During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Du Yi, the son of the governor of Ganzhou, Jiangxi, was a Xiucai and Shaoqing. His father was a qing official, and when he died, he did not leave any family property, fortunately, his ancestors still had some field property and about ten thousand silver left to Du Yi, but this Du Yi was a person with zero wealth and business, his heart was kind and soft, and he loved to make friends, and when he had no money, he sold the land.
Du Shaoqing's father had a housekeeper named Lou Huanwen, who had been in Du Mansion for more than thirty years, taking care of the real estate accounts for their family, and his father trusted him very much, with a salary of forty taels per year, he was upright and never hid privately, but he helped some poor relatives and friends, and the poor people who owed Du Fu silver would burn the IOU, and Du Zhifu knew it and never asked.
Lou Huanwen had two sons and four grandchildren, and because of his generosity and helpfulness, his descendants were not rich, old and sick, and lived in Du Province, all supported by Du Shaoqing. Every time his son or grandson came to see Mrs. Lou, Du Shaoqing secretly gave them dozens or hundreds of taels of silver to take back.
Later, Mrs. Lou's illness became more and more serious, so she returned to her hometown and was anxious to send her own children and grandchildren to the end, and how could she let the owner Du Shaoqing always take care of it and leave, so Du Shaoqing took some silver and sent someone to send Mrs. Lou to the ship back to his hometown.
Mrs. Lou said something to Du Shaoqing before leaving, in fact, she had already seen Du Shaoqing's character and character, not a person who would be in charge of the family, and she was indifferent to fame and fortune, and loved to make friends, so sooner or later the family business would be difficult to protect. Mrs. Lou said that if a person is virtuous, he will not worry about having no food to eat and no way to go.
Du Shaoqing had a classmate named Zang Di, who helped people go through the back door to buy a Xiucai, and received three hundred taels of silver from others, and later the above was strictly checked and did not dare to sell, but he took this money to make up for his name (the student has passed the age, the person who has achieved excellent results in the two examinations, the increase in life can be promoted in turn), and now he wants to refund the three hundred and two that people bought Xiucai, where Zang Di has this money, knowing that Du Shaoqing is generous and responsive, he will set up a banquet to ask Du Shaoqing for help. Zang Di prostrated his head and prayed again, and du Shaoqing learned that it was such a small matter, and the next day he sent a butler to send three hundred taels of silver.
Du Fu has a folk knowledge of medicine Zhang Junmin, who used to stay in Du Mansion to dispense medicine for Lou Taiye, this Zhang Junmin has a son who has reached the age of scientific examination, but because he was unable to take the local exam in other places at that time, he came to ask Du Shaoqing. Because this Du Shaoqing's father had donated thousands of taels of silver to build this examination shed, Du Shaoqing had been paying for the repair of the examination shed, so it was not a big deal to send someone to take the examination by virtue of his relationship, but it was only to let this Zhang Junmin donate 120 taels of money to the study palace, Zhang Junmin did not, so he asked Du Shaoqing at the same time, and he agreed to it all.
Another doorman came from Du Mansion, Ni Tingxi of the drama team, because he was an adopted son, his adoptive father died and was driven out by his adoptive mother and had no livelihood, so he was introduced and asked Du Shaoqing to reward him with a capital to re-pull up the drama team to make a living. Although it cost five or six hundred taels for this business to re-establish a set of teams, Du Shaoqing first gave Ni Tingxi one hundred and two to explore the way, promising to give Silver to help him if necessary later.
Du Shaoqing used the money from the sale of land to help everyone who came to him, among these people were good men, people with lofty ambitions and no capital, officials who rose up after falling into trouble, and some treacherous villains who looked up to him as a good deception.
Every time Du Shaoqing helped these people make a comeback or run ahead, he would ask the housekeeper Wang Beard to sell a piece of land and sell a piece of land, some 1300 taels, some more than 2000 taels, but these silver did not take long to squander, until the final land was sold out, leaving only his own set of houses.
How beautiful is the ancestral mansion where Du Shaoqing lived? Wu Jingzi's simple description can see the elegant book fragrance:
From the hall twists and turns through an alley to the back garden, on the left is the Zhishu Building, in front of the building there is a large courtyard, a peony hall, a peony hall, two huge osmanthus trees. On the right are three high-rise wooden houses, next to which are three study rooms, a large lotus pond with a bridge on it. Across the bridge are three secret rooms, and here is Du Shaoqing's study.
Just imagining such a situation, listening to the wind and rain in the house, smelling flowers and reading books, is simply a great joy in life, but it is suitable for people in the dead house, and they can live peacefully without leaving home.
However, du Shaoqing did not even keep this mansion, and after listening to Mrs. Lou's last words, he let him go to Nanjing or have a chance to make a living, so he gave the ancestral house to the family, and moved with his wife from Tianchang County, Anhui Province, with about 1,000 taels of silver left.
In the Ming Dynasty, renting a house or buying a house is similar to some of the current rules, but also looking for a real estate agent, but at that time, the real estate agent was called "Fang Yazi", renting a house was a bet to pay one, and a set of river view houses had a monthly rent of eight or two silver.
Du Shaoqing often went out with a group of friends in Nanjing to go out to enjoy the scenery, took his wife to go outside to enjoy the scenery, and at first he often held a gold cup in his hand, and then he had no money, so he took this gold cup as thirty-two, and the gold cup in his hand became a copper cup.
In fact, Du Shaoqing was talented and learned, but he was too indifferent to utilitarianism and did not like the shackles and struggles of the officialdom, and when his uncle Lord Li recommended him to serve as a Confucian instructor in Tianchang County, he said that he was seriously ill and refused to live and die. Everyone else felt sorry for him, but Du Shaoqing replied:
"Going out can't do anything, it only makes people laugh, so it's better not to go out, I'm elk-like, I'm used to it, I've done a show talent, with this ending, the future township exam should not be, the age of science is not tested, free, do some of your own things." 」
A person's behavior, some people understand, some people misunderstand, and even be scolded, are different circumstances and different pursuits of life to look at.
For example, in Du Shaoqing's behavior, some people appreciate that he is not bound by fame and fortune, and he is open-minded and transparent; some people say that he is generous and informal; some people say that he is a loser, who has no interest and no ambition.
When talking about the history of the scriptures with his fellow practitioners, when talking about the "Book of Poetry", Du Shaoqing's opinions may be able to see his thoughts and pursuits and views on life, he said:
"When you look at these two couples, they don't have the slightest heart to think of going up to fame and fortune, playing the piano and drinking, and knowing their fate and happiness, which is the gentleman of more than three generations of self-cultivation and family."
"The world is but these people, and if one man occupies a few women, there will be several wives in the world." The younger brother legislated for the imperial court: if he is born forty years without children, he is allowed to marry a concubine; if this concubine does not have children, he will be sent to marry. It is like this, there may be fewer wives in the world. ”
In the face of worldly gossip and gossip, and the fact that everyone has the ambition to take up meritorious service, how many people like Du Shaoqing can understand such behavior, most people will look at him from a secular perspective, only to know that he is a loser who has lost his ancestral business, and now he is hiding in Nanjing, taking his wife around to eat and drink, doing nothing, and writing poetry and selling literature.
But those who understand him know his inner world, he does not care about the world's prejudice against him, the past heroic deeds are scattered and only the past is like the wind, never reminiscing, not remembering the past, the present is steadfast and peaceful, Happy Heaven knows fate, escape from the world, are all life.
In the past, he was generous and righteous, did not spare money, and cherished righteousness, which was his choice and his nature; now, he is poor and happy, living in a corner, accompanying his wife, gathering with friends, living with literature, and sending love to landscapes and rivers, which is also his life.
Some people say that Du Shaoqing is the first strange person in ancient and modern times. Whether it is to be a person or to do poetry, there is a unique charm, in the eyes of those who understand, he is a maverick, a person who has real talent and practical learning and is not tied up by external objects, and people who do not understand only scold him and degrade him, and look down on him. However, why did Du Shaoqing need these external evaluations, he would always do only himself, everything was in accordance with his heart.
Wu Jingzi wrote About Du Shaoqing in "The History of Ru Lin", and many people saw his own shadow, as if he was telling his own story, which was similar to Cao Xueqin's writing of Jia Baoyu in "Dream of the Red Chamber".
Wu Jingzi's father left him more than 20,000 silver, but he had moved to Nanjing at the age of 33 and lived in poverty, at this time, he began to write the "History of Ru Lin", and did not complete the entire masterpiece until his death. Unfortunately, at the age of 53, Wu Jingzi died suddenly after drinking wine with his friends on a boat in Yangzhou, and only his young son was by his side.
Wu Jingzi married two wives and four sons in his lifetime. After his death, he had no money to be buried, or Lu Jian, the two Huai salt transporters, bore all his funeral expenses and transported his body back to Nanjing for burial.
The description of Du Shaoqing in the "History of Ru Lin" is somewhat self-deprecating, on the one hand, he scolds himself as a loser in the name of the world, and loses 60,000 or 70,000 taels of silver in ten years, on the other hand, he praises himself as a rare stranger with a very few confidants.
It's just that we don't see how Wu Jingzi designed Du Shaoqing to end his life, and perhaps he himself did not expect that he would die in this way of "wind and snow and snow", but heaven gave Wu Jingzi an ending that was most in line with his life, living and dying on a ship in the dark of night, without obstacles, without fear, and went to another world in a good mood, truly swimming between heaven and earth.