Tomorrow and tomorrow, Xiushui, Zhejiang, the bustling area of the city center.
An old man is more than half a hundred years old, supporting a small stall, and the sign in front of him is written with five big words: "College Entrance Examination Sprint Class".
The old man shouted loudly: "Walk by, don't miss, young people who are not good at learning come to see!" The latest college entrance examination reference book, detailed annotation of the textbook, package you to be admitted to ah! ”
Poor students are everywhere, and gradually some readers are gathered around: "Old man, the examination is so difficult, is your book reliable?" ”
The old man twisted his beard: "Look at the cover, 'Public Security Three Yuan' recommended!" Trust them. ”
As soon as the crowd heard the name of the recommender, they donated money to buy it. The old man smiled while collecting money: "I still have a sprint cram class, welcome to sign up!" ”
This old man is Feng Menglong, who will later be famous in the history of literature, and is also the grandfather of the teaching and auxiliary industry and the cram school industry.
More than half a hundred years old, repeatedly failed in the examination, Feng Menglong has lost in scientific expeditions, but he has shown his skills in the field of writing and writing, which can also be regarded as "losing the east corner and reaping the mulberry yu", which is mainly due to his harmony and flexibility.
In the "I Ching", it is said: "Poor is changing, changing is general, and general is long", which is the portrayal of Feng Menglong's life.
Groaning and groaning
In the second year of the Ming Dynasty, Feng Menglong was born in Suzhou Feng.
The Feng family was a scholarly family that had befriended RenXiao, the Great Confucian King of Wuzhong, and had close contacts with the Wang's Hou family. Therefore, Feng Menglong has been pinned on high hopes since he was a child - to learn and excel.
Father Feng pointed out the direction to Feng Menglong: "Those who want to become a great instrument should go to the Golden Temple and accept the interview of the Son of Heaven, if they have not even stepped on the threshold of the Confucius Temple, they are not worthy of being called Confucians." ”
When Feng Mu taught Feng Menglong the learning method, she said:
Since ancient times, adults have only one secret - bitter groaning and ghostly sorrow.
When Wang Ao, who was a young man, was poor as a child, he eavesdropped on Mr. Wang's lectures outside the door every day when he was herding cattle, using branches as pens and sand and mud as paper, and later not only did he have the title of the gold list, but also became the material of the auxiliary country.
Wu'er should introspect himself and make up his own mind!
After saying that, in order to show caution, the five words of "bitter groaning gods and ghosts" were specially written on the paper and Feng Menglong was given a motto.
Feng Menglong kept his parents' teachings in mind, and from an early age, he studied Wang Renxiao, painstakingly read the Four Books and Five Classics, and studied Confucian classics. Truly "keep your ears out of the window and read only the books of the sages."
Although he sometimes sneaks to the bookstore to listen to the commentaries, he is ultimately brilliant and lays a solid foundation for future literary achievements.
Feng Menglong recalled his experience when he was young: "I did not accept the scriptures in my childhood, but when people asked, the secret strategies of the four sides were carefully observed; the painstaking heart of twenty years was also studied more." ”
"There is a house of gold in the book, and there is a beautiful jade in the book." The boy wanted to fulfill his life's ambitions, and he read to the window diligently. ”
Song Zhenzong's imperial handwritten poem "The Chapter of Inspiration" depicts a beautiful dream for the literati of the world: reading the Five Classics diligently, passing the examination in high school, gaining fame and fortune, and showing great ambitions.
Feng Menglong is also not exempt from vulgarity, he also wants to improve himself through hard reading, accept the imperial seal, eat the emperor, and shine the lintel of the Feng family to achieve his parents' expectations.
However, in the Ming Dynasty, the eight strands of text were prevalent, and one was taken by Cheng Wending, and the questions had to be answered in accordance with the prescribed format. Although Feng Menglong is proficient in classics, he has always been dashing and unique, and he does not want to be bound by rules and regulations, so he stops at the township test and repeatedly fails the test.
Feng Menglong was frustrated in the examination room, but he knew very well:
It is inevitable that there will be times in this life when people cannot walk, and it is no harm to take a break for a while. After all, there is no way out of the mountains and rivers, and the willows are dark and the flowers are bright and another village!
There is no HuiQing at the age of old
Literati prostitutes have been prevalent since the Tang Dynasty. Who can share the joy of the high school examination with the scholars, and who can soothe the trauma of the scholars' hard reading?
Nature is these empathetic, these shows, these worldly things of spiritual freedom.
In addition to Feng Menglong's frustration, he also began to linger in the Qin Lou Chu Pavilion.
Bai Juyi once sighed: "Life is not a woman's body, and a hundred years of bitterness are enjoyed by others." ”
Feng Menglong is a gentleman and a hot sausage, and he can also understand the difficulty and involuntariness of the prostitutes, and the prostitutes are naturally willing to associate with him.
Feng Menglong also often did his best to help them enthusiastically.
Full of compassion and a sense of justice, he once used his own works to uphold justice for Bai Xiaofan, a woman in the Qinglou, sympathetic to Bai Xiaofan's unfortunate encounter, and condemn liu Sheng's "a piece of enthusiasm and ignorance, and still Bo Xingfu's thin behavior":
I am true to my thoughts and true admiration, and I am wandering in the twilight.
With his cold mouth sneering, Vulture enthusiastically replied, to now suspicious, to now suspicious, see six years of failure.
There is a very weak water inflammation mountain, so the pedestrians are blocked.
There is no shadow, no wind, to be found in the dream, and there is no dream.
Soon, Feng Menglong met the love of his life, Hou Huiqing. Hou Huiqing not only has a beautiful crown of Qinhuai, color and art, but also has cultural literacy and a fertile orchid heart.
Feng Menglong once asked her: "You have read countless people, but have you ever had a time when there was chaos?" ”
Hou Huiqing calmly replied, "No." I have a scale in my heart, and these people are from low to high, in order. He is affectionate or thick, and he adjusts his inner ranking. Not on top, thinking about the second, why chaos? ”
Feng Menglong calculated in his heart, estimating that he was not in the top three, but still promised to redeem Hou Huiqing.
Smart and rational like Hou Huiqing, she naturally knows that marrying a scholarly disciple like Feng Menglong has many restrictions, and will not be overwhelmed by the nong and me in front of her, so she chooses to marry as a merchant woman.
Hou Huiqing, who was in love with him, was married, but the good person he married was not his Feng Menglong.
Feng Menglong couldn't understand why Hou Huiqing was so affectionate, and she had forgotten those days of raising a glass to invite Mingyue?
Fortunately, his open-minded and cheerful personality has helped again. Since you can't figure it out, just let it go!
Feng Menglong, who is "years without Huiqing", transformed his sad past into his own literary materials, taking Hou Huiqing as the prototype and creating the famous article "Du Shiniang's Anger sinks a hundred treasure chests".
Fame shines on the sweat
"The talent in the early years was astonished, and the famous field was not called a brother", which refers to Feng Menglong's outstanding talent in his early years.
Although Feng Menglong has suffered repeated setbacks from the field since he was a young man, this does not mean that his learning, talent or ability are not enough, but only that his luck is too bad.
In fact, in the final analysis, there is a certain mismatch between the talent he pursues and the talent he has and the talent required by the scientific expedition.
The ideal is full, the reality is bone. But Feng Menglong found a balance between ideal and reality through flexible adaptation.
The official scene is frustrated, but in the literary circles, Feng Menglong can be described as famous and has been elected as the "ally lord".
He organized a literary society, the Yun Society, and did not underestimate this folk society, which brought together big names such as Dong Sizhang, Mao Yixuan, Qi Biaojia, and Qian Qianyi.
Qi Biaojia, who was galloping in the official field, once praised Feng Menglong in this way: "Talented liver and gallbladder, the crown of the world." To be able to see the style and listen to the praises is the blessing of the three lives of The Lotus. ”
In addition, Feng Menglong has insight into the world and found that the publishing industry is in the ascendant, and the teaching and auxiliary industry is promising.
At that time, readers still firmly believed that "everything is inferior, but the reading is high", and did not take the rise of folk culture seriously. But Feng Menglong understood that the time for change had come, so he wrote various classic commentaries:
One break, two, three, three, one, two, three, one, two
Seven Chen, eight, nine knots, this is the new style of composition.
Feng Menglong sells it now, and will be taught by the teacher's knowledge instead. He was good at words, and the head of the "dead book" was the Tao.
In terms of governance, it also adopts the method of Suzhou ZhuFuzi's words and deeds, which is in-depth and simple when teaching, strictly requires students to do homework diligently, and for each homework, they are only commented on word for word.
Therefore, the reputation is growing day by day, and in the second half of the year, the remote tuition house has become a place that students yearn for. The three lecture halls are crowded all day long, and Feng Menglong's name is not shy, becoming a popular "famous teacher of the college entrance examination".
Feng Menglong's success stems from the fact that he knows how to work around, is not bound by mainstream rules, and walks out of his own unique "deformed" road.
Feng Menglong did not fulfill his parents' expectations, ranking among the best ministers of the Ming Dynasty, but achieved success in the secular sense, and left an indelible reputation in the history of literature with the "Three Words".
When we have the heart to plant flowers and flowers, we may wish to learn From Feng Menglong's heartless willow cutting.
When Feng Menglong's road to keju is not feasible, he knows how to switch tracks and write books that mainstream readers are reluctant to write;
When the love scene is frustrated, instead of clinging to gains and losses, the experience of lost love is rewritten into a popular literary work.
If it doesn't work, turn around, if you can't think straight, put it down, look at the world from another angle, often willow dark flowers and bright villages.
The "History of Song" has a saying: "Things are not stagnant, and the reason is expensive and flexible." ”
If the good is like water, the things of the world are not static, and only when people live in the world should be as round and transparent as water, they can be free and unimpeded.
Encourage with the King.
Author | Jin Bai, a person who likes to tell stories
Image | Stills of "The Legend of Feng Menglong" (deletion of infringement contact)