eurekapd Chapter 200 History Books Turn the Page
Chapter 200 History Books Turn the Page
"How are you and your husband?"
"Mother, don't worry, the princess treats her daughter very well.
My daughter only needs to pay her respects on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, and she can arrange the rest of the days as she pleases.
Guo is in the Prince of Beiping's mansion and didn't come with us. Now, there are only my husband and I in the mansion."
Zhang Zhiwei held his mother's hand and rubbed his cheek against Tong's arm affectionately, like a young swallow returning to its nest.
The mother and daughter were whispering in each other's ears, but the whispers were heard by all the ladies in the silent inner hall.
Regardless of whether it is true or not, the fact that Zhang's daughter could speak out this matter in public means that Princess Yan must have tacitly approved of it.
Not only did they set rules every day, but even before they came, the concubines who were "Tianjin Dao" were not brought to Nanjing at all. As the mistress of the mansion, the Princess of Yan personally supported her. This was really enviable!
She lives a better life than them and than the legitimate daughters who are pampered and raised in wealth by them.
How can this be called marrying up? Marrying down to your own master's disciple, the life you live at home is just like this!
Compared to the ladies at the backyard table, who were all relatives and relatives of relatives of relatives who came to Zhang's house to congratulate him, with different intentions and who dared to be a little presumptuous, the people in the front yard had to be cautious in their attitude towards Zhu Gaochi.
They dared to take advantage of the favorable situation to ridicule Zhang, but they did not dare to touch the eldest son of Prince Yan.
How could Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, who has the final say, tolerate your bad habits?
Zhu Gaochi was invited into the front hall by his brother-in-law. When he saw the small hall full of guests, his eyes widened immediately.
When Zhu Gaochi saw his father-in-law Zhang Lin introducing everyone with a smile and meticulousness, he already understood what was going on.
He did not greet any "outsiders", but raised his hand to summon the palace servant he brought with him, and lowered his head to tell him to go to the backyard to give a message to the female official Dianyi who was originally only responsible for delivering gifts.
With so many ghosts and monsters in the front yard, wouldn't the backyard be filled with ghosts parading at night?
Although he knew that Zhang Zhiwei was smart, intelligence and skill were not necessarily related. Moreover, even if she could handle it herself, how could he, as her husband, just stand by and watch?
Now that a private return banquet had turned into this, Zhu Gaochi did not blame the Zhang family for their mishandling.
Zhang Lin was just the commander of the Five Cities Army, a minor official of the sixth rank, which was really not enough for him in Nanjing city.
Anyone present here who said they wanted to come to his house was doing him a favour, and he simply couldn't refuse without offending anyone.
The only "solution" is to bring up the "Prince of Yan's Mansion", but it's only been seven days and we don't know whether the in-laws can be guaranteed to be married, so who dares to offend them?
If she offended the bureaucrats and nobles and also incurred the displeasure of Prince Yan's Mansion, her daughter would not be able to survive.
But if he agreed and still caused dissatisfaction in Prince Yan's Mansion, it would be a huge injustice.
Zhang Lin was not laughing at all now, he was actually crying bitterly.
so……
If he had an average relationship with Zhiwei, and was the fool who couldn't figure things out, he would probably have turned the tables and put the blame on the "ignorant" Zhang Fu.
Thinking of this, Zhu Gaochi looked around carefully again and clearly remembered all the people sitting here except Zhang's direct relatives.
Bullying my father-in-law's family and stepping on my wife's face is bullying me, Zhu Gaochi.
The fat man is kind-hearted and doesn't get angry easily. He can row a boat and has a broad mind, but he is not a clay man.
Don't you see who he usually smiles at and treats as a soft persimmon?
His father! His brother! His grandfather! An important official in the court!
And what about you? What are you?
So he said bluntly,
“I feel deeply honored that you gentlemen are willing to come and congratulate me.
But this visit is a family matter. If you have something to do, please come to Prince Yan's Mansion another day. Zhu will definitely bring my father to entertain you warmly."
"..."
Zhu Gaochi's order to expel the guests was too direct, and the faces of some people present suddenly stiffened.
And bring Zhu Di along to entertain them?
Is this treat like eating human heads?
But Zhu Gaochi was smiling, and he was one of the emperor's grandsons favored by Zhu Yuanzhang. Even though he had no official position and had not been granted a title, if they dared to offend him today, his father, Prince of Yan Zhu Di, would come to his house tonight, and Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang would applaud in the court tomorrow morning.
What a barbaric family!
They all say that Prince Yan has evil intentions, that's true!
In their opinion, Prince Yan is the wolf that is most like his father.
And Zhu Gaochi was no pushover either.
It's the smiling fat tiger in the wolf's den.
But not everyone has a bad mentality. Seeing the attitude of Prince Yan's Mansion towards Zhang's Mansion today is already a great gain.
If you want to climb into the carriage of Prince Yan's Palace in the future, it might be a good choice to start from your relative's Zhang Mansion.
The weight of the Zhang family, whose official position is only the commander of the military department, should be re-evaluated.
Some looked angry, some laughed sincerely, and some were serious. All kinds of life were vividly displayed among the guests, who were only more than twenty people.
……
In just a cup of tea, the main hall became quiet.
As Zhu Gaochi's father-in-law, Zhang Lin finally breathed a sigh of relief. He thanked Zhu Gaochi repeatedly, calling him a good son-in-law, which was so sincere and thoughtful.
When men get together, they drink tea and talk about politics.
As Zhu Gaochi's father-in-law, Zhang Lin had a bumpy career throughout his life. Naturally, he would not bring up any irrelevant issues, so he started talking about the imperial examination with his sons Zhang Chang and Zhang Xu.
The imperial examination was officially restored a few years ago, and the names of candidates were uniformly covered to prevent family selection.
The eight-part essay format was set, and the examination method established in the middle of the Yuan Dynasty with "Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism" as the standard answer was adopted.
The eight-part essay has neat parallelism, which greatly improves the experience of marking papers. Although it has more constraints than the "no restrictions on writing style and free expression" of the Sui and Tang dynasties and even the Song Dynasty, it does not make people look nonsense.
Moreover, everyone has his or her own understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are a hundred schools of thought.
But the imperial examination is an examination after all, and how can an examination not have a single standard answer?
By following the annotations of the great scholar Zhu Xi, the personal thoughts and opinions of the examiners will be reduced and it will be relatively fair to the majority of students.
Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism was founded by Zhou Dunyi. Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, who were fellow Jinshi in the Northern Song Dynasty with Su Shi, laid the foundation for the Neo-Confucian school, which was finally summarized and improved by Zhu Xi.
The constraints on the monarch and the scholar-official class in Neo-Confucianism emphasize integrity and moderation.
Among them, the sentence that made Zhu Gaochi reflect the most was "preserve the laws of nature and eliminate human desires."
Eating and drinking is the law of nature; delicacies from land and sea are human desires.
Husband and wife are the law of nature; three wives and four concubines are human desires.
So no matter how hungry he was, he didn't ask for delicacies from land and sea, he just wanted to have meat to fill his stomach.
His father had been in the army for many years and was extremely strict with himself in terms of diet and daily life.
Everything should be enough, but as for extravagance, it is absolutely unacceptable.
The atmosphere has been corrupted and deteriorated little by little from top to bottom.
Therefore, as the leader of the Prince of Yan's Mansion and as the heir to the leader, Zhu Gaochi has always set extremely high moral standards for himself.
This is also the reason why he feels the most guilty after every meal.
The words gluttony and moderation really don't go together. Zhu Gaochi always felt guilty about not being able to find a compromise way to control his diet and maintain his health.
As for the idea that having three wives and four concubines was a desire that should be abandoned, Zhu Gaochi agreed with it very much.
Zhao Ji, the last emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, had hundreds of concubines. The consequence of lingering in the gentle harem was that he was treated like a dog by foreigners!
Their Ming Dynasty had wrested the empire back from the Yuan Dynasty, so how could they repeat the same mistakes?
If Guo had not suddenly fallen into the water and he happened to be nearby, causing her to lose her reputation, he would never have taken a concubine before marrying a wife.
Having three wives and four concubines is really too many.
One wife and three or four concubines are enough. Why do you need so many? They are always noisy and you won't have any peace!
There were also theories in Neo-Confucianism that Zhu Gaochi found subtle.
It was proposed by Cheng Hao: Starving to death is a small matter, but losing one's chastity is a big matter.
He felt that for the scholar-official class, starving to death was actually a very big issue, not a small one.
Anyone who has trouble sleeping in the middle of the night knows how it feels to be hungry every day.
But apart from his individual case, monarchs and scholars should not sacrifice their reputation for the sake of appetite. It would be too degrading for them as aristocrats and pillars and role models of the country.
Thinking too much...
Zhu Gaochi himself loved reading, especially Confucianism, and had many personal insights and opinions. However, due to the low literary literacy of the Zhu family and the fact that other people were not his confidants, he did not dare to speak out.
Now that he had his brother-in-law around him, he could speak freely and his thoughts were open, and he was really excited.
Talking about all sorts of things, they finally talked about the "bad atmosphere" that is gradually spreading in the country.
Zhang Xu mentioned his own troubles. His wife had recently become addicted to foot binding, but she was too old to do it, so she was a little crazy and prepared to do it to their three-year-old daughter.
It is said that only in this way can one integrate into the circle of today's ladies and noblewomen, otherwise they will be regarded as "barbaric and vulgar people".
We happened to be talking about the imperial examination and Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and when we thought of Zhu Gaochi, we sighed and said,
"Cheng Hao and Zhu Xi's disciple Che Ruoshui both strongly opposed foot binding, calling it the act of a pervert, and I agree with this.
Our Zhu family has always been good at conquering the world. My grandmother and my mother are both capable women who are just as good as men.
He can mount a horse, draw a sword, and walk very fast.
Being like a weak willow leaning against the wind is a pathological act that is truly difficult for people to agree with and understand.
Your Zhang family is great. Zhiwei is healthy and strong...well, healthy beauty is the most beautiful!
In my opinion, second uncle, you should try to persuade her, but you must not sacrifice your daughter's life.
An unjust thing is still unjust even if it has thousands of reasons.
Although foot binding is a minor matter, if we take it as a big issue, if our family follows suit, wouldn’t it make this unhealthy trend a good one? How can we argue with them then?”
"My brother-in-law advised me that I was not thoughtful enough and that this matter should be taken seriously."
After going around in circles, the topic finally returned to the future.
Zhang Chang was ranked second in the previous year and was granted the status of a Jinshi. He won the first-class in the imperial examination and was awarded the position of "Guanzheng Jinshi".
It was so three years ago and it is still so now.
It’s not that Zhang Chang is incompetent, but that he is not from a famous family and he didn’t study under a great scholar from the south, that’s all.
Zhang Xu was a Jinshi this year, so Zhu Gaochi asked about his test results.
Zhang Xu was ranked second in the class and was granted the status of a Jinshi. Like his brother, he also had to take the imperial examination.
"Are you sure?" Zhu Gaochi asked.
Zhang Xu said in a deep voice,
"I am somewhat confident, but could my brother-in-law give me some pointers?"
Zhu Gaochi thought about it carefully, and after thinking about Zhang Xu's character and personality during the conversation, he gave the most pertinent advice.
“Actually… it’s not a bad thing to work in another place.
Nowadays, opportunities are everywhere in the north. You can start as a chief clerk or a county magistrate, and with the support of Tong's business and the Prince of Yan's Mansion, you will not be afraid of failure.