaoxi and wrote three volumes of The Classic of Tea. The mountains, waters, tea, temples, Zen, scriptures and literature of Jingshan are interdependent. Tea has evolved from drinking to art and Taoism, integrating tea and Zen into one."

For a moment, Ma Xun didn't know what to say. He just thought Longjing was really good.

However, these people who are proud of their region immediately found room to express themselves. When talking about famous teas and history, they have a lot to say.

Liu Bowen just smiled and said nothing, although he tried to help Ma Xun avoid some trouble from the beginning.

However, there was no need to rush to discuss some matters. He believed that with Ma Xun's slickness, he could handle such situations.

Ma Xun smiled and said, "Your Majesty likes Xinyang tea. I think he probably wandered there in his early years, so he likes the tea there."

Suddenly, others didn't know how to respond. Xinyang tea is just a general term, and Maojian is one of its representatives.

Su Dongpo was very picky and believed that "Huainan tea from Xinyang is the best" and that the quality of Xinyang tea was no worse than that of Zhejiang tea and Fujian tea.

But there are some things that a minister cannot bring up. How can I say that Your Majesty is wandering? He is traveling around and understanding the sufferings of the people.

Song Lian then spoke up, "Your Majesty's early experiences allow you to understand the sufferings of the people, so you should stop the tea garden."

This is also one of Zhu Yuanzhang's achievements. During the Yuan Dynasty, there were many tea gardens and tea farmers. These people had to bear heavy taxes, and countless tea farmers went bankrupt.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang changed the policy of the Yuan Dynasty and prohibited the tribute of tea cakes, etc.

The tea balls enjoyed by the nobles had to go through countless processes, so he directly ordered to "abolish tea balls and promote loose tea", changing the extravagant tea balls that had been popular since the Tang and Song dynasties to directly drinking loose tea.

It was also from this time that making tea became simple, and many people began to afford tea.

Although there will still be tribute tea, etc., it is much lighter than the complicated tea balls in the past.

Ma Xun smiled and said, "I prefer loose tea, which is fragrant and sweet. Tea balls need to be boiled and added with many things. My wife actually knows how to boil tea, but I don't really like it."

Liu Bowen just smiled and said nothing. Of course his daughter knew how to make tea, but nowadays the woman follows her husband wherever he goes.

Everyone in Prince Xu's mansion only drinks loose tea, not only because of the emperor's order, but also because of Ma Xun's preference.

Zhan Tong suddenly asked, "My Lord, I heard that you are not very satisfied with this imperial examination?"

Ma Xun immediately replied, "Where did Minister Zhan hear these rumors? I presided over the imperial examination, how could I be dissatisfied? If this word gets out, not only will the scholars be disheartened, but your Majesty will punish me."

Zhan Tong immediately said, "I made a mistake, please forgive me, uncle." Zhan Tong was a favorite of Zhu Yuanzhang, he was the Minister of Personnel. Although the Ministry of Rites was often the head of the six ministers, the real power was still in the Ministry of Personnel.

However, now that there is the Secretariat, the authority of the Ministry of Personnel is not that great, and the second-rank Minister of Personnel is not considered to be "powerful and influential" in the court.

Although Zhan Tong was from Wuyuan and would later return to Jiangxi, he now belonged to Huizhou Prefecture.

Although he had served as an official in the Yuan Dynasty and was a Hanlin scholar under Chen Youliang, Zhan Tong had good conduct and strictly followed Zhu Yuanzhang's requirements. He was clear and understandable in his memorials, and was proficient in the key points and expressed current affairs.

Zhan Tong's son was Zhan Hui. Historically, he entered the officialdom directly as a scholar. In just over a year, he was promoted from the seventh rank Supervisory Censor-in-Chief to the second rank Left Censor-in-Chief and concurrently Minister of Personnel, which was a direct promotion of ten levels!

It's not just Ma Xun who is in the emperor's favor, there are also the Zhan father and son, as well as some other officials in the court who can be appreciated by the emperor as long as they have good abilities and conduct.

On the contrary, Zhu Yuanzhang might not necessarily use some great scholars who were highly praised by scholars.

For example, Fang Xiaoru in history was recommended twice. Zhu Yuanzhang summoned him twice, praised his character, and then sent him home with courtesy.

Huang Zicheng was the first and third place winner in the imperial examinations, but his official career for more than ten years under Zhu Yuanzhang was only the third-rank minister of the Taichang Temple, in charge of clan sacrifices.

Qi Tai was slightly stronger. After passing the imperial examination, he served as an official for nine years without making any mistakes. Zhu Yuanzhang appointed him as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.

Ma Xun just needs to continue drinking tea. Many things don’t seem that important to him.

This is just to accompany Liu Bowen to meet relatives and friends, because he is the son-in-law.

If it weren't for his status as Duke and uncle of the state, he would have been on the same level as Song Lian's son Song Yin. At that time, he could only serve tea and water and stand aside to listen to the teachings of his elders.

After chatting for a while, they only talked about love and literature, and hardly touched on things like politics.

However, Song Lian suddenly looked at Ma Xun and asked, "Uncle, I heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince gave the students some pointers on the meaning of the classics?"

"That's true." Ma Xun said, "But I've also had someone read that person's article, so I'm afraid it's unlikely to make the list."

Zhan Tong asked, "Is that person's writing so bad? If he could win, it would be a good story."

Zhan Tong's statement is actually not wrong. It is indeed a good story that the student personally instructed by Crown Prince Zhu Biao was admitted. As for whether this is cheating or whether it is unfair to others, etc.

This is another matter, because the person giving the instructions is Crown Prince Zhu Biao, the heir to the throne of the Ming Dynasty. These scholars are thinking about learning literary and martial arts, and serving the imperial family.

Ma Xun shook his head and said, "I would like to select that person, but he is not talented enough. If he is selected, it will not only harm him, but also be difficult to convince the public. The most important thing in the imperial examination is fairness. How can we select people based on a place or a word?"

Song Lian, Zhan Tong and others felt very embarrassed about Ma Xun's stubbornness. They really didn't know how to make this stinky and hard stone obey everyone's opinions a little.

Song Lian tried it out but it was useless, so he naturally stopped talking. It would be inappropriate to continue talking.

Although Song Lian had many selfish motives, as Zhu Biao's most respected Confucian scholar and teacher, Song Lian was still a staunch princeling.

Therefore, in many cases, Ma Xun would not take the initiative to conflict with Song Lian, and they still had some consensus on some issues.

Tao Kai looked at Ma Xun and asked with a smile, "Is the prince going to return to Zhongdu in a few days?"

"Your Highness the Prince of Qin is still in Zhongdu, and I have to go back to farm as ordered." Ma Xun said with a distressed look, "Although my family has a tradition of farming and reading, I am not really good at farming."

Hearing Ma Xun's words, everyone else laughed in support.

This young man in his early twenties was chatting and laughing with a group of people in their fifties and sixties, and they seemed to be in perfect harmony, yet there seemed to be something a bit out of place.

But no one seems to care. Age is indeed extremely important sometimes, but identity is obviously more important.

Tao Kai was a little worried about Ma Xun. "Fortunately, the prince is young and strong, and is good at medicine. It would be hard for him to travel back and forth like this. The Crown Prince is about to get married, and the prince will have to come back then."

"The princes will come back in due time, and this is what we should do." Ma Xun said with a smile, "I don't like staying in one place for a long time, so it's best to travel around."

When Ma Xun said these words, no one was surprised at all. Instead, they thought it was very normal.

The capital city, the center of power, is coveted by many people, but unfortunately not everyone wants to make achievements in their official career.

Tao Kai looked at Ma Xun and asked tentatively, "Your Highness the Prince of Qin is only one year younger than Your Highness the Crown Prince. Is it time to choose a concubine for Your Highness the Prince of Qin?"

Zhan Tong also said immediately, "Your Highness the Prince of Qin is the eldest of all the princes in the royal family, so the selection of the Prince of Qin's wife should be cautious."

Song Lian followed up and said, "Minister Zhan is right. The selection of a concubine for His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin is a matter of national importance. Choosing a virtuous woman from a famous family is the right way."

Ma Xun's face suddenly turned ugly. These people couldn't say anything about the Crown Princess's matter, and now they were thinking about the King of Qin!
(End of this chapter)