Chapter 14: Unexpected Discovery in the Library

Organizing this book gathering, the Zhou family, besides showing off their own library, likely also intended for Zhou Mingyuan to meet local scholars, so he was naturally the protagonist.

Soon, several people beside the desks rose regardless of their posture, quite obsequiously, to approach and strike up a conversation with Zhou Mingyuan.

The young man merely nodded slightly to the flattery of the crowd; when his gaze swept over the various desks, it did not linger on the patched clothes of some, but rather, upon hearing someone introduce that a person here had not even attended the county school and was still studying at a private academy yet came to join the book gathering, the corner of his mouth curled imperceptibly.

As the main door opened, Lu Beigu followed the crowd into the library; this three-story library contained quite a rich collection of books, and Lu Guangyu exclaimed, "A trip well worth taking."

On every floor of the building, sandalwood plaques hung from the bookshelves to mark the categories.

For Lu Beigu, the books he needed most were the commentaries on the two books, the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Book of Rites, annotated by various schools of thought.

Therefore, after a brief identification, he went straight for the "Classics Section"; his fingertips brushed past a few commentaries on the Book of Rites before suddenly stopping.

"What is this?"

Lu Beigu did not expect to make an unexpected discovery.

In a corner of the bookshelf lay half a tattered volume of the Supplement to the Guliang Commentary.

The Guliang school of the Spring and Autumn Annals was initially the most obscure among the three commentaries; only after Emperor Xuan of Han convened the Shiqu Conference to "settle the similarities and differences between Gongyang and Guliang" and established the Guliang Imperial Doctorate did the Guliang school flourish greatly.

However, after the Han and Wei dynasties, the New Text Classics declined, and great Confucian scholars with family lineages vanished completely; apart from Fan Ning's Collected Explanations from the Jin Dynasty and Yang Shixun's Sub-commentary from the Tang Dynasty, there were no other famous Guliang scholars.

Precisely because there were so few samples, Song Confucians studying the Spring and Autumn Annals today, although a small minority also considered the Guliang school, had not produced a single famous master.

Although the Ink Meaning examination no longer tested the original text of the three commentaries much, one still needed to understand the historical developments within them.

After all, if the Fill-in-the-Blank type of questions in the "Posting the Classics" section could not create a large gap between everyone, then the Ink Meaning had always been the so-called "score-differentiating item," often featuring high-difficulty questions.

If one had not read the commentaries of the relevant school, encountering a question from it would inevitably result in an answer that strayed miles off-topic.

Lu Beigu carefully held up the yellowed pages and found them densely filled with annotations; some insights written in small regular script with vermilion ink were truly exquisite.

He also briefly looked at other books; indeed, there were many good books unavailable on the market, and even a few high-quality notebooks by predecessors, but the other content was far too abundant.

For him at present, the easiest thing to copy and take away today was this book, so he took this half-volume of the Supplement to the Guliang Commentary and went downstairs.

There were the four treasures of the study on the desk; although the original books in the library were not allowed to be taken away, one could recite or copy a duplicate on the spot, so Lu Beigu immediately bent over the desk to begin copying.

For many people, this book gathering was merely a place to make friends under the guise of studying, so they basically only chatted; not many even studied seriously, let alone someone like him silently copying.

However, chatting for a long time also becomes tiring.

Having first walked several li of mountain road and then chatted with people for half a day, Lu Guangyu's stomach was growling loudly from hunger, yet he saw Lu Beigu still bent over the desk writing rapidly, with the rice paper stacked as high as a fingernail.

"I'm hungry," Lu Guangyu asked frankly, "Did Brother Lu bring any food?"

With one hand copying, Lu Beigu took out the locust flower cakes prepared by his sister-in-law from his satchel, broke half in two, and handed it to him.

The cake was still warm; when bitten open, the clear sweetness of the locust flowers mixed with the aroma of coarse grains, causing a few scholars nearby to quietly swallow their saliva.

At this moment, Zhou Mingyuan strolled over, waving his folding fan: "Young Master, if you are hungry, you can endure it for a while; the dishes at the noon literary banquet are excellent, and you will surely eat until your belly is round and full."

Before Lu Beigu could open his mouth, he suddenly heard a light laugh coming from behind the rockery.

"Young Master Zhou's words are strange; food and women are the great desires of man; why endure hunger?"

A teenager in his teens emerged from behind the rockery, wearing a sky-blue robe that hung loosely, and a wine gourd was tied to the jade belt at his waist.

Zhou Mingyuan's face changed slightly: "Young Master Ji is joking."

The teenager ignored him, walked straight to Lu Beigu's desk, suddenly bent down to sniff: "Locust flower cakes? May I have a bite?"

Without waiting for an answer, he pinched off the remaining small half and stuffed it into his mouth, mumbling: "A bit less sugar... but better than the pastries they prepared."

Having said that, he untied the wine gourd and placed it on the desk: "Exchange for your cake, isn't that a fair deal?"

Lu Beigu looked up at this overly familiar teenager, but his peripheral vision caught the veins on the back of Zhou Mingyuan's hand gripping the fan bulging out; it definitely wasn't directed at himself, because he hadn't said a word!

So, Lu Beigu also understood.

These two were likely secretly competing; he was merely collateral damage.

This had nothing to do with him.

Seeing that Lu Beigu did not respond, but simply continued copying diligently on his own, these two found it hard to start any further trouble.

"Do you know that person?"

After they left, Lu Guangyu whispered a reminder: "That is Ji Yun, the Young Master of the Ji family, the great book merchant of Zizhou Circuit, famous for his outstanding learning; the Ji family are legitimate wealthy merchants, a level stronger than the Zhou family who bought the Anle Creek brewing business, and they have quite good relations with the school officials of each prefecture in Zizhou Circuit."

Here is another piece of trivia: the term "Sichuan" did not exist before the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty.

At the founding of the Song Dynasty, the Xichuan Circuit and the Xiaxi Circuit were first established in Bashu, collectively called the "Two Circuits of Chuan and Xia"; later, the two circuits were merged into the Chuanxia Circuit; it was not until the Xianping era of Emperor Zhenzong that the Chuanxia Circuit was divided into the Yizhou Circuit, the Zizhou Circuit, the Lizhou Circuit, and the Kuizhou Circuit, collectively called the "Four Circuits of Chuan and Xia," so later people abbreviated the Bashu region as "Sichuan."

And the Four Circuits of Chuan and Xia are not difficult for modern people to understand: the Lizhou Circuit is the Hanzhong area, the Kuizhou Circuit is the Chongqing area, the Yizhou Circuit is the western half of the basin, and the Zizhou Circuit is the eastern half of the basin.

"Oh."

Lu Beigu had no interest in the disputes between these young young masters; he continued to pick up his brush and copy.

After all, in his view, these matters were not important at all; the most important thing at present was to finish copying this half-volume of the Supplement to the Guliang Commentary and properly improve his understanding of the Ink Meaning regarding the Spring and Autumn Annals.

When Lu Beigu finally finished copying, the literary banquet was about to begin.

Inside the flower hall, agarwood incense wafted, and twelve mother-of-pearl screens filtered the afternoon sunlight into hazy fragments of gold.

When Lu Beigu entered the seating area with the crowd, he found the tables arranged in two concentric circles according to status: retired officials and wealthy merchants who were invited sat in the inner circle at red wood carved tables, while the scholars sat in the outer circle at their respective green sandalwood long tables in a kneeling position, though many had removed their footrests and simply sat cross-legged.

And the Zhou Squire sitting in the main seat also introduced the people in the inner circle, among whom the great book merchant of the Zizhou Circuit surnamed Ji was prominently present.

Finally, the Zhou Squire announced the topic for today's literary banquet.

"—For today's literary banquet, the topic is 'Wine'."

(End of this chapter)