In the autumn of this year, the emperor sent Wang Dingjiu, a scholar of Hanlin, to the Qiantang River to copy the Qiantang River tide and flood inscription when Dayu ruled the water.

Wang Dingjiu knew that the literati and scholars of all dynasties wanted to see the content of the inscription, but because the rise and fall of the tide in Qiantang was only a momentary thing, there must be people who "look at ten lines at a glance and never forget" to see it, so no one has been able to see the inscription clearly at the low tide and record it in the world. For this reason, Wang Dingjiu was worried about this matter, went south to the south of the Yangtze River, and took the road to meet his teacher Gu Zhangjiao.

After three rounds of tea, Gu Zhangjiao saw that Wang Dingjiu was worried and worried, so he asked: "Gao Zu went to Jiangnan this time, and he seems to have something to understand?" ”

When Wang Dingjiu saw what his teacher asked, he sighed "sigh" and said, "The student is worried about this matter. ”

Gu Zhangjiao: "What's the trouble? ”

So, Wang Dingjiu told Gu Zhangjiao about this trip.

After Gu Zhangjiao heard this, he laughed and said, "For the teacher to raise a student, I wish you to go with you." ”

Wang Dingjiu: "Zhu Decai? He ......"

Gu Zhangjiao: "You can rest assured, although Zhu Decai is still a child, he is born with a talent, and he has the genius of 'one glance and ten lines, never forget'." ”

When Wang Dingjiu heard his teacher say this, the troubles that had plagued him for many days were swept away, and he thanked him again and again.

So, Wang Dingjiu, Gu Zhangjiao, and Zhu Decai set off immediately, and rushed to the Qiantang River in a few days, and wrote down the location of the inscription when the tide was low.

The two made an appointment, Wang Dingjiu looked down from the top, and Zhu Decai looked up from the bottom. After reading it, each wrote down the inscription of the inscription and continued it together, which is a complete inscription.

After checking that it was correct, Wang Dingjiu praised from the bottom of his heart: "Teacher! This student of yours is indeed a prodigy, a genius, a champion! He will grow up and enter Beijing to take the examination, and this official will definitely recommend you, a proud disciple, in front of the emperor. "Say goodbye to Gu Zhangjiao and Zhu Decai, and return to Beijing with the inscription to restore the decree.

……

Li Jinlan sent her little fortune to study in Yuncheng School, and in order to help her mother's family, she opened a tofu workshop on Jinshuifang West Street in the county seat.

Xiao Decai often picks tofu to sell along the street as soon as he comes back from school, and when he finishes selling, he goes to the window of Jing'an School to listen. Over time, he was discovered by Teacher Jing'an, who felt that this child had clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and when he asked him some poems, he answered them fluently, which was deeply loved by Teacher Jing'an.

On the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Teacher Jing'an invited several confidants to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and also called Xiaodecai. It is nothing more than a poem against each other, and a common appreciation of strange texts. I didn't realize that it was late at night, and I was still in the mood, drinking while enjoying famous poems.

At this time, they found that the wine in the bottle was exhausted, so they asked Xiao Decai to go into the city to buy wine, but it was already late at night, and the city gate was already closed.

Xiao Decai explained the situation to the guards and begged him to open the door.

The gatekeeper was a man who was familiar with the Four Books and the Five Classics, and he liked to recite poems. Knowing that the person who came was Zhu Decai, he wanted to try to see if his literary talent was as good as the rumors.

So, the doorman said, "Child! I'll make a couplet, and if you're right, open the gates, or you'll have to do it. ”

The small fortune is full of promises.

The doorman thought about it, and now it was the second watch in the middle of the night, so he came out of the upper link:

Two and a half in the middle of the night

Xiao Decai frowned, thought for a while, and replied:

Mid-Autumn Festival in mid-August

When the doorman heard this, he felt that he was neat and very literate, and he admired the child's knowledge very much, so he opened the door and let Zhu Decai enter the city, and gave a thumbs up and praised: "You are so good at a young age, it is really commendable, if you can be diligent, you will definitely have a long future in the future." ”

The annual Spring Festival is coming, and every household has to post Spring Festival couplets. In order to test her son's academic performance, Li Jinlan specially asked Xiao Decai to write Spring Festival couplets.

At this time, it is the Chinese New Year's Eve, and every household removes the old year, changes the new charms, sets off firecrackers, and eats reunion dinner. Xiaodecai thinks of his mother, gets up early in the dark, grinds tofu, and works hard, in order to make a little profit, support his family, and provide for his own study.

So, he picked up a brush and wrote a couplet:

Pick the sun and the moon on one shoulder

Touch with both hands

This couplet is beautifully handwritten. posted out the door, the villagers all praised it, and the Xiucai from Sibeifang also hurriedly came to watch.

This couplet is not only relative, but also has a profound meaning, which is an admiration for the mother's hard work. After the show. Praise loudly: "Wizard! Wizard! At such a young age, such a high talent is really extraordinary. ”

Jing Xiucai praised it and spread it all over the city at once.

One day, Xiao Decai and a few children went to the county town to play in the Dougang kiln. The owner of this brick kiln usually heard the name of Xiao Decai, and when he saw Xiao Decai coming to play, he said: "Decai, if you can write a couplet for my brick kiln, I will reward you with 2 taels of silver." ”

Xiao Decai looked up at the hill, and saw that there were several large brick kilns built on this hill, and the chimney was full of smoke.

The small fortune touched the scene, laid out the paper, and wrote down the next couplet:

Wollongong ground beans swallow the waves of the five lakes

Crossing the sea to the east and rolling up thousands of miles of wind and clouds

When the brick kiln owner saw it, he praised it endlessly. It turns out that this couplet compares the brick kiln to Wolong, and cites the historical story of Xue Rengui's expedition to the east, which brings the brick kiln to life. As soon as this couplet came out, even the magistrate was very moved, and gave Xiaodecai a reward of 5 taels of silver.

In the year of Xiao Decai's 10th birthday, the county magistrate posted a notice in the east of the county seat: first mark a sentence of the upper link, who will put the lower link on the top, and the opposite side, reward 5 quintals of rice, the upper link is entitled:

The clouds surround Yuncheng and show the rising sun

From morning to night, for a whole day, no one has yet matched the couplet.

Approaching the evening, Xiao Decai came to Dongwei, although it was already the end of the polder, but the people did not disperse, and there were still many "Xiucai" in front of the notice.

Xiao Decai looked forward at the notice, thought about it carefully, and then walked to the examiner in a hurry and presented the next link.

The examiner opened it and saw that it read:

The source of the ancient continent reflects the smoke

It turns out that the county official Shanglian "Yuncheng" is the name of the county seat of Xinzhou, because the county is surrounded by bamboo, so it is called "Yuncheng"; "Yun" is the ancient name of the new river, and it was called "Yunshui" at that time. The lower link of Xiaodecai's answer means: since the establishment of the county, the ancestors of Xinzhou have lived here, multiplied and prospered from generation to generation, and thousands of fireworks have been reflected.

As soon as the next link was announced, the examiner immediately announced: I wish you the best of luck.

……

Besides, one night, it was nearly one o'clock, and Xiao Decai was still reciting poems in his bedroom, when suddenly, he heard a "rustling" sound on the tile surface of the hall, and at first he didn't pay attention to it, thinking that it was the sound of rats walking around on the roof, and ignored it.

But after half an hour, not only did the sound not disappear, but it was mixed with the sound of "poof" from time to time.

Xiao Decai pricked up his ears and listened quietly for a while, and finally heard clearly, it was not a mouse, but someone climbed the roof beam.

Xiao Decai thought: This man must be a thief. So, he got up and opened the door to call for the thief.

But then I thought: Even if he catches a thief this time, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not be a thief again in the future, so it is better to educate him.

Xiao Decai walked out of the dormitory, and went to the houses of his mother, uncle and other family members one by one to knock on the door and ask people to gather in the hall. At this time, it was already the second watch, everyone was asleep, and when they heard the knock on the door of Xiao Decai, everyone woke up, so they hurried to the hall and asked, "Ah Cai!" What's the matter? In the middle of the night, the third watch called the door out. ”

Xiao Decai raised his head, looked at the roof beams and sighed and said: "I remembered the rules of behaving and dealing with things, so that I couldn't sleep at night, so I called you out and gave you a message in person, I hope you will remember!" ”

After listening to Xiao Decai's words, everyone felt that it was nothing important and breathed a sigh of relief. Only the uncle couldn't help but say: "Ah Caizai, if you have anything to say, can you wait until tomorrow to talk about it, why do you have to call your uncles out in the middle of the night?" ”

"That's it!" Everyone echoed it.

Because they saw that there was nothing serious, they wished they would go back to their rooms and go to bed earlier. Xiao Decai did not delay, and said loudly: "Although I am not very old, but I know a little about the way of life, my mother has no family property to bring to you, I only hope that you and future generations will study diligently, be a serious person, and win a legitimate job in the future, the most important thing is not to do things like rats and dogs, and learn to be a gentleman on the beam, so as to incur humiliation for all generations." ”

The thief who was squatting on the roof beam knew that after listening to Xiao Decai's words, he was ashamed and quietly left Xiao Decai's uncle's house.

After returning home, he immediately repaired a letter and sent it to Xiao Decai's uncle's house, in which he wrote a poem:

Jin Shi Yu's words are in his ears,

than to tie me up.

The gentleman on the beam no longer does.

Serious people should follow.

Soon, this matter was spread by the family of Xiao Decai's uncle, so the local people called the person who specializes in rats and dogs as "Liang Shang Jun".

……

In the middle of summer this year, Zhu Decai came across from his uncle's house with the surname Ding to visit his aunt and stayed at his aunt's house.

This Ding Juren didn't know how to learn, and he cheated in the exam to win the lift. He lived at his aunt's house, went in and out of the streets and alleys of Yuncheng, was arrogant, and danced everywhere to make ink, often reading and writing mistakes, and making jokes.

Midsummer is the time when the fruits of the land of NSW are ripe and harvested. Ding Juren saw that the fruits of Xinzhou were particularly sweet and attractive, so he went to the market and bought two baskets of fruits to send back to Gaoyao's hometown. One of them is a sweet orange and a loquat.

Ding Juren personally wrote the address and the name of the recipient on the hat, but he misspelled the word "orange" for "stool" and the word "loquat" for "pa".

Zhu Decai happened to pass by the door of Ding Juren's aunt's house after school, and it was very funny to see it.

Ding Juren asked Zhu Decai, "Child, why are you laughing here?" ”

Zhu Decai said: "I laughed at the miswriting. ”

When Ding Juren heard this, he was furious on the spot and said, "Nonsense! I can use your handwriting to teach me? Get out of here!"

Zhu Decai smiled slightly and left.

Early the next morning, Ding Juren posted two poems on the door of his aunt's house:

One

Sure enough, it's a good man.

The orange "stool" knows that the words are different.

If there is no pair of legs in the orange.

How can Yuncheng get to a high level?

Second

Loquat is not this loquat.

It's just that the poor literacy of the people is blamed.

If only the lute could bear fruit.

The strings of Yuncheng are in full bloom.

Ding Juren was very embarrassed to see it, and he no longer dared to show off in Yuncheng, so he left his aunt's house early.

……

The annual Dragon Boat Festival is here again, and the dragon boat race and the big show (Cantonese opera) are held in Heshui East Village, the east gate of Yuncheng, which is very lively.

Zhu Decai also followed the people of Jinshuifang to Shuidong Village to see the excitement. Who knew that the villagers there had heard the name of Zhu Decai, received them warmly, and treated them as guests.

Zhu Decai arrived in Shuidong Village, during the day, after watching the dragon race to win the championship, dinner will be a large banquet, a group of squires have attended the banquet, hoping to have the opportunity to be proud of Zhu Decai at first sight.

During the banquet, everyone talked loudly. Suddenly, a good deed person stood up and shouted: "All of you are doubly happy that our village is holding a dragon boat race and a big show at the same time this year, and what is even more rare is that the prodigy wishes to be rich, which adds a lot of glory to our village." Now everything is ready, but unfortunately the big stage still lacks a couplet. Fortunately, the prodigy is here today, why don't we ask him to improvise and leave a few lines of ink treasures for my village?"

Before this person finished speaking, the scene was already thunderous applause, and they praised in unison.

Zhu Decai happily responded: "Since everyone will not give up, it is better to obey your fate than to be respectful." Then he said; Then please prepare the four treasures of the study. ”

Tan Wenlong, the village clerk, responded to the "yes", and immediately went to prepare the red paper, pen and ink, etc., and returned to the scene, and pasted the red paper into a couplet.

Zhu Decai only cared about watching the excitement, drinking, and replied casually: "Please feel free." ”

Tan Wenlong Sifu: It's funny! This kid must be at a loss, how many squares have you let me fold?

Tan Wenlong thought again: He called me casual. Then I will follow his wishes, fold at will, and make fun of him.

After Tan Wenlong folded it, he didn't count it, so he spread it on the table and waited for Zhu Decai to write, waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

That group of squires, seeing Tan Wenlong folded the red paper densely, some smiled secretly, and some secretly worried about Zhu Decai, after Zhu Decai made a few glasses of wine, calmly approached the table, glanced at the red paper, and dipped the pen in ink.

People see him walking the dragon and snake, and the upper couplet reads:

The morning is also a noon chop, and a chop is also a chop...... He continued the word "pickpocket" until there were seven squares left, and then ended:

Pick up the third-level waves of the dragon gate

The following line is written in the same format:

Dan comes to sing, come to sing, sing and sing...... Again, when there are only seven squares left, write:

Singing the praises of the seven heavens of Shuidong.

The onlookers couldn't help but applaud in unison: "Zhu Decai is really a champion, a master, and a worthy name!"