Do you know that my grandfather was entitled to be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple?

Chapter 49 Golden Body

The official system of the Song Dynasty was already chaotic, and the rewards for the prodigy test depended entirely on the emperor's whim, so such a generous reward was understandable.

Although Wang You felt the system was chaotic, as a beneficiary of the system, he didn't have any strong aversion to it.

Returning home in wealth and honor is like wearing brocade at night.

The imperial court was aware of this principle, so after each imperial examination, newly appointed scholars who were granted official positions were given several months of leave.

Once the holiday is over, you can return to your post on time.

The prodigy exam, which began in early August, was not held until the end of October when Wang You was appointed to his official post.

Therefore, after the Ministry of Personnel appointed him to the post, it also gave him a deadline to take office: the first day of the second month of the following year.

Normal holidays are usually around the Lunar New Year, but there's no reason to make people work during the New Year.

The imperial court will not officially resume work until after the Lantern Festival, so the start date for taking office can only be after the Lantern Festival.

Considering that he was from out of town and needed time to get to Bianjing, the date was set for the first day of the second lunar month.

It must be said that the imperial court is quite humane. Although he has not yet officially taken office, his salary will be calculated from the day he is appointed.

The treatment of state-owned enterprises and public officials in later generations was worlds apart from that of the Song Dynasty.

Wang Youzheng was a seventh-rank official, with a monthly salary of thirty taels of silver, as well as cotton, silk, and grain.

He only received these basic benefits when he took a position at the Hanlin Academy, which is why the Hanlin Academy is considered a prestigious and prestigious institution.

If one were to serve as a county magistrate, in addition to these basic salaries, there would also be allowances, subsidies for hiring secretaries and attendants, and so on.

However, officials of the Hanlin Academy were considered close advisors, and the emperor would bestow rewards upon them during festivals.

In summary, the annual salary was approximately one thousand taels.

It doesn't sound like much, but according to the current grain price, one tael of silver can buy about four hundred catties of grain.

These are already astronomical figures for ordinary people.

But for the upper class, it's really nothing.

The maids and attendants in Wang You's courtyard received more than ten taels of silver per month.

This doesn't even include the servants' food and drink; the total cost is even greater.

Adding in his own food, drink, transportation, and other necessities, his monthly salary is barely enough to make ends meet.

If officials and their families wanted to live a more luxurious life, they had to find other ways to make money.

The simplest way is to buy some farms and shops, so that there will be output every month and you won't be sitting idle and running out of money.

The matriarch of the household not only needs to manage the household affairs, but also the family's estates and shops.

The ancient saying "men are in charge of external affairs, and women are in charge of internal affairs" means the same thing.

……

After the appointment ceremony, Wang You prepared to return to Shouzhou.

I need to visit each of the friends I've made, and I also need to visit Ouyang Xiu and Hai Wenqing to inform them.

When Wang You visited Ouyang Xiu, Ouyang Xiu told him that he originally planned to reveal to the public that the four lines of words of wisdom were written by Wang You after the prodigy examination was over.

But Hai Wenqing asked him to continue to keep the matter a secret and not to make it public.

Worried that Wang You might overthink things, Ouyang Xiu explained, "Xiuping is doing this for your own good. Nowadays, many scholars are studying the Four Words to Awaken the World, and based on these four words, many new ideas have emerged."

However, these ideas are still in their infancy, and many people do not agree with them. If your identity is revealed now, the doubts will be even greater, which will be very disadvantageous to you.

"Keep it hidden for now. The best time to reveal your identity is when more people have matured and accept it."

"I understand what Uncle means." Wang You nodded solemnly.

Many people believe that the various schools of thought in ancient China were established by a single person.

In fact, the Hundred Schools of Thought were formed when one person put forward a viewpoint, which was then recognized by others, and the collective effort resulted in a unified understanding.

Confucius said, "To achieve benevolence," and Mencius said, "To uphold righteousness."

Although Confucius and Mencius had different views, their core ideas were the same.

The only difference is in the interpretation and understanding of the core idea.

Throughout history, many people have offered different interpretations and explanations of Confucianism.

A person can be called a great Confucian scholar if their personal interpretation and explanation can be recognized by some scholars.

If one can summarize one's personal views and explanations in detail and form them into a theory, it will be a new doctrine that has always been based on Confucianism.

For example, the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism that appeared later.

Some people also refine the ideas put forward by great Confucian scholars and form new doctrines.

The philosophy of mind created by Wang Yangming in the Ming Dynasty is an example of this. Although he perfected the philosophy of mind, it was originally proposed by Lu Jiuyuan.

He did not perfect the philosophy of mind, but even so, he is still revered as the founder of the philosophy of mind.

Wang You's plagiarism of Zhang Zai's four sentences was enough to establish a new school of thought.

However, there is only one framework, which needs to be improved.

Many readers approve of this framework and write their own interpretations based on it.

When more people participate, and through summarization and generalization, a new theory may be formed.

For scholars, the allure of establishing their own doctrines is hard to resist.

Although they did not propose it, their explanations and interpretations were adopted during the formation of the doctrine, and they can still be remembered in history.

But in this world, for everything, some people like it and some people don't.

Many people have also questioned the four lines of Zhang Zai, and the reason for the questioning is very simple: the four lines of Zhang Zai are too pretentious and empty.

Simply put, it's unrealistic and impractical.

In fact, the utopian world envisioned by Confucianism is also a hollow and unrealistic concept, which many people do not agree with and feel is simply unattainable.

However, they dared not question the sages of the past, and therefore tacitly avoided discussing the idea of ​​a utopian society.

But Wang You was not a sage, so naturally countless people questioned him.

Once Wang You's true age is revealed, many of those who agree with him may start to question it.

There's no way around it; underestimating someone's age has been a problem since ancient times.

Confucius said that among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me. Later, Han Yu elaborated on this more clearly in his essay "On Teachers," advocating that there is no order of precedence in learning, and that those who are accomplished can be teachers.

However, the prejudice against young people persists, and to break free from this prejudice, we must confront those doubts.

Unless Wang You had a complete understanding of the ideas behind the four sentences of Hengqu, such doubts could not be quelled.

However, if we wait a few years, the ideas proposed by Wang You will have been refined by many people.

They explained that not only would they not question it, but they would also help Wang Youlai deal with those questions.

Wang You has a more apt term for this behavior—sunk cost.

Now that their identities are revealed, those who approve of them haven't spent much effort on the four lines of Zhang Zai's poem and can easily give up.

They spent a great deal of energy and time on the Four Lines of Zhang Zai, which even brought them fame and status.

Even if Wang You, the one who brought it up, comes forward and says that he was too young and immature when he made the suggestion, and that his thinking was flawed, etc.

Those scholars who supported him would refute him.

For Wang You, the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.

Although it will be made public in the future, it will certainly be respected by many scholars, and its moral character will be scrutinized under a magnifying glass.

But once it's achieved, it's like creating a golden statue for yourself.