Chapter 110: The Capital's Porcelain Scam
Today I came across the Tang Dynasty poem "After Passing the Imperial Examination" by Meng Jiao.
The filthiness of the past is not worth boasting about, but today my unbridled thoughts have no limits.
The horse gallops in the spring breeze, and I can see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day.
Suddenly I felt that Meng Jiao’s level might be just that. He took the exam three times and finally passed the examination at the age of 46.
Then compare them with Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zeng Bu, Zeng Gong, Zhang Dun, Cai Jing, Cai Bian and others in the Song Dynasty. They all became famous at a young age and passed the imperial examination as if it were a piece of cake.
They could not understand Meng Jiao's joy at all. Taking the imperial examination was as simple as eating and drinking water. Why did it need to be emphasized specifically?
I have been reading "Meeting the Emperor" these days. Especially after learning about the layout and size of the Bianliang Palace in the Northern Song Dynasty, I deeply realized how ridiculous the chapters I wrote before were.
Wanyan Zongbing appeared in front of the Daqing Palace through the underground passage. It was only about 500 meters away, but the guards guarding the city did not arrive within a quarter of an hour. It was simply devastating.
Frankly speaking, I really didn't expect that the imperial palace of the Northern Song Dynasty was so small. If it were like the Tang Dynasty, with the Xuanwu Gate Incident, the Bianjing Palace would have been razed to the ground in less than five minutes. It was really small.
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Zhao Huan thought his idea was quite brilliant. The week method used in the 21st century must have its rationality, otherwise it would have been eliminated long ago.
Especially for wage earners and time management masters, it is so convenient that they know clearly when to take a day off.
Historically, the concept of week was introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty, mainly by Christian missionaries, but this concept was discovered by the even older Sumerians.
The Sumerians discovered that the moon's cycle from full to waning, and then from waning to full, was exactly seven days. They began to regulate their own life time based on this phenomenon.
They stipulated that a month has four weeks and a week has seven days, and for this purpose they created seven gods: the sun god, the moon god, the Mars god, the Mercury god, the Jupiter god, the Venus god, and the Saturn god.
In fact, the week was called the Seven Luminaries in ancient China. During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, the Seven Luminaries referred to the seven main celestial bodies: the sun, moon, and five planets. They were an important organizational component of astronomy at the time.
However, the Chinese Seven Luminaries were not originally used as a unit of time.
It was decided that after returning, China's Seven Stars would be utilized and the historians would be asked to record them in detail. At that time, there was no concept of intangible cultural heritage and patents, otherwise it would have to be certified.
Otherwise, it will be snatched away by South Korea for registration in the future.
Soon, the group left the Bian Jing Palace and headed south. Their destination was near the Cai River. The terrain there was wide and flat, and the river was wide and flat, making it a great place for a spring outing.
Shao Chengzhang had already prepared the carriages. Zhao Huan, Zhu Lian and Zhao Xi rode in one carriage, Zhao Fujin and Cai Yu rode in one carriage, and Cai Jing rode alone in one carriage.
After passing through the inner city, you will reach the outermost city area. This area is the largest and has the most diverse population. There are all kinds of monsters and demons everywhere. Order and morality do not apply here.
When passing through the Suzaku Gate, a small accident occurred. A group of people surrounded the Suzaku Gate and shouted loudly, not allowing any carriage to pass through, blocking the road.
Zhao Huan vaguely heard someone say, "This is our family's ancestral porcelain bowl, a genuine product of the official kiln, and yet your carriage damaged it. Either you come with me to see the official, or give me ten taels of silver and we'll call it a day."
"Oh my god, that sounds so familiar. How can a porcelain bowl be worth ten taels of silver? It's just a dozen copper coins, and you're asking a hundred times the price. This is a blatant scam."
????
Could it be that the "ci" in "pengci" originally meant porcelain?
Zhao Huan stopped the team and prepared to go down to see what was going on. The simple folk of the Song Dynasty already understood this method. Bumping into cars is also an activity with a thousand-year-old traditional history?
After pushing through the crowd a few times, Zhao Huan squeezed his way to the front. This was an old carriage, the color of which was dull yellow.
A middle-aged man in his forties stood in front of the carriage with an uneasy look on his face. He was thin and dressed in a long robe, obviously dressed like a butler.
On the ground in front of the horse lay a wealthy businessman in brocade and silk clothes, with red blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, and broken porcelain bowls scattered around him. He kept screaming miserably.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much."
A woman of about the same age stopped the housekeeper and shouted, "You hit someone and you want to run away? If you don't have ten taels of silver for what happened today, you can't run away."
The steward was uneasy. Looking at the people around him pointing at him, he tried to explain, "I didn't do that. We just came in through the city gate. The horses walked step by step. There's no way they could have hit anyone."
"I was driving my carriage just fine when he walked up to my carriage slowly, holding a porcelain bowl in his hand, smashed the bowl to the ground, and stopped my carriage, demanding compensation."
"I just touched him lightly, and he fell to the ground, holding his stomach with his hands, and a large mouthful of red blood spurted out of his mouth."
The woman's tone became even more ferocious. "Think carefully before you speak. Don't make false accusations. Our Liu family's ancestors were once a wealthy family in Bianliang City, but they fell into decline and turned to business. We are honest and moral people. We can't make a living by earning a hundred or eighty taels of silver a day. You think too highly of yourself to come here and make false accusations against you."
"How can you be so ungrateful? Am I after your money? I'm just teaching you a lesson. Carriages must slow down in Bianliang City. Not everyone is as kind as me. You've acted like this, and I'm still asking for ten taels of silver. Is that too much?"
Zhao Huan was also shocked and said that he had never seen such a shameless person who confuses right and wrong.
The butler was still trying to explain, but the people around him started to blame the butler in unison without any agreement.
It is true that a single word can melt gold, and no one can argue with it.
The butler walked over to a stall selling hares and asked, "Boss, you've been watching here the whole time. This merchant isn't even in my carriage. Did you see that?"
"I saw it. I saw your carriage rush out as soon as it passed the inspection of the gatekeepers. You knocked the merchant away in an instant."
"How can you lie with your eyes open? You are so old, yet you confuse right and wrong like this. Aren't you afraid of going to hell after you die?"
"Ten taels of silver, right? I'm unlucky."
The housekeeper came from Zhejiang and was the advance guard for the official who was going to Beijing to report on his work. He went to Bianliang City first to establish some relationships in order to make further progress in the officialdom.
The time is tight and the task is heavy, which is already stressful, and then I encounter this kind of thing.
"There is such a group of scum in the capital, an important place under the feet of the emperor. Bianliang is not as good as Lin'an!" The housekeeper sighed indignantly and dispersed the crowd around him.
I will never come to Bianliang City again.
Thanks to zywfmc for the recommendation and monthly ticket
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