Chapter 23: Riding a Single Bamboo

Yan Zhenqing once wrote a poem:

"At the third watch the lamps burn, at the fifth the roosters crow; this is precisely when a man should study.

With black hair, one knows not to study diligently early; with white hair, one only then regrets studying too late."

During the Hanshi Festival, Lu Beigu rested for only half a day; after buying wooden throwing knives and yellow clay figurines for his nephew and niece respectively in the morning, he prepared to formally enter a state of review.

Because more than two months remained until the county examination, the time might seem long, but in fact the round-trip time for Li Pan to take him to Chengdu must be deducted, so the time was actually extremely tight.

Li Pan certainly would not manage his study progress; with so much coursework needing to be made up now, almost every subject was in a state of complete blankness, so he could only rely on his own diligence and effort.

Moreover, after returning to the county school following the Qingming Festival, a ten-day test covering the two items of Text Exegesis and Moyi awaited him.

Carrying these two annotated versions, the Chunqiu Zuozhuan Zhengyi and the Liji Zhengyi, plus the Chunqiu Jizhuan Zuanli, Lu Beigu went out to find Lu Guangyu.

The reason for seeking someone to study with was naturally because Lu Beigu was not all-knowing and all-powerful.

Although Lu Beigu possessed a fairly deep understanding of ancient Chinese literature, philosophy, history, and other fields, modern academic research was, after all, nothing like the ancient imperial examinations.

Even a professional scholar specializing in the history of ancient Chinese philosophy would not truly memorize the entire Analects to the extent of being able to fill in blanks randomly after cutting out the upper and lower lines.

As for studying works like the Five Classics Zhengyi, modern scholars usually study only a portion of the content; the purpose of their study was fundamentally not to cope with imperial examinations, and indeed their starting point could be said to be completely opposite.

Therefore, letting a modern scholar travel through time to write a classical Chinese policy essay or even a memorial might pose no problem, but wanting to reach a level where one could immediately score high points on Text Exegesis and Moyi was obviously unrealistic.

Everything needed to be learned from the beginning.

And now Lu Beigu's Moyi scores were poor to begin with; many understandings left by his predecessor were wrong; even with the two notebooks from predecessors, some things still needed to be asked of others.

He certainly could not afford a teacher, but did he not know his friend Lu Guangyu?

Although the other's overall scores were not particularly outstanding, his Moyi scores alone ranked quite high in the county school.

At this stage, he was certainly far superior to himself, who needed to start "from zero," so if they encountered some questions they did not understand while studying together, Lu Beigu could still ask the other for guidance.

Erlang Tan was not far from Gulin Town; taking a boat along the Anle Creek, in less than half an hour, Lu Beigu was nearly arriving at his destination.

And just not far from Erlang Tan, the boat stopped.

The people on the same boat kept making "tsk tsk" sounds; Lu Beigu also curiously looked outward.

He saw that the thin mist on Erlang Tan had not yet fully dispersed, but the river surface had already become lively; a dozen or so green bamboos floated downstream, each single bamboo over a zhang in length polished to an oily shine, gliding lightly on the water surface.

The men standing on the bamboo were barefoot, with red cloth belts tied around their waists, holding bamboo poles a zhang long; sometimes they lightly tapped the water surface, sometimes they simply pushed off casually, and the bamboo body would turn flexibly like a swimming fish.

In the center of the river, a lean man stepped on a single bamboo drifting to the rapid current; suddenly he lowered his body, hooked a bamboo node with one foot, and the whole person hung obliquely over the water surface; the bamboo pole in his hand stabbed a stone like a long spear, steadily bracing against the rushing current.

The bamboo body trembled slightly under the impact of the rapids, yet it never flipped.

He grinned, suddenly twisted his waist, pushed off with the bamboo pole to gain momentum, and the whole person used the force to leap into the air; he actually performed a somersault, then landed steadily back on the single bamboo which had already begun to drift, continuing downstream.

The crowd watching on the shore erupted in cheers; the sounds of reed pipes, bronze gongs, and shouts mixed into one.

"Du Zhu Piao, young sir has not seen it before? We commonly use this method when traveling back and forth on the creek," the boatman asked with a smile.

"I have not seen it," Lu Beigu answered honestly. "Seeing it now, it is indeed dazzling."

After paying eight wen in copper coins for the boat fare, Lu Beigu stepped off the boat onto the riverbank covered in gravel.

In the middle reaches of the Anle Creek, the high mountains on both banks were as towering as city walls, and the valley had an extreme elevation drop; therefore, places like Erlang Tan, among the few relatively gentle stone beaches, naturally became settlements for the local people due to their convenience in transportation.

However, although called a settlement, Erlang Tan Township at this time was actually just a small village with a population of several hundred.

Walking up from the riverbank, red glutinous sorghum unique to this place was planted everywhere in the terraced fields where the soil was not particularly fertile; Lu Beigu observed carefully; although it had only been sown not long ago, whether in size or in grains, it looked much smaller than ordinary sorghum.

Lu Guangyu's home was easy to find; it was located halfway up the mountain, a green stone courtyard quite imposing for this place; his father was a local Hu Zhang. Following the Song and Tang systems, cities had wards as basic units, while the countryside had Xiang and Li; some Xiang contained several Li, while others had one Xiang and one Li. Initially, the Great Song had Xiang Zhang and Li Zheng, but with the abolition of Xiang in the seventh year of Kaibao and the abolition of Li under the current Rujinren Sect, these things no longer existed.

Therefore, Hu Zhang and Qi Zhang actually became the touch of the Great Song court at the very grassroots level, possessing considerable power locally.

"Brother Lu?"

Lu Beigu had not yet knocked on the door when he happened to see Lu Guangyu coming out.

Lu Guangyu looked at him in surprise: "Are you not resting today?"

Lu Guangyu had invited Lu Beigu to his home at the literary banquet not long ago, so at this moment he was not surprised that the other had come, but only surprised that the other was so diligent.

"I want to study."

Lu Beigu wore a serious expression: "Does Brother Lu have something to do? If not, shall we study together to prepare for the ten-day test?"

Lu Guangyu hid the trinket in his hand behind his back, scratched his head, and said: "Indeed, I have nothing to do. I was thinking of going out for a walk, but let us study together then."

Lu Guangyu led Lu Beigu into the study in his own backyard.

This room was not large, but it was kept extremely tidy; two low tables stood by the window, with brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones all complete on them; outside the window, several stalks of green bamboo reached in, casting mottled shadows on the green stone floor tiles.

"Brother Lu, please sit."

The two sat facing each other; Lu Beigu took out his books and the paper he had brought.

While Lu Guangyu was pondering getting up to pour himself some water, he discovered that Lu Beigu had already seriously begun studying, so he could only sit back down.

Lu Beigu read very quickly; although he did not possess the ability to remember everything after one glance, he had his own memory methods, and combined with his focused state, his learning efficiency was quite high.

At the very least, he was far more efficient than Lu Guangyu, who occasionally looked at the birds outside the window and then scratched his itchy back.

Actually, Lu Guangyu did not want to study either; it was just that now that the holiday had finally arrived, even if he stared seriously at the book, he simply could not concentrate his attention.

Just like that, two hours passed dryly; Lu Guangyu rubbed his aching eyes and simply could not endure it any longer.

And when he looked up, he discovered that Lu Beigu still maintained an upright sitting posture, the pen in his hand continuously recording key points on the paper, as if he felt no fatigue at all.

"Brother Lu?"

Lu Beigu raised his head, his eyes still carrying a look of contemplation: "Oh? Has Brother Lu temporarily concluded?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Lu Guangyu nodded repeatedly; he meant that after resting a while, it would be about time for a meal.

"That is excellent."

Lu Beigu picked up his freshly made notes.

(End of this chapter)