Chapter 1: The Xu Family – True Scholars, False Imperial Academy Students
They say the weather in June is like a child's face, changing quickly. August weather is no less unpredictable. Just a moment ago the sky was clear and blue, but now it's dark and gloomy, and suddenly it's pouring rain.
Guiyuan Temple is located west of Changmen Gate in Suzhou. Built in the Yuan Dynasty, its halls extend along a central axis, exhibiting a strict hierarchy and symmetrical layout. The eastern side is a place for Buddhist worship, solemn and dignified, while the western side is a place for divination and fortune-telling.
A young woman walked out from the west. She was wearing a dark blue cotton blouse with wide sleeves and a dark blue horse-face skirt. A section of milky white knee-length trousers was visible under the skirt. Because the clothes were loose, they covered her five-month pregnant belly.
She was carrying a basket in her left hand and holding the hand of a little girl in a pink shirt in her right. Seeing that the rain was heavy, she said to the little girl, "Zhenzhen, let's wait under the eaves for a while until the rain stops before we go."
“Okay, Mother.” The girl who spoke was only seven or eight years old. She had an oval face, a small nose, cherry lips, and round eyelids. Most of the black pupils and whites of her eyes were visible, and her eyes were bright. She looked very clever and was very pleasing to the eye. However, a red mole between her eyebrows made her look more dignified.
As the saying goes, a red mark between the eyebrows signifies precocious intelligence, and this girl certainly seemed exceptionally clever and bright. However, she was not born precocious; she was a time traveler.
She was originally a master's graduate in Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture and massage. She had been working at a TCM hospital in her hometown for less than a year when a colleague was involved in a medical dispute. She stepped in to break up the fight, but was pushed to the ground and fainted. When she woke up, she found herself reborn into a small family in the Ming Dynasty.
My grandparents were originally from Huguang. Because of the change from rice to mulberry cultivation, there was a shortage of food in Suzhou. So the old couple opened a small rice shop in Fengqiao and raised three sons and one daughter. When Miaozhen was born, they lived in the cramped house behind the rice shop.
Later, after their sons all got married, the grandparents felt they had fulfilled their mission and passed the rice shop on to their youngest son, who was also Miaozhen's third uncle. Xu Sanshu felt that the rice shop was too small and the customer base in Hubei and Hunan was unstable, so he converted it into a small tea and snack shop.
Miaozhen's father was the second son in his family. After passing the prefectural examination at the age of nineteen and becoming a student, he failed the provincial examination and his family had no money to support him. He first worked at the local school to earn a living. Because he loved reading storybooks when he was studying, but was often speechless with anger at the anticlimactic endings of those stories, he started writing storybooks himself in a fit of anger.
To be honest, he was not taught by a famous teacher, nor did he come from a scholarly family, but he was very talented in storytelling. For the first three years, he only earned two or three coins a month in writing fees, but he persisted. In the fifth year, he suddenly seemed to have a breakthrough and earned as much as ten taels a month.
With this money, her father was not only able to participate in the imperial examination, but also to support the family.
Because the provincial examination was held twice every three years, her father, Xu Erpeng, had already participated five times but failed each time. This year was her father's sixth attempt at the imperial examination, and her mother, Madam Mei, accompanied her to Guiyuan Temple to draw lots for her father.
It was raining outside, and the hall was full of people seeking shelter from the rain. Miaozhen helped Madam Mei sit down.
If Xu Erpeng was a complete scholar who had failed the imperial examinations repeatedly, then so be it. But Mei was also unlucky. When she got married, her maternal grandfather was just a poor scholar. She was the eldest daughter, with seven or eight younger brothers and sisters. Her dowry was only enough for six loads.
But no sooner had she gotten married than her maternal grandfather passed the imperial examination and became a scholar. The house and servants were immediately provided. Not to mention, her younger brothers and sisters all married into extremely wealthy and powerful families, and one of them even married into the Qiao family, a prominent family in the mansion.
Mei, however, lived a hard life. She became pregnant with Miaozhen shortly after getting married. Her mother-in-law also had a daughter who was only two years older than Miaozhen. She would complain about being poor to them but would not help take care of her during her postpartum period. Instead, she would secretly take the eggs that her husband bought for her and eat them.
Fortunately, her husband is capable, and in the past few years she has accumulated more than two hundred taels of savings. Now she is even pregnant, and she is only hoping that her husband will pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, which would be a long-cherished wish fulfilled.
"My wife..."
Just as Madam Mei and her daughter Miaozhen were taking shelter from the rain, a young man wearing a square scarf entered from outside. He was plump but very agile, and he quickly came in carrying two yellow oil umbrellas.
Miaozhen and Mei were both delighted.
Miaozhen quickly stood up and called out, "Father, what brings you here?"
"I was worried about you and your daughter getting wet in the rain, so here I am," Xu Erpeng said, glancing at Mei Shi again. "Are you alright?"
Ms. Mei quickly shook her head.
Xu Erpeng was slightly chubby and seemed to have a good temper and be gentle, but he was a very determined person. In addition to writing stories diligently every day, he was focused on preparing for the imperial examinations and vowed not to give up until he passed the lowest level of the imperial examinations.
Xu Erpeng said, "I heard from Dad this morning that my eldest brother is coming back from Yunnan. He's only been gone for a little over a year, I don't know how he's coming back?"
Hearing this, Madam Mei worried about something else: "Will my elder brother and the others stay at home after they come back?"
Four years ago, Xu's grandparents asked their sons to pool their money to buy a house in Fengqiao, which was only three miles away from Guiyuan Temple. Fortunately, house prices were not high in the Ming Dynasty, and they bought a two-story house with four storefronts for a total of fifty-six taels of silver.
There were eight rooms in total. The three brothers each had two rooms, Mr. and Mrs. Xu lived in one room, and the other room was used as a kitchen. Although the eldest brother did not return home that year, he knew that the family was going to buy a house, so he scraped together twenty taels of silver and brought it back.
The second family lived in two rooms upstairs on the east side. Xu Erpeng and Mei Shi shared one room, while Miaozhen, as she grew older, moved to the outer room. They occupied only two rooms. However, when Old Lady Xu's daughter, Xu Si Niang, grew up, she took over one of the main rooms. Xu Sanlei, the third son of the Xu family, who ran a tea and snack business, also turned that room, filled with flour and molds, into a storage room, thus occupying another room of the main room.
But then Xu Erpeng laughed and said, "My elder brother passed the preliminary examination at the age of fifteen and was chosen as a son-in-law by a pearl merchant surnamed Fang. Seeing that he failed the provincial examination, they sent him to study at Jinling Academy and registered him in Yingtian Prefecture, saying that it was easier to take the exams there. Although my elder brother failed the exams twice in a row, and the pearl merchant Fang's daughter died of illness, my elder brother was willing to let Miss Fang bury her in our family. So the Fang family gave my elder brother the thousand taels of dowry money that they had originally prepared for their daughter. Think about it, my elder brother was selected as a tribute student in Yingtian Prefecture and later went to Yunnan to serve as an official. Where would he lack money? How could he possibly care about these two rooms?"
“That’s true.” Madam Mei chuckled.
Then Xu Erpeng said, "Actually, I don't want to live here anymore, but let's wait a bit longer. Once I have more money, I want to open a bookstore."
Miaozhen asked, puzzled, "Father, why do you want to open a bookstore?"
"According to Volume 26 of the Ming Huiyao, in August of the first year of Hongwu, an imperial edict abolished the tax on books. There was no tax on selling books, and besides, I didn't want to run a school. A community school only cost eight coins a month, or one tael for a better one. And those children were so mischievous. Even if I passed the imperial examination, I wouldn't want to run a school." Xu Erpeng has loved reading books like "The Strange Cases of Bao Gong" since he was a child, and many of the books he writes now are also crime-solving books, which have a considerable following.
Miao Zhen thought that the Fengqiao Bridge where they lived was nine miles outside Changmen, and Changmen was the most famous place in Suzhou Prefecture for book engraving workshops. In fact, the book engraving workshops in Changmen were famous throughout the country. No wonder her father was learning engraving in addition to writing books.
So it was all in preparation for opening a bookstore!
"Father, Mother just drew a fortune stick for you, and it was an extremely auspicious one," Miaozhen said with a smile.
Actually, Ms. Mei drew two unfavorable lots, and only stopped after drawing a favorable lot again.
Xu Erpeng had never believed in such things, but upon hearing his daughter's words, he simply said, "I don't know how long I've hoped and how long I've been disappointed over the years. If it doesn't work out this time, I'll wait another two or three years, and then I'll completely give up on this idea."
His desire to pass the imperial examination at the county level was more about affirming his status. Although the rice and grain subsidies for county-level scholars were no longer available, they still enjoyed the benefits of being able to travel and study without restrictions and not having to kneel in court.
As the three were talking, they noticed that the rain had stopped outside. Xu Erpeng took his wife and children out, but when they returned home, there were several carriages parked at the door. It turned out that Xu Yiming, the eldest son of the Xu family, had returned with his wife and children.
Miaozhen looked at her uncle, who wore a crepe-covered hat, a lake-blue brocade robe with a dark floral pattern, a moon-white gauze skirt, and fine white socks for summer and autumn, with delicately woven Chenqiao shoes. He was handsome and well-dressed, and his mere presence made his humble abode shine.
Aunt Huang, on the other hand, seemed less impressive. Even though she was also dressed in silk, her complexion was slightly yellow, and there was a crease between her brows, making her appear somewhat melancholy.
My uncle's family only has one daughter, named Miaoyun. She is already growing into a young lady and her bowing is very graceful.
Neighbors also came to watch the excitement, and they all called Uncle Xu "Yan Gongsheng". Grandfather Xu then had someone call Uncle San's family back from the tea shop.
Miaozhen saw that her father was fair-skinned and plump, and her third uncle was also slightly overweight, but his face was rosy. Only her eldest uncle did not look like a member of the Xu family anymore.
The women prepared a table full of dishes in the kitchen, including pig's head meat, silver fish, carp, tripe, lungs, chicken, duck, and more. Even the usually stingy Old Mrs. Xu brought out cloud cakes and mixed candies for everyone to eat.
The Xu family had long since separated into different households and kitchens, but now that Uncle Xu has returned, they no longer distinguish between them.
Miaozhen and the other children were eating at a small table. She sat sideways, with her cousin Miaoyun and Xu Siniang sitting to her left. Xu Siniang was the youngest daughter of Old Lady Xu, and she was only ten years old this year. To her right were the two siblings from the third branch of the family, Miaolian and Zhang Ge'er. Miaolian was a year younger than her, and Zhang Ge'er was three years old this year.
The children, who hadn't eaten a proper meal in a long time, started devouring their food in silence, while the adults at the table were much more refined.
When Xu Yiming heard that his younger brother was still taking the imperial examination for the lowest degree, he couldn't help but say, "You're too persistent."
“I didn’t just take the exam and do nothing else.” Xu Erpeng didn’t think there was anything wrong with taking the imperial examination. He said, “How can I be like you, my elder brother? You were a student of the Imperial Academy in Yingtian Prefecture and were selected to study at the Imperial Academy. Of course you don’t understand the hardships we face. Not to mention me, even my third brother took the exam two or three times before giving up.”
After he said that, Xu Yiming didn't know what to say.
Old Xu said, "I heard you went to Yunnan to take up an official post. Why are you back so soon?"
Xu Yiming quickly waved his hand: "It's just a clerkship, nothing official stuff. We went there because of Magistrate Zhang, and now that he's resigned, we're back. By the way, Father, we'd like to rest at home today, I wonder..."
"Alright, alright, I'll have someone clean it up," Old Xu said hurriedly.
Huang, who was beside her, was very angry. Huang's father was also a scholar, and she had studied since childhood. She was also good at needlework, so she went to Jinling to work as a female tutor. She originally thought Xu Yiming was handsome and kind, and dressed well, so she deliberately approached him and married him. She never expected that Xu's family was not well-off, and was even worse off than hers.
Although her father didn't have much money running a brothel, her uncle ran a silk shop and had accumulated wealth through lending. Since her uncle had no daughters, he treated her like his own.
Seeing that the atmosphere was not good, Xu Erpeng quickly said, "Brother, speaking of which, what do the student's certificates look like? Let me see them so that we can also take a look."
"I put the document at the bottom of the box, it's hard to find. I'll give it to you when I've gathered my luggage." Xu Yiming said this with a guilty conscience. When he was studying in Jinling, he went to various places with his friends, acting like a young nobleman. He spent his money very quickly, and in the end, he failed to achieve fame and fortune, barely passing the prefectural examination.
To give his family an explanation, he planned to donate to become a student of the Imperial Academy. However, it cost 350 taels for a commoner to donate, and another 50 taels would be needed to smooth things over. He saw that other people's certificates had the words "donation" on them, and he felt it was not worth it. Besides, he didn't have much money left, so he only spent a few dozen taels to make a fake certificate.
Xu Yiming was afraid of being exposed, so he felt guilty, but he was also hopelessly addicted to the vanity of being a tribute student. He changed the subject and asked his two younger brothers, Xu Erpeng and Xu Sanlei, what kind of business they were in.
I heard that Xu Erpeng was writing a storybook, and I strongly disapproved of it, but I praised Xu Sanlei for being down-to-earth.
Just then, several yamen runners came in, banging gongs and drums. As they approached, they were all all smiles.
"Good news! Your esteemed lord, Xu Erpeng, has achieved the 56th place in the Suzhou Prefectural Examination, and his name has been prominently featured in the Imperial Gazette!"
Miaozhen exclaimed, "Father has passed the imperial examination!"
Xu Yiming, who had been talking so eloquently, dropped the peanuts he was holding with his chopsticks, looking completely bewildered. Xu Erpeng went to get some loose change to appease the messenger, while humbly saying, "Brother is a tribute student, while I am just a scholar, far inferior."
Xu Erpeng genuinely felt inferior to his elder brother, who was a tribute student. However, he never expected his elder brother to envy him. At least Xu Erpeng's Xiucai degree was genuine, allowing him to travel freely without fear, while his fake prison certificate made him afraid to face people.
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