Zheng Xuan's maid and copyright

The second story of Zheng Xuan in "The New Language of the World" is not as thrilling as being chased and killed by the teacher, but it is also interesting. The original text is as follows:

Zheng Xuan's slaves and slaves all read. Taste a maid who does not weigh the will, and will tart it, Fang Zichen said, Xuan Anger, let people drag in the mud. Su Wei, a concubine came and asked, "Hu Wei is in the mud?" Answer: "Thin words, the anger of the other." ”

This small story of dozens of words, the first half of the language is relatively shallow, and what is slightly difficult to understand is the answer of two maids. The mystery of the story is also in the answer.

Or let's start with the vernacular text of the story:

The slaves in Zheng Xuan's family all read. One day, Zheng Xuan summoned a maid, the maid was not doing a good job, Zheng Xuan wanted to whip her, and the maid had to defend herself. Zheng Xuan was even more angry and had people pull her into the muddy water. After a while, another maid came over and asked her colleague, "What is the mud?" (How could it be in the mud?) The punished maid replied, "Speaking softly, in the anger of the other (I went to confess that I was resentful in my heart, and I was running into his anger.) ）"

The story itself is not special, what is special is the dialogue between the two handmaidens. Translated into the vernacular, the dialogue is bland, but the original text has a lot of cultural content - it is all the original text quoted from the Book of Poetry!

"Hu wei is in the mud", from the "Poetry Classic, Shao Feng, And Decline". "Thin words to tell, the anger of the other", from the "Book of Poetry, Shao Feng, Bai Zhou". Hu, why. Thin words, words, no real meaning. Sue, sue, plead.

A small accident that was punished for not doing things according to the master's intention was performed by two maids into a "Book of Poetry" recitation, and I don't know if Zheng Xuan was crying and laughing at that time. No matter how this matter ends, it can be seen from this that Zheng Xuan's learning is too great, so that the maids have a little knowledge to show off; at the same time, it also shows that Zheng Xuan is still tolerant of his subordinates, allowing them to learn culture.

The third story goes like this:

Zheng Xuan wanted to note the "Spring and Autumn Biography", and when it was not yet completed, Xing and Fuzi cautiously met the guest house. Before they knew each other, they talked to people on the outside car about their notes on the meaning of the "Biography", and they listened to it for a long time, and they were mostly with themselves. Xuan said, "I have been paying attention for a long time, but I am not yet." Listen to the king's words, and be with me. Now I should do everything I can to be with the King. "Thus for the Service Note."

Vernacular translation:

Zheng Xuan wanted to annotate the "Spring and Autumn Biography", and when it was not yet completed, he once went to a foreign country and met with Fuzi Shen unexpectedly, staying in the same guest house. At first, they didn't know each other, but Fuzishen talked to others about his idea of annotating the Spring and Autumn Biography in the car outside the guest room, and Zheng Xuan listened to it for a long time in the house and felt that most of Fuzishen's views were the same as his own. Zheng Xuan went to the side of the car and said to Fu Zishen: "I have long wanted to annotate the Spring and Autumn Biography, but I have not yet completed it. Listening to what you just said, I find that most of your views are the same as mine. Now it is time for me to send you all the notes I have made. On the basis of his own research, Fu Zishen absorbed Zheng Xuan's achievements and completed the annotation of the Spring and Autumn Biography, which is the "Spring and Autumn Zuo Clan Transmission".

The Spring and Autumn Biography, also known as the Spring and Autumn Zuo Shi Biography, or Zuo Chuan for short, is an important Confucian classic, and its annotations are highly valued by Han Dynasty classicists. Fu Zi Shen (服子慎), courtesy name 虔, was also a Scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty, who served as Shangshu Shilang and Jiujiang Taishou . The Spring and Autumn Zuo Clan ChuanYi, which he completed by accepting Zheng Xuan's annotated manuscript, is his masterpiece. The story of Zheng Xuan's transfer of writing materials shows that Zheng Xuan is not only erudite, but also open-minded, and has a very low regard for fame and fortune. It should be rare among scholars to easily transfer copyrights without compensation when they hear the words of their peers- there are many scholars who do not value money and status, but they value their own works, and there are not a few people who regard their own works as life.

Zheng Xuan has been devoted to learning since he was a teenager, and he is not vain. When he was eleven or twelve years old, he accompanied his mother to his grandfather's house, and the guests present at that time were all dressed in gorgeous clothes, exaggerated, and appeared to be very status and grandiose. Only Zheng Xuan sat silently on the side, as if his identity and talent could not catch up with others. His mother felt that there was no light on his face, so she secretly urged him to show some talent. Zheng Xuan disagreed, saying that these vulgar scenes were "not what I wanted, not what I wanted." Zheng Xuan's quality is probably also the internal reason why he has resigned as an official many times.

What is particularly admirable is that the great achievement of Zheng Xuan's learning was achieved in a difficult and difficult environment. In the second year of the Han Ling Emperor Jianning (169), the eunuch clique won the struggle against the foreign aristocratic forces, and cruelly retaliated against the scholars who supported the foreign forces, more than a hundred scholars' leaders were killed, and the scholars' "party members" and their protégés, former officials, fathers and sons, and brothers who were currently in official positions were all dismissed from their posts and imprisoned, which was the second "disaster of the party" in the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Du Mi, who had served as Shang Shuling and a servant, committed suicide by being punished during this crackdown. Zheng Xuan was once appreciated and promoted by Du Mi, and was also regarded as a party member, and was imprisoned in the fourth year of Jianning (171). The so-called confinement, that is, being forcibly returned to the fields and not being allowed to become an official, is a punishment that severely restricts political rights. Zheng Xuan was imprisoned at the age of 45 and pardoned at the age of 58 for 14 years. It was during this period that he immersed himself in the study of scriptures, annotated and wrote "more than a million words", and eventually became a generation of masters.

It is such a master of noble character, but he was forcibly recruited by the warlord Yuan Shao to accompany the army to strengthen the façade, and finally depressed and finally on the way to the march, how can it not be lamented! However, according to the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Zheng Xuan had foreseen in advance that his life would end. In the spring of the fifth year of Jian'an (200 AD), he dreamed that Confucius said to him: "Rise, rise, this year is in Chen, next year is in The year." Tatsumi and Mi refer to the Year of the Dragon and the Year of the Snake, respectively, and according to the saying at the time, the Year of the Dragon and the Serpent was not good for the sages. Zheng Xuan woke up sullen and unhappy, so he divination, "knowing the fate of the end", after a short time was seriously ill.

In June of that year, Zheng Xuan, a master of classics, died of illness at the age of 74.