Chapter 49 Great Harvest

What are peers?
People from all over the world only occasionally pass the imperial examinations.

In any era, communities of interest will come together in various ways.

In the Song Dynasty, it was called "gentlemen make friends but do not form factions."

In the early Ming Dynasty, it was called the Same Year Meeting.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty banned party disputes and other policies, so there was no such thing as "the same year meeting and the same year recruitment". Some officials who passed the imperial examinations and were qualified to be officials could only visit privately.

However, as disputes between scholars in the north and south became more frequent, banquets held at the same year based on local characteristics and teacher-student relationships gradually became popular.

The most famous of these was the winter of the sixth year of Chenghua, when six provincial examination champions from Zhejiang, Yang Shouchen, Yang Shouzhi, Shang Lu, Fan Li, Yao Kui and Lu Kai, gathered at Yang Shouchen's residence in BJ, hosted by Lu Yu, the Minister of Justice, and the event was called the "Six Yuan Meeting".

In the 23rd year of Chenghua, Yang Shouchen and Yang Shouzhi organized another Seven Yuan Meeting, with the participants being Hu Mi, Shen Jixian, Xie Qian, Wang Hua, and Li Min.

The result of the prevalence of such hometown associations and year-end gatherings was that the confrontation between the scholars in the north and the south was intensified.

For example, Wang Ao, the Minister of Personnel during the Tianshun Dynasty, was from Hebei. When selecting officials, he consciously recruited more northerners and excluded southerners.

During the Chenghua period, Yao Kui, a native of Zhejiang, served as the Minister of Personnel and valued people from the south even more.

During the Zhengde period, the powerful eunuch Liu Jin was from Shaanxi and he employed many people from the north. Among them, Jiao Fang, a native of Henan, hated southerners very much. As a result, many Zhejiang officials were suppressed.

After Liu Jin's downfall, the southerners regained power and the situation reversed again.

This kind of thing is like a snowball, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

So in the late Ming Dynasty, factional struggles broke out one after another, and the Zhejiang Party, Chu Party, Qi Party, Xuan Party, Kun Party and other parties emerged.

Finally evolved into the ultimate form: Donglin Party and Eunuch Party
Everyone was enjoying the fight. There was chaos in the court, with orders changing every day. Outside the court, framing and reporting were rampant.

In comparison, what are those trivial things in the underworld?
But these are all matters for the future. Ou Zanghua is now a vested interest and cannot just walk away.

He sat in his seat, holding a hand warmer brought by a maid, and listened calmly to Chen Guang's talk about the contents of "Jiayou Collection", a prose work by Su Xun of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Su Xun was good at prose, especially political commentary, with clear and fluent arguments. Many readers liked his writing style.

After listening for a while, Ou Zanghua couldn't help but glance at the screen.

Behind the screen, a girl was playing the guqin. The music score was "Picking Apples" from the Twelve Poems of Fengya.

Zou Shouyi came over and asked quietly, "Jingyu is also interested in music?"

"I have dabbled in all six arts." Ou Zanghua retracted his gaze and said calmly.

"I see. Jingyu really has a wide range of interests." Zou Shouyi nodded, and then asked, "What does Jingyu think of the Jiayou Collection?"

Ou Zanghua thought for a while and actually he didn't like "Jiayou Collection" very much, especially the "On Distinguishing Traitors" in it, which seemed far-fetched and specious.

But when people asked him about it, he couldn't answer directly, so he said politely: "The language is clear and the writing is powerful. It's worth reading."

"Haha. People always say there are only wrong names but no wrong nicknames. In my opinion, Jingyu lives up to his name." Zou Shouyi pointed at Ou Zanghua and said with a smile.

"Oh?"

This caught Chen Guang's attention, so he asked, "What do you think, Jingyu?"

Yang Shen also looked over and said cheerfully, "Jingyu, speak boldly. Don't worry about offending Chen Shijie."

Ou Zanghua just smiled and said, "I have an unwelcome request, I hope Brother Shijie can do it."

Upon hearing this, Chen Guang immediately sat up straight and said, "Jingyu, please feel free to speak."

Ou Zanghua said immediately: "My father-in-law loves music. He was very happy to hear the Twelve Poems of Fengya today. Please allow me to copy a copy, Brother Shijie."

"For such a small matter, why would you need to ask for anything?" Chen Guang smiled and shook his head, and said to the maidservant beside him: "Ask Master Liuguang to make a copy and send it here before the party ends." Sun Mao looked at Ou Zanghua with some surprise, and asked: "I think Jingyu and I are getting married at the age of twenty?"

"My junior sister and I are in love and have been childhood sweethearts, so we decided on the marriage before coming to Beijing." Ou Zanghua said proudly, "This way, my junior sister can't marry anyone else and can only wait for me."

When everyone heard this, they all laughed.

This topic was quickly skipped, and Wang Jun, sitting as the senior student of the group, began to steer the conversation towards recent court affairs.

In the fifth year of Zhengde, the eunuch Zhang Yong took the opportunity of offering prisoners to expose Liu Jin's crimes to Emperor Wuzong and revealed Liu Jin's seventeen major crimes.

This revealed the incident of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty deposing Liu Jin. Wang Jun was transferred to Nanjing to serve as a deputy director of the Ministry of Works because he did not support Liu Jin and Jiao Fang.

It was not until August last year, after the downfall of Liu Jin and Jiao Fang, that Wang Jun was recalled to the capital and reinstated.

Therefore, he had no good feelings towards Liu Jin, Jiao Fang and the like. When he talked about this matter in front of Ou Zanghua and others, although he tried his best to remain objective, everyone could hear that he was very happy about Liu Jin being tortured to death by slicing.

The gathering lasted from morning to evening. People composed poems in different rhymes, declared the emperor's grace, performed their duties diligently, strengthened the friendship among colleagues, and observed the etiquette between the young and the old.

The eight elegances of a gentleman are naturally not absent. The so-called piano player is fluent and calm, chess players are wise and strategic, readers are enjoyable, painters are superb, poets are melodious, wine lovers meet confidants, tea drinkers cultivate their sentiments, and flower viewers have a pleasant character.

Everything in the world is like its beginning, and the meaning of the Eight Ya is expressed in life.

After Ou Zanghua said goodbye to everyone and got on his own carriage, he still felt a little reluctant and a little tired.

He began to think silently in his heart: Yang Shen is honest and straightforward, Zou Shouyi is sincere and pure, and Wang Dao is cautious in his words and actions. These three people are easy to open up to.

Sun Mao and Chen Guang were meticulous and careful in their thinking. They were very careful in their words and actions. They had already grasped the essence of government before they even entered the officialdom.
Huh?
Ou Zanghua was suddenly stunned. He almost forgot about Wang Jun, even though he was quite active at the party.

The carriage swayed and swayed until it returned to Cheng's house.

After Ou Zanghua got off the car, the cold wind blew and he felt much more energetic. He stopped thinking about these questions and fell asleep early under Qu Feiyan's care.

In the next few days, Yang Shen and Zou Shouyi met with Ou Zanghua several times respectively.

In most cases, he participated and met many candidates from all over the country.

At the end of January, Emperor Zhengde ordered Huagai Palace Grand Secretary Li Dongyang, Wuying Palace Grand Secretary Liang Chu as chief examiners, and Youchunfang Youyude and Hanlin Shijiang Lun Wenxu, Zuochunfang and Hanlin Editor Jia Yong and eight others as co-examiners to preside over the spring examination of the sixth year of Zhengde.

At the same time, Ou Zanghua's system, which had been idle for more than half a month, came online:
[Congratulations, artist. The opera "Liu Hai Cuts Wood" you created has spread throughout Lizhou Prefecture. Reputation points +5.]

[Congratulations, artist. The opera "Liu Hai Cuts Wood" you created has spread throughout Chenzhou Prefecture. Reputation points +5.]

[Congratulations, artist. The opera "Liu Hai Cuts Wood" you created has spread throughout Yuanzhou Prefecture. Reputation points +5.]

[Congratulations, artist. The tanci "The Legend of White Snake" you created has spread throughout Shaoxing Prefecture. Reputation points +5.]

[Congratulations, artist. The tanci "The Legend of White Snake" you created has spread to Huzhou Prefecture. Reputation points +5.]

[Congratulations, artist. Your bangzi opera "Lü Dongbin Plays Three Tricks with White Peony" has spread to Xuzhou Prefecture. Reputation points +5.]

[Congratulations, artist. Your bangzi opera "Lü Dongbin Plays Three Tricks with White Peony" has spread to Changzhou Prefecture. Reputation points +5.]

Ou Zanghua was stunned for a moment, and then he was filled with joy.

What is a great harvest?!

This is it!

He got 35 points at one time, which was worth it for him to get off the boat and create something every time he arrived at a place.

　Sorry, I'm back in city today, so the update will be a little later than usual.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)