Su Youcai had always felt he hadn’t fulfilled his duties as a father, so he never put on paternal airs and could instead mingle freely with his sons.
“But joking aside,” he said seriously, “scholarship cannot be approached with impatience. You need to build a solid foundation, like building a fence with three stakes for each post.”
“Yes,” Su Lu accepted the teaching humbly, then explained, “But didn’t I already memorize the 《Three Character Classic》 before?”I thought you could only recite up to ‘Jingzi Tong, read all the histories’?”” said Su Youcai.
“I had forgotten a few lines, but after reviewing them, I remembered,” Su Lu replied.
“Then recite it for me?” Su Youcai said skeptically.
“Very well,” Su Lu cleared his throat and recited from “The Beginning of Man” all the way to the end: “Diligence brings rewards, while play brings no benefit. Beware of this, and strive hard.”
Su Youcai was stunned, never expecting his son to have such a good memory. Even if the boy had memorized the 《Three Character Classic》 back in the clan school, that was years ago.
Now, after just one review, he could recite it fluently from start to finish—this proved the boy’s mind was truly sharp…
“Father, is that acceptable now?” Su Lu asked again.
Su Youcai snapped out of his thoughts, coughed, and said, “It’s not enough to memorize the text; you must understand its meaning. Otherwise, what’s the use of memorizing?”
“Isn’t the meaning right there in the words?” Su Lu wondered. “Could anyone not understand it?”
“That’s true in principle…” Su Youcai muttered. Although the 《Three Character Classic》 was only a little over a thousand characters long, it was a “mini-encyclopedia” covering astronomy, geography, and all things past and present.
Many young students in the clan school could recite it perfectly, but limited by their lack of experience, most swallowed it whole without fully grasping its meaning. This was unavoidable—children from the mountains couldn’t compare with those from Luzhou or Chengdu.
“Then let me test you?” He didn’t believe Su Lu could master all the knowledge in the 《Three Character Classic》.
“Alright,” Su Lu nodded.
“What does ‘Xiang Jiu Ling, neng wen xi’ mean?”
“Huang Xiang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, at nine years old, knew to warm his father’s bed.”And ‘gourd, earth, leather, wood, stone, gold. Silk and bamboo, these are the eight sounds’?””
“This refers to ancient musical instruments, which can be divided into the above eight categories by material.”What does ‘匏’ mean, and what instruments can it make?”
“It means gourd, and it can be used to make sheng and yu instruments.”
“…” Su Youcai asked a few more obscure questions, and Su Lu answered each accurately. He couldn’t help but look at his son with newfound respect: “You know quite a lot, kid.”
“It’s all from daily exposure and learning from you, Father,” Su Lu said modestly.
“Haha…” Su Youcai was about to laugh heartily when he heard his eldest son snoring and quickly lowered his voice. “Ah, it seems you might have the talent. I really shouldn’t have let your studies go to waste back then.”
“Yes, I deeply regret it. But regret is useless; I can only strive to catch up,” Su Lu said earnestly. “Please teach me more, Father.”
“Very well, as you wish.” Su Youcai had no choice but to alter his step-by-step teaching plan. Turning the writing practice book to the page with the “Hundred Family Surnames,” he complied with Su Lu’s request.
“The Hundred Family Surnames truly holds little profound meaning. You only need to recognize all the surnames listed,” Su Youcai instructed. “Read it through first and see if there are any characters you don’t recognize.”
“Yes,” Su Lu replied softly, then proceeded to read through The Hundred Family Surnames. He discovered five characters he didn’t recognize:
Su Youcai was once again stunned speechless… Previously, when Su Lu could recite the Three Character Classic, he assumed it was due to memorization. But this boy clearly hadn’t had much exposure to The Hundred Family Surnames – out of all 568 characters in the text, he only didn’t recognize five? This level of literacy was truly astonishing!
His previous drowsiness vanished completely. His eyes widened like copper bells as he scrutinized Su Lu up and down: “Weren’t you practically illiterate before? How come you seem like a completely different person now?”
“Well…” Su Lu felt uneasy under such intense scrutiny. He had been focusing so hard on applying himself that he hadn’t realized he’d revealed his capabilities. He forced an awkward smile: “Being constantly exposed to you, Father, I’ve naturally come to recognize many characters without deliberate study.”
“Of course! That’s what they call ‘near vermilion, one gets stained red’!” Su Youcai immediately swelled with pride, though still puzzled: “But why were you hiding your abilities before? Was it because you didn’t want to return to school?”
“Yes, yes, exactly!” Su Lu nodded repeatedly. Having a father who loved to fill in the gaps himself was wonderful – he didn’t even need to come up with excuses. He put on a remorseful expression: “I was immature before, feeling too constrained at school with all those assignments…”
“Ah, everyone goes through phases of not knowing what’s good for them. What matters is that you’ve come around,” Su Youcai sighed with regret. If this child had awakened just a few years earlier, he might have truly achieved something through scholarship.
He still believed it was too late for his son to start applying himself now. But as the saying goes, poetry and books never betray those who study them – learning is always better than not learning. Suppressing his disappointment, Su Youcai picked up his brush and wrote three small characters beside each of the five unfamiliar words:
“Do you know what this means?”” he asked Su Lu.
Su Lu shook his head, unable to discern the pattern.
“This is called Fanqie phonetic notation,” Su Youcai explained. “It involves splitting the pronunciation of an unfamiliar character into two parts, using two common characters to indicate its pronunciation. The first character shares the initial sound with the character being annotated, while the second character shares the final sound and tone. Combined, they produce the pronunciation of the character in question.”
He gave a wry smile: “The method sounds simple, but it’s actually quite complex. Many elementary students study for years and still remain confused, unable to properly distinguish the thirty-six initials and two hundred six finals, or understand how to split and combine them…”For example, this ‘Tian Kou Qie’ – do you know how to combine them to read it?” Su Youcai didn’t expect Su Lu to provide the correct answer – otherwise, what would be the point of having a teacher?
He planned to spend one month helping Su Lu basically grasp Fanqie phonetic notation. Of course, this would be quite difficult…
“Tou, t-ǒu tǒu,” Su Lu answered crisply.
“Haha, no…” Su Youcai almost reflexively said “wrong,” but caught himself and changed it to: “Not bad. You’re quite good at guessing, boy. Now try guessing the second one.”
“Yù, yī wū yù.Su Lu suddenly realized that this character, which looked like a celestial master’s talisman, was the traditional form of ‘Yu’. People in later generations often used this character to demonstrate the superiority of simplified characters…
“Quite interesting. Now try the next two.” The teasing expression vanished from Su Youcai’s face.
“Qí, qī yī qí. Zhǎng, zhī áng zhǎng. Dá, dé ā dá.” Su Lu answered fluently as before.
“You really mastered fǎnqiè immediately?” Su Youcai’s jaw dropped for who-knows-which time. He examined Su Lu incredulously: “Could it be that you’re actually a genius?”
“All thanks to father’s excellent teaching.” Su Lu quickly responded modestly. Using Pinyin to take shortcuts wasn’t really something to be proud of.
“Haha, does that mean I’m a genius too?” Su Youcai was overjoyed by this, but then his face fell: “But why can’t those boys at the clan school learn no matter how I teach them? Are they pretending to be stupid too?”
“…” Su Lu didn’t dare speak, afraid he might get his cousins at the clan school in trouble.
~~
Now there wasn’t much left to teach about the 《Hundred Family Surnames》. Seeing that there was still time, Su Youcai decided to teach the 《Thousand Character Classic》 as well.
He annotated ‘昃’ in ‘日月盈昃’ with ‘zá sè qiè’, and ‘宿’ in ‘辰宿列张’ with ‘xī jiù qiè’.
“Zǐ è zè, xī yóu sù.” Su Lu’s face reddened. Out of eight characters total, one he didn’t recognize and another he mispronounced – his level was truly laughable.
He straightened his attitude and continued reading as instructed: “Cold comes and heat goes, autumn harvests and winter stores. Leap months complete the years, pitch pipes regulate the yang. Clouds rise to make rain, dew condenses into frost. Gold is born in beautiful waters, jade emerges from Kunlun ridges…”He managed to read to the end in one breath, only mispronouncing ‘yu’ in ‘easy yu you fear, belong ear wall.'”..
Su Youcai was completely stunned, saying weakly: “This character is pronounced ‘yóu’.”
“Why isn’t father using fǎnqiè anymore?” Su Lu asked curiously.
“With your level of character recognition, what’s the point of using fǎnqiè? That would just be taking off your pants to fart!” Su Youcai said irritably. Teaching a student had made him feel inferior – where was the justice in that?
Fortunately, upon second thought that this student was his own son, he relaxed and asked: “I suppose the 《Thousand Character Classic》 doesn’t need explanation either?”
“I still need to trouble father for explanation.” Su Lu quickly said truthfully: “The 《Thousand Character Classic》 isn’t as easy to understand as the 《Three Character Classic》. For example, I don’t know what ‘Easy to be afraid of, belongs to the ear wall.’ means.”
“Good, good.” Su Youcai nodded happily, though it was unclear why he was so pleased. He explained to his son: “These two lines mean, when changing to a light carriage one must be cautious of danger, and when speaking one must guard against eavesdroppers…”So ‘輶’ means a light carriage.”” Su Lu understood.
For the remaining time, Su Youcai, at his request, also explained the meanings of numerous difficult phrases such as ‘Phoenixes sing in bamboo, white colts graze in fields’, ‘Side rooms open beside, splendid tents face pillars’, and ‘Leave behind good plans, encourage respectful cultivation’.
When Su Lu had no more questions, Su Youcai let out a big yawn and glanced outside at the full moon, which had quietly moved to the mid-heavens.
Unknowingly, it had become deep night…
“Let’s stop here for tonight.” Su Youcai ended the lesson: “We still need to work in the fields tomorrow.”
“Yes.” Although Su Lu still wanted to continue, he had to stop.
“You have ten days to memorize the ‘Hundred Family Surnames’ and ‘Thousand Character Classic’,” Su Youcai assigned homework again. “Do you have confidence?”
“I’ll try my best,” Su Lu replied cautiously.
“Go to bed now,” Su Youcai rubbed Su Lu’s head. “Early morning is the best time for memorization.”
“Alright, I’ll just read a bit more before sleeping,” Su Lu responded, though he didn’t move from his spot.
Su Youcai stopped bothering him, got up and lay on the bed, skillfully embracing his ‘bamboo wife’ while reciting: ‘I have no scarlet sleeves to entertain the night, only need Green Slave for its cooling delight.’
Then he went off to meet the Duke of Zhou in his dreams.
Meanwhile, Su Lu added another piece of pine resin torch to the porcelain bowl, took Su Youcai’s inkstone, imitated his father’s manner of grinding ink, picked up the well-seasoned writing brush, and began copying the newly learned texts.