Chapter 77: Studying in the Lingxing Pavilion

The twelfth year of Emperor Jia Zhao of Da Zhou.

The intense heat melted away, and the autumn colors grew thick.

The terrain of Mount Luocang was winding, and the temperature was a few degrees lower than at the foot of the mountain. The lush forests in the mountains were already gradually dyed red and yellow.

The silver osmanthus beside the Lingxing Pavilion of the Qingshan Academy was in full bloom, with star-like white flowers covering the branches, the sweet fragrance lingering and refreshing the heart.

The wind in the eighth month was neither hot nor cold, clear and pleasant, gently shaking the osmanthus branches reaching the eaves, and a few silver osmanthus flowers scattered on the eaves of the pavilion.

A plaque of old paulownia wood hung on the door lintel of the pavilion, with the three vigorous characters "Lingxing Pavilion" written on it.

The Lingxing Pavilion was known as the place where the literary culture of the Qingshan Academy gathered.

In the more than sixty years since the academy was founded, students who ranked in the second grade or higher in the imperial examinations could leave their names in the Lingxing Pavilion, along with their life stories and essential poetry and prose.

After sixty years of changes, the names of hundreds of people had been left behind.

The afternoon's harmonious and clear sunlight shone on the west window. The youth's face was like a painting, handsome and elegant, harmonious and ethereal, as if he were not a person of the dusty world.

But very few people would come a second time.

Most of the lessons in the academy were intensive in the morning, while the afternoon lessons were arranged to be more relaxed.

And these proud sons of Qingshan who left their names in the Lingxing Pavilion, after years of ups and downs, mostly became high-ranking officials in the court, regional governors, and pillars of the scholar-official class.

On the desk lay a small book box of mottled bamboo, inside which were two blue-covered books with faint old marks, which should be the result of long-term reading.

Leaving one's name in the Lingxing Pavilion was the highest honor for every Qingshan student, worth savoring and being proud of for a lifetime.

His dark hair was combed meticulously and neatly, without a single strand out of place, and was tied into a bun on the top of his head with a jade hairpin.

Every student who entered the academy would, at the beginning, under the leadership of teachers and seniors, go to the Lingxing Pavilion with great interest to admire the style of their predecessors.

So it was only a bit noisy in March every year, because this was the time when new students entered the academy every year; the rest of the time, it was deserted and rarely visited.

Thinking about it, it should be so; very few people would be bored enough to soak in the "School History Exhibition Hall" every day.

Whenever there were no classes in the afternoon, one could always see a jade-like youth reading quietly at the desk on the west side of the Lingxing Pavilion.

These people, regardless of their ups and downs in officialdom, loyalty or treachery, success or failure, honor or disgrace, were all the best among people.

This youth was Jia Cong, who had entered the Bingwen Hall of the Qingshan Academy two years ago.

Regardless of the wind, frost, rain, or snow outside the window, or the butterflies and swallows fluttering, nothing could disturb the youth's focus on his studies.

Descendant of the top-tier noble Rongguo Prefecture.

When Jia Cong first entered the Qingshan Academy, it caused a stir in the academy because the halo surrounding him was too dazzling.

But starting two years ago, this Lingxing Pavilion, which was rarely visited, gained a regular visitor, as if he had a unique eye for the unique emptiness and quietness here.

He wore a blue gown with wide sleeves, exquisitely crafted, with delicate stitches, fitting him perfectly, making his figure look even more upright and handsome, like a jade tree or an orchid.

They were also the source of the true foundation and prestige of this academy, which was known as the number one academy in Da Zhou.

His slender, fair fingers held a wolf-hair brush, occasionally flipping through books to recite silently, occasionally writing down his insights when inspiration struck.

Accompanied by the legacy of the predecessors of the literary forest in the room, and those smoke-like past events that had disappeared.

Recommended for admission by the literary master Liu Jing'an.

Before reaching the age of twenty, he was invited by Prince Prince Jia Shun in a personal letter to participate in the Nanxi Literary Gathering. At the gathering, he stunned the audience with a poem on plum blossoms and was widely spread by the scholars of the Love Shenjing.

It was said that he was also a calligraphy genius with astonishing talent. The Heart Sutra he wrote by hand was not only exquisite, but his calligraphy was also uniquely graceful, and it was even rumored to be collected by the palace.

No matter which of these things it was, they were all favors that ordinary people could hardly reach.

Therefore, Jia Cong attracted attention as soon as he entered the Qingshan Academy and was labeled by most of the students in the academy with tags like "noble," "freak," and "monster."

Where there are people, there is a world. Such figures in a group are mostly to be envied and excluded.

Fortunately, since Jia Cong entered the academy, he had no arrogance of a noble descendant, and his daily conduct was extremely low-key.

Except for the daily lessons taught by the instructors, it was even hard to see his shadow during his spare time.

Except for having some dealings with a few like-minded classmates, he had almost no intersection with others.

He didn't even live in the academy's dormitory, so the opportunities for contact and interaction with others were even fewer.

He almost never participated in the literary gatherings, banquets, and pure talks held by the students in the academy. Even if he was dragged there, he would sit like wax, rarely speaking, let alone showing himself in front of others.

This once left some competitive and ulterior-motived students with no trace to follow.

After a few months, the halo Jia Cong had when he first entered the academy slowly faded.

If it weren't for the fact that he ranked at the top in the seasonal and annual examinations every time, many fellow students would have almost ignored his existence.

And this was the effect Jia Cong wanted.

When he first entered the academy, he once went to thank Master Jing'an for his recommendation.

The old man talked to him about the droughts in the south in recent years; grain production in Hubei, Hunan, and Zhejiang had been decreasing for two years, and the people's livelihood was becoming increasingly difficult.

The Emperor wanted to open the sea borders, trade with the white barbarians from the far seas, prosper the sea trade, and enrich the people.

Unfortunately, the old party in the court submitted memorials one after another to oppose it, in order to maintain the ancestral system of the country. Coupled with the rampant Japanese pirates along the southeast coast and the entrenched sea bandits, the opening of the borders was extremely difficult.

But the Emperor still overcame all difficulties and, with great courage, opened the Maritime Customs in Jinling, Ningbo, and Fuzhou as pilot areas to govern foreign sea trade. The effectiveness remained to be seen.

Moreover, the climate in the north of Da Zhou was becoming increasingly cold year by year, even affecting the entire territory of Da Zhou. Last year, even a hot place like the South China Sea had several heavy snowfalls two palms deep.

On the grasslands, there were consecutive wind and snow disasters, freezing countless livestock, and the nomadic barbarians frequently raided the borders.

Da Zhou had been founded for seventy years. The cycle of heaven and the people's livelihood and national strength were beginning to show signs of distress.

The talk of reforming the old and establishing the new was becoming increasingly loud in the court, and the struggle between the new and old parties was endless, already becoming a situation of fire and water.

During this period of great change in the court, the Qingshan Academy was crowded with scholars and was the easiest place to trigger criticism of the situation.

Using the public opinion of the scholar class to fuel the party struggle was a trick commonly used by old gluttons in the officialdom.

The Qingshan Academy was the number one academy in Da Zhou. Among those who left their names in the Lingxing Pavilion, many were still serving as officials in the new and old party camps of the court.

Students who could enter Qingshan were all seeds of reading, and they were the outstanding children of various prefectures and counties. Many were children or clan relatives of officials and had unclear entanglements with officials of the new and old parties in the court.

Liu Jing'an had spent half his life in officialdom and naturally knew the risks involved.

If one did not ask about affairs outside the window in the Qingshan Academy, then this was the number one place in the world for reading and studying.

But if one wanted to show off and discuss affairs here, invite fame, and mistakenly enter the right and wrong of party struggle, then this place would become a dangerous place of ghosts and demons.

After Jia Cong heard the advice of this literary master predecessor, he deeply agreed. He was not even a Scholar; if he learned to talk endlessly like others, wouldn't he be a laughingstock?

Thus, he had this response in the academy.

The effect was also very obvious. In these two years, he was single-minded and buried his head in the classics.

With Master Jing'an's annotations on the Four Books and the book-reading insights of the Tan-hua Lang, plus his own diligence and not daring to slack off for a single day, his learning had improved day by day in the past two years.

Many instructors in the Bingwen Hall were from poor families and had studied hard.

Seeing a noble son of the Duke's prefecture not going to the Imperial Academy to mix for a shadow title, but coming to the Qingshan Academy to study.

Originally, they thought he was here to go through the motions and mix for fame, so they were quite exclusive to him at first.

But after a long time, they found that Jia Cong was low-key and diligent, not only without the dissolute and frivolous nature of a noble descendant, but also ranking at the top of the Bingwen Hall in the annual examinations every year, which made them look at him with new eyes.

Moreover, in April and June of this year, Jia Cong took the child examinations, passing both the county and prefecture examinations, and even ranking first in the prefecture examination, becoming the student with the best examination performance in the Bingwen Hall of the Qingshan Academy this year.

At the end of last month, he took the Yongzhou Academy Examination affiliated with the Love Shenjing. Although the results had not yet been announced, the instructors in the academy all said that he was sure to pass, it was just a matter of ranking.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 78 =====