xymnovel Chapter 90 A great Confucian scholar will explain the classics to me.
Chapter 90 A great Confucian scholar will explain the classics to me.
Chapter 90 A great Confucian scholar will explain the classics to me.
When Gao Lixing took out the manuscript, the first thing that shocked everyone was the thickness of the stack of manuscripts.
Kong Huiyuan couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "What kind of extraordinary writing is this? It's even more extensive than the 'Wenxin Diaolong'!"
Gao Lixing couldn't suppress a smile: "Just a legend."
"What?!" Everyone was shocked.
Wow! I was shocked even before I saw the content!
Yang Zhengdao was caught off guard, but thanks to his quick reaction, he was able to keep up with the crowd's astonishment.
Acting was so tiring!
But thinking about it, I feel relieved!
After all, in the Tang Dynasty, large books were still rare, and thread-bound books had not yet appeared.
Apart from historical books, most of the other large volumes are collections of essays or academic monographs.
Tang Dynasty tales are mostly four to five thousand characters long.
The longest work, "The Cave of the Immortals," is nearly 10,000 characters long because it is written in parallel prose.
Originally, a story of four or five thousand words could be doubled by using parallelism and intertextuality. Moreover, in the early Tang Dynasty, legends were even shorter, mostly one or two thousand words.
The stack of manuscripts in Gao Lixing's hands was more than a centimeter thick, and everyone could easily estimate its length at a glance. It must have been quite lengthy, with no less than 40,000 words.
This shock is to be expected.
Li Tai naturally wanted to be the first to see it, but he couldn't use his status to ask others to give way.
He rubbed his fingers together, cleared his throat, and asked, "How should we share this?"
There were eleven people in the waterside pavilion. Gao Lixing must have seen it all, but he couldn't very well let the other ten people squeeze their heads together to see it too.
After all, we are all respectable people.
Gao Xingli's expression froze for a moment, then he gave an awkward smile, unsure how to respond.
He hadn't thought about this question yet; he had only bought this legend from a merchant in Luoyang yesterday.
I read by candlelight last night.
After watching it, I was amazed.
At the same time, I couldn't sleep at night.
Only after the maidservant came and she put it into practice did he finally fall into a deep sleep, exhausted.
He brought his manuscript to the literary gathering today with great enthusiasm.
The reason he didn't take out the manuscript immediately was that he was afraid that if he did, everyone would lose their motivation to write poems and essays.
He was quite certain of this, after all, we are all of the same generation.
If this were to ruin the King of Yue's literary gathering, it would be disastrous.
Now that the literary gathering has come to a successful conclusion, it is the perfect time to bring out this timeless masterpiece to add to the festivities.
At this moment, Du He cupped his hands and said, "Your Highness, this matter is simple. Since it is a manuscript and has not yet been bound, we can each take a page and read it aloud page by page!"
Upon hearing this, Gao Lixing was so excited that he disregarded etiquette and cheered before Li Tai could!
"Wonderful! Wonderful! This text should be recited! It should be recited!"
Li Tai didn't mind Gao Xingli's rudeness; instead, it aroused his curiosity even more.
He said impatiently, "In that case, I will first hold the scroll and read it aloud for you all."
Li Tai received the manuscript, glanced at it, and was immediately disappointed.
While not exactly crude, the writing style is overly colloquial, which is quite different from the ornate prose he envisioned.
He began to recite.
At first, everyone just thought it was an old story.
It's nothing more than a wealthy family selling a marriage, nothing more than the usual trope of lovers' bittersweet tales.
Only Gao Lixing's eyes shone brightly, full of anticipation.
And the anticipation is just around the corner!
Yang Zhengdao, in later generations, naturally experienced the baptism of online novels; a snow-white opening is just basic stuff.
When he was moving the ancient and extraordinary book, he moved many of the classic scenes forward.
In just a few breaths, Li Tai read about Lu Jinlian's first meeting with her uncle Wu Song.
His gaze swept over the next few lines of text, then he suddenly stopped, blushing and stammering.
"This—this is written far too vividly."
Upon hearing this, everyone became even more curious!
Wang Jingzhi urged, "Your Highness, why don't I do it for you?"
Yang Zhengdao also pretended to be anxious, but in his heart he was thinking, "This is nothing!"
Li Tai was naturally unwilling, so he could only compose himself and continue reading.
When Lu Jinlian first saw Wu Song, her eyes were immediately drawn to him, and she felt her body go limp and her mind wander.
So he devised a plan. He brought tea and called for his uncle, then pretended to stumble on the way to get into his arms.
Wu Song was as swift as a monkey and as agile as an eagle, raising his arm to catch it and supporting it steadily.
However, the request was improper, and Wu Song was startled, secretly alarmed. With such a figure, how could his sister-in-law not worry about the child going hungry when she was holding him?
Lu Jinlian's cheeks flushed instantly, and she sighed inwardly, thinking that her uncle's skills must have come from a day and a night of hard training.
At this moment, the teacup was overturned, and the tea spilled out, running down Wu Songzhi's clothes and wetting the area.
Lu Jinlian was alarmed; could it be that she had been scalded by the tea?
Therefore, I am feeling flustered and short of breath, and I am clumsy with my hands. Please help me wipe it.
After speaking, he went forward and wiped and brushed it, brushed and wiped it again.
Wu Song thought that his sister-in-law's intentions were good and he could not refuse them, so he let her go.
Lu Jinlian was truly clumsy; she brushed it for a long time, more than half an hour, and still hadn't finished.
Wu Song became restless from sitting for a long time, his legs trembling, and he was urged to hurry up!
Wu Songru was stung by a poisonous sting and could only mutter in silence.
Suddenly, he pushed Lu Jinlian up, glared at her, and shouted: "Sister-in-law, don't hurt me!"
Lu Jinlian watched Wu Song stagger away, but she was not angry at all; instead, she laughed incessantly.
Xu sniffed his fingertips; there were still tea stains.
After Li Tai finished reading the first page, the pavilion fell silent.
This vivid and unreserved description had a huge impact on people accustomed to concise writing styles.
Everyone's imagination was unleashed, lingering like a beautiful melody.
At this exact moment, Yan put down his teacup.
It was this sound that drew everyone's attention, and it seemed that everyone simultaneously thought of "tea stains".
Those two words.
As Du He couldn't help but burst out laughing, everyone else followed suit and laughed heartily.
Duan Yan naturally thought of "tea stains" as well, and was instantly furious, his face turning red.
"You—you are all truly reckless fools!"
Yang Zhengdao shook his head inwardly, thinking to himself, "They are indeed all like us."
After finally managing to stop laughing, everyone understood why Gao Lixing called this manuscript a masterpiece for all time.
That's truly amazing!
At this moment, Kong Huiyuan, whose face was flushed from trying to suppress laughter, was the first to stand up and speak up to stop the reading from being done page by page.
"Gentlemen, I believe this extraordinary article should be kept to oneself and not spoken aloud."
These words naturally displeased Gao Xingli, who immediately retorted.
"Kong Dalang is mistaken. Confucius said, 'He who makes his intentions sincere will not deceive himself.' Confucius also said, 'A gentleman is open and magnanimous.' We are all people who love lotuses."
"You! You—" Kong Huiyuan couldn't think of a rebuttal for a long time, so he could only sit down and turn away.
Gao Xingli quoted Confucius to refute Kong Huiyuan, leaving Kong Huiyuan speechless and only able to feel annoyed.
As a result, the people at the banquet split into two factions.
One group wants to watch; the other group also wants to watch but is ashamed to.
The atmosphere inside the waterside pavilion became somewhat awkward for a moment.
Li Tai thought about it and felt that if the stalemate continued, it would really spoil the enjoyment of today's literary gathering, so he needed to mediate.
He stood up, looked around, and finally his gaze fell on Yang Zhengdao.
"What do you think, Layman Sanshang?"
Yang Zhengdao pondered for a moment, then cupped his hands in reply.
"Confucius spoke of the secrets of the bedroom, while Gao spoke of the openness of a gentleman. I believe both are people of our kind, therefore I cherish what I love and wish to keep; I delight in what I wish to recite."
The main principle is to offend no one, but also to ensure that no one can escape.
After Yang Zhengdao finished speaking, he looked at Kong Huiyuan.
Just now, I heard you, Kong Huiyuan, swallowing your saliva just as loudly as Fang Yiai.
Kong Huiyuan felt a pang of guilt as he felt Yang Zhengdao's gaze fell upon him, and he could only blush and admit it.
"What the Hermit Sanshang said is absolutely right. I am also a lover of lotuses."
You lot, please let Zhou Dunyi go!
The atmosphere had eased, but should they continue taking turns reading one page at a time? At that moment, the tension seemed to return!
Eager to know what would happen next, Wang Jingzhi scratched his head, but couldn't think of anything to say for the moment, so he nudged Tang Shanshi beside him with his elbow.
Tang Shanshi remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he was no different from Wang Jingzhi. After a moment's thought, he stood up.
"Banlantai said, 'To look at the sky through a pipe, or to measure the sea with a gourd.' We should take this as a warning. Should we keep it to ourselves? Should we publicize it? Only by reading the whole text can we know the whole picture, rather than making premature judgments based on a single piece of paper."
Absolutely!
That excuse—that's a good reason!
Everyone readily agreed, saying that we who love lotuses are not reckless or licentious, but rather seek to understand their full beauty.
Du He was the first to stand up and support Tang Shanshi.
"What Tang Wulang said is very true. Confucius said, 'Think no evil.' Only by reading the whole text and understanding its whole picture can we see that our hearts are free of evil and that we are naturally noble."
Duan Yan applied his knowledge flexibly, directly quoting the famous line that the Hermit Sanshang had just written.
"Indeed, indeed. We who love lotuses are naturally pure and untainted by the mud, with no evil thoughts."
The group smiled at each other, and there was even a sense of mutual appreciation between them.
That's right! We just wanted to challenge our weaknesses and see if we could be free of impure thoughts.
Yang Zhengdao couldn't help but sigh, truly: "Great scholars have come to explain the classics to me."
So the recitation of the poem continued in the waterside pavilion, filled with pride.
Li Yuanjia eagerly took the second page of the manuscript from Gao Lixing and began to read it aloud.
But as the manuscript was read page by page, the atmosphere inside the waterside pavilion became increasingly strange.
The sounds of swallowing saliva and heavy breathing filled the air; each young man had a ruddy complexion.
Some covered their faces with their sleeves, but their ears were perked up, as if afraid of missing a single word.
Some were ashamed and wanted to leave, but they couldn't bear to continue, only regretting that they hadn't taken their maids with them.
The extraordinary text, though only a hundred pages long and containing over forty thousand words, was finally read aloud after more than an hour.
The pavilion fell silent once more, everyone lost in thought, each with their own expression, demonstrating the enduring power of this timeless masterpiece.
Just then, Wang Jingzhi suddenly slammed his fist on the table and stood up.
Confucius said, "To learn and at due times to practice what one has learned is a great achievement. To hear such a remarkable passage only once is like skimming the surface of a mirror; one fears that it will be forgotten after hearing it once it has passed. It is never enough. One should transcribe it and review it from time to time."
"Excellent!" Du He's eyes lit up, and he immediately began grinding.
Yan Xianfu, who had remained silent and listened intently to the story, sighed softly and murmured to himself.
"If I were to copy this, and my father were to discover such extraordinary writing, what should I do?"
Upon hearing this, several more sighs echoed from inside the waterside pavilion.
High-class families have strict upbringing, and not everyone can "transcend conventional teachings and follow nature."
Seeing the hesitant and conflicted expressions on Yan Xianfu and the others' faces, Yang Zhengdao decided to take matters into his own hands.
I should do my part in defending the classics of "Lianpingchun".
He sighed deeply, a sorrow that seemed out of place with the springtime atmosphere at the banquet.
"Alas! How tragic! How sorrowful!"
Seeing that everyone's eyes were on him, Yang Zhengdao picked up his brush and began to write.
Full of absurd words, who knows the true meaning behind them?
Every word is imbued with color and obsession; every sentence is a tearful awakening.
This poem, modeled after Cao Xueqin's own poem on the origin of "The Story of the Stone," reveals a sobering message behind the story.
After Yang Zhengdao finished writing, he threw down his pen and left.
Yan Xianfu, standing beside him, immediately brightened up, his eyes shining.
"Where has the Hermit of the Three Realms gone?"
"I immediately summoned my attendants, for I must make five copies of this extraordinary text."
An uproar immediately erupted inside the waterside pavilion.
>