Wu Jingzi of the Qing Dynasty wrote a total of 56 chapters in the "History of Ru Lin", including an excerpt from the "Fan Jin Zhongju" that we have learned in our previous textbooks, but why would we put the story of Wang Guan, who herded cattle and became self-taught, and saw through the story of Fame and Fortune Lu rejecting zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, into the first article?
Let's first look at the story of the crown:
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhejiang Zhuji people Wang Mian was poor since childhood, lost his father at the age of seven, his mother supported their mother and son by doing some needlework, and provided him with school to study, but when Wang Mian was ten years old, he could not support him to study, so the queen mother sent Wang Mian to the Qin family next door to herd cattle, and she could not get one or two silver every month, and she also packed rice, and went home at night to live.
Wang Mian led the buffalo of Qin Laojia every day, herding cattle on a green meadow not far from the lake, the cows dozed off, he read the old books under the willow tree, Qin Laojia provided him with two meals a day, breakfast was to bring some snacks to eat, sometimes Qin Lao would cook some pickled fish or bacon for Wang Mian to eat, and Wang Mian would wrap it back to his mother with lotus leaves.
He gathered the daily snack money together, went to the village school to buy some old books to read, and after a few years, when Wang Guan was 14 years old, he was still herding cattle by the lake, and the lake scenery after a sudden heavy rain was like a painting, and the lotus flowers and water droplets in the lake were fascinated by Wang Guan, and he thought that if he could paint this, it would be the beauty of the people in the painting.
So Wang Mian decided not to buy books in the future, and to buy some rouge lead powder and the like to learn to paint. After only three months of painting, the lotus pond painted by Wang Mian jumped on the paper, and the people in the township liked it very much, and some even paid for it.
At the age of 18, Wang Mian stopped herding cattle in his hometown of Qin, and made a living by painting, and inscribed some poems next to the paintings, which could also feed mother and son. In addition, in addition to painting over the years, Wang Mian also taught himself a lot of knowledge of astronomy, geography, and economic history, did not like to make friends, nor did he seek to be an official, and he had to read and paint all day long.
When he was 20 years old, a servant leader came from Qin Laojia, and Qin Lao greeted him with good wine and good food, and then invited Wang Mian to accompany him, who was famous for coming to find Wang Mian for the county lord to paint 24 flower books and give them to his superior, Wei Su. Wang Mian could not bend qin lao's affection, but promised to paint these 24 flowers with his heart, and the county lord gave 24 taels of silver, but the head of the servant took half of it and gave Wang Mian half.
Wei Su looked at the picture album sent by Shi Zhi County very fondly, and asked Shi Zhi County to come to his home to thank him, and asked who painted this album, Shi Zhi County said that it was painted by a rural king crown, Wei Su lamented that this person is not only highly talented, but also has different insights and a bright future, so he wants to see this crown.
Shizhi County sent a waiter with a post to invite him, but Wang Mian refused to see him with illness, and the next day, Shi Zhixian personally came to Wang Mian's home, but it was the Queen Mother who opened the door, saying that Wang Mian had gone to herd cattle and had not yet returned, and Shi ZhiXian saw a cattle herding boy on the field in front of the house, and asked him if he had seen Wang Mian, and the shepherd boy said that the cow he was leading was Wang Mian's, and he had eaten wine in the Wang family 20 miles away. Shi Zhixian was so angry that he stomped his feet and went back.
In fact, Wang Mian did not go far, and when Zhixian left, he returned home, and Elder Qin came to Wang Mian's house and said that he was too sloppy with the county lord, and Wang Mian explained to him that this Zhixian old man was now running amok in the township with the power of Wei Su, and if he went to tell the old man about this, I was afraid that Wei Su would also blame me, and now I could only go out to avoid it, and my mother would be handed over to Elder Qin to help take care of him.
Therefore, Elder Qin sent Wang Mian off, and the next day before dawn, Wang Mian took his luggage all the way to Jinan, Shandong, at this time, Wang Mian ran out of coils, so he set up a small stall on the side of the road for divination and word measurement, and then painted some flowers for a living, which was like half a year.
There are a few rich people in Jinan who also like the flowers painted by Wang Mian, and always order a few rough people to shout and shout to come to the ground, Wang Mian is considering that he has to change a place to make a living, and a team of people who seem to be fleeing people appeared on the streets of Jinan, it turned out that the Yellow River broke through and flooded the village, and the government did not care, so they had to scatter and forage for food.
Seeing this, Wang Mian sighed: "The river flows north, the world will be in chaos from now on, what else am I doing here?" So I packed up and went back to my hometown.
When he was about 27 years old, Wang Mian's mother was critically ill, and she told him her last words, advising him not to go out to be an official, although being an official can honor his ancestors, but his temperament is lonely and arrogant, I am afraid that in the official field to offend many people, it is better to stay at home to marry and have children, live in peace, and live in peace in this life. Wang Mian agreed to his mother's final advice.
At the age of 28, the world was in chaos.
One day, Wang Mian returned from his mother's grave to worship, saw more than a dozen horses to his doorstep, the head in front of him asked if it was Wang Mian's family, he introduced himself surnamed Zhu, known as King Wu, and came to visit Mr. Wang.
King Wu took Wang Guan's hand and went into the room, and sincerely asked him: "Please sir, sir, after a long rebellion, how can the Zhejiang people obey their hearts?" ”
Wang Mian replied, "The Great King is a wise and far-sighted man, and he does not need the villagers to say more." If you serve people with benevolence and righteousness, who will not obey? But Zhejiang, if it subdues people with military strength, although the Zhejiang people are weak, they are afraid that they will not be humiliated. ”
King Wu nodded in praise after hearing this, and the two of them talked about the sunset.
Later, after a few years, King Wu quelled the disaster, and the capital was Ying Tianfu, and the founding name was Daming and the year name was Hongwu. This person is Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.
When Hongwu was four years old, Wei Su was arrogant and self-respecting, and called himself an old minister in front of Taizu, and Taizu was furious and sent to the cemetery of Hezhou Shouyuque.
When the Ming Dynasty was established, the Ministry of Rites stipulated that there would be a three-year scientific examination, and the Four Books and Five Classics would be used to compose eight strands of text, and Wang Mian said to Elder Qin that this law was extremely bad, and that future readers would probably only have this path of promotion, and would inevitably look down on virtue and true learning.
One summer night, Wang Mian and Elder Qin sat in the night to drink, and Wang Mian pointed to the stars in the night sky and said, "You see, Guan Suo (the name of the star that symbolizes prison) is a prisoner Wenchang, and a generation of literati has a bad life. ”
A group of meteors in the sky crossed the sky and fell toward the southeast. Wang Mian also said, "Heaven pity you, send this group of star kings to maintain the fortunes of the literature, we are too late to see." ”
Later, the imperial court repeatedly sought out Wang Mian as an official, Wang Mian remembered his mother's last words, and went to Shaoxing's Huiji Mountain overnight, and then some people from the imperial court went to Wang Mian's residence to find him to go out to join the army, only to see the state of his family, and there was no hope of returning.
Wang Mian was buried in anonymity on Mount Huiji, and later fell ill and died, and the mountain people buried him at the foot of Mount Huiji.
This is the story of the crown and the beginning of the History of Ru lin. More coincidentally, Wang Mian ( 王冕 , literally Yuanzhang ) is homophonous with Zhu Yuanzhang.
After telling the story of Wang Guan, let's go back and talk about why Wu Jingzi put it in the first chapter?
The first 60 words of the first chapter are enough to say it all:
Life has many different paths in the north and south, and it will be immortal, and mortals will also do it.
Hundreds of generations rise and fall in the twilight, and the river wind blows down the trees in front of it.
Fame and fortune have no credentials, exhaust the mood, and always mistake the streamer.
Three glasses of turbid wine are drunk, and the water flowes and flowers know where to go.
Wu Jingzi said: This is just a cliché, fame and fortune are things outside the body, but as soon as the people of the world see the name of merit, they sacrifice their lives to ask for it, and when they get it, they taste the same as chewing wax.
In the first article, Wu Jingzi talked about Wang Mian's abandonment of the name of merit, saw through this external materialistic matter, did not want to stir into this complicated and deceitful court, preferred to be poor, and lived in seclusion at will, writing and painting, but also elegant.
The more people have, the more they are tied up by what they have, and when the heart of gain and loss arises, and greed is particularly born, people become suffering from gain and loss, and once they have it, how many people are willing to lose it.
Therefore, Wu Jingzi put the "see-through" of the crown at the top of the "History of Ru Lin", in order to remind the world that this fame and fortune will always make people obsessed, and then become crazy and lose their minds, but it is better to be a normal person, with an open-minded attitude to look at everything they have, perhaps take a step back, what you have is this vast heaven and earth!