There was a scholar from Xuhang County who lived in the temple. Wang Sheng lived next door to him, so he wanted to visit him. Xu Hangsheng ignored him and was very rude when they met in the morning and evening. Wang Sheng was very angry about this and stopped communicating with him.
One day, a young man visited the temple. He was wearing white clothes and a white hat, and he looked strong and tall. I walked up to him and talked to him, his words were witty and clever. Wang Sheng respectfully asked about his hometown and name. He said, "My family is in Dengzhou, and my surname is Song."
Wang Sheng asked his servant to set up a seat, and the two talked and laughed with each other. At this time Xu Hangsheng happened to come over, and Wang and Song stood up and gave up their seats. Xu Hangsheng actually sat down in the upper position. He was even less humble and asked Song Sheng rashly and rudely, "Are you here to take the scientific examination?"
Song Sheng said: "No. A mediocre person like me has long given up on making a career." Xu Hangsheng asked again: "Where are you from?" Song Sheng answered him truthfully. Xu Hangsheng said: "You don't want to be successful, which shows that you have self-awareness. People in Shandong and Shanxi are illiterate."
Song Sheng said: " Although there are not many people in the north who are 'common', I may not be the one who is illiterate; of course there are many people in the south who are 'common', but you may not be considered a master." After saying this, he applauded.
Wang Sheng also clapped together, and the two of them laughed. Xu Hangsheng was ashamed and annoyed, frowned angrily, stretched out his arms and rolled up his sleeves, and said loudly: "Do you dare to challenge me face to face to see whose article is better?"
Song Sheng looked away and smiled and said: "Why don't you dare!" After saying that, he ran back to his residence to get the Four Books and Five Classics and gave them to Wang Sheng. Wang Sheng opened a page at random and pointed to a sentence: "Just this sentence, 'The boys in the Que party will die (meaning that the boys in the Que party do not understand etiquette)."
Xu Hangsheng stood up and looked for paper and pen. Song Sheng grabbed him and said, "Let's just dictate it. I already have the theme and ideas: "Where guests come and go, you see people who know nothing about it."
Wang Sheng laughed loudly after hearing this. Xu Hangsheng waved his hands and got angry: "You can't write at all, you can only insult others, you are not a human being?" Wang Sheng tried his best to mediate for them and said to choose another topic.
turned another page of the book and said: "There are three benevolences in Yin Dynasty." Song Sheng read his article casually: "Three sons have different paths, but they all tend to the same way. What is the one person?" He said: benevolence. Yes. Gentlemen are just benevolent, why should they be the same? (Three wise men have different paths but the same destination. What is the goal? Just benevolent. Why should a gentleman follow the same path?) After hearing this, Xu Hangsheng stopped talking about his article, stood up and said, "You are still a little talented." After that, he left.
As a result, Wang Sheng admired Song Sheng even more. He invited Song Sheng to his home for a long and cordial conversation, and asked Song Sheng for advice on all his articles.
Song Sheng browsed very quickly and finished reading nearly a hundred articles in a short time. He said: "You have studied hard on the article, but when you write, don't have the idea that you must pass the exam. If you are lucky, the article will fall into the inferior category."
then took the articles he had read and explained them to Wang Sheng one by one. Wang Sheng was very happy. He treated Song Sheng like a teacher and asked the cook to make sugar-filled dumplings for him to eat.
Song Sheng thought it was delicious and said, "I have never tried food like this. Please cook it for me again in a few days." After that, the two became more compatible.
Song Sheng would come to visit Wang Sheng every three or five days, and Wang Sheng would always treat him to sugar dumplings. Xu Hangsheng would sometimes meet Song Sheng. Although they didn't talk much in depth, his arrogance was much reduced.
One day, Xu Hangsheng asked Song Sheng to read the article he wrote. Seeing that the article had been marked, criticized and praised by his friends, Song Sheng glanced at it and pushed the article to the table without saying a word.
Xu Hangsheng felt that he didn’t read it and asked him to read it again. Song Sheng said he had finished reading. Xu Hangsheng felt that he might not understand. Song Sheng said: "What's so difficult to understand? It's just that it's not well written."
Xu Hangsheng said: "I only glanced at the bullet points, how do I know that the article is not good?" Song Sheng recited the article as if he had read it a long time ago, reciting and criticizing at the same time. Xu Hangsheng was extremely embarrassed and left in embarrassment.
After a while, after Song Sheng left, Xu Hangsheng arrived again, insisting on reading Wang Sheng's article. Wang Sheng refused to let him read it, so Xu Hang searched it out abruptly. When he saw that the article had many circles, he laughed and said, "these circles look very similar to sugar-filled dumplings." Wang Sheng was not good at talking at first, but now he just felt embarrassed and ashamed.
The next day, Song Sheng came, and Wang Sheng told him everything. Song Sheng said angrily: "I thought he was convinced, but I didn't expect this southern barbarian to dare to do this. I must take revenge on him." Wang Sheng tried his best to comfort Song Sheng by being kind. Song Sheng was moved by Wang Sheng's loyalty. After the
exam, Mr. Wang showed Mr. Song the essay he wrote during the exam, and Mr. Song praised it very much. They were both walking in Song Sheng's palace and saw a blind monk sitting under the eaves selling medicine.
Song Sheng said in surprise: "This is a strange man. He is good at evaluating articles. We have to ask him for advice." He asked Wang Sheng to go back and get the article he had written. I happened to meet Xu Hangsheng, so we came together. Wang Sheng called "Zen Master" and bowed.
The blind monk thought he was seeking medical treatment, so he asked him what his symptoms were. Wang Sheng then told him about the commentary article. The blind monk smiled and said: "Who is talking too much? I am blind, how can I give you advice on your article?"
Wang Sheng said please use your ears instead of your eyes. The blind monk said: "Three articles with more than 2,000 words, who has the patience to listen? Why not burn the article to ashes, I will smell it with my nose and I will know."
Wang The student obeyed and burned articles one after another for the blind monk to read. After hearing this, he nodded and said: "You are new to learning everyone's writings. Although it is not realistic enough, it is similar. My spleen can just accept it." The blind monk sniffed and said: "Wonderful! This article has been accepted by my heart. Who could have written such an article other than Gui Youguang and Hu Youxin?"
Xu Hangsheng was so surprised that he began to burn the article he had written. The blind monk said: "I only read one article just now, and I haven't appreciated his other wonderful articles. Why did it suddenly change to someone else's?" Chapter." The blind monk sniffed the ashes of Xu Hangsheng's article, choked and coughed several times, and said: "Don't burn it, it's out of place. If you inhale it forcefully, it can only reach the diaphragm between the chest and abdominal cavity. If you burn it again, you will vomit." Xu Hangsheng left in shame.
When the results came out, Xu Hangsheng passed the exam, but Wang failed. Song Sheng and Wang Sheng went to tell the blind monk. The blind monk sighed: "Although my eyes are blind, my nose is not blind. Did the examiner also lose the sense of smell in his nose?"
After a while, Xu Hangsheng came and said proudly: "Blind monk, have you eaten that person's sugar dumplings? How do you think it is now?"
The blind monk said: "What I am commenting on is the article, and I am not talking about fate with you. Go and get the articles of each examiner, take one and burn it, and I will know which teacher admitted you."
Xu Hangsheng and Wang Sheng went to collect together, but only found articles from eight or nine people. Xu Hangsheng said: "If you find the wrong one, how will you be punished?" The blind monk said angrily: "Gouge out my eyes!"
Xu Hangsheng began to burn, and every time he burned an article, the blind monk said it was not the case. When he burned the sixth article, the blind monk suddenly faced the wall and vomited violently, and his farts were as loud as thunder. Everyone laughed.
The blind monk wiped his eyes and said to Xu Hangsheng, "This is really your mentor! He didn't know it at first and suddenly smelled it. First it stung his nose, then his stomach and intestines. His bladder couldn't hold it, and it came out from the bottom!"
Xu Hangsheng left in a rage, and said as he walked: "We will see the outcome tomorrow, don't regret it! Don't regret it!" He didn't arrive for two or three days, and when he saw it, he had already moved away. Therefore, we know that the person who wrote the nose-choking article is Xu Hangsheng’s mentor.
Song Sheng comforted Wang Sheng and said: "We scholars should not blame other people, but look for the reasons from ourselves. If you don't complain about others, your morality will be nobler. Only by reflecting on yourself can you improve your studies."The current setback is certainly due to bad luck, but to be fair, your article is not perfect. You will work harder after that. There are people in the world who are not blind. "
Wang Sheng was in awe after hearing this. He also heard that the provincial examination would be held next year, so he did not go home and stayed in Beijing to continue studying with Song Sheng. Song Sheng said: "Firewood and rice in the capital are expensive, so don't worry about poverty. There is a cellar of silver behind the house you live in, which you can dig out and use. "And told him the location where the money was buried.
Wang Sheng declined: "In the past, Dou Yi and Fan Zhongyan were poor but very honest. Now I can still support myself. How dare I do such a thing to taint myself? "
One day when Wang Sheng was drunk and fell asleep, his servants and cooks were secretly digging something.
Wang Sheng suddenly woke up and heard a sound behind the room. He went to look quietly and saw piles of silver on the ground. When the servants and cooks saw what had happened, they quickly confessed.
When Wang Sheng was reprimanding them, he saw something that seemed to be engraved on the gold wine cup. He took it and took a closer look, and found that his grandfather's name was engraved on it. It turned out that His grandfather once served in the Six Ministries of Nanjing. When he came to Beijing, he lived in Baoguo Temple. He fell violently ill and died, leaving behind these gold and silver.
Wang Sheng was overjoyed and weighed more than eight hundred taels. The next day, he told Song Sheng and showed him the gold wine cup. He wanted to share it equally with him, but Song Sheng refused. I wanted to give the blind monk a hundred taels of silver as a gift, but the blind monk had already left.
In the following months, Wang Sheng worked harder and harder. When he went to take the exam, Song Sheng said, “If you fail the exam again this time, it’s really your fate. "Unexpectedly, Wang Sheng was not qualified to take the exam because he violated the rules of the examination room. Before Wang Sheng said anything, Song Sheng cried sadly, and Wang Sheng came to comfort him instead.
Song Sheng said: "I have been despised by the Creator. I have no future and have implicated my friends. Is this all fate? Is this all fate? ! Wang Sheng said: "Everything in the world has its destiny. If you don't have the wish to become a successful person, it has nothing to do with fate."
Song Sheng wiped away his tears and said, "I wanted to tell you a long time ago, but I was afraid of scaring you: I am not a living person, but a wandering ghost. I was quite talented when I was young, but I repeatedly failed in the scientific examinations." So I went wild and came to the capital, hoping to find someone who understood me and record my life to pass on to future generations. Unexpectedly, he died in the war during the Jiashen year, and his ghost wanders around year after year. Fortunately, I have your understanding and friendship, so I will do my best to help you study, so that my unfulfilled wish in my life can be realized with my best friend, which becomes a joy in life! I didn’t expect that literary fortunes were so bad, so how could I stand by and watch? "
Wang Sheng knelt down and shed tears after hearing this, and asked: "Why do you stay and not leave? "
Song Sheng said: "Last year, the Emperor of Heaven issued an order to appoint Confucius, King of Xuan Sheng, and King Yama of Yama to examine the ghosts in the underworld. My name is already on the list of appointments at the Underworld Yamen. The reason why I didn’t go to register was because I wanted to see you happy when you were admitted! Now please let me say goodbye to you! "
Wang Sheng asked: "What is your position? "Song Sheng said: "Zitong Mansion is short of a Si Wenlang , so a deaf servant is temporarily appointed as the deputy, so the literary fortune is reversed. If I am lucky enough to get this position, I will definitely carry forward what the saint taught me. "
The next day, Song Sheng said happily: "My wish has come true. King Xuan Sheng asked me to write a "Lun" on Xingdao. After reading it, he looked happy and said that I could be Si Wenlang.
The King of Hell checked the case file and thought that he would not give me an official position because of my fault in speech. King Xuan Sheng fought hard for me, so that I got this position. After I thanked him, King Xuan Sheng summoned me again and told me: "Today, because I cherish your talents, I selected you to hold this noble and prestigious position. You must change your ways, perform your duties conscientiously, and prevent yourself from making the same mistake again." ’ From this we can see that in the underworld, virtue is valued more than literary talent! If you don't pass the exam, it must be because your moral cultivation is not enough. You must work hard to accumulate virtue and do good! "
Wang Sheng said: "If it is true as you said, where is Xu Hangsheng's virtue? Song Sheng said: "I don't know this either, but the rewards and punishments in the underworld will never go wrong." Let’s just say that the blind monk I saw before was actually a famous writer from the previous dynasty, not a human being.Because he discarded too much writing paper in his previous life, he was punished to be blind. I am also willing to use my medical skills to save people from pain and atone for the sins of my life, so I wander around the market.
Wang Sheng asked someone to prepare wine, and Song Sheng said, "No need, I've been bothering you for a year. Now I don't have much time. I'll be satisfied if I just make some sugar dumplings for me." "After it was done, Wang Sheng was so sad that he couldn't swallow it, so he sat down and let Song Sheng eat by himself.
In an instant, Song Sheng ate three bowls. Song Sheng held his stomach and said, "This meal can fill me up for three days. I want to use this to commemorate our friendship with you. The ones I ate before are all behind the house. They have grown into mushrooms and can be used for medicinal purposes. They can increase children's intelligence. "
Wang Sheng asked when we could meet again. Song Sheng said, "I have an official position and I have to avoid unnecessary suspicion. Wang Sheng asked again: "I went to Zitong Temple to pray. Can you hear me?" "
Song Sheng said: "It's useless to do this. Jiutian is very far away from here. As long as you keep yourself clean and cultivate your virtue wholeheartedly, the underworld will have its own reward. Then I will definitely know. "After saying that, he disappeared.
When Wang Sheng came to the room, he saw that there were really purple fungi, so he picked them off and put them away. There was a new mound of soil next to it. When he dug it up, he found that the sugar dumplings made by Song Sheng just now were all inside. After Wang Sheng returned, he studied harder and harder Academic ethics.
One night, Wang Sheng saw Song Sheng sitting on an official sedan in his dream, and said: "You were angry over a trivial matter and accidentally killed a maid, so you were stripped of your official salary. Now that you have done good deeds, you have already lost your merits, but you are not lucky enough to be an official. "
In this year, Wang Sheng succeeded in the provincial examination and passed the imperial examination. In the spring of the next year, he passed the imperial examination and followed Song Sheng's advice and did not become an official.
Wang Sheng had two sons, one of whom was stupid and became very smart after eating Song Sheng's mushrooms. Later Wang Sheng went to Nanjing for business and met Xu Hangsheng during the journey. Xu Hangsheng greeted him warmly and was very humble, but the two sons His temples have turned gray.
Story insights: Xu Hangsheng brags about himself, and I think there may be something to learn from his writing, but his arrogant and arrogant expression makes people unable to tolerate him for a moment. Therefore, ghosts and gods dare to play tricks on him. If he can cultivate his own morality, it will be a good opportunity to meet a blind monk who understands the article.
