Training the Heavens

Chapter 242 Shou Jingwu

Shou Jingwu was older than Zhou Fengyi and had passed the imperial examination earlier than him, so when they met, Zhou Fengyi was the first to greet him, "Mr. Jingwu, I'm sorry to bother you."

After inviting them into the house, they sat down to drink tea and chatted for a while about the Zhou family's recent situation. Then Zhou Fengyi introduced Runtu to Shou Jingwu, "This is the child of Fuqing, the bamboo craftsman from Dupu Village outside the city. His name is Runtu."

After recounting Runtu's story of learning to write from Ah Zhang, Zhou Fengyi bowed and said, "This child may have been a little late in learning, but he's a promising student nonetheless. If you think he's a promising talent, please accept him and teach him well."

Shou Jingwu stroked his long beard gently, and did not despise Runtu for his humble background. According to Zhou Fengyi's words, he asked him to recite a few passages from "Three Character Classic" and "Youxue Qionglin", and then took out paper and pen to watch him write.

Runtu did as he was told. Shou Jingwu nodded from time to time, looking very satisfied. "Su Laoquan only started studying seriously at the age of 27. You are only now, so it's not too late. I will accept you as my student."

"Fuqing already knew the rules of the teacher. He felt that his status was too humble to visit him, so he asked me to bring the tuition." After saying that, Zhou Fengyi handed over the four-color gifts and two silver dollars that he had prepared long ago.

Shou Jingwu's tuition is not low. It is divided into four semesters a year: Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and New Year's Festival. Each semester is two silver dollars and must be paid in advance. Not counting the expenses of pens, ink, paper and inkstone, the tuition alone is equivalent to the income of a strong laborer's hard work for a year.

"Yes," Shou Jingwu replied, and asked his second son, Shou Pengfei, to accept the money and the gift. After a moment's thought, he said to Runtu, "My academy is still short of a bookboy to help with the cleaning. If you are willing to do it, I can halve your tuition from now on, and you don't have to pay for your pens, ink, paper, and inkstone yourself."

"Thank you, sir. I am willing to do it." Runtu felt touched. Shou Jingwu looked serious on the surface, but he was actually a warm-hearted person. He must have done this because he saw that his family was poor and wanted to lend a hand.

So Runtu bowed respectfully to Shou Jingwu. He kowtowed willingly. Shou Jingwu helped him solve a big problem with just a few words. Such a generous favor was worth his bow.

"Well, there is an empty room at home. You can move in after the first month of the lunar year." Shou Jingwu thought that Runtu's home was too far away and it was inconvenient to stay at Zhou's, so he simply helped him find a place to live.

"There's just one thing. When you get to the academy, you must study hard and work hard. If you slack off even a little, I'll kick you out. Remember that?"

"I'll remember that," Runtu replied quickly. He thought people said that for his own good.

Shou Jingwu pondered for a moment, then stood up and wrote two words on a piece of paper. "Runtu is a bit unrefined after all. Now that you've entered school, you need a distinguished name. 'The Book of Zhou: Spring Officials' says: 'The Baozhang family used the stars and earth to distinguish the lands of the Nine Provinces.' Since your last name happens to be Zhang, your distinguished name should be Xingjiu! Here, those are the two characters."

Zhou Fengyi immediately thought the name was a good one. "Brother Jingwu is so knowledgeable! I admire you so much! Runxingjiu, why don't you thank me for the name?"

"Thank you, sir. From now on, I will call you Xingjiu!" Runtu hurriedly saluted again. He also felt that Zhang Xingjiu sounded better than Zhang Runtu.

The master-disciple relationship was established, so Shou Jingwu asked Pengfei to take Zhang Xingjiu out, get him a set of writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone, and also find the "Three Character Classic" and "Youxue Qionglin" from the academy and lend them to him so that he could study on his own.

"Thank you, senior brother." Zhang Xingjiu couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had met a good teacher. Who else would care about him so much?
"Come on, I'll take you around to see the world." Shou Pengfei is twenty years old this year. He just passed the county examination and ranked first two years ago and became a scholar. Later, he passed the examination and became a student. He is now a famous talent in Shaoxing City.

Everyone expected him to pass the imperial examination quickly, but Shou Jingwu wouldn't let him take the test. Whenever exam time came, he'd lock him upstairs in his room, forcing everyone to bring him his meals. Later, Shou Pengfei escaped by slinging a hemp rope across a window. He went to Beijing, where he won first place in the imperial examination and was appointed magistrate of Hong'an County in Jilin. Shou Jingwu, however, denounced Shou Pengfei as unfilial and refused to accept the money he sent.

Not only that, he also cursed loudly. Not satisfied with the curse, he wrote a petition and burned it to the land god at the land temple, accusing his son of disobedience. The main reason was that he was too disappointed with the current situation and believed that becoming an official now would be colluding with the authorities. That's why he was so angry when he heard that his son had become a county magistrate.

Shou Pengfei brought Zhang Xingjiu to the entrance of the academy and pointed to the four characters "Sanwei Shuwu" above, explaining, "The three flavors represent 'the flavor of classics, the flavor of history books, and the flavor of philosophy books'. It can also be translated as 'the warmth of plain clothes, the fragrance of vegetable roots, and the long-lasting flavor of poetry and books'."

"'Common people' refers to the common people; 'Common people's warmth' means being content with being a common person and not seeking to be an official or a master; 'the fragrance of vegetables' means being content with simple meals and not envying or yearning for delicacies from land and sea; 'the long taste of poetry and books' means earnestly appreciating the profound content of poetry and books, thereby gaining a profound taste."

There was a couplet on the pillars on both sides, which read: "The greatest joy is silent filial piety and brotherly love; the greatest flavor of soup is poetry and books." Shou Pengfei also read it to Zhang Xingjiu and explained the meaning of the couplet to him.

After looking at the entrance, enter through a black-oiled bamboo door. The third room is the study. There is a plaque hanging in the middle that says: Sanwei Study. Below the plaque is a painting of a very fat sika deer lying under an ancient tree.

The students' desks and chairs are located in different places in the room, so they don't interfere with each other.

Shou Pengfei pointed to a rectangular table with drawers against the north wall and said, "This belongs to Xun Ge'er. The table behind him is empty. When you come over after the New Year, I'll give it to you!"

Zhang Xingjiu walked over and saw that there was indeed a word "early" about an inch square engraved on the upper right corner of the desk. Teachers in later generations often used this to persuade students to study hard, but anyone who engraved the word there would be scolded.

After the tour, Zhang Xingjiu followed Zhou Fengyi back to the Zhou family. Ah Zhang was very happy to hear that Zhang Xingjiu had become his classmate, but he was a little confused. "Now that you've changed your name to Xingjiu, should I continue to call you Ah Tu or Ah Jiu?"

"Let's call him A Tu!" Zhang Xingjiu couldn't help sweating. The name A Jiu was too easy to make people think of something wrong, and he didn't want to break his arm.

When Zhang Fuqing heard that the teacher had waived half of the tuition and also given him writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone, he was very grateful. He quickly found some bamboo, borrowed a bamboo sword, and weaved a set of bamboo tools for the teacher overnight, which he asked Zhang Xingjiu to deliver.

Shou Jingwu didn't refuse and accepted it after a few compliments.

But he didn't expect that just one day later, Shou Jingwu came politely with gifts to return the favor. This made Zhang Xingjiu respect him even more. In this day and age, how many scholars could give such courtesy to a bamboo craftsman?

He began to look forward to going to Sanwei Bookstore to study as soon as possible.

　One more chapter

　　
　
(End of this chapter)