boyutpedia Chapter 297 The Copyist is Here
Chapter 297 The Copyist is Here
Li Fan is very smart, sensible and filial. When he is not studying, he will collect firewood, dig wild vegetables, catch grasshoppers to feed chickens, and catch small fish to nourish his mother. He also helps his mother grow vegetables, do housework, and help his uncle's family with spring plowing and harvesting.
Later, when his handwriting had improved, he took on the job of copying books to earn money to support his family.
He did all kinds of work and distracted a lot of his energy on other things, but he still passed the imperial examination and became a scholar at the age of eighteen.
Because of his poor family background, he didn't get married until he was seventeen years old. The other party was a distant cousin of his.
The girl was hardworking and capable, had a straightforward personality and was pretty, but because of working for a long time, her skin was a little rough and dark.
The two got married in front of the scholar Li Fanzhong, and have lived in harmony with each other ever since.
In addition to his wife and elderly mother, Li Fan also has a three-year-old daughter to raise.
His old mother had been working hard for many years and her health had not been very good. His adobe house was already crumbling and really needed to be demolished and rebuilt.
Plus, he had spent a lot of money on taking an exam some time ago, so he was very short of money now.
The family was short of money, Li Fan himself was down-to-earth, hard-working and responsible, and he was also the youngest and most promising of the remaining three candidates, so it was no surprise that Bai Jingzhou felt he was the most suitable.
After all, a person who can humble himself and take on the responsibility of supporting his family when he has the most promising future and the most ambition can serve as a better role model than a person who settles for the second best and chooses to teach after losing hope in the imperial examinations.
As the saying goes, teaching by example, if he has a choice, Bai Jingzhou still hopes to find a teacher for his children who can not only teach them knowledge, but also guide them to form a positive attitude towards life and correct values, so he plans to contact Li Fan first.
Bai Jingzhou did his homework in advance and the conditions he proposed were ones that Li Fan could not refuse.
"The monthly salary is four taels, and there will be additional gifts for festivals. In addition, I have a large collection of books. You can copy any book that Brother Li likes and keep it for yourself."
"Brother Li, if you are worried about your family, you can bring them to Baijia Village. The school will arrange a relatively independent courtyard for you."
The more Li Fan listened, the more excited he became.
The teachers employed by the two academies in Guanzhuang Town received a monthly salary of about three taels, while the teachers employed by the clan schools in each village received only two taels or two and a half taels.
As for those local famous scholars or officials from the previous dynasties who opened their own schools at home to teach students, Li Fan was very self-aware and did not compare them with them.
The treatment was good and the school could provide accommodation for his family, so he didn't even have to rush to build a house.
Of course, what attracted him most was the large collection of books in Bai Jingzhou's collection. He knew too well how difficult it was for ordinary people like them to get access to books that were not circulated.
Li Fan agreed without much hesitation. He and Bai Jingzhou made an appointment that he would bring his family to Baijia Village to teach on the eighth day of the first lunar month next year.
It is worth mentioning that although Li Fan did not take office immediately, Bai Jingzhou still sent his family a generous New Year gift before the Chinese New Year, because the "Eight Festivals" in traditional customs include the Spring Festival.
Of course, this is a story for another day.
After discussing all matters with Li Fan and putting their agreement on paper, Bai Jingzhou went home to take care of other things.
On the third day after he returned to Baijia Village, the people sent by Mu Hanzhi to copy books arrived.
They brought several carts of pens, ink, paper and inkstones, as well as two large boxes of books that Mu Hanzhi sent as a token of his gratitude.
The books include collections of poems and fu that the Mu Hanzhi brothers bought in bookstores in the capital, collections of poems and fu that they copied with the help of connections in the Imperial College, as well as precious books such as Lun Heng, Family Instructions of Yan, Selected Tang Poems, Literary Mind and Carving of Dragons, Shi Pin, Water Classic, Wood Classic, Zi Ren Yi Zhi, Synopsis of the Golden Chamber, and Thousand Gold Prescriptions. It also includes a collection of articles by the examiners of this year's imperial examinations and the court bulletins since the founding of the new dynasty.
In addition to these, Mu Jingzhi also asked people to bring Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan some travel notes, vernacular novels, poetry collections, etc. that were very popular in the capital.
Bai Jingzhou was overjoyed and treated the copyists sent by Mu Jingzhi with great hospitality. He not only held a welcoming banquet for them and arranged a separate courtyard for them to live in, but also asked the servants in his house to prepare three meals a day and snacks for them in different ways every day.
When those people had finished copying the books, Peng Xuan'an finally waited for the day when the provincial school was closed. He went home to meet County Magistrate Peng and his sister, and then happily came to Bai Jingzhou's house to play.
Because it was already the beginning of the twelfth lunar month when he arrived, it was not convenient for him to stay in the Bai family for long, so Peng Xuan'an also brought a group of people who were responsible for copying books.
Bai Jingzhou's house is now very big and can accommodate another group of copyists. He arranged this group of people next to the copyists sent by the Mu family, and entertained them with three meals a day plus snacks.
Just two days after Peng Xuan'an arrived, the Mu family's group asked to leave because they had already copied all the books they were supposed to copy.
Bai Jingzhou arranged Bai Jingshan, Ning Qirui, his younger brother and Gu Wenxuan's younger brothers to be responsible for lending and collecting books. Although every book borrowed was a copy copied by Bai Jingzhou and others and not the original, they would still check it from beginning to end when it was collected to ensure that there were no problems.
The few books that were returned by the group at the end were given the same treatment. After they checked them by burning the midnight oil, they ate the hot noodle soup brought by Bai Jingzhou himself, and then went back to wash up and rest.
The people brought by Peng Xuan'an also followed the same rules and procedures, and the book copying work was carried out quickly and in an orderly manner.
After they finally copied all the books that County Magistrate Peng and Peng Xuan'an wanted, Peng Xuan'an, who had been playing in Baijia Village for several days, reluctantly said goodbye to Bai Jingzhou.
If he didn't have to go home to be with his father during the Chinese New Year, Peng Xuan'an actually didn't want to leave at all.
Although Baijia Village is in the countryside and cannot be compared to the prosperous county town, it is no less lively than the county town.
In addition, although Bai Jingzhou did not take the imperial examination this year, his knowledge was not bad at all. Whenever he discussed academic matters with him, he always felt as if he had been enlightened.
This feeling was much better than listening to his teacher's lectures with great effort. Peng Xuan'an even felt that if all his teachers were as good at teaching as Bai Jingzhou, he would definitely not be just a last-place scholar.
Bai Jingzhou could see that he was reluctant to leave, but at such a special time as the New Year, Bai Jingzhou couldn't bear to keep him in his home.
The only thing he could do was to bring back a bunch of things in large and small packages for Peng Xuan'an.
In addition to the cotton seeds and cotton that he had long planned to give to Peng Xuan'an, Bai Jingzhou also loaded two trucks with yam, lotus root, frozen fish, frozen shrimp, wine, soy products, preserved eggs, mushrooms, fungus, pine nuts, chestnuts and other agricultural and sideline products for him.