Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 14 An unexpected discovery in the library
In hosting this book club, the Zhou family not only wanted to show off their own library, but also wanted Zhou Mingyuan to get to know local scholars, so he was naturally the protagonist.

Soon, several people beside the desk stood up and greeted Zhou Mingyuan in a rather flattering manner, regardless of their posture, and started talking to him.

The young man just nodded slightly to the flattery of the crowd. When his eyes swept across the desks, he did not pause to look at the patched clothes of some people. Instead, when he heard someone say that there were people here who had not even attended the county school and were still studying in a private school but came to participate in the book club, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

As the door opened, Lu Beigu followed everyone into the library. This three-story library contained a rich variety of books. Lu Guangyu exclaimed, "It was worth the trip."

On each floor of the building, there are sandalwood signs marking the categories of bookshelves.

For Lu Beigu, the books he needed most were the annotations of the two books "Spring and Autumn Annals" and "Book of Rites" by various schools of thought.

So he made a quick identification and went straight to the "Classics" section. After his fingertips brushed across several volumes of the "Book of Rites" commentary, he suddenly stopped.

"This is?"

Lu Beigu didn't expect that there would be an unexpected discovery.

In a corner of the bookshelf, there lay a half-broken copy of Guliang Buzhu.

The Guliang School of the Spring and Autumn Annals was the least understood among the Three Commentaries at the beginning. It was not until Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty held the Shiqu Conference to "reconcile the similarities and differences between Gongyang and Guliang" and established the official doctorate of the Guliang School that the Guliang School became popular.

However, after the Han and Wei dynasties, the study of modern Confucian classics declined, and the great Confucian scholars with family traditions disappeared. Apart from the "Collected Explanations" by Fan Ning of the Jin Dynasty and the "Shu" by Yang Shixun of the Tang Dynasty, there were no more famous Guliang scholars.

Precisely because of the small number of samples, among the Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty who studied the Spring and Autumn Annals, although a small number of them also took into account the Guliang School, there was not a single famous master.

Although Mo Yi does not examine the original texts of the Three Commentaries much, it is still necessary to understand their evolution.

After all, if there is not much difference between the players in the fill-in-the-blank questions like the Post Scripture, then Mo Yi has always been the so-called "score-pulling item", and difficult questions often appear.

If you have not read the annotations of the relevant school, once you encounter the test questions, your answers will definitely be far off the topic.

Lu Beigu carefully picked up the yellowed pages and found that the inner pages were densely packed with annotations. Some of the insights written in red ink and small regular script were truly exquisite.

He took a quick look at the other books. There were indeed many good books that were not available on the market, and even a few high-quality notes by predecessors, but the other content was too much.

For him at the moment, this book was the easiest to copy out and take away today, so he took this half volume of "Guliang Buzhu" and went downstairs.

There are four treasures of the study on the desk. Although the original books in the library are not allowed to be taken away, they can be recited or copied on the spot. Lu Beigu directly bent over the desk and began to copy.

For many people, this kind of book club is just a place to make friends under the pretext of reading, so they basically just chat. There are not many people who read seriously, let alone people like him who just copy silently.

However, chatting for a long time will also make you tired.

After walking several miles along the mountain road and chatting with people for a long time, Lu Guangyu's stomach was rumbling with hunger. However, he saw Lu Beigu still writing furiously at his desk, with the rice paper piled up as high as his fingernail.

"I'm hungry." Lu Guangyu asked frankly, "Brother Lu, did you bring any food?"

Lu Beigu copied with one hand and took out the locust flower cake prepared by his sister-in-law from his bag with the other hand, broke it in half and handed it to him.

The cake was still warm. When I bit into it, the sweetness of the locust flowers mixed with the aroma of coarse grains made the students around me swallow their saliva quietly.

At this time, Zhou Mingyuan walked over, waving his folding fan: "Brother, you can bear the hunger. The dishes at the lunch banquet are excellent. You will definitely eat a lot."

Before Lu Beigu could say anything, he heard a chuckle from behind the rockery. "Brother Zhou, that's strange. Food, sex, and love are the greatest human desires. Why endure hunger?"

A teenage boy came out from behind the rockery. He was wearing a sky-blue robe that was hanging loosely on his body, and a wine gourd was tied to the jade belt around his waist.

Zhou Mingyuan's expression changed slightly: "Young Master Ji, you're joking."

The young man ignored him and walked straight to Lu Beigu's desk. Suddenly, he leaned over and sniffed: "Locust flower cake? Can you give me a piece?"

Without waiting for an answer, he took the remaining half and stuffed it into his mouth, mumbling, "It's missing some sugar... but it's better than the cakes they prepared."

After saying this, he took off the wine gourd and placed it on the table: "In exchange for your cake, it's not a bad deal, right?"

Lu Beigu raised his head to glance at the outgoing young man, but out of the corner of his eye he saw veins bulging on the back of Zhou Mingyuan's hand where he was holding the fan. It was definitely not directed at him, because he didn't say a word!
So, Lu Beigu also understood.

Maybe these two people were secretly competing with each other, and he was just an innocent victim.

It's none of his business.

Seeing that Lu Beigu didn't respond and just copied seriously, the two of them didn't want to get into any more trouble.

"Do you know that person?"

After they left, Lu Guangyu whispered, "It's Ji Yun, son of the Ji family, a prominent bookseller in Zizhou Road. Famous for his exceptional talent, the Ji family is a legitimate and wealthy tycoon, even more powerful than the Zhou family, which owns the Anlexi winery. They also have close connections with the academic officials of various prefectures in Zizhou Road."

There is also a little-known fact here, that is, the term "Sichuan" did not exist before the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty.

When the Song Dynasty was founded, Xichuan Road and Xiaxi Road were first set up in Bashu, collectively known as the "Two Sichuan and Xia Roads". Later, the two roads were merged into Sichuan and Xia Road. During the Xianping period of Emperor Zhenzong, Sichuan and Xia Road were divided into Yizhou Road, Zizhou Road, Lizhou Road and Kuizhou Road, collectively known as the "Four Sichuan and Xia Roads". So later people simply referred to Bashu as "Sichuan".

The four routes of Sichuan and Xia are not difficult to understand for modern people. Lizhou Road is the Hanzhong area, Kuizhou Road is the Chongqing area, Yizhou Road is the western half of the basin, and Zizhou Road is the eastern half of the basin.

"Oh."

Lu Beigu had no interest in this dispute between young gentlemen, so he continued to copy with his pen.

After all, in his opinion, these things are not important at all. The most important thing at the moment is to finish copying this half volume of "Guliang Buzhu" and improve his understanding of Mo Di's meaning of "Spring and Autumn Annals".

When Lu Beigu finally finished copying, the literary banquet was about to begin.

The flower hall was filled with the scent of agarwood, and twelve mica screens filtered the afternoon sunlight into hazy fragments of gold.

When Lu Beigu followed everyone to their seats, he found that the tables had been arranged into two circles according to their status. The retired officials and wealthy businessmen who were invited sat at the inner circle with carved mahogany tables, while the students knelt in front of the long qingtan tables in the outer circle. However, many of them removed the heel supports and simply sat cross-legged.

Mr. Zhou, who was sitting in the main seat, also introduced the people in the inner circle, among whom was the big bookseller named Ji from Zizhou Road.

Finally, Mr. Zhou announced the topic of today's literary banquet.

"——Today's literary banquet is themed 'Wine'."

(End of this chapter)