Chapter 62 Jinning Study
Fan Chuntai is from Jinning City. His father is a wealthy local family and his family lives a decent life.
When Fan Chuntai was young, his father sent him to the Lu family in Jinning City to study under Master Lu. Fan Chuntai still remembers that in order to allow him to enroll in school, his father asked people everywhere and asked someone to send a gift of earth to Master Lu. Finally, Fan Chuntai got the opportunity to study under Master Lu.
However, after Fan Chuntai enrolled in the school, he discovered that there were differences between students.
Master Lu taught the son of the prefect of Jining City and some other children of officials very attentively, but he looked down upon Fan Chuntai and students of similar status. Not only did they often have to sit in a corner when listening to Master Lu's lectures, but in the scorching summer and bitter winter, his seat was under the window, and in the winter his fingers were so stiff that he couldn't even hold a pen.
He was resentful when he was young, but as he grew older, he gradually realized that people like him who could study were actually a minority, and Master Lu taught him carefully only because the son of the prefect of Jinning City would become an official in the future.
Fan Chuntai thought that things would continue like this, but the situation changed suddenly. One day, a group of "uninvited guests" came to Jinning City. They were wearing the same black tights, all of them were tall and strong, with long swords on their waists, and they easily entered the city gate.
The governor of Jinning City was furious and led his soldiers to capture this group of people. However, these people were very skilled in martial arts, and finally the leader showed the bright yellow token in his hand.
He only said in a clear voice: "I am here by order."
Fan Chuntai was also in the crowd. He saw the governor, who had the highest status in Jinning City and no one dared to disobey him, suddenly fell to the ground with his legs going weak in public.
The leader waved his hand, and two companions came out from behind him and took the governor away.
The crowd, who were originally afraid but also eager to see, suddenly scattered and made way for the adults who claimed to be Jinyiwei. Unexpectedly, at this moment, a blind old woman who was passing by was already trembling and unable to stand steadily. She was pushed by someone and fell directly in the middle of the road.
The old woman didn't know what was going on, and she stretched out her dead tree-like hands to grope for her crutch on the ground.
Fan Chuntai's heart immediately tightened when he saw this scene, fearing that the Jinyiwei masters would draw their swords and kill the old woman - officials always did this. Once, a man pushing a vegetable cart accidentally offended the prefect's nephew and was beaten to death by the other party's servants. The man who died tragically had a wife and children at home, leaving him orphaned and widowed...
For those powerful people, killing someone is as easy as chopping melons and vegetables. They don't need to consider the laws of the Great Zhou at all, because they have people protecting them. Even if the mother and son continue to cry out for justice, they will disappear without anyone noticing...
The facts seemed to be just as Fan Chuntai had imagined. The Jinyiwei official stopped in his tracks, his handsome eyebrows slightly furrowed, and he bent down...
Then he helped the old woman up with both hands, picked up the crutch and put it in her hand.
These Jinyiwei took the prefect and others to the prefect's mansion. The people of Jinning City who witnessed the scene were stunned.
Only the blind old woman didn't know what was going on. She walked away while tapping the road with her crutch.
...
What do these "Jinyiwei" do? At night, Fan Chuntai lay in bed, tossing and turning in his thoughts. For some reason, he kept seeing the scene of the Jinyiwei leading the old woman. That man was clearly a person who even the prefect did not care about, but he treated a filthy, blind old woman like that without a trace of disgust. Instead, he helped her to a safe place.
What exactly are they doing in Jining City?
...
Two days later, the building that originally belonged to the prefect of Jining City suddenly changed. Fan Chuntai saw a notice posted at the door. He walked closer and was surprised to find that it said that they were recruiting people and required to be literate. He took a closer look and found that the salary was very high.
For some reason - perhaps it was the scene of yesterday that kept appearing before his eyes, Fan Chuntai took a deep breath and walked into this pavilion that he had never set foot in before.
As soon as I came in, I saw a wooden table on the right. A man was sitting behind it, frowning and using his hands as if calculating something. There was an open notebook in front of him, and several thick notebooks beside it. The people who could use paper at this time were definitely not ordinary people, not to mention that those notebooks were as heavy as bricks.
Fan Chuntai was in a state of confusion. The man was wearing ordinary linen clothes, but his appearance did not look like that of an ordinary person... because he was so energetic.
Before he walked over, the man in sackcloth noticed him immediately and looked up at the door. At that moment, Fan Chuntai actually felt as if he was being stared at. He swallowed and said, "Excuse me, what are you recruiting for here?"
"Oh." The man in sackcloth moved his eyes away and continued to stare at the open notebook on the table. "Can you read?"
"I recognize him." Fan Chuntai said hurriedly and dryly. He was just about to say that he was once a student of Master Lu, but suddenly remembered that the people in this pavilion might have a close relationship with the Jinyiwei yesterday. Seeing how the other party was ruthless in capturing the prefect, he didn't think that if he brought up Master Lu now, it would do anything.
Unexpectedly, the man said directly: "Go to the inner room, someone will take you to copy the book, do you understand?"
"Copy a book?!" Fan Chuntai was stunned. "Is that what I was thinking of? May I ask what kind of book you're hiring people to copy?"
The man seemed to be concentrating on calculating something, and when he heard Fan Chuntai's chattering, he immediately became unhappy: "Hey, why are you talking so much? Yes, I just copy books, all kinds of books, but the wages are calculated by the book! Don't try to be lazy."
As he was speaking, a man came out from the inner room. He was also wearing linen clothes and was tall. He gave Fan Chuntai a slightly stiff smile: "Are you here to copy books? Follow me to the inner room." He made a gesture of invitation.
Fan Chuntai walked into the inner room anxiously, wondering why this was getting weirder and weirder.
He vaguely heard the man behind him scolding the man who was talking to Fan Chuntai: "Ji Long, how many times have I told you how to treat the people? What did the adults teach us?"
...
However, what really made Fan Chuntai stunned was that when he entered the inner room, he saw a large wooden table piled with books in all directions. He was about to reach out but subconsciously retracted his hand and only looked at the title of the book with his eyes -
Floating Rites.
It is the work of Lu Yangshui, a great man of the previous dynasty!
Fan Chuntai's hands began to tremble. He cautiously asked the man beside him, "Aren't you afraid that I might secretly memorize it while copying it?"
The man smiled and said, "Don't worry. If you can memorize it, it's your own ability."
Then he added, "These books are meant to be put here for people to read. You just read them before others. So what's the harm?"
Fan Chuntai just stood there in a daze!
Only then did he look at what the inner room looked like. He saw rows of neatly placed wooden cabinets. Each cabinet had five layers and was hollow in the middle.
The man saw him looking at the wooden cabinets and explained, "The books you copied will be placed on the wooden cabinets. This pavilion will be open to the scholars of Jinning City in the future."
...
Fan Chuntai copied books in a daze all day, and left only when his hands were so weak that he could not lift them. After returning home, he told his two friends about his experience. His friends did not believe it at all. The next day, Fan Chuntai took them to the pavilion with the words "Jinning Study" hanging on the wall... In the evening, the three of them came out of the study in a daze.
Gradually, more and more people came to the study to copy books. Fan Chuntai then realized that the study not only accepted serious students like them, but also those who could read a few words or even those who could not read as long as they could write neatly.
After all the books had been copied, they were no longer allowed to enter the study. The man told them that the inner room was going to be repaired and they would be able to enter freely in the near future.
During those few days, Fan Chuntai was distracted and kept coming to the study unconsciously. For example, one day he saw all the carpenters in Jinning City come to the study, and another day he saw several carriages carrying goods...
On the day the study was opened, Fan Chuntai and others arrived early.
Fan Chuntai and his two good friends, Zeng Shun and Fang Fengyu, met in front of the study. All three of them walked in with curiosity. As soon as they entered, they saw rows of neat and clean wooden tables and chairs. Each table and chair had a pen holder and other items on it, and even paper!
The man named Ji Long, who had spoken to Fan Chuntai at the beginning, came over to greet them. Fan Chuntai bowed and said, "Brother Ji."
Ji Long nodded, and seeing them staring at the papers on the table, he said, "These are provided for your use in the study, but you must not have any bad intentions. You can only use the papers in the study to write articles or practice calligraphy. Each person has a limited amount of paper available."
This statement was enough to shock Fan Chuntai and the other two. After all, paper was a valuable commodity these days, and yet the study actually gave it to them for free?!
Because the three of them were familiar faces, Ji Long patiently explained to them: "You can browse the books in the wooden cabinet at will, but you must put them back after reading. The study staff will check them every day. In addition, there is hot tea outside the study..."
Since the opening of Jinning Study, Fan Chuntai and the other two have been eagerly reading the works of famous authors in the study every day. If the study did not have a closing time every day, they would definitely forget to eat and sleep.
Gradually, more and more people came to Jining Study, and some of them could not even recognize all the characters. Fan Chuntai once discovered that someone in the study was patiently explaining the contents of a book in a low voice to a teenager who was holding the book.
Fan Chuntai also learned from others that this study was opened by the Jinyiwei who came to Jinning City. He finally understood what the "Jinyiwei" was - an organization directly under the emperor's control and directly took orders from the emperor.
They came to Jinning City by imperial decree, not only to study, they will also do more things in Jinning City in the future.
Fan Chuntai was not afraid of this group of people who sounded very powerful, nor was he worried about what they would do. He didn't want to ask why.
Probably... because that day he saw with his own eyes the Jinyiwei helping up a blind old woman who had fallen on the road.
...
Scenes like the Jining Study are not limited to just one place in Jining City. Due to current limited resources, the library Yan Xuanyu wants to build can only look like this for the time being. He hopes that in a few years, more talents will emerge from these places that are open to students free of charge.
This is the relatively good teaching environment that Yan Xuanyu can currently provide to the scholars in the world. One must eat one bite at a time, and he is prepared that the results of the study will only show results in a few years.
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