Chapter 10 One should marry a woman from one of the five noble families.
The sky was beginning to lighten with the first hints of dawn.
Hidden in the bamboo forest, a young novice monk yawned as he went upstairs to ring the bell in the bell tower.
Living in this ancient temple on the mountain, surrounded by the sounds of morning bells and evening drums, daily life is like chanting scriptures in a monotonous way, and one's perception of the passage of time seems to slow down.
It seemed to be the same time as that day, but practice makes perfect. This time, Ouyang Rong nimbly climbed out of the well, over the fence, and walked away with his hands behind his back as if nothing had happened.
After discovering the secret blessing worth 10,000 merits, he lingered down there for quite some time, not to chat with Master Buzhi, but to carefully examine the underground palace from beginning to end several times.
He wanted to try to find or trigger this hidden blessing manually.
Because what if it's not the "homecoming" he's looking forward to, but some other strange blessing? It's not impossible, so he has to rule it out.
But to Ouyang Rong's dismay, he found nothing and returned empty-handed.
Ouyang Rong returned to Sanhui Courtyard, but deliberately took a longer route—mainly to avoid his aunt's courtyard—and it must be said, ever since Zhen Shi came to stay, he's been in a state of utter guilt.
But this detour led them right into Master Shandao, who was on his way to chant sutras and have his morning meal.
The old monk asked in bewilderment, "Why is Your Excellency walking so stealthily so early in the morning?"
"This is... a popular way of exercising in the morning in my hometown."
"It is my ignorance that has led me astray."
The two had just passed each other when Ouyang Rong seemed to remember something and turned back curiously:
"By the way, I haven't asked yet what school of Buddhism Donglin Temple practices? Is it Chan (Zen) or Vinaya (Vinaya)?"
"Neither. Zen Buddhism is in the west, and Vinaya Buddhism is in the north." Master Shandao shook his head. "Our small temple is in the south, and we practice the orthodox Lotus School. However, Your Excellency may also call us the Pure Land School."
"The Pure Land School..." Ouyang Rong raised his eyes and asked, "Do you think there really is a Pure Land in this world?"
Master Shandao immediately nodded. "Of course there are. My great-uncle is a perfect example."
"If such a Pure Land exists, where is it located?"
Master Shandao pointed to Ouyang Rong's chest and said, "The Pure Land is right here. The Pure Land in your heart has always been in your own heart. Why ask an outsider like me?"
Ouyang Rong nodded, "I was being too attached to appearances."
Master Shandao glanced at him and said, “There’s something I’m not sure if I should say, but I noticed the other day that you looked gloomy and seemed to have something on your mind.”
Ouyang Rong looked directly at the old monk and humbly asked, "How can I overcome obstacles and attain liberation?"
Master Shandao did not answer. He lowered his eyes, straightened his monk's robe, and tidied his appearance. Before leaving, he simply raised his hand and pointed in the direction of Sanhui Temple, then turned and walked away slowly.
Ouyang Rong stood there for a while, then turned and went back to Sanhui Courtyard.
As he entered the door, he suddenly stopped and looked up to examine the plaque hanging above the door.
The inscription reads "Three Wisdoms".
"What are the three wisdoms? They are hearing, thinking, and practicing. ... Hearing must be attentive, thinking must be careful, and practicing must be truthful."
Ouyang Rong's voice rose from low to high, as if his understanding was deepening, and he raised his head and said loudly, "Ouyang Lianghan, let me ask you again, how do I break through this barrier?"
He answered himself: "Lie down and listen, sit and think, get up and...do it!"
The scholar laughed loudly, flicked his sleeves, and strode into the hall.
...
"We will leave the temple today."
At the dining table, the newly appointed, twenty-year-old magistrate of Longcheng carefully put down his chopsticks and bowl.
"No." Madam Zhen lowered her head and sipped her porridge, without even lifting her eyelids.
“Aunt, I’m just informing you, not discussing it. I’ve already had someone inform Captain Yan and the others. I’ve also inquired with the abbot, and he said that my health has recovered to about 70-80% and I can go down the mountain.”
"Act first, then report later?"
"It should have been done long ago."
"The floodwaters down the mountain have receded by seven or eight tenths, why would you go down there?"
"It is precisely when the seven or eight have retreated that the most crucial time to begin disaster relief is. As the magistrate of Longcheng, I cannot remain hidden on the mountain after recovering from my injuries and leave it to my subordinates."
"What do you mean by 'passing the buck to subordinates'? Tanlang has little responsibility for the flood down the mountain. You've only just taken office, and this is the once-in-a-few-years flood in Yunmengze. The flood occurred while you were unconscious. This is an act of God, and no one will hold Tanlang responsible."
"Can you sleep soundly and without a care in the world if you have no responsibility?"
Zhen put down the bowl, took the handkerchief from Banxi's hand, wiped her mouth, and began to speak slowly and deliberately:
"Alright, then you can go down the mountain. Don't worry about your aunt anymore. Just leave her in this remote mountain temple to fend for herself. Hmm, you might as well become a nun. A child you've raised for twenty years is not as reliable as a Buddhist monk with a lamp and a Buddha."
As she spoke, her proud and resolute tone even carried a hint of a sob as she tilted her head and "secretly" wiped away her tears.
Ouyang Rong remained expressionless. His aunt had already condemned him as ungrateful and unfilial, but after waiting for a long time without hearing the dull sound of the wooden fish, it seemed even Buddha couldn't stand it anymore.
He continued, "If Auntie doesn't want to stay here, why don't we send someone to take her back to Nanlong?"
"No!" Madam Zhen immediately declared resolutely.
"..."
She glared at him, "Now that Tanlang is an official, he's got wings and doesn't want to share the good life with his aunt, right?"
Ouyang Rong said in a serious tone: "The Great Zhou decree stipulates that local county magistrates must be stationed thousands of miles away from their homes and must not bring relatives or fellow villagers with them to their posts for personal gain."
"Heh, Auntie hasn't read the Great Zhou Code, but don't try to fool her about the requirements of being a local official."
Madam Zhen smiled enigmatically, “These kinds of relatives refer to male relatives who can show their faces in public. They don’t object to bringing their mothers along at all, and even encourage it. The censor of the prefectural censorate might even praise the young man for being filial to his mother and give him an extra credit during the evaluation.”
Ouyang Rong coughed, covering his fist, "Alright, alright. But I heard from Liu Lang that the county government office was flooded. After we go down the mountain and settle things down, we'll go pick up Auntie..."
Madam Zhen didn't care about that and interrupted the person who was trying to change the subject with a smile, "Besides, doesn't the Great Zhou decree also stipulate that county magistrates must bring their wives and daughters with them to their posts? If they really don't have any, they must bring a concubine. And during their tenure in the local area, supervisors cannot marry the daughters of the local people they are supervising, otherwise they will be punished... The county magistrate should be more familiar with this rule than the village girl, right?"
Ouyang Rong, his face stern, was utterly perplexed. Why was Zhen Shi so incredibly confused about some things, yet so incredibly astute about others? A nephew's nemesis, right?
"Then, our dutiful Magistrate Ouyang, shouldn't you consider marriage?"
"..." Auntie's map of Yan is really too long; she's only now drawing her dagger. Ouyang Rong thought.
However, this time, having decided to leave the mountain and take up his post, he no longer avoided the issue.
"It's impossible for my nephew to marry a woman from one of the five surnames."
Ouyang Rong looked directly at Zhen Shi.
"Why not? Tanlang is a renowned gentleman who was famous throughout the land even before he reached adulthood,"
“It’s very simple, the lintel.” Ouyang Rong raised his palm and gestured slightly to his forehead.
"What's wrong with our family name? We are the Ouyang family of Nanlong..."
Ouyang Rong nodded and told the truth: "Our Ouyang family of Nanlong is indeed not very prestigious in the eyes of the Five Surnames and Seven Noble Families. The last time our Ouyang lineage produced a notable figure was during the Han Dynasty."
"..." Zhen Shi.
"Even the path of the imperial examination that my nephew took was... well, Aunt should know that my nephew was once granted the official position of Lintai Zhengzi by the Empress at the Xingyuan Banquet, which is the former Secretary of the Secretariat. To hold this position, one must have a pure background and be among the purest of the pure. Almost all the prime ministers of the current dynasty started from this position. It is a noble and prestigious position, and it is the ninth-rank starting point that scholars from both the north and the south aspire to."
"But do you know that every year in the Great Zhou Dynasty's imperial examinations, only thirty or forty people from humble backgrounds across the country, from the north to the south, are selected? And among these people, only the top scholar and a few others can pass the rigorous selection process of the Ministry of Personnel and be chosen for this position."
After a pause, Ouyang Rong casually said, "Such an official position can be directly held by sons of noble families from the five surnames and seven prominent clans, simply by being recommended by their elders, without the need for the imperial examination."
Zhen hesitated, as if she wanted to say something but then stopped.
Ouyang Rong gently comforted her, "Aunt, in the eyes of the Five Clans and Seven Noble Families, we are just the poorest of the poor. Even the Da Gan Li clan, who have been emperors for nearly a hundred years, are regarded by them as a secondary clan mixed with barbarian blood. They rely on their clan's prestige and are ashamed to marry into other clans, so... let's not think too much about it for now."
During the Great Zhou Dynasty, it was said that the Gao and Hua families were headed by five prominent clans: Cui, Li, Lu, Wang, and Xie, totaling seven noble families.
Among them, the Cui clan of Boling, the Cui clan of Qinghe, the Li clan of Longxi, the Lu clan of Fanyang, and the Wang clan of Taiyuan were all county surnames, representing the highest-ranking aristocratic families in the north.
The Wang clan of Langya and the Xie clan of Chenjun were immigrants and belonged to the Jiangzuo gentry... that is, the highest-ranking gentry in the south. However, the two prominent families in the south ranked last among the seven prominent families.
Because in the turbulent struggle between the Northern and Southern Dynasties before the unification, it was the Sui and Gan dynasties from the Northern Dynasties that ultimately prevailed, pacified the Southern Chen Dynasty, and achieved another unification of the North and South. The current center of the Great Zhou Empire is Luoyang and Chang'an in Guanzhong, while the North is the traditional heartland of the Central Plains. Therefore, in this dynasty, the five powerful families in the North are stronger than the Wang and Xie families in the South.
Among them, the Cui family of Boling was the most prominent, and was regarded as the most prestigious aristocratic family in the world.
Moreover, according to Ouyang Rong's knowledge, these five surnames and seven noble families are not just about their families having a long history of fame and their families having held high positions for generations. It is said that these seven most prestigious families in the world are all closely related to the three major worldly schools of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Some families have passed down their knowledge of Confucianism, metaphysics, or Taoism. Furthermore, some of them are even involved in the more secretive lineage of reclusive Qi practitioners.
Moreover, those families that survived the chaotic power struggle between the Northern and Southern Dynasties and whose lineage continued into the Great Zhou Dynasty were all formidable clans with a history spanning thousands of years, whose genealogies could even be traced back to the pre-Qin period, making them contemporaries of the pre-Qin Qi practitioners recorded in ancient books.
Ouyang Rong continued, "Moreover, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, in order to suppress the Five Clans and Seven Noble Families, an edict was issued prohibiting the most direct descendants of these families from intermarrying with each other. But now it seems that the edict prohibiting marriage has not achieved its intended effect at all. On the contrary, it has indirectly raised the status of these seven noble families, making them gloriously isolated 'forbidden marriage families'... Actually, it's easy to understand if you think about it. Even you and your mother have heard about the nobility of the 'women of the Five Clans' in the countryside, and the popularity among the people... It's really conceivable."
In Ouyang Rong's words from his previous life, these "forbidden marriage families" were at the top of the social hierarchy in the Great Zhou Empire's matchmaking market, with women, children, and the elderly all driving up their prices.
Madam Zhen looked distressed. "Is it really that difficult? Isn't my beloved husband the best man in the world? Is this not acceptable?"
Ouyang Rong's lips twitched slightly as he got up and helped Banxi clear the dishes.
"Does that mean even distant relatives have no chance?" Madam Zhen still refused to give up.
"Those from collateral branches aren't fools either; they made their move long ago. I heard that the edict banning marriage was suggested to Emperor Gaozong by a prime minister from a humble background who was rejected when he tried to marry someone. You shouldn't even bother if you don't have a family background that's at least a fourth-rank official in the court."
Madam Zhen frowned, "How could it be so troublesome..."
Ouyang Rong took the hot towel handed to him by Banxi, rubbed his face, and smiled as if he had thought of something: "The gentry in the north value marriage, the gentry in Jiangzuo value people, the gentry in Guanzhong value official robes, and the gentry in Daibei value noble relatives. Which of your nephews can compare? Hmm, there is none who 'values handsome men'."
Zhen glared at him, then remained silent.
Ouyang Rong pretended to be just as dejected as her, but secretly he breathed a sigh of relief, finally putting his aunt's mind at ease.
"The gentry of Jiangzuo value outstanding individuals... and coincidentally, isn't my beloved husband a dragon among men?" Zhen muttered to herself.
Ouyang Rong smiled but didn't reply. Sometimes, it's not good for illusions to shatter too quickly. Let his aunt gradually come to terms with things... He washed his hands and prepared to go out.
Unexpectedly, the woman in the flowing skirt behind him suddenly asked, "My lord, is your mentor at the academy surnamed Xie?"
Ouyang Rong was taken aback. "Yes, what's wrong?" Then he said helplessly, "Don't overthink it. I'm going out."
He felt somewhat confused, but ignored Zhen Shi and left Sanhui Courtyard.
Inside the room, Madam Zhen rested her chin on her hand, watching someone's departing figure, her phoenix eyes curving into a smile.
"Really, you still need your aunt to seize the opportunity for you."
...
I couldn't resist writing a bit more, so I'm posting it a little late. This chapter is almost 4,000 words long, and there will be more tonight, my brothers!
(End of this chapter)
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