?
After leaving the residence of the King Of The East, Vézé was in a good mood. Yang Xiuqing personally ordered his men to supervise the provision of food to Vézé's residence of the Prince Of The Qi. Food such as wine, meat, rice, and noodles were directly brought from Yang Xiuqing's residence of the King Of The East. Under the guidance of the Prince Of Qi's banner, Vézé's sedan chair was followed by a large cart filled with all kinds of food.
As soon as he returned to the Prince Of Qi's residence, Vézé ordered his men to prepare food. There was artificial rice, and someone handed a stack of books to Vézé. "Chief of General Staff, these are the books we borrowed from Qi Yuchang's house."
"Oh!" Vézé patted the covers of the books. He would not be staying in Tianjing City for long, so it was obvious that he would not be able to read these books. In the 21st century, the "Records of the Grand Historian" in Vézé's house was a thick book with very small characters. The "Tao Te Ching" had all the modern Chinese translations, as well as a variety of annotations. The characters were large and beautiful, making it a thick book. In contrast, the "Records of the Grand Historian" and "Tao Te Ching" during the era of Manchu Qing were the opposite of Vézé's era. The "Tao Te Ching" was a thin book, while the "Records of the Grand Historian" was divided into many volumes, piling up into a thick stack.
Vézé randomly picked out a book according to memory. He flipped it open and saw that the first paragraph of the vertical layout was: "Zhi Bo Carries Water, Wei Huan Zi Yu, Han Kang Zi Cheng. Zhi Bo said, "I now know that the water will destroy the country." Heng Zi Yu Kang Zi, Kang Zi Yu Huan Zi Yu.
What Vézé was most afraid of reading was this vertical version of the book. In the past, he had ambitiously borrowed a vertical version of the "Zizhi Tongjian" to read. Then, for the first time, Vézé knelt down in front of Chinese characters. Although the "Records of the Grand Historian" was written a thousand years earlier than the "Zizhi Tongjian", it was much easier to read than the "Zizhi Tongjian". But this couldn't stand up to the vertical traditional characters.
Putting the Records of the Grand Historian back into its original position, Vézé picked up the Tao Te Ching to read. This was the authentic Tao Te Ching. In other words, there were no punctuation marks or any annotations. That was to say, he had arranged the sentences in sections.
Vézé had only read two pages when he realized something. Someone had scratched "Sentence Read" on the page of the book with his fingernail. Though no punctuation was used, the man made faint marks with his fingernails where punctuation should have been, or where it seemed to him that punctuation should have been. Vézé was also a book lover, so he immediately saw the problem.
After flipping through a few pages, he saw that these symbols were on every page. As he continued to flip through the pages, he saw a bookmark in the middle of the book. It was a pink Xue Tao bookmark, and the word "Red" was written on it. After the bookmark was added, there were no more fingernail marks on the book. Taking a closer look, the only part that was carved was the part about the Tao.
Seeing this, Vézé immediately felt that this man was a confidant. He also liked the part about the Tao and didn't like the part about the De Ching. At this time, it would take some time for his subordinates to start a fire and cook. Vézé carefully looked at the fingernail marks. Vézé approved of some of the "sentence read", but Vézé thought that there were some "sentence read" that were wrong.
Scholars loved to show off. It could be said that there was no first in literature, or that scholars despised each other. As Vézé looked at it, he couldn't help but feel an itch. He took a dipping pen, dipped it in magic water, and began to break sentences according to the "sentence read" method he had learned and agreed with.
Especially the sentence "Therefore, when there is no desire, one can see its subtlety; when there is desire, one can see its subtlety." The man who scratched with his fingernail used the very traditional method above. And Vézé excitedly broke it into "Therefore, when there is no desire, one can see its subtlety; when there is, one can see its subtlety."
Vézé hadn't played with this kind of word game for a long time. Now that he was exposed to it, he was completely immersed in it. In addition to finishing the sentence read from the Tao, he couldn't help but use the dipping pen to write an explanation of "Tao, can be told, is not the Tao; name, can be named, is not the name."
After finishing this annotation, Vézé was in a great mood. At this time, the kitchen of the guard company had already prepared the meal. Hearing a shout from outside, Vézé didn't need to be invited. He took the book and walked out of the house. "Send this back to Qi Yuchang's house after dinner!"
The guard in charge of borrowing the book was surprised. He didn't dare to ask Vézé what his intention was. Moreover, Vézé didn't let him deliver the book on an empty stomach. The guard obediently agreed.
When delivering the book, Vézé also wrote a thank-you letter to Qi Yuchang. The letter said that Vézé was about to leave Nanjing and was very grateful for being able to borrow the book from Qi Yuchang's house. Therefore, Vézé gave some food to Qi Yuchang, hoping that Qi Yuchang would accept it.
1854 was not the 21st century. In Korea in the 21st century, giving a large piece of pork belly as a gift was an extremely precious gift. But in China, whoever did this had to make sure that the pork belly was unparalleled. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a joke.
But in 1854, giving rice, wheat flour, meat, and wine to people was a sign of sincerity. Not to mention that Nanjing was now organized into a large military camp. A year and a half of siege had completely implemented a rationing system in the entire Tianjing City. According to the Holy Treasury system, every household received food and daily necessities from the Holy Treasury. Even though Qi Yuchang was now working in the King Of The East's residence, the more than two hundred kilograms of food that Vézé was going to give him was not something that Qi Yuchang could get.
Therefore, when it was dark, Qi Yuchang thanked Vézé profusely in the letter brought back by the guard. He also said that he would go to Vézé's place to thank him. Vézé was looking forward to it. Vézé was now transferred to Zhenjiang, which was closer to Tianjing City. Qi Yuchang's news was very important to Vézé. Giving Qi Yuchang such a generous gift, Vézé wanted Qi Yuchang to return the favor.
The next day, Vézé got up very early. He had obtained the consent of the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, and could leave for Zhenjiang. Therefore, he ordered the troops to pack up and get ready to leave. At about ten o 'clock in the morning, a guard rushed into Vézé's house. "Chief of the General Staff, Qi Yuchang's family has sent someone over!"
Vézé said in surprise, "Oh? Even if he sent someone over, you don't have to be so anxious, right? "
The guard calmed down a little, then continued, "Chief of the General Staff, Qi Yuchang's family sent a woman over. That woman said that she wants to meet the Prince Of Qi. She also wants to meet the person who scribbled in the book. "
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
