Jiu Zhang Ji: The Daily Life of the Reborn Daughter

Chapter 182 Bai Letian

Rong Jiang's handwriting really can't be said to be beautiful. Compared with Qiao Lili's handwriting, it can't be compared with it.

The calligraphy that Qiao Lili wrote today was different from her usual small calligraphy. Poetry needs to be displayed, so it has to be written in a larger size. She used official script, and the font is dense, full, rich, graceful, simple and natural.

Looking at Rong Jiang's handwriting again, it can only be described as neatly written with straight horizontal and vertical lines. In addition, the ink that could not be spread apart, sometimes thick and sometimes thin, and there were grains, which made the noble ladies unable to bear to look at it. With just this kind of handwriting, how could he have the confidence to compete with the Crown Princess in poetry?

When I took a closer look at the content of the poem, I was really shocked.

Before Rong Jiang had the chance to read the poem written by Qiao Lili, he saw that everyone had their mouths open with a look of surprise. He thought that he had written it very well and had amazed everyone. With a proud look on his face, he pushed the rice paper in front of Qiao Lili.

"Look at what I wrote. Is it better than yours?" After saying that, she leaned out to look at the poem written by Qiao Lili. When she saw it, she was immediately surprised. To be honest, she couldn't understand it. However, she could understand the words, but they were much better than hers.

Who said that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent? The women of Dayan only know needlework and sewing, but are not good at literature and writing?

"Let me take a look." Qiao Lili took the poem written by Rong Jiang and read it softly.

"A new frost fell lightly on the tiles overnight, the banana leaves were broken and the lotus leaves leaned. The only chrysanthemums in the east hedge are hardy against the cold, and they are just beginning to bloom in the clear morning." After reading these four lines of poetry, Qiao Lili was a little confused to be honest. How should I put it? This poem is really well written.

Qiao Lili looked up at the noble ladies gathered around her, they also had a look of confusion on their faces.

Rong Jiang didn't know what everyone's expressions meant, and thought they were shocked by her poem, so she said complacently: "Why, are you shocked by my poem about chrysanthemums?"

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to refute.

Qiao Lili said tentatively, "Princess Rong Jiang, we are having a poetry writing competition today. We have to write our own poems and cannot copy others'."

Rong Jiang said confidently: "This is what I wrote."

"No, Princess Rong Jiang, there is only one word difference between your poem and the poem by Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty. The last line of his poem is, 'The golden chestnuts are just beginning to bloom and the dawn is even clearer.'" The noble ladies also nodded.

"Nonsense, what Tang Dynasty, what white chrysanthemum, you can't beat me, so you say my poems were written by others, are you people from Dayan so immoral?" Rong Jiang thought to himself, that book is obviously a unique copy, it is impossible for others to know about it, they must be cheating.

"It's Bai Juyi, a great poet from the Tang Dynasty. We also know that he wrote many poems, for example, 'What a pity, the third night of September, the dew is like pearls and the moon is like a bow.'" Su Shiyun was so mad at this princess. She loved Bai Juyi the most, but this idiot plagiarized his poem and even copied one wrong word.

"I don't know if the princess has heard this: 'One smile makes her look charming, and all the beauties in the palace pale in comparison.' This is also a line from the poem of this great poet." Seeing that Su Xiaomei was angry, Chen Ruxin hurried to comfort her and also helped her to clarify things with Bai Juyi.

"I have never heard of any of what you said. If you say he wrote it, does it mean he wrote it? If I wrote it, then it means I wrote it. If you have the guts, find him and confront me." Rong Jiang slammed the table, completely changing her previous image of a simple and innocent little girl. Perhaps this arrogant and domineering look is her true face.

When the noble ladies heard her say this, they all covered their faces and laughed. Where did such an ignorant princess come from? It was so ridiculous.

"Qiao Lili, you are cheating because you can't write as well as me? If you can afford to play, you can afford to lose. Why, as the Crown Princess of a great country, are you going to deny it?"

Qiao Lili couldn't help laughing. What does it mean to be talking at cross purposes? What does it mean to play the lute to a cow? What does it mean that when a scholar meets a soldier, he can't explain his reason clearly? When you meet an ignorant fool, you also can't explain yourself clearly.

"This poet is not from our Dayan, and he has been dead for hundreds of years." Princess An Ning's emotions were relatively stable. She tried to explain things to the princess, hoping to convince her.

"Are you ganging up on me to bully others? Aren't you afraid that I will tell others and damage the reputation of your Great Yan? Just tell me whether this poem was better written by me or by Qiao Lili." Rong Jiang no longer called her the Crown Princess, but Qiao Lili directly. It seems that she is not completely ignorant of the people of Great Yan. She even knows Qiao Lili's name.

At this time, Caiqin walked in from outside the crowd and handed Qiao Lili a book titled "Collected Works of Bai Juyi". Qiao Lili turned to one of the pages and saw the poem "Ode to Chrysanthemum" that Princess Rong Jiang had just written.

Qiao Lili knew that Rong Jiang would be unreasonable and would not easily admit that she had plagiarized. Fortunately, there was a poetry club in Tuanyuan. How could there not be a collection of poems in the poetry club? The collection of Bai Juyi's poems was a must-have for the poetry club.

She secretly told Caiqin to go to the poetry club to look for it, and within a few minutes, Caiqin found the collection of poems.

Princess Rong Jiang looked at the poem in the book that was only one character different from hers. Now she remembered that the word "栗" was also in her book. She had remembered it wrong. However, how could she admit defeat so easily given the rogue nature in her bones? It's in the book, so what? I said it was stolen from me.

“Just because it’s in the book does that mean it wasn’t written by the princess? It’s possible that my poem has the same theme as his. Besides, it’s also possible that he copied my poem.” Princess Rong Jiang argued.

Qiao Lili was too lazy to say anything to her at this moment. You can never wake up a person who pretends to be asleep. She said to the female officials beside Rong Jiang: "Two female officials, you can take a look at this book. The printing date of this book is older than your princess' age. This collection of poems includes thousands of poems by Bai Juyi. How could he copy other people's poems?"

"You just said that this poem was written by Bai Juyi, and now you say that it includes thousands of poems by Bai Juyi. Why can't it include my own poems?" Rong Jiang blocked out all other words. She felt that she had found a loophole in Qiao Lili's words.

As soon as she said this, the noble ladies who had been trying to hold back their laughter finally couldn't help it any more. They no longer cared about their image as noble ladies and laughed so hard that they fell down. What they thought in their hearts was, why not just keep such a clueless princess in their own country instead of letting her out to embarrass herself?

"You just laugh when you can't argue with me, and you still call yourselves a country of etiquette. How rude of you." Rong Jiang felt that she had said something wrong, but she must not admit it. She could only let others think that she was offended.

Su Shiyun couldn't help herself. She was not as calm as Sister Lili. She rubbed her belly and said, "Bai Juyi's courtesy name was Letian. Later generations called him Letian Jushi out of respect."

Rong Jiang finally realized that she was being reckless. A book that was a unique copy in Lanna might be everywhere in Dayan. However, she still tried to explain: "I don't know him, so how can I know his name? You people in Dayan are also very verbose, and you mention both the name and the name. Isn't it normal to make mistakes?"

Bai Juyi, if a scholar doesn't know Bai Juyi, can he still call himself a scholar? And if he doesn't even know who Bai Juyi is, what kind of poetry can he write?

Qiao Lili knew that it was meaningless to continue arguing, so she said, "Since Princess Rong Jiang has objections to the ownership of this poem, the winner is still undecided. Princess Rong Jiang can write the same poem as Mr. Letian, so she must have talent in writing poems about catkins. Why don't we each write a poem about chrysanthemums to decide the winner? What do you think, Princess?"

Rong Jiang was dumbfounded. She wanted to write more. She only knew this one song. What else could she write?

*

There will be another chapter later.