Aoyama

Chapter 511 Hanlin Academy Probationary Scholars
As Chen Ji stepped out of Xuanwu Gate, the world before his eyes immediately came alive.

The smell of cow dung, rarely found in the inner city, mingled with the fresh scent of grass in the outer city, filling the nostrils and bringing even the old traces to life.

He no longer cared about his appearance, just like he did on Ansel Street in Los Angeles, rolling up his sleeves, lifting one corner of his shirt and tucking it into his belt, looking much neater and more efficient.

At this point, Chen Ji no longer seemed to be a noble young master; he was still the young apprentice at the Taiping Medical Clinic on Anxi Street.

He walked forward with great interest. It was early summer, and the officials and nobles in the inner city were still dressed formally, while the men in the outer city had already changed into white vests that exposed their arms, and were sitting by the roadside hawking their wares with large palm-leaf fans in their hands.

Chen Ji sidestepped a peddler carrying a load on a shoulder pole and turned towards Liulichang.

Liulichang was originally a government-run kiln in the Ning Dynasty. Later, due to the noise and disturbance caused by the kilns, the kilns were moved to an open area in the south of the city. The original Liulichang was then transformed into a book market, a place where literati gathered to browse books.

Some say that nine out of ten stories from the Ning Dynasty originated here, and a story that wasn't popular with scholars and literati here cannot be considered a good story.

Chen Ji walked into the narrow alley of Liulichang. On both sides of the road were gray bricks and tiles. The white steam from the street-side steamed cake stalls mixed with the sour smell of soy milk, intertwined with the aged ink and paper fragrance emanating from the bookstores.

Just then, inside a bookstore, a scholar speaking with a southern accent, dressed in a gray cloth gown, pleaded with the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper, three taels of silver, I really can't afford any more. Consider it a token of friendship, and if I am fortunate enough to pass the imperial examination one day, I will surely repay you handsomely..."

The shopkeeper's eyes nearly popped out of his head: "You passed the imperial examination? All the scholars who come here say that, but how many of them actually do? Look closely, this is a commentary on the classics written by the provincial education commissioner five years ago. Are you buying a book? You're buying a title and honor, and I won't sell it for a penny less!"

The scholar looked troubled, yet he was unwilling to put down the book in his hands.

He stopped looking at the old traces and turned his attention to the alley.

Each bookstore has a sign in front of it listing the books it sells, and each one is different. No wonder people are so eager to "hunt for books"—sometimes you can spend a whole day here and still not find what you want.

The alleyways of Liulichang were bustling with people of all social standing, from officials and nobles to commoners, engaging in lively and intellectual discussions. The scholarly atmosphere here was even more pronounced than in the inner city.

Chen Ji did not go to Baoxiang Bookstore, but instead saw a sign that read "The Four Books and Their Commentary, Volume One" and immediately stepped across the threshold.

He took the book of commentaries on the Four Books from the wooden shelf. The shopkeeper, with his legs crossed and a purple clay teapot in his hand, glanced at him sideways and said, "Don't flip through it if you're not buying."

Chen Ji smiled and gently turned the page: "How can I buy it if I don't turn the page?"

Back in Luoyang, on the first night after his transmigration, he found the secret hidden in the paper in Lord Zhou's mansion. Later, he found evidence of the Liu family's crimes by looking at the anomalies in the Four Books and Commentaries. Passing messages through bookstores should be a common method used by the Military Intelligence Bureau. I wonder if the Chief Secretary Ding continued to use this method after he came to the capital.

However, in this book, neither the fanqie method nor the hidden character method could be used to find any clues.

Chen Ji put down one book and picked up another, searching through them one by one, but to no avail.

The shopkeeper asked impatiently, "Are you going to buy it or not?"

Chen Ji put down the book, pondered for a moment, and said, "There are too many typos and misprints in your book."

The shopkeeper's eyes widened: "Don't talk nonsense. All the books here are legitimate. They've been proofread word by word. They're not like those books from Wenchang Bookstore that have dubious origins."

Chen Ji wrote down the Wenchang Bookstore, then said with a smile, "Sorry, I misread it."

He went out and continued walking deeper into Liulichang. Along the way, he could still see Meihua Ferryman dozing off against the wall under the eaves. It was only then that he remembered that he could still receive more than a thousand taels of peace money from Liulichang every month.

Thinking about it this way, even the slightly dilapidated eaves beasts on the roof seemed elegant and refined.

When Chen Ji arrived at the entrance of Baoxiang Bookstore, he saw on the wooden board that it read "Annotations on the Analects by Sanyang Sanren" and "Annotations on the Doctrine of the Mean by Sanyang Sanren." Unlike other bookstores, Baoxiang Bookstore was filled with books by this Sanyang Sanren.

He stepped across the threshold, where an elderly man with gray hair sat behind the counter, writing furiously, while the scent of ink wafted from the backyard.

Chen Ji asked with a smile, "Shopkeeper, who is Sanyang Sanren? Why are all the books in this shop his?"

The old man seemed to be engrossed in writing a crucial section, muttering to himself. Distracted by the old writings, he looked up impatiently and asked, "Let me ask you, what is the meaning of the word '克' in '克己复礼为仁'?"

Chen Ji smiled and said, "I am not well-versed in the classics."

“Ignorance!” The old man bowed his head again and wrote: “To subdue oneself and return to propriety is benevolence. This subduing is not a matter of agreement, but of victory…”

Chen Ji roughly understood that the old man believed that the word "克" here did not mean restraint, but rather to overcome and conquer one's own selfish desires.

He didn't urge him, but waited silently for the other person to finish writing this paragraph.

Chen Ji suddenly heard the voices of the shop assistants talking in the backyard. He leaned over and looked into the backyard, just in time to see four shop assistants who had dropped their woodblock printing work and were chatting idly: "We're going to be killed by that bookworm Chen Dong. Steward Chen even sent someone to tell us that all the shopkeepers have gone to Fuyou Street to apologize, but he refuses to go. He's still writing those unsellable commentaries on the classics. What's the use?" "Shh, aren't you afraid the shopkeeper will hear you talking so loudly?"

"What are you afraid of? I'm just saying this to him. Haven't you heard? Our new boss is the ruthless Wu Xiangjun, who kills without blinking an eye. Seven of the second managers of the Chen family salt shop went against him, and now they've all vanished without a trace, their fates unknown. Their families have been searching for them for over a month without success, and no one cares when they report to the authorities. The new boss just returned to the capital today after killing hundreds of people in Changping. That old man Chen Dong dared to go against him; he's lucky if he even has a whole corpse. If we follow Chen Dong, who knows what kind of suffering we'll endure. I don't want to work here anymore; I plan to go back to Luzhou tonight."

Chen Ji was stunned. He looked at the old man, but the shopkeeper's words came through clearly, and the old man ignored them.

But the question is, when did I kill hundreds of people in Changping?
Chen Ji said to the old man, "Shopkeeper..."

The old man interrupted impatiently, "Don't bother me. I'm going to die here today. There are still many commentaries on the scriptures that I haven't finished annotating. I don't have time for them!"

Chen Ji: "..."

It was only at this moment that he realized what kind of reputation he had in the capital.

He walked towards the backyard, ignoring the astonished looks of the workers, and looked at the printing blocks in the backyard. He ran his fingers over the blocks, which were carved with small characters on a single piece of wood... Ning Dynasty did have movable type printing, but it was not widely used.

When I was in school, textbooks exaggerated the role of movable type printing, as if it had replaced woodblock printing from the very beginning. In fact, woodblock printing was still more practical and was used for hundreds of years.

There are three reasons for this. First, wooden movable type is easily damaged, and brass movable type does not print clearly enough. At this time, Ningren did not know that tin and lead had to be added to brass, with 80% copper, 10% tin, and 10% lead. This would lower the melting point and make the characters print clearly.

Secondly, the Ning Dynasty did not yet have the habit of using ink, and printing was done by brushing rather than pressing.

Thirdly, the content of the books is basically fixed. Although woodblock printing is troublesome, once it is carved, it can be used for several years, and the carved woodblocks are also the property of the bookstore.

Chen Ji pondered that although woodblock printing was good, he had to use movable type for what he wanted to make because movable type printing was faster.

The shop assistant sized him up for a while, then pointed at him with his carving knife and asked, "Who are you? What are you doing barging into the backyard?"

Chen Ji smiled and said, "I'm just looking. Why would I need to use a knife?"

The waiter shooed them away, saying, "Get out! Get out now!"

Chen Ji turned and walked towards the main hall, returning to the counter.

Just then, a surprised voice came from outside the door: "Chen Ji, what are you doing at Baoxiang Bookstore?"

Before Chen Ji could turn around, he saw the old man behind the counter flick his wrist, and a drop of ink fell onto the rice paper. The old man slowly looked up at him, a look of despair in his eyes: "It's too late..."

A clanging sound came from the backyard as the carving knife in the shop assistant's hand fell to the ground.

Chen Ji turned around and saw Qi Zhaoning leading Qi Zhenzhu standing in front of the door, with Lin Chaojing by her side. Qi Zhaoyun, the second young lady of Qi Zhaoning who used to be inseparable from Qi Zhaoning, was nowhere to be seen.

Qi Zhaoning was initially delighted, but when she recalled what had happened at the Jiaofangsi a few days ago, her face immediately fell: "You're not good at classical studies, yet you come to Liulichang to look for books?"

Lin Chaojing chuckled and said, “I suppose Brother Chen Ji is looking for some stories about fighting and killing to relieve his boredom, but Baoxiang Bookstore doesn’t have what you’re looking for, only the manager’s twisted logic. Back then, when he participated in the imperial examination, he was stripped of his Juren degree because he went against the education officials and was stubborn. It’s a waste of his future to have his commentaries on the classics.”

The shopkeeper behind the counter, Chen Dong, was red-faced with rage: "Bullshit! The 'learning' in 'learning and practicing at appropriate times' should mean emulating those who have attained enlightenment, learning the great principles of being a person. How can he misinterpret it as learning rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics? I call it a minor path, and that's perfectly reasonable! What's wrong with that? On what grounds do you strip me of my official rank?"

Lin Chaojing's expression turned stern: "I am a junior compiler in the Hanlin Academy. I can punish you based on this statement alone."

Chen Ji was unwilling to get involved in the Confucian controversy. He cupped his hands to Qi Zhaoning and said, "Miss Qi, this Baoxiang Bookstore is my family business. This is the first time I have come to visit it since I took over."

Qi Zhaoning's eyes darted around, and he suddenly said, "Chen Ji, many of the famous generals of our dynasty are Confucian generals. They can advance and retreat with more knowledge by studying the classics. You can't do without studying the classics. You still need to consult with Lin Hanlin more often. Every three years, there are more than three hundred Jinshi, but only a few of them can become Shujishi."

The late emperor once said: "Since ancient times, emperors have cultivated talents in academies and educated them. In our dynasty, the only way to cultivate talents is through the junior scholars, in addition to the successful candidates in the imperial examinations."

The Hanlin Academy probationary official was a close minister of the emperor and a potential successor to the throne.

Qi Zhaoning stared intently at Chen Ji, wanting to see how Chen Ji would react after she praised Lin Chaojing.

However, Chen Ji simply bowed without changing his expression and said, "I will certainly learn more from Lin Hanlin."

Qi Zhaoning's expression grew even uglier. He turned and walked out, saying, "Let's go to Wenyuan Bookstore. I see that Baoxiang Bookstore is already dilapidated and won't be long before it closes down!"

(End of this chapter)