My father is Jiajing

Chapter 379 Worshiping the Mountain

Originally, Zhu Zaigui thought that after Li Chunfang was promoted to the Taichang Temple, Zhao Zhenji might have to serve as the editor-in-chief of the Daming Book Bureau for a period of time before Emperor Jiajing could find a suitable candidate to replace him.

But in fact, this matter was soon implemented by Emperor Jiajing.

Emperor Jiajing ordered Chen Yiqin, a compiler of the Hanlin Academy, to serve as a lecturer in Prince Yu's palace and to be the chief editor of Daming Book Company.

Just like that, Chen Yiqin, who had never been taken seriously by Zhu Zaigui before, appeared in his sight.

Speaking of Chen Yiqin, he actually has a very deep connection with Zhu Zaigui.

However, some minor historical changes caused Chen Yiqin and Zhu Zaigui to always pass each other by and never have a real encounter.

In the original history, Chen Yiqin was appointed as the lecturer in Prince Yu's Palace in the 31st year of Jiajing, just after he finished mourning his mother, and he served in this position for nine years. During these nine years, Chen Yiqin was very protective of Zhu Zaigui, and even went against Yan Shifan several times for the benefit of Prince Yu.

Therefore, Prince Yu at that time was extremely grateful to Chen Yiqin. He not only personally wrote the word "loyalty" and gave it to him, but also wrote words like "enlightening a lot" to praise Chen Yiqin's teaching to him.

From this we can see that Chen Yiqin was also a very important person to Prince Yu in the original historical trajectory.

It is a pity that he was born at the wrong time, and lived in an era when there were many powerful ministers like Yan Song, Xu Jie, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng. Therefore, in this comparison, he was overshadowed, so much so that when later people talked about the history of "Jialong", they often ignored him.

This time, Emperor Jiajing's edict was like a history restorer, which immediately pulled Chen Yiqin back to the original historical trajectory and made him one of the officials in Prince Yu's Mansion.

Of course, this may also be a coincidence, because Chen Yiqin is a real talent.

In the 20th year of the Jiajing reign, Chen Yiqin had already passed the imperial examination and was selected as a scholar-in-waiting. In the 24th year, he was appointed as the compiler of "Da Ming Hui Dian". In the 26th year, he was the invigilator of the imperial examination. With such resume and knowledge, he was more than qualified to be the editor-in-chief of Da Ming Book Company.

Moreover, in order to strengthen Zhu Zaigui's absolute leadership over the Hongwenguan and Daming Book Company, Emperor Jiajing first gave Chen Yiqin the identity of a lecturer in the Prince Yu's Palace before his official appointment, completely branding him with the imprint of Prince Yu, and then sent him to serve as the editor-in-chief of Daming Book Company.

It can be seen that Emperor Jiajing's concern and attention for Zhu Zaigui were beyond words. He just wanted to tell Chen Yiqin clearly who he should listen to after he arrived at Daming Bookstore.

Otherwise, why would Emperor Jiajing have to go through so much trouble to make such an appointment?
After Chen Yiqin received the imperial edict of appointment from Emperor Jiajing, he immediately went to Prince Yu's Mansion to pay homage.

When Zhu Zaigui saw Chen Yiqin at the palace, he also looked at Chen Yiqin curiously.

When Chen Yiqin saw Zhu Zaigui, he bowed earnestly and said, "Your Highness, I, Chen Yiqin, pay my respects to you."

Zhu Zaiqi heard Chen Yiqin's accent and felt it was somewhat familiar. Zhu Zaiqi asked, "Mr. Chen is from Shuzhong?"

Chen Yiqin replied: "I am from Nanchong County, Shunqing Prefecture."

Zhu Zaigui laughed and said, "No wonder I think your accent is very similar to Zhao Zhenji's. It turns out that you two are from the same hometown." Zhao Zhenji, who was also waiting in Prince Yu's mansion at the moment, laughed and said, "Your Highness is really amazing. I thought I had lost my hometown accent after being influenced by the elegant language of the capital for so many years. I didn't expect that Your Highness could tell the origins of me and Lecturer Chen right away."

Zhu Zaigui smiled and said, "This is not a skill. It's mainly because the accent of you Sichuanese is so unique that I can remember it after listening to it a few times. But then again, Sichuan is really a place of talent. Sima Xiangru, Zhuo Wenjun, Yang Xiong of the Western Han Dynasty and the three Su brothers of the Northern Song Dynasty are all great talents in Sichuan. Now your majesty has sent both of you great scholars to me. I am really flattered!"

When Chen Yiqin and Zhao Zhenji heard Zhu Zaigui praising them like this, their mood suddenly became brighter, and they felt that their future with Zhu Zaigui was even brighter.

After finishing his warm-up remarks, Zhu Zaigui said to Chen Yiqin, "Mr. Chen, the work at Daming Book Bureau is somewhat different from what you did in the Hanlin Academy. When you were in the Hanlin Academy, Mr. Chen might have been responsible for editing some important and specific historical documents. This kind of work requires a meticulous and serious attitude."

"But Daming Bookstore is a little different. Daming Bookstore's philosophy is to open up new trends. Since it is a new trend, there will definitely be some less serious requirements, and some places may even be a little 'out of the ordinary'. Therefore, I hope that after Mr. Chen takes office at Daming Bookstore, he can quickly familiarize himself with the work content of Daming Bookstore and understand the direction of Daming Bookstore's work."

After Chen Yiqin heard what Zhu Zaigui said, he immediately replied: "I understand. Your Majesty, don't worry, I am not a person who sticks to the old ways. I have read every issue of "Da Ming Feng Hua" published by Daming Bookstore before, and even the latest sequel to "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Condor Heroes".

"I have recently given a lot of thought to this genre of novels, which was not valued by the mainstream before. The ancients often said 'the refined and the popular can appreciate it together', but there are very few articles that can truly be appreciated by both the refined and the popular, looking back to the past and present."

"However, under the guidance of the prince, Daming Book Bureau has determined a new style of writing that focuses on essays and novels. This style of writing was rarely valued in the past, so few literati throughout the ages were willing to focus on it. But after I really studied it carefully, I found that the stories that have been able to spread far and wide throughout the ages were almost all written by novelists of all generations."

"I will not talk about the distant past, but let's take this dynasty as an example. In the past two hundred years, there have been many brilliant writers in our Ming Dynasty, but some of them are only known by name but rarely seen. Therefore, if we insist on saying that these people can represent the cultural heritage of our Ming Dynasty, I think it is difficult to be worthy of the title."

"But there are some lesser-known authors, such as Luo Guanzhong, the author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Shi Naian, the author of Water Margin. Although these two are not well-known writers, their novels have been passed down for hundreds of years."

"It can be seen that the literary style and context of the Ming Dynasty have begun to develop their own style compared to the previous dynasties. Therefore, the recent works include "Journey to the West", "Jin Ping Mei", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", which has been very popular in the past two years, and "The Return of the Condor Heroes", which is attracting much attention today."

"Therefore, I believe that if we want to continue to maintain and promote the new style of our Great Ming, we must abide by the strategy set by the prince before, using essays and novels as new forms to tell stories that are unique to our Great Ming."

Listening to Chen Yiqin's speech, Zhu Zaigui couldn't help but exclaim.

As expected of a top student from the Hanlin Academy, he speaks very logically and what he says makes perfect sense, which is impossible to refute.

Zhu Zaiqi grinned and said, "I am delighted that Mr. Chen has such a brilliant idea! If you have any problems in the future, just discuss them with Mr. Zhao. If you really can't make up your mind, just come to me. I can't do anything else, but I can definitely handle things."

Chen Yiqin was also deeply moved when he heard Zhu Zaigui's words.

Although Chen Yiqin has been a nobody in recent years, he has always been paying attention to any movement in the capital. He knows very well that the young prince in front of him is not as simple as he seems. Otherwise, how could Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, and the defiant Hai Rui work under Prince Yu so peacefully?
From this we can see that Prince Yu is definitely not an ordinary person!

Therefore, as soon as Chen Yiqin arrived at Zhu Zaigui's side, he had already positioned himself. He would never consider himself as a lecturer in the palace. You should know that Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng were already tutors in the palace before him, and their talents were not inferior to his.

Therefore, Chen Yiqin was very clear that Emperor Jiajing's appointment of him as a lecturer in Prince Yu's Palace was actually to allow him to better integrate into Prince Yu's small group, rather than to really let him be a teacher to teach his son.

(End of this chapter)