CH 15

Chapter 15 – Official pupil (2)

Studying was difficult. There were too few educated people in this world. There were three reasons for this.

Firstly, people were generally too poor to send their children to school. Secondly, there was no opportunity, and thirdly, the children weren’t smart enough.

In the past, there wasn’t any schools in these villages and the children had to go to town to study. However, the families could barely get enough food and clothing. Even if a family was slightly more prosperous, they couldn’t afford to support a scholar.

Master Bai moved his family to Qili Village. His two sons needed an education, so they went to town to recruit Mr Zhuang.

Although Mr Zhuang didn’t pass the Jinshi exam (the highest imperial examination), he was admitted to the government school. He had good character and morals. If it was just the usual renumeration, how could he be willing to teach in the small mountain village of Qili?

Master Bai was very reluctant to fork out a fat salary to attract Mr Zhuang. Finally, he thought of a way, that is, the Bai family would provide money for Mr Zhuang to run a school, and they would pay the lion’s share of Mr Zhuang’s renumeration.

They also recruited children who were suitable for school in the nearby villages. These children would pay school fees. If there was a lot of money, Mr Zhuang’s renumeration would be generous.

The school was built by Master Bai, but it belonged to Mr Zhuang. He was the one who received the school fees, so naturally, he decides which students to accept.

But perhaps courtesy or his cooperation with Master Bai required him to inform Master Bai should Man Bao was admitted to school.

However, Mr Zhuang felt the matter wasn’t urgent as Man Bao was still young. She could learn the fundamentals from him first.

Once she is slightly older after Chinese New Year, it would be appropriate for her to attend class.  

Indeed, the Zhou’s willingness to allow Man Bao to study was an attitude that was difficult to find.

When Mr Zhuang first arrived, he enrolled students from several nearby villages. Those adults also knew the benefits of studying. They persuaded their nephews to work hard to earn money and go to school if they had the opportunity.

When they looked down and saw the yearning in girls’ eyes, they scolded them, “Why are you girls giving us more trouble? Hurry home. You are not worthy to study.”

When Man Bao’s behaviour of laying outside the window to surreptitiously study was known, there was an uproar in the village. The child was young and didn’t know better.

But Mr Zhuang was aware that a clan elder in the village looked for Master Bai and asked him to terminate Xiao Qian’s job to prevent Man Bao from eavesdropping during classes and spoiling the atmosphere in the village.

He stopped it.

Firstly, Xiao Qian was very diligent and not troublesome. Secondly, he liked Man Bao very much.

So, he said, “Everyone has the desire to learn, why stifle it?”

Consequently, more children ran to the windows to eavesdropped. At its peak, the two windows were full of children, all boys.

Amongst the literati/ scholars, this was considered a very unethical behaviour, but since Mr Zhuang set a precedent for Man Bao, he had to treat all of them the same.

As a result, several students dropped out immediately. The parents came to withdraw the school fees, turned around and drove the children to the windows to study surreptitiously.

Mr Zhuang was angry, but he could only harbour the anger in his heart and pretended he couldn’t see anyone outside the windows.

However, not everyone was like Man Bao.

At that time, Man Bao was just over one year old, just learned to speak, and couldn’t walk steadily, She didn’t know much about the outside world and didn’t hanker after fun and games. She could sit on the threshold and play quietly for an entire day.

When she was happy, she followed the students and recited two sentences. When she was unhappy, she would poke the ants with a small stick and played for half a day.

But the youngest child who climbed up the window was seven years old while the oldest was 10. This was the time when they were most restless and playful.

In less than five days, most of them have ran off. Those parents were horrified to learn that their children didn’t manage to learn anything. Instead, the kids had almost forgotten all the words they had previously memorized.

They were enraged, but they couldn’t do anything except to send the boys back to school.

Since then, there were barely any boys who eavesdropped, but a couple of girls began to show up.

But before Mr Zhuang could respond, the girls’ parents flared up.

They would first drag the girl away, then beat and scolded them, “Can you afford to study? So big-hearted! If you have time, go mow the hogweed, weed the fields, and collect firewood in the mountain. Why don’t you think about work? How can you get married in the future…”

In fact, Mr Zhuang once held the same views as these parents.

For example, it was more important for boys, rather than girls, to study and he also valued ​​boys more.

However, perhaps it was because he was getting older, his thoughts began to change as he pondered about the prevailing gender discriminations.

It could also be that people were prone to rebelliousness when they encountered things they didn’t like.

Unconsciously, his opinions and views had changed.

Especially since Man Bao was growing up and getting smarter by the day.

Although she was surreptitiously studying by climbing up the window, she had memorized more books than the students.

On top of this, just by studying the manuscripts which he had copied, Man Bao, with her self-paced learning, recognized about the same number of Chinese characters as the boys in the class.

She was also filial. She addressed him politely by calling him Sir/ teacher after listening to his class. She also cleaned his yard and cleared his desk.

When he was sick, all his so-called proper students ran off immediately when they knew Mr Zhuang couldn’t teach that day.

On the contrary, Man Bao sauntered around his yard and poured him a cup of hot water. She also took his clothes home for her sisters-in-law to wash.

Moreover, she would pester her mother and got him, an egg to strengthen his health.  

He knew the Zhou’s loved this youngest daughter, but he wasn’t sure if they wanted her to study.

To increase the possibility for Man Bao to be allowed to study, and to ensure a favourable development, he wouldn’t ask for remuneration, or even ask the Zhou’s to buy writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone for Man Bao.

As such, he was pleasantly surprised by the importance they attached to the matter as they gifted him with a piece of bacon, a set of clothes and a pair of shoes.

Mr Zhuang couldn’t help smiling. It seemed the Zhou family valued his little disciple, and so, he smiled and accepted the gifts.

Old man Zhou was relieved and asked Man Bao to kneel and offer tea to Mr Zhuang.

He took a sip of the tea and presented her with a set of writing brushes, ink and inkstone which he had prepared in advance. And, not to forget, he also gifted her with a handful of green onions from his backyard.

Mr Zhuang was delighted to accept such a clever and quick-witted disciple.

Old man Zhou and his two sons were also very happy. According to Mr Zhuang, Man Bao didn’t need to buy any books for the time being as she could just copy the books she would need.

The three of them glanced at the things Man Bao was holding in her arms. Since she already had writing brushes, ink and inkstone, they would just buy her a stack of paper and she would be all ready to start studying.

Although it was an additional expense, it was much less than expected. As such, all three of them were also pleased.

Man Bao was also delighted. After all, everyone was happy to receive gifts. Moreover, these gifts were from Mr Zhuang, whom she liked.

Everyone was happy.

Old man Zhou wanted to invite Mr Zhuang home for dinner to celebrate this milestone.

Mr Zhuang shook his head and declined, “There are still classes today. I’ll come by another day.”

When Old man Zhou heard this, he became a little fidgety.

As soon as those words were uttered, they could hear loud and rowdy sounds, as the students make their way to school.