Top Scholar

Chapter 108 The gentleman begins to snatch people.
The first day of August was Su Lu's first day living at school.

Early that morning, he, Su Dan, Cheng Wanzhou, and Cheng Wanfan carried their bedding and rushed to the academy. The brothers were now as close as family, so naturally they would advance and retreat together.

The academy was supposed to open at 5:00 AM, but when the four of them arrived at the academy, the gate was still not open.

They were no longer freshmen and wouldn't wait patiently until the appointed time, so they banged open the door.

The doorman opened the door for them while grumbling, and after Cheng Wanfan said a few nice words and handed over a few copper coins, he smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, students. From now on, just call 'Old Qin' when you knock on the door, and I'll come out immediately."

"No trouble at all, okay, Uncle Qin." The four of them replied casually and headed straight for the fourth dormitory.

They thought their classmates had just gotten up, but to their surprise, they were all already dressed and reciting Cheng Wen aloud in the courtyard.

"You're really going all out." Cheng Wanfan kicked Li Qiyu, who was reciting his lessons with his eyes closed. The latter was about to retaliate when he saw who it was and exclaimed with delight, "Brother, you're here!"

He hurriedly took Su Lu's bedding roll and shouted, "Men, come and greet our godfather!"

Hearing the commotion, the classmates all gathered around, took their bedding and books, and excitedly escorted the four into the Ren-character room.

In the Ren-character room, Su Lu and Su Dan originally lived there as day students, but later the three Cheng brothers also stopped living there, so only Li Qiyu and five classmates, including Tao Cheng and Wang Chong, lived there.

Knowing that Su Lu and the others were coming back, the group had already cleaned the beds and polished the storage cabinets until they shone. They were practically ready to put up a banner that read "Welcome Godfather to Stay Here," which was truly commendable in terms of filial piety.

After their neighboring classmates left, Tao Cheng, Wang Chong, and two other classmates each took out one tael of silver and placed it on Su Lu's shop, clearly as planned.

Su Lu was watching his "good son" Li Qiyu make his bed, and for a moment he couldn't remember what was going on.

"This bet was made on the day we reported for duty," Tao Cheng said with shame. "We were blind to his greatness and mistook our godfather for a nobody."

Su Lu remembered and couldn't help but laugh, "What's the rush? It's not even the end of the year yet. It's still uncertain who will emerge victorious."

"Brother, you're joking. You're number one in the whole school now..." Wang Chong said awkwardly, "Actually, we knew we had lost a long time ago. We wanted to give you the money, but we just never had the chance."

"Keep it. Back then, I would definitely have taken it because of our relationship, but what is our relationship now?" Su Lu laughed loudly, "We're like brothers, how could I take your money?"

His family's situation has improved now, and he can't sacrifice his reputation for a little bit of profit. Actually, if he really wanted to make money, with his tutoring skills, his wealthy classmates would give him whatever amount he wanted.

But that would ruin his reputation. For Su Lu, money was merely fuel for his studies and the imperial examinations; enough was sufficient. But reputation was something that would stay with him for life…

Besides, these classmates treated him like a 'godfather,' so how could he accept their money?
“Brother, you absolutely have to take this money. We swore an oath with a high five back then.” But another classmate, Feng Chen, said with a serious face, “Brother, you can’t let us fail the imperial examination!”

"So we have to pay too?" Cheng Wanzhou exclaimed in surprise. "I was hoping to get away with it."

"But brother, we can't come up with that much money right now, so we'll have to owe you for now..." Cheng Wanfan said shamelessly.

Su Lu then smiled at the other four and said, "How about this, consider it as each of you owing me one tael of silver. When I run out of money, I will ask you for it. You are not allowed to refuse to pay."

"Alright, brother..." The four gratefully took back the silver. They knew perfectly well that Su Lu was using a clever method to ensure they didn't break their oath of loyalty without costing them anything.

They were still young, and even though their families were well-off, it had taken them a lot of effort to come up with that one or two taels of silver. If it disappeared without a trace, they would definitely get a beating when they got home…

"Let's go, let's go to class." Li Qiyu, having missed the excitement, called out to his classmates, who then left with their books, heading to the Sheng Shen Zhai together.

~~
At this point, Mr. Zhang had finished lecturing on the Doctrine of the Mean.

The academy's teaching then moved into the 'Five Classics General Knowledge Stage,' where five masters would respectively teach the *Zhouyi* (Book of Changes), *Shangshu* (Book of Documents), *Shijing* (Book of Poetry), *Liji* (Book of Rites), and *Chunqiu* (Spring and Autumn Annals).

With only five months left in the academic year, it will be extremely difficult for the five teachers to finish lecturing on all five classics. Even the relatively simple Four Books took Mr. Zhang a full six months to teach at an extremely fast pace.

Fortunately, the academy only required its students to "understand the main principles of the Five Classics," that is, to have a general understanding of the basic content, core ideas and academic schools of thought of the Five Classics.

It does not require memorizing and thoroughly understanding the entire text and its commentaries, as is the case with the Four Books.

The purpose of this is to give students a general understanding of the Five Classics so that they can choose one of them as their major at the end of the semester and study it in depth in the following academic year.

This refers to the so-called "specializing in one classic text".

But this does not mean that the next six months of study will be easy, because every afternoon, Mr. Zhang will still lead the students to continue to study the 'Four Books' in detail.

This thorough study focuses on Zhu Xi's "Questions and Answers on the Four Books." This set of books comprises thirty-nine volumes and was written by Zhu Xi to answer questions in the study of the Four Books. It supplements and explains the difficult points in "Collected Annotations on Chapters and Sentences," helping students understand the true meaning of the annotations.

It's a reference book for reference books...

However, the monthly lessons for the remainder of the year will still only test questions on the Four Books. In fact, the study of the Four Books will be an integral part of every student's academic journey. Because although no one admits it, everyone knows that the first part of the imperial examination is actually the most important, and that first part tests questions on the Four Books.

Therefore, for scholars, the Four Books are fundamental, and they should never forget their roots.

~~
Because it is a general education course, there is no need for in-depth study, so the morning session of the "I Ching" was taught in three classes together.

Fortunately, after the elimination process, there are now only forty students left. With forty people gathered in one lecture hall, it's not too crowded.

The professor teaching general knowledge of the I Ching was none other than the white-haired Mr. Zhu. He immediately told his students that he would be giving an in-depth lecture on the I Ching next year, so he hoped they would listen carefully and choose his class for the final exam...

Of course, the choice is two-way. If someone is careless or performs poorly, even if they want to study the I Ching, they will definitely not be accepted.

After saying this, Mr. Zhu began his explanation clearly: "The Book of Changes is the first among all classics and a book for teaching!"

Upon hearing this, the students all turned to look, thinking to themselves, "Isn't Su's four-character solution to the problem too contagious? How come even the teacher has learned it?"
"It is divided into two parts: the Classic and the Commentary. The former consists of the hexagram and line statements of the sixty-four hexagrams, which can be used for divination. The Commentary contains ten articles explaining the hexagram and line statements, collectively known as the Ten Wings, which are traditionally attributed to Confucius."

The students, who hadn't taken it too seriously at first, perked up immediately upon hearing this and raised their hands to ask, "Sir, does learning the I Ching mean we can do divination?"

“Of course,” Mr. Zhu said calmly, “but we scholars study the Book of Changes not for divination, but as a classic text for governing the country and cultivating our character. We pursue its principles and wisdom, and we must not abandon the essential for the trivial.”

"Yes, disciple will remember your teachings, sir." Only then did the student sit down in shame.

Mr. Zhu then began his formal lecture:

"Now we will talk about the first hexagram, Qian. Qian represents heaven, with Qian above and Qian below."

"The image says: The movement of heaven is strong; the superior man makes himself strong and untiring. The hidden dragon should not be used, for the yang is below. All day long, he is active and diligent, constantly following the way. He may leap in the abyss; advancing will not bring blame. The flying dragon is in the sky; this is the work of a great man. The dragon that has gone too far will regret it; fullness cannot last long. Using nine, the virtue of heaven cannot be the first..."

After reciting the first hexagram with intonation, Mr. Zhu began to explain it in a clear and organized manner, based on Zhu Xi's annotations.

Mr. Zhu's level of expertise was exceptional; he made the abstruse and difficult-to-understand "I Ching" fascinating, and the students were captivated in no time...

~~
Before we knew it, it was noon, and the clapperboard in the courtyard sounded.

Mr. Zhu then took off his hat, closed his book, and announced the end of get out of class.

The students rose to express their gratitude and respectfully saw the teacher off.

Mr. Zhu did not get up, but waved his hand and said, "Let's go eat."

"Yes," the students replied, and then filed out slowly.

Su Lu walked to the front of the podium and bowed deeply to Mr. Zhu.

"Hehehe..." Mr. Zhu stroked his goatee and laughed happily, "You still remember this old man?"

"Yes, I will never forget it," Su Lu said respectfully. He would never forget the unexpected turn of events on the day he took the entrance exam for the academy, nor would he forget the old gentleman who inscribed his name and gave him a brush to encourage him.

"Hehe, I haven't forgotten you either. I saw you back then as intelligent and handsome, mature beyond your years, clearly a good boy." Mr. Zhu looked at Su Lu with satisfaction and said:
"Not bad, not bad! It's been more than half a year since I last saw you. You've grown taller and fairer, and more importantly, you've improved from being a nobody to first place!"

"It's all thanks to your encouragement back then, sir," Su Lu said with a smile.

"Hahaha, I told you, a name falling to the ground is a good omen, do you believe it now? You'll definitely pass the imperial examinations in the future!" The old man said, leaning close to his ear and whispering mysteriously:

"You know what? Last month, when I found out you got first place in the monthly exam, I was incredibly amazed. So I went to look at the white wall where the results were posted, and guess what?"

"What's up?" Su Lu asked, playing the straight man.

"All the names are gone, only your name remains, still prominently displayed on the wall!" Mr. Zhu said solemnly, "How about that? Doesn't that make sense?"

"Is it because the students' names were written on the wall by Mr. Nai, while other people's names were written on paper?" Su Lu speculated cautiously.

"..." Mr. Zhu hadn't expected the young man to be so unyielding, so he could only nod and say, "Yes, after the wind and rain of spring and summer, that original red list is no longer there. So only your name remains, which is a very auspicious sign!"

"Yes, but what exactly is your instruction, sir?" Su Lu asked, puzzled. He had eaten at five in the morning and was now starving.

"My intention is to teach me the *I Ching*, young man!" Master Zhu had no choice but to reveal his true intentions.
"There is a destiny at work that has connected us. This is Heaven's will for you to learn the I Ching!"

P.S. I've updated four times in eleven days straight, and I don't think the quality has been affected at all. It's been incredibly fast and good, unlike me... Haha, all thanks to everyone's subscriptions and monthly tickets! Keep it up!!

(End of this chapter)