Top Scholar

Chapter 15 The Flag-Bearing Boy
With an inexhaustible supply of banana leaf paper, Su Lu's study progress was finally not delayed.

That evening, Su Youcai wrote a large character "永" (yong, meaning eternal) on a piece of paper, finally beginning to formally teach him calligraphy.

“Although the character ‘永’ is simple, it encompasses all the strokes and structure of regular script. Now, I will use the character ‘永’ as an example to teach you the brushstrokes of regular script.” As he spoke, he broke down the character ‘永’ and wrote it stroke by stroke:

"The dot is on the side, the side tip falls sharply, the brush is spread out and the stroke is completed with full force;
The horizontal stroke is called "le," and the paper is touched with a reverse stroke, moving slowly and returning quickly; it should not be passed horizontally with the same stroke.
A straight stroke is like a crossbow; it shouldn't be too straight, for if it's too rigid, it will appear stiff and powerless. Instead, it should contain curves within its straightness…

After learning the Eight Principles of Yong, Su Lu followed his father's instructions, first tracing the characters in red and then copying them, carefully studying and practicing them repeatedly.

Calligraphy is a slow skill that cannot be rushed. Memorizing texts, however, is a task that cannot be rushed. If you are slow, you won't finish memorizing them... It's already September, and he hasn't even started memorizing the most important 'Four Books' yet.

The reason is simple: after memorizing the "Four Books of Literature," there are no more four-character rhyming texts that are easy to memorize.

The *Classic of Filial Piety* is alright; it's only 1800 characters long, mainly a dialogue between Confucius and Zengzi. As everyone knows, Confucius's words are concise, elegant, and easy to memorize. Su Lu finished it in half a day…

As for the content of the *Classic of Filial Piety*, whether it was brainwashing or imprisoning people's hearts, he didn't care at all. Turning oneself into a ruthless exam machine was the most basic quality of a test-taker.

Even if the higher-ups say that snow is black and charcoal is white, as long as it's on the exam, he'll still memorize it without hesitation.

Anyway, it's useless after the exam, so who cares...

The most difficult to memorize is *Elementary Learning*, a book entirely compiled by Zhu Xi from existing texts. The book comprises six volumes and 27,000 characters, divided into inner and outer sections. The inner section includes *Establishing Teachings*, *Clarifying Ethics*, *Respecting Oneself*, and *Examining Antiquity*, primarily selecting Confucian classics and 'extracting the essence of the Thirteen Classics'.

There are also two supplementary chapters, "Words of Wisdom" and "Good Deeds," which compile the wise words and good deeds of virtuous people throughout history... These two supplementary chapters contain a total of 27,000 words, making up the majority of the entire book.

Fortunately, "Elementary Learning" is for beginners and its content is not too advanced, so Su Lu can understand most of it. However, he doesn't recognize some characters and doesn't understand many phrases, so he still has to learn it from beginning to end with his father...

"When a child can eat on his own, teach him to use his right hand. When he can speak, teach boys to say 'wei' and girls to say 'yu.' Give boys leather purses and girls silk purses..." Su Youcai instructed him, "Pan, pronounced 'pu gan qie.' This sentence comes from the Book of Rites, meaning that when a child can eat on his own, teach him to use his right hand. When he can speak, teach him to answer, boys to say 'wei' and girls to say 'yu.' Give boys leather purses and girls silk purses."

Su Lu wrote with lightning speed, quickly jotting down the parts he didn't understand. It must be said, his writing speed has improved by leaps and bounds.

However, explaining it sentence by sentence slowed down the pace, and the old father could only manage to explain about three thousand words even after a whole night of exhaustion.

"How long will it take to memorize this at this rate?" Su Lu couldn't help but worry.

"You should be content. You used to have to memorize the 'Elementary Learning Annotations' too, and that one had even more characters." Su Youcai took a sip of honey water to moisten his throat.

"Why don't you memorize it anymore?" Su Lu asked.

"Because Chen Xuan, who compiled the commentary, was falsely accused by a eunuch and imprisoned to death at the end of the Chenghua era, the late emperor issued an edict to all schools to discontinue the use of his commentary. Although this dynasty has exonerated him, the Ministry of Rites has never petitioned to reinstate the use of Chen Xuan's commentary," Su Youcai said.
"To put it bluntly, since the imperial examinations didn't test 'Elementary Learning,' everyone wanted to save themselves the trouble."

“That’s the right way to think about it,” Su Lu agreed wholeheartedly.

As a result, he spent nine whole days memorizing a book called "Elementary School," and he did so while eating and sleeping, before he finally mastered it.

The most terrifying day was the third day of the ninth lunar month. Su Lu studied the last chapter of "Elementary Learning: Good Deeds", and also conducted the seventh and final review of "The Hundred Family Surnames" and "The Thousand Character Classic"; as well as the sixth review of "Elementary Learning: Moral Characters", the fifth review of the first chapter of "Elementary Learning: Wise Sayings", and the fourth review of the first chapter of "Elementary Learning: Good Deeds"!
There was so much content; just reading it would be overwhelming, let alone memorizing it. He spent a full eight hours that day memorizing it, and by the end, his eyes were practically glazed over…

"Qiu-ge'er, take a rest, have a bowl of honey water to help you recover." Su Youcai and Su Tai were heartbroken and quickly did their best to take care of him.

Of course, Dad is only responsible for feeling sorry for him; it's up to my older brother to take care of him...

Actually, they were both very tired. The clan school had also entered the exam preparation stage. Su Youcai had a heavy teaching load during the day, and he had to tutor his son for a long time when he got home at night. He was so tired that he had dark circles under his eyes and his voice was hoarse. But seeing that Su Lu was willing to improve and had the ability to work hard, he was happier than anything else and was willing to do anything no matter how tired he was.

As for Su Tai, the work in the distillery was already hard enough, but he also had to go down to the river and up the mountain from time to time to support Su Lu's studies, which made him so tired that he lost his double chin.

~~
Before we knew it, it was the Double Ninth Festival.

This day is a big day for the distillery to add ingredients and start brewing new wine. It is related to everyone's livelihood and is even more important than the Spring Festival.

On this day, every winery holds a grand Double Ninth Festival tasting ceremony, and the Su family is no exception. All the men in the family come out in droves, and Su Lu also has to come and help.

But he had nothing to complain about, because even his eldest brother, Chun-ge'er, had returned from Taiping Academy. His aunt proudly told him that his brother was going to perform the sacrificial ceremony to Heaven…

Su Lu will also be on stage throughout the event, but he will be a background figure holding flags on the side.

Although he was just a background figure, he was called to the winery early on to join the other flag-bearing boys and listen to his uncle Su Youpeng, who was in charge of the ceremony, instructing him on how to stand and shout later.

It's actually very simple. They just stand at intervals holding flags, and once the ceremony starts, they shout whatever their uncle shouts, essentially forming a row of human megaphones.

After giving them his instructions, Su Youpeng went to attend to other matters. The young men of the Su clan then gathered in a circle and began to chat…

"I heard that Chun-ge and the others got a slice of pork each after they were done," a chubby boy said indignantly. "Why do we have to fight for nothing?"

"Because they have to worship the gods and sing," said a tall, thin man who looked like a bamboo pole.

"We have to shout it out too!" the chubby boy retorted.

"Your kind of shouting is something anyone can do. But someone like Chun Ge'er (a famous Chinese singer) needs to go to an academy to learn that," the tall, thin man laughed. "Go for it! Go for it!" the chubby boy said enviously, "I'm definitely going to pass the exam this time, so I can get a share of the pork next year!"

"Good ambition," the other boys teased him. "But it's more reliable to have your mother catch a piglet for you to raise." Everyone burst into laughter, saying, "Then you can eat pork belly whenever you want, and gnaw on pig's trotters whenever you want!"

"Hahaha..." That's how teenagers are; a few silly jokes can make them laugh so hard they're doubled over. But that's the energy that comes with youth!
Only Su Lu didn't laugh, not because he was pretending to be aloof. It was because after he suffered heatstroke, the chubby boy had visited him at his house... Later, his second brother introduced him as Su Lang, a cousin of his seventh grandfather, and also Su Lu's childhood playmate.

Actually, these flag-bearing boys were all around the same age and from the same clan, so they were originally playmates. But while the others were always in school, Su Lu went home to work early, so naturally they couldn't play together anymore when they grew up.

It was truly precious that Su Lang was still willing to visit him at this point...

"Brother Qiu, I heard from the teacher that you're also going to take the academy entrance exam?" Su Lang asked as he approached him.

"Yes." Su Lu nodded.

"You actually don't want to be an apprentice, do you?" The other boys thought they had seen through everything.

“Yes, I just don’t want to work.” Su Lu nodded.

"I guessed so. You only know a few characters, how can you pass the academy entrance exam?" the boys jeered. Thirteen or fourteen-year-old boys love to say the most unpleasant things to prove they're not children.

"What are you saying?" Su Lang was displeased and scolded everyone, "If you can't speak properly, then shut up!"

"Okay, okay, he can pass the exam." The boys then said sarcastically, "You can pass too, both of you can pass, is that alright now?"

"Thank you all for your kind words." Su Lu maintained a smile and even pulled back the angry Su Lang.

Given his mental age, he wouldn't be so easily angered by a bunch of brats.

Of course, the boys wouldn't waste too much time on him. They all had to take the entrance exam for Taiping Academy this year, so memorizing their lessons was the priority.

Seeing this, Su Lu also started a Pomodoro Technique in his mind and silently began to review today's lessons.

The boys memorized the texts individually for a while, then got bored and started testing each other. One of them would say the first line of a sentence, and the others would try to answer with the second line. It seems normal that children who study and those who don't don't get along.

They were testing him on the academy's oral exam, something Su Lu had never seen before. Just as a Pomodoro session ended, he began to observe intently and discovered it was indeed quite difficult…

The boys, of course, made things as difficult as possible, focusing not only on the "Little Four Books" and "Elementary Learning," but also on questions that were generally no more than four characters long. Those who answered had to first locate the source in their memory, and then recite it word for word, which was a real test of memory and reaction time.

"Thirdly." Now it was the tall, thin guy's turn to ask questions, and he was even more difficult than usual.

"Thirdly? What kind of question is this?" The teenagers scratched their heads, completely stumped. "Are you kidding me?"

"Don't worry, it's not nonsense." The tall, thin man shook his head and said, "There's only one 'Third' in all the books."

The boys looked at each other for a moment, then one of them said, "Can you give me a hint? Which area is it in?"

"Will they give you hints during the exam?" The tall, thin man was unyielding.

"Forget it, forget it, I don't know how to do this one." The boys said helplessly, "You win this round."

Just as the boys were about to give up, someone spoke up and said, "Thirdly, they despise those who surpass them and are pleased by those who flatter them. They only enjoy idle talk and do not think about ancient ways. They are jealous of others' good deeds and praise others' evil deeds. They are gradually becoming perverse and destroying morality and righteousness. Their official hats and robes are just that, but they are no different from servants."

"That's it, not a single word is wrong, I'm impressed!" The tall, thin man gave a thumbs up.

"Wow, that's impressive..." The group of teenagers were stunned and heartbroken, because the person who answered was none other than Su Lu, whom they looked down upon.

"Wow, Qiu-ge'er is amazing!" Su Lang hugged Su Lu's neck and said happily, "You can never answer the questions that Jiao Jing'er asks even once in ten years!"

Su Lu already knew that in the dialect, "嚼精儿" refers to a sharp-tongued and sarcastic person who likes to make things difficult for others. So he smiled and said, "I just learned it, so it's normal that I can remember it."

"I see." The boys suddenly understood and felt less heartbroken.

“Yes, it’s normal that you can’t remember it clearly since you memorized it early. Just review it a little when you get back and you’ll remember it.” Su Lu encouraged them with a smile.

"Of course!" The boys were like mules that were easily coaxed; they were happy as soon as they were coaxed. Now they started talking to him, one after another.

"Qiu-ge'er, you can recite the 'Four Books and Chapters' so well?"

"I haven't started learning yet," Su Lu said honestly.

"Oh well," the boys said regretfully. "If we had studied harder a couple of years earlier, we might still have had a chance."

"It's alright, as long as you pass the exam, I'll just consider it an opportunity to broaden my horizons," Su Lu said with a smile that remained unchanged.

(End of this chapter)