Taking advantage of the free afternoon, Fan Ming went to the village school again, planning to visit the only teacher in the village school, Old Master Gong.

Reading in this era is not a very easy thing, there is no dictionary and no Baidu, and it is not possible to meet a reader within a radius of 100 miles, although he has been learning Mandarin since he was a child, but after all, he does not regard the literary style as his habitual way of thinking, and self-learning will definitely not be so smooth, if there is a teacher, it is tantamount to taking a large detour.

The village school is not an official school, but Qinghe Township is still a rich place, and the village school is supported by the township, so it has cultivated a lot of literate talents for Qinghe Township.

According to the custom, four ceremonies are generally prepared, although it is not so strict among the villagers, but at least it means to arrive.

With the warm 200 yuan from Fan Qin's hands, Fan Ming went to Zhang's butcher's house and cut two meat cases weighing nearly ten catties, and then got a bag of red dates and a box of snacks. On the way, I met a lot of villagers who were looking at Fan Ming's fanfare as if they were watching the excitement, "Xiao Wu, what are you doing here?" Propose? The girl of that house? ”

"Hehe, are you going to apprentice?"

"Apprentice? The head of the household promised you to learn the craftsman's craft? ”

"yes!" At this time, there are a lot of rituals to worship the master, and you must first invite the Chinese to say hello to the master, and then choose an auspicious day to hold a banquet. Write a note and bow to the teacher.

The apprenticeship is three or six numbers, which means thirty-six lines, and the line is the champion. During the apprenticeship, no wages were paid, and the master was in charge of eating, living and making winter and summer clothes, but the apprenticeship of the scholar was not so strict, and Fan Ming did not explain too much, and agreed twice to continue to walk forward.

"After this year, the cubs will come out, and in the future, the master on the kiln will not worry about food and clothing."

These exclamations from behind him made Fan Ming feel a little embarrassed, and recalled the impetuousness of the people's hearts in that era, compared to the simple peasant family, they were more worthy of people's respect.

At this moment, it was the time to end school, the students had gone home, and the courtyard of the village school seemed empty, which made Fan Ming's heart suddenly become a little uneasy, just like returning to the moment before the college entrance examination, excited and a little timid at the same time.

When he was about to enter the courtyard gate of the village school, he carefully checked his outfit from top to bottom, and after confirming that there was no rudeness, he bought his steps and stepped in.

However, when he neatly placed the four letters of honor on the bookcase of Old Master Gong, that nervous mood disappeared in an instant.

Old Master Gong is a typical Chinese literati, pale and a little frail, but there is a faint invisible arrogance in his not upright body, the arrogance of a scholar.

After telling the old master what he meant, Old Master Gong raised his eyes to look at Fan Ming and asked lightly, "How old are you this year?" ”

"Fifteen, imaginary sixteen." Fan Ming behaved very restrained at this moment, and he had great respect for this older generation of scholars, just like he treated his ancestors and fathers at the beginning.

"Sixteen?" Old Master Gong frowned and shook his head, the sixteen-year-old village baby has already passed the best learning time, and even if he starts learning now, he won't have much achievement, but seeing Fan Ming's dark eyes and a faint spirit on his body that ordinary peasant children don't have, he couldn't help but ask, "Have you ever been blindsided before?" ”

"I sent it, I was stubborn when I was young, I can't remember much!" Of course, Fan Ming didn't dare to say how proficient he was, once Old Master Gong wanted to take the school examination seriously, even if he would fall into an arrogant reputation, for scholars, modesty is a necessary etiquette.

"Why study?" Old Master Gong nodded slightly, feeling quite sorry in his heart, this child's words are gentle and modest, and he should have a good foundation, but he has been wasted for so many years.

"From childhood there was a precept in my family, and my father used to say, 'Learn, inquire, consider, discern, and act.'" To this day, I know the deep meaning and the heart of learning sprouts. Fan Ming bowed deeply to the end.

Old Master Gong did not answer Fan Ming positively, took two steps to the window, and said slowly: "This sentence is from the erudite chapter of "The Book of Rites: The Mean", learning is the beginning of a person, learning to know, asking Fang Mingsi, thinking and arguing, is the pinnacle of virtue in a lifetime, many people can't do it in their lives, you can say its deep meaning at a young age, and you are not afraid of people's jokes. ”

Fan Ming's heart sank, he wanted to pat the horse's ass but didn't want to slap the horse's legs!

His eyes secretly glanced at Old Master Gong, and there was no trace of anger on his side face, knowing that Old Master Gong was beating him, and hurriedly said: "Xiaosheng is willing to be taught by the master, and I ask the master to include it." ”

Old Master Gong nodded, "The journey of the Great Road begins with a single step, and you must be diligent in the future, why worry about not being able to help the world." ”

This sentence Fan Ming is familiar, the original sentence is "poor is good for oneself, and good for the world", from "Mencius, Wholeheartedly", which means that when you have no ambition, you will clean yourself and cultivate your personal morality, and when you have your ambition, you can make the world like this, obviously Gong Lao Fuzi is also like many Confucian sages, the inner main is to cultivate the heart, the external cultivation, recalling his father and ancestors, although he has integrated some ideas of the new era, but his bones are not infiltrated with Confucian thoughts.

"Do you know why the courtyard is planted with green bamboo?"

"I don't know!" In later generations, there are many articles and poems of Yongzhu, if you insist on breaking it, Fan Ming can also say one, although Fan Ming has the answer in his heart, but he does not dare to say it, he knows that his way of thinking is completely different from this era.

"There are bones and knots, and they are born and alone, and they can be described as gentlemen."

Fan Ming sighed in his heart, since ancient China, there are only two kinds of literati, one is like Wen Tianxiang, with a heroic and righteous spirit in his body, unyielding, and the other is like a dog's tail grass swaying in the wind.

Scholars are reasonable, know human nature, heart, cultivation and other subtle words, and talk endlessly.

Why is there such a bad reputation?

It is often this kind of scholar who has changed his taste to discredit the entire Chinese nation, and Gong Laofuzi is the former kind of iron-clad traditional Confucian literati.

I thought of some of the behaviors and styles of my grandfather and father, and the aftertaste of some officialdom and wild fun was another taste, if I used these means to rectify people in the future, it would be quite interesting to compare, thinking about it, the corners of Fan Ming's mouth unconsciously turned up.

"Why are you laughing?" Old Master Gong's voice instantly became stern.

Fan Ming suddenly came back to his senses, and found that he was distracted, the master's bright eyes were staring at him, and he couldn't help but feel weak for a while, and suddenly saw that the neckline of Old Master Gong's cardigan was a little stretched due to excessive wear, and his heart moved, and said: "I just thought of an interesting story in the market, so I was rude, and I ask the master to forgive me." ”

"Oh, anecdote, let's hear it." Old Master Gong seemed to suddenly come to his senses, and his eyes suddenly lit up.