Chapter 21 "Preface to Sending Off Changbai from Youyang"
In a blink of an eye, a month has passed.
In the early morning, the breeze blows gently, and the weather is neither too cold nor too hot, which makes people feel happy.
"Brother-in-law is the top scholar of the dynasty. I wonder if he has any gifts for us?"
"If you don't give it to me, I won't let you in!"
"Yep!"
The main door of the Sheng Mansion was wide open. Chu Hong was wearing a bright red wedding dress, and beside him were his younger brother, relatives, family members, as well as good friends like the "Seven Sons of Jiangnan" and classmates from the Juyang Academy. These were all people who came to congratulate him and send him off.
At the middle gate, Sheng Hualan's half-brother Sheng Changfeng and his three younger sisters Sheng Molan, Sheng Rulan and Sheng Minglan were blocking the door asking for gifts.
However, the youngest, Sheng Minglan, looked a little timid, and her eyes, as she looked around, showed both expectation and hesitation.
Chu Hong, wearing a bright red wedding gown, looked at everyone and smiled as he signaled his confidant Bu Mu to come forward and present gifts. Sheng Changfeng presented calligraphy and paintings, and his sisters presented jade bracelets.
Chu Hong personally picked up a several-meter-long calligraphy and painting and gave it to Sheng Changbai who did not block the door. He was a true gentleman.
Compared with the famous calligraphy and painting in Sheng Changfeng's hand, the one in Chu Hong's hand was obviously written by himself, and it does not seem to have the essence of the famous artist.
However, Sheng Changbai is the eldest son and Sheng Hualan's biological brother. How could the handwritten calligraphy and painting sent by Chu Hong be simple? Many people looked over curiously.
"'Preface to Sending Off Changbai from Youyang'?"
"I have loved studying since I was young. Since my family did not have a large collection of books, I had no way to get them to read. I would borrow books from people who had collections, copy them by hand, and return them on a certain date."
"It was very cold, the inkstone was frozen solid, my fingers could not bend or stretch, but I did not slack off. After I finished recording, I ran to send it off, not daring to exceed the agreed time."
"I once traveled a hundred miles to ask questions from the elders in my village. The elders were highly respected and had many disciples in their rooms. They never showed any disrespect. I stood by their side, helping them with their questions and bending over to listen attentively. Sometimes they would scold me, and I would become even more respectful and polite, not daring to say a word in reply. I would wait until they were pleased, and then ask again."
"Changbai, a man from the Sheng family of Youyang, was highly praised by his peers. He wrote a long book as a gift, and his words were very fluent. When I debated with him, his words were harmonious and his expression was calm. He told me to encourage my fellow villagers to study."
"The difficulty and sincerity of students in studying are all here, a masterpiece that will be passed down through the ages!"
"It really speaks to the aspirations of poor students like us to study!"
"What a talented person!"
"You are truly worthy of being called [Jiangnan Phoenix]!"
"Brother Changbai has a brother like this, he will be famous all over the world soon!"
Chu Hong looked at the surprised and envious scholar, but he was not surprised.
The original version of "Preface to Sending Off Changbai from Youyang" is "Preface to Sending Off Ma Sheng from Dongyang". The author Song Lian was the first of the founding civil officials of the Ming Dynasty and one of the three great poets and writers in the early Ming Dynasty. This kind of great man really studied poetry and books hard, and his feelings and insights are described incisively. He is unique in describing the hardships students go through in their studies.
It is only common for such an article to be passed down through the ages. Scholars all over the world will unconsciously cite this article as a classic, and the author himself will naturally become famous throughout the world again. Sheng Changbai's name will be mentioned in it, and he can also get some benefits from it.
After all, this is "original".
And this was also the killer move that Chu Hong had prepared for Shi Lin Yang Wang.
As the popularity of "Preface to Sending Off Changbai to Youyang" continues to grow, his reputation will continue to rise as long as his character does not collapse.
Sheng Changbai looked at this extremely valuable calligraphy and painting and wanted to refuse immediately, but seeing the words "Jun Ze of the Sheng family of Youyang" and Chu Hong's expression indicating that he should accept it, he did not refuse in the end. He excitedly put away the calligraphy and painting and bowed.
"Thank you very much for your encouragement, brother. I will study hard in the future and live up to your high expectations and pass the imperial examination!"
"Okay, Changbai, I will wait for you to pass the imperial examination and celebrate for you someday!"
Chu Hong smiled elegantly, and strode into the middle door with his relatives and friends to welcome the bride.
……
"Get up the sedan!"
With the matchmaker's call, the slightly quiet Yangzhou City suddenly became lively.
Chu Hong rode a tall horse, the servants of the Chu family carried a sedan chair carried by eight people, the drum and music team beat festive drums, and a group of people followed in a lively manner from the side.
In the middle of the crowd, there was an endless stream of servants from the Sheng family. They carried Sheng Hualan's dowry, either on their shoulders or in their arms, and followed the wedding procession all the way. There were boxes of silk, satin, gold, silver, jade, tables, chairs, porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, dressing tables, and cabinets, too numerous to count.
The beards were long and long all the way. Some of the servants in front had already followed the groom Chu Hong to the Chu family, and the people behind had not even come out of the Sheng family. The dowry stretched for ten miles and was full of red flowers.
This is the real ten-mile red wedding, and it is also one of the wedding characteristics of the Zhou Dynasty.
There are two characteristics of marriage in the Zhou Dynasty: one is the wedding dress etiquette, and the other is the inestimably rich dowry.
Generally speaking, in the Zhou Dynasty, men married lower-class men and women married higher-class women, but there were always cases where men married higher-class women and women married lower-class women. In this way, two situations gradually formed in the ritual system.
Men marry lower class women and women marry higher class men wear bright red wedding clothes and women wear green embellished clothes.
On the contrary, if a man marries a woman of higher status, he will wear green wedding clothes, while the woman will wear red wedding clothes.
In this world, the status of women is too low. If they marry a bad husband, they are likely to be divorced.
In this way, if a woman marries the wrong man, her life will be ruined, and many women are even abused.
In reality, the abuse of women is not the most worrying reason. What is really worrying is divorce.
Once a woman is divorced, her family will definitely be brought into disgrace.
Therefore, the custom of generous dowry gradually formed.
If a woman's dowry is generous enough and she spends her own dowry throughout her life and does not spend her husband's family's money, then she will not be abused even if the couple has a bad relationship. Even if the couple has a bad relationship, the woman will not spend her husband's family's money and the husband's family will not divorce her.
This is actually another way to spend money to buy peace.
However, they are husband and wife in name only and in reality, and there is an essential difference between this type of spending money to buy peace and truly spending money to buy peace.
A generous dowry is essentially a concession from the woman in exchange for peace, and gradually, it has naturally formed an unspoken rule that the husband's family is not allowed to embezzle the woman's dowry, otherwise it is a sign of incompetence and will be despised by people once the news spreads.
Therefore, when the woman gives a generous dowry to buy peace, the money is essentially in her own hands and will be used to support herself in the future, while the real purchase of peace is more like robbery of money. The two are very different.
As a result, the emergence of the trend of generous dowries has undoubtedly greatly reduced the number of divorces, and women can often live a life of ease and comfort with the help of dowries.
However, a generous dowry can only be used for those who have a sense of dignity. If a woman meets a shameless husband's family, the dowry in her hands may be moved away. Whether a woman can be rich in her life actually depends on her husband's family.
After all, some people are really thick-skinned and are willing to bear the label of being looked down upon for the rest of their lives in order to embezzle the woman's dowry to make up for the financial shortfall.
Moreover, even if the dowry was really misappropriated, it is still unknown whether the news of the husband's family misappropriating the dowry can actually spread.
This depends more on the difference in power between the husband's family and the woman's family. If the woman's family is much less powerful than the man's, then the matter will most likely end in nothing.
Even so, there are many disadvantages, but the advantages brought by a generous dowry cannot be ignored. It is a moral high ground, and thus the trend of generous dowries has gradually formed.
The road to the wedding was slow, yet also fast. The group of people marched in a huge procession from the Tongpan Mansion to the Zhizhou Mansion, and it was very lively.
Arriving at the Chu family, under the auspices of the Chu family elders, Chu Hong and Sheng Hualan held the embroidered ball and bowed to the heavens, their parents, and their spouses, performing various rituals.
However, what shocked the people attending the banquet was that the Governor of Jiangsu, a figure comparable to a prince in ancient times, actually found time to come and have a drink of wedding wine. He was accompanied by countless high-ranking officials, each of whom was a figure who could make Yangzhou tremble with just a shake.
And Han Zhang, the Lord Han, also personally sent gifts from Bian Jing. They were three third-rank officials who took special leave to come and attend the wedding.
Korean officials from all over the country, including those serving in Bian Jing, had people send some gifts from afar. Regardless of how precious these gifts were, the attitude towards giving them was enough to shock people.
At noon, Chu Hong, dressed in a wedding gown, met an unexpected but not strange person - Gu Tingye!
Some time ago, Gu Tingye’s grandfather, Old Master Bai, passed away. He was an extremely wealthy salt merchant and had some connections in Bian Jing.
Under normal circumstances, the death of Old Master Bai would have been celebrated with great fanfare, and Yangzhou officials would have been willing to give him face and attend.
Unfortunately, he encountered a happy event, and it was Chu Hong's happy event.
As expected, the Bai family chose to bury Old Master Bai in a low-key manner, and wait until 49 days later to bury him again in a cenotaph.
The death of Old Master Bai did not cause any stir in Yangzhou.
During his stay in Bian Jing, Chu Hong had communicated with Gu Tingye several times, and they even had meals together several times. The two could barely be considered acquaintances. He knew that Gu Tingye came to Yangzhou this time for Old Master Bai's property.
However, because it was a happy event, Chu Hong did not say much. He just warmly invited Gu Tingye to drink the wedding wine and asked Gu Tingye to speak up if he had anything to say. In Yangzhou, the Chu family's words were still very effective.
Gu Tingye had probably just arrived in Yangzhou not long ago and was not clear about the actual situation in Yangzhou. He was very cautious in everything and did not dare to act or speak rashly. He drank two glasses of wedding wine and then left.
Late night
Chu Hong stepped gently into the bridal chamber, took a deep breath, felt the boundless rage in his body and the boiling sea in his blood, and smiled as he pulled open Sheng Hualan's veil.
"call!"
Lights off.
"Ma'am, let's take a break!"
"uh-huh."
Concave and convex, soft and gentle.
Fallen petals are not heartless, they turn into spring mud to protect the flowers.
(End of this chapter)