In the twenty-ninth year of Ming Jiajing (1550), Wu Cheng'en, a great scholar who had been in a state of life, was already fifty-one years old. Jiangnan Xuezheng submitted the old Xiucai's name to the imperial court and recommended him to be a gongsheng. Although the status of The Gongsheng was lower than that of the people, he was finally a little higher than Xiucai, and as usual, he had to go to Beijing to listen to the appointment of the imperial court's elected officials or arrange other ways out. Wu Cheng'en was not taken seriously in Beijing, waited for more than two months, did not obtain a minimum official position, was arranged to study in the Nanjing Guozijian, and became a tai student.
Nanjing Guozijian was originally a Taixue of the early Ming Dynasty.
After Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang declared himself the capital of the emperor in Jinling, he felt that cultivating talents and correct customs was not ahead of the school. Therefore, following the old system of the previous dynasty, in the fourteenth year of Hongwu (1381), the Guozijian was built as the highest institution of learning in the country, which is commonly known as "Taixue". The former site of guozijian was in the area of Chengxian Street under jiming mountain in present-day Nanjing, and the range of four was north to the foothills of Jiming Mountain, south to Pearl Bridge, west to Jinxiang River, and east to Xiaoying. Chengxian Street was named after Guozijian as a school that cultivated talents. The Chengxian Street Campus of Southeast University was the main part of the Guozijian at that time, and the fourth archway was the south gate of the Guozijian at that time. According to historical records, the maximum number of students in Guozijian reached nearly 10,000. For example, in the 20th year of Yongle (1422), there were 9972 students in prison and 14 foreign students. The buildings inside the Guozi Prison are extremely magnificent. There are 1 main hall and 15 rooms in the complex, named "Yilun Hall"; 6 branch halls, namely 15 in each hall, namely Shizheng, Shudo, Sincerity, Justice, Chongzhi and Guangye; about 14 library buildings; there are more than 1,000 number houses for student dormitories, more than 100 "Prince's Study" and Guangzhe Hall used by foreign students, and dozens of teachers' residences. There are also more than 100 acres of lecture houses, shooting gardens, vegetable gardens, mills, warehouses, etc. The largest encyclopedia in ancient China, the Yongle Canon, was compiled and copied from Guozijian. This large "class book", together with the catalog, totaled 22,937 volumes, in 11,095 volumes, with a total word count of 370 million.
During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the Guozijian that was moved to Beijing to build was called "North Prison", and the Guozijian in Nanjing was renamed "Southern Prison".
Wu Cheng'en entered the Nanjing Guozi Prison
Wu Cheng'en was a native of Shanyang County, Huai'an Province (present-day Huai'an District, Huai'an, Jiangsu Province), and had traveled to Yingtianfu (present-day Nanjing) several times in his lifetime. In the autumn of the tenth year of Ming Jiajing (1531), Wu Cheng'en came to Ying Tianfu to participate in the township examination. In this scientific expedition, Wu Cheng'en's name fell to Sun Mountain. In the autumn of the thirteenth year of Jiajing (1534), Wu Cheng'en once again went to Ying Tianfu to take the township examination, but once again lost. In the summer of the sixteenth year of Jiajing, Wu Cheng'en again held the ideal of "learning and excelling", and then went to Ying Tianfu to take the township examination, this time still famous in Sun Shan, and then Wu Cheng'en took the exam several times in a row, but he was still unnamed on the list. It was not until the twenty-third year of Ming Jiajing (1544) that Wu Cheng'en was recorded as a gongsheng, and it was not until the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing (1550) that he officially entered the Nanjing Guozijian to study.
At this time, Wu Cheng'en's compatriot and good friend Shen Kun served as the guozi supervisor (principal), Wu Cheng'en and he knew each other when he was young, but later Shen Kun won the title, the official luck was prosperous, and Wu Cheng'en was ineffective, and the gap between the two was getting bigger and bigger. Shen Kun took great care of his old friend Wu Cheng'en, and at that time, Wu Cheng'en's family was still relatively well-off, so the life of Nanjing's "too student" was relatively stable. At that time, there was a subsidy for reading the State Zijian, and the clothes issued were silk shirts, linen clothes, and turbans, and cotton clothes and quilts in winter, and every twenty-five inmates were responsible for food. Wu Cheng'en can eat one kilogram of meat every three days in Nanjing Guozijian, a fine bucket of vinegar in January, and an average of three points of sesame oil, three dollars of salt, two dollars of sauce, and five points of peppercorns per day. Because Wu Cheng'en has a wife, he can also receive six buckets of rice per month. In addition, he has two months of homecoming leave every year. Due to Shen Kun's care, Wu Cheng'en's return to Huaihuai to visit relatives was quite convenient.
Wu Cheng'en's travels during his studies in Nanjing
During his time in Nanjing Guozi Prison, Wu Cheng'en wrote a poem "Like a Dream Order": "The blue waves outside the building are thousands of acres, and the guest is lonely. The distant trees break the clouds, and the curtains roll purple mountain shadows. Autumn, autumn, fishing flute a smoke boat. "I wrote the autumn colors of the day. Wu Cheng'en lived and studied intermittently in Nanjing Guozijian for more than ten years, leaving his footprints in many places inside and outside Nanjing. Located near the Jiming Temple, Nanjing Guozijian, The Xuanwu Lake with the forest of Shanshui City, and the Area around Dongshuiguan, Confucius Temple, Taoyedu and Changyin Pavilion in the Qinhuai River Basin are all places where Wu Cheng'en lingers and has the most activities. During this period, Wu Cheng'en visited the Xianpan and Zhu Yuefan of Huai'an Township, who lived in Yingtian, and listened to their teachings. He also sang and socialized with some well-known talents, including poets and painters Wen Peng and Wen Jia, as well as Taishi He Liangjun, Zhang Zhixiang, Huang Jishui, Sheng Zhongjiao, Zhou Gongfeng and so on. Because of his elegant and fluent poetry, he is amazed. Therefore, even Zhu Dashao, the secretary of the Nanjing Guozijian (vice principal in charge of teaching), was willing to have a drink with this "old student" and sing poetry. At this time, Wu Cheng'en's most self-satisfied nickname was "Huaihai Langshi", when he worshiped under xu Tianci, a descendant of Xu Da, and often traveled with scribes in groups, generously singing his own sloppiness.
Wu Cheng'en created many poems in Ying Tian, such as "And Wu ShanRen Chang Yin Ge Yin Gift" by Qin Huai Chang Yin Ge: "Wu Weng loves to be idle for a long time, and the wind is small and the heart is chasing." There are high pavilions in the hundreds of feet, and there are good mountains all around. The sound of the water is mixed with flowers, and the clouds and shadows of the light rain hook curtains are spotted. Fei Xian refers to Gu Gongke and Sheng He when smelling the sky outside. Another example is the "Chicken Ming Temple" of the Yin Yong Ji Ming Temple: "The ground is pulled out by the view of the open, and the corridor leads back to the depth." The evening cloud mountain has a state, and the autumn temple trees are overcast. Leaning on the mimi into fun, frequently for the heart to write. Ordinary life is still there, and there are landings everywhere. Another example is the poem "Sending Friends to Tour Jinling": "Er xiang changgan, Yu nostalgic day trip." Wuyi Huali Lane, red-sleeved waterside building. The guest house is bright and the locust fire, and the book sac is moistened with mai qiu. Gentle township can be drunk, must read the big knife head. ”
At that time, Wu Cheng'en had already begun to organize and create "Journey to the West". Immersed in the rich cultural atmosphere of Yingtian, it can also be said that it provides inexhaustible linguistic materials for him to create this peak of ancient Chinese romantic literature.
The end of his career
During the Jiajing period, there were far fewer students registered in the Guozijian in Nanjing than at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, only one or two thousand, and even fewer people actually studied and sat in prison step by step, sometimes no more than three or four hundred. When I became a "too student", there were only two ways out: one was to continue further study and participate in scientific examinations; the other was to wait for the imperial court to assign jobs, but the waiting time was long, and the official positions were relatively low. Therefore, most of the nominal inmates have skipped school, and they have gone home in the name of too many students to find a way to support their families, and even some idle people who have nothing to do all day.
Because Wu Cheng'en himself did not have a "luck number" in terms of imperial examinations, and nanjing guozijian did not have a "shortcut to the end of the south" that was directly connected to the career, Wu Cheng'en actually registered in Nanjing guozijian for more than ten years, although he also lived here, more often than not, he only responded to stories, often returning to Huaihuai or going out. It was not until the thirty-ninth year of Jiajing (1560) that Wu Cheng'en was selected by the officials and was appointed as the County Ofe of Changxing County, Zhejiang Province, and only then did he restart another journey of his life. (Luo Zhi)
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Source: Jinling Evening News