Chapter 125 "The teacher's teachings are true; the student will certainly remember them..."
Emperor Xianping held a small court meeting with several important officials at the imperial palace. Afterwards, he kept Xiao Yu behind and apologized to him for the incident the previous day in which the Fourth Prince had bullied Cheng'er.
Serving a ruler is indeed like serving a tiger, because ministers never know which careless remark they might make that might offend the emperor, and the punishment he would unleash would be as fierce as a tiger pouncing. However, most emperors usually treat their important ministers with great courtesy, as if they were close friends and relatives. They would chat about everyday things when appropriate, and show concern for their well-being when necessary.
Emperor Xianping sincerely apologized, and Xiao Yu also showed the appropriate magnanimity, saying that it was just children playing around and that Emperor Xianping should not take it to heart.
Emperor Xianping knew very well that it was because the Crown Prince intervened in time to prevent Cheng'er from getting hurt; otherwise, Xiao Yu would never have been so accommodating.
The emperor's humility and the harmony between ruler and subject were a small but beautiful story that would be passed down.
The next day, it was Xiao Yu's turn to teach the Crown Prince. Before the lesson, Xiao Yu also expressed her gratitude to the Crown Prince for taking care of her daughter, in accordance with etiquette.
The Crown Prince helped the bowing teacher to his feet and said gently, "I treat Cheng'er like my own sister, so there's no need for such formality."
The Crown Prince respected his mentor, and out of affection for him, he initially felt close to Xiao Hong, even taking care of Xiao Hong's younger brother when they met occasionally. Later, when Cheng'er was born, the Crown Prince felt a greater affinity for her than for the children of other officials. The awkward part was that he initially treated Cheng'er as a little sister, but with the birth of his niece, the two girls often played together, and the Crown Prince couldn't help but feel that Cheng'er was also like his niece. However, his mentor was still very young and was only of his father's generation. In front of his mentor, when the Crown Prince mentioned Cheng'er, he could only continue to refer to himself as his elder brother.
After completing the formalities, the teacher and student entered the study, where Xiao Yu began to teach the Crown Prince with complete focus.
The two lessons took a total of one hour. After the lessons ended, Xiao Yu came to the Crown Prince and asked as a subject, "Your Highness protected my daughter yesterday, and I am very grateful. However, there is something I do not understand, and I would like to ask Your Highness to enlighten me."
The Crown Prince was sitting at this moment. He first invited Xiao Yu to sit down beside him so that the teacher and student could look at each other at eye level. Then the Crown Prince said, "Please speak frankly, sir."
Xiao Yu nodded slightly and looked at the Crown Prince, asking, "Your Majesty, I said that the Fourth Prince almost kicked her, but fortunately Your Majesty intervened in time to protect her. I am just as grateful as you are to Your Majesty. However, I was afraid to learn that the Fourth Prince was actually dragged across the grass by Your Majesty's whip. If the Fourth Prince had been disfigured or seriously injured from being dragged, Your Majesty, though acting out of kindness, might very well have been implicated by my actions."
How many dangers must have been involved in the seven-year-old child being dragged along the ground with his hands wrapped in a horsewhip, from the moment he fell to the moment he came to a stop?
Xiao Yu is Cheng Jie'er's father and loves his daughter even more than the Crown Prince. However, he would never punish a child in such a way. If the Crown Prince had only lashed the Fourth Prince's back with a whip, forcing him to stop abusing his daughter due to the pain, Xiao Yu would not be as shocked as he is now.
The prince pursed his lips, avoiding his teacher's gaze.
This was a guilty conscience, which Xiao Yu understood. He changed his question: "I would like to know, if the person who bullied Cheng'er was an ordinary official's son who was a complete stranger to Your Highness, or the son of an ordinary commoner, would Your Highness have directly used a whip, or would there have been another safer way to help her?"
The Crown Prince certainly has one.
He could stop the other party in advance, and even if the other party was bold enough to ignore his shout, the prince could bend down and lift a seven-year-old boy onto his horse and take him away, or he could jump off his horse and pull the boy aside. All of this was on the premise that he did not know the boy or had no personal grudge against him.
But he knew the Fourth Prince and all of Consort Li's children.
Even when the family was still living in the Prince's Mansion, the Crown Prince knew that his father had other women around him. After entering the palace, the number of concubines increased. His mother never cared where his father went and had no interest in vying for favor. The Crown Prince would never make any unwarranted comments about his father's harem.
But the Crown Prince cared about his mother and sister. Consort Li, spoiled by the Emperor's favor, was not content with her father's affection and even dared to dream of being on equal footing with his mother. During private banquets in the palace, Consort Li always used every means to vie for the Emperor's attention. They were all the Emperor's women, and he could show his favor to everyone. However, the Crown Prince could not bear to see his mother being excluded from the Emperor and Consort Li's lives. Especially last year when the Emperor returned from his northern expedition, his mother clearly wanted to show concern for the Emperor, but Consort Li surrounded the Emperor with her four children. The Empress Dowager was a proud person and would not stoop to competing with Consort Li for the Emperor's attention in such a setting.
Consort Li was the most disliked by the Crown Prince. Her four children were just like her. The Second Prince, now sensible, continued to curry favor with his father while diligently studying and practicing martial arts, all for the sake of becoming the eldest brother and the Crown Prince. The Second Princess, the Fourth Prince, and the Fifth Prince, on the other hand, used various tricks to attract their father's attention and helped Consort Li steer him in her direction.
The more the Crown Prince saw and knew, the deeper his resentment towards Consort Li's family grew. Therefore, when he saw the Fourth Prince bullying Cheng'er, the Crown Prince instinctively used the heaviest punishment he could legitimately inflict at the time. As for whether the Fourth Prince would be seriously injured or disfigured, the Crown Prince, only thinking about venting his anger, did not give it much consideration.
After a long silence, the Crown Prince, who also saw through the purpose of the question, directly admitted his mistake: "I acted impulsively and should not have taken the opportunity to vent my personal anger."
Xiao Yu understood the Crown Prince's resentment and said, "Your Highness has not yet come of age, and it is inevitable that you will act impulsively according to your mood. Even I am about to enter my forties, and I often act impulsively and rudely when I encounter people or things that I do not like. However, the consequences of our impulsiveness and Your Highness's impulsiveness may be very different. Would Your Highness be willing to let me explain in detail?"
The crown prince said solemnly, "Please enlighten me, sir."
Xiao Yu first used two children as examples: "Your Highness may not know, but when Cheng'er visited my father-in-law's house and played with the children in town, if any naughty child tried to take her toy, Cheng'er dared to fight back directly. However, when she encountered the Fourth Prince, she could only run away and hide. This is because she knew that the Fourth Prince's status was noble, and if she took action, it might lead to a worse result than the wooden horse being stolen."
"On the other hand, the Fourth Prince's chasing after Cheng'er and stealing the wooden horse can be attributed to the mischievousness common to children of this age. However, after getting the wooden horse, he still wanted to continue torturing Cheng'er. Firstly, it is possible that the Fourth Prince did not know how much pain his kick would bring to Cheng'er. Secondly, he did know, but he neither cared about Cheng'er's pain nor knew that he would be severely punished for hitting someone because of his noble status as a prince. Thus, he developed the habit of doing whatever he wanted and beating anyone who displeased him."
The crown prince scoffed, "Those brothers are all tyrannical and domineering."
The second prince has learned to restrain his pretentious behavior, while the fourth and fifth princes frequently beat and scold the palace servants around them. This is commonplace in the royal family and among some noble and powerful families; the elders are used to it and generally don't bother to intervene unless things escalate. The Emperor is busy with state affairs, and Consort Li and her children are used to acting cute and charming in front of him. Why would the Emperor care about such trivial matters?
Xiao Yu nodded in agreement: "I am just like Cheng Jie'er, except that Cheng Jie'er is concerned about the difference in status, while I am concerned about the laws of the Great Zhou. So even if I sometimes wish I could kill a heinous criminal with my own hands, I will use the law to restrain my evil thoughts and act in accordance with the law."
"Your Highness is just like the Fourth Prince. The Fourth Prince committed violence out of greed and anger, while Your Highness hurts others out of resentment. Your Highness will not use excessive force against other children because Your Highness is kind and knows how to maintain proper boundaries. Your Highness can punish the Fourth Prince severely without any scruples because Your Highness knows that your status is higher than that of the Fourth Prince. Even if the matter is brought before the Emperor, Your Highness can still argue your case and get away unscathed. One is the Crown Prince, and the other is a prince. They are equally matched in their abuse of power."
Crown Prince: "..."
When the gentleman conflated him with the Fourth Prince, whom he deeply hated, the Crown Prince's usually serene and gentle expression darkened noticeably.
Xiao Yu acted as if he couldn't see it and continued, "No, if the Crown Prince truly develops a habit of doing whatever he wants and bullying others, the consequences will be even worse than for the Fourth Prince. Because in the future, the Fourth Prince will at most be granted the title of Prince, and if a Prince bullies others, the Emperor can punish him. But the Crown Prince will be the Emperor of the Great Zhou in the future. If the Emperor punishes people indiscriminately based on his whims, who can punish the Emperor?"
The prince then realized that the teacher had gone through all this trouble to persuade him to restrain his selfishness and to be fair in rewarding and punishing.
Despite his resentment towards Consort Li and her son, the Crown Prince heeded his teacher's earnest advice, rose, bowed, and said, "Your teachings are true, and I will certainly keep them in mind."
Xiao Yu breathed a sigh of relief. The emperor can have his own emotions and desires, but the emperor's power is too great. A wise emperor should also learn to exercise his imperial power cautiously. Otherwise, if the crown prince can severely punish the fourth prince out of resentment today, the crown prince who ascends the throne in the future can also severely punish a minister who is not worthy of such a severe punishment out of resentment.
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In mid-June, it started raining at the imperial palace.
Emperor Xianping suddenly felt like going on a trip, so he ordered people to prepare carriages and boats, and selected several of his favorites to go boating on the lake with him.
The lake was shrouded in mist and rain. Emperor Xianping listened to the musicians playing the zither and lute while waiting for Yan Zhuang and others to compose poems.
Xiao Yu was a favorite of the emperor, but his words were unpleasant to hear, so Emperor Xianping did not summon him. Although Chen Ruliang spoke eloquently, his literary talent was lacking, so Emperor Xianping did not summon him to appear cultured. Among the important officials, only Pei Xingshu and one Zhongshu Shilang were present, while the remaining seven or eight were all top scholars (Zhuangyuan, Bangyan, and Tanhua) who had stayed in the capital this year or in previous years and were outstanding in literary talent.
The pleasure boats moved slowly on the lake, and people wrote their poems and presented them to Emperor Xianping.
All the poems were excellent, and Emperor Xianping praised and commented on them one by one. The poem by Wei Ling, the third-ranked scholar, was particularly praised for its fresh and picturesque quality and was chosen by Emperor Xianping as the top poem of the day.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Wei Ling humbly said, "My uncle is an expert in poetry and literature. I have only learned a little bit from him."
Upon hearing this, Yan Zhuang smiled and said to Emperor Xianping, "Your Majesty, what Wei Lang said is truly not an exaggeration. Just a few days ago, I heard another excellent poem by Wei Heng from him, especially the last two lines, which are truly wonderful."
Emperor Xianping immediately ordered him to read it aloud.
Yan Zhuang accepted the order, got up, walked to the bow of the boat, stroked his beard, and began to recite the poem to the misty rain outside. When he read the last two lines, "The music ends, but the person is gone; only green peaks remain on the river," the musicians playing at the stern stopped playing in unison. Together with the distant, faintly visible, continuous green mountains on the lake, the poem's imagery was enhanced.
After Emperor Xianping regained his senses, he praised the poem highly.
Yan Zhuang added with a smile, "Speaking of which, the Wei family has quite a connection with the Emperor. I heard from Wei Lang that his grandfather, Old Wei, once served as a tutor to the Empress in Guangling. The Empress's love of poetry may have originated from Old Wei's enlightenment."
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The author says: "The music ends, but the person is gone; only the green peaks remain on the river." This is a quote from the poem "Xiangling Plays the Zither in the Provincial Examination" by Qian Qi, a poet from the Tang Dynasty. The plot really needed a line of poetry, but I couldn't write one myself, so I had to borrow from the ancients. This line is very classic, and I pay my respects to it!
100 little red envelopes, see you at midnight!
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