Top Scholar

Chapter 22 Brother Chun's Timely Rain

"Oh, why do you think that?" Su Youcai became really interested; he had never heard this argument before.

"Because King Xuan of Qi's ancestors used the same excuse to exile the original ruler and complete the Tian family's usurpation of Qi," Su Tai said slowly.

That was a decisive blow.

Su Youcai was speechless for a moment, and could only give a thumbs up.

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "This child definitely has great wisdom... Wait, why did I say 'also'?"

After a while, Su Youcai asked curiously, "Xia-ge'er, who told you about 'the Tian family replacing Qi'?"

“It was Qiu Ge’er who told me. He said that understanding the historical background would help in comprehending the dialogues between Mencius and those kings.” Su Tai said, then added embarrassedly, “I’m so stupid, it took me so long to figure out such a simple principle.”

"This principle is not simple at all." Su Youcai shook his head decisively, then smiled and tucked the blanket around Xia Ge'er, saying:

"Mencius would have been very happy to know that his descendants would think this way."

"Why is he so happy when people question him?" Su Tai asked, puzzled.

“Because that’s the spirit of Mencius,” Su Youcai said softly, not daring to go into too much detail. “It’s getting late, go to sleep.”

"Mmm." Su Tai obediently closed his eyes.

~~
Next room.

Su Lu knocked on the door and entered the room, where he saw Su Man sitting behind the table, looking at him with a serious expression.

He couldn't help but feel the premonition that he'd been called to the homeroom teacher's office, and for a moment he felt awkward. He awkwardly explained:
"Brother, you know me. My feet don't usually smell. It's just that I've been running up and down the stairs non-stop these past few days..."

"I don't know! I don't care if you stink or not." Su Manjian frowned and raised his voice, "Your most important task now is to study. If you don't get into the academy, you'll have plenty of time to work as a waiter later!"

This looks even more like it...

"Yes, yes." Su Lu nodded hurriedly, accepting the instruction, "Isn't this a special case? Tomorrow, no, tonight I'll continue to study hard."

“I won’t listen to your excuses. You just told me you’ve memorized all the books?” Su Manyi raised her hand.

"No." Su Lu was also worried about this matter, and said with a bitter face, "I have only just finished memorizing the seventh chapter of Mencius, 'Li Lou, Part 1'."

"So there are still 59,000 words to memorize?" Su Man frowned even more deeply.

"Actually, it's fifty-seven thousand. I managed to memorize two thousand words of the eighth chapter today when I had some free time," Su Lu said with a sigh. "But I haven't memorized the eighteen thousand words of the 'Commentary on the Doctrine of the Mean' yet..."

"That's a full 75,000 words!" Su Man's forehead veins bulged as he said, "The exam is on the 16th of the twelfth lunar month, which is exactly half a month away. You have to memorize a full 5,000 words a day. Can you manage that?"

"I definitely can't memorize it all," Su Lu said with a bitter face. "Writing three thousand words a day is already very difficult."

"There's still a full 30,000 words to go," Su Man said, rubbing her temples, looking worried. "What are you going to do?"

"If all else fails, I'll just have to memorize as much as I can, and then pray to Confucius that the parts I don't know won't be on the test," Su Lu sighed.

"Nonsense! Is taking an exam something you can do by taking chances?!" Su Man slammed her hand on the table and shouted angrily.

"Besides, the test only examines the meaning of calligraphy and painting, so there's practically no way to differentiate between candidates. If you can't even memorize 20,000 or 30,000 characters, it's a complete waste of your time; you might as well not bother registering!"

"Huh? Is the competition that fierce?" Su Lu couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"What do you think?" Su Man glanced at him and said, "Taiping Academy is a branch of the famous Heshan Academy. Children from all over Hejiang County, as well as Yongningwei, Luzhouwei, and Chishuiwei, are all scrambling to get in!"

"Damn it..." Su Lu couldn't help but swear. It's true that the last mile is the hardest; you can't go wrong if you're even a little bit short.

This time, Su Man did not reprimand him for the three prohibitions, but sighed and said, "Bring me the 'Commentary on Mencius'."

Su Lu was unaware of what was going on, but he still quickly went back to the house to get his elder brother's copy of "Mencius Commentary".

Su Man then picked up his pen and turned the page, circling some of the entries.

"Is this highlighting important points for me?" Su Lu's eyes lit up.

"No, this is not on the test." Su Man said expressionlessly, "I didn't want to help you cheat, but there's always a way. This is better than you doing poorly and embarrassing me."

"Yes, yes." Su Lu nodded hurriedly and said, "I absolutely cannot let my elder brother down."

At this point, Su Man had switched to another copy of "Gaozi Pian," so he picked up "Wan Zhang Pian" and saw that his elder brother had deleted about ten chapters, including "Heaven favors the virtuous," "Heaven sees as the people see, Heaven hears as the people hear," and "If the ruler has committed a great fault, he should be remonstrated; if he is repeatedly remonstrated and still not heeded, he should be replaced," directly eliminating nearly half of the content...

"These won't be on the test?" Su Lu asked.

“Yes.” Su Man nodded and said, “You can talk to your second uncle about it later.”

He paused for a moment and then said, "Of course, you don't have to say it."

“I’m not that petty; I wouldn’t consider the brothers in the clan as rivals.” Su Lu understood his elder brother’s meaning. “Who knows?” Su Man sneered, “Maybe they’ll just oust you?”

"That doesn't matter," Su Lu laughed. "One shouldn't give up eating just because of a choking scare; that would be too despicable."

"I hope you'll still think that way after you've seen how treacherous the world is," Su Man scoffed noncommittally.

Su Lu thought to himself, "Even if I don't think that way, I still have to say it, otherwise you'll look down on me."
Fearing that his elder brother would see through his insincerity, he quickly changed the subject, saying, "These seem to be the parts that Emperor Taizu deleted back then."

“That’s right.” Su Man nodded.

“My father also mentioned this, but he also said that the Yongle Emperor restored the full text of Mencius and erased the record of the Taizu Emperor deleting Mencius from the Veritable Records.”

"If it was erased, how did Second Uncle know?" Su Man asked in return.

“Uh…” Su Lu thought for a moment and replied awkwardly, “You can’t hide the truth forever.”

"Then do you know how the Ming Dynasty operated?" Su Man asked again.

"The Great Ming Code?" Su Lu guessed.

“No, it’s the ancestral laws and regulations. To be precise, it’s everything that Emperor Taizu established.” Su Man sighed and said, “Emperor Taizong was indeed a man of great talent and ambition, but his descendants, especially Emperors Tianshun and Chenghua, clearly admired Emperor Taizu more.”

"Understood." Su Lu nodded, thinking to himself that it was only natural. No emperor would like treacherous officials, even if their throne was inherited from them…

"So although the 'Excerpt from Mencius' is no longer available, the sentences deleted by the founding emperor have never appeared in the imperial examinations over the years... It's just an unspoken understanding among everyone," Su Man said in a low voice.

“But my father said that the current Hongzhi Emperor highly admires Mencius, so it’s hard to say…” Su Lu said softly.

“There’s nothing difficult to say. Taiping Academy has been open for a hundred years and wants to open for another hundred years.” After saying that, Su Man said impatiently, “Don’t ask any more questions. I’m telling you, there’s no exam and that’s final!”

"Yes, yes." Su Lu quickly nodded in agreement. His elder brother's deletion of Mencius was a timely help, and he was overjoyed. He only said a few more words because he subconsciously wanted to defend his father.

Su Man's sweeping simplification resulted in the elimination of one-third of the "Collected Annotations on Mencius"!

Su Lu will now be able to memorize 19,000 fewer words!
Moreover, the pressure of reviewing previously learned material has been greatly reduced, and the time saved can naturally be used to memorize more new content.

Now that he finally saw hope again, Su Lu was overjoyed and said with a fawning expression, "Big brother, could you also highlight the key points of the 'Doctrine of the Mean'?"

"Dream on! Not a single word of the Doctrine of the Mean can be omitted; you have to memorize it thoroughly!" Su Man said seriously, "Moreover, the Doctrine of the Mean is the most difficult, and it's basically what differentiates students in the exam!"

"I understand," Su Lu quickly replied, "I will memorize it carefully."

"Sigh, you're such a worry..." Su Man opened his schoolbag with a look of disgust, took out a stack of notebooks full of writing and handed them to him, saying, "These are past exam questions, you can take a look when you have time."

"Hey hey..." Su Lu's eyes lit up. These were real exam questions!
Although my elder brother is a bit stubborn, he's truly amazing! Su Lu quickly said gratefully, "Elder brother has really gone to so much trouble."

“I didn’t do this for you,” Su Man emphasized.

"Yes, yes, it's for my elder brother's sake," Su Lu hurriedly replied with a smile.

“My pride isn’t that important,” Su Man sighed softly. “The expectations our family has for us are the hardest thing to bear.”

“Yes.” Su Lu nodded, deeply agreeing.

“But giving you the test paper isn’t for you to guess the questions, and you can’t possibly guess them anyway,” Su Man reminded him. “But it can help you get familiar with the style of the questions, see where they like to ask questions, so that you have a focus when you review, and it won’t feel too unfamiliar during the exam.”

"Yes," Su Lu hurriedly replied.

~~
The next morning, the new bride served tea to her parents-in-law, brother and sister-in-law, and sister-in-law. The old man said kindly, "Third daughter-in-law, you are not feeling well, so you don't need to kneel."

"Yes, it's best not to drink alcohol while pregnant," the old lady nodded.

"Ah..." The aunt was dumbfounded. What was going on here?
"Our mother is hard of hearing," the younger brother quickly explained. "She can say what she wants, and you can say what you want."

"Yes," the aunt replied, bowing her head. Her in-laws kept bringing up her pregnancy, which naturally made her uncomfortable.

Then the old man said, "Cui Cui, don't overthink it. Once you're in the Su family, the whole family will protect you."

“That’s right,” Uncle also laughed, “The best thing about our family is that we are all of one mind and there’s no backstabbing or infighting.”

“Yes, sister-in-law,” Su Youcai said gently. “As the saying goes, ‘A grand mansion is not as good as brothers joining arms.’ Our family’s current conditions are a bit poor, but if we work together, there is no river we cannot cross and no mountain we cannot climb.”

“That’s right, that’s right.” The aunt quickly nodded in agreement.

The kind words from her family finally put her mind at ease. With tears in her eyes, she nodded and said, "Thank you, Father, Mother, Brother, Sister-in-law, and Aunt. I will remember your teachings."

"Alright, alright." The old man nodded, somewhat reluctantly saying, "Before you married into the family, your father must have told you, right? He gave you a house in the county as part of your dowry. You two can move there tomorrow. The conditions in the city are better, and you two can relax more."

"Yes, I am an unfilial son, causing my two fathers much worry." The aunt nodded, this was the best arrangement for her and her child.

P.S. It's a new week! Please vote for me and keep reading! Brothers, let's rise up, monk!
(End of this chapter)