Chapter 2512: The Building is Crooked
Mingda and Changyu have only been to their princess's mansion once so far. The rest of the time, they either asked palace servants to check the progress, or looked at the progress through the drawings provided by the Ministry of Works and communicated with the Ministry of Works about the construction through the drawings.
Mingda likes water, but she is weak and cannot be too close to water, so she only changed the direction of some waterways in the palace, and did not change anything else.
But Changyu wanted to change a lot of things. If Mingda hadn't tried his best to suppress her and her father was really poor, she would have been impeached for asking too much from the national treasury. She also wanted to build a few more rockery with Taihu stones in the mansion. She wanted to build a group of rockery, preferably with pavilions on them, with passages between the rockery, so that it could be made into a maze.
She drew the blueprints herself and even received praise from an old man in the Ministry of Works who was good at construction. Unfortunately, such a perfect garden design is unlikely to be released to the public in the short term.
But she could share it with Manbao Mingda.
But Mingda and Manbao don't quite buy it.
Mingda said, "It's too extravagant. Even if the national treasury and the emperor didn't pay for it, the cost would still be enormous. I wonder how much hard labor would be needed to transport these Taihu stones to the capital."
Chang Yu: "It's not like I won't give you money. I'll buy it after I get married and earn money."
Manbao was very curious, "Why does it have to be Taihu stone? Aren't there any big rocks outside Beijing?"
Chang Yu looked at her with disdain and said, "Stones are different from each other, just like people. People have their beauty and ugliness, and so do stones."
Manbao retorted: "That must be because you lack a pair of eyes to discover beauty."
She said, "In our Shu land, there are both beautiful small mountains and majestic high mountains. You can't say that beauty is inferior to majesty, nor can you say that majesty is inferior to beauty. Don't they all have their own merits?"
She sat cross-legged on the wooden couch and pointed at the mountains and rivers, saying, "If I were you, I would find stones in the capital and Yongzhou, transport them here, and build them into whatever shape I want. If you don't like the stones, I can just chisel some. It doesn't cost much. Taihu stones are not only expensive, but they also require hard labor over there to chisel them out and then send them thousands of miles to the capital. The shipping cost is more expensive than the Taihu stones themselves. Why bother?"
Mingda couldn't help but laugh at her, "If everyone in the world thought like you, there would be no beauty of brocade and no scarcity of gold and jade."
Changyu rarely saw Mingda standing on his side, and immediately said proudly: "Look, look, it's not me who doesn't see beauty, but you."
However, Mingda didn't approve of her buying a large amount of Taihu stones, so he said, "But Manbao's suggestion is worth a try. Maybe Sister can also open a school of her own."
She asked, "Didn't people start appreciating Taihu stones only after the Later Jin Dynasty?"
Chang Yu said, "The stone itself has to be beautiful. Taihu stones are exquisitely carved and translucent, with a myriad of forms. Some are bizarre in shape, some are brilliant in color, some have beautiful patterns, some are fine in quality, some are graceful and elegant; some are solemn and ancient, solemn and profound, and otherworldly. If other stones want to compete with them, they must also be beautiful in their own right. Otherwise, I can't point to a deer and call it a thousand-mile horse, and expect people to agree with me, right?"
Manbao clapped his hands and praised, "Well said!"
Then he said, "Isn't this simple? The mountains of the capital and Yongzhou have a quality that Taihu stones absolutely do not have."
Mingda and Changyu were curious and asked, "What?"
Manbao said seriously, "Hard!"
She said, "If you use Taihu stones to hit the stones in the capital and Yongzhou, the broken ones will definitely be Taihu stones."
Mingda and Changyu were both silent. Changyu was so angry that she started to tickle her, while Mingda couldn't help laughing.
It was just a joke at the time, but Changyu actually asked people to look for good stones in the mountains outside the capital, thinking of setting up a rockery in her princess mansion to see how it would work.
She pointed to the area she had chosen and said, "Put the rockery here. When the time comes, divert the water here, and the garden will have both mountains and water. Then, open a side door here. Mingda, you should also open a side door in this direction. Then, our two families can visit each other without having to go through the main gate."
Mingda was somewhat tempted.
The Queen smiled and said to them, "If you can't make up your mind, then go and take a look. If you see it in person, perhaps you will have a different opinion."
Mingda and Changyu's eyes lit up when they heard this, and they turned to look at the emperor.
The emperor naturally had no objection and nodded repeatedly in agreement.
So in the afternoon, Mingda and Changyu left the palace together. Because it was almost time to leave the court, Manbao was allowed by the emperor to leave the palace to accompany them.
Manbao had no choice but to take a car to the Hanlin Academy and ask someone to tell Bai Shan that they would not go home together.
The Hanlin who was caught delivering the message returned to the Hanlin Academy and stood in front of Bai Shan's desk looking at him.
Bai Shan was writing furiously. Seeing the shadow on his desk lingering for a long time, he couldn't help but look up.
The Hanlin said with a stern face, "Master Zhou has just accompanied the princess in her carriage to the gate of the Hanlin Academy. He has something to tell Hanlin Bai."
Bai Shan immediately sat up straight and said to the other party, "Master Zhou said he is not free today, so he will not go home with you."
Bai Shan frowned slightly, but still bowed to express his gratitude.
Hanlin nodded seriously, turned around and couldn't help but curl his eyes, holding back his laughter and walking away calmly before a smile appeared on his face.
There is clearly one carriage for each princess, but the three of them must sit in one carriage together.
Changyu even drove the maidservants out of the carriage, and then the two of them pulled Manbao aside to whisper, "What is the wedding like? I asked the aunts, but they always said they would tell us when we are about to get married."
Changyu whispered to her, "I read in a book that the bridal chamber is very painful."
Manbao asked her, "What kind of nonsense storybook have you read?"
Chang Yu moved a little further away from her, "It's not a mess..."
Mingda's face also turned red, and he whispered, "Auntie gave me a set of Happy Buddha to watch."
Her eyes were filled with confusion. "They say it's the Buddha from the Western Regions. I've always known that the Buddhism of our Great Jin is different from that of the Western Regions, but I didn't expect it to be so different. Don't the Buddhas of our Great Jin have to abide by the rules and precepts?"
Man Bao's spirits perked up. She knew this and immediately said, "Not all Buddhist sects in the Great Jin are the same. There are Mahayana and Hinayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism follows the Bodhisattva Path, which aims to save all sentient beings, abstain from killing and release animals, and is based on compassion. It believes that all sentient beings in the country are equal in nature and wisdom, and that all sentient beings can be reborn in the Pure Land. Hinayana Buddhism aims at self-improvement and liberation, and respects the self. However, the preaching of Hinayana Buddhism is rare in the Central Plains of the Great Jin, but it is still the main practice in the southern and northern borders."
Man Bao said, "Many tribes on the grasslands also believe in Buddhism, among which the Hinayana Buddhism is the main one. Within the two major Buddhist teachings, there are also branches and sects, which are even more different."
Changyu was stunned, and Mingda was also stunned. Then he asked, "Are you still studying Buddhism?"
Manbao shook his head honestly, "No, that's not the case. This is what Master Zhiren and Master Jiechen said."
She sighed and said, "We've been traveling with Master Zhiren for over two months. I really have nothing else to say except to talk about Buddhism."
"That was a truly painful time," Manbao said. She had selectively forgotten that she was the one who went to talk to Master Zhiren in the first place.
"We also saw Master Zhiren discuss Buddhism with masters from the Western Regions several times at Gaochang State Temple in Xizhou. Although I didn't understand most of what they said, their verbal battles were no less intense than Yufeng's in the court. They were incredibly powerful."
Chang Yu pondered, "What were we just about to say?"
Mingda: "Bridal chamber."
"Oh, yes, the bridal chamber. Let's continue talking about the bridal chamber."
See you at 6pm
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
