Chapter 51

Ye Xianggao, Chen Wencai, and the others were very familiar with the details of the academy.

The academy was divided into the Outer Hall, the Upper Hall, and the Inner Hall. The Outer Hall had thirty students, who were both specialized and general students. The Inner Hall had twenty students, who were specialized inner students. The Upper Hall had only ten students, who were specialized upper students. The upper students and inner students were the most outstanding disciples of the academy, many of whom had passed the county and prefectural exams. Their goal, of course, was to advance to the next level and become scholars.

As for the general students, most had not yet taken the county and prefectural exams, and those who had often failed.

The general students, upper students, and inner students were ranked based on their exam results. The excellent ones were promoted, while the insufficient ones were dismissed.

This system of fast and slow classes, which is often criticized in modern times, was a common practice back then. The famous Wang Anshi is credited with its invention.

During the Northern Song Dynasty's reforms, Wang Anshi divided the Imperial College into the Outer Hall, Inner Hall, and Upper Hall. Monthly exams were held to promote or demote students, and the imperial examination system was abolished, with this method serving as the pathway for selecting officials. Although this three-hall promotion system was later abolished with the failure of the reforms, it was adopted by local official schools and academies.

In the Song and Ming dynasties, academies that primarily focused on the imperial exams often used the three-hall system.

After a while, the three of them arrived at the academy with their books.

On the door of a courtyard, a sign read "Outer Hall." Inside the courtyard was a large room with windows on all four sides, facing south.

The large room had three bays facing south, with a lecture hall in the center and side rooms on either side. The three sides were surrounded, and there were covered walkways outside the lecture hall and side rooms. Two plum trees were planted in the courtyard, and the sign above the door read "Two Plum Study," which was quite fitting given the plum trees in the courtyard.

Inside the Two Plum Study, all the students were seated, and no one was talking. They were all reading diligently. Seeing this, the three of them walked quietly and sat at the empty desks.

There were no chairs in the study; the students sat on the floor. After sitting down, Lin Yanchao looked up at the crossbeam, which made the hall appear even more spacious. There were no pillars on the four sides, so one could see the lectern and the backs of the students around them.

The study, being a standalone building, had natural light from all four sides, making it bright and clean. Compared to the dim and damp lecture hall of the Hongtang Community School, the conditions were much better.

However, because the classroom could accommodate thirty people, the desks were much smaller than those at the Hongtang Community School, only about half a person's width. Lin Yanchao did not have enough books to spread out on the desk, so he had to place them under and on the sides of the desk, which made it impossible to sit with his legs stretched out. He had to sit cross-legged on the mat.

The students around him were very close, and they were all buried in their books. The lecture hall was quiet, with only the sound of pages turning.

Even in the Outer Hall, the students' dedication to learning far surpassed that of the Hongtang Community School.

Lin Yanchao quietly took a bamboo tube from his book bag and placed it on the desk. The tube was capped and filled with water, which he could drink when thirsty. He noticed that students in the Ming Dynasty did not have the habit of drinking water in class, probably to avoid wetting their valuable books.

They preferred to run outside and scoop water from a barrel during breaks. Lin Yanchao opened the bamboo tube, took a drink, and wiped his hands dry before sitting down.

He glanced around and saw that the students next to him were reading "Mencius" and "Mencius: Commentary."

"Mencius" was the most difficult of the Four Books. Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang did not like Mencius, and as an examination text, many passages critical of the emperor were omitted from "Mencius."

Lin Yanchao thought that they might be discussing "Mencius" soon, so he took out "Mencius: Commentary" from his book bag and placed it on the desk. When he first entered the academy, he was given a set of the Four Books with annotations, printed by a private workshop.

This was a version produced by the Lianjiang Academy, made with yellowish bamboo paper. Although it was not of the highest quality, the binding and printing were very precise, and there were few errors.

Although it was a new book that no one had used before, which disappointed Lin Yanchao, who preferred reading books with annotations, he had become accustomed to reading ancient texts over the past two months. Reading texts without punctuation or phonetic annotations was no longer a problem, and he found that reading classical Chinese was sometimes smoother than reading modern Chinese.

When he opened the book, the pages smelled of yin grass, which repelled insects. The term "scholarly family" referred to the fragrance of yin grass.

As he turned the pages, the paper made a crisp sound, and Lin Yanchao immediately became fully engrossed in reading.

After being reborn, he could easily enter this state of complete immersion in reading. Free from distractions and the passage of time, it felt as if he were a monk sitting in meditation, completely immersed in the sea of books. This feeling was truly wonderful.

After about an hour of self-study, the lecturer Lin Liao entered.

Lecturer Lin Liao was a graduate of the Imperial College.

It is important to note that students of the Imperial College were divided into different ranks. For example, those who entered the college through family connections, like Zhang Xiang, were respected on the surface but mocked behind their backs. In contrast, Lin Liao, as a graduate of the Imperial College, had to be a senior student from a prefectural or county school to qualify for the program.

As a graduate of the Imperial College, Lin Liao's academic credentials were superior to those of any scholar below the level of a juren. Lin Yanchao heard that after graduating from the Imperial College, Lin Liao was appointed as a professor at a county school, where he specialized in the Five Classics and taught students.

After two years, due to his good reputation, the court promoted him to a judge in the transport department. However, Lin Liao said, "How can I abandon my students (in blue robes) to deal with vulgar merchants?" He resigned and returned home to teach.

If the level of a graduate of the Imperial College was already so high, what about the headmaster of the academy, Lin Yin, who ranked fifth in the provincial exam in 1531?

After checking the students' work, Lin Liao began his lecture on the first half of the first chapter of "Mencius," "King Hui of Liang (Part 1)." Lin Yanchao had not yet studied "Mencius," but he was familiar with this chapter, which includes the passage "When the king of Liang said to me, 'I have done my best for my state.'"

The king of Liang said, "I have done my best for my state. When there is a famine in the region of He, I move the people to the region of Hei and bring grain from Hei to He. When there is a famine in Hei, I do the same."

Lin Yanchao used this passage in a letter to County Magistrate Zhou, arguing that if a small state like Liang could move people and grain during a famine, how could the emperor, as the ruler of the entire country, allow the grain trade in Min County to be closed, leaving the people of Houguan to starve? This argument helped resolve the immediate crisis and benefited the local people.

This proved that reading was very beneficial, especially when citing classical texts, which could enhance one's arguments.

As a lecturer at the academy, Lin Liao did not just teach methods for passing the imperial exams. He often told his students, "When I lecture, you should reflect on yourselves. Is this passage relevant to you? Can you learn from it? Is it something to emulate or avoid? I will give you two points to consider, and if you violate them, I will hold you accountable based on what I have taught."

"Remember, the primary goal of reading is to learn the methods of ancient sages for self-cultivation and moral conduct. Pursuing fame and fortune is secondary. Zhu Xi said, 'The imperial exams should not hinder your studies, but they can distract you from your goals. You must be cautious and vigilant.'"

Lin Yanchao approved of these words, which truly reflected the spirit of a scholar. Pursuing fame and fortune, but not being enslaved by them, was a noble ideal. He felt that it was worth being a disciple of such a person.

While reading, Lin Yanchao pondered the meaning of the text, but because he had come in a hurry and had not done enough preparation, he understood only about 70% of what Lin Liao was saying. It was like a middle school student suddenly attending a university lecture on calculus, where everything was confusing.

However, if he could not understand it, but others could, it showed that there was still a gap between Lin Yanchao and his classmates in the Outer Hall.

Lin Yanchao decided to take notes. He had a habit of taking notes during lectures, and even if he did not understand everything, he would write it down to study later.

The other students were puzzled by Lin Yanchao's unusual behavior, as they had already read the Four Books multiple times and were familiar with "Mencius," unlike Lin Yanchao, who was reading it for the first time.

Seeing Lin Yanchao writing furiously, Lin Liao slowed down his pace.

After more than an hour, Lin Liao closed the book and asked the students to organize their books. His rule was that they should finish organizing their books by evening, and the next day, he would teach the second half of "King Hui of Liang."

After a while, the gentle sound of a bell signaled that it was time for lunch. After the lecture, Lin Yanchao carefully placed the lecture notes in his book, tidied up his desk, and picked up the bamboo tube. He went to the water barrel next to the side room, which was refilled daily by the academy's water carrier.

The students all left the lecture hall to stretch their legs. Even the most diligent students were tired after sitting for so long. Lin Yanchao observed that the thirty students in the Outer Hall were mostly around his age, with the oldest being about fourteen or fifteen and the youngest about ten.

Then, the cook arrived with the lunch baskets.

The Outer Hall did not have a dining hall, so the students took their lunch boxes from the cook. Lin Yanchao saw two large meat buns, a fist-sized steamed bun, and a small dish of pickled vegetables. The meal was well-balanced with meat and vegetables, but unfortunately, there was no soup, so he had to drink water from the bamboo tube.

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End of the chapter.