Maybe I'm naïve, maybe I'm underestimating Ma Boyong.
Who would have thought that a novelist who is good at making up stories from ancient times would be so "crazy" about history.
I thought that after the premiere of 4 episodes, most of the characters and Fuhuadao in "Silk Case" should be introduced.
But who would have thought that just the short 40 minutes of episode 5 would contain almost the same amount of unpopular historical knowledge as the first 4 episodes.
Looking at these words that you know every word, put together but can't understand at all, makes people feel almost "collapsed".
Although the plot has ups and downs, although each character has a distinct personality, although it can be seen at all regardless of these obscure words.
But those words that almost exclusively belonged to ancient people made me completely "crazy", perhaps Zhang Ruoyun and Wang Yang were not acting, but jointly writing an "encyclopedia" exclusive to the Ming Dynasty.
So there was my second challenge to Ma Boyong, and then I interpreted Zhang Ruoyun and Wang Yang word by word and sentence by sentence.
So I started to read a series of classics such as "History of Ming", "Ming Shilu", and "Ming Huidian".
And all this is just so that I can better understand the words and deeds of the people in the play, just so that I can understand what these ancients did and said what they meant.
All this is only because: Ma Boyong inadvertently "showed" his knowledge once...
Express shop and express shop
The most exciting scene at the beginning of episode 5 is the courier who runs wildly on the official road.
Although the play uses the mouth of Feng Baoyu to explain to Shuai Jiamo what is "express delivery shop" and what is "express delivery shop".
In fact, this method of transmitting letters entirely by human power has had a prototype since the Song Dynasty and was standardized in the Yuan Dynasty.
The express delivery shop in the Ming Dynasty just followed the old system of the Yuan Dynasty.
However, while inheriting the old system, the Ming Dynasty also made many innovations and reforms in this regard.
On the basis of the express delivery shop, two similar institutions were added, the water horse post and the delivery office, which together formed the three major institutions of the post post in the Ming Dynasty.
It is a pity that in historical materials such as "Mingshi Record" and "Daming Huidian", there is no detailed record of these institutions.
It can only be roughly estimated that the number of express delivery shops in the Ming Dynasty is about 14,000, there are about 1,032 water horse stations, and there are more than 146 delivery offices.
What is water carving?
Regarding the term "water carving", it is really embarrassing for the author.
Here we have to admire Ma Boyong's attainment and erudition in historical knowledge.
Because I have almost no way to find the origin and meaning of the word water carving, although I know what he refers to, I just can't find the word from historical sources.
Of course, since we know that this is the unit used for timekeeping, it is easy to confirm from the historical records of the express shop what its true time is.
Generally speaking, the ancients generally divided the twelve hours of a day (that is, a day and night) into 100 parts (that is, one hundred moments).
This division is historically known as the "100-carved system".
If it corresponds to the modern concept of timekeeping, it can be calculated: 1440\100=14.4, which is 14 minutes and 24 seconds.
That is, the approximate length of a moment is 15 minutes.
In the historical introduction of the express delivery shop, there is this record:
"Every three moments, one shop, day and night must travel 300 li, but when the official document arrives at the shop, do not ask how many angles are counted, it needs to be delivered immediately, day and night, ring the bell and deliver."
When all this is matched with the introduction in Feng Baoyu's mouth, I can generally confirm that the water carving he refers to is the 15 minutes in what we often call "one moment and three moments".
That is, the express delivery paving soldier needs to run 500 miles (5 kilometers) in three moments (45 minutes).
The timely "Tale of the West Wing"
Compared with the untimely "Female Solution" in Episode 2, this time Cheng Renqing's "Tale of the West Wing" in the Qinglou is much in line with the context of history and time.
The two beauties in the play sing the content of the third fold of the third book of the five plays of "Xixian Ji", "Zhang Junrui's Miscellaneous Drama of Hurting Love".
The content of the whole paragraph should be "not close to the noise, the tender green pond hides sleeping ducks; Naturally elegant, pale yellow willow with roosting crows. The golden lotus damaged the peony bud, and the jade hairpin grabbed the shelf. The night was cool and slippery, and the dew was soaked through Limbo socks. ”
The reason why Cheng Renqing listened to the scene of "Tale of the West Wing" may be related to his chat with his classmates in the county seat.
One of the most famous characters in "The West Wing" is the "Red Lady".
And what she represents for love, breaking through the shackles of "door-to-door" is not only happy but also tragic.
Perhaps it was one of the key factors that made Cheng Renqing recite the latter poem so mournfully.
Gunge reading book pitcher and Cheng Xiang Guo Yan Gong
Cheng Renqing listened to the ditty and heard the sadness, and couldn't help but recite a few verses:
Compete in the endless joy of the world, list the books that have never been seen in his life, talk about the sacrifice of the pitching pot, and talk about the similarity of fencing horses.
In fact, this poem called "Junge Reading Book Pitcher and Chengxiang Guo Yangong" is followed by four sentences:
The painting building went to smell the cold corner in the evening, and it seemed that the silverfish had fallen, and the daily teachings were all old learning, and they were not ashamed of poverty
Warp hoe.
Also combined with the plot of chatting with classmates later.
The mood of this poem can be said to fully reflect Cheng Renqing's resentful state of mind.
That kind of heaven and earth that has a good martial art, but does not have half a point to show, really makes this seven-foot man depressed.
At the same time, such a scene and such a state of mind also laid a thick foundation for Cheng Renqing's self-"whitewashing" after that.
What is pitching?
As the name suggests, it is thrown into the pot, and the one who can hit wins.
This is a throwing game that has been around since the Spring and Autumn Warring States period.
After the evolution to the Ming Dynasty, due to the prosperity and wealth of society, this entertainment sport has been greatly developed and promoted.
From the Son of Heaven to the ordinary people, almost everyone can cast that once or twice.
In the Ming Dynasty, not only did some emperors like to play this game, but even in their funeral goods they had to be prepared for the emperor's fun.
In the book "Pitching Pot", there are more than 140 kinds of casting methods recorded in his pitching pot, such as: spring sleep, listening to the piano, inverted, rolling the curtain, geese reed, turning butterflies and so on.
Moreover, Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng described in his unconventional book that Ximen Qing was not only good at throwing pots, but even throwing them where they were not pots.
There really is a doctor's place
To say that it has to be Ma Boyong, not only re-invented a brand new story from "Silk Case".
Many suitable props and buildings have also been added to it.
Just like outside the house where Fan Yuan lives in the play, the archway engraved with "Dafufang" is the real existence in reality.
Moreover, he is indeed located in the place where the "Silk Case" occurred, in the county seat of Xiao County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province.
However, Huangshan City is really a place where people and spirits are gone.
Because in addition to the Dafufang built in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty in Xiao County, there is also a Dafufang built in the Longqing period of the Ming Dynasty in Shangshan Township, Xiuning County.
Both of these houses are so-called "meritorious shops", that is, after the local jinshi or officials in the dynasty have reached a certain degree of fame.
After his return to his hometown, the imperial court set up a kind of meritorious workshop for him to recognize their merits.
Can a horse eat black beans or chicken?
In order to prevent Shuai Jiamo and his party from continuing to file a complaint, Cheng Renqing rode to the county seat.
On the way, take a short break at the Guanjia post station and let the horses eat some forage to replenish their strength.
As a herbivorous action, people have a very long history of feeding horses black beans.
And not only horses, but also donkeys, mules, cows and other livestock are fed black beans.
Because horses that have eaten black beans are obviously stronger, more powerful, and more resistant to disease than horses that only eat forage.
It's just that for the meat of "chicken", I can't figure it out anyway, did the animal husbandry industry in the Ming Dynasty really reach this level?
As an ingredient that is only eaten in certain places, eating chicken is a traditional delicacy that complements the shape.
As a horse that eats grass, why do you eat chickens?
If you insist on me to rationalize this statement.
I can only say that because chickens are rich in protein and fat, they can quickly replenish the physical strength or energy lost by horses due to long runs.
At the same time, because the chicken is delicious (meaning after cooking), perhaps it can be fed to the horse with black beans to increase his appetite.
Of course, only Ma Boyong can give the correct answer to all this speculation.
It was because of a miswriting that there was a tooth man
Zhuang Santi wanted to find a tooth man who specialized in the road gate for Feng Baoyu, who spent a lot of money, so that he could avoid the suffering of the thirty big plates.
But this tooth man changed from "mutual person" to "tooth man" because of a miswriting.
The so-called tooth man, put today, is the broker who matches in the buying and selling transactions.
In ancient times, it was a special kind of merchant, also known as a matchmaker or intermediary merchant.
Due to the rapid development of commerce and economy in the Ming Dynasty, the number and category of the profession of toothman increased rapidly.
This has even led to the emergence of a special trade union: the dental industry.
These are numerous dentists and are active in different industries and categories.
This is also why Zhuang Santi in the play can find a "specialized" tooth man for Feng Baoyu.
It can be seen how meticulous and complicated the specific division of labor was when he was a tooth man in this line at that time.
It's just that the reputation of the tooth people in society is not good, because many tooth people will make such moves as fraud and coaxing, drilling for profits, and charging high commissions.
Therefore, it is unknown whether Feng Baoyu in the play was deceived by the tooth man or Zhuang Santi.
How can silver still be cut with scissors
Once again, I would like to express my admiration for Ma Boyong.
Who would have thought that the play would restore the true state of the Ming Dynasty's use of silver.
Because of the confusion and counterfeiting of silver at that time, most people at that time only recognized weight and shape.
Therefore, the situation of cutting silver with steel scissors in the play, and then using the scale to now weigh the amount of silver, was real in the Ming Dynasty.
And at that time, not only silver ingots could be cut into small pieces and used after weighing.
Even jewelry like silver can be taken out and cut into small pieces to trade or buy.
For example, today's numismatic units such as horn, wool, millimeter, and centimeter were gradually formed and continued to this day after the size of the silver was continuously cut at that time.
In addition, the name used to call silver in the play also has its own exclusive name: 戥 (děng) 子.
It can be used not only to weigh silver, but also valuable medicinal herbs, spices, pigments, etc.
Why get into the spines?
Cheng Renqing's classmate lamented that he could not enter the thorn for the rest of his life, what kind of place is this thorn?
As Cheng Renqing, who is happy today, why does he have to break into this thorn?
The so-called thorn wai comes from the "Spring and Autumn Chu Thorny Gate" in "Zuo Chuan Zhao Gong Thirteen Years".
Generally we understand that thorn is the name of the inside, and 闱 represents the door.
In the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Shijian Regulations", there is a saying that "those who take the test with thorns are the choice of the Tianyuan Dry City".
Therefore, the thorn here should refer to the tribute of the exam.
Generally, in order to prevent candidates from cheating, most of the temples will spread thorns on the surrounding walls to prevent outsiders from climbing over the wall and entering, and only then will there be "thorns surrounding the test takers".
So we understood why Cheng Renqing would sigh for a long time in the Qinglou, because he could only be a despised lawyer, because he never had the opportunity to gain fame again.
Because he will not be allowed to enter the thorn again for the rest of his life.
Written at the end:
When you can see this, it means that you still like the materials and information that I have consulted.
I may also find that some obviously meaningful words and content were not included in my article.
On the one hand, this situation occurs because of the limited energy and creative time, and it is impossible to write each article to a length of 5,000 words.
On the other hand, a lot of the content is likely to be a joke made up by Ma Boyong.
For example, Shuai Jiamo recalled his father's "art of pushing and gathering at the top".
In terms of plot, Ma Boyong adapted the important historical material of the entire "Silk Case": "The Complete Book of Silk Silk" into a book written by Shuai Jiamo's father a long time ago.
The book is currently hidden or lost.
In order to protect the shocking secrets recorded in the book, it is natural that the real content cannot be written truthfully in the book.
And this may be the origin and reason of the "technique of pushing and gathering at the top".
Well, about the "Encyclopedia of Episode 5" co-written by Zhang Ruoyun and Wang Yang, the author will sort it out here for everyone.
If you like and understand these knowledge and vocabulary, you are welcome to show me your heart.
It gives me more motivation to scrape and summarize those obscure plots and content for everyone.
Let's take each episode of the "encyclopedia" and challenge Ma Boyong's "The Silk Case of Daming under the Microscope".
(This article is an original article of "Hua Yuhan", and the non-"Hua Yuhan" account is all plagiarism and handling!) ）
The above is my understanding and perception of episode 5 of "Daming under the Microscope", more wonderful analysis, let's see you next time!
(After reading it, remember to pay attention to "Hua Yuhan" Oh, the picture comes from the Internet)