Top Scholar

Chapter 6 Impossible Mission
While packing the sorghum into bags, Su Lu asked worriedly, "Will they make the candidates compose poems?"

This is also a problem he cannot overcome in a short time. Tonal patterns, rhyme, and parallelism are just the most basic things; one must also use allusions accurately, use beautiful language, and express one's aspirations and emotions... How can this be learned in a short time? It is even very possible that one will never be able to write good poetry in a lifetime.

After all, the most important thing in writing poetry is talent...

As for copying poems, that's even more unrealistic. He barely remembers any ancient poems from the Tang and Song dynasties onwards, so how could he possibly meet the exam requirements?

"Sigh, don't worry, I won't make you write poetry. Poetry is a miscellaneous pursuit for scholars to amuse themselves. If you try to write poetry before you've even passed the imperial examinations, people will laugh at you for neglecting your studies and being a pretentious affectation." Su Youcai replied, sounding quite hurt.
"The reason why I did not do well in the examination was because I liked Yuefu and ancient poetry back then. When I asked my parents to test me with poetry during the county examination, they scolded me and said, 'The emperor values ​​literature now, why do you need to talk about the Han and Tang dynasties!' They also said that a student should only focus on writing, and what is the point of learning those miscellaneous books that 'mocking the wind and praising the moon, defiling people's conduct'?"

"Huh? And then?" Su Lu was so surprised he couldn't close his mouth. To be honest, he had fantasized that he might become famous overnight and stand out from the crowd just by being able to copy a poem.

"As a result, I was labeled as 'seeking fame but not substance,' and became a person with many misfortunes, a lesson still used by scholars along the Chishui River to this day." Su Youcai sighed, speaking earnestly:
“If my son is truly interested in learning, he must take my experience as a warning.”

"Son understands." Su Lu nodded hurriedly. While feeling sorry for his father, he was also secretly pleased. Ah well, one less thing to learn...

He reorganized his thoughts—it seemed that passing the entrance exam for Taiping Academy would primarily require memorizing the exam texts. However, since both the calligraphy and the interpretation of classics were written exams, he also needed to develop decent calligraphy skills, specifically in traditional characters.

The tasks for the next three months are clear: first, memorize texts; second, practice calligraphy; and third, complete the conversion from simplified to traditional characters.

"One last question," he asked Su Youcai, "how many characters have I memorized in total?"

“There are many more.” Su Youcai put down the sorghum bundle and counted on his fingers: “The ‘Three Hundred Thousand’ collection is about five thousand characters; the ‘Elementary Learning’ is twenty-six thousand characters; the ‘Classic of Filial Piety’ is two thousand characters; the ‘Four Lesser Books’ totals eighteen thousand characters; and the ‘Classic of Ancient Pronunciation’ and the ‘Primer of Prosody’ together are ten thousand characters.”

Su Lu silently calculated the answer and said, "It adds up to 61,000."

"That's not all. The real bulk is the *Collected Annotations on the Four Books*, a whopping 250,000 words long," Su Youcai said with a wry smile. He had spent several years memorizing it before finally getting through this massive work…

“What about the Four Books?” Su Lu asked again.

"..." Su Youcai glanced at his son and realized that he really didn't understand anything. "The 'Collected Annotations on the Four Books' is used to explain the Four Books, so it naturally includes the original text."

"Combining like terms, excellent!" Su Lu clapped his hands happily and said, "That's 311,000 words. With a preparation time of over 100 days, memorizing 3,000 words a day is enough!"

"What do you mean 'enough'?!" Su Youcai pretended to hit him with a sorghum stalk, saying, "You brat, you're like a toad spouting lightning—you open your mouth and you'll pierce the sky!"

"Just wait and see." Su Lu dodged aside.

Memorizing 310,000 words in 100 days sounds like an impossible task, so it's understandable that his father thought he was just bragging.

But in Su Lu's view, although the task was difficult, it was not without hope. Although he hadn't attended school for many days in this life, he had studied for more than ten years and taken exams for more than ten years in his previous life. After graduation, he worked at a test preparation institution and became a top lecturer at a young age.

His greatest strengths in life are studying and taking exams!

In his experience, thirteen years old is the stage when a person's memory is strongest. As long as one can stay focused and persevere, memorizing about two thousand words a day is not a problem.

With the help of various scientific learning methods and memory techniques, it is entirely possible to increase the daily memorization volume to three thousand words!

Of course, this is only in theory; whether it can be done in practice remains to be seen.

~~
After finishing work and returning home in the evening, having eaten the same sorghum porridge as always, Su Lu asked his father to start giving him a lesson.

In the outer room of the east wing where the three men lived, Su Tai lit a pine torch.

Ordinary lamps need to be filled with lamp oil and have a wick inserted to light them, while pine torch lamps only require pine resin to be cut into small pieces, placed in an earthenware bowl, and lit.

Pine torches are free, inexhaustible, and as bright as oil lamps. They are also windproof and can repel mosquitoes, offering numerous benefits.

There's only one downside—the smoke is so thick and choking, it even blackened the roof. At this time of year, it's okay to leave the windows open, but in winter, with the doors and windows closed, it's completely unusable.

So wealthy families don't use this kind of thing...

A southerly wind was blowing, so Su Youcai sat on the south side of the table. If the wind changed direction, he would have to move to a different spot to avoid the black smoke.

With a solemn expression, he said to Su Lu, "You shall sit upright and listen to the lecture."

"Hey." Su Lu sat down to his right, and Su Tai also moved a stool to his left to listen.

"I am very pleased that you are determined to study," Su Youcai said to Su Lu in a deep voice.
“But studying is the most sacred thing in the world. You have always been wild and unruly. You must first act like a scholar before you can begin your studies. So, your father will first teach you the rules of learning.”

"Yes." Su Lu nodded, showing his deep understanding. In any profession, one must first learn the rules before learning how to do things.

"For a scholar to establish himself, conduct is of utmost importance. First, refrain from lying; second, refrain from gluttony; third, refrain from vulgar and obscene talk; fourth, refrain from coveting others' possessions; fifth, refrain from gossiping about others; sixth, refrain from eyeing other people's women; seventh, refrain from associating with wicked people; eighth, refrain from wearing fine clothes; ninth, refrain from fabricating rumors; tenth, refrain from being violent and hot-tempered." Then Su Youcai solemnly said:
"Besides these ten precepts, there are nine essentials: Walk with a calm and steady gait, without leaping or running. Speak with composure and clarity, without ambiguity or haste. Bow with a slow and deep bow, not a shallow or hasty one. Stand with dignity and stillness, without slouching or leaning. Rise and bow with coordinated movements of body and hands, without losing composure. Take care of your clothes and shoes, without being sloppy. Look around with quiet, upright, and composed eyes, without wandering or disorder. Keep your hands in a straight line with your clothes, without being lazy. When seated, be dignified and composed, without slouching or stooping."

After he finished speaking, he asked Su Lu, "Did you understand everything?" "I understand most of it, but there's still a little bit left," Su Lu replied honestly.

"Speak," Su Youcai nodded.

"What do the Three Precepts mean?" Su Lu asked.

“The three prohibitions are: avoid using rustic language and lewd words.” Su Youcai explained: “It means not to use colloquialisms or excessive language. For example, ‘old man’ is a rustic term, and ‘turtle son’ is lewd.”

As he spoke, he said somewhat embarrassedly, "Sometimes when I get excited, I still break this rule. Don't follow my example; try to speak Mandarin as much as possible."

"I understand." Su Lu nodded. This is the same as promoting Mandarin in schools in later generations and prohibiting the use of dialects.

“You must recite these ‘Ten Commandments and Nine Essentials’ daily, remember them well, and practice them diligently!” Su Youcai instructed again.

"Yes." Su Lu replied, and was about to say "I've remembered" when he heard a melodious snoring sound next to him, which gradually grew louder.

Sutai had already fallen peacefully asleep to the old man's nagging...

"Sigh." Su Youcai put down his pen, shook his head, and sighed. "This child has a really good sleepyhead."

"Second Brother is too tired from working during the day," Su Lu defended Su Tai.

~~
The father and son together carried the limp Da Sutai to the bed, took off his shoes, and then stuffed a 'bamboo wife' into his arms... which was a long, hollow bamboo basket with a mesh body. It could be held and used to cool him down while sleeping in the summer.

This thing existed in the Tang Dynasty, where it was called "bamboo knee clamp." It was the literati of the Northern Song Dynasty who gave it the more alluring name "bamboo wife." Su Dongpo wrote a poem that says, "Asking about the bamboo table by the bedside, the wife probably doesn't understand my sweet words," which refers to this very thing.

However, Huang Tingjian believed that bamboo wives, used for resting arms and knees and helping people cool off in the summer, were not the proper function of a wife, so he called it "Green Slave." He also wrote a poem: "Green Slave doesn't know how to dress up, she's fit to be on the bed of a dream butterfly in a Zen retreat. You have someone to share your pillow, whose skin is as cool as ice and snow."

Each of the three men, father and sons, had one of these items. They were all hand-woven by Su Tai, who split bamboo strips, polished them smooth, and then wove them himself.

After settling Su Tai in, Su Youcai and Su Lu returned to the table to continue teaching.

A thick stack of calligraphy practice books was piled on the table; those were the ones Su Youcai had brought home for correction. He searched briefly, then pulled one out and opened it—

The same rough, yellowed handmade paper was bound together with cotton thread threaded through the sides.

Su Lu saw that the paper contained lines of writing that, though childish, were far superior to his own calligraphy. Many of the characters had circles and dots around them, which were the marks of Su Youcai's annotations.

Su Youcai explained, "Circles represent excellent, dots represent good, and in short, they are all positive."

Su Lu nodded, understanding what "commendable" meant.

But instead of showing him his excellent homework, his father showed him the student's calligraphy practice, which was a copy of the "Three Character Classic".

“Since you have already learned the Three Character Classic, I will not teach you from the beginning,” Su Youcai said. “Just recite it once, and if there are any parts you don’t understand, I will explain the meaning and pronunciation for you.”

"Yes." Su Lu picked up the calligraphy practice book, and naturally, he was about to receive a few more words of instruction:

"Keep the book three inches away from your body, and do not clench your fists. Stand upright, face the book, look at the words slowly and carefully, and read them clearly."

Su Lu quickly adjusted his posture as instructed before quietly reading aloud. Fortunately, those who know simplified characters can also recognize most of the traditional characters, so they won't become completely illiterate.

As for the content of the Three Character Classic, it naturally differs somewhat from the version he remembered. The main difference lies in the historical section, which ends with "Twenty-one histories, all contained here," instead of "Ancient and modern history, all contained here."

The text read, "...Liao and Jin both claimed imperial titles. Yuan destroyed Jin, ending the Song dynasty. All of China was reduced to barbarians. The Ming dynasty rose, opening anew." It was much shorter than the version he had learned in his previous life, making it easier to memorize.

After a short while, Su Lu looked up at his father and said, "I have no problem with the Three Character Classic. Now you can teach me the Hundred Family Surnames."

"..." Su Youcai was stunned for a moment, then rolled up a calligraphy practice book and hit him on the head, cursing, "You brat, you're arrogant and impetuous, your head deserves a beating!"

“Abstain from vulgar and obscene talk.” Su Lu hurriedly reminded him, “Father, you must set a good example for others.”

"I...you..." Su Youcai was speechless for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh and say, "This is not what it means to be a role model for others, it's what it means to lift a stone only to drop it on your own foot."

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(End of this chapter)