Chapter 45

Could it be that she suspects my identity?

She came to check on me today!!!

Writing a poem about history for someone else to praise Xie An is no big deal, but impersonating a member of the gentry is a serious crime!

Where is the household registration located? How should I answer this?

If I make it up, it only needs a quick verification to confirm whether it's true or false.

This girl might even be prepared!

Since the Eastern Jin dynasty, the Wang and Xie clans have been mentioned together and have often intermarried. Her understanding of the Langya Wang clan might be even more than I imagined!

But if I don't say a word, it will obviously look like I have a guilty conscience.

What should I do?

He needs to make a quick response!

Wang Yang looked out the window and sighed dejectedly:

"By the shores of the East Sea, the land of Langya was enfeoffed. The place where Goujian practiced hegemony, the place where the First Emperor carved stones. A thousand-year-old hometown, lost in a single morning. Looking up, I see the sun, but I do not see Langya."

Langya is in the territory of today's Shandong, with a long history and a profound foundation, but it has now been occupied by Northern Wei. Wang Yang touched upon the present and recalled the past, his expression sorrowful. His eyes were stung by the sunlight, and he squinted slightly, looking very much like he was about to shed tears of sorrow.

Liu Zhao was deeply moved by the scene before him and was very emotional:

"Unexpectedly, Zhiyan's nostalgia for his hometown is so heavy. Nowadays, most of the children of the immigrant families live peacefully in Jiangzuo and have long since stopped looking back to the north! Thinking of my Nieyang Liu clan, we also moved here from Nanyang a hundred years ago, but now the whole clan, including me, considers ourselves Jingzhou gentry; it is truly forgetting our origins."

Xie Xinghan, however, was not led astray in the slightest and said coldly:

"Young Master Wang's ancestral home is Langya; we already know that. What I just asked was the household registration, not the ancestral home. Where is Young Master Wang's household registration? Is it Jiankang? Most of the Langya Wang clan have lived in Jiankang for generations. Although I cannot recognize all the branches of each clan, I know a little bit. Which branch does the Young Master belong to? Where in Jiankang do you live? Wuyi Lane? Mafen Lane? Could it be Dantu Linyi?"

Damn it!

You aren't even moved by the sorrow of the country?

Your Chen Jun Xie clan is also an immigrant family!

Girl, do you have no heart?!

Seeing Xie Xinghan pressing hard and asking question after question, Wang Yang thought: Since that's the case, don't blame me...

Wang Yang said sternly: "Xie Xie Niangzi, you are talented and beautiful, and I truly admire you very much. But marriage is a major life event, and it has always been decided by parents and matchmakers. If you really want to know about my family background, you should entrust someone to ask; how can you ask so directly?"

Xie Xinghan:???

Liu Zhao: (*+﹏+*)

Wang Yang stood up and bowed to Xie Xinghan: "I am very grateful for Xie Xie Niangzi's favor! But I really do not want to consider marriage matters right now. I am sorry."

After saying this, he walked out the door.

A flush of crimson rose from Xie Xinghan's fair neck and quickly spread to her cheeks, which were as crystal clear as jade.

Liu Zhao hurriedly explained: "Zhiyan, you misunderstood—"

Wang Yang preempted him: "Sir, I know you have good intentions, but after all, I am the person involved, and you should also ask for my opinion! Besides, isn't scholarship a major matter, more important than matchmaking? Find another family for Xie Xie Niangzi; I will take my leave now."

"You stop!" Xie Xinghan stood up, her voice trembling with anger: "I... I didn't—"

"Xie Xie Niangzi, please have some self-respect! We are really not suitable!"

Wang Yang deliberately raised his voice and bowed heavily.

No matter how learned and intelligent Xie Xinghan was, she was still an innocent and pure noble young lady, raised with strict family discipline and surrounded by stars, so when had she ever seen this kind of situation?

Being told this by Wang Yang, it was as if she were truly shamelessly begging him to marry her, only to be rejected in public!

She was both ashamed and angry, feeling that she had suffered a strange injustice and great humiliation. In her anxiety, she almost cried out! In her desperation, she couldn't explain herself clearly, only managing to squeeze out a few words: "You are talking nonsense! I didn't... I didn't at all..."

Wang Yang felt a little soft-hearted at this; bullying a little girl was really not a glorious thing. But if he didn't bully her, he would be checked for his household registration, and he was an unregistered person; he couldn't stand the check!

So don't blame me for not being chivalrous.

"Xie Xie Niangzi, don't cry. I'm not saying you're not good, it's just that there are many good men in the world, why be obsessed with—"

Xie Xinghan wasn't crying yet, but after being told this by Wang Yang, tears streamed down her face. She stamped her embroidered shoes and ran out the door.

"Niece! Niece!" Liu Zhao hurriedly went to chase her.

Wang Yang breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Xie Xinghan wasn't there, things would be easy to handle. Liu Zhao was dedicated to learning and was also a very kind person. Even if he wanted to check the household registration, it would be easier to prevaricate than with Xie Xinghan.

"Zhiyan, it's not that I'm criticizing you, but how could you be so reckless! She is the young lady of the Xie family; how could she... how could she come to the door herself to seek marriage!" Liu Zhao complained.

"I am also, I was truly muddled! I saw that she was so interested in my affairs, and you introduced her identity, so I thought... Sigh, you tell Xie Xie Niangzi that I am just a bookworm, and please don't let her hold it against me!"

Seeing Wang Yang's look of "remorse," Liu Zhao turned to comfort him:

"You don't need to worry too much about this. Niece Xie is not a petty person and shouldn't take it to heart."

Wang Yang thought: Then I'll take your word for it.

"Actually, Niece Xie wasn't interested in your affairs, but wanted to ask where your household registration is and whether you have ever entered the local Commandery Academy. If not, would it be convenient to register and enter the Jingzhou Commandery Academy?"

"Enter the Commandery Academy?" Wang Yang asked suspiciously.

Liu Zhao said embarrassedly:

"I know that with your knowledge, even if you went to the Imperial Academy to be a doctor, or to the Prince of Jingling's mansion to be a Western Residence scholar, you would be fully competent. Besides, with your family background and talent, you could naturally advance smoothly and sit as a high official; there is no need to take the path of the classics examination. It's just that the Commandery Academy is indeed facing difficulties..."

Then Liu Zhao explained the origins of the Prince's Academy and the conflict between it and the Commandery Academy to Wang Yang in detail, and then said:

"Actually, my personal honor and disgrace are quite insignificant; it's just that the Commandery Academy inherits the Jingzhou school, and the Jingzhou school values the 'Modern Text Book of Documents' the most. But the Prince's Academy wants to completely abolish the 'Modern Text Book of Documents' and only establish the 'Ancient Text Book of Documents'!"

If they truly succeed, then the 'Modern Text Book of Documents' study, which has been passed down in Jingzhou for a long time, will be completely cut off in my generation!

The loss of learning and the destruction of the Dao—this is the great disaster of scholars, and also the great sin of scholars!"

Liu Zhao stood up, straightened his clothes, and bowed to Wang Yang until his head touched the ground:

"Therefore, for the sake of the Jingzhou academic lineage, I ask Zhiyan to register in the Commandery Academy and fight on its behalf! If we win, then Heaven will not destroy this culture! If we lose, then such is the fate of the times; I will also feel Zhiyan's kindness and will have absolutely no complaints!"

The "Book of Documents" records the words and deeds of ancient emperors and is one of the Confucian "Five Classics."

The struggle between the modern and ancient texts of the "Book of Documents" is an important event in the history of the study of the "Book of Documents," and its process is very complex and tortuous.

Simply put, starting from the Han dynasty, two versions of the "Book of Documents" appeared:

One was orally transmitted by old scholars who had experienced both the Qin and Han dynasties, using pre-Qin ancient texts as the base, and then written in the clerical script prevalent in the Han dynasty; this is called the "Modern Text Book of Documents."

The other was discovered in the walls of Confucius's family home, written in the ancient script from before the Qin and Han dynasties; this is called the "Ancient Text Book of Documents."

Regarding the question of which version was authoritative, scholars of the two Han dynasties fought fiercely, deriving different interpretive methods and schools of thought. It was not until the late Eastern Han dynasty that there was a gradual trend toward convergence.

However, during the Eastern Jin dynasty, someone presented another "Ancient Text Book of Documents" and claimed that this was the true ancient text! The whole book had as many as fifty-eight chapters! Among them, twenty-five chapters had never been seen before! Therefore, once this book was published, it became the authoritative version, promoting the rise of the study of the "Ancient Text Book of Documents." This is also the basis for the Prince's Academy wanting to abolish the Commandery Academy and become the only official academy in Jingzhou.

Wang Yang knew the twists and turns and also wanted to help Liu Zhao, but quite a few problems were involved here.

————————

Note: There is an opinion in academia that the "Modern Text Book of Documents" was already lost at the turn of the two Jin dynasties. Actually, that is not necessarily the case. Not to mention the mainstream opinion that the "Modern Text Book of Documents" was transmitted through the "Ancient Text Book of Documents," and not to mention the unverified inference of private collections among the people, just the "Book of Sui: Treatise on Classics and Books" records the "One-Character Stone Classic Book of Documents" in six volumes. The so-called "One-Character Stone Classic" is the "Xiping Stone Classic" from the time of Emperor Ling of Han. At that time, the "Modern Text Book of Documents" was official learning, so what was carved was the "Modern Text Book of Documents." The "Sui Treatise" compiled in the Tang dynasty records it, which shows that the official library of the early Tang dynasty (i. e., the Secret Mansion) could still see rubbings of the "Modern Text Book of Documents," so the theory of it being lost is too absolute.