Top Scholar

Chapter 9 Full-time Student
"Zhu Qin Youxu, He Lü Shi Zhang. Kong Cao Yan Hua, Jin Wei Tao Jiang."

Inside and outside the stilted house, the clear sound of reciting could be heard. In front of the whole family, Su Lu recited the words "Wanqi Sima, Shangguan Ouyang" in one breath before pausing.

The uncle nodded slightly; he had already memorized four hundred characters. Qiu Ge'er had spent the whole day picking sorghum; to be able to memorize so many was truly impressive.

"Xiahou Zhuge, Wenren Dongfang, Helian Huangfu, Yuchi Gongyang..."

To his surprise, Su Lu simply breathed a sigh of relief, because the most difficult part was over, and the rest were all easier compound surnames. After a short adjustment, he recited them all in one go:
"Mo Ha Qiao Da, Nian Ai Yang Tong. Fifth Yan Fu, the end of the Hundred Family Surnames!"

The uncle couldn't help but gape. There were a full 568 characters! And Qiu-ge'er had actually memorized them all. "His memory is truly remarkable!"

But that wasn't all! Su Lu reached out and turned another page for his uncle, saying in a deep voice, "The next one is the Thousand Character Classic!"

Under the stunned gaze of his entire family, he continued reciting with complete absorption:

"...The sword is named Juque, the pearl is called Yeguang. The fruits are prized, such as plums and apricots, and the vegetables are valued, such as mustard and ginger."

The sea is salty, the river is fresh; fish swim, birds soar. Dragon Master, Fire Emperor, Bird Official, Human Emperor…”

Although the Thousand Character Classic has twice the number of characters as the Hundred Family Surnames, it is only half the difficulty of memorizing the Hundred Family Surnames.

Because it is not only meaningful and well-organized, but also discusses everything from nature to humanity and then to the way of life, it is very helpful for understanding and memorization.

Furthermore, the author divided the text into sections according to rhyme. For example, from "天地玄黄" to "器欲难量", the first forty-eight lines rhyme with "ang", which is particularly helpful for reading aloud and memorizing.

Coupled with the catchy "two plus two" memorization mode, it is both enjoyable and efficient to memorize, making it a model for memorizing texts.

As Su Lu recited the poem with a clear rhythm, the Su family members, led by Su Youcai, happily clapped along.

My aunt didn't want to participate, but while she could control her hands, she couldn't control her neck, which rhythmically twitched along with her movements...

Su Lu is also a bit of a show-off. With the encouragement of his family, his brain was highly excited and his memory was incredibly clear. He didn't have any pauses and memorized it all in one go.

"Ignorant and ill-informed, foolish and ignorant, as the idioms used here are auxiliary words like 'yan, zai, hu, ye'!"

The whole family was still enjoying themselves, silently savoring the rhythmic beauty of the Thousand Character Classic.

"Uncle, I've finished reciting it." Seeing that his uncle was still standing there dumbfounded, Su Lu had no choice but to cough.

The Su family members then came to their senses and all looked at the eldest uncle. The eldest aunt stammered, "Gua, Guawa didn't just memorize it randomly, did he? How can anyone remember so many words?"

"No, not a single mistake..." Uncle stammered.

With a bang, the old man slammed his hand on the table and roared, "Amazing!"

"Great! Great!" Auntie and Su Tai were overjoyed, piling food into Su Lu's bowl from either side. "Qiu-ge'er is so great!"

Even the hard-of-hearing grandmother and the clueless Jinbao joined in the commotion.

Only my uncle kept his head down and ate silently, as if he were in a different world from them...

~~
"Brother Qiu, your child has memorized these two passages before, right?" After everyone calmed down from their shock, the uncle asked again.

"Yes, yes, that must be it." Auntie nodded hurriedly. "How could Qiu-ge'er be more capable than Chun-ge'er?"

“Even if Qiu-ge’er had memorized it before, it’s still impressive that he can remember it so clearly now.” The uncle coughed, signaling his wife to stop.

"No, not at all. I just wanted to let you know that I taught you both of these articles last night." Su Youcai said with a reserved expression, "Even Qiu-ge'er had difficulty reading them at the time, and there were still many words he didn't recognize."

"Wow, I didn't expect this kid to actually have potential." The uncle gave him a thumbs up happily. "His chances of getting into the academy might actually be quite good."

“Then I need to focus on preparing for the exam.” Su Lu immediately seized the opportunity and said, “There is so much to learn, there is simply not enough time, Uncle.”

“Alright, then you don’t need to work starting tomorrow. Just focus on studying until the end of the year,” the uncle said readily, waving his hand.

"There's so much chores at home," the aunt said, naturally unwilling to comply. "Besides, who's going to look after the children?"

“We’ll take care of Qiu-ge’s work,” Su Tai, who had been quiet all along, said. “We’ll make sure nothing gets delayed.”

"Second Brother..." Su Lu opened his mouth, but Su Tai chuckled and squeezed his arm, saying:

"Don't worry, I'm got plenty of energy. You just focus on your studies." Su Lu nodded emphatically. Xia Ge'er was the best brother in the world.

Even little Jinbao said in his childish voice, "I'll be good and don't need to look."

Now the eldest aunt couldn't interfere anymore, but she still kept saying, "What's so special about the 'Thousand Character Classic' and 'Hundred Family Surnames'? Chun-ge could recite them when he was eight years old. It's nothing."

"Thank you for your encouragement, Auntie. I will continue to work hard." Su Lu nodded calmly. Having been granted permission to focus on his studies was enough; there was no need to waste any more words.

"Hmph, they only pierced her ears right before she got into the sedan chair." The eldest aunt had no choice but to give up in frustration.

~~
After dinner, back in his room, Su Youcai finally couldn't hold back his laughter and burst out laughing, patting Su Lu's shoulder hard and saying:
"I've heard your uncle and aunt praise Chun-ge'er so many times over the years, it's become tiresome. Today, my son has finally made his father proud, and this feeling is truly wonderful!"

"How did you memorize all this stuff?" Su Tai lit the pine oil lamp again and asked curiously.

"Second brother, I used some techniques." Su Lu didn't hold back and told his father and brothers his secrets, hoping it would be helpful to them.

Unfortunately, as Su Taiguang listened to him talk about various memory techniques, his eyelids grew heavy again, and he nodded and began chanting Buddhist prayers.

Su Youcai, however, was a discerning reader. He knew how valuable these methods were to scholars, and after listening, he exclaimed in surprise, "There are so many tricks to memorizing things? You can even memorize things while walking or sleeping?"

“Yes.” Su Lu nodded and said, “Of course, this is also because ‘Three Hundred Thousand’ is particularly easy to memorize. If it were something else, it might not be as effective.”

Memory is a process by which the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information. Su Lu carefully studied various rapid memorization methods and finally discovered that the truly effective methods all focus on strengthening these three aspects.

The "Three Hundred Thousand" method involves optimizing and encoding information into rhyming, catchy sentences to improve memorization. This method is called "mnemonic device memorization," and examples include the 24 solar terms and the periodic table. It significantly reduces the difficulty of memorization, makes the information easier to remember, and reduces the likelihood of forgetting anything.

"Where did you learn all this from?" Su Youcai asked, puzzled.

"After that heatstroke, these methods came to mind. I tried them while memorizing my lessons, and they actually worked..." Su Lu couldn't explain this, so he could only say vaguely.

“I’ve heard that Jiang Yan, Fan Zhi, and Li Bai all dreamt of being given a writing brush by an immortal, and upon waking, their writing improved dramatically and their talents became extraordinary.” Su Youcai, however, exclaimed with delight, “Could it be that my son also received a writing brush from an immortal in the sorghum field and suddenly became enlightened?”

"Well, even I can't explain it." Su Lu knew his father would just fill in the blanks with his own imagination. But something about those words sounded a little strange.

"That's not right either. Your handwriting is so innocent and simple, it doesn't seem like someone with a talent for writing." He picked up the stack of papers that Su Lu had scribbled down last night, and the more he looked at them, the more speechless he became. "Just looking at this handwriting, who would dare say you've ever been to school?"

"Yes, son can't write, he just scribbled something." Su Lu hurriedly said humbly, "Please teach me, Father."

"I'm about to teach you properly!" Su Youcai pointed to the messy table and scolded his son, "When a child enters school, the first thing to learn is cleanliness. The inkstone should be free of grime, and the brush should be free of stale ink. The books on the table should be arranged neatly, and the words in the books should not be scribbled or annotated haphazardly."

Su Lu couldn't help but smile bitterly. He had broken every rule about relationships—the inkstone wasn't washed, the brush wasn't cleaned, and the books were scattered all over the table. To make memorization easier, he had added periods and commas to the Thousand Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames…

"Logically, I should have slapped your palms until they were bruised and battered. But ignorance is no excuse, and this is a one-time exception," Su Youcai said sternly.

"Yes, I understand." Su Lu replied honestly, and quickly and obediently cleaned the inkstone, washed the brush, and tidied the table.

Su Youcai then began teaching him, starting with grinding ink: "When grinding ink, you must wash your hands and sit upright. Ink comes alive with water, so the water must be clean and free from dirt and heat. Adding water directly to the inkstone often results in too much, so you must first pour clean water into the ink dropper."

The so-called "ink dropper" is a small water pot. Those with a spout are called "water pitchers," and those without a spout are called "water containers." Su Youcai used a goose-shaped water pitcher with chipped porcelain.

As Su Youcai dripped water onto the inkstone, he instructed, "Three to five drops each time, adding more as you grind. The quality of a calligraphy largely depends on the ink color. Too much ink will make the brush dry and clumsy, while too little will cause the ink to seep through. Therefore, the ink color must be just right."

As he spoke, he picked up the ink stick and demonstrated on the inkstone: "Hold it in your left hand, press the ink with your fingers, keep your palm hollow, press hard and push lightly, rotate it in circles like a compass, repeat a hundred times."

He paused for a moment, then added, "However, the ink we use is homemade by Xia Ge'er, made from pine soot. Sometimes there's too much glue, making the ink stick too hard; sometimes there's too little glue, making the ink stick too loose. So when grinding, don't worry about the number of strokes; just make sure the ink mark on the ink doesn't disappear immediately after the ink stick has passed through..."

Upon hearing his name called, Su Tai opened his eyes abruptly and said embarrassedly, "I'm so stupid..."

"Second Brother is already amazing!" Su Lu was extremely impressed, giving him a thumbs up with both hands and feet. Xia Ge'er is simply skillful and capable of anything.

"Xia Ge'er is indeed very skilled. The ink he grinds is jet black and glossy, even better than the ink sold in town. The clan school uses ink made by him." Su Youcai also praised him, which made Su Tai beam with joy and he even yawned.

"Go to sleep, drowsiness is contagious." Su Youcai yawned as well. "Don't forget to wash your feet properly, the house was like a dead mouse last night."

"Okay." Su Tai obediently got up, picked up the only basin in the room for washing his face, feet, and clothes, and went to wash his feet.

(End of this chapter)