In the maple forest courtyard, in front of the stone table.

When a woman as beautiful as orchid said the eight words "the road is long and difficult", the atmosphere became quiet.

The curl of white smoke in the teacup on the table gradually became sparse.

At the gate of the courtyard, two scholars from the academy who were serving their teacher looked inside the gate, then looked at each other with curious eyes.

Sitting at the stone table, the two academy masters were silent.

Yan Jidao stared at the woman in Confucian clothes with light in her eyes.

He knew that the trend of their conversation at this moment was that of seeking the truth, and what would follow would most likely be a serious discussion of the truth, in which they would talk about their own Confucianism, question and argue with each other, thus sharpening the minds of both parties.

Even if they talked for three days and three nights, Yan Jidao would not find it strange.

However, he was not prepared to agree.

Yan Jidao picked up the teacup, touched the rim of the cup with his lips, and then put it down. He looked up and met Zhu Weirui's eyes, nodded, and shook his head.

Zhu Weirui's bright eyes gradually dimmed, and she nodded and smiled, "I'm sorry for bothering you today. When you return to the academy someday, I will bring gifts to apologize. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave now."

"Mr. Zhu, you are too polite. I will deliver this piece of paper to Zhao Ziyu. Please take care."

Zhu Weirui put away his teacup, stood up, bowed, then turned and left.

Yan Jidao stroked his beard and watched Zhu Weirui's departing back.

He did not ask Zhu Weirui, not only because he was very unfamiliar with calligraphy and didn't know much about it, but also because Yan Jidao did not think highly of Zhu Weirui's "unorthodox path" and did not believe that calligraphy could give birth to a new style of calligraphy.

In his view, calligraphy is nothing more than a carrier of text for poetry, songs, classics and articles.

Lishu, cursive script, regular script, as long as they are written neatly, clearly and not ugly, it's fine. As for how beautiful these characters are, there is no need to do so. Excessive pursuit is just putting the cart before the horse and a waste of energy.

Can you write flowers?

How could the great works of the various schools of thought at the Jixia Academy have any requirements for calligraphy? As long as you can explore the profound and subtle, and understand the laws of nature through your studies and writings, even if your handwriting is a mess, God will have to accept it with a pinch of his nose.

Besides, let’s not talk about the special characters of the ancient races, just talking about the original intention of the ancestors of human beings to create characters, it was just a way and tool to record language so that it could be passed down for a long time.

Today, the calligraphy that has developed over tens of thousands of years and pays attention to the writing of words is nothing more than the interest of ordinary scholars in the dynasties below the mountain who study it out of boredom.

The hundreds of cultivators on the mountain have focused their main energy on exploring the ultimate way of heaven and earth, and have never heard of any mortal who could enter the Tao by studying calligraphy. The hundreds of cultivators would not care about this little trick right under their noses.

These are not just Yan Jidao's understandings, but are actually the common sense tacitly accepted by the entire Xuanhuang cultivation world.

Calligraphy is not like painting or music. The latter two can concretely manifest the "Tao" and are recognized paths of cultivation. But as for calligraphy, apart from the meaning assigned to each character, how can it express its own meaning and contain the Tao like a complete article?

Throughout history, there have been people who did not believe in evil and wanted to give it a try. They also wanted to use the law to enter the Tao, but in the end, they all hit their heads against a wall and got bloodied. The most recent and famous "example" was at Linlu Academy.

In front of Yan Jidao.

Yan Jidao watched Zhu Weirui's back disappear from his sight and sighed softly.

This woman must be very lonely. She is in a Confucian academy, surrounded by fellow students, but she can't find a "fellow student"...

He slowly withdrew his gaze.

The Confucianism in the Xuanhuang Realm has six arts, which were explored by Confucian sages over tens of thousands of years.

Scriptures and art.

Poetry and art.

Ritual art.

Music and Art.

Chess skills.

Painting skills.

For these six arts, Confucianism has corresponding paths of cultivation and mature methods of practice for Confucian scholars to choose from and practice and study.

These are also the six arts that new students must learn in their first year after entering the Confucian Academy.

Among them, it is divided into two major arts and four minor arts.

The two great arts are classics and poetry.

The four minor arts are the remaining four.

Zhu Weirui gave up his promising career in Confucianism and Taoism and turned to the "minor art" of calligraphy. This was not only widely spread within Confucianism, but also caused quite a stir among other schools of thought.

"You are the first-class scholar of Confucianism. Why did you leave the Jixia Academy and come to this small Wangque Island..."

Yan Jidao turned his head and stared at the distant mountains, muttering to himself.

For the monks of the Hundred Schools, the transformation from a scholar to a gentleman is extremely difficult.

Take Confucianism as an example. New students entering a Confucian academy can obtain the title of scholar as long as they are accepted as disciples by the academy teacher.

However, the title of gentleman is extremely difficult to obtain and the proportion is extremely small. There are only a few of them in a medium-sized Confucian academy, and they are the backbone of the school.

Once a person is granted the title of gentleman by Zhongzhou Confucian Temple, even if he is an unknown person, he can instantly become famous in the 72 academies in Jiuzhou.

Just like the new gentleman from Siqi Academy that Zhao Rong learned about in the mountain newspaper not long ago.

The first-class Confucian scholar is a special one among the vast number of Confucian scholars.

Zhongzhou Confucian Temple has a term of a certain number of years. Among all the young Confucian scholars in this term, the most promising ones are selected, listed in the roster, and marked as the first-class scholars.

The Confucian Temple focuses on observation and training.

They are all candidates for gentlemen.

Zhu Weirui is such a person.

Talent for academic research and great cultivation.

They are all the best among the Confucian scholars of the same generation.

Originally, she had a bright future and was expected to be a gentleman, and a female gentleman would be recorded in the history of Confucianism, becoming one of the rare existences and remembered by later generations. However, what makes people laugh or sigh is that Zhu Weirui happened to be the person who hit a wall several times in the history of the Hundred Schools of Thought every once in a while.

Yan Jidao, who had been silent all this time, suddenly frowned slightly.

This time when Zhu Weirui came to Linlu Academy, the dean asked her to serve as an art teacher as well for some unknown reason.

Some people in the academy have gradually started to complain and discuss this matter.

It’s not that she is not qualified to be an art teacher for the new students - if even the first-class Confucian scholars are not qualified to teach art to the new students, then other ordinary teachers should just resign and go home.

What caused complaints in the academy was that the dean actually approved Zhu Weirui to teach a seventh art in addition to the "Six Arts of Confucianism", which was the calligraphy art she named.

Looking at the 72 academies in Jiuzhou, this is the first time such behavior has happened.

Even if you are Mr. Youlan, who is welcomed by all the men in the academy, you cannot break the rules and act like this.

Suddenly, Yan Jidao seemed to remember something. He stood up and went into the house to take out the homework papers that his disciples had handed in in the past.

Before this, his eldest disciple Li Jinshu had always helped him correct the papers.

Yan Jidao rummaged through it and pulled out a particularly eye-catching paper roll. When he opened it, he saw that it was indeed signed by Zhao Ziyu.