Zhao Xiu and Fang Renzhu sat in a carriage together and came to the small house of the Drum Tower, which had been converted into the Mingzhi Library.

Over the past few months, the small house has changed, and the houses of the east and west neighbors have come in together to build a library that occupies a large area. The main gate is still open at the front door of the Zhao family's small house, and the door of the east courtyard has been sealed, but a small door has been left in the west courtyard for the staff to enter and exit.

The library has been renovated and the collection of books has been organized, and it will open in two days as soon as the auspicious time comes. The craftsmen who were originally scattered in the hall have all left, and even a few scholars who have been hired to do things have temporarily taken a vacation because they have nothing important to do, leaving only three or five male and female servants of the Zhao family to watch the house and clean the house. Zhao Xiu had sent them a message in advance, so someone was waiting in front of the door early, and when he saw the carriage of Jiannanhou's Mansion coming, he opened the door to greet him, and knew that it was the female dependents who came today, and the male servants avoided it, leaving only two mothers-in-law to wait.

Zhao Xiu and Fang Renzhu got off the carriage and walked into the museum. Zhao Xiu had been here beforehand, so he knew the situation in the museum, so he introduced Fang Renzhu: "The front yard is a tea room and a rest room. Tea is also available, but the portions are not much. The hut over there is a small shop selling pen, ink, paper and inkstone, many of which are southern goods, and there are also local products, if any scholar is willing, he can also take his masterpiece to the bookstore to print, and then hang it here for consignment. ”

Fang Renzhu looked at it all the way, but she felt fresh, but she was not too interested in these, and her attention was on the eight big characters on the courtyard wall: faithful, generous, lover, and virtuous. She thoughtfully said, "When you enter the door." I saw the word 'knowing' on the shadow wall, and thought it was just the name of the library, but now it seems. Those two words are actually one with these eight words, right? 'Knowing and faithful, generous and loving, respecting the virtuous and respecting, and respecting the balance', these are the words in the "Historical Records". ”

Zhao Xiu smiled: "I knew you could recognize it." The father knows that we named the library after the words of the father, on the one hand, to commemorate the father. On the other hand, I also think these two words are excellent. It is precisely because of such virtues and talents that the four gentlemen of the Warring States period will be praised by the world. Isn't this exactly the character that a reader should have? ”

Fang Renzhu smiled and nodded: "That's a good point." Exactly. ”

Then she went to see the stone tablet in the corner of the courtyard, and the inscription on it was the article of King Guangping, which recorded the beginning and end of the tragedy on the canal of the Zhao family, and also introduced the original intention of Zhao Wei, the current Marquis of Jiannan, to establish a library to commemorate his deceased father and mother. Although the king of Quang Binh could not see. The writing is very good. As long as you have a little ink, you can see how talented he is. No matter how noble his status is, no one can deny it in terms of talent and learning, and many readers deeply regret his current inadequacy. At least, the people who have read this inscription, whether it is the scholars and scholars that Zhao Wei has befriended, the children of famous scholars, or the poor students who have been hired to do small jobs. All have the same idea.

After reading the inscription, Zhao Xiu and Fang Renzhu entered the second gate again. There is a statue of Confucius in the main room of the main room in the second gate, there is a couplet on each side, the top is hung with a plaque given by the emperor, and flowers and incense burners are placed on the offering table below. In fact, here Zhao Wei and Zhao Xiu brothers and sisters originally planned to worship the tablets of their grandfather and parents, but later Shang Qiong privately reminded Zhao Wei, and he found that this was a little inappropriate. No matter how much their siblings respected their parents, enshrined their parents' tablets in the main hall of the library, it was easy to arouse Shilin's criticism, feeling that they had raised their parents too high. If someone deliberately provokes thorns and spreads rumors that Zhao Wei wants students all over the world to kowtow to his parents, then won't the Zhao family become the target of public criticism? Enshrined in the portrait of the saint Confucius is the safest practice. The siblings had a small room at the back of the main hall dedicated to their grandfather and parents. Students who have a heart can go in and have an incense, and those who don't have a heart should not know. Zhao Zhuo and his wife were not uncommon with this little incense.

There are three main rooms, the east and west rooms and the ear rooms have been opened, and all of them are placed with long tables and stools, which are places for readers to copy books. The craftsmen also opened several windows in the back wall for light. Added up, the two sides can squeeze up to eighty people, which is barely enough. This library is not a large library in the first place, and it is not easy to do this.

Zhao Xiu took Fang Renzhu to the east and west wings and several big houses in the backyard, all of which were full of books. This is the main hall, the collection is the Four Books and Five Classics related categories of books, various versions of the classics and analysis are available, some of which have never been shown to the outside world of the famous private collection experience, quite precious. Fang Renzhu turned around, and he couldn't wait to nail himself here, and refused to leave a single step: "I haven't read that book, I only heard someone mention it, it is said that the analysis of "Spring and Autumn" is very unique, I really want to read it." ”

Zhao Xiu had no choice but to hold her: "I have a manuscript of that one, I'll lend it to you when I go back!" ”

After a while, Fang Renzhu said again: "There is also that copy of "XXXXX", which is the private collection of all families, my brother has long wanted to borrow it to take a look, but unfortunately it was always preempted by others, I didn't expect you to have it here!" ”

Zhao Xiu said helplessly: "That my grandmother also has a copy, I'll help you ask when I go back, if she is willing, I will lend you a few days, and let you go back and copy a copy, it doesn't hurt to think about it." ”

Fang Renzhu thanked her happily, and then reluctantly followed her away.

They went back to the East Building. There are basically two types of books in the East Pavilion, one is the hundred schools of Zhuzi, mainly the collection of Zhang's books, which may not be an important thing in the eyes of readers who are bent on taking the imperial examination, but Zhao Xiu still strongly advocates adding them; The other type is a collection of famous writers, except for some of the authors of the previous dynasty, most of the others are articles, poems, etc., written by high-ranking officials and scholars of this dynasty, and even articles written by them when they took the exam. Many high-ranking officials and scholars may not be willing to donate their precious collections, but if they were asked to produce their own manuscripts, nine out of ten people would be willing, and the remaining one would humbly refuse by himself, and then his relatives and friends would help him come up with the manuscripts, which would have achieved his goal. It has also won the reputation of low-key. After all, this is a rare opportunity to make a name for themselves, especially for high-ranking officials, who are not admired for their literary talents. I also want to brush a sense of storage in Shilin.

For the average reader, these anthologies may be the most useful thing to help them understand the examiner's preferences, as well as model essays for reference, where to find such good reference materials? Zhao Xiu felt that the collection of books in the East Library may be the most attractive thing in the Mingzhi Library.

Fang In-joo was not interested in the East Building's anthology. I only took a fancy to two poetry collections that I had never seen, and it happened that the authors of the two books sent the poetry collections to the small shop in the front yard for consignment, so she bought two copies and went back. As for the hundred schools of thought. She was also a little interested, but this kind of thing was not only available in the Mingzhi Library, the Fang family also had a lot of books.

Then they passed through the Moon Cave Gate and came to the West Pavilion.

Zhao Xiu entered the West Pavilion. There's a weird feeling about it. She wanted to bring Fang Renzhu over for a visit. So I said hello in advance, and today's employees are on vacation, except for a few rough servants in the gatehouse and backyard, there are basically only two mothers-in-law waiting in the museum, to ensure that the two of them will not encounter any idlers during the visit. But what's going on in the West Pavilion? At first glance, there is no one in the past, but it gives people the feeling of being someone.

Zhao Xiu hesitated for a moment and stood still in the courtyard. She wondered if she should call a mother-in-law and make a round around. Make sure that there is no one and then take Fang Renzhu into the house? Anyway, she invited Fang Renzhu over. If she went on a business trip because of her negligence, she would not be able to explain it to the Fang family.

Before, she didn't want people to follow, so she let the two mothers-in-law go back to the porter, but now I'm afraid it will take some time to call people. Zhao Xiu stopped Fang Renzhu: "After shopping for a long time, aren't you tired?" Why don't we go have a cup of tea? You can also try the skills of our library cooks. ”

Fang Renzhu was not very interested in the skills of the cooks in the library, and wanted to take a look at the collection of books in the West Pavilion first. Zhao Xiu once told her that there were books that had not yet been sorted out, and there was an entire courtyard where there were more than 1,000 copies of the Yongle Dadian, which were incomplete editions, but they were already extremely precious. These more than 1,000 books were collected among the people when the old county prince led the army, and the source is unknown, and the purpose is naturally to coax his wife. The Zhang family regarded them as treasures and kept them carefully in the small house of the Drum Tower. Later, when the Niu family sent people to loot the property, because they didn't know the goods, they opened the box and closed it again after a glance, without touching it. Zhao Wei wanted to build a library, and Zhang took out more than 1,000 books as the treasure of the museum.

Such a precious ceremony, ordinary people don't even have a chance to see it, how could Fang Renzhu, as a lover of books, miss it?

Zhao Xiu could feel the eagerness in her heart, thought about it, and said, "Then I'll take you there." You follow me, and I'll go into the house and take a look, and tell you to go in again. ”

Fang Renzhu looked puzzled, but still nodded. Zhao Xiu walked in front of her, entered the main house, looked inside, didn't find anyone, just felt relieved, turned around and thought about Fang Renzhu to come in, and saw a person standing behind the door, dressed in white, with a blue face, and his whole body was shrouded in darkness. She gasped and her eyes widened.

The man looked at her blankly: "Miss Zhao, why are you here?" "I still have a book in my hand.

Zhao Xiu pressed his chest, only feeling that he was scared a lot, and his little heart was beating fast. Fang Renzhu was also startled when he heard a man's voice outside the house, but he quickly recognized who it was, and hurriedly ran in, then his face turned red, and he lowered his head and whispered, "Cousin Shang." ”

Shang Qiong was stunned, and the look on her face suddenly softened a lot: "Why is the fifth cousin here?" ”

Zhao Xiu had already recovered at this time, and hurriedly explained the reason. Shang Qiong then understood what was going on, and smiled apologetically: "I came over every day some time ago, reading and writing by myself, but because I came too much, no one cared about me." It's just that I haven't been here for the last few days, presumably because they didn't know I was going to be there today, so they didn't say hello to me. I came in through the side door, and I didn't notice anything moving on the side of the main building. I'm really sorry for the two girls who were abrupt. ”

What else can Zhao Xiu say? Fang Renzhu only knew that she lowered her head and blushed, so she had to say dryly that it didn't matter.

But Shang Qiong is here, won't they have to leave? Zhao Xiu remembered that Fang Renzhu wanted to watch "Yongle Ceremony" very much, and the latter would leave Beijing in a while, and it might take a long time to come back, if he missed this opportunity, he didn't know when he would come back next time. She really didn't want to disappoint her friend, so she asked Shang Qiong: "That...... Shang Gongzi, you see that Miss Fang Wu and you are not outsiders, can you ...... Let her read a book here, too? She has admired "Yongle Canon" for a long time. ”

"Oh?" Shang Qiong's eyes lit up, and then she looked at Fang Renzhu with a very special gaze, "Really?" (To be continued......)