Behind the more than 100 monk houses in the east of Tianning Temple is one of the most famous gardens in Yangzhou.
Exotic flowers and plants donated by pilgrims from all over the world are planted here, and there are dedicated personnel to take care of them on weekdays.
The veranda in the garden is winding and connected to a large building, which is where the office of Yangzhou Sengzhengsi is located.
In other words, the abbot of Tianning Temple and the great monk Zheng Zhenke of Yangzhou works in this room on weekdays.
When Xu He and Wu Decao came to the verandah, there were indeed scholars gathering in groups in the veranda to enjoy the flowers.
Not far away, a dozen or so people were discussing something around an old man dressed as a gentleman.
As soon as Wu Decao entered the verandah, he lost his bravery in front of the Shanmen Hall and became timid.
Seeing him like this, Xu He was confused.
But the next second, someone discovered them, Wu Decao to be precise.
"Hey! Isn't this Brother Wu! Are you also invited to attend the cultural gathering?" The speaker was holding a jade bamboo folding fan, with a joking look on his face when he saw Wu Decao.
When Wu Decao heard this, he exclaimed: "Brother Zhou! Yes - yes!"
The scholar surnamed Zhou came towards Wu Decao with three friends around him, surrounded him and shouted loudly: "Let me introduce to you, this is the last one among the junior students in our official school, Brother Wu Decao! "
When ordinary people meet, they should address each other by their cousin names, but the scholar surnamed Zhou did not. Moreover, his words were sarcastic and his voice was loud, which immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the corridor.
Even the attention of that person and a dozen people around him was attracted.
Wu Decao was so embarrassed that he didn't know where to put his hand. He seemed to be very afraid of this scholar named Zhou, and quickly explained: "Brother Liangzuo, I, I just happened to meet you, I just want to learn how to compose poetry!"
Zhou Liangzuo chuckled and ignored him. Instead, he turned to the crowd and said, "Brother Wu is never a lukewarm student in school, and his writing is a mess. The amazing thing is that he always ranks at the top of the list of students." Last place! Do you think Brother Wu is awesome?"
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the scholars present when they looked at Wu Decao changed.
If you are not a scholar, you may not understand why these people have such an attitude towards Wu Decao.
This matter starts with the management and assessment of students in the Wei Dynasty.
In Xu He's later novels, it seems that if you pass the examination as a scholar, everything will be fine and you will be respected.
Actually no, scholars are also divided into three, six or nine grades.
As mentioned before, the first level of nature is necrosis, the second level is growth, and the third level is epiphysis.
After passing the examination as a scholar, you enter the official school. There are various examinations every year, which are called "subject examinations".
Many people confuse the scientific examination with the Dao examination. In fact, this is not the case. The scientific examination is an internal examination for students, while the Dao examination is an examination for selecting students.
The subject examination is held twice every three years, almost at the same time as the Taoist examination.
After the great masters come to each government to organize Taoist examinations, they will immediately conduct scientific examinations. The results will be used to determine who among the scholars is a junior student, who is a proliferative student, and who is an epiphytic student.
The state will give Lin students six dou to one stone of rice every month, and they will be exempted from serving as servants. Those with excellent grades can also become Gong students and go to prisons in the north and south. After a few years, if they don't want to take the exam, some of them can become officials. way.
The quota for Zengsheng students is the same as that of junior students, but they are not paid food allowance, are only exempted from labor service, and are not qualified to become supervisory students.
So every year, there are many people trying to become junior students.
Unfortunately, the person I met today, Zhou Liangzuo, was the first in growth. His test scores were better than Wu Decao's every time. He could have become a junior student, but Wu Decao only did dirty things for the emperor and the prefect.
No matter how bad his grades are, he can always beat Zhou Liangzuo and become a junior student.
This naturally caused Zhou Liangzuo's dissatisfaction.
Zhou Liangzuo's name was Zhou Fu, and his father was a leader in Yangzhou's silk and satin industry. In the past, he was taboo about the prefect's son and his ministers, and did not dare to do anything to Wu Decao.
But now that the prefect was overthrown and the teaching edict was thrown away, he immediately became angry when he saw Wu Decao again.
As for Wu Decao, he was also speechless. He resented helping Zhou Tianxiong and Jiaoyu do dirty work, but he also enjoyed the benefits of doing dirty work, so when he saw Zhou Fu on weekdays, his momentum always seemed to be weaker.
Wu Decao was obviously very famous among the scholars. As soon as Zhou Fu finished speaking, the people around him suddenly looked at him with disdain.
"You alone are worthy of becoming a junior student, so you don't have to ruin the reputation of our university!" Another scholar looked unkind.
"I heard that Wu Decao's family is poor and he is not in labor. I must have gotten the news from somewhere and came here as a bastard!"
"What a disgrace to our generation of scholars!"
Seeing the big commotion here, Ju Ren from afar came towards Xu He and the others with a dozen students.
When Zhou Fu saw that person, he bowed and said, "Senior Ma!"
The dozen or so students behind the man named Ma immediately shouted at Xu He and Wu Decao: "This senior Ma is the teacher of the old chief minister's family in Songjiang. You two are still not polite?"
Xu He didn't know Songjiang's old chief assistant, but he really couldn't accept everyone's attitude.
Just now Zhou Fu and others were targeting Wu Decao. Although he was traveling with Wu Decao, the matter had nothing to do with him. He could watch with cold eyes. However, these people who had just arrived, especially Juren named Ma, kept looking at the two of them coldly, with eyes like It looked like garbage, and he couldn't stand it.
Seeing that the two of them were silent, Zhou Fu suddenly became excited: "Senior Ma, today is a cultural gathering held by Mr. Shen. We can't let two unrelated people wait to spoil the mood of the young master. Drive them out!"
The man surnamed Ma waved his hands when he heard this, said nothing, and looked at Xu He and the two.
Wu Decao faced the scorn of so many classmates, and his words were lame and vulgar; but Xu He held his head high, with a look of displeasure on his brows.
Ma Juren frowned slightly, turned around and asked the person behind him: "That young man is also a student of your college? Why isn't he wearing a Lan shirt?"
The people behind him shook their heads: "I don't know where this wild child came from, I've never seen it before!"
Hearing this, Ma Juren's face became even more arrogant: "What happened to the servant at the door? How did they let in a person who is not even a health worker?"
When he said this, he looked at Xu He: "The people participating in this literary meeting are all famous, and you look like you are also educated. Go back and take the academic test before coming back! Besides, I will write poems later. Can you understand?"
He waved his hand towards Xu He as if to shoo away flies.
Wu Decao heard this and was about to say a few words when Xu He stretched out his hand to stop him.
Xu He curled his lips slightly and looked at the arrogant Juren and said, "What? The old woman can understand Bai Juyi's poems, but I, a young man who has read a book for two years, can't understand your poems?"
"You!" I thought that these words would make the young man retreat. Who would have thought that Xu He would actually use Bai Juyi's allusion to taunt them.
Ma Juren sneered: "What a sharp-tongued boy! Since you are so crazy, let me take an exam to test your knowledge!"
After saying that, he stretched out a finger and said: "I will make a couplet. If you can match it, you can stay today!"
Xu He chuckled disdainfully and said: "Whether you want to keep it or not depends on my mood. I just want to show you that there is heaven outside the world, and there are people outside the world!"
"Arrogant!"
"Senior Ma is a famous talent in our southern Zhili!"
"Young boy, the frog in the well, Senior Ma poses a difficult problem to let him know what is good and what is good!"
Ma Juren laughed angrily: "Haha, okay, okay, listen carefully, my first couplet is - [Two apes are breaking a tree in the forest, how can the little monkey dare to saw each other]!"
