Chapter 206: Ancestral Teachings Harm People
After hearing my mother talk about how the great grandfather of the Xiao family followed Emperor Taizu to establish the country, he wanted to build a family tree. He was troubled by one thing, so the eldest master asked casually:
"What would make Grandpa Taizu embarrassed?"
"It's the status of wife and concubine. Both sisters are deeply in love with him and they are inseparable. However, there is only one position for the legitimate wife in the family tree. A concubine can only be included in the family tree if she gives birth to a son. To establish the family tree, the two must be divided into wives and concubines. One is the eldest daughter and the other is the legitimate daughter. Who will be the legitimate wife has become a difficult problem. After thinking hard for a long time, it was finally decided that the legitimate daughter always has a more noble bloodline. Moreover, Lu Yuan already had two sons at that time, and Lu Yao only had one daughter. Who knew that this difference in thought would sow the seeds of disaster..."
"The root of the trouble? Lu Yao and Grandpa had a quarrel because of this, and was expelled from the Xiao family?"
"That would be great if it were true. When Grandpa Taizu made Lu Yuan his legal wife, he promised Lu Yao that although she was nominally a concubine, he would still treat her as his wife in private. They were still equals in the inner house as before. After all, they had all struggled through the troubled times and had deep feelings for each other. It was just a title, so Lu Yao didn't mind and gladly accepted Grandpa Taizu's proposal. After that, Grandma Taizu Lu Yuan really kept her promise and treated her wholeheartedly, regardless of the master and servant relationship."
The old lady said this, took the tea handed over by the secretary, took a sip, and the master couldn't help asking:
"and after?"
The old lady glanced at him and continued:
"Although the two are equal in the inner house, the status of wife and concubine is as different as heaven and earth. Over time, the status will naturally be revealed. At the beginning of the founding of the country, there were not so many etiquettes in the court. Emperor Taizu often held banquets for ministers, and Taizu's mansion was also constantly visited by guests. But no matter how well Taizu treated Lu Yao in private, she was still a concubine in name. In front of foreign guests, she could only stand. But sister Lu Yuan could sit with Taizu, and even some court banquets, she was not qualified to participate. She became resentful over time, thinking that she followed Taizu and gave him advice, and her contributions were far greater than her sister, but because of her concubine's birth, she became a maid in the end!"
The old lady said this, sighed deeply, and then said:
"Since ancient times, this boundless desire has caused all the trouble. Seeing his sister being welcomed and sent off by Grandpa Taizu every day, Lu Yao gradually felt unbalanced and wanted to get rid of her. After all, she was very strategic and scheming. Lu Yao knew that his sister was skilled in martial arts and had been with Grandpa Taizu through thick and thin. She had saved his life several times, so Grandpa Taizu would not easily doubt her. At that time, Lu Yao had just given birth to a baby girl, who was less than three months old. After arranging everything, Lu Yao killed his daughter with his own hands."
When the master heard this, he stood up and said in shock:
"He killed his own daughter with his own hands! Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. How could Lu Yao be so vicious?"
After looking at the master, the old lady said:
"I don't think anyone in this world would believe that there is such a cruel mother in the world. It was because of my grandfather's disbelief that the tragedy happened later. Master, please sit down and listen to me in detail."
Seeing the master sitting down, the old lady continued:
"My daughter died. Grandpa Taizu investigated the cause. Before her death, only Lu Yao and Lu Yuan had contact with her. All the evidence pointed to Lu Yuan. Hearing Lu Yao's grief-stricken cry, Grandpa Taizu would never believe that Lu Yao could kill his own daughter. He concluded that Lu Yuan was jealous of him and secretly favored Lu Yao more, so he killed her. He hated her so much that he didn't listen to Lu Yuan's explanation and directly ordered Lu Yuan to be executed."
"Grandma Taizu was executed by Grandpa Taizu!"
"When the servant was about to execute the sentence, he saw the resentful look in Grandma Taizu's eyes. He thought of how she had been with him through thick and thin and had saved him many times. He could not let go of the love they had for each other for many years and could not bring himself to do it. So he sent Lu Yuan to Qingxin Temple and swore that he would never see her again in his life. At that time, the country had just been founded and there was no saying that concubines could not be wives, so Lu Yao was naturally made the legitimate wife. After Lu Yao was made the legitimate wife, he was worried that his sister would revive, so he tried to kill her many times, but his sister was so skilled in martial arts that he never succeeded. Lu Yuan collected evidence of Lu Yao's assassination of her, but suffered from Lu Yao's obstruction in every possible way, and because of Grandpa Taizu's oath, he could not see Grandpa Taizu and could not seek justice for himself. He lived his whole life facing the green lamp and died of depression. After Grandma Taizu died, Grandpa Taizu finally thought of their love for each other, broke his oath, and went to pay tribute to her. When Grandma Taizu's personal maid saw Grandpa Taizu coming to pay tribute, she risked her life to hand over the evidence and suicide note collected by Grandma Taizu to Grandpa Taizu."
"Based on these alone, will Grandpa Taizu believe that Grandma Taizu was wrongly accused?"
"As the saying goes, when a person is about to die, his words are sad. After seeing the tearful suicide note written by Grandma Taizu, Grandpa Taizu finally believed it a little, but he didn't dare to believe it completely. He was afraid that Lu Yuan would accumulate resentment and hate him, and he didn't want Lu Yao to rest in peace after his death. So he deliberately planned a plan for a female ghost to seek justice. In front of the female ghost, Lu Yao finally admitted his crime. Faced with the bloody facts, Grandpa Taizu was filled with remorse and executed Lu Yao immediately."
"Is this what our great grandfather established as his ancestral precepts?"
"After executing Lu Yao, Grandfather often regretted it. If there had been a law stipulating that concubines' daughters could not be the legitimate wife, Lu Yao would have been relieved of that worry and there would not have been the family disaster today. After that, Grandfather never remarried and died of depression. Before his death, he helped Lu Yuan's youngest son to succeed as the head of the family and personally removed Lu Yao's name from the family tree. All the children born to Lu Yao were adopted by Lu Yuan. Fearing that his tragedy would be repeated in his descendants, he left a suicide note. In addition to asking his descendants to bury him with Lu Yuan after his death, he also wrote that concubines' daughters were of humble status, of low bloodline, and of vicious minds, and would never be able to achieve great things. This left behind the ancestral precept that the legitimate wife of the head of the Xiao family must be a legitimate daughter."
After hearing this, the master couldn't help but sigh:
I think that Grandpa Taizu was hurt by love in his later years, and his temperament changed drastically, so it is inevitable that he is a little extreme in dealing with things. The quality of a person's temperament and bloodline are certainly important, but we can't generalize. Think about Lu Yao, it's because he was born in troubled times that he has such a vicious heart. In this peaceful and prosperous era, how many people can be cruel enough to use their own flesh and blood as ears to attack their opponents? Grandpa Taizu was seriously hurt, and in a moment, he established a family precept, saying that he was afraid that future generations would follow his old path, but he didn't know how many of his descendants were burdened by love because of the ancestral precepts, and he and Jun'er suffered greatly from it.
After a long silence, he sighed and said:
"Although Xi'er is a concubine's daughter, she is intelligent, virtuous, graceful and generous. She is really a good daughter-in-law. Not to mention Jun'er, even I can't bear to divorce her. Our ancestors' precepts, our ancestors' precepts..."
The words "ancestral teachings harm people" could not be uttered in the end. After all, they were my ancestors, and as their descendants, how could I easily judge right and wrong?
The old lady knew what was going on, so she also sighed:
"What the eldest master said is true. Apart from other things, Xi'er's grace and generosity are even greater than mine when I was young. I often see my own shadow in her. In the past two years, I have wanted to divorce her many times, but I gave up in the end. Although it was for Jun'er, I was reluctant to let her go. But it's hard to violate the ancestral precepts."
"Mother, do you really want Xi'er to leave this time?"
The master asked with reluctance.
"I made a huge mistake in a split second. I cannot make the same mistake again. Otherwise, how can I face my ancestors? As the saying goes, a short pain is worse than a long one. Now that the truth has been revealed, Mengxi must leave today!"
After hearing his mother's decisive words, the master's expression darkened and his lips moved, but no sound came out.
In silence, Shi Hua hurriedly pushed the door open and the old lady was startled. She had ordered that no one should come in to disturb her. Just as she was about to get angry, Shi Hua bowed slightly and said:
"Replying to the old lady, the second master has fainted in the family ancestral hall. His whole body is hot and he is unconscious."
When the old lady heard this, she sat up straight, and the eldest master also stood up and asked:
"Has the person been sent back?"
"Master, the Second Master is being punished. We servants dared not act on our own and hurried over to ask for your instructions."
"The person has fainted, why don't you quickly carry him back? You are so stubborn!"
When the old lady heard this, she immediately started to curse. Shihua quickly responded and turned around and ran out. After all, they were father and son. The eldest master shouted:
"Come here, quickly call the doctor and prepare the sedan chair..."
…
The Second Master fainted in the ancestral temple and was sent back. Xiaoxiang Courtyard immediately became a mess. Hongzhu saw that the Second Master was hot all over and his limbs were stiff. Tears immediately came to her eyes. She was so shocked that she didn't know what to do. The maids saw that Hongzhu was panicked and became even more confused. They milled around in the hall like a group of headless flies.
Compared with the chaotic upper room, the east wing was exceptionally quiet. Mengxi was writing big characters stroke by stroke. It was not that the news of the Second Master's coma had not reached the East Wing. It was just that in Mengxi's opinion, the Second Master had just been kneeling for too long and would not die. As the saying goes: If you are not a cruel person, you will not be able to save yourself. At this moment, she had to cruelly ignore the Second Master and cut off her relationship with him.
Seeing the unusually calm Second Mistress, Zhidong looked anxious. He turned to look at Zhixia, who was standing aside as if nothing had happened. She rubbed her hands again and again, and finally could not help it. She knelt on the ground with a plop and said:
"Second Madam, please help the Second Master. I think you are the only one who can save him!"
When Mengxi saw Zhidong like this, she was stunned. She put down the pen in her hand and looked at her without saying a word.
Seeing Second Madam raise her head, Zhidong breathed a sigh of relief and continued:
"When I went to the upper room to inquire about the news, I saw the symptoms of the second master, which were exactly the same as those of my father before he died. That year, my father went up the mountain to chop wood and accidentally injured his hand. After returning, my mother and father did not take it seriously and just covered it with dirt. Unexpectedly, the next afternoon, my father began to have a fever all over his body, his arm was stiff, and he was twitching. My mother borrowed some money from here and there and hired a doctor. The doctor said it was just an infection and nothing serious. He reapplied the medicine and prescribed some decoctions. After listening to the doctor's words, my mother was relieved. Unexpectedly, the quack doctor misled people. After taking the medicine, my father's illness not only did not get better, but became more and more serious. He died in less than ten days. The last doctor who treated my father said that my father had seven-day wind and there was no medicine to cure him."
Seven-day wind! Mengxi frowned when he heard this. Seven-day wind is called tetanus in modern times. Even in modern times, it is not 100% treatable, let alone in ancient times when medical care was backward.
No way, it’s such a coincidence that the Second Master would get tetanus just by kneeling for a night!
