Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 149: Books cannot be read unless they are borrowed
As soon as Zhang Shou finished speaking, Ge Yong and Chu Ying turned their heads to look at Zhou Xun, the Imperial College's chief academic officer, and the chief academic officer's expression suddenly turned ugly. At this time, none of the other academic officials said anything, only Luo Siye gritted his teeth and smiled righteously to explain for his own chief academic officer: "Grandmaster Ge, you know, the Imperial College has always had students prepare their own textbooks..."
Before Luo Siye could finish his words, Ge Yong suddenly turned around and looked at him. His eyes were so full of ridicule that his next words were blocked in his throat.
At this time, Zhang Shou said calmly: "Some of you have received books from the teacher at the gate of Ge's house. Those were books printed for the teacher by the bookstore, which sold them to the teacher at a price almost equal to the cost price. And now, there are actually kind bookstores willing to provide these books at a low price."
As the real owner of the so-called Haoxin Bookstore, Lu Sanlang couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, thinking that he was willing to provide various teaching materials for free throughout the process, but wasn't Zhang Shou unwilling to do so?
Zhang Shou then raised his voice and said, "We don't provide the books needed for classes in Jiuzhang Hall, but loan them to you. It's not because the Imperial College has no money, and it's not because the court has no money. There is only one reason. That is, books cannot be read without being borrowed!"
As soon as these words came out, Ge Yong, who had just looked at Luo Siye coldly, immediately withdrew his gaze, with a puzzled look on his face. Chu Ying frowned and muttered in a low voice: "Books cannot be read unless they are borrowed? Is there such a perverse logic?"
During these days in the Imperial College, Zhang Shou had studied Taizu's poems and essays carefully to avoid any conflicts with others. Seeing the school officials looking at each other in bewilderment, and the students at a loss, he continued to speak boldly.
"Books cannot be read without borrowing. The Seven Classics and the Four Treasures are the books of the emperor, but how many emperors read them? The books that fill the rooms of the rich and powerful are the books of the rich and powerful, but how many rich and powerful people read them? Other books that were accumulated by grandfathers and abandoned by their descendants are not worth mentioning."
Zhang Shou originally wanted to omit Yuan Mei's comments on the Emperor's Book in the original text, but when he thought that the emperor seemed to be an enlightened monarch, and that omitting this remark would lower the tone, and he had other purposes, he simply quoted the original text and continued.
"This is not only true of books, but of all things in the world. If you force yourself to borrow something that is not yours, you will be afraid that someone will force you to take it, and you will play with it anxiously, saying, 'It is here today, but it will be gone tomorrow, and I will never see it again.' If it is yours, you will put it away and hide it away, saying, 'I will look at it another day.'"
He paused for a moment, then continued, word by word, "This is what my teacher taught me before. Now, I am giving it to you intactly!"
Ge Yong was completely confused, but perhaps because this was not the first time, the old man still looked calm and composed. Especially when he saw Qi Jingshan and Chu Ying looking at him, he was extremely conflicted. He wanted to deny the lies Zhang Shou had told him, but thinking that exposing them in public would be disadvantageous to Zhang Shou, he finally endured it.
The most important thing is, what Zhang Shou said makes sense no matter how you listen to it!
Seeing Ge Yong's tacit agreement, Zhang Shou became even bolder. "Teacher once sighed. When I was young, I saw a book called "Ancient and Modern General Collection" in the palace. I went to borrow it, but it was not given to me. I had a dream when I returned. It was so touching. So I remembered everything I read. After I got through the whole book, I received many books as salary. They were so full that the white silk covered the scrolls. Then I sighed that the borrower was so dedicated and I felt sorry for the time I had wasted!"
Ge Yong only felt that countless eyes were converging towards him. The eyes of the academic officials were quite approving, while the eyes of the supervisors were full of admiration. He had no choice but to continue to hold on, but he was also surprised in his heart.
When he was young, he followed his grandfather into the palace and had the opportunity to visit the Gujin Tongjiku, which was not accessible to even the Grand Secretaries. He wanted to borrow a book at that time, but even though Emperor Yingzong valued the Ge family's children, he did not allow him to do so. He regretted this for many years. Later, when he became the Imperial Tutor and could read all the books in Gujin Tongjiku except the secret library, he lost the urge to read.
He did mention this matter to Zhang Shou, but he didn't expect that this guy actually remembered it!
Zhang Shou knew that those present were all people who could understand the mathematical classics compiled in obscure language like Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, so he did not waste any more time to re-explain this excerpt from Huang Sheng's Book Borrowing in plain language, but gave a direct summary.
"So, whether it's these books or the more difficult mathematics books in the future, they are all lent to you. If you keep them intact after learning, I won't charge you a penny. If you don't take good care of them and damage them, you will have to pay for them. I only hope that you can be attentive and do these five things!"
Hearing this, Qi Jingshan, who had been silent just now, couldn't help but turn his head to look at Ge Yong and said, "Brother Ge, if it weren't for Zhang Shou's unique admonition, I wouldn't have known that you had written another wonderful article."
"Humph, you just keep it a secret!" Chu Ying snorted disdainfully, and then said reluctantly, "It's as if you're afraid that others will forget that you've won the seventh place in the imperial examination, so you always give people a long lecture!"
Old man, I am more wronged than Dou E!
Ge Yong was furious, but Zhou Xun, the Imperial College's chief academic officer, and Luo Siye were all praising him, and the students agreed with Zhang Shou's admonition, which eased his depression. However, he made up his mind to teach Zhang Shou a lesson when he came back, because he always said "Teacher said"!
How could there be such a closed disciple in the world who would flatter his teacher so casually without even telling him in advance?
Seeing that the students under him had fully accepted the setting of borrowing textbooks, Zhang Shou had no choice but to come up with another one.
"Mathematics is different from classics and history. It does not require writing a lot of articles, but it does require doing a lot of exercises. Although these exercises can be printed out by the bookstore, I have copied a lot of them by hand because the teacher has not yet sorted them out. So, when you do the exercises, you can just copy them directly. This is also what the head of the dormitory Lu Zhu and Qi Liang need to organize everyone to do every morning."
To this day, Zhang Shou still remembers the days when he was young and materials were scarce. When the teacher assigned homework, he would just write the questions on the blackboard and the students would copy them down as homework! As for whether Lu Sanlang would change the copying to dictation after a while because he was too tired, he didn't care anyway.
Ge Yong noticed that everyone's eyes were converging on him again, and he snorted, "We should do more math problems, and copying them down by hand is more conducive to memory and understanding. Zhang Shou's idea is good. He happens to be in Banshan Hall in the morning and can't spare time. Let Lu Sanlang and Xiao Qi organize everyone to do the problems, which will kill two birds with one stone!"
But at this moment, an academic official next to him suddenly said, "But if what Dr. Zhang said is true, doing a lot of questions means a lot of paper. Books in Beijing are expensive, but paper in Beijing is not cheap either!"
Before Ge Yong could answer, Zhang Shou on the podium spoke again: "When Jiuzhang Hall was recruiting students, Shuntian Prefecture received nearly two thousand examination papers of various types. These papers were almost all made of good paper. It would be a pity if they were piled up and wasted like this, so I had already agreed with Wang Dayin to donate some of the waste papers to the Beijing Civilian Academy and send the rest to Jiuzhang Hall."
"The papers given to the Common People Academy can be used by those students to practice calligraphy. And the papers sent to Jiuzhang Hall can be used for calculations. In the future, I will instruct them in Banshan Hall to collect waste paper, which can be used for calculations."
Hearing this, Zhou Xun, the Imperial College's chief academic who had repeatedly rejected Zhang Shou's request for money, was still filled with mixed emotions. But the other academic officials who had heard that Zhang Shou had been rejected when he asked Zhou Xun for rice and books were really upset. They gossiped behind Zhang Shou's back and even laughed at him. Who would have thought that he had thought of everything?
"Great! Recycling waste, borrowing books to read, all of these things are exactly in line with the four words of hardship and simplicity that Emperor Taizu often talked about when the Imperial College was first established!" This time, Chu Ying finally couldn't help but applaud and praised, then glanced at Ge Yong with jealousy and said, "Old Ge, you are so lucky. Zhang Shou is not only talented, but also good at studying!"
"Humph, that's because I have good vision!" Ge Yong would never say that he didn't see Zhang Shou for several months when he lived in the countryside, and he returned to Beijing in anger, but now he has a self-taught disciple who is also very good at teaching students. He stared at Zhang Shou who was speaking eloquently on the podium, and suddenly felt that he was a little old.
Such a young disciple has become a teacher, how can he not be old?
But at this moment, he heard a weak voice from behind: "Master Ge, can we sit in on the teacher's class?"
Ge Yong turned around immediately, only to see that the Third and Fourth Princes had squeezed in at some point, and were standing behind him with eager eyes. He instinctively asked, "Didn't you two say that you two were going back to the palace to study the Four Books this afternoon? Why didn't you go back?"
The Fourth Prince was not as timid as the Third Prince. He immediately rushed to say, "Father heard that the Nine Chapters Hall will reopen for classes today, so he allowed us to have a day off in the afternoon and go back in the evening!"
Seeing Ge Yong's headache, he didn't care about anything and went up to him and grabbed Ge Yong's sleeve tightly: "Grandmaster Ge, please, go and tell the emperor that my third brother and I want to stay and take more classes! As for the Four Books, we will catch up when we return to the palace!"
At such a young age, aren't you afraid of forcing things to happen by taking classes ?
Ge Yong felt overwhelmed, but before he could agree, he saw the Fourth Prince pulling up the Third Prince, and the two of them actually sneaked into the Jiuzhang Hall. He was a step too late to stop them, so he opened his mouth and finally said angrily: "Forget it, let them join in the fun. Since Zhang Shou said that the progress is very fast, I think they can't keep up with the progress and can't understand, so they just go back!"
