22: Brother Chun’s Timely Rain
“Oh, why do you think that?” Su Youcai became genuinely interested, as he had never heard this argument before.
“Because King Xuan of Qi’s ancestors used the same excuse to exile the original ruler and complete the Tian Clan Replacing Qi,” Su Tai said slowly.
It was a checkmate move.
Su Youcai was momentarily speechless, only able to give a thumbs-up.
He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—this child definitely possesses great wisdom too… Huh, why did I say “too”?
After a while, Su Youcai asked curiously, “Xia Ge’er, who told you about ‘Tian Clan Replacing Qi’?”
“Qiu Ge’er told me. He said understanding the historical background helps in comprehending the dialogues between Mencius and those kings.” Su Tai then added somewhat sheepishly, “I’m too stupid—it took me so long to figure out such a simple reasoning.”
“This reasoning is anything but simple,” Su Youcai firmly shook his head, then smiled as he tucked the blanket around Xia Ge’er. “If Mencius knew later generations thought this way, he would be very pleased.”
“Why would he be happy when someone questions him?” Su Tai didn’t understand.
“Because that’s the spirit of Mencius,” Su Youcai said softly, not daring to explain in too much detail. “It’s getting late, time to sleep.”
“Mm.” Su Tai obediently closed his eyes.
~~
Next room.
When Su Lu knocked and entered, he saw Su Man sitting upright behind the desk, looking at him with a serious expression.
He couldn’t help feeling like he’d been summoned to the homeroom teacher’s office, suddenly becoming nervous. He first explained awkwardly:
“Elder brother, you know me—my feet usually don’t smell. It’s just from running up and down these past couple days…”
“I don’t know! I don’t care if they smell or not.” Su Man frowned sharply, raising his voice: “Your most important task right now is studying! If you don’t get into the Academy, you’ll have plenty of time to be an errand boy later!”
This felt even more familiar now…
“Right, right.” Su Lu quickly nodded in acceptance. “These are special circumstances. Tomorrow—no, tonight—I’ll continue working hard.”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses. Just tell me—have you finished memorizing all the books?” Su Man raised a hand.
“Not yet.” Su Lu was also worried about this, his face bitter. “I’ve only just finished memorizing the seventh chapter ‘Li Lou, Part 1’ of the Collected Annotations to Mencius.”
“So you still have fifty-nine thousand characters left to memorize?” Su Man’s frown deepened.
“Actually fifty-seven thousand—I managed to memorize two thousand characters from the eighth chapter today.” Su Lu said miserably, “But I haven’t started on the eighteen thousand characters of Chapters and Sentences of the Doctrine of the Mean yet…”
“That makes seventy-five thousand characters total!” A vein bulged on Su Man’s forehead. “The exam is on the sixteenth of the twelfth month—exactly half a month from now. You need to memorize five thousand characters every day. Can you handle that?”
“Definitely not.” Su Lu said with a pained expression. “Three thousand characters a day is already pushing it.”
“That leaves a full thirty-thousand-character gap.” Su Man rubbed his temples, worried on his behalf. “What are you going to do about it?”
“If it comes to it, I’ll just memorize what I can and pray to Confucius that what I don’t know won’t be tested.” Su Lu sighed.
“Nonsense! Do you approach exams with wishful thinking?!” Su Man slammed the table angrily. “Besides, they only test interpretations of classics—candidates can hardly differentiate themselves. If you’re unfamiliar with twenty or thirty thousand characters, it’s completely useless! Don’t even waste the registration fee!”
“Ah? The competition is that fierce?” Su Lu couldn’t help clicking his tongue.
“What did you think?” Su Man glanced at him. “Taiping Academy is a branch of the famous Heshan Academy! All the young scholars from Hejiang County plus our Yongning Garrison, Luzhou Garrison, and Chishui Garrison are desperately trying to squeeze in!”
“Damn…” Su Lu couldn’t help cursing. The last part of any undertaking is the hardest—being off by even a little means failure.
This time, Su Man didn’t scold him for breaking the three precepts, but instead sighed and said, “Bring me the Collected Annotations to Mencius.”
Though confused, Su Lu quickly went to his room and brought back his elder brother’s set of Collected Annotations to Mencius.
Su Man then picked up a brush, flipped through the pages, and circled certain entries.
“Are you highlighting key points for me?” Su Lu’s eyes lit up.
“No, these are the parts that won’t be tested.” Su Man said expressionlessly. “I didn’t want to help you take shortcuts, but circumstances require flexibility. This is better than you performing too poorly and embarrassing me.”
“Yes, yes.” Su Lu quickly nodded. “I absolutely cannot embarrass elder brother.”
By now Su Man had switched to another volume, the Gaozi Chapter. Su Lu picked up the Wanzhang Chapter and saw that his elder brother had deleted about ten sections including ‘If Heaven gives it to the worthy, then give it to the worthy,’ ‘Heaven sees as the people see; Heaven hears as the people hear,’ and ‘If the ruler has great faults, remonstrate with him; if after repeated remonstrations he still doesn’t listen, then replace him’—cutting out nearly half the content…
“These won’t be tested?” Su Lu asked.
“Yes.” Su Man nodded. “You can tell Second Uncle about this later.”
He paused, then added, “Of course, you don’t have to.”
“I’m not that petty—I don’t see the clansmen brothers as competitors.” Su Lu naturally understood his elder brother’s meaning.
“Who knows?” Su Man sneered. “What if one of them happens to push you out?”
“That would be fine too.” Su Lu smiled. “One shouldn’t give up eating for fear of choking—that would be too despicable.”
“I hope you can still think that way after experiencing the harshness of the world.” Su Man snorted noncommittally.
Su Lu thought to himself—even if I didn’t think this way, I’d have to say it, otherwise you’d look down on me.
Afraid his elder brother would see through his duplicity, he quickly changed the subject: “These seem to be the parts Emperor Taizu deleted back then, right?”
“Correct.” Su Man nodded.
“My father also mentioned this. But he said Emperor Yongle restored the complete Mencius and even erased from the Veritable Records the accounts of Emperor Taizu deleting parts of Mencius?”
“Since it was erased, how does Second Uncle know about it?” Su Man countered.
“Uh…” Su Lu thought for a moment, then answered sheepishly, “You can’t wrap fire in paper.”
“Do you know what the Great Ming Dynasty operates on?” Su Man asked again.
“The Great Ming Code?” Su Lu guessed.
“Wrong. It’s the ancestral institutions. To be precise, everything established by Emperor Taizu.” Su Man sighed. “Although Emperor Taizongwen was undoubtedly brilliant and resourceful, his descendants, especially the Tianshun and Chenghua emperors, clearly still revered Emperor Taizu more.”
“Understood.” Su Lu nodded, thinking to himself that was only natural. Any emperor would dislike rebellious ministers and traitors, even if their throne was passed down by such rebels…
“Although the Mencius Excerpted no longer exists, the imperial examinations throughout the years have never tested the sentences deleted by Emperor Taizu… It’s just an unspoken understanding.” Su Man said quietly.
“But my father said the current Emperor Hongzhi highly praises Mencius. It’s hard to say…” Su Lu said softly.
“There’s nothing hard to say. Taiping Academy has been operating for a hundred years and wants to continue for another hundred.” After saying this, Su Man impatiently added, “No more questions! I’m telling you they won’t be tested, so they won’t be tested!”
“Yes, yes.” Su Lu quickly nodded in agreement. His elder brother’s deletion of Mencius was like a timely rain—he was overjoyed. He had only spoken up to defend his father subconsciously.
With Su Man’s drastic simplification, the Collected Annotations to Mencius was directly reduced by one-third!
Su Lu now had nineteen thousand fewer characters to memorize!
Moreover, the review pressure for previously studied sections was also significantly reduced. The saved time could naturally be used to memorize new content.
Finally seeing hope again, Su Lu was extremely delighted and said with an ingratiating expression, “Elder brother, what about the Doctrine of the Mean? Can you highlight key points for that too?”
“Dream on! Not a single sentence of the Doctrine of the Mean can be omitted! You need to focus on memorizing it!” Su Man said sternly. “Besides, the Doctrine of the Mean is the most difficult—the exam basically uses it to differentiate candidates’ levels!”
“I understand, younger brother.” Su Lu quickly accepted the instruction. “I’ll focus on memorizing it.”
“Sigh, so troublesome…” Su Man said with a disgusted expression as he opened his bag, pulled out a stack of papers filled with writing, and handed them to him. “These are questions from past exams. You can take a look when you have time.”
“Okay, okay…” Su Lu’s eyes couldn’t help but shine—these were actual exam questions!
Although elder brother was difficult, he was truly beyond reproach! Su Lu quickly expressed his gratitude: “Elder brother has gone to so much trouble.”
“I’m not doing this for you.” Su Man emphasized.
“Yes, yes, it’s for elder brother’s reputation.” Su Lu quickly said with an apologetic smile.
“My reputation isn’t that important either.” Su Man sighed lightly. “The expectations our family has for us are the hardest to bear.”
“Yes.” Su Lu nodded, deeply relating to this.
“But I’m giving you these papers not for you to guess the questions—you couldn’t possibly guess them anyway.” Su Man reminded him. “But you can familiarize yourself with the question style, see where they like to pose questions. You’ll have focus during review and won’t be too unfamiliar during the exam.”
“Yes.” Su Lu quickly acknowledged.
~~
Early next morning.
When the new bride served tea to her parents-in-law, elder brothers and sisters-in-law, and aunts, the Old Master said kindly, “Third daughter-in-law, since you’re with child, there’s no need to kneel.”
“Yes, being pregnant, it’s right not to drink alcohol.” The Old Lady nodded.
“Ah…” The younger aunt was bewildered—what was all this about?
“Mother is hard of hearing,” the younger uncle quickly explained. “She says her piece, you just say yours.”
“Yes.” The younger aunt bowed her head in acknowledgment. Her father-in-law and mother-in-law constantly mentioning her belly naturally made her uncomfortable.
Then they heard the Old Master say, “Cui Cui, don’t overthink things. Now that you’ve entered our Su family, the whole family will protect you.”
“Indeed,” the Uncle also smiled. “The greatest virtue of our family is that we’re united—none of those schemes and intrigues.”
“Yes, sister-in-law.” Su Youcai also said gently. “As the saying goes, ‘A mansion with red gates and spacious halls is not as good as brothers standing shoulder to shoulder.’ Our family’s conditions may be poor now, but working together, there’s no river we can’t cross, no mountain we can’t climb.”
“Exactly, exactly.” The younger aunt quickly nodded in agreement.
The family’s warm words finally set the younger aunt’s anxious heart at ease. With red-rimmed eyes, she nodded and said, “Thank you, Father, Mother, elder brothers, sisters-in-law, and aunts. Cui Cui will remember your teachings well.”
“Good, good.” The Old Master nodded, then said somewhat awkwardly, “Before the wedding, your father should have told you—he provided a residence in the county as dowry. You should move there tomorrow. The conditions in the city are better, and you young couple can relax more.”
“Yes. This unfilial child has troubled both fathers.” The younger aunt nodded. This was the best arrangement for both her and the child.