Chapter 7 (1/2)
Chapter 7
Chapter Seven Mount Yu School
Just when Elder Qin was feeling pity for Ning Yi who had some talent and married into a merchant family, Ning Yu was welcoming the light of morning and entering Mount Yu School. He started to prepare for accompanying a group of students for a whole morning.
Mount Yu School was not located at a place called Mount Yu. This was a private school set up by the Su Family for their children but they would accept students from the outside who had connections to the Su Family. The school was not large, and it was primarily because there were not many students. Mount Yu was the name of a mountain back in the Su Clan’s hometown.
The Mount Yu School was located on a road that was near the Su Family Compound. It was not a street filled with businesses so the environment was relatively serene. The grey slate and white walls surrounded a small patch of forest. With the sign of “Mount Yu School” that the Su Family had invited a great scholar to write, it had some scholarly aura.
Presently, the school had forty nine students, and seven teachers. This included the princ.i.p.al of the school, Su Chong Hua. The ratio of teachers to students was very high. Su Chong Hua was a member of the Su Family and had been a graduate candidate of the imperial examinations. He had been an official for a few years, but he had not accomplished anything in that time. There were also rumors that he had committed unlawful dealings. There were also two former officials that been hired at great expense . Other than the teachers and the students, there were also the cooks and other servants.
The Su Family had put great effort into this school but it was a pity that the teachers were either unreliable or that the cohort of students were not smart. The school had not produced any results in the past. Some of the students that it produced, when they found out they did not have any hopes in the imperial examination, entered the Su Family’s shops. Due to this, the school was more like a technical college. If the family really wanted their child to take the imperial exames, then they would mostly have their child transfer to another school before the child turned twelve.
Ning Yi had been teaching here for three days. Su Chong Hua treated him well and did not bully him due to his status as a zhuixu of the Su Family. Those that were experienced in society would not do things as dull as that. Considering that Ning Yi didn’t really have any talent in sch.o.a.rls.h.i.+p—everyone said this—Ning Yi was put to teaching about a dozen students that were just starting to learn. There were sixteen students in total between the ages of six and twelve. There were even two girls. They two were relatives of the Su Family and here to learn to read. Their previous teacher had finished teaching them the Cla.s.sics of Filial Piety and started the a.n.a.lects of Confucius. NIng Yi would have a set period of teaching in the morning and relax in the afternoon. Manners, music, shooting, riding, and mathematics. The primary forcus was mathematics, the rest would be dependent on the mood of the teacher and his ability.
If this was a better and proper school, these things would be set, and clearly defined. However, Mount Yu School did not have the resources to do so. In Ning Yi’s view, teaching the a.n.a.lects of Confucius was easy. He himself could not recite the a.n.a.lects of Confucius or say where a phrase was located, but if one just asked for reading and simple explanation of the text, then it was a very easy matter. Any person from the modern era that had received a high-school education would be able to give a perfunctory answer after some time. Of course, it would be shallow.
In this medieval era, truly great scholars that would make a study of the four books and the five cla.s.si
cs would have a extremely deep and profound understanding. Maybe just the writings of a famous courtesan would be enough for a modern professor to feel ashamed of themselves, however, most scholars did not have the chance to receive higher education. They might be unable to even find Mencius after reading the a.n.a.lects of Confucius. But the lowest standard of a teacher was just teaching them to read. That was what the predecessor to Ning Yi did. He taught this group of children to shake their heads as they recited. When he was interested, he would give a basic explanation of the meaning of the text. AFter a while, he would have the students recite or write a part of the text. This was the test. If one failed, then they would be hit on the hand.
This was very simple! Ning Yi did not plan on modifying the schedule too much. In the first two hours, he had the students shake their heads as they recited the a.n.a.lects—in truth, Ning Yi felt it was a great pain to recite continuously for more than two hours, but the children were used to it. In the next two hours, Ning Yi would use the first half to explain the contents of the chapter, and then go off tangent to tell stories, say some more realistic things, and this would be used to relax the children.
These children were very easy to teach. Even though he had been here for just three days, Ning Yi could clearly feel the “teacher is the master” mood in the room. The children at this time did not have any set personalities, and they were not spoiled. They treasured this chance of education, were not arrogant or rebellious. If there was minor trouble, and you spanked the child until their behinds were swollen, their families would find it normal. This was like a heaven for teachers. Ning Yi found teaching a comfortable role. In just three days, after just teaching some a.n.a.lects and some stories, these children were very content. Also, Ning Yi didn’t have to make any lesson plans, and could go as he pleased.
From Chapter 5 of Book IV of the a.n.a.lects of Confucious. Translation by James Legge.
Today, they started to discuss the section on “Riches and honors are what men desire … …”[1]. Ning Yi went from talking about how to obtain wealth to how to act in business. In the middle, he scattered concepts such as “a gentleman would make his wealth by ethical and moral ways.” Ning Yi’s job had been this in his past life. Regardless of how it was a historical text, if he was just to give his own understandings, it would be something that was enough to make up a cla.s.s for doctorate students. But facing a group of children not yet twelve, he would not say much more than a few sentences. He gave some minor examples to stir interest, and then talked about the six interconnected boats of the Pu Part Poetry Conference, and then to the Battle of the Red Cliffs. Ning Yi started to talk about the Battle of the Red Cliffs to this group of children.
Chen Shou wrote the “Record of the Three Kingdoms” and was an official in the Jin Dynasty, the dynasty that took over after the Wei dynasty which was established by Cao Cao.
In this era, the stories about the Era of the Three Kingdoms were primarily by Chen Shou.[2] Ning Yi had never read it before so what he told was the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It was modern, and after being polished through all kinds of artistic productions, it was interesting and fantastical. From Cao Cao’s eighty thousand strong army moving south, to Zhou Yu fighting Huang Gai, borrowing arrows with thatched s.h.i.+ps, and the fire s.h.i.+ps filled with oil and gra.s.s. The children who usually didn’t get to hear stories were flushed and kept on asking, “Mister, Mister, what happened next … …” When he was halfway through, the children quieted down because the princ.i.p.al, Su Chong Hua, had walked next to the cla.s.sroom and stood there with an expressionless visage. But even so, that did not hamper the excited expressions of these children.
Du Mu was an author from the late Tang Dynasty, known for lyrical and romantic quatrains.
Since Ning Yi had started to talk, he would not divide his attention to such a minor matter and continued to tell the story. When it was close to noon, he finished narrating the section on the fire burning the s.h.i.+ps chained together. Su Chong Hua had stood outside and listened for the whole entire time. It was hard to say what expression he had on. After Ning Yi finished the story, he wrote down a poem by Du Mu[3] that he liked.
The broken spear uncorroded by the sand, an artefact of the previous dynasty when washed clean.[4]
If the eastern wind had not aided Zhou, then the two Jiao would be locked in the Copper Sparrow Palace.
Simple explanation: A man finds a broken spear, and after cleaning it up, it is recognized as something from the previous dynasty. In the Battle of the Red Cliffs, Eastern Wu was lead by Sun Quan and Zhou Yu. When Zhou Yu set fire to Cao Cao’s s.h.i.+ps, he was aided by a strong eastern wind. Jiao is the family name of two famous beauties, elder Jiao and younger Jiao. Elder Jiao was the wife of Sun Quan’s older brother, Sun Ce. Younger Jiao was the wife of Zhou Yu. If Cao Cao won, then the two beauties would be stolen and locked in the palace.
There weren’t any blackboards in the room and it was not convenient to write things down. Ning Yi felt some affection for this profession of teaching and as he wrote on the paper, he thought he should “invent” the white board. Writing with charcoal would be much better than writing in the sand. After he finished writing, the students hurried to copy it down. When he walked outside the door, Su Chong Hua came towards him and a smile came onto his expressionless face.
“Virtuous Nephew is talented, and has made such a deep study of the Three Kingdoms, Jin and Wei histories in order to have such a story. Did this originate from Chen Shou’s Three Kingdoms?”
If Elder Qin was here, he would scold Ning Yi for speaking nonsense and being a bad teacher. The true history was not so exciting. For example, the event of borrowing arrows with thatched s.h.i.+ps was just Sun Quan taking the s.h.i.+ps out to wander and got shot at. There were too many arrows on one side of the s.h.i.+p and it almost upturned. So Sun Quan ordered the s.h.i.+p turned around for the other side to face the arrows. This made it possible for the s.h.i.+p to balance and move away. Ning Yi had only ever seen television dramas of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Su Chong Hua had never read the Record of the Three Kingdoms. Just now, he had been thinking of Ning Yi as a storyteller and found it pleasurable to listen. Now, he had come to praise Ning Yi’s breadth of knowledge and how his story could pull people in.
However,after some praise, Su Chong Hua also implied that Ning Yi did not need to be so polite with these students. If Ning Yi was an old scholar of fifty or sixty, Su Chong Hua probably would not have said this. However, he only appeared to be in his twenties and didn’t have many hairs on his chin. He needed to be stricter with the students and a.s.sert his authority. He was slightly discontent that Ning Yi was talking about the three kingdoms during cla.s.s, especially since he had made it such a moving story. It clearly was something that the storytellers would do in the teahouses. Ning Yi nodded in acceptance with a humble att.i.tude. When he turned around, he pretended he didn’t hear it.