CH 82

The Imperial College had a total of five court academicians specialized in the Five Classics, fifteen teaching assistants who were in charge of the six Halls. On this day, the teaching assistant on duty in the Hall of Sincerity was a newly admitted jinshi by the  name of Xie Jing.

The Hall of Sincerity was not like the Hall of Justice, Hall of Sublime Ambition or Hall of Generalities. There were still a few young nobles that studied and practiced etiquette there. Those who entered were those well-versed in the Four Books and Five Classics, as well as those that could compose essays. Therefore, Teaching Assistant Xie didn’t specially look after the six newly admitted students and just lectured about the《Great Learning》at his usual pace.

He had currently lectured up to “On this account, the ruler will first take pains about his own virtue. Possessing virtue will give him the people. Possessing the people will give the territory. Possessing the territory will give him its wealth. Possessing the wealth, he will have resources for expenditure.”

However, as he lectured, he did not speak according to the sentences in the chapters, rather, he had started from the line, “To take pains about one’s own virtue, it is imperative that one is cautious of the preceding phrase.” This phrase was very familiar to Cui Xie, it was a phrase exactly from the 《Imperially Compiled Complete Set of the Four Books》that was given to him by Assistant Grandpa Liiu.

The Imperial College was an institution established by the Emperor and the textbooks used in it were naturally the “Complete Collection” compiled by the founding Emperor in the past, which was reasonable and fair.

Holding the charcoal pen above the paper with his hand, Cui Xie skipped most of the content from the《Great Learning》and only wrote down a few words to remind himself. Only the teaching assistant cited quotes, “where virtue is wavering and uncertain, his enterprises are all unfortunate”, “some will be visited by disgrace” which were respectively from the《Classic of History》and《Classic of Changes》. It was only when the teaching assistant expounded his own conclusion that “The result of the highest virtue is to examine subjects, gain knowledge, practice sincerity and have a righteous heart, nothing else” did Cui Xie write it at tremendous speed, writing down the characters at lightning speed.

The teaching assistant also talked about the 《Great Compendium on Human Nature and Principle》and 《Imperial Compiled Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government》, but he already had them memorized. For this lecture, finally, he no longer needed to rush to take notes and he could act like his peers, sitting up straight to listen to the lecture instead.

After Teaching Assistant Xie dismissed the class, he walked over to Cui Xie’s desk and picked up the folded notebook, holding the folds of content recorded from his own lecture. He compared it with the Director and Court Academician the previous two days. He raised his amber-colored eyes and lightly smiled, “How come you wrote down such detailed notes for the two da-ren’s classes and only wrote down a few sentences for mine? Have you written down the analysis of the following sentences after ‘Lu Yixu’?

Cui Xie stood behind his desk and replied without hesitation, “Yes, when this student was studying with Teacher Liu back at the ancestral home, I memorized this chapter. He gave me a copy of the 《Complete Collection of the Four Books》. Lu Yuxi said, “Morality is the virtue of light, and morality is the act of being valiant and careful, without losingone’s virtue. By being sincerely virtuous, can one pacify the entire world…”

Xie Jing was slightly shocked and revealed a ‘as expected’ expression and sighed, “Generally, the students only begin studying the comprehensive collection after entering the college, but nowadays, the examinations don’t require learning of it and hence, fewer people read it. Unexpectedly, you have already memorized it at home. It is no wonder, after all, you were able to publish 《Antithetical Couplets from the Four Books》 and had the military da-ren use you as a model student for students from the martial arts academy to learn from…”

He set the notebook back on the table, straightened up and glanced at the students in the lecture hall. Raising his voice, he said, “You new students arrived later than everyone else. Come to me after class to learn about things you have missed and I will explain it to you from the beginning. If there is something you do not understand in other books, you can also come to me. Although my specialty is the Classic of History,  I have studied all five classics and can still guide you.”

Everyone agreed. Teaching Assistant Xie turned around and left the hall with a stack of lesson plans in hand. Cui Xie packed his schoolbag and dashed out in a hurry to chase after him, disregarding his lunch break.

Since he was a person who learned martial arts, his steps were agile and light. Teaching Assistant Xie was not a fast walker and after hurrying out of the Hall of Sincerity, it did not take long to catch up to Xie Jing. The two of them were walking in the opposite direction from the flow of students heading towards the dining hall or dormitories. The path was very quiet and before Cui Xie could approach, Xie Jing had swiveled around.

Cui Xie met his stare, stood still and explained, “Teacher just said, we can come over to supplement lessons…”

Teaching Assistant Xie first looked at the water clock/clepsydra standing outside of Yilun Hall. Seeing that it was still early, he nodded and brought Cui Xie back to the chambers where the teaching assistant rested. There were two teaching assistants in the room at the time and did not have any serious tasks to complete, merely idly passing the time by reading. Seeing a young student enter, they both took a few looks at the fresh sight.

Teaching Assistant Xie introduced Cui Xie and also introduced the two teaching assistants to Cui Xie. After making their greetings, he dragged Cui Xie to his seat and asked, “You want to receive supplementation for the lessons these past few days?”

Cui Xie respectfully raised his hands into a cupped fist salute and replied, “Exactly so…..is it alright to ask the teaching assistant about  the《Classic of History》? When this student was reading the 《Great Learning》, the commonly quoted phrases from the 《Classic of History》. Although my previous Teacher had taught me how to decipher the quotations at that time, when this student turned to the original scriptures, it was often incomprehensible. This student’s teacher’s expertise was in the 《Classic of Poetry》and certain areas could not be explained in great detail. Inviting the teaching assistant to help me understand the 《Classic of History》…..”

Teaching Assistant Xie commented, “Your specialization was in the《Classic of Poetry》, do you truly want to study the 《Classic of History》with me? This is not beneficial to your understanding of your original scriptures, nor is it necessarily beneficial to your career.”

Cui Xie gave him a puzzled stare.

Teaching Assistant Xie’s gaze flitted to Cui Xie and he explained, “If you can concentrate on studying your 《Classic of Poetry》, according to your essays written during the College’s entrance examinations, there is a chance that you can fight your way through and past the prefectural examinations. Then, at nineteen years of age,  you can be expected to take the next round of metropolitan examinations. If you try to specialize in more than one classic, you will squander your available time to learn your original scripture and compose essays. If you are unable to pass the examinations after three-years, the world will have already produced large numbers of talents by then, who will remember you,  a mere Little Tertiary Winner?

Cui Xie was stunned at that moment, but some of his worries began to grow. If in the middle, Cui Que were to come back from Yunnan, what trouble would that cause him?

But among the Five Classics, he had only formally studied the Classic of Poetry and the rest had been wholly memorized by himself. When composing essays, he could only scrupulously abide by the given material in the chapters and sentences, adding some historical references here and there. When citing the other classical scriptures, there was always a lingering fear that the allusion or explanation had been wrongly written. If he continued down this path, he was afraid that after exhausting his valuable and accumulated wisdom from the modern era, his own thinking would be become constrained and increasingly narrow, so that in the future, he could only copy and repeat himself in his writing.

When he had been in the county, he could still fool everyone. But, the capital was full of real scholars and masters of composition, could he still fool these characters?

Cui Xie gritted his teeth, looked up at Teaching Assistant Xie and earnestly said, “This student merely hates that I have read too few books in the past. Now that I have entered the College, I want to try my best to learn even more. Hoping teacher can guide me.”

The two teaching assistants on the side also chimed in, “We are teachers in an academy, it is rare to meet such an inquisitive student. What is it even if we teach him a bit more?”

Xie Jing replied, “At his age and considering his knowledge, he already wants to cast away his scripture and focus on other things. Is this not the same as taking a concubine as soon as you marry a wife? Both sides will be neglected, how can this be managed?”

The two colleagues tittered and called him narrow-minded. Xie Jing joked with his peers and then pointed to the next to him, saying, “Come and sit down. I will go over the assignments from the previous chapters. I am afraid that your former Teacher most likely didn’t understand half of it either which had emboldened you to say you need to learn more classics upon opening your mouth…..in fact, you students do not need to study the Five Classics, you only need to understand the 《Four Books》thoroughly and the Five Classics can be mastered.”

Cui Xie assented, lifting his chair over, opening his notebook and listening to him start with ‘The Way of the Great Learning’.

With Only a few quarters of an hour left before lunch break ended, Teaching Assistant Xie hurriedly lectured up to ‘If one knows prioritization, one can take the shortest way.’ Looking at the sun in the sky, he told Cui Xie to head to the dining hall to eat first and come back after classes let out in the afternoon. Cui Xie also saw that it was getting late and afraid that he would disturb the teacher’s meals, he rose up from his seat and apologized.

Xie Jing waved his hand, “No need for this. I brought my own lunch, but looking at your physique….I am afraid you will starve to death. It is better to slowly start studying. You are still young, no need to rush to master so many books. In a few days, I will you Master Xishan’s 《Expanded Meaning of the Great Learning》and bring you up to speed on the scriptures, history and classical work later on—––”

Cui Xie quickly wrote down the title 《Expanded Meaning of the Great Learning》and got up from his seat to pack up his schoolbag.

He had also brought a lunch box with him and as he packed away his paper and writing utensils, he took out the book to prepare to eat in the dining hall. When Teaching Assistant Xie saw it, he asked, “You brought food? I’ll ask the workers to heat it up for you, it will be more convenient than going to the dining hall.”

Cui Xie smiled, “This student brought home-cooked flat cakes with marinated meat sandwiched inside, which can be eaten cold. It is especially convenient to take notes while eating in the dining hall.:

Teaching Assistant Liu in the next cubicle over laughed, “It is best to take notes on the margins of the book so you can refer to the article for details when reading it later. In comparison, it is inconvenient to read the notes in a separate notebook.

Teaching Assistant xie shook his head, “Laigui-xiong did not see it. He noted down a log of things on there and there is enough to fill half of the notebook….Take it out and show it to Teaching Assistant Liu.:

Isn’t this just the case where a teacher was showing off his students to other teachers? Cui Xie felt a little nostalgic and pulled out his notebook with great joy——But, it was not the one he used to take notes in class, rather a new set of notes he had re-transcribed at home after class. In the future, he would definitely be using a specialized notebook just for recording lecture material. 

The notes were copied according to the Taige style, proper and clear, the characters about the size of two rows. The notes were divided into three colors: general content was written using an ink brush, important content was noted in indigo-colored ink and the most important content was written down using vermillion-colored ink. Content quoted from the other scriptures was coated with a thin layer of amur cork tree water, which dyed the grids a light yellow, particularly eye-catching against the white mulberry paper.

At a glance, one could tell the importance of the content and which parts should be memorized first.

Teaching Assistant Liu and Teaching Assistant Wang flipped through it together. The more they looked at it, the neater the contents became and they could not help sighing. “This is even cleaner than the annotations in the 《The Six Talents and their Commentaries on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms》, what a serious student.”

Shameful! The layout of the 《The Six Talents and their Commentaries on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms》 had also been designed by him.

As they talked, the teaching assistants began gravitating towards this topic and mentioned that a new edition of the Three Kingdoms had not been published for a long time. They did not know whether the Peace of Mind Study had the real manuscripts or not and they had bought all the hardovers for nothing. Cui Xie, as the mastermind, became more and more embarrassed as he listened. He returned to Teaching Assistant Xie’s desk with his notes and bid farewell to this noble and clean-living teaching assistant who had not read such works.

Teaching Assistant Xie peeked at Cui Xie’s notes and could not help praise his efforts. Not mentioning whether Cui Xie was allowed to leave, he asked, “You truly only started studying after returning to Qian’an County? Just like the military da-ren had claimed, after two years of studying, you were able to pass the exams as the anshou? Did you read the《Great Learning》after entering the capital or did you read it back in the countryside?”

Cui Xie did not know why the other had thought of inquiring after a common student’s learning and background, but he still answered honestly, “This student was young and ignorant while at home and did not understand the importance of studying. It was only after arriving at my ancestral home that I began to study in earnest.”

Xie Jing continued, “But, due to the poor and simple environment in the countryside, there must not have been too much to do besides study. Only then did you aspire to study?”

Cui Xie’s life in Qian’an had been plentiful to the extreme and just painting everyday could make his hands sore. There was definitely not ‘nothing to do’/ Besides that, he also had to learn the bow, horseback riding, manage the bookstore, participate in poetry banquets with scholars, promote his books and prints….

He thought of the difficulties of those days, but they had been happy times. He also was reminded of his friends and he grew distracted.

It wasn’t until Teaching Assistant Xie hummed a ‘En?’sound that Cui Xie came back to his senses. He answered with a bowed head, “My father sent this student back to our ancestral home that day in preparation for that year’s examination. There were examinations looming in the distance, but this student was injured by evil people en route and while recovering from my injuries, I realized that life is impermanent. I felt that the time now is especially precious, so naturally, I must study hard.”

He had been commended by the Emperor for his injuries and he only needed to conceal the matter from his grandmother. As for the others, there was nothing to hide.

“En….there is great terror when one thinks about the boundary between life and death. It is natural to have an epiphany after intimately exploring such a boundary.” Teaching Assistant Xie set down his notebook and slowly mulled over his words, as if drinking chicken soup for the soul. His gaze wandered, as if thinking of something.

Cui Xie wanted to say his goodbyes but Teaching Assistant Xie came back to his senses at that moment and did not allow him to leave. He cleared out the table and suggested, “The dining hall is far away and it would be a waste of time to shuffle back and forth. You can eat here and copy notes. It is also quiet here, so you will not be disturbed by others in the study rooms.”

Cui Xie then unceremoniously spent the whole afternoon in the office, transcribing the notes from this morning and got to know several teaching assistants. In the afternoon, he headed back with Teaching Assistant Du who taught the《Classic of Poetry》class.

After class,a few classmates who had copied his notes from last time gathered and asked, “Did worthy little brother Cui take all the notes? Yu-xiong wants to compare again…”

Cui Xie had transcribed all the notes this morning, printed a pdf in his mind and lent both sets of his notes for everyone to copy.

Those who had never memorized the《Great Learning》planned to head over to Yilun Hall to borrow a copy for reference, but unexpectedly, Cui Xie was in possession of a neat and clear version. They could not help but sigh while looking at it, “How are these notes? The books printed by the Zhirong Study back then was not so neat and clear. If someone were to print such a book, even if it is something I have copied down before, I would buy a copy….”

Cui Xie was deeply moved.

If someone invented a photocopier now, wouldn’t he be able to copy the teacher’s handouts directly and take a highlighter to emphasize the key points while listening in class? Why bother memorizing in class and then copying it down after?

It was a pity that he did not have the opportunity to read the lecture notes directly. Maybe after a few years, when he had the authority to sort out the lecture notes of the instructors, he could print out a few copies to benefit future students.