At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Right, you have to eat a lot, and the more you eat, the better. It's different from those scumbags who are very strict. Such people have the best appetite.

Born to be our family!

Cao Chi thought so.

Seeing that Guo Peng ate so much, Mrs Ding kept asking Guo Peng if he had enough to eat, and if he wanted to eat more, some venison, fish, etc. Guo Peng hurriedly said no.

So the dinner was over. After the meal, the servants of Cao Song's family served some fruits and cakes, as well as tea.

"Luoyang has a lot of fruits, and many of these fruits can't be eaten in Qiao County. Come, Xiaoyi, eat them."

Cao Song greeted Guo Peng to eat fruit. Guo Peng was also polite. He picked up a slice of fruit and put it in his mouth. When he took a bite, the juice filled his mouth, sweet and delicious, and it was still refreshing.

It is now mid-to-late May, and the weather is getting hotter and hotter. Guo Peng felt a little sweaty on his body just after eating. Now that he eats some crispy and sweet fruits, he feels very good.

Cao Song also told Guo Peng that there are a lot of ice cubes stored in the ice cellar at home.

The family eats some, and entertains some when the distinguished guests come. When the distinguished guests come, they also specially squeeze out the juice and knock the ice cubes and put them in it for the guests to enjoy.

"Don't worry, Xiaoyi, I have dug an ice cellar for you in Taixue's residence and stored some ice cubes. If you want to use it, just open it and use it. There are many fruits at home. , I will ask someone to come back and get it if I want to eat, and I can't treat my virtuous son-in-law badly."

Cao Song is worthy of being a local tyrant.

And everyone in the Cao family felt the same way.

Cao Chi also said that he had three or five ice cellars there, and said that he was most afraid of the heat, so when he got home, he sent someone to send ice cubes from the ice cellar to Guo Peng's side. If Guo Peng ran out of ice cubes, he would send someone to his side. Get it, you're welcome.

To be honest, this feeling of getting something for nothing is really good, and it meets the most primitive inertia in human nature.

Naturally, Guo Peng knew that they were not asking for nothing.

But this does not prevent Guo Peng from enjoying these generous treatment now, does it?

He is also very afraid of heat.

Moreover, Cao Song was really well prepared, and his personality was also very good. He was not aggressive. He even considered some of Guo Peng's own thoughts. A single room is given to live in, which fully takes care of Guo Peng's self-esteem.

In this case, Guo Peng can only express his happiness by sincerely thanking him.

Guo Peng said this, which made Cao Song very happy.

After running out of melons and fruits and talking about household topics, Mrs. Ding left. There were three men left in the hall, and it was time to talk about the main topic.

"Tongzilang has always had a small number of worshippers, and this year there are only a few people. It will not be difficult to ask questions about Tongzilang. You already know the questions and answers, and some related joints have been opened, so Xiaoyi , you only need to study in the Taixue, and you don't have to worry about the rest."

Cao Song showed all his abilities and told Guo Peng that he didn't have to worry about other things at all, just read.

In fact, Guo Peng is still a little depressed, because he can really easily answer those questions, but Cao Song has made himself a relationship household who is completely dependent on relationships.

But on second thought, isn't he a related householder?

Without Cao Song's relationship, would he be able to enter Taixue as a boy child?

Ordinary scholars with no connections have to be 50 years old to enter Taixue, and they have to be 60 years old to be selected as an official by the court. How lucky and unfair is it to be able to enter at the age of 12?

There is nothing fair to say in the world. Guo Peng would not do such a thing as being cheap.

The troubled times are coming, and survival is the biggest problem. If you don’t accumulate enough political capital now, it will be a big problem to survive in the future.

"Thank you for your concern, my son-in-law is very grateful."

Guo Peng recognized this feeling and said that he was not unhappy.

This made Cao Song relieved. Originally, Cao Song thought that Guo Peng would be a little unhappy because of his actions, and felt that he despised his talent and so on.

The main reason was that Cao Song did not understand Gongyang Studies, and did not know whether these questions were easy or difficult. The Shang Shu who received the money did so based on the principle of helping others to send Buddhas to the West. Naturally, he did so. Accepted, it cost money anyway.

But seeing that Guo Peng was not unhappy, Cao Song was also happy.

"It's no problem to enter Taixue, but Xiaoyi, after entering Taixue, have you thought about how to study?"

Cao Song was on the point of asking.

During the Western Han Dynasty, there were only doctors of the Five Classics in Taixue at the earliest, and the five doctors corresponded to the five Confucian classics of The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Li, Yi, and Spring and Autumn.

A doctor can teach hundreds or even thousands of students, while the maximum number of Taixue students is [-].

Then, with the development of sutras, the inheritors of the five doctors emerged outstanding ones with different interpretations of the classics, and each sutra has derived a different faction and its inheritors.

So at the end of the Western Han Dynasty and the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were already 14 doctors of the Five Classics, known as the Fourteen Doctors of the Five Classics, and they have not changed until now.

For example, there are three doctors from the Ouyang Clan and the Big and Small Xiahou Clan who studied the "Shangshu", and the classic handed down by the Hongnong Yang family is "Ouyang Shangshu".

There are four families of Shi, Meng, Liangqiu and Jing who study "Yi".

The so-called family heirlooms are generally reserved for the top gentry.

Because a certain ancestor in the family studied the classics with a doctor in the early days, and it was very good. It was recognized by the doctor and obtained the qualification of the disciple of the founder of the school, even if he mastered the right to interpret this classic.

From then on, family children and students from this family can become officials without going through the Imperial Academy, and when they reach the age, they can directly follow the path of filial piety and integrity, eliminating the need for intermediate links.

Instead, the children and students of this family must rely on their background and luck to enter the Taixue to learn a certain classic, and then be selected as officials through the unified selection of the Han government.

That is to say, a person who has mastered the right to interpret a certain classic can prosper an entire family. From then on, the children of the family can directly appoint filial and honest officials without having to go through Taixue, and can also recruit a wide range of disciples. There are also outstanding disciples. Qualifications directly raise Xiaolian as an official.

Runan Yuan Shi mastered the classic interpretation rights and apprenticeship qualifications of "Meng Shi Yi", so he made a fortune and prospered, forming a situation of four generations and three princes.

Hongnong Yang mastered "Ouyang Shangshu", and the situation of four generations and three princes also appeared.

As for the Langya Wang Clan, who reached the top of the noble family in the two Jin Dynasty, it is the family biography "Yan Clan's Spring and Autumn Gongyang Biography".

That is to say, these families who master the inheritance of classics, like the Eastern Han government, have the qualifications to make people official, and their authority is no less than that of the Eastern Han government, and even higher than the Eastern Han government in the local area.

The disciples and students they taught went out to serve as officials by showing filial piety and integrity, and the government of the Eastern Han Dynasty also agreed.

In other words, there are not many people who can study these scriptures, and there are not many people who copy and collect these scriptures, but only a few [-] recognized inheritors have the power of interpretation and apprenticeship.

The disciples of the fourteen schools of scriptures formed the basis of the bureaucracy of the entire Eastern Han Empire and were the main source of officials.

By monopolizing the power of cultural education and classic interpretation, the gentry also monopolized a considerable part of political power, linking academic and political power, guiding public opinion, and thus mastering the power that can resist imperial power.

With the decline of the imperial power in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the establishment of the rules of the game for the gentry, marked by the implementation of the nine-grade Zhongzheng system, the gentry occupied the absolute upper hand, while the majority of the Han people were restricted from official careers. gradually became impossible.

Taking this as a representative, the emperors of the Sima clan of the two Jin dynasties were originally from the Sima clan in Hanoi and belonged to the gentry.

On the eve of the complete establishment of the rules of the game, through the troubled times, people like Guo Peng who have stains on their bodies still have a chance to climb up. This road has not been completely blocked, and he must find a way to break the game before that.

Chapter 18

The scripture Guo Peng read was "Yan's Spring and Autumn Gongyang Biography", which was transcribed by his grandfather Guo Yong and passed on to his father Guo Dan.

Later, Guo Dan used this scripture to teach it to Guo Peng personally.

In fact, Yingchuan Guo's family also has a family heritage, but the Yingchuan Guo family's family heritage is not a Confucian classic, but "Little Dulu", which is related to law.

From the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, for more than a hundred years, the Yingchuan Guo family was born as a grammar official.

In the Western Han Dynasty and the early middle and early Eastern Han Dynasty, the status of grammar officials was relatively high, and the Guo family received the title of "family clothes and crown".

All generations in the family have been engaged in legal positions, monopolizing a considerable part of the official positions, and some of them have served as prefects.

However, on the one hand, there are Confucian classics, and on the other hand, the legal provisions. Although the Guo family is a gentry, they are not "own people" of the Confucian gentry.

With the passage of time, the Confucian gentry occupied the peak of public opinion, using morality as a weapon to try their best to suppress the status of military generals and grammar gentry, and the Yingchuan Guo clan was naturally within the scope of suppression.

However, compared to military generals, the Guo clan was still a gentry, and a cultural person. Therefore, compared with the family that passed down Confucian classics, it was almost a second-rate gentry.

Among the Guo clan, there are naturally thoughtful people who do not want the family to continue to sink like this, and do not want to be a second-rate gentry forever. They also want to open up a new situation, and they demand to learn other Confucian classics.

Guo Peng's grandfather Guo Yong is one of them.

In this regard, Guo's attitude is ambiguous.

No support, no objection, if you don’t learn Little Dulu, you want to learn Confucian classics, you can do whatever you want, but your family won’t help you.

Guo Peng didn't know how his grandfather got the classic "Yan's Ram", and his father didn't say anything.

But since he has obtained it, he will learn it. After he has learned it, he will go to the Taixue to verify what he has learned, and then he can study other scriptures.

Those who have spare capacity in learning, and outstanding students who are recognized, can naturally study more scriptures from other schools. Zheng Xuan and He Xiu, the great Confucians in the late Han Dynasty, are such people.

Of course Guo Peng would not choose to hang himself on the Yan's Gongyang School. He wanted to learn more. With his excellent memory, he wanted to record all the Five Classics of Confucianism and make it his own.

This is what he promised Guo Dan to do, and it is also what he wants to do.

He wanted to be a famous scholar, the kind of scholar who could have disciples to follow.

Either specialize in one, get the approval of the doctor, inherit the mantle, and become the next doctor.

But such a chance is too small. He has to become a master apprentice first, and then defeat the other master apprentices to become the only inheritor. The difficulty is not as big as usual.

In addition, the only thing is to study a lot of scriptures from various schools, promote fame, get recognized by the mainstream of society, become a famous scholar, become an official, and have a certain right to speak, and then naturally there will be apprentices to follow.

This puts high demands on their teachers.

He is not quite sure whether there are doctors of sufficient level among the Fourteen Doctors under the background of Dang Ying.

However, based on the importance and investment of the Eastern Han government on Taixue, as well as the importance attached to their respective status by various theories, he felt that the level of a doctor of Taixue must be sufficient.

"Let's go to Dr. Yan's Gongyang first. After all, my son-in-law is studying Yan's Gongyang. After that, my son-in-law wants to learn more scriptures. The best thing is that he can understand all the five classics."

Cao Song twisted his beard and nodded.

"It's a good thing to have aspirations, but Xiao Yi, you have just entered Taixue, and you must not get a doctorate to teach you personally. The doctorate will only let the high school apprentice teach the course on your behalf. How much you can learn is all in your mind."

Cao Chi also opened his mouth and said: "This is also true. In the past few years, the party was in chaos, and there were many disobedient students in the Taixue. The emperor ordered strict punishments. Many people in the Taixue were taken down, and there are even many People are dead, although these are all disobedient people, but there is still knowledge."

Guo Peng understood what Cao Song and Cao Chi meant.

Today's Taixue is indeed not the Taixue it used to be. As members of the Pan-eunuch Group, they must know what the Taixue is like now.

But for Guo Peng, the scriptures that he can read in the Taixue are what he needs very much, and it is also the reason why he must enter the Taixue early. The Taixue can provide Guo Peng with sufficient learning conditions.

Originally, according to the regulations of the Han government, officials of more than [-] shi could send their children to study in Taixue.

As an official of Guo Danqianshi, Guo Peng can enter Taixue without going through Cao's relationship, but to enter Taixue is to enter Taixue, and Guo Peng still wants to be an official.

There is indeed a set of graduation distribution rules in the Taixue, and the school system is eight years.

First of all, those who have studied for two years and passed the two sutras on the test will be promoted to the post of Literary Instigator. Those who have already held the post of Literary Indictment, and those who can pass the three sutras in the examination after two years, can be promoted to Prince Sheren.

Those who have been Prince Sheren for two years, and those who can pass the four classics in the examination can be promoted to become a clerk, and those who can pass the five classics in the examination can fill in the gaps of officials in the DPRK and become an official.

Therefore, the outstanding students among the students have a clear promotion route.

However, this is a preferential treatment for the children of the nobles and nobles. Children from ordinary families and children from poor families can only leave Taixue and return to their hometown to make a living on their own after completing their studies, and there are not many officials to do.

Guo Dan did not have any connections in the court. If he did not follow the path of the Cao family, Guo Peng would have to study in the capital. After studying, he would have to return to Qiao County, and it would be much more difficult to seek the path of filial piety and integrity. .

Now with the help of the Cao family, Guo Peng can directly enter Taixue as a boy several years in advance.

This is a good road.

And in the past eight years, Guo Peng can do a lot of things, and without Cao's help, he doesn't even think about it.

Therefore, Guo Dan and Guo Peng actually have no qualifications to choose.

Moreover, Guo Dan and Guo Peng were not satisfied and just came back after a few years in the Taixue.

Guo Dan hopes that Guo Peng can learn the Five Classics and become famous. If he can't be famous, he will take the Five Classics home with him, and pass the classics as Guo's family, so as to leave a hope for future generations.

What Guo Peng hopes is to study the Five Classics, become an official, earn a reputation and power, and cooperate with Cao Cao to live out his wonderful life in the chaotic times of the late Han Dynasty.

Therefore, entering Taixue is only the first step. After that, Guo Peng will continue to study hard, get excellent teachers and become a famous scholar.

It is best to become a member of the "celebrity" and join the upper class, in that case, the chances of survival will be much higher.

The degree of freedom in Taixue is too high. It seems very difficult to do this. It requires extremely high self-discipline and self-consciousness, as well as the determination to settle down and endure loneliness and study hard. For 12-year-old Guo Peng, it seems that very difficult.

Therefore, Cao Song and Cao Chi may not believe in Guo Peng a little, and they are not sure whether Guo Peng, who is still a teenager, can resist the temptation of sensuality.

But having said that, although the Cao family has invested a lot, as long as they can get married, the capital has actually been recovered, which is of great benefit for the Cao family to improve the family's social status.

In fact, the next step can be counted as a profit, as long as there is income, it is a profit. The better Guo Peng is, the better the Cao family is. The two are grasshoppers on the same rope. In fact, they are already a community of interests.

Therefore, it is impossible for Cao Song and Cao Chi not to put too much effort into Guo Peng's way out.

Not to mention, this thought really made Cao Song think of a good solution.

"By the way, Xiaoyi, when Meng De was an official in Luoyang, he met Cai Yong and Guanglu doctor Qiao Xuan. Cai Yong was a disciple of the former Taifu Hu Guang. They are highly respected, and Meng De admires them very much, and they also have a good impression of Meng De.

Now, Cai Yong is being taught by the emperor in Dongguan. He lives in seclusion. Qiao Xuan concentrates on his studies and does not participate in social exchanges. But if you have any doubts about your studies, you can ask them. I will call Meng De to write a book for you. Letter of recommendation, I believe Cai Yong and Qiao Xuan will not reject you. "