The rolling Yangtze River is passing away, the waves are all flickering, the success or failure of the big turtle, how many ancient and modern, have been boiled and drunk.

——Send "Bodhi Balls"

Occasionally, when I open history books, I will always find some things that are not recorded in history textbooks, and occasionally I will open the genealogy, and I will always find some names that are not recorded in the official history. I know that there are many, many ifs in these names.

For example, one day when I opened the genealogy and saw a remnant inscription left in it by an alienated fellow sect, I noticed such a name that was both unfamiliar and familiar to me: Dongmenqing.

I remember that the estranged fellow who left this remnant of the inscription was called Zai Zhen, and later changed his surname to Li for some reason, his name was Zhen, born in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and he was a native of Quanzhou, Fujian. Li Zhen's father is called Li Baizhai, and he is a teacher who turned from business to Confucianism. The "Dongmen Qing" recorded in the rubbing text is a disciple of Mr. Li Baizhai.

Li Zhen's knowledge when he was a teenager was mainly derived from Bai Zhai, so it can also be said that Li Zhen and Dongmen Qing are brothers, but there is a huge disparity between the rich and the poor, and there is no contact, so Li Zhen did not meet Dongmen Qing who was one year older than him until he was seventeen years old.

It was the end of summer, the heat had not subsided, everyone in Quanzhou City was sweating, this day was not an important day, but because the fourth son of Quanzhou Yiba, Dongmen Qing, and the fifth son Dongmen Kang were in Xiucai at the same time, so Quanzhou Mansion and the local Haoqiang of neighboring states and counties came to congratulate. Li Baizhai is the mentor of Dongmen Qing and Dongmen Kang, and he should have been there, but because Li Baizhai suddenly fell ill in the past few days, he sent his son to congratulate him on his behalf.

When Li Zhen arrived in front of the Dongmen Mansion, he saw that the crowds were crowded, and the merchants, officials, officials and even beggars and peddlers and pawns in Quanzhou all had the heart to join in the excitement.

Why is Dongmen Mansion so lively? It turned out that although the Dongmen family was not a relative of the emperor, and there was no family of seven jinshi, father and son seven tanhua, but their family was a family of officials who controlled the local government of Quanzhou. According to the usual experience, on the days when Quanzhou Yiba holds happy events, there will always be a lot of oil and water to make money, and there will be a lot of business to discuss.

The Ming Dynasty implements the Eight Shares of Scholars, and to be an official must first be admitted to the Jinshi, and to be admitted to the Jinshi, you must first learn to do the Eight Shares, and the people of Xiucai raise their energy to focus on the Eight Shares, where is there still time to learn the actual knowledge of money and food (economy) and criminal name (law)? Therefore, after most scholars were admitted to the Jinshi, they memorized the four books and five classics backwards, but they just didn't understand the "Da Ming Law"! Coupled with the strict avoidance system and the irregular transfer system of the province, after most officials take office, they usually have a smear on the government affairs of the place where they work, and they don't know the local customs at all!

In this era, the Shiye group had not yet risen in full swing, so the officials had to rely on the Liufang (Officials, Households, Punishments, Rituals, and Soldiers) officials who had served in the local yamen for a long time and even passed down from hereditary to hereditary. Officials are not officials, but they are the actual executors of government affairs, and the common people must go through the officials to communicate with the officials, and the officials must also go through the officials to do anything. Especially for the magistrate, if his officials cooperate with him, it will be smooth, and if his officials do not cooperate with him, he will be anxious! For the ordinary people, the officials not only control their pockets (the severity of the apportionment and exploitation when collecting food and wages), but also control their life and death (a change in a lawsuit can kill someone)!

The position of Ming officials is almost never held by one person for more than ten years, especially the magistrates, most people usually only do two or three years in a position, and as for the family monopoly, it is even more unthinkable. But there is no such restriction on the officials, the position of the local officials often appears from father to son, son to grandson, from generation to generation, Zhu Yuanzhang laid down many national policies, and later produced fruits that he himself could not imagine, resulting in the Ming generation, the official is not feudal, the official is feudal, the official is not hereditary, and the official is hereditary.

The Dongmen family has been officials in Quanzhou for five generations. The contemporary head of the family, Dongmen Ba, the second son, and the third son, Dongmenxu, are all officials of the key departments of Quanzhou Prefecture and County, and the eldest son, Dongmen, should be walking in the Beijing Division. Li Zhen also heard from his father that after Dongmen celebrates his eighteenth birthday this year, he will also go to the government like his brothers to work as an errand boy. In addition, the protégés and friends of the Dongmen family not only spread all over the yamen of Quanzhou Prefecture, prefecture and county, but also had a wide range of voices with the officials of Fujian Province, and even the officials of the six departments in Beijing also had their relatives and friends! It can be said that although Dongmenqing, who was determined to give up as an official, had no hope of becoming a champion jinshi and a protégé of the Son of Heaven, and was not as noble as the scholarly gentry of generations in the local area, the road to "Quanzhou Yiba" was smooth!

Inside and outside the gate of the East Gate Mansion, there are people everywhere who come to flatter. Although this large mansion has seven facades, nine entrances before and after, it is also a little crowded on this day. However, although there are many people, there is a clear distinction between the gentry and the lower ninth class because of the difference in clothing. Li Baizhai was originally a humble Confucian, although the wind and bones are hard, but the money bag is astringent, and it is said that it is good to hear that it is the teacher of Dongmen Qing, and if it is ugly, it is just a teaching craftsman who came to Dongmen Mansion to earn food. He himself is like this, how much more so his son?

Li Zhen was wearing a thin green shirt and mingled in the crowd, and none of the gentry and giants present paid attention to him. Li Zhen is not a person who is willing to be inflammatory, endure the smell of copper, and he feels uncomfortable after sitting down, so he is about to leave. Suddenly, someone shouted, "The fourth prince is back!" Li Zhen stopped to take a look at what this Dongmen Qing that his father usually mentioned looked like.

He raised his eyes and saw a boy under the age of twenty walking in outside the door, with a long body, and a somewhat similar face to the Dongmen Ba that Li Zhen had seen, but he was still young after all, so he didn't have a fat belly like Dongmen Ba, from the shoulders to the lower abdomen, the muscles were all capable types that had bid farewell to the childishness of his youth and were about to mature into a young man, as for his face, the relatives and friends of the Dongmen family felt more like his mother than his father, and he felt very beautiful from a distance and up, but his nose was not as small as his mother. Rather, like his father did when he was younger, he was very straight. Dongmen Ba and his two older sons will get thicker and thicker on the wings of their noses after they are thirty years old, and it is estimated that Dongmen Qing will do the same in the future. And then there are his eyebrows, which are neither exactly like his father nor like his mother, but they have the characteristics of both: as long as his father and as light as his mother. At this time, Dongmen Qing seems to be a little manly enough, because he is still at the age of the most likable young man.

Li Zhen glanced at it twice and thought: "My father usually said that there are not many articles in this Dongmen Qing, and it is enough to deal with the laity; The strategy is not broad, and it is enough to deal with villains. When I saw it today, I was just a playboy, did my father look away, or did I not have the ability to see it? ”

At this time, everyone in the hall walked up to flatter, and even called the fourth son and the fifth son amazingly talented, and he had already won the fame before he was weak, Li Zhen noticed that there was a young man who looked very similar to him next to Dongmen Qing, one or two years younger than Dongmen Qing, presumably Dongmen Qing's brother Dongmen Kang with the same father and mother.

The hall is full of words, this sigh Dongmen Qing has no intention of career, the court is inevitably missing a pillar, and that is fortunate that Dongmen Qingqu stayed in Quanzhou Mansion as an official, and will be able to benefit Sangzi in the future. Li Zhen couldn't listen to it, and thought to himself: "There are a few living beings in this world, who are not ordinary people and are not villains!" With a flick of his sleeves, he disappeared into the crowd of bowers, and he looked down on everyone present, and everyone present did not know that such a person had ever come.

——————

According to the editor's note: Li Zhen, known as Zhuowu, a great thinker in the late Ming Dynasty. There have been "Chutan Collection" and "Book Burning" came out. His views are sharp, and his persecution is terrible. Shortly after the publication of "Collected Books", he was imprisoned for "daring to advocate chaos and confusing the world and slandering the people", and committed suicide in the same year. His writings have been banned and burned several times, but they continue to circulate to the world.