Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"So what is the principle of this connection?"

[This kind of thing does exist in the Oracle - if the brain does not accept the impact of the five senses, the sixth sense will become sharper.]

"Ah, so it's better for the priest who delivers the oracle to be an idiot, right?"

[Amitabha Buddha. I am trying not to hit you with a black bean.]

Phaethon, who was standing nearby, glanced over here and said to Shang Luo, "Believe me, she is very tolerant. I have never seen her be so patient with anyone other than you."

[Don't act like you know me well. You've talked to me more than I have to Shangluo.]

"Okay, okay, my rebellious little aunt, whatever you say is what I will do."

"Ahem," Shangluo coughed, "It seems that our classmate Xiao Han will have to continue his practice."

Han Xingzhi on the other side suddenly asked, "Brother, why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's okay." Phaethon waved his hand, "I said you are smart and not easy to fool."

【.】

"Who can be fooled by this? I can't say that after you tell me there is a cabbage, I can't count to 3. How can there be such a person?"

"By the way." Shangluo suddenly suggested, "How do you usually eat? How do you eat when I'm not around?"

"When you were away? Of course I was waiting for you to come back and cook."

"You can't starve to death without me, right?"

"Well, it's not that I can't eat it." He pointed to his thermos cup. "If there's carrot soup, I can soak some rice in it. My uncle also said that it can't be too bland, or I'll get sick. But I feel like I'm almost getting sick! My appetite has been getting worse recently, and I feel like I'm getting thinner and thinner."

[According to records, he has grown 0.05 cm taller and gained 2 kg in weight compared to last month. His growth is very good. If he continues to work hard before he reaches adulthood, he may reach 1 meters~]

"Okay." Shangluo shook his head. "It seems that there is no change from before. But considering his health, I will still help him."

He looked at Han Xingzhi: "Do you have any favorite food?"

"Hey?" Han Xingzhi asked, "Brother, are you going to treat me to a meal?"

"It's not a question of food or not. You don't need a bite of my food. Answer me, what do you like to eat?"

"Meat! I want to eat meat now!"

"Okay, second question then. Do you know canned laughter?"

"Oh, I know that. Some radio dramas, for the sake of program effect, will add pre-made laughter after the jokes are made. What's wrong with that?"

"Like canned laughter, I can help you make some 'canned flavors' so that when we are not eating together, you won't go hungry yourself."

"Ah!!!" Han Xingzhi's eyes began to shine, "Brother, you are still so good to me! My own brother is not so good to me!"

"Do you have a brother?"

"No, only my sister. But I have one now! You are not my biological brother, but you are better than my biological brother! Then can I have two more flavors?"

"Okay." Shangluo nodded, "Only if I've tried it before. You choose three flavors, and I'll have them packed and sent to you."

"You really can make it. I want the sweet and sour taste of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, the salty and sweet taste of braised pork, and the sweet and spicy taste of the sauce used for fried rice cakes sold on the street."

"Why are there so many requirements? Everything else is easy to ask for, but what is the sweet and spicy flavor of fried rice cakes?"

"It's the kind of sauce made with sweet bean paste, chili garlic sauce, and sweet bean paste that is often used on baked cakes, fried rice cakes, and fried mushrooms sold on the street."

[He is quite a foodie, so it is conceivable that it is really torturous for him to give up his appetite.]

"Okay." Shangluo replied, "But I suggest you eat less. After all, your training requires you to block your five senses as much as possible."

"My parents said the same thing. What's the point of just blocking desires? I can't just plug my ears, close my eyes, and pretend to be deaf and dumb."

"If you are asked to be pure and free from desires, and end up cultivating yourself into a fancy way of foraging, this is not the original purpose of cultivation. But since Master Sa Tian asked me to make the decision, I will give you a slight adjustment. I will send it to you later."

"So, brother, can you really do this?"

"I can make you starve to death, how difficult is that?"

"This is taste! Taste is abstract and does not exist in reality. But how do you stuff an abstract taste into a concrete can?"

"That's my business, just eat when the time comes."

"Oh," Han Xingzhi responded, "Big brother, is there anything I can help you with recently?"

"Help? No need. You can't help much."

"How do you know I can't help you if you don't tell me? You've treated me to a lot of food and daydreams, so I have to give you something in return."

"If I must say it." Shangluo thought for a while, "In fact, I'm currently studying how to disassemble the golden elixir I got back from Xu Fu. It's very difficult to do, and I don't want to go in and get entangled with Xu Fu again. This guy retreats every time in order to attack better, and if I go in again, wouldn't that be doing what he wants?"

"So, big brother, you want to 'open' that pill?"

"Well, just 'open'. Do you have any ideas?"

"Don't you have that? When you want to open something, of course you use that!"

"what?"

"Don't you have the skinning knife?"

"I've used it before, but it didn't work. Maybe it wasn't strong enough? Or maybe it's because Xu Fu was determined and consistent inside and out, so he didn't have any skin."

"Then we should use that!" Han Xingzhi suggested, "Let's use the hydraulic press!"

"Hydraulic press???"

"Yes! Use the hydraulic press. It's nothing. It's just that the hydraulic press can't open it!"

"It can even crush a book."

"That's an ordinary hydraulic press. What I'm talking about is the hydraulic press used to shape divine chrome! A hydraulic press with divine power!"

"We still have this kind of thing? Can divine chrome be pressed by a hydraulic press? Where is this hydraulic press? Why don't I know about it?"

"I do not know either."

"Then what's the use of this?"

"If you can create something like smell that doesn't exist, then you can probably create a hydraulic press that can crush everything."

Chapter 1250: Eight-part Essay

"You had pork elbow for lunch, right?" After lunch, they returned to the classroom where only the two of them were. Wen Zhong also came back. He looked very rosy, and it seemed that he had just eaten in the cafeteria.

"Yes, I ate it. But Principal... Oh no, Mr. Wen, it's almost the end of the year, don't you need to go back to the cabinet?"

"Today's afternoon agenda is related to me, and I just need to avoid it, so I come here to have some free time. Let's just sit down and chat. Let's talk about how to write a paper. By the way, Shangluo."

Suddenly, he looked into Shangluo's eyes and asked, "You can actually write a paper, right?"

"Yes, I know a little. I learned it a long time ago. But I can't compare to your level."

In the context of the imperial examination system, the most important criterion for measuring someone's prestige in the court was academic ability. After all, everyone was a scholar, and the competition among scholars was of course about who was more "literary". Whether it was the study of benevolence or the study of principles, the premise for gaining wide recognition was to produce a widely recognized paper.

This is very intuitive. Because it is impossible for everyone to go to the cabinet to meet with the cabinet elders, but everyone can see his articles. Literati get to know each other through articles. When 8 million people in the country are all literati, then the articles - especially the masterpieces, become a second face. Revising the article is equivalent to plastic surgery, and taking the entrance exam is a second reincarnation.

This is why Wen Zhong personally tutored Shangluo in writing his thesis. After all, although Shangluo's first face was growing well, the second face still needed to be carefully considered. After all, the second face would not be good-looking just because it became a celestial being. If it can't be done, it can't be done. There's nothing we can do about it.

"Then let's start with the topic."

“Should the main title contain a subtitle, like Theater Nation: Celebration and Political Order in Bali?”

"You can answer this question quickly?"

"Commander Li happened to teach me before."

"It seems that my peer has not abandoned his studies. I thought his brain was frozen in Beiting, after all, he hasn't had any articles published in many years. It seems that no matter what, he still has the basic skills to defraud funding."

"So do I have to write this for my pork elbow?"

"We generally recommend writing like this. Because the mini-thesis is semi-propositional, "Pig's Front and Back Elbows" is a theme, and you can formulate your own direction around this theme - but don't be too nervous, to put it bluntly, this is not a real thesis, but just an assignment, a small preview of the real thesis, just to cultivate the researcher's thinking."

"Then let me see what topic to choose. As expected, when it comes to pork elbows, it's all about the dishes made with the elbows. So I should write about cooking?"

"Then here comes the question." Wen Zhong said, "Speaking of cooking? According to the cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, and Nanyang cuisine all have pork knuckles. Cold dishes are different from hot dishes, cooked food is different from raw food, and eating directly is different from making it into smoked meat. Do you want to investigate all of them?"

"Ah, this... You can't finish writing 2000 words, right?"

"That's why the first essay at the beginning of the semester is limited to 2,000 words." Wen Zhong nodded. "I have no doubt that our students have enough time and energy to write an essay as thick as a small notebook, but then it will be impossible to grade the papers. When writing an essay, sometimes the most important thing is to make choices. There are thousands of facts in this world waiting for you to write, and you have to find the one that suits you best."

"Then I'll choose the one that's easier to investigate, even if it's smaller, right?"

"It's fine. This is a short essay with a semi-proposed topic, leaving half of it open for everyone to express themselves. But don't make it too small. If it's too small, it won't be universal and won't attract people's interest. For example, 'The front and back elbows of the sow in my backyard' is meaningless. Unless you can expand on it."

"Can it be expanded? For example?"

"For example, if you are Her Royal Highness the Princess, you can write a paper titled "The Front Elbow and the Back Axle of the Pig: Taking the Old Sow in the Backyard of Changchun Palace as an Example." Aren't you familiar with her? You can also write it. The subtitle can be 'My Emperor's Brother-in-Law.' That will get a lot of readers."

"Then I can't keep my face anymore."

"Well." Wen Zhong nodded. "Very good, you got the point. You can't publish a paper just for the sake of publishing a paper. Heaven and earth are silent and have no heart. You should use the truth to speak for the silent heaven and earth. This is called establishing a heart for heaven and earth, and it is also the most basic attitude you should have when doing academic research. After that, establishing a mission for the people and bringing eternal peace to the world are things you can talk about after you get your master's and doctoral degrees. When you first enter school, you only need to know how to establish a heart for heaven and earth. Because if you don't speak for heaven and earth, then science doesn't exist."

[The people at the Oracle should really listen carefully to this - what exactly are they doing? ]

"Well." Shangluo thought for a moment, "Then I'll write about the school cafeteria. Is this angle okay?"

"That's a good angle. There is no correct answer here, just choose the appropriate one. But since you chose the surrounding targets as the subjects of your investigation, there will be some requirements for your field investigation later - do you know what field investigation means?"

"Just field research?"

"Yes, that's the same idea. Investigation is the beginning of the empirical process. Everything has to be verified before it counts. How others write about pork elbows is another matter. It's better to go and see for yourself if you can. Because only by investigating can you find evidence, and evidence is the basis for building consensus. If there is no evidence, others will not agree with your paper. However, I still say that." Wen Zhong added:

"There are not many requirements for a short essay. It's OK as long as there are no mistakes in the basic facts. On this basis, there is a smooth context and consistent logic. This is already very good. Of course, the requirements for you are definitely different. You should consider it yourself. So, taking the pork knuckle of the school as the topic, have you thought about how to write it later?"

“Can I ask about the structure of the article?”

"The structure is very simple, just make an eight-part plan."

"Can the pork elbows in the cafeteria be cooked into eight-part pork?!"

"I can even make eight-part essays for the telephone poles outside your house. Everything can be eight-part essays. You have to write eight-part essays everywhere. There are eight-part essays for benevolence in the study of benevolence, eight-part essays for rationalism in the study of reason, and eight-part essays for being an official and taking the imperial examination. Eight-part essays are a tool. The key is how you use it. If you want to prove a complex proposition, writing an eight-part essay can help you sort out your point of view and make it easier for others to understand you."

"Then how do we write this eight-part essay?"

"It's simple. It's called an eight-part essay, but it actually consists of three parts: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Please memorize it first."

Chapter 1251 Article

Shangluo wrote down three words in his notebook: introduction, main body and conclusion.

"Then," Wen Zhong said, "it's called eight-part essay, but it actually has 12 parts to write. It sounds complicated, but you'll understand once I explain it. For example, what is your topic? What are your two research subjects?"

"Pork knuckle and the school cafeteria?"

"Yes. So the first part is the introduction, which introduces the purpose and significance of the research - for example, why did you choose the school cafeteria to study pork elbows?

"The second part is the main body of the essay, which is the eight-part essay itself. Your research objects are pork elbows and canteens, so you should write four essays on each side. The first four essays introduce pork elbows, such as the physiological structure of pork elbows, the cooking process of pork elbows, the history of pork elbow dishes, etc. The last four essays are about the school canteen, and you can analyze why the canteen makes the dishes like this.

"The third part, the conclusion, is to first draw the conclusion and then look forward to the research prospects - so remember it? Purpose, significance, the first four parts and the last four parts, conclusion and outlook, 2 plus 8 plus 2, that's 12 parts, it's an eight-part essay."

“That doesn’t sound difficult.”

"I'm introducing you to a hammer. How difficult can it be? But how to use the hammer is up to you. After all, it's a tool. If the tool itself is so difficult that people can't even understand it, how can you use it well?"

"I see." Shangluo took notes.

"Then the rest is up to you. I'll pack the fishing gear for you and you can go fishing. Oh, by the way."

Wen Zhong said, and took out a small iron plate: "Well, this is a small privilege I give you as the principal."

"What is this?" This iron plate looks like a certificate, and there is an envelope outside to protect the words.

"I've got you a certificate from the Censor-in-Chief. You can get it yourself. I just saved you the process. With this certificate, you can represent the Censorate and go around the school. You can interview anyone you want. As long as they see this certificate, anyone will give way to you."

“That makes me feel stressed.”

Shangluo knew that this was not the time to compete with "magic power". This was the time to compete with his brain. In theory, as a Qigong practitioner, he could have more energy to deal with it. But he himself seemed to have not yet transitioned to the free kingdom of wisdom.

Those unfathomable and unpredictable sage states seemed to be quite far away from him.

This is not a bad thing. He does not want to become so Buddhist so early. Only by maintaining a realistic perception of the world can one enjoy every day of life. This is very important. However, if he wants to make further progress, it seems impossible without becoming more wise.

"So, it's up to you from now on." Wen Zhong handed the iron sheet directly to Shang Luo, "If you are free, you can show up at the Metropolitan Censorate in the next two days."