Two days later, Xu He, Xie Liangcai, Ouyang Jun and others prepared the carriage early.
Today is the day for the Imperial College lectures.
Qiu Teng, the academician of Hanlin Academy, and Tang Lian Hui of the Imperial Academy of Beijing came to the scene in person to congratulate all the candidates, tribute students, official students, en students, merit students, regular students, local officials, foreign students, meritorious ministers and distinguished foreign relatives. Young children give lectures.
You don’t have to come to this kind of lecture other than the regular classes of the Imperial College. Anyway, the Imperial College Secretary and the Chief Supervisor of the Shengyan Department will not tell you that the Imperial Academy’s Xuezheng and Academic Directors will hold the sign-in form and register one by one. person's name.
They won't tell you that if you don't participate, at the end of that year, it will be recorded in the collection of the supervisors of the Shengyan Hall that on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, a big boss gave a lecture, but you didn't give face, and your grades at the end of the year were lowered. First level, in serious cases, not only scholarships and grants will be withheld, but also spankings with canes.
It’s really not that you are forced to attend lectures. The academic atmosphere still needs to be better. The big guys give lectures, and everyone voluntarily [squeezes their heads] to sneak in.
Isn't it just because of [squeezing your head] that you got in?
Look at Xu He and the others. They were forced to get off the carriage when they were still two streets away from the Imperial College. They were all serious and studious scholars along the way.
But it was still early and the road was dark and sloppy.
The words spoken by these hard-working scholars were extremely exciting, not to mention extremely exciting.
When they entered the Imperial Academy, it was pitch black and they couldn't see anything. Xu He and the others could only follow the crowd and squeeze in.
Fortunately, Ding Ze was strong and like a bulldozer, he pushed all the weaklings in front aside.
"Are you rushing to be reincarnated? Damn it, you can still sleep in the back by hiding in the back, but you look like a hammer at first glance!"
"Keep your voice down. I didn't see this person wearing a robe that looks like a scholar. He is probably a scholar going to Beijing to take the exam. He is anxious to show his face in front of the masters of the Academy!"
"Bah, even if lightning strikes him to death eight times, they won't be able to hit him!"
"Ha ha……"
Finally, when Xu He and the others arrived, they saw a large locust tree on the north side of a huge square.
The torches were now brightly lit under the tree, and a dozen people dressed as academic officials were standing among them.
They held brochures in their hands and stared at the group of scholars as they entered.
Behind them were two small tables, presumably where Qiu Teng and Tang Lian were.
At this time, a fierce academic officer yelled at the students: "Why are you hanging back? Stand forward!"
After he finished speaking...
Sure enough, everyone shrank back again, for fear that they would be carried to the front.
Xu He and the others didn't understand the rules, so they still stood where they were.
Okay...
Everyone took a step back, and you Xu He, Xie Liangcai, and Ouyang Jun suddenly became the leading figures.
When the academic officer saw this, he pointed at Xu He and the others and said: "You, yes, it's you, stand forward, stand in front of me!"
At this time, there was a burst of gloating chuckles from all around.
Anyway, they were here to listen to the lecture, and they came on their own initiative, so naturally they didn’t care where they stood. After hearing this, they all walked towards the academic officer together.
As soon as they arrived in front of the academic officer, the academic officer saw clearly the robes worn by several people.
Seeing that Xu He and the others looked angry, they managed to squeeze out a smile and said, "Aren't you the candidates from the Imperial College, are you? Are you coming to Beijing to take the exam?"
Xu He and the others quickly bowed and said, "Exactly!"
The academic officer sighed: "I know this, and you are the only ones who know how to make progress."
At this time, people were standing in front one after another.
Sure enough, most of these people were wearing the robes of the people who held the ceremony and spoke Mandarin with accents from all over the world.
At this time, a drum sound sounded.
Behind Xu He, the scholars who were talking just now suddenly shut up.
On the other hand, the people standing in front of Xu He and others didn't notice anything was wrong, and some of them were talking happily.
The eunuch who just spoke frowned and said: "Silence, Bachelor Qiu and Tang Jijiu of the Hanlin Academy are here!"
Those who spoke quickly closed their mouths when they heard the words.
Sure enough, at this time, someone was walking towards the field with a torch.
Behind them were two officials in scarlet robes who were joking.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind Xu He, "Welcome to the Master and the Master of Jijiu!"
It turns out that the two people in front of me are Qiu Teng, the bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, and Tang Lian, the Imperial Academy's Jiu Jiu.
Because he was so close, Xu He vaguely heard someone say: "Scholar Qiu, please sit down!"
Looking at Bachelor Qiu, Qiu Teng was probably over sixty this year. He was even thinner than Chen Hua, but his eyes looked bright and bright.
However, compared to Chen Hua, Qiu Teng was more serious in speech. He only responded with a slight nod to the politeness from Tang Lian around him, without even being polite.
Tang Lian is a middle-aged man in his early fifties, with a slightly chubby figure and a rich appearance. He doesn't look like an Imperial College minister at all. Judging from his accent, he should be from Huguang.
Just sat down, not even an opening statement.
Qiu Teng said directly: "Today we will talk about university."
[The so-called self-cultivation lies in rectifying the mind: if the body is angry, it cannot be rectified; if there is fear, it cannot be rectified.
If you want to be happy, you will not be able to do it right. If you have worries, you will not be able to correct them.
Absent-minded, turning a blind eye but not seeing, hearing but not smelling, eating without knowing its taste.
This means that self-cultivation is about correcting one's mind. 】
Xu He and everyone around him listened very carefully.
This passage comes from "The Great Learning", which means that the so-called self-cultivation lies in correcting the mind. How to explain this?
When we humans are angry, fearful, fond, or worried, our thoughts are not correct enough.
If a person's mind is not focused, what he sees is as if he has not seen it, and what he hears is as if he has not heard it.
I don’t know the taste of food.
This is called self-cultivation. The first thing is to correct your mind!
Naturally, Qiu Teng would not explain the above explanation, as it was assumed that everyone present could understand it.
This is not social studies, and basic knowledge is not taught.
So Qiu Teng started his lecture directly after reading the original text of "The Great Learning".
Righteousness is the learning path after sincerity.
Sincerity means being sincere in intention and not deceiving oneself or others.
However, sincerity alone is not enough.
Because sincerity may be dominated by emotions such as joy, anger, sorrow, fear, etc., making you a slave to your emotions and losing control.
Therefore, after being "sincere", you must also "correct your heart", that is, you must use a correct mind (reason) to control your emotions and adjust them to maintain a neutral and peaceful mentality and concentrate on cultivating your character.
What needs to be noted here is that reason and emotion, integrity and sincerity are not absolutely opposite or incompatible with each other.
Zhu Shengren said: "Emotions, anger, sorrow, joy, fear, etc. are all indispensable to the human heart. However, once we cannot observe ourselves and allow them to influence our actions, our minds will lose their integrity."
Therefore, a correct mind does not mean to completely abandon the passions such as joy, anger, sorrow, and joy, nor does it mean absolute abstinence. It just means to let reason control and control passions so that the mind will not be influenced by passions, so as to cultivate one's moral character in harmony with reason and reason.
In other words, self-cultivation means correcting one's mind, which is nothing more than keeping one's mind straight, not having half-hearted thoughts, and not being influenced by emotions. "Being absent-minded, you can't see, hear but not hear, and eat without knowing the taste."
"This ordinary sentence later became an idiom and a famous saying, used to describe the state of being distracted and unfocused. Do your teachers and husbands often say this to you during lectures?"
Hearing this, the people in the front row who were listening to Qiu Teng's lecture for the first time laughed out loud.
Xu He also laughed. Unexpectedly, the old gentleman's lecture was quite interesting.
