This gift is the tuition fee of the student's protégé, and he should bring ten pieces of preserved meat and a pot of fine wine, and serve it at the beginning of each month. This is slightly different from the six-rite bundle when the protégé apprentices, without celery, lotus seeds, red beans, red dates and longan.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, which coincides with the beginning of the month and the beginning of the year. On this day, the protégé will usually give Mr. some extra gifts with special significance. Wealthy families naturally send some calligraphy and paintings, jade, and antiques, while poor students can only use their brains more and send some small gifts with meanings to win the favor of Mr. so as not to look too shabby.

Although this academy is originally a place for teaching, it should be taught without class, but there are hundreds of people of all kinds, and there will always be some greedy gentlemen who value those expensive gifts, which will suffer the protégés who are strapped for money, and every time it comes to the New Year's holidays, it will be the most headache.

Bai Dinggong, as the head of this academy, almost every year all the protégés of the academy will try their best to send gifts to his room, although he has refused many times, but it seems that the enthusiasm of the gift giver has not diminished but increased, and he is very persistent.

In desperation, Bai Dinggong set such a rule in the academy: it is okay to give him gifts, but he must personally look at it, and if he thinks he likes it, he will keep it, and if he doesn't like it, he will resolutely not accept it. This is a big deal for the protégés, because they don't know what this old master Bai likes on weekdays!

Due to Bai Dinggong's indifferent temperament, if he sent gold, silver and jade, it would be an insult to him, and he was too precious for calligraphy and painting antiques. Deliver books? Just kidding, who in this academy has more books than him? So one year, a protégé gave him an ingenious Nanmu bookshelf, which means that there is no place for you to put many books anyway, and I sent you a bookshelf just for you to use to put books, which can really be said to be racking your brains.

At this moment, the door of Bai Dinggong's study was crowded with students and protégés who came to give gifts, but the door was closed, and no one dared to come forward and knock on the door, lest it disturb the old master's study.

Fortunately, Du Wenqi rushed over at this time, as a prison, he is the busiest person at this time of the year. In addition to being busy receiving gifts by himself, because the academy is crowded with gift-giving protégés who are always in a mess, he has to come forward every time to rectify the order, so as not to make the scene too chaotic, and every year the first thing he solves is in front of Bai Dinggong's door.

"Don't be noisy, don't crowd, come one by one, and line up."

While maintaining that the scene was not chaotic, he ordered someone to carry tables and chairs and put them in front of Bai Dinggong's study, so that Bai Dinggong would come out and sit down and look at the gifts in a while.

When everything was arranged, Du Wenqi turned around and bowed to the door of the study, and said respectfully: "Master, the protégés have already arrived, just waiting for you to move outside the door." ”

As soon as the words fell, the door of the study was opened, and Bai Dinggong walked out of the door, did not speak, and sat directly on the chair behind the table. All the protégés present bowed in unison and greeted the old master.

Shao Xi stood at the back of the line, he really wanted to see what kind of gifts these students present would give to Bai Dinggong, and also wanted to see how Bai Dinggong chose these gifts.

The first protégé stepped forward, holding a long brocade box in his hand, and respectfully placed it on the table in front of Bai Dinggong. Bai Dinggong raised his hand to pick up the brocade box, and when he opened it, he saw that inside the brocade box was a luxurious brush.

It is a jade tube Zihao, the pen tube is carved with exquisite landscapes, flowers and birds patterns, the pen head is round and full, the hair is evenly covered, the tip of the pen is like a thin cone, and the workmanship is fine.

The protégé proudly introduced: "This pen tube is carved with the Xiuyu of Tianqiong Mountain, the rabbit hair used in the pen is captured in the autumn for many years in the mountain stream to eat the leaves of wild bamboo, the adult male rabbit hair that drinks the water of the mountain spring, only a small pinch of black elastic double arrow feathers on its back, it can be said that it is rare, it is not easy to obtain, only such a rabbit hair made of the brush can achieve the requirements of pointed, Qi, round and healthy. Only such a pen can be regarded as a 'pearl in the palm of the hand' by everyone in calligraphy and painting, and it is called a 'treasure', and only such a pen can be worthy of such a learned Confucian in the literary world. ”

Bai Dinggong took this pen in his hand, took a closer look, and couldn't help but praise: "The selection of materials is strict, the production is exquisite, the hair is pure and durable, and the combination of rigidity and softness is indeed the best product in the pen." ”

The protégé was very proud when he heard the old master's evaluation of the gift he had given. It seems that the old master is still very satisfied with his gift.

What he didn't expect was that Bai Dinggong put the pen back in the brocade box after some appreciation, pushed it in front of him and said: "The pen is used to write articles, not to show off. If there is nothing in the chest, even if you hold such a luxurious thing in your hand, it is like grass and trees, what is the use? Take it back! ”

The protégé thought that the gift he gave would please the old master, but he didn't want to be taught a lesson by Bai Dinggong, so he took the gift, drooped his head and retreated boringly.

Shao Xi stood behind, and when he heard Bai Dinggong's words, he secretly admired it in his heart. It is worthy of being a great Confucian of the time, and it is worthy of being regarded as a sage by people, and such insight and mind are indeed very human.

The second protégé who stepped forward was holding a square brocade box, and when he opened it, there was a high-grade inkstone inside.

This protégé cautiously introduced: "This inkstone is the famous inkstone produced in Bozhou in South Zhao, its texture is dense, solid, delicate, delicate, warm and moist like jade, and it is famous for its unique and rich stone patterns and ingenious carving skills. ”

Bai Dinggong took out the inkstone from the brocade box again, held it in his hand and looked at it repeatedly. I saw that the texture of this inkstone is moist and thorough, the carving is exquisite, the green pine elegant building carved on the inkstone, the small bridge and flowing water, it is really lifelike, exquisite, it is indeed a good inkstone.

"It is indeed a good inkstone, soft and rigid, according to it like a child's skin, the silence of the rubbing, the storage of water is not thin, the ink is not damaged, and the ink is fast is the biggest advantage of this inkstone."

When the protégé heard Bai Dinggong's praise, his face was overjoyed, and he bowed down and said: "This inkstone is smooth in ink research, which can save the old master some time and make more lofty theories on governing the world and spread them to the world." ”

Bai Dinggong raised his eyes to look at the protégé in front of him, and asked, "Do you know the difficulty of traveling, where is the difficulty?" How do you feel when you reach the place you have reached and look back at the way of time? ”

This protégé is a smart person, and he can understand everything. Hearing Bai Dinggong's question, he hurriedly bowed down and replied: "The disciple understands, this way of learning is as difficult as a road, and the article is like walking to the place where it goes, and the road to study is like the knowledge of the director on this road, so the road should not be too smooth, and if it is too smooth, it will be too little knowledge. Disciple, thank you for the order! ”

To put it bluntly, people's knowledge and perception are obtained from adversity, and if everything goes too well, the knowledge and understanding will be much less. The same is true for writing articles, if it is not considered, scrutinized, and revised, the written article must be superficial. The study of ink is compared here to a thought process, although there will be many difficulties, but there will be gains, so there is no need to rush for a while.

The protégé respectfully withdrew with the gift, but Bai Dinggong nodded with satisfaction, feeling that "the child can be taught". Actually, it made him happier than receiving a gift.

The third protégé held a brocade package in his arms, and Shao Xi wondered after reading it, could it be that he sent a set of clothes to the old master?

After the package was opened, everyone realized that it was a knife of paper wrapped inside.

But don't underestimate this paper, literati calligraphy and painting are very particular and demanding on paper, so the best paper is also expensive, and this knife paper in front of you is like this.

After the paper is unfolded, the pattern of clouds and mountains faintly appears in the light, and there seems to be a pavilion in the clouds jumping on the paper, which looks very novel and unique, and is different.

The protégé who delivered the paper stood with his hands down, without saying a word, as if he had looked at the previous two, and was afraid of saying the wrong thing at this time.

Bai Dinggong stretched out his hand and gently touched the paper in front of him, then approached to take a closer look, and nodded uncontrollably with his hand on his beard.

"This is water-patterned paper, also known as 'curtain paper', which can show shiny lines or patterns in addition to the curtain pattern when viewed in the light, in order to add to the potential beauty of the paper. There are two ways to make it: one is to weave a texture or pattern with a thread on the paper curtain, which is raised on the curtain surface, and the pulp here is thin when making paper, so the texture is shiny and presented on the paper; The second is to carve a mold of wood or other materials with textures and patterns, and press it on the paper surface with strong force. This kind of paper is beautiful on the table, and it has become beautiful in its own right before the pen is written. ”

Bai Dinggong also pushed the package back, and solemnly said to the protégé in front of him: "We literati should be careful about the world, and the articles we write should also speak for the common people in the world, not only to see the splendid rivers and mountains, but also to see the barren mountains, remote areas, poverty and suffering." The real splendid article does not care whether it is written on the same paper as splendid, but cares about what you write, take it back! Write well. ”

The next protégés gave only some gifts of famous paintings and calligraphy, and they were all returned, but the gifts given by two of them were also the usual favorites of literati and artists.

One of them brought up a small wooden box, which was opened with a soft lining made of brocade, and two ink ingots were placed in the box.

"The disciple is stupid and doesn't understand ink, but I heard my father say that this is a good tribute ink, so let's ask the old master to taste it!"

Bai Dinggong glanced at it, and then came close to smell it, and said: "This is the ink, made of 'smoke', its ink is one pound of pine smoke, with three taels of pearls, one tael of jade shavings, one tael of borneol and one hundred thousand pestles with raw lacquer, so it is as hard as a stone, and it can not be broken in water for three years." Rich skin and greasy, luster like lacquer, light to light, grinding to clear, smell to sweet, hard as jade, grinding silent, a little like lacquer, thousands of years of truth, is the best product in the ink. Still, you might as well take him back! ”

"Since this ink is so good, why did the old master let the disciple take it back? Wouldn't it be better to leave it with the old master's hand-me-down? ”

"A hundred years later, there is no king, but there is the ink of the king; A thousand years later, there is no ink of the king but the name of the king. It doesn't matter whether the words can be passed down or not, what matters is whether the arguments you write can be passed down to the world. ”

"Disciple understands, thank you for the teachings of Old Master."

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About the production process of the four treasures of the study and related introductions, some of them are quoted from the Internet.

A hundred years later, there is no king but there is the ink of the king; A thousand years later, there is no ink of the king but the name of the king. ——Changed from the great calligrapher Dong Qichang of the Ming Dynasty on the "Xuanyuan Aura" and "Liaotianyi" ink made by the Huizhou ink-making master Cheng Junfang: "A hundred years later, there is no monarch's room but there is the ink of the monarch's room; A thousand years later, there is no ink of the king's house but the name of the king's house. ”