Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Because of Lu Ci's consistent excellent performance, Lu's mother knows very well that the only son is not only extremely smart, but also has his own ideas in acting, and has a calmness and calculation beyond his years. She is used to not interfering, so she can't be more at ease .

To be honest, if even Lu Wenquxing, who made Mizhou people happy and dared to call themselves an outstanding person in his hometown, was not enough to make my mother feel at ease, then in the big Mizhou, I am afraid that there is no second person who can make the family feel at ease. people.

She seemed to just mention it casually, and Lu Ci quickly and naturally took her away from this topic with the intention of urging marriage, and turned to talking about business experience.

Unnoticed by no one, Di Qing also quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

After he finished breathing, he froze.

For no reason, why am I so nervous here?

When it was late at night, after returning to his room, Di Qing lay alone on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a long time, unable to fall asleep.

I still can't understand the inexplicable uneasiness that emerged before.

Could it be that he is so selfish and vicious, he greedily only wants his grandfather to take good care of him in every possible way, but he doesn't want to see other women get married with his grandfather, have children for him, and preside over middle-class gifts? what?

As soon as this idea came to mind, Di Qing's eyes widened in disbelief, and he quickly vetoed it.

—he never thought of it.

There is a lesson to be learned from heaven and earth, he definitely wanted to let Gongzu get over him as much as possible.

It's just that if the grandfather gets married, not only himself, but brother Liu and brother Zhu will be most affected.

After all, once a female family member moves in, even if they just want to avoid suspicion, they can't stay at the grandfather's house anymore.

However, when he thought about it carefully, Di Qing suddenly found that he seemed to be the only one left in the face of the dilemma of having nowhere to go: brother Zhu and his father-in-law were similar in age, and he had long heard that his mother was actively looking for a suitable marriage for him; Qi Ze has long been married and has a family, what is missing is to set up a family business in the middle of the capital, bring his wife from his native place to live with him, and maybe even take this opportunity to go out to spend time and wine, sleep in flowers and sleep in willows, it is a great joy... …

With the kindness of the grandfather, he would definitely not send him away at will, but which noble daughter would accept him as a burden who is not a servant, but needs to be taken care of by the grandfather for free, and also occupies the public space from time to time? What about Zu's concern?

Comparing his heart to his heart, Di Qing thought, if he was the woman who was gifted by heaven and was lucky enough to marry her father-in-law as his wife, she would definitely not want such an obscure person to block her eyes.

——From this point of view, after the grandfather got married, he had better leave.

Di Qing only imagined the scene of leaving Lu Ci for a while, and a heavy reluctance suddenly flooded his heart, and the heavy loss instantly overwhelmed him, and he was so sad that he didn't even want to open his eyes.

He just tried to comfort himself and said that his life was not in vain if he could have his grandfather's care for such a long time.

Maybe after returning to his hometown, he studied hard, and one day he could become a Jinshi in the smoke of his ancestral grave, and then come to Beijing to pay homage to his father-in-law.

This matter was stunned by him to come to an unpleasant conclusion, but because of the grief, he was completely sleepless, and he simply began to focus on what kind of woman he wanted to be worthy of his grandfather on this stubble.

First of all, you must have brother Liu's talent in poetry, so that you can respect each other as a guest after marriage; you must have brother Zhu's calmness, so you can properly manage family affairs; I will get sick easily, and I can take good care of my grandfather, and I can go up the mountain from time to time to hunt some wild game that my grandfather likes...

What Di Qing didn't know was that Lu Gongzu, who made him toss and turn, couldn't sleep, and was so heartbroken, was already having a good dream at the moment, and didn't take Lu's mother's casual urge to marry him seriously at all.

When Lu Ci got up in good spirits the next morning, Mother Lu, who got up earlier, had already had a simple breakfast, and was energetic to go around the shops.

On the contrary, Di Qing, who has always been full of energy, looks sluggish now, and his eyes are slightly black and blue caused by insomnia.

Lu Ci couldn't help teasing: "Little raccoon slave has memorized too many books, and Yan Ruyu is also dreaming?"

Di Qing's reaction was obviously much slower, more than half a beat slower than usual: "...never."

Lu Ci didn't think too much, just thought he was not acclimatized, and said with a smile: "I originally wanted to take you out for a stroll, but now it seems that it is better to let you sleep for a while."

Di Qing hurriedly wanted to explain, but Lu Ci rubbed his head with a smile, and said dotingly: "Go to sleep, it's the day before, and no one will say you're lazy."

Di Qing didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so he had to obey.

He originally thought that he would just put his clothes on and lie down for a while, and after reassuring Gongzu, he would get up quickly, pretending to be mentally rested, so as not to destroy Gongzu's original plan.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he touched the pillow, the irresistible drowsiness hit him, and soon he really fell asleep.

When he woke up, it was almost night, so he was shocked, angry and ashamed, changed his clothes indiscriminately, rinsed his mouth and washed his face, and rushed out the door without hesitation.

What made him even more ashamed was that even Lu's mother, who had been away for a whole day, had already returned.

According to the usual schedule, she would have to be later, but at any rate, it was rare for her only son to return home, and she had a concern in her heart, so she postponed the affairs for an unprecedented time, and came back to accompany Lu Ci as soon as possible.

Hearing Di Qing's messy footsteps, the mother and son who were talking and laughing in the small hall turned their heads at the same time. Lu Ci first smiled and said hello: "Little raccoon slave is awake?"

Mother Lu, who was just about to speak, turned her head and said angrily, "Why do you always like to call people nicknames? You always liked to call Zhu Lang Zhu Xiaozheng in the past, thanks to his good temper, you don't care about it."

Lu Ci smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. They actually like me to be called like that, right, Brother Di?"

Di Qing nodded vigorously.

In fact, no matter what Lu Ci said, he was determined to agree without hesitation.

Although she was still far from being familiar with Di Qing, Mother Lu had somewhat figured out some of the characteristics of this little man, and couldn't help shaking her head helplessly.

Lu Ci smiled and called Di Qing to sit down on the vacant seat at the round table, and while ordering his servants to bring up the meals that had been warming on the stove, he habitually asked repeatedly, "Did you sleep well? I prefer soft bedding. If you are used to sleeping on hard pillows, you may not be comfortable with it. It’s a bit cold. Is it warm enough with just a thick quilt and a small charcoal basin? If not, don’t Feel free to ask someone to add..."

Di Qing couldn't help answering, her face felt a little hot for some reason, and she couldn't help secretly looking at Mother Lu.

However, Lu's mother has long been used to her husband taking care of his friends in everything. There used to be a restrained, gentle, and polite Zhu Shuo who lived in the family for a long time. At this time, she didn't feel any problem, and she still missed it: "Is Zhu Lang alright?"

Lu Ci smiled and said: "Everything is fine. The library job is leisurely and noble, and he has a steady temperament, so there is no possibility of anything going wrong. Apart from being busy with official duties, he just takes the opportunity to read some rare ancient books, and the other is to meet friends through literature. gone."

Lu's mother said quietly: "You are not in a hurry to get married, so that's all, and you have a bad head, and it seems that Zhu Lang has nothing to do with it."

Di Qing was shocked, and suddenly pricked up his ears.

Lu Ci just sighed softly.

Mother Lu squinted at him: "What? Have you figured out what reason to use to fool me?"

Although she knows that she is not the only son's opponent, mother Lu can still imagine whether Lu Ci, who is cautious and assertive, will listen to her nagging, or find some irrefutable reasons to evade it. Known.

Lu Ci said indifferently: "The bustle of catching a son-in-law under the list, my mother really thinks that she is just looking at the talents and appearances of the newly recruited scholars? It is the moment when the situation in the court is unclear and the struggle is constant. In my mother's eyes, it is a simple marriage, which falls into their eyes." However, it is just an in-law relationship with common interests, which is related to the faction and the future. Now my foundation is not stable, if I get involved, I have no power to protect myself, so to avoid suspicion, I must not be in a hurry."

When she heard that the affairs of the imperial court were involved, Mother Lu also stopped joking.

Following Lu Ci's secretiveness, he silently fell silent.

Di Qing, whose heart was hanging up and down, finally landed at this time.

What Lu Ci knew was that Lu's mother was not eager to have her grandson, and was really anxious to get him married—at best, she had heard too much from the Iceman, and she was worried that he was far away in the capital alone and had no caring person to take care of her. Just thinking about showing him a woman.

In the eyes of the people of Song Dynasty, the range of suitable age for a man to marry is quite broad, ranging from fifteen to thirty years old.Considering his age, Lu Ci is still only a weak crown, and he can still be regarded as an earlier rank.

Besides other conditions aside, the fact that he has a successful career now has nothing to do with the word "worried about marrying" at all, and Lu's mother really doesn't have to be too eager to get married.

Of course, using the imperial court as an excuse, and relying on the fact that it is indeed recognized that the promotion is too fast, can be regarded as a tactic to slow down the army.

In another three or four years, as he gets older, Lu's mother's urging for marriage will definitely become more violent.

But so what?

Lu Ci didn't care about it.

--there is always a solution to a problem.

If he really didn't want to marry, he naturally wouldn't worry about 'legitimate' reasons to shirk.

When Lu's mother was thinking about other topics in order to change the topic, she really reminded her of something, and hurried back to her room, and took out a pile of clothes: "I made a lot of clothes for you, and they have been washed. It has to be clean. It’s just that I don’t know if the size is correct, and whether the clothes will fit. Why don’t you try wearing them one by one while you have some free time?”

Lu Ci was very grateful for Mother Lu's loving heart.

However, just as he took it with his own hands, took out a garment sewn by Lu's mother on top, and held the idea of ​​praise in different ways no matter what, the smile on his lips froze. .

"Mother," Lu Ci stared at the obviously short trouser legs, and said delicately, "...Is this a short shirt?"

Lu's mother said confidently: "Who told you that you haven't come back for so long, and you've grown too fast? If it wasn't for this, the size wouldn't be inaccurate."

Lu Ci accepted this explanation.

So he nodded calmly, and spread out the other pieces one after another, but all of them were short trouser legs, and the waist was too loose.

No matter how against his will, he couldn't open his eyes and say the nonsense of 'this fits perfectly'.

Even Mother Lu was silent.

Lu Ci said sincerely, "Shall I try one?"

"Nonsense." Lu's mother snatched the clothes from his hands as if nothing had happened, and gestured to Di Qing who was standing beside him with a pure and innocent face. ?”

Di Qing: "..."

Lu Ci smiled: "Isn't it?"

The author has something to say: Your worries are superfluous... No one can force Lu Ci to do things that Lu Ci doesn't want to do (the reason why the prince can trick him is because he doesn't really dislike doing more work).

It was mentioned in the previous note about the age of marriage, but many people may have forgotten it, so I will add it here.I haven't read that there will be bad influence or punishment for men who don't marry.On the contrary, many people have criticized that it is not good to get married too young.

In the second year of Zhenguan in the early Tang Dynasty, the edict stipulated that "marriage" must be "marriage" at the age of [-] for men and [-] years for women. In the Kaiyuan period, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang moved forward to "marriage" to the age of [-] for men and [-] for women.The marriage age in the Song Dynasty was roughly similar to that in the Tang Dynasty, and it was still an early marriage.The suggestions in the books of the ministers of the Song Dynasty are slightly different:

Song Renzong's "Tiansheng Decree" stipulates that the marriage age is 15 years old for men and 13 years old for women;

According to Song Sima Guang's "Shu Yi", the marriageable age ranges from 30 to 20 for males and [-] to [-] for females;

During the Jiading (1208-1224) period of the Southern Song Dynasty, the court stipulated that the age of marriage was 16 years old for men and 14 years old for women;

The age of marriage in Zhu Xi's "Family Rituals" in the Southern Song Dynasty is 16 years old for men and 14 years old for women.

From the above, we know that the age of marriage in the Tang and Song Dynasties was 16 years old for men and 14 years old for women.This is of course the legal age for marriage.According to "Confucius's Family Language" and "Fu Jing", etc., Wang Su believed that "men can marry at sixteen and women at fourteen".Sima Guang also said: "Men are proficient at sixteen, and women are transformed at fourteen. If they are, they can give birth to people."

People in the Song Dynasty think that this age of marriage is acceptable and cannot be brought forward.Yuan Cai, a native of the Song Dynasty, once criticized the phenomenon of discussing marriage at a young age.He said: "Men and women should not discuss marriage when they are young. Generally speaking, women want to be trusted and men want to be married. If you talk about (judgment) the present, you will regret it later. Whether you are worthy or not depends on how old you are. If you discuss marriage early and nothing changes, it is definitely a good thing. Maybe you were rich in the past and now you are poor, or you were expensive in the past and now you are cheap, or the son-in-law you are discussing is a rascal, or the daughter you are discussing is cruel Not to prosecute; it is difficult to protect the family if you follow the previous agreement, and it will be a little justice if you break the previous agreement. And lawsuits arise from it, so don’t be abstaining!"