Chapter 257: [Emperor's Story 9] Imperial Preceptor Jiang

"I heard that this Imperial Preceptor Jiang was a formidable person who even made the emperor lose face. Back then, when he claimed that he was going to retire, he really did retire, no matter how much the emperor urged him to stay. He's resigned from his post of 20 years..."

"Imperial Preceptor Jiang was the top graduate of the imperial examinations back then. He eventually became an imperial secretary at a very young age and worked as the imperial preceptor for the emperor, who was a crown prince at that time. I heard he wasn't only a fine scholar and well versed in military strategies, but he also has some knowledge in the fields of art and medicine."

"That's right. On his return to the capital, he presented a painting of the mountains and rivers, making the emperor's face light up in joy. It was said that Imperial Preceptor Jiang spent over 10 years travelling the gigantus mountains and long rivers to draw it!"

"Do you know why Imperial Preceptor Jiang resigned from his post back then?"

"I know, I know. I heard that the year before Imperial Preceptor Jiang took the examinations, he already had a wife and a daughter back home. When he became the imperial secretary later on, gaining stability and power in the imperial court, he was planning on taking his wife and daughter into the city to start living comfortably. However, he didn't expect that the rapid floods would start happening everywhere in the Central Plains. The people he sent out as well as the corpses of his wife and daughter were nowhere to be found. Imperial Preceptor Jiang couldn't merely accept this and resigned his post to go personally look for himself, his search continuing on for 20 years..."

"Sigh, the gods sure are horrible... However, the Imperial Preceptor was too obsessed. As someone who possessed fame and power, it's not as if he can't get another wife and child..."

"Do you think he's just like you... unable to walk after seeing a beautiful palace maid!"

"Hey! If you say any more! Be careful, or I'll rip your mouth off!"

Outside the study room, several little eunuchs were all gathered together making gossip while waiting for their princes to finish school. Chu Jiao simply stood at the side and seldomly added a word or two in, however, her mind was floating far away from the conversation.

Imperial Preceptor Jiang's name was Jiang Shan. He was 60 years old this year and resigned from his post many years ago but had now returned again. She knew of this person because in the novel, Jiang Shan was the hidden official that the male lead heavily relied on after his ascendance to the throne and was the only person who looked highly upon the male lead when he was being neglected. More importantly, he not only taught the male lead regarding the trickery of a monarch, he even cured the male lead's illness.

Chu Jiao constantly reminded Jing Chen to get up early today since she didn't want him to miss the opportunity of getting to know this man. After all, the relationship between the two couldn't be undermined and couldn't be compared to her current identity.

Inside the study, the grey-haired yet hale and hearty old man stared sharply at the youth sitting still and upright at the back row. Upon gazing at his half-normal face, a glint of excitement flashed through his eyes, but upon seeing the other half of his face, which was covered with a mask, he frowned.

"'The beginning of righteousness lies in the bearing, the appearance and speech.' Why does the Sixth Prince cover his face upon meeting someone?"

The other princes sitting on the sides hadn't uttered a word, but their sharp eyes contained mockery.

Their Sixth Brother's personality was closed-off, yet he still stood out. They saw him as an eyesore for a very long time, but now that the newly arrived Imperial Preceptor seemed to be a person who valued the Confucian code of ethics heavily, adding on to the fact they hadn't seen the ugly side of the prince's face, which was said to take anyone by definite surprise, and was also a sore spot for him, they were very intrigued of the performance that was about to happen.

Jing Chen quickly stood up and reverentially bowed towards Jiang Shan, responding calmly, "Jing Chen is born with a shameful face and can only resort to covering it up for the good of the people." His meaning was, 'I'm too ugly, so I wear a mask to cover my face to not frighten other people.'

Jiang Shan asked another question once more, "Our bodies, hair, and skin are bestowed to us by our parents. Do you resent them for it?"

These were words of criticism. 'Our body, hair, and skin are bestowed to us by our parents. Do you resent your parents for not giving you a good appearance?'

If Jing Chen was not cautious with his response to this, the hat of disrespect and unfilialness would be placed on his head.

"As the body, hair, and skin were bestowed by my parents, Chen does not dare to harm one's appearance. 'The way in which what fashions and transforms us takes hold of things can be compared with the way in which the potter molds his clay. The earth that he has taken hold of and made into bowls and pots is no different from the earth before it had been taken from the ground. The earth that remains after he has made the vessels and then smashed them to pieces and thoroughly soaked them with water so that they return to their cause is no different from the earth that had been in the bowls and pots that had existed earlier. Now the people who live along the banks of a river draw water from it to irrigate their gardens, but the water in the river does not resent it. The families who live near filthy ponds break through their banks and drain them into the river, but the water from these ponds does not rejoice in this.'"

Imperial Preceptor's question had just come from the 'Classic of Rites,' whereas Jing Chen's reply came from a piece of 'Huainanzi'1Huainanzi is an ancient Chinese text that consists of a collection of essays that resulted from a series of scholarly debates held at the court of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, sometime before 139 BC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huainanzi I took the translated piece from here in which the main idea was that people have no way of deciding their own birth or appearance, so they do not resent nor feel joy because of what they look like or where they were born since these weren't important. The most important thing was the ability that one possessed.

A glint of satisfaction flashed through Jiang Shan's eyes, and he no longer made it difficult for Jiang Chen, turning around and starting the class.

Seeing their Sixth Brother skillfully evade the difficult pitfall, a hint of regret flashed across their eyes. The Third Prince and the Fourth Prince exchanged a meaningful look, seemingly communicating something in secret.

Chu Jiao did not have a single clue as to what had just happened inside the study, but under the reminder of the system, she discovered two young girls secretly hiding from not too far away.

Among them, one was Princess Jing Ya, who she often came across in Qiu Xi Palace, while the other was an unfamiliar girl, who had a delicate appearance and satiny skin. With just one glance, she could tell that she was a noble who had been raised with the utmost care.

It was this world's female lead, Yun Wan.

Chu Jiao frowned. What did these two people come to the study for?

It wasn't that she thought too much about it, but every time the female lead appeared, something unexpected would happen, and she would often suffer even the slightest consequences.

T/N: Just wanted to share a little something. Huainanzi is a classical Chinese piece of text. It's different from modern Chinese because it's like a riddle game where each character represents a word, and so a short little classical Chinese sentence, translated, becomes very very long. The translation process usually goes from Classical Chinese -> Modern Chinese -> English. It's like decoding some puzzle. I used to resent studying classical Chinese when I was in high school cuz it was very difficult but the more you consume classical Chinese, the more you gain an appreciation for it and how beautiful it is.

For eg. the raw of Shi Qi's reply is

然夫造化者之攫援物也,譬猶陶人之埏埴也,其取之地而已爲盆盎也,與其未離於地也無以异,其已成器而破碎漫瀾而複歸其故也,與其爲盆盎亦無以异矣.夫臨江之鄉,居人汲水以浸其園,江水弗憎也;苦之家,决而注之江,水弗樂也.

Whereas the translated version is

The way in which what fashions and transforms us takes hold of things can be compared with the way in which the potter molds his clay. The earth that he has taken hold of and made into bowls and pots is no different from the earth before it had been taken from the ground. The earth that remains after he has made the vessels and then smashed them to pieces and thoroughly soaked them with water so that they return to their cause is no different from the earth that had been in the bowls and pots that had existed earlier. Now the people who live along the banks of a river draw water from it to irrigate their gardens, but the water in the river does not resent it. The families who live near filthy ponds break through their banks and drain them into the river, but the water from these ponds does not rejoice in this.

Hope you were able to appreciate this piece of literature!!

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