Chapter 546: Master of Confucian Classics
It is said that three days later, the great scholar Zheng Xuan came to Tianshui to give a lecture. All the prominent figures in Tianshui attended, and Ma Yunluo was one of the heavyweight guests. Ma Yunluo agreed with his suitors that only those who participated in Zheng Xuan's lectures and answered Zheng Xuan's questions qualifiedly could officially become one of the candidates for the contest.
Chen Long murmured: "Zheng Xuan?" Zheng Xuan's lecture turned out to be a preliminary competition for Ma Yunluo to compete in martial arts to find a bride. It turned out that the husband in Ma Yunluo's heart also needed to be both civil and military. Chen Long secretly rejoiced. If he was good at writing and martial arts, who in the world could beat the Lord of the Blue Dragon?
I just want to participate in the preliminaries. With my current status, I am afraid that I will be driven away as a blind person when I arrive at the door. It seemed that further disguise was needed. Chen Long took a few glances at the timid Zheng Gan in front of him. If he wanted to successfully participate in Zheng Xuan's lecture conference, he still needed to find a way from this Zheng Gan.
Zheng Gan had already seen that Chen Long was interested in Ma Yunluan. Before Chen Long could speak, he took the lead and said: "Hero, if you let me go today, I will definitely get something in return. For the lecture conference in three days, the external security work will be very strict." It was arranged by the city lord, and I, Tianshui, will be responsible for the internal reception work, so there is no way to sneak into the lecture conference."
Chen Long shook his head and said: "Just being your guard is not enough. What I want is to be an upright contestant, qualified to compete head-on with other candidates. If you have no choice, I don't dare to risk being betrayed by you." As he spoke, he sharpened the dagger in his hand on the stone next to him.
The stainless steel dagger rubbed against the stone, making an unpleasant rustling sound. Zheng Gan's hair stood up as he heard it, and he immediately said: "Hero! If you can give me a day, I will definitely find a way for you."
Chen Long smiled and said: "How can I trust you with your empty words?" Zheng Gan immediately gave a series of addresses and said: "Good man! I still have my mother and wife at home. With their safety guaranteed, I will never dare to Deceiving Your Excellency."
Chen Long shook his head and said: "Do you think I am a robber who killed innocent people? I can capture you once, and I can capture you a second time. I am not afraid of you lying to me." After saying this, he kneaded the dough of the stainless steel dagger in his hand. Knead it into a ball and throw it aside.
Zheng Gan was shocked to see Chen Long showing his hand, staring blankly at the dough dagger thrown aside, and said from the bottom of his heart: "Hero, you are so skilled in martial arts, I think you are very qualified to participate in the horse gang leader's competition to recruit a bride. It's just a lecture meeting. They are all just nonsense. Even if the hero participates, I am afraid it will be difficult to answer Zheng Xuan's question." I looked up and saw Chen Long's figure beside me. I only heard Chen Long's voice coming from the shadow of the tree far away: " I will find you again!"
Zheng Gan let out a breath, picked up the dagger from the grass, stood up and left. In Zheng Gan's heart, he secretly rejoiced that he had saved a small life, but he couldn't bring himself to resist at all. The heavy dough dagger in his hand was definitely not something he could resist with his own strength. He didn't want his head to be crushed like dough. .
Chen Long came out of the woods, dusted himself off, and walked along the road to the greenhouse. Zheng Gan's last words have been lingering in Chen Long's mind. What is Zheng Xuan's question that is so difficult to answer? What should be a qualified answer?
Zheng Xuan, a great master of Confucian classics, was named Kangcheng and was born in Gaomi County, Beihai County, Qingzhou. A Confucian scholar in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, he once entered Taixue to study "Jingshi Yi", "Gongyang Chunqiu", "Santong Calendar" and "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" under the Fifth Yuanxian. He also studied "Gu Wen Shangshu" and "Guwen Shangshu" from Zhang Gongzu "Zhou Li" and "Zuo Zhuan", etc., and finally learned ancient classics from Ma Rong. After returning home from his study tour, he returned to cultivate Donglai and gathered his disciples to teach. There were thousands of disciples. He came from a poor family and was eager to learn, and eventually became a great Confucian. The misfortune of the party's imprisonment arose and he was imprisoned. Dumen commented on it and devoted himself to writing. In his later years, he stayed in office but was forced to join the army. He eventually died of illness in Yuancheng at the age of seventy-four.
Zheng Xuan's scholarship was mainly based on ancient classics, and also adopted modern classics. He annotated Confucian classics and devoted his life to sorting out ancient cultural heritage, bringing Confucian classics into a "little unification era." He is the author of "Seven Political Treatises on Astronomy", "Zhonghou" and other books, with a total of more than one million words, and is known as "Zheng Xue" in the world. His "Jie Zi Yi En Shu" is famous all over the world, and he is the master of Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty. During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, Zheng Xuan was listed among the twenty-two "ancestors" and was worthy of enjoying the Confucius Temple.
The biography of "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" summarizes Zheng Xuan's achievements in Confucian classics: "Zheng Xuan covered the great classics, collected all the theories, deleted the complicated ones, corrected the omissions in the publication, and followed the good ones. It is natural that the scholar has a little idea of where to go." Zheng Xuan's greatest achievement is editing. , annotated the "three rites". The "Book of Rites" in the Han Dynasty was only taught by teachers without annotations, and Ma Rong only annotated the "Mourning Clothes" scripture and biography. Although the name "Three Rites" was proposed by Ma Rong and Lu Zhi, it was derived from Zheng Xuan. It was only determined after annotations were made in "Zhou Li", "Yi Li" and "Book of Rites".
The Zheng family was in decline. Zheng Xuan's grandfather Zheng Ming and father Zheng Zhen did not serve as officials. They only worked in the countryside and lived in poverty. Zheng Xuan was talented and fond of reading since he was a child. He learned calligraphy and mathematics from an early age and was proficient in arithmetic and the five Confucian classics "Poetry", "Book", "Yi", "Book of Rites" and "Spring and Autumn". At the same time, Zheng Xuan also liked to study astronomy, and mastered some alchemy techniques such as "Zhanhou", "Wind Angle", "Yinshu", etc. to predict good and bad luck based on changes in weather and wind direction. Zheng Xuan was not vain and pragmatic by nature. When it came to flashy and vulgar scenes, he once said, "It's not what I want, it's not what I want." By the age of sixteen, he was not only proficient in Confucian classics, familiar with ancient canons, but also knowledgeable about prophecies. His knowledge of alchemy and his ability to write good articles made him famous in the local area, and he was called a child prodigy by everyone.
At that time, Du Mi, a famous scholar, was appointed as the governor of Taishan and the prime minister of Beihai. When he visited Gaomi County, he met Zheng Xuan by chance and thought that he was a rare talent, so he entered Taixue and got the opportunity to study and further his studies. His teacher Wu Yuanxian was a surname from Pingling in Jingzhao at that time. He was the governor of Yanzhou and was a very knowledgeable doctor of Confucian classics. Zheng Xuan studied under the Fifth Yuanxian, and successively studied "Jingshi Yi", "Gongyang Chunqiu", "Santong Calendar", "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", etc., all of which reached the level of proficiency. It took Zheng Xuan ten years to complete the work of Qiong Jing Hao Shou.
He studied under the fifth Yuan Dynasty successively, and also studied "Zhou Guan", "Book of Rites", "Zuo Shi Chun Qiu", "Han Shi", "Guwen Shangshu" and other books from Zhang Gongzu of Dongjun. Among them, except "Book of Rites" and Except for "Han Shi", they are all important classics of ancient Chinese classics. After Zheng Xuan learned important scriptures from the two major schools of modern and ancient classics from Wu Yuanxian and Zhang Gongzu, he was not satisfied with this. He also learned "Lü Ling" from Chen Qiu. During this period, he also traveled to You, Bing, Yan, and Henan prefectures with the purpose of clarifying the classics and expressing integrity. He visited famous Confucian scholars and taught many teachers. He humbly learned from them and discussed academic issues together. Reading thousands of books, traveling thousands of miles, working tirelessly, and diligently seeking the truth, Zheng Xuan's youth passed in a hurry and in a fulfilling way. By the time he was thirty years old, Zheng Xuan had become a Confucian scholar with profound knowledge.
Although Zheng Xuan has learned a lot, he is never satisfied. When he felt that there were no more scholars from Guandong to consult, he left his homeland through the relationship with his friend Lu Zhi and traveled all the way west to Guanzhong, where he became a disciple of Fufeng Renmaerong in order to further his studies. Ma Rong was the most famous Confucian classics master at that time, and he was very knowledgeable. He annotated Confucian classics extensively, bringing ancient Chinese classics to a mature level. He had thousands of disciples, and there were more than 400 people who followed him all year round, including more than 50 outstanding ones.
Ma Rong was a rather arrogant and particular person. Although he had many disciples, he only taught a few top students in person, and the rest of the students were taught by these top students. After Zheng Xuan joined the school, he was not valued by Ma Rong for three years. He was never even able to see him and could only listen to the lectures of his disciples. But Zheng Xuan did not relax his studies because of this. He still studied and chanted day and night without any fatigue. One time, Ma Rong and some of his disciples were working on the problem of Hun Tian. They encountered a problem and could not solve it themselves. Some people said that Zheng Xuan was good at mathematics, so they summoned him to meet him. Zheng Xuan quickly and successfully solved the problem on the spot, which amazed Ma Rong and the disciples present. From then on, Ma Rong valued Zheng Xuan very much. Zheng Xuan asked Ma Rong for advice on the difficult problems he found but had not yet solved in his daily studies. He also explored the secrets of the books and studied them carefully, and finally made great achievements. Head further.
Zheng Xuan studied under Ma Rong for another seven years. Because his parents were old and needed to be taken care of, he said goodbye to Ma Rong and returned to his hometown in Shandong. At this time, Ma Rong already felt that Zheng Xuan was a great talent, even surpassing himself. He said to his disciples with deep emotion: "Zheng Sheng is gone now, and my road is east!" Unfortunately, after Zheng Xuan returned to the east, he encountered the disaster of the party's imprisonment and was expelled. Confined at home and not allowed to go out again, I will travel to teach.
Zheng Xuan was imprisoned at the age of 45 and was pardoned at the age of 58, which lasted for fourteen years. During this period, he broke the family tradition of Confucian classics, annotated and wrote "more than millions of words", and finally founded "Zheng Xue", which became the Confucianism "the religion of the world". After the Yellow Turban Uprising broke out, the imperial court was forced to grant amnesty to party members. After the party ban was lifted, the people in power in the imperial court had already heard of Zheng Xuan's name, so they rushed to hire him to serve in important positions in the court. However, Zheng Xuan sought fame rather than officialdom. He was ashamed to associate with his relatives and eunuchs, and was unwilling to enter the official career. He repeatedly refused recruitment and devoted himself to the academic work of writing books and lecturing.
Although the Yellow Turban Army was ferocious and brutal, they respected Zheng Xuan very much: "They all worshiped Zheng Xuan when they saw him, and they dared not enter the county when they met." As a result, Gaomi County was not plundered by the Yellow Turbans. Kong Rong, the prime minister of Beihai at that time, treated him very well and told his subordinates to call him "Zheng Jun" and not to call him by his first name. In this way, Zheng Xuan finally ended his life of exile from his hometown when he was seventy years old. His only son Zheng Yien was elected as Xiaolian by Beihai Prime Minister Kong Rong at the age of twenty-three. Unfortunately, Yuan Shao's son Yuan Tan led the Yellow Turban troops to attack Beihai. Encirclement and killing. In the third year of Jian'an, Emperor Xian conscripted Zheng Xuan into the post of Chief Minister of Agriculture, a high-ranking official among the nine ministers. After Zheng Xuan paid homage to him at home, he took an Anchao to Xuchang, but he immediately excused himself to illness and asked to retire to his hometown. Although he did not take office yet, he had already accepted the appointment, so the world called him Zheng Sinong. Zheng Xuan finally died during the war in the late Han Dynasty. He was first buried in Jidong County, and later buried at the foot of Liu Zong Mountain, fifty miles northwest of Gaomi County, becoming the famous hometown of Zheng Gong in history.
Chen Long finally finished reading the life of Zheng Xuan in his mind, but he couldn't be happy at all. He still knew nothing about the Confucian classics studied by Zheng Xuan, let alone answer the Confucian classics questions correctly. Is it possible that in order to catch Ma Yunluo, we have to study the classics?
If you want to know what happens next, listen to the explanation next time.
