The position due east of Shenjiafang is where the clan's main ancestral hall is located.

In the "Da Ming Ji Li" named by Emperor Taizu, there are etiquette regulations for scholar-bureaucrats and common people's family sacrifices, "quan imitating the system of Zhuzi's ancestral hall." A temple was built in the house of a senior official, and four generations were allowed to worship, and worshiped Gao, Zeng, and

Ancestor, the lord of your four generations, worship the sun in the fourth month of the month. Common people are not allowed to build a temple, but can only worship their grandparents and parents in their living room or other rooms.

Although the law stipulates this, the principle of law is nothing more than human feelings.

The local surnames live together in clans and have not moved for generations. They are not just one or two households, but there are policies and countermeasures for offering sacrifices. In addition to the ancestral halls set up in accordance with the imperial etiquette, there are also other things left by the clan members.

This large ancestral hall is actually the "ancestral temple".

The sacrifices held in large ancestral halls are different from those held in the fourth month of the ancestral hall. They are held at the beginning of spring, Dongzhi, autumn, New Year's Eve, and the anniversary of death.

The Shen family's ancestral hall measures 12 feet from east to west and 18 feet from north to south, covering an area of ​​three and a half acres. Due to the ritual system, only three rooms are allowed in the ancestral hall of scholar-bureaucrats, but there are no restrictions on the layout of other wing rooms.

The whole building has four entrances, and the courtyard is extremely spacious. The outermost entrance is the worship pavilion, the second entrance is the public hall, where clan affairs are held, the third entrance was originally the hall of gods, and now it is dedicated to "Dacheng Holy King Wenxuan".

The fourth entrance is the ancestral hall.

Other people's ancestral halls, except when they are open on the day of sacrifice, are mostly closed and solemn. However, the Shen family's ancestors put education first and placed the most important family knowledge in the ancestral hall.

Even children who have just entered school do not dare to be playful in such a solemn environment, otherwise they will not be spared by their parents when they return home without being taught by their husbands. However, children are naturally lively and romantic, and they cannot remain restrained, so in the ancestral temple

Next to it, an attached garden was expanded, called Yingyuan, where children can play during breaks.

The teaching method that combines movement and stillness, and the persistent inheritance of poetry and etiquette have resulted in the emergence of talented people in the Shen family, and also made the Shen family's academic reputation famous in Songjiang Prefecture.

For this reason, in addition to the children of the Shen tribe who study here, there are also many scholars who are close relatives and friends.

In addition to teaching the Four Books and Five Classics, as well as the Six Arts of the Gentleman, the Ethnology Trend and College also opened a school ground in Yingyuan, as well as a farming garden for students to experience people's livelihood.

Today, the person in charge of ancestry is Dong Juren, the son-in-law of the third brother-in-law of the Shen family. The two generations of the third brother-in-law of the Shen family do not like to study. Their children are mostly involved in economic affairs and have accumulated thousands of wealth. After all, they remember that their family is a scholarly family, not a merchant.

, only marrying into a scholarly family, so as not to be tainted by the vulgarity of merchants.

Dong Juren was born in a scholarly family. He was elected as a candidate at a young age. Then he experienced setbacks and failed four times. He lived in the capital for more than ten years and finally gave up his ambition to make progress and returned to his hometown to live in peace.

In order to occupy a place in the clan, Sanfang sought a job for Dong Ju to take care of the Shen clan school. However, Dong Ju was a foreigner after all, and the Shen family did not promote scholars and there were many scholars. How could this job be easy?

It was still the Sun family. It happened to be that Shen Jin was entering school, and he was very concerned about the news in the clan school. I heard that Dong Juren was indeed talented in literature. Although he himself failed to become a scholar, many of his nephews and nephews who were taught by him became famous and could be good teachers. Sun

The Sun family promoted this matter through several of their close sisters-in-law. If you really want to talk about it, Sanfang still owes Sun a favor, but Sanfang has always put interests first and has long forgotten this favor.

Now, Dong Juren was sitting in the side room of the clan school, looking at the handsome young man in front of him, stroking his beautiful beard, and said with joy on his face: "Very good, you have made great progress in your studies in the past few years, and you can give it a try next year...

..." Having said this, he said with regret: "That scene two years ago was a pity."

After hearing this, a fair-skinned young man next to the handsome young man couldn't help but secretly rolled his eyes.

What does it mean to be a pity? Does it mean that Mr. Sun died at the wrong time, or that Shen Yu should not have kept filial piety to his legitimate mother? No wonder Dong Ju wasted half his life and could only be a wife. This guy was so incapable of speaking.

The handsome young man was Shen Jin. After hearing what Dong Juren said, he knew it was inappropriate and reminded him with embarrassment: "Sir, today the student is sending his younger brother to school..."

When Dong Juren heard this, he frowned and glanced at Shen Rui.

At the end of the three-year period, Shen Rui had given up his obedience and returned to the fourth room of the Shen family from Xilin Temple.

The twelve-year-old boy has a thin face, calm eyes, and a childish expression due to his slim stature.

Dong Juren was a little stunned when he saw it. In his impression, Shen Rui's appearance was a little vague. He only remembered that he was a very undisciplined child. He often skipped school for three days fishing and two days hanging out on nets. He also indulged the schoolboys and servants around him and treated his classmates rudely. He was extremely unpleasant. Xue Xiucai, who was in charge of the Mengtong class at that time, often complained about this student's naughty nature.

Looking at the young man in front of me now, is he really the arrogant and careless child in his memory?

Thinking that this young man was valued by Shen Zhuangyuan and taught him personally for two and a half years, Dong Juren felt helpless. Even if Zhuangyuan Gong personally taught a young boy, he would not be able to teach him well; if Zhuangyuan Gong was willing to personally teach Shen Jin, let alone Two and a half years, even three or five months will be of great benefit to Shen Jin.

Unfortunately, the inquiry in his eyes could not be hidden from Shen Rui.

Shen Rui's impression of Dong Juren was even worse. A teacher who chooses to be close to or indifferent to students because of his own preferences, no matter how talented he is, is not a qualified teacher.

Dong Juren didn't know that he was already annoying, but when he thought of Shen Li, the champion, he felt a little less unhappy in his heart, and said calmly: "Can we learn the Four Books and Five Classics?"

Shen Rui replied: "I have listened to the first lecture."

Dong Juren calculated Shen Rui's age, and found that his progress was not much better than others. It shows that his qualifications are limited, otherwise he would have learned more if he were guarding a champion.

He randomly selected a few passages from the Four Books and asked Shen Rui to memorize them. He also selected two passages from the scriptures and asked him to explain them. Then he nodded and said, "You can join the Xia Yun class."

Having said that, Dong Juren took Shen Rui out and went to the main hall of the clan school to see the portrait of "Dacheng's Most Holy King Wenxuan". He also sat down in front of the portrait of "Dacheng's Most Holy King Wenxuan". A servant had already served him tea, and Shen Rui went to pay homage to him. present.

Shen Jin left after watching his younger brother become a master. He was a junior student and enrolled in a provincial school. After observing his filial piety, he had to go to a provincial school to prepare for next year's provincial examination.

Shen Rui followed Dong Juren to the "Xia Yun Class".

Ethnic Studies Middle School students range from five to teenagers. According to different learning progress, they are divided into three classes: "Spring Plowing", "Summer Plowing" and "Qiu Shi". "Spring Plowing" is a Mengtong class. , "Xia Yun" is a student who is preparing to take the boy's examination or has taken the boy's examination but has not passed the college examination. "Qiushi" is a student who has passed the boy's examination and obtained the title of scholar, but has not been admitted to the official school.

The third courtyard of the large ancestral hall where the clan school is located is second only to the fourth courtyard. It covers an area of ​​one acre. In addition to the main room with three main rooms and four ears, there are five wing rooms in the east and west.

Regarding the ethnological layout, Shen Jin had already talked to Shen Rui about it on the way here.

The west wing is where the spring plowing class is, and the east wing is where the summer plowing class is. The main room in the east wing is the rest room for several concubines, and the west wing is where the seventh and eighth scholars of the Qiushi class are. As for the three main rooms, in addition to the "Dacheng" in the middle hall, "The Most Holy King Wenxuan", the east room is the library, and the west room is Dong Juren's study. There is a corner door between the west ear room and the west wing, and you can go out to Yingyuan.

Today, those who went to school with Shen Rui were the scholar Liu Cheng and the boy Changshou. Liu Cheng was ten years old and was Liu Ya's younger brother. Before Shen Rui was discharged from the army, he came to Shen Rui's side; Changshou was fifteen years old and stayed with Shen Rui for two years. Half, it was a gift from Wang Shouren. Although the Wang family gave birth to a son, his parents were both dead and he had no other worries. He had been extremely devoted to Shen Rui in the past two years.

The two men were carrying book boxes and followed Shen Rui step by step.

It was a break between classes, and there was no teacher in the east wing. There were more than a dozen teenagers sitting inside, many of whom were acquaintances of Shen Rui. When these people saw new classmates coming over, some were surprised and some were curious. But there was Dong Ju was here, but no one dared to act arrogantly, and everyone sat down in a proper manner.

Dong Juren stood at the door, hesitated for a moment, pointed to the only empty seat in the corner, and asked Shen Rui to sit.

The person sitting at the table with him was a skinny young man, about ten years old. When he saw Shen Rui approaching, he was slightly frightened and cautiously stepped aside.

When Dong Juren left, Shen Quan rushed over and complained: "Well, you second brother Rui, there was no movement at all before. I thought you would not enter school until next year."

Shen Rui listened with a smile, but he was helpless. He had no intention of coming to the clan to study, but Zhang Laoan kept making little moves, and he really didn't want to get entangled, so he avoided it.

Seeing the helplessness in Shen Rui's eyes, Shen Quan thought of the entanglement in the fourth room and hurriedly said: "There are many brothers and classmates in the clan school, which is more lively than at home."

A young man in brocade clothes walked up to Shen Quan, raised his chin, and snorted softly: "Brother Rui is afraid that he will fall too far behind in his homework and has no face to meet people, so he doesn't dare to delay for a day."

Shen Rui nodded and said: "Brother Jue still understands me. I am really afraid of falling too far. I need to make progress together with brother Jue in the future."

The young man in brocade choked up when he heard this: "I know you have a brother from the Sixth Clan as your teacher, but don't be too proud. Wait until next year for the county and government examinations to see who is the idiot!"

Shen Rui smiled and said: "It's a pity that there will be no college examination next year. Otherwise, looking at the appearance of younger brother Jue, he will be able to become a scholar at his fingertips."

The young man in golden clothes was Shen Jue, the youngest son of the clan elder. He said proudly: "It goes without saying that if you have been studying for several years and are afraid of even one college examination, then you are not a member of the Shen family!"

Shen Jue and Shen Rui were old enemies in the past, and their temperaments were not compatible with the current Shen Rui. However, in the past few years in Xilin Temple, among the Shen family members, except for the fifth room, only Shen Jue often visited the house. Shen Rui had no intention of being with They argued with each other, and sometimes their words were just to make the little boy angry.

Shen Rui had no intention of mentioning the college examination, but when he heard Shen Jue's words, he felt bad and couldn't help but glance at Shen Quan.

Shen Quan ended up in the tenth year of Hongzhi's reign. He passed the county and government examinations, but failed in the hospital examination. In the eleventh year of Hongzhi, there was no hospital examination. In June of the twelfth year of Hongzhi, the fifth master of the house passed away, and Shen Quan was in mourning. This time in June of this year, Shen Quan took the college examination for the second time and failed again. There will be no college examination next year, so Shen Quan will have to wait until the year after that if he wants to take part.

An ordinary farming and studying family, with a son of eighteen, became a scholar in the ninth middle school, which is not too late, and he is still young. But the Shen family is a scholarly family, and the children started studying at the age of five, and Wufang is considered the leader among them.

Shen Quan's two elder brothers, one was a concubine in the 12th year of Hongzhi. He returned to his hometown to observe mourning for one year because of his grandfather's death. Now that he has fulfilled his filial piety, he has returned to the Hanlin Academy; Let's go to Beijing together and wait until the year after next for the test.

As the younger brother, Shen Quan is inevitably under a lot of pressure, not to mention that Shen Jin lives next door.

It was in this school that Shen Quan's former classmates were either promoted to the "Qiushi" class, or they felt that there was no hope for the imperial examination and looked for other livelihoods. There were not many people as old as him who were still in the Xia Yun class.

As expected, Shen Quan's expression darkened, and there was a hint of self-mockery on his face.

Shen Quan and Shen Jue came together to talk and pushed the tablemate next to Shen Rui aside.

The little boy frowned and wanted to move the chair to the side. But his seat was next to the corner, so there was no way around it.
Chapter completed!