18: But Good Brother
“What if this room gets smoked black too?” Su Lu asked.
“Foolish!” Su Man scolded him. “The noble man uses things, the petty man is used by things. Which is more important, the house or the person?”
“Right.” Su Lu accepted the lesson sincerely, but still worried, “Aunt usually keeps this room locked…”
“I’ll talk to my mother about it.” Su Man waved his hand dismissively, then pulled a box of books from the shelf. “This is the official edition of the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books that we use at the Academy. Second Uncle’s handwritten copy might not be accurate. Use this version from now on, so you won’t be ‘a leaky boat meeting headwinds, with snow adding to the frost.'”
“What will Elder Brother use then?” Su Lu now understood well that a properly collated set of the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books was worth a great deal of money.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, I’m only lending it to you.” Su Man snorted. He only had this one set of official textbooks and was counting on using them until he took the Presented Scholar exams.
He warned uneasily, “Wash your hands before using them. Don’t fold the pages or make any marks while reading. Return them to me in exactly the same condition as when I lent them to you.”
“Yes, I’ll remember, little brother. Thank you, Elder Brother.” Su Lu bowed deeply.
“No need to thank me.” Su Man still wore a sour expression as he said coldly, “I just don’t want you to perform too poorly and embarrass me by association, though you’ll definitely make me lose face anyway…”
“Yes, I’ll try to make Elder Brother lose less face.” Su Lu smiled broadly, all reservations now gone.
~~
That evening, Su Lu began studying in his elder brother’s room. Su Man finished explaining the remaining portions of the Great Learning to him in one go.
The Great Learning was originally a chapter from the Book of Rites, but was extracted to form a separate book due to its high regard. The entire text was only about twenty-two hundred characters, and even with Zhu Xi’s annotations it only reached eighty-two hundred characters, making it the shortest of the Four Books.
The amount that would normally take Su Lu two days to learn, his elder brother forced into his head in a single evening, nearly making him explode on the spot.
Su Lu could only gulp it down hastily, relying on notes when his brain couldn’t keep up, barely managing to follow along…
A single lesson with Elder Brother was more exhausting than three with Father. Truly, top students don’t necessarily make good teachers.
By the time the thoroughly tormented Su Lu emerged from his elder brother’s study, it was already past midnight.
He collapsed onto his bed as soon as he returned to his room, beginning to snore without a second’s delay, joining his father in a duet…
~~
Fourth watch, outer room of the west wing.
Aunt had risen early to prepare food and changes of clothes for her son to take to school.
“Mother, I can do this myself.” Chun Ge’er was quite helpless – his mother still treated him like a child.
“No need, no need, Mother enjoys taking care of you.” Aunt was full of energy, completely different from when she did household chores.
“Then you don’t need to stuff bricks into my book box.” Chun Ge’er grew increasingly exasperated watching his mother’s absurd behavior. “Are you afraid I’ll be blown away by the wind?”
“No, no, this is a sacred tool Mother obtained for you from Guanyin Mountain.” Afraid her son would disdain it, Aunt didn’t dare say the bricks came from Su Lu, so she boasted instead, “When you can’t memorize your texts, just lift it up, and our ancestor on the wall will bless you, letting you memorize everything instantly.”
“…” Su Man was speechless. What kind of nonsense was this?
But scholars have rich inner worlds and strong imaginations… In an instant, Chun Ge’er envisioned his mother devoutly kneeling before the Guanyin statue, praying for his success in the Xiucai examination.
The next scene that flashed before his eyes was of her being persuaded by the old monk at the temple to purchase an expensive ‘Dongpo Brick’ for him…
No matter what, this brick represented his mother’s heartfelt wishes—how could he possibly refuse it?
Thus, Chun Ge’er nodded gently and said softly, “Thank you, Mother. I will make good use of it.”
“Wonderful! My good son is so much better than your wretched father!” Aunt was overjoyed.
Upon hearing this, Su Man recalled the scene of his father complaining after his mother bought the brick, further confirming his judgment. He stood up and shouldered the book box, which had noticeably grown heavier with the brick inside.
When bidding farewell to his grandparents at the door, he glanced at his second uncle’s room and whispered to his mother, “It’s such a waste to leave my room empty all day. Let Qiu Ge’er use it.”
“How could that be allowed? What if he claims it as his own?” Aunt naturally objected.
“Mother, please listen to me. First, we are family,” Su Man said earnestly. “Second, Qiu Ge’er is worthy. Third, stop being used as a pawn by my father…”
“Uh, that’s more than one point. Fine…” Though Aunt didn’t fully grasp the latter two points, she knew that “brine tames tofu”—there’s always one thing to subdue another—so she nodded in agreement. “I’ll do as you say.”
“Thank you, Mother.” Su Man bowed deeply to his aunt, then hurried down the Diaojiaolou with his book box.
Only, the brick in the book box clattered noisily with each step, making him terribly embarrassed…
~~
Youth is a blessing. Upon waking, Su Lu felt refreshed and full of energy again. However, when he recalled what he had studied the previous night, he noticed no signs of enhanced memory.
Assuming it was due to exhaustion from the night before, he didn’t dwell on it. There was no need to linger in bed, so he quickly got up to see off his good elder brother.
But Chun Ge’er had already returned to the Academy—clearly another early riser bursting with vitality.
After Su Lu returned to his room, Su Youcai also got up and was flipping through the books Su Lu had brought, exclaiming, “Chun Ge’er is truly generous to you. I’ve asked him for these several times, and he never gave them to me.”
“Elder Brother lent them to me,” Su Lu explained. “He said the Academy exams use this set, and memorizing this is more reliable.”
“Of course,” Su Youcai pointed to his own handwritten copy. “Help me check for errors and correct them. I don’t want to mislead any students.”
“Alright.” Su Lu couldn’t help but feel a pang of anxiety for his clansmen taking the exams.
That morning, he reviewed using both versions of the textbooks. Fortunately, the discrepancies were minor—only a few characters differed—and Su Lu annotated them accordingly. Seeing his handwriting finally resemble something legible brought him a sense of satisfaction.
But this pleasant feeling faded when he began memorizing the Great Learning, or more accurately, when he struggled with the Great Learning: Chapter and Sentence.
In truth, the original text of the Great Learning is concise, elegant, and easy to recite, but Zhu Xi’s commentaries are fragmented, cluttered, and interspersed with digressions, making them quite unfriendly for memorization.
For example, the opening of the original text consists of just sixteen characters: “The Way of the Great Learning lies in illuminating luminous virtue, in renovating the people, and in abiding in the highest good.”
Zhu Xi’s commentary spanned a full two hundred and twenty-three characters. First, he provided a word-by-word and sentence-by-sentence explanation, such as: “Great Learning refers to the learning of the noble-minded. ‘Ming’ means to illuminate. ‘Mingde’ (luminous virtue) is what humans receive from Heaven—a clear and unclouded spiritual essence that encompasses all principles and responds to all affairs…”
This was followed by extensive discussion: “However, constrained by innate dispositions and obscured by human desires, it may sometimes become dim. Yet the original clarity of its essence has never ceased. Therefore, learners should illuminate it through its manifestations to restore its original state…”
After explaining and discussing each point, he concluded with a general summary. These two hundred-plus characters were even more difficult to memorize than the previous thousand!
It wasn’t until Su Lu recalled using mind maps to organize the original text and commentary that everything became clear, forming a structure that was both easy to understand and conducive to memorization.
He wrote the original text on the front of the Banana Leaf Paper, drew the mind map, and then copied Zhu Xi’s commentary on the back.
By referring to the mind map while memorizing the commentary, the process became much easier and more effective.
This is because the human brain doesn’t process information in a linear fashion but rather in a nonlinear, associative manner. Therefore, rote memorization in sequential order is both laborious and inefficient.
The design of mind maps aligns with the brain’s natural organizational patterns, using images, keywords, and nodes to present information in a way that better matches human memory mechanisms, naturally yielding twice the result with half the effort.
With the help of this powerful tool, Su Lu completed his study plan for the day.
When Su Youcai checked his homework that evening, Su Lu flawlessly recited up to: “Thus, the manifestation of genuine goodness within shining outwardly is precisely this, hence this statement concludes the passage.”
“The astonished father” was once again amazed. Although Su Youcai had long grown accustomed to his son’s excellent memory, the difficulty of memorizing this chapter commentary far exceeded that of previous elementary texts!
Especially the extremely complex and hard-to-remember “Book of Songs” section—even his brightest student had taken several days to memorize it. Su Lu didn’t possess photographic memory, so how could he recite it so quickly and accurately?
Hearing his father’s question, Su Lu didn’t keep his method secret. Picking up a piece of Banana Leaf Paper, he explained the mind map:
“…Through this tree-like structure and keywords, complex information can be simplified and visualized. These elements stimulate deep memory encoding and help us build clear, structured memories.”
“Seems like it could help students with comprehension too?” Su Youcai pondered after listening.
“Certainly,” Su Lu nodded. “It’s inherently a process of grasping key points and essence while understanding internal connections.”
“This method of yours is truly wonderful!” Su Youcai applauded in admiration. “Now I believe my son has truly received divine enlightenment. Though your exceptional talent lies not in literary grace, but in scholarly pursuits.”
“Heh, in that case, it’s more practical…” Su Lu could only let him think what he would.
“After your exams, could you return to the clan school and teach the children?” Su Youcai asked.
“Of course, but only after I pass the exams,” Su Lu replied. Being naturally inclined to teach and having no intention of keeping secrets—especially when the students would be clan members—he added, “If I fail, no one would listen to me anyway.”
“Quite true,” Su Youcai agreed profoundly.
That evening’s study session incorporated mind maps. Helping Su Lu reorganize the Great Learning: Chapter and Sentence, Su Youcai discovered how remarkable this tool was—even he himself gained new insights from the process.
“You truly learn something new every day. It seems I should start studying all over again.” After getting into bed, he muttered to himself while making plans.
“Father, you’re still young. With some effort, you might pass next time,” Su Lu encouraged him.
“Let’s talk about that in the future…” Su Youcai fell silent after speaking, and it was unclear whether he had fallen asleep.
Su Lu then extinguished the lamp and went to his elder brother’s room next door for his pre-sleep review. As expected, Aunt hadn’t locked the door—it seemed his elder brother’s words carried more weight with her than anyone else’s.
After finishing his review, he quickly put out the lamp and returned to his room. Without doing anything else, he lay straight down on the bed, ready to clear his mind and activate today’s sleep-based memorization method.
However, even after the time it takes to drink a cup of tea had passed, his mind remained a jumbled mess, and he simply couldn’t calm down. Holding the bamboo wife didn’t help either…
Later, Su Lu had no idea what time he finally fell asleep. All he knew was that when he woke up the next day, he discovered the sleep-based memorization method had failed again.
This made him somewhat anxious. The method was crucial to him—many things had been etched into his mind this way.
If it stopped working, it wouldn’t just mean losing half his abilities, but it would definitely hinder important matters…
That evening, Su Lu was extremely apprehensive, but he managed to clear his mind and enter the state smoothly. The sleep-based memorization method was working again!
During a break between classes the next day, he couldn’t help but wonder: What was really going on? Could it be that the bamboo wife wasn’t the true ‘anchor’?