Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

How difficult is life for people in this era?

Even children as old as Ji Yongru know that if they see firewood, they should pick it up and take it home; if they see wild vegetables, they should dig them up and take them home. They don't need adults to tell them; it's just a conditioned reflex, a fixed mindset.

Because the children all knew that their family was poor and they had to be frugal, so they would pick up anything they could use and bring it home.

Many children grew up to be teenagers without ever having touched a coin, and families with a few taels of silver were considered wealthy.

Ten taels of silver would be enough for the Ji family, a large household of about ten people, to live on for half a year.

How dare Zhao Yunxia speak up?

When Old Master Ji heard that Zhao Yunxia wanted to borrow ten taels of silver, his first reaction was that someone had told him about how he had made money selling astragalus last time. So, with a gloomy face, he swept his sharp, eagle-like eyes over everyone in the courtyard.

Everyone immediately straightened up and responded silently with innocent eyes, indicating that it wasn't them.

In fact, everyone in the family understands that money is hard-earned, and that Ji Manchuan had fought off bandits that day. If word gets out, and there are indeed bandits with accomplices, they might come looking for revenge.

In fact, Zhao Yunxia did not know that the Ji family had made money from selling astragalus, nor did she know how Ji Manchuan had obtained the mule cart. She just felt that since the old courtyard had received such a great benefit, they should take care of her family.

However, after the family split up, it seemed inappropriate for her to openly ask for the money back, given her background as a scholar. So she decided to borrow it, never to return it.

Grandpa Ji took a puff of his pipe, looked at Zhao Yunxia, ​​and asked, "What are you going to do with so much money?"

Zhao Yunxia twisted her body, brushed a strand of hair from her forehead, pursed her lips, and said, "Back then, you and your mother didn't let the second son study. He stayed at home to work. As his mother, I can't let Yongbai and Yonghua follow in his footsteps. Yongbai and Yonghua only studied with their teacher for a year before coming back. I plan to let the two children continue their studies for a few more years."

“Studying is a good thing. If you and your second son are capable, let the child study for a couple more years,” Grandpa Ji said, continuing to smoke his pipe.

“The second son never went to school, so it’s hard for him to find work in the county. When the family divided the property, it wasn’t fair between the second son and me, so we got nothing. Now that your old family has become rich, you should compensate us.” Zhao Yunxia craned her neck, not looking at Old Master Ji.

Upon hearing this, Madam Yang immediately exploded: "You should speak with a clear conscience. When the family property was divided, the only two taels of silver in the house were given to you, and your eldest brother didn't get a single penny. How can you expect fairness?"

"That's because you didn't let the second child go to school!"

"You know what happened back then. It wasn't that we wouldn't let the second son go to school," said Old Master Ji, extinguishing his pipe.

The people of Gyeongju Prefecture have always valued reading, education, and culture.

Ningping County has a local tradition of "passing down the family tradition of farming and studying." Families with even a little bit of means would send their boys to private schools to learn to read and write, not for the purpose of taking the imperial examinations, but because this deep-rooted respect for culture and knowledge was deeply ingrained in their bones.

In his previous life, Ji Yongling heard experts interpret "farming and reading as a family tradition," saying that it was the ideal of families in ancient Chinese agrarian society, or a state of life, and also a yearning for a better life.

Farming is the material foundation, while reading is the spiritual pursuit.

It wasn't until she became Ji Yongling of the Ji family that she truly understood the Northwestern people's dedication to this spiritual pursuit.

Even now, many families who rely on borrowed grain during the lean season still have a painting or calligraphy hanging on their walls. Even though some of these paintings or calligraphy have been yellowed or blackened by smoke, they are still hung high on the walls of the cave dwellings where guests are received.

"A home without calligraphy and paintings is surely a vulgar home." This is a famous saying in the area.

Many families would ask their children to "put down the hoe and pick up the pen." If they didn't have paper and pen, they would use a bowl of water and a brick to practice whenever they had time.

A painting or calligraphy work, though neither food nor drink, provides spiritual nourishment and cultural support to families in this era.

However, this is a high-level explanation.

Ji Manchuan said privately that this tradition of loving to read actually has other roots.

Although everyone in Ningping County values ​​reading and writing, it is a considerable expense that not all families can afford. In the past, most families in Ningping County would not send their children to learn to read.

Once, people from the prefectural city came to recruit workers, saying they only wanted children around ten years old who couldn't read, and the wages were very high. People from some villages, including Niujiazhuang, rushed to send their children there. In the end, the people picked and chose and took away forty or fifty children.

Some time passed, and the villagers did not see the child return, nor did they receive any wages. They decided to go to the prefectural city to inquire, but as soon as they arrived in the county, they heard that those people were swindlers who specialize in tricking children as young as ten years old to sell to the Tatars on the grasslands as slaves.

So someone went to the county to complain. When the county magistrate saw that all the documents these people produced indicated that they had voluntarily sold themselves into servitude, he persuaded them to return home.

Although the incident ended without finding the child, it sparked a wave of enthusiasm in Ningping County where every household, no matter how poor, wanted to send their children to school to learn to read and write.

The Ji family, of course, also inherited this tradition.

When the Ji brothers were young, they were both sent to private schools in the surrounding villages for a period of time. Only the second brother, Ji Mantun, never went to school, which became his aunt's obsession.

When Ji Mantun reached school age, the eldest son, Ji Mancang, returned from the private school to find work in the county to support the family, preparing to send Ji Mantun to school.

Unfortunately, while building a house for a wealthy man, Mr. Ji fell from the roof beam and remained unconscious for several days. The family sold all their valuables to raise enough money for his medical expenses, and he was taken to the county for treatment. However, he was left with dizziness and headaches and was unable to work in the fields.

The eldest son, Ji Mancang, had to work in the county to earn money and get medicine for his grandfather. Since Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing were too young, the work in the fields fell to Ji Mantun.

Fortunately, Ji Mantun was young and strong, and he managed to help his two younger brothers with the farm work without delaying the planting season.

And so, the old man recuperated for more than two years before he slowly recovered enough to get back to work. Ji Mantun's studies were thus delayed. Later, he asked to continue helping with farming at home instead of going to the private school, knowing that his family was poor.

Of course, Ji Mantun's failure to go to school was not only a thorn in her aunt's side, but also a regret for the whole family.

Grandpa Ji and Madam Yang felt indebted to Ji Mantun, so when dividing the family property, they favored his family. Ji Mantun's wife even made a fuss about it.

Even Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing felt sorry for their second brother. Even after the family split up, they would still help Ji Mantun with chores from time to time. For example, Ji Manchuan helped make the wardrobes and cupboards in Ji Mantun's house.

When Yang was looking for a husband for Ji Mantun, she wanted to make up for her regrets about her second son. She carefully selected Zhao Yunxia and paid a dowry that was twice as high as the local standard.

Zhao Yunxia was not particularly beautiful, with a protruding mouth and high cheekbones, but her father was a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations, and Zhao Yunxia herself had also studied at home, so she could be considered a young lady from a scholarly family.

Yang thought that Zhao Yunxia, ​​who was educated, would be knowledgeable and reasonable, but after marrying her, he found that she was really like a tangled mess, burning and burning.