Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 58 Buddha Bathing Festival

The next day, as the eastern sky began to lighten with the blue hue of a crab shell, lights began to twinkle in the streets and alleys.

After getting up and washing up, Lu Beigu went to the courtyard of the school to read aloud.

It's still the Analects.

Lu Beigu's morning reading was uninterrupted, even while traveling, so after nearly a month of effort, he had completely memorized the book.

In fact, this was achieved even though the predecessor did not possess the ability to "remember everything it saw".

Many geniuses possess this ability by nature, such as Zhang Fangping.

Zhang Fangping was exceptionally intelligent from a young age. Because his family was poor and could not afford books, he could only borrow history books from others. He would return the thick volumes in about ten days.

When people asked him, he said he had finished reading it all, and a little testing proved he wasn't exaggerating.

Because of his photographic memory, he only reads a book once and never a second time. At the time, Song Shou and other important figures considered him a rare genius and promoted him.

However, not having this ability by default didn't affect Lu Beigu's exam preparation too much. He had his own method of memorization, which was slightly less than photographic memory, but not by much.

"Now that I have memorized the Analects, as long as my physical condition is fine and my brain is functioning normally, I am confident that I can get all ten questions right in the county-level examination!"

Looking at the book in his hand, which was already a little curled at the edges, Lu Beigu pondered to himself.

"However, this is only for the county-level examination. According to Ji Yun, the difficulty of the prefectural-level examination will be even higher!"

The imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty were not as bizarre as those in the Ming and Qing Dynasties; they did not include "intercepting questions".

But if you think that memorizing the Analects will guarantee you a perfect score of ten correct answers in the provincial examination, you're really overthinking it.

Even with conventional thinking, it's obvious that the difficulty of a game varies from playthrough to playthrough. How could the difficulty of an exam at different levels remain unchanged?
In fact, the exam subject of "Tie Jing" was indeed difficult, but it was not in the county exam. It was in the prefectural exam that "reverse-digging questions" began to appear.

The so-called "reverse question" is a type of question in which the examiner deliberately selects isolated chapters or difficult sentences from the Analects of Confucius as test questions in order to increase the difficulty of the exam. The way the questions are concealed is extremely tricky, such as only revealing one or two words or covering up the memory points that students often use when memorizing. Candidates are required to fill in the blanks in the original text based on limited clues.

If you have memorized the Analects, and the following question is given, how would you fill in the blank?

Confucius said, “_____, _____, _____ is truly _____.”

Don't know the answer?
That's right, the purpose is to prevent you from answering easily.

So how do we analyze which sentence from the Analects it refers to?
There are ways to rule it out. For example, if there are two characters before "曰", then we can definitely rule out "子曰" first, since this sentence was not said by Confucius.

As for whether it was Zigong, Ziyou, Zixia, Zizhang, Zilu, or someone else who said it, we need to look at the specific number of blanks after it, the punctuation marks used, and which sentence in the Analects ends with "矣".

All three sentences are five-character phrases, so the answer is: Zixia said, “Study extensively and be resolute in your will; inquire earnestly and reflect closely; therein lies benevolence.”

This type of "reverse question" obviously places very high demands on the test taker's memory and retrieval abilities.

In the state examination, eight out of ten questions were these kinds of "reverse-pull questions".

So do you think that the same passage from the classics, the "Confucius said: 'The Book of Songs, ____, is sad but not ____'" in the state examination and the county school's ten-day test, is of the same difficulty?

To put it bluntly, it's to prevent everyone from memorizing the Analects and then simply cutting out the beginning and end for fill-in-the-blank questions, which would not be able to test students or differentiate their scores, thus becoming "testing for the sake of testing."

However, the "reverse question" will not appear in the county examination. Judging from Lu Beigu's current progress in studying the Analects, it is almost impossible for him to lose points in the county examination.

Just as Lu Beigu was pondering silently, Lu Guangyu's voice came from behind him.

"Brother Lu, you're up very early! The roosters at the banquet haven't crowed yet!"

Lu Beigu turned around and saw that Lu Guangyu had also come to read a book in the morning.

"I heard it'll be very noisy today for the Buddha's Birthday, so I got up earlier to try and have more time to study. By the way, where's Zhang Sheng? I haven't seen him."

"It's going to be noisy today. The parade will pass through here, and they'll have to walk back and forth several times."

Lu Guangyu said, "Zhang Sheng had something to do at his family's pharmacy, so he went back yesterday."

“Brother Lu, you don’t know, these days without you leading our morning reading, I’ve been lazy for a few days and haven’t been able to stick to it. But reading in the morning has definitely been beneficial. Now I feel much more familiar with the Analects.”

"Of course."

Lu Beigu said, "The Analects is, after all, a record of the sayings of the ancient sages and their disciples. It is essentially a dialogue, spoken language. Although it is from the pre-Qin period, this cannot be changed. So reading it aloud is much more effective than reciting it silently in your mind. The main thing is not to be afraid of being shy and not open your mouth."

"That's exactly the understanding."

After a brief conversation, the two picked up their books and began their morning reading in the courtyard. They read until the rooster crowed and dawn broke, when suddenly a long, drawn-out bell rang out from the mountains outside the city.

"Thump—thump! Thump!"

The deep, resonant sound of the bell startled the sparrows under the eaves, causing them to flutter and fly away.

Before long, the sound of gongs and drums could be heard coming from outside the city. At first, the sound was like a light rain tapping on a window, but gradually it became like a raging wave crashing on the shore. The sound was so loud that it gave people the illusion that even the blue brick walls of the county school were trembling slightly.

"He was absolutely right." Lu Beigu smiled wryly as he put away the Analects.

The entire town of Hejiang began to buzz with excitement at the sound of the gongs and drums.

The county school was in an uproar, with students gathering in twos and threes at the gate, and a few of the bolder ones even climbing over the wall.

"There are so many stalls outside!"

"Many of them probably came by boat in the dark, and some even arrived yesterday."

"Yes, I heard that many out-of-town merchants came to Shibashui Post Station in the east of the city last night."

"It's so lively! Why aren't you opening the gate and letting us out yet?"

The county school only opens its gates at a set time in the morning, so they can only watch helplessly at that time.

After putting the books back in the dormitory, Lu Beigu didn't join the crowd but went straight to the dining hall.

He spent 2 coins to buy a sesame seed cake, 1 coin to buy a plate of stir-fried pickled vegetables, and 2 coins to buy a bowl of millet porridge. He broke the sesame seed cake in half, poured more than half of the stir-fried pickled vegetables into it, and poured the rest into the millet porridge.

And so, with a bite of sesame flatbread filled with pickled vegetables and a sip of porridge, Lu Beigu happily finished his breakfast.

After breakfast, they found that the county school was practically empty.

The students were like zombies trapped in a cage; they swarmed out the moment the gate opened.

As for breakfast? I'll definitely buy it outside.

Because Hejiang County is a waterway hub, and the Buddha Bathing Festival at Fawang Temple is famous far and wide, the participants include not only locals from Hejiang County and tourists from other places who come to visit, but also out-of-town vendors who take the opportunity to do small business. All kinds of snacks are available.

And things were very different now than before dawn.

Although only an hour had passed, there was no silence outside at all; everywhere was filled with the sounds of gongs and drums, chanting, and conversations—it was extremely noisy.

"Brother Lu, shall we go take a look together?" Lu Guangyu also came out after finishing his meal.

Lu Beigu nodded. Since he had decided to attend the Zen Gathering at Fawang Temple, he might as well take a look at the Buddha Bathing Festival activities in the morning as well, and treat it as a day off for himself.

"Then let's go and see for ourselves!"

As soon as the two left the county school gate and turned onto the street next to it, the dazzling array of beautiful clothes made their eyes dazzle.

The streets were lined with stalls, probably set up before dawn, and the stalls selling incense, candles, flowers, and candy were crowded with people.

Several little girls with their hair in double buns ran past them, laughing and joking, their skirts fluttering as they held freshly picked peonies in their hands.

At that moment, the sound of gongs and drums grew closer and closer.

"The little god is here!"

"Give it! Give it!"

Four shirtless men in colorful short-sleeved shirts carried the palanquin of the deity, walking over with their heads held high and chests puffed out.

At this time, before the reign of Emperor Daojun, the people of the Song Dynasty were generally Buddhists. Although the Buddha Bathing Festival was a joyous occasion for the people, it was actually a very grand and solemn festival.

These kinds of festivals all have strict procedures.

Generally speaking, the most important gods and Buddhas appear later, while the ones that appear first are minor Buddhist deities worshipped by the locals.

Lu Beigu looked closely and saw a gilded statue on the sedan chair. It was a monkey-headed human figure, wearing chainmail and holding a wrought iron rod.

"Isn't that Sun Wukong?"

(End of this chapter)