Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Of course, it was impossible for Lu Ci to fail to see the subtle hostility between Zhu Shuo and Yi Shu, so he also acted decisively to mediate.

He didn't make it clear, he only acted as a referrer once, and let the Liquan Poetry Club established by Yi Shu accept Zhu Shuo into the club.

With Fan Zhongyan's ability to recite poems and compose poems that has withstood the test of countless textbooks of later generations, as soon as he has a chance to show up, the hostility of Yi Shu, who has always loved talent, will naturally disappear.

Zhu said that he was well aware of Lu Ci's kindness, and even though he still had a few grievances in his heart, he obediently accepted the arrangement.

On the contrary, the change of Yi Shu's face is very exciting.

It was rare that Lu Ci took the initiative to ask. He thought it was Lu Ci who had changed his mind and wanted to join the club. He was about to be full of enthusiasm when he heard the other party politely intercede. The purpose was to let Zhu Shuo, who had never shown himself before, come in.

Of course, Yi Shu couldn't refuse Lu Ci, but he was a little unwilling to take in an ignorant kid who had just rejected his proposal.

But he couldn't really make things difficult for Zhu Shuo's petty things—it wasn't because he was worried that Zhu Shuo might tell Lu Ci after being put on small shoes, so that Lu Ci's impression of him would become bad.

But simply doing things like this is not in line with his usual pride.

It was precisely because Lu Ci saw this characteristic of Yi Shu that he could put Zhu Shuo in with peace of mind.

With Yi Shu's bottom line, he will not be unfavorable to Zhu Shuo, and even because of the little hostility he has, he can't help but pay more attention to Zhu Shuo, which is more conducive to Zhu Shuo's chance to show off.

For Yi Shu, it was the Poetry Club that had recruited a strong player who was hard to come by; for Zhu Shuo, it was an opportunity to learn and improve with his classmates and train himself, which was also a way to establish diplomatic relations and integrate into the academy. shortcut.

Having said that, Lu Ci still observed without any trace for a few days, and after making sure that Zhu said everything was going well, he went about his own business with peace of mind.

Two months passed in a flash.

The Qingming Festival was followed by cold food, and the college had another seven days of classes.

A pair of orioles with bright feathers flew from nowhere, and the sky was only a little bright, and they were already calling in front of the window of Lu Ci's bedroom with dignity.

Waking up to the crisp birdsong, Lu Ci didn't feel annoyed, so he just grabbed a little from the small bamboo basket on the table, stepped on the shoes with his long hair to the window, and used it to grind A small handful of dried fruit that lined the tea soup was fed to the little heroes who were not afraid of people and were still chattering.

After the two orioles had finished eating the dried fruit, Lu Ci had already rinsed his mouth and face with the cold well water he had fetched in advance, adjusted his clothes and hats, swept away the laziness of waking up at the beginning, and recovered the elegant and beautiful Mr. mental outlook.

As soon as he went out, he saw Zhu Shuo, who got up earlier than him, walking towards his room, he couldn't help rubbing his brows, and pretended to complain: "In the eyes of others, I was originally a hardworking person. After I came here, it gradually revealed that I was lazy."

Having been together day and night for more than two months, Zhu said that he has a lot of experience in dealing with Lu Ci's jokes and teases that seem fake and real.

"Brother Lu was joking. But I went to bed earlier last night, so I woke up earlier."

He only smiled shyly, and very naturally handed over the unopened "Secret City Essentials" bought from the morning market: "Brother Lu, are you interested in reading it?"

"Secret City Yaolu" is not a serious official newspaper published by the government, but a folk engraving and daily newspaper.The published content is very rich and colorful, including serious court affairs, as well as some imperial edicts, errands, Taiwan's admonishment to hundreds of officials, editorials, and some literati who make a living by writing. There are beautiful poems and fus written, as well as editorials collecting opinions from literati and hearsay about anecdotes in the market.

Most of the students in Mizhou City are of course very concerned about current affairs and political affairs, so they don't worry about sales at all.

However, under the seemingly serious writing to be recorded, there are a bunch of news composed of insiders, provincial inspectors, and government inspectors sold to newspapers, mixed with true and false, and its reliability is self-evident up.

Lu Ci didn't take it in a hurry, but only blinked: "How could I not know that Brother Zhu still has the habit of buying and reading tabloids?"

This "Secret City Yaolu" was engraved in Mashaben, and the quality is far inferior to that of serious paper, but the advantage is that it is cheap, with small profits but quick turnover, and it only costs five cents per copy.

But in the final analysis, it still comes out once a day.

If you really buy it every day, you will have to bear a lot of expenses if you accumulate less.

Zhu said that since he lived with Lu Ci, he was often forced to receive the meticulous favor and support from the other party, and unknowingly, he also saved a little money through some ways that he could not have imagined before. Often cash-strapped, he can afford the morning newspaper.

"Thanks to Brother Lu's help, I have surplus money in my pocket, and I can still afford it." Even so, he blushed a little bit in response to Shang Lu Ci's kindly teasing tone, and explained: "I heard what Yi Ya Nei said the day before yesterday. It is only recommended to buy it for a trial reading. Looking at yesterday’s newspaper, although there are some exaggerations, there are also merits.”

Lu Ci shook his head with a smile: "Brother Zhu misunderstood. I just asked you that question, and it was definitely not to ask for credit. Besides, the credit does not belong to me, so how can I invite you? It's a pity, if I knew that Brother Zhu also reads the newspaper, you Today’s and yesterday’s morning report fees can be saved.”

Zhu said that he was slightly taken aback, when he heard someone knocking on the door lightly, he couldn't help getting up and answering the door.

After opening the door, the person who knocked was no longer there, but what lay quietly on the ground was nothing else, but a copy of "Secret City Essentials" carefully rolled up and tied with a string.

Zhu said in a daze, "...is this?"

Lu Ci said with a smile: "To be honest, when I first came to Micheng, brother Yu was very short-lived, and this is one of the ways to make a living. No one in the academy knows about this, so I ask brother Zhu to keep it a secret for brother Yu. gone."

Lu Ci thinks that he is very talented in poetry and poetry, but he is unique in painting techniques, which can be called a lot of experience.

Moreover, "Secret City Yaolu" is just a tabloid newspaper with a fair circulation. It is not as strict as the imperial examination, but much more free and romantic.

During the days when he was most short of money, he used the pseudonym 'Yu Ke' to contribute to "Secret City Yaolu".Later, when I had a surplus of money, I stopped doing odd jobs for drawing sketches in order to focus on my studies.Unexpectedly, the owner of the newspaper office was attracted to send someone to pay him to keep him, and he finally made a three-month payment, which can also be regarded as cultivating interest in his spare time.

Because of this relationship between human relations and work, "Secret City Yaolu" will be sent free by Si'er every day, so there is no need to go to the street to buy it.

Zhu said that he thought he could finally do something for Brother Lu who had been helping him all this time, but he didn't expect such news that he didn't know before, and his cheeks turned red.

But there was no trace of shame or anger in my heart, I just felt extremely amazed, and mixed with a bit of understanding: "So that's the case. I will definitely not tell outsiders about this."

Lu Ci smiled: "I have never been worried about Zhudi's behavior, so there is no need to be so solemn."

If you can't even believe Fan Zhongyan's perfect character, there will be no salvation in this world.

It can be said that Lu Ci's confidence in Zhu Shuo is even stronger than Zhu Shuo's confidence in himself.

Lu Ci added: "From now on, you can just come to my room to pick up the newspapers. You don't have to make a special trip to buy them. If you are interested in old magazines, I have a lot of them, and you can read them as you like."

For this kindness, Zhu said that he did not pretend to refuse, but thanked him immediately.

Lu Ci no longer lingered on the small topic before, but went back to the small hall with Zhu Shuo, and flipped through today's morning newspaper.

The content that was placed on the front page this time is closely related to the two readers of the newspaper.

Unfortunately, it's bad news.

——The establishment of the tribute house is fashionable, and the words are far away, and the plan is made at the age of the year, and there is no need to study... The Ministry of Rites has the right to stop this year's tribute.

Generally speaking, tabloids do not dare to focus on the important matters involving the future of countless scholars, and most of them only dare to release such news when they have solid news.

"The tribute exam has stopped again." Lu Ci frowned: "How many times has this stopped?"

Zhu said that he vaguely remembered a few times, but couldn't answer the specifics.

On the contrary, Lu Ci's memory is very good. After pondering for a moment, he counted them one by one: counting from the second year of Dazhong Xiangfu, two years, three years, and five years, there was news that the imperial edict had stopped paying tribute...

Since the year name was changed, except for the one in the first year, it seems that there has never been a tribute examination.

After all, if you want to be more realistic, the four years of Dazhong Xiangfu, that is, the tribute held last year, the references are limited to people from specific regions such as Feng Taishan in the east, Fenyin in the west, and Laozi in the south. Juren from non-state capitals across the country cannot be counted in the list of serious tributes.

If the backlog continues like this, when Lu Ci is sure to end, the competition he will face will be unprecedentedly large.

The officials in power now obviously do whatever they want—from being diligent in offering tributes every year in the first three years after they first ascended the throne, to being excited for a few years after signing the Chanyuan Alliance, to now they seem to have lost interest and have no A random year with regularity.

This strong uncertainty is probably one of the reasons why those masters who value Lu Ci the most in the academy want him to hurry up and report it to the Tongzi Section.

Otherwise, the status, remuneration and prestige of Jinshi in one subject alone are far beyond the comparison of other subjects.

After thinking about it, Lu Ci suddenly felt a sense of crisis.

He sighed secretly, glanced secretly at Zhu Shuo, who was as calm as ever, and then compared his hidden anxiety at the moment, and couldn't help but feel a faint feeling of a school scumbag against a school bully who is confident in his chest and fearless in the face of fierce competition Sour.

——If he had half the talents of Fan Zhongyan, who was able to write "The Story of Yueyang Tower", why would he need to do so many risk calculations, and worry about whether to end in a hurry and avoid the peak period?

Thinking of procrastinating, one day I might have to face the terrifying scene that I was referring to with Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu and others...

Lu Ci suddenly felt shuddering.

Zhu, who was reading some anecdotes in the morning newspaper with relish and didn't know whether they were true or false, said that he didn't realize it.

Even in his wildest dreams, he would never have imagined that Brother Lu, whom he admired, would actually have feelings of envy and jealousy towards him.

What he was thinking at this time was also far from Lu Ci's guess.

The so-called calmness is only because he simply feels that he is still quite far away from the time when he is ready to end, and it is too early to start the imperial examination at this moment, so he is so calm that it has nothing to do with him.

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. Newspaper:

From the end of the Northern Song Dynasty at the latest, commercialized newspapers have appeared in the Bianliang market. "Jingkang Yaolu" contains: "There are people who sell morning newspapers in the early morning." The "Chaobao" here is obviously not the official Dibao, because Newspapers are newspapers distributed to government agencies free of charge and will not enter the market.The "chaobao" peddled by newspaper dealers should actually be a "small newspaper" engraved and distributed by the people, but under the guise of "chaobao" (organized newspaper).In the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a special newsstand in Lin'an City.

The Taiwanese scholar Zhu Chuanyu, who studies the history of journalism, based on the memorabilia of Song Guangzong’s officials in the fourth year of Shaoxi (1193), infers that the Southern Song Dynasty tabloids have the following characteristics: they have been specialized, they are a very profitable business, and they have a wide range of news sources. In the list of interviews; content such as imperial edicts, deeds, and Taiwan's admonishment to hundreds of officials are mostly not reported by the court, so they are called "news" (friendly reminder: people in the Song Dynasty already used the word "news" to refer to It can be seen that the tabloid is more popular than the court newspaper; it has a wide distribution; according to "Government and Opposition Leiyao", the tabloid has a group of "reporters" and "reporters" who interview news; the tabloid is published regularly, and the "Japanese book "One Paper" was put into the market, and the distribution coverage reached all states and counties.

Another anecdote to share:

Some of the tabloids were quite bold.In the fourth year of Daguan in the Northern Song Dynasty (1110), a tabloid published an edict rebuking Cai Jing by Song Huizong, but this edict was fabricated by the tabloid and was a false edict.In other dynasties, this is undoubtedly a serious crime to punish the nine clans, but at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, this incident of "falsely writing edicts" was finally ignored.At the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, another tabloid forged and disseminated Song Gaozong's edict, which made Gaozong very embarrassed and had to come forward to clarify. ("Song: The Dawn of Modern Times")

2. Painters: There were more than 800 painters whose names could be tested in the Song Dynasty, most of whom were folk painters.There is a painter named Liu Zongdao in Kaifeng, whose paintings of babies playing are very vivid, so they are also very popular.In order to prevent others from imitating his paintings, every time he created a picture of a baby play, he had to copy hundreds of copies and ship them together. ("Song: The Dawn of Modern Times")

3. Masha Ben: Carved from soft rosewood, the typesetting is perfunctory, the proofreading is inaccurate, and things full of mistakes happen from time to time.The quality is low, but the price is also low.

The best printing technology in Song Dynasty is in Hangzhou, followed by Chengdu and Fujian.The printed version of Fujian is also called Min Ke.Among Fujian inscriptions, the towns of Chongren and Masha in Jianyang have the most inscriptions, so they are called Mashaben in the world. ("Yi Zhongtian Chinese History - Great Song Innovation" p116)

4. "The establishment of the tribute house is fashionable, and the words are far away. The year-old plan is made, and there is no need to study... The authority ordered the Ministry of Rites to stop this year's tribute examination" directly from p86 of "General History of the Chinese Imperial Examination System-Song Dynasty Volume", An imperial edict issued by Zhenzong in the 6th year of Xianyang.

5. The opening time of the tribute examination during the Dazhong Xiangfu period is quoted from p87-90 of "General History of the Chinese Imperial Examination System-Song Dynasty Volume".

In the early Northern Song Dynasty, there was no fixed time for the tribute ceremony.Once a year when it is frequent, it may stop for a few years.