Top Scholar

Chapter 66 Dong Ge'er

"But his writing skills, even two years of improvement probably won't be enough..." Qian Huai-ren couldn't help but pour cold water on his enthusiasm.

"Writing skills can be improved; they won't hinder his ultimate potential." Zhu Liu waved his hand and sneered, "Especially in my Great Ming Dynasty."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but complain, "Because our dynasty doesn't have many outstanding writers. Not to mention the Qin and Han dynasties, even among the Eight Great Masters, no one in our dynasty can match us."

"You're exaggerating, Headmaster. Not to mention the founding emperors Liu Song, Gao and Yang, even the current Qian Wang and the Seven Heroes, their writings are comparable to those of the past and present, aren't they?" Qian Huai-ren said with a wry smile.

Actually, that's what he felt too, otherwise why would he still read articles from the Qin, Han, Tang, and Song dynasties?
But we can't diminish the prestige of our dynasty...

"It's just picking the best among the worst. Centuries later, the writings of the Qin, Han, Tang, and Song dynasties still shine through the ages, while these trendy pieces of our dynasty have long been buried in the dustbin of history, forgotten by everyone..." Zhu Liu sighed sadly, "The writings of our time are already dead, how boring."

"That's why the Seven Heroes are promoting a revival movement," Qian Huai-ren laughed. "Who knows, the literary world might just be reborn from this."

"Who knows?" Zhu Liu seemed uninterested in literary matters, and said indifferently, "In these times, scholars should hurry up and master the eight-legged essay, and enter officialdom to govern and bring peace as soon as possible."

“That’s natural. Nowadays, scholars are confined to their studies, all for the sake of the imperial examinations. How many are truly dedicated to scholarship?” Qian Huai-ren sighed. “It’s a pity that even the headmaster has such a difficult time in the imperial examinations, so we dare not even hope for it.”

“There’s nothing we can do,” Zhu Liu sighed. “The higher you climb, the more you feel the injustice of fate. The difference between mortals and geniuses can never be bridged in a lifetime.”

“We don’t need to go to a high place; we can feel it just by being in front of the headmaster,” Qian Huai-ren said, half-flattering and half-truthfully.

“Perhaps, we can see hope again,” Zhu Liu said softly.

"The headmaster is talking about that kid?" Qian Huai-ren finally widened his eyes. But even though the headmaster had said so much, he still found it absurd.

"Of course not now, but if we let him continue to delve into this path, he will surely bring us more surprises." Zhu Liu looked up at the sky and said, "The stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade. I only hope that he can become a true mountain."

“Since the headmaster values ​​him so much, he shouldn’t have given him a zero yesterday,” Qian Huai-ren said softly. “That put too much pressure on the child.”

“Rules cannot be broken; once they are broken, they can never be restored.” Zhu Liu said seriously, “Besides, since that kid was able to get into the academy in three months, solve the problems in a day, and master the grammar and principles in two months, I am looking forward to seeing if he will make significant progress in his writing next month.”

He would never tell Qian Huai-ren that he had secretly passed the secret manual to that kid...

~~
On the other hand, although Su Lu had obtained the secret manual, he did not become arrogant. As a seasoned test-taker, he knew all too well that skills were always built on a foundation of ability.

Without solid fundamental skills, no amount of technique is anything more than a facade, a showy but useless display.

Therefore, Su Youcai's nightly "prosody lessons" not only did not stop, but were extended from half an hour to a full hour...

Why is it called "Prosody Class" instead of "Poetry Composition Class"? Because Su Lu's goal was very clear: to improve his writing skills by learning the rules of poetry and mastering tonal patterns and rhymes.

As for writing poetry itself, he'd be happy to learn it while doing something else, but he wouldn't really care if he didn't...

Moreover, he has been practicing wordplay since the start of the school year, not only with Su Dan on his way to and from school, but also with his father in the evenings, treating this enjoyable word game as a parent-child activity.

After two months of training in parallelism and rhyme, Su Lu had developed a certain understanding of phonetics. That evening, Su Youcai took out a yellowed copy of "Hongwu Zhengyun".

"You've basically mastered parallelism. Today, I'll start teaching you to distinguish rhyme groups and recognize tones." Su Youcai's every pore radiated joy. It wasn't because his work environment was pleasant, but because poetry and prose were his true interests compared to the repulsive Four Books and Five Classics.

“Since your heart isn’t in writing poetry, I won’t go into too much detail about classical and modern poetry, or regulated verse and quatrains. I’ll start directly with tonal patterns and rhyme.” He said to Su Lu with a strong voice, “Let’s start with tonal patterns…”

He clapped his hands to mark the rhythm, explaining the difference between level and oblique tones: "Level tones are flat and gentle, while oblique tones are winding and forceful. The alternation of level and oblique tones in poetry creates a powerful and resonant sound. Therefore, since the Yongming style of poetry in the Southern Dynasties, the level and oblique tones of each line of poetry have followed strict rules."

“In poetry, there are four basic units called ‘step’: level-level, oblique-oblique, single-level, and single-oblique. Writing poetry is a process of ‘step’ composed of ‘sound’ and ‘sentence’.”

“The first ‘step’ at the beginning of each line must be a two-syllable line. For example, in a five-character line starting with a level tone, the first line is ‘level-level-oblique-oblique-level’; in a five-character line starting with an oblique tone, the first line is ‘oblique-oblique-oblique-level-level’…”

"Furthermore, the tones must be relative, linked, and alternating. If you're not writing poetry, you don't need to delve into it. There are only a few tones in total; if you memorize them, it'll be enough for writing essays..." Su Youcai glanced at Su Lu with considerable resentment, clearly disapproving of his learning only the rules of prosody and not how to write poetry.

"Mmm." Su Lu nodded obediently. He knew that his father was just complaining and wouldn't teach him anything 'useless'.

"You must memorize the tones and rhymes of the characters in the rhyme book to avoid violating the rules." Su Youcai then opened the book "Hongwu Zhengyun" and said:

"Rhyme is divided into four tones and seventy-six categories. Among them, the rising tone, departing tone, and entering tone are oblique tones, and the rest are level tones. Whether composing poems, couplets, or parallel prose, rhyming is necessary, and rhyme books must be used."

He lovingly stroked the well-worn copy of "Hongwu Zhengyun" and said, "Whenever I seriously compose a poem, I rely on it to choose rhymes, check rhyme groups, proofread the whole poem, and verify the tones. My son, you should carry it with you at all times from now on."

Su Lu looked at the "Hongwu Zhengyun" and found that there were 22 rhymes in the level tone, namely "Dong Zhi Qi Yu Mo Jie Hui Zhen Han Shan Xian, Xiao Yao Ge Ma Zhe Yang Geng You Qin Tan Yan." There were also 22 rhymes each in the rising and departing tones, and 10 rhymes in the entering tone, totaling 12,246 characters.

He breathed a sigh of relief and laughed, "Luckily, there aren't many words. I'll just have to put in some effort to memorize them all."

Su Youcai rolled his eyes, feeling hurt. However, he also knew that with Su Lu's abnormal memory, he truly meant what he said…

Alas, why is the father so unlike the son? What a tragedy...

~~
Su Lu thus diligently practiced rhyme books, mastered tonal patterns, practiced parallelism, and learned calligraphy, while secretly studying the "Nine Swords of Dugu" to prepare for the second monthly lesson on April 15th.

Besides studying, two things happened during this period, one of which was good news. At the end of March, my uncle and aunt returned from Hejiang, bringing back the good news that my aunt had given birth safely.

She also gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The older one was a girl, and the younger one was a boy.

The whole family was overjoyed upon hearing the news, and the old man named the little girl Xibao'er.

The little boy was named Su Run, and his nickname was Dong Ge'er...

The child was born in the spring, so calling him "Winter Brother" wouldn't be quite appropriate. But the old man is very meticulous; he had already thought it through... Normally, since my uncle got married at the end of last winter, shouldn't the baby be born this winter?

Therefore, the news of Su Run's birth is only known to his family for the time being, and no celebratory eggs have been sent to the clan members. Everything will be made public in winter.

At that time, it will be appropriate to call him Dongge'er.

~~
The other thing is bad news...

On the fourth day of the fourth lunar month, Su Lu and Su Dan went home from school as usual. The next day was a ten-day break, and the two were discussing having a fun special training session the next day, but suddenly found that Erlangtan was a bit suffocating today.

"What's wrong?" Su Lu's heart skipped a beat when he saw Su Lang come out of his house with a grim expression. "What happened to my house?"

"Brother, is everything alright at home?" Su Lang said in a low voice. "It's just bad news from Luzhou. None of the people from Erlangtan passed this year's provincial examination."

Besides Su Man, two other students from the Cheng family also took the provincial examination... Both families had high expectations this time, but they didn't expect this result. No wonder Erlangtan was so lifeless.

"What?!" Su Dan exclaimed in surprise, "Even my eldest brother didn't pass? He was third in the county exam!"

"I only heard it from someone else, how would I know the specifics?" Su Lang sighed and said to Su Lu, "Brother, you should go in quickly, I heard that Chun Ge'er has fallen ill."

"..." Su Lu rushed into the main room in two strides.

~~
Inside the main room, the elders of each branch of the clan gathered again, but while last time they were filled with joy, this time the atmosphere was gloomy and somber.

The old man sat by the hearth, the betel leaf roll in his mouth untouched for a long time. The eldest uncle looked like a wilted eggplant, listless to the side. The eldest aunt hid in the inner room, sobbing uncontrollably…

The old clan chief comforted him, saying, "Don't be like that. It's already a victory that Chun-ge'er was able to pass the prefectural examination. No one in our clan has ever passed the county examination before."

“That’s right. Cheng Piyang took the exam several times back then, and he was over thirty before he finally passed and became a high-ranking official.” The old genealogist Su Daqiang also advised, “Chun’er is not even twenty yet. He has a long life ahead of him. What’s the rush?”

"Yes, it's not like taking the imperial examination for the lowest degree; there are two exams every three years, so there are plenty of opportunities," Su Daji, the manager of the distillery, comforted him.

"Next time, Chun-ge won't have to take the county exam; he can go straight to the prefectural exam. Wouldn't that be great?"

"Sigh, you don't need to persuade me anymore, just go back." The old man waved his hand helplessly, chewed a couple of times on his betel leaf roll, and said, "His mother's persuasion is useless... How can I worry about that? I'm only worried about my eldest grandson!"

"Yes, I only heard from his classmates that he fell ill in Luzhou, but we don't know what illness he has or how serious it is." The uncle sighed and said, "I'm only worried about my son right now, how can I care about anything else?"

It's no wonder the father and son were so worried; given the medical and sanitary conditions of that era, falling ill was like walking through the gates of hell. Especially since Su Man had fallen ill in a foreign land…

"As long as Chun-ge is safe and sound, I would rather he never pass the exam in his entire life!" Aunt cried in the inner room.

A low point in emotional intelligence, but able to perform consistently.

"You wretched woman, how dare you speak like that? How can you curse your own son?!" The eldest uncle was displeased and roared, "Shut your mouth, nobody thinks you're mute!"

P.S. The next chapter will be in a little while; I haven't finished proofreading yet...

(End of this chapter)