Chapter 004: A New Look
As expected, after hearing Shen Yichen's outrageous answer, Li Tingxiu was so angry that he laughed and said, "Okay, okay. Okay! Since you said you were reading by candlelight last night, let me test you on what you read."
As Li Tingxiu spoke, he picked up the ruler on the podium. It was obvious that Shen Yichen would soon pay a heavy price for his words...
"The Master looks angry. Shen Yichen will have to take at least twenty feet this time, right?"
A student in the front row said, shrinking his neck with a look of fear on his face.
"Twenty feet? I think he will be kicked out of the academy this time. Cheating the teacher is a crime of disrespecting teachers."
The student who said this was white and plump, but his tone contained a hint of gloating.
After hearing this, Fatty Bai's classmate replied in a low voice, not quite believing it: "No way, Shen Yichen is still the son of the Duke, he shouldn't be kicked out of the school."
"Oh, what does it have to do with the Duke if the maid's son is not included in the family tree? After being kicked out of the academy, he will never have the chance to step into the Duke's Mansion again in his life."
A taller student sitting at the end said something sarcastically, showing no sense of camaraderie between classmates.
This is Shen Yichen's current situation in Chengguogong Private School. He has the title of the son of the Duke, but he does not have the identity and status of the son of the Duke. In addition, he has poor talent and understanding, and usually behaves in a silly way. In the eyes of everyone, he is not much different from the stupid son of a landlord, so he naturally becomes the object of ridicule.
Many people even seek a sense of superiority in him. After all, he is the descendant of Duke Chengguo. Under normal circumstances, how could they have the opportunity to laugh at and ridicule the son of the top duke of the Ming Dynasty?
Shen Yichen, who was sitting on the podium, naturally could not hear the whispers of his classmates below the stage. He looked at the ruler in Li Tingxiu's hand, and began to feel a little scared and a little indignant at the same time!
Others who traveled through the Duke's family were well fed and well-dressed, and could even get a system to easily change their fate! It was fine for me to just get an illegitimate child, but I could n't have done nothing on the first day and get a "board" for nothing, right? The difference in treatment was too big.
Facing Shen Yichen's somewhat cowardly expression, Li Tingxiu naturally understood that this kid was talking nonsense about studying late at night, but he was not a teacher who could punish students at will. At least he had to have a legitimate reason for doing anything.
So before hitting him with the ruler, Li Tingxiu asked, "Today we are going to explain the five-character and seven-character quatrains in the Thousand Poems. Since you said you read it by candlelight last night, you must have reviewed it. Please recite Tang Du Mu's Spring in the South of the Yangtze River to me."
Originally, Shen Yichen was a little nervous, worried that Li Tingxiu would give him some difficult questions. However, he didn't expect that the so-called test only required him to recite a Tang Dynasty poem "Spring in the South of the Yangtze River". This was something that was learned in elementary school textbooks in later generations. It was almost no different from an easy-to-get-point question. Did he really think of himself as an elementary school student?
That's it?
Shen Yichen couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth slightly and replied: "Yes, sir."
"Thousands of miles of warblers singing, green and red, water villages and mountain towns, wine flags fluttering in the wind, four hundred and eighty temples of the Southern Dynasties, many towers and pavilions in the mist and rain."
Shen Yichen recited the poem "Spring in the South of the Yangtze River" clearly and loudly without any mistakes. But then again, if he couldn't remember even a few dozen words correctly in two lifetimes, then there might really be something wrong with his IQ.
Li Tingxiu was not surprised that Shen Yichen could recite it accurately, because "Thousands of Poems" is the most basic enlightenment for school entry, and its difficulty is only slightly higher than "Three Character Classic" and "Hundred Family Names". If Shen Yichen's performance in the past had not been so poor, it would be impossible to test him with this kind of questions.
So Li Tingxiu simply raised the difficulty and asked: "Since you are already familiar with "A Thousand Poems", then I will test you on other contents. What is the eleventh paragraph of the "Elementary School" teaching chapter?"
Elementary School is an introductory textbook written by Zhu Xi in the Song Dynasty. Like Thousands of Poems, it has become one of the core textbooks for the imperial examination. However, compared with the catchy five-character and seven-character quatrains in Thousands of Poems, the length, content and difficulty of memorization of Elementary School are much greater.
In the past, Shen Yichen would recite "Elementary School" with difficulty and hesitate for a long time before he could recite it completely. If nothing unexpected happens, he will not be able to escape the "beating" today.
But most of the time, the changes occur because of the word "unexpected". In this world, Shen Yichen had been in elementary school for several years and was exposed to the same textbooks and articles every day, so he had a certain impression of them.
As for myself in another world, I am a top 985 master's student majoring in cultural relics restoration. The theoretical knowledge courses have professional requirements for the basics of ancient Chinese, ancient history, and even ancient calligraphy and painting. In addition, I am interested in literature and history, so the content of "Elementary School" is not difficult at all.
So after Shen Yichen thought for a few seconds, a clear picture of the situation gradually emerged in his mind.
"Poetry is the source of inspiration. Poetry is about the good and evil of human nature, and is used to encourage and punish... It cannot be accomplished through rituals. It was easy to accomplish this in ancient times, but it is difficult to accomplish this today."
In the eleven paragraphs of the "Elementary School" teaching chapter with hundreds of words, Shen Yichen did not make any mistakes except for some pauses. He was completely different from his previous self.
When the last word fell, the students in the lecture hall who were planning to laugh at the joke, all stared at Shen Yichen with surprised eyes, unable to believe that he could really recite it fluently.
Even his teacher Li Tingxiu had a complicated expression at this moment. Now it was his turn to doubt his life. Did he wrongly accuse Shen Yichen? Could it be that this kid really was reading late at night by candlelight?
"good."
Li Tingxiu finally nodded and praised him. Regardless of whether Shen Yichen had really reviewed seriously last night, at least he could recite it fluently today, which was an improvement .
"It seems that you have indeed made some progress in your studies during this period, but if you want to achieve good results in the college examination next year, this is far from enough. I will test you on the Four Books again."
Four Books?
Now it was Shen Yichen's turn to be dumbfounded. The so-called Four Books are "The Great Learning", "The Analects of Confucius", "Mencius" and "The Doctrine of the Mean". The ancient imperial examinations for thousands of years were based on the contents of these Four Books and Five Classics.
Although Shen Yichen was very good at ancient Chinese history in his previous life, the test-oriented education in later generations was different from what he learned in the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty. Books like "A Thousand Family Poems" and "Elementary School" could be memorized by rote, but the Four Books and Five Classics had various official annotations in addition to the original text, and the difficulty of memorizing them increased exponentially.
If the requirements were higher, or even required one to put forward one's own opinions, it would be equivalent to taking the imperial examination directly. Shen Yichen believed that he did not have the ability to interpret the Four Books and Five Classics.
"Sir, didn't we just start by reciting Thousands of Poems?"
Shen Yichen replied tactfully, it was clearly agreed that the test would be on "Thousands of Poems", but after I memorized it, they asked me to read "Elementary Learning", and now the difficulty has been increased to test the Four Books, old man, can't you afford to play?
"You have been studying for several years, so you should be familiar with the Four Books."
Li Tingxiu returned to his indifferent tone. This was not to make things difficult for Shen Yichen, but his previous standards for Shen Yichen were too low. If one wanted to pass the imperial examination and become a student, or even go further to become a scholar, it was impossible not to be familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics.
"Yes, sir."
Shen Yichen knew that in ancient times, students had no room for negotiation in such a situation. Since they couldn't avoid it, they could only go ahead with it.
"Okay, then I'll let you choose a book yourself."
“I choose Mencius.”
Shen Yichen made his choice in a decisive tone.
But when Li Tingxiu heard Shen Yichen's choice, his eyes were filled with surprise, because the order of introduction to the Four Books, by Zhu Xi, a great Neo-Confucianist in the Southern Song Dynasty, had set the tone for future students.
That is, first read "The Great Learning" to establish its scope; then read "The Analects of Confucius" to establish its foundation; then read "Mencius" to stimulate its development; and finally read "The Doctrine of the Mean" to fully understand its subtleties.
In addition, among the Four Books, The Great Learning is the shortest and relatively easy to memorize. It can be said that later scholars basically studied in this order. Li Tingxiu did not expect that Shen Yichen chose the Mencius, which has the longest length. Where did he get the confidence and courage?
