I played as an assistant in ancient times

When Shen Xiaoye went to deliver lunch at noon, several handkerchiefs had already been dried. She took a lotus-red and a yellow one and couldn't wait to present them to her aunt.

"Did you tie-dye it and then dye it? Although the color is light, it is not worse than that dyed with safflower cakes." Huang knew that the tie-dyed fabric would have marks of different shapes each time.

Shen Xiaoye nodded heavily, "There is another silver-red one at home, and my aunt can use it to embroider flowers.

When I make and sell the orpiment and crimson pigments, I will buy you a piece of fine cloth to dye and make a skirt."

"Don't brag without thinking. How many coppers can you get for that little bit of your paint?" Shen Cungeng had already started eating his second bowl of noodles beside him.

Shen Xiaoye reached out and took away the only half bowl of meat, "I was so kind as to give you most of the braised rabbit meat that my great-grandmother made."

"I was wrong, I was wrong." Shen Cungeng chased after the bowl.

Huang laughed angrily: "It's what you deserve."

Shen Xiaoye didn't really take it away, "Aunt, I'll be here with my cousin at noon and supervise his studies. You go home and take a nap first."

"Okay, Xiaoye, will the red color you dyed with this method fade as easily as the safflower cake dyed last year?" Huang looked through the lotus-red handkerchief carefully and asked thoughtfully. She didn't care much about the yellow color, after all, locust flowers can also be dyed yellow.

Shen Xiaoye thought of the almost faded undershirt she wore last year, and said uncertainly, "Should we add another step of boiling black plums in water to fix the color?"

"Mom, although safflower dyeing looks good, it is indeed not very durable. If you really want red cloth, you might as well use sumac to dye it." Shen Cungeng gave sincere advice.

Shen Xiaoye agreed and said, "Yes, it's hard to get a real red from a red flower, so it's better to dye it for my aunt to embroider a handkerchief.

Or we make hair flowers out of it and sell them.”

Safflower contains two pigments, red and yellow. Ninety-nine percent of the yellow pigment is water-soluble, and only one percent of the red pigment is not easily visible in water. The key is that after it is produced, it will fade if it is dyed with certain spices or washed with alkaline water, so it does not have the practical value of being popularized in the countryside. (Song Yingxing of the Ming Dynasty has a detailed description of "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature"

"It's best to use silk cloth for the head flower so that it can be sold at a high price. I'll go home and take a look at the silver-red one first." Huang urged her son to finish his meal quickly and left quickly with the empty food basket.

Shen Cungeng bit a leaf and lay down on the bamboo mat under the shade of the tree, saying, "Xiaoye, the canal was moved to the new ridge before you came. Now I'm lazy and want to take a nap.

How do you feel about memorizing the lesson after waking up? "

He glanced at the Spring and Autumn Annals that his cousin brought. It was the book that his uncle had chosen when he took the examination for the scholar. This book was one of the few that was not burned in the fire, and it contained many annotations by his uncle.

Unfortunately, during the catastrophe in Qiu County, most of the study in our home was burned down, and many books could not be rescued.

He also planned to specialize in the Spring and Autumn Annals among the Five Classics, because there were many people specializing in this classic and it would be easy to find a teacher to teach him, so he didn't have to buy the other books for the time being.

Moreover, if I take the Spring and Autumn Annals as the main book, it will be convenient and easy to study it with my fourth uncle who also chose this book.

Shen Xiaoye didn't mean to force him to study, "I just picked out a book to help you relieve your boredom."

In fact, she remembered that her uncle said yesterday that the black cat pendant was placed on the desk, so she went in and took it to cover it up.

Of the books in our house now, except for a few that my father had used, most of the remaining ones were copied by my uncle.

"Cousin, are the Four Books and Five Classics easy to learn?" She was able to rely on her age advantage to memorize the 1,753-word "Great Learning", the 3,568-word "Doctrine of the Mean", and several chapters of the more than 10,000-word "Analects of Confucius", but she could only recite part of the more than 30,000-word "Mencius", and she didn't understand it in depth.

She had only read once or twice, including the Sanbaiqian books that her grandfather carefully brought back to his hometown for them after they were rescued, as well as enlightenment books such as "Youxue Qionglin" and "Ancient Chinese Prose Analysis".

In fact, scholars not only need to be able to memorize the original text, but also need to know its source, allusions and annotations. After completing elementary education for three or two years, it usually takes about two years to specialize in studying the Four Books.

The Five Classics, which include "The Book of Songs", "Spring and Autumn Annals", "Book of History", "Book of Changes" and "Rites", are further divided into different schools of thought. It takes a year to read through all five classics.

However, since you only need to master one of the Five Classics, you should then choose another one of the Five Classics as a reference and study it for another year.

After that, I devoted one or two years to studying how to break and write the eight-legged essay. In total, about eighty or ninety years passed.

Of course, you are not asked to memorize the original text in the imperial examination. It includes but is not limited to copying scriptures (similar to filling in the blanks), Mo Yi (similar to interpretation), writing arts (eight-legged essay), five-character eight-rhyme poetry, and expressing judgments, etc.

It is said that they were enlightened early, and Shen Xiaoye felt that he could not get in, so he could only help with the Mo Yi Tie Jing and routine questions in the mock exam room.

Shen Cungeng thought for a while with his hands on his head, and after blowing out the leaves, he said, "The saint's words are subtle but profound. When my uncle taught me before, I just memorized them without thinking.

But in the past two years, the more I reviewed the Four Books, the more I felt that the sage was worthy of the title of sage.

But the exam is different. I have absolutely no problem with the meaning of calligraphy and I can even make up one or two poems with five-character, six-rhyme and eight-rhyme lines.

But you don’t know the answer to the eight-legged essay. The sample essay for the college entrance examination that my fourth uncle brought last time gave me chills.

Can you imagine a topic like "The moon shines brightly before my bed, and I am always sad"? How can one solve this problem? "

After saying that, he sat up and snorted, "The people who set the questions are just doing whatever they want. The first sentence is from the Four Books, the second sentence is from the Five Classics, or they just take half a sentence from the Book of Filial Piety to make up the Five Classics. How can those who come from poor families and have no famous teachers to guide them and can only rely on memorizing model essays survive?"

"Is this the legendary cutting and connecting question? Isn't it uncommon?" Shen Xiaoye felt sad when he heard it. It has always been difficult for a poor family to produce a noble son, let alone the common people. Knowledge has a price.

Shen Cungeng opened the book and slammed it on his face, then fell down. "This is Cheng Wen, which came from the south. I wish I could torture every candidate who takes the Tongshi exam to death.

Fortunately, I didn’t encounter any overly biased questions during the test at Fourth Uncle’s residence.”

“So my fourth uncle said fortunately there is no college entrance examination this year, so we can have time to study.

And you should also take the exam as soon as possible to avoid too many strange questions in the future." Shen Xiaoye seriously suspected that his uncle deliberately chose to take the exam this year so that there would be a buffer.

After talking for a while, she realized that her cousin who hadn't responded had fallen asleep, haha.

Shen Xiaoye put on her hat and grabbed a shovel and walked towards the bean field. She had to check if there was any water leakage.

Time goes slowly, and the whole field seems a little dull amid the chirping of cicadas in the scorching summer heat. Looking at the mountain forest more than a hundred meters away, it seems that it is also a little more agitated by the scorching sun.

commotion?

Shen Xiaoye held the bowl in his left hand and said, "Little Black Cat, can you spot the unusual movement a hundred meters to the right?"

She closed her eyes and sank into space, where she found the little black cat sleeping. Just as she was thinking that this cheat was useless, she heard a few screams.

Looking further into the forest, I saw several wild boars swooping down from the woods, and they were chasing people.

Shen Xiaoye shouted, "Cousin, a wild boar has entered the field."

"Where is she?" Shen Cungeng woke up with a start and rolled up the book on the bamboo mat. He pulled out the axe that was pressed underneath and saw his cousin rushing towards the foot of the mountain with a shovel. "Xiaoye, stop right there!"

He jumped to the edge of the field and yelled, then grabbed the pitchfork and ran after him...