Childhood seems to be an inconspicuous experience in a person's life. But everyone’s childhood has indelible memories. Some people even say that a person's character begins to form in childhood. Zhu Xi basically spent his childhood in Youxi, leaving behind many stories of being extremely intelligent, good at thinking, and diligent in learning. In Zhu Xi's childhood, we can see clues about the origin of his Neo-Confucian ideological system.
In the third year of Shaoxing (1133), Zhu Song resumed his official career due to the recommendation of a person. This is undoubtedly an important turning point for the Zhu family. This important figure is Hu Shijiang.
Hu Shijiang was a student of Chao Buzhi, one of the "Four Scholars of the Soviet Union". The intersection between him and Zhu Song was because of a peasant uprising in northern Fujian at that time.
In July of the year Zhu Xi was born (1130), Fan Ruwei led a crowd to revolt and was active in northern Fujian. The Southern Song Dynasty court tried to appease him several times, but after Fan Ruwei accepted the appeasement, he revolted again.
In September of the first year of Shaoxing (1131), General Hu Shi was appointed as the envoy of Fujian Road to appease the rebels and came to Fuzhou. But before his arrival, Han Shizhong, commander of the Shenwu Left Army, had put down Fan Ruwei's rebellion.
Zhu Song seized the opportunity and went to Fuzhou to pay a visit to General Hu Shi and offered him the strategy of "entering the Central Plains and conquering China".
The Southern Song Dynasty had just been established and was in urgent need of talents. Recommended by General Hu Shi, Zhu Song was appointed tax supervisor in Shijing Town, Quanzhou (now Anhai Town, Jinjiang City). At that time, Shijing shipping was quite developed. In the second year of Yuanyou (1087) of the Northern Song Dynasty, Quanzhou set up a checkpoint here to collect shipping taxes.
During Ishii's tenure, Zhu Song was not successful. As a scholar, he had the ambition and ambition to "enter the Central Plains and conquer China." But now, he is just a small tax collector, immersed in the "triviality of fish and salt".
The unsatisfactory career made Zhu Song miss his wife and children in Youxi's family even more, especially the talented Zhu Xi.
One day when Zhu Xi was four years old, Zhu Song pointed to the sun in the sky and said to Zhu Xi, that is the sun. Zhu Xi asked: "Where is the sun attached to?" Zhu Song replied: "It is attached to the sky." Zhu Xi then asked: "Where is the sky attached to? What is on the sky?"
Zhu Song was asked after a question stunned. Although Zhu Song won the Jinshi at the age of 21, he could not answer his son's questions because of the knowledge background of "the sky is round and the earth is round" at that time.
Zhu Song probably did not expect at that time that questions about "natural principles" would later become a philosophical proposition that Zhu Xi pursued and explored throughout his life.
This allusion about "Zhu Xi asked Tian" is recorded in the "History of Song Dynasty·Biography·Zhu Xi Biography".
When Zhu Xi was a child, he was obsessed with thinking about the vast universe. He was so addicted to near-infatuation that he almost fell ill. Later, he himself recalled: "What is trouble beyond the four sides of the world? People say that the four directions are boundless, and certain thoughts must have an end. Just like this wall, there must be something behind the wall. What I was thinking about at that time Almost sick."
Zhu Song was appointed as the tax superintendent of Shijing Town. In addition to regaining his job, more importantly, he was appreciated by the Xie Ke family of Quanzhou Zhizhou.
In April of the second year of Jingkang (1127), Xie Kejia, the official minister, held the "Treasure of the Song Dynasty" (the national seal) to welcome Kang Wang Zhao Gou to inherit the throne. This was a great achievement. In the fourth year of Jianyan's reign (1130), Xie Ke's family became an official and became the deputy prime minister. Soon, Xie Ke resigned due to illness.
It is worth mentioning that the Xie Ke family and Zhao Mingcheng are aunts and cousins, and Zhao Mingcheng is the husband of the famous female poet Li Qingzhao. Xie and Zhao have close ties with each other.
Fearing the invasion of Jin soldiers, Zhao Gou regarded Quanzhou as an important route to escape south if necessary. The Xie Ke family, who was deeply trusted by Zhao Gou, served as the magistrate of Quanzhou three times, each time for about a year. The first time was in the third year of Jianyan (1129); the second time was in the first year of Shaoxing (1131); and the third time was in the third year of Shaoxing (1133).
During his last term in Quanzhou, the 70-year-old Xie Ke family valued Zhu Song's knowledge very highly. On his recommendation, Zhu Song entered the capital in response to the imperial edict in the fourth year of Shaoxing (1134).
?Before going to Hangzhou in response to the imperial edict, Zhu Song returned to Youxi's home.
When Zhu Song went home this time, he saw Zhu Xi growing taller again, so he decided to send him to a private school, and wrote a poem "Send Wuerlang to Study":
Here you go Things should be done well in the beginning.
There is no rich industry in my hometown, and there are broken books in the old boxes.
The lights go out late when you go to bed at night, and your hair is combed early when you wake up in the morning.
The poetry bag should be full, and the wine cup should be sparse.
?Jin Ning is like a dog, and dragon transformation is originally from a fish.
The tripod is recommended for physical weakness, and the sound of the bell should be for physical weakness.
The spring blooms in the cave, and the sun disappears in the long day.
It’s all up to you to start a family, so don’t hesitate when this is over.
Judging from the last sentence of the poem, Zhu Song has pinned his hope of revitalizing the family on Zhu Xi.
In March, Zhu Song set out for the capital to take the examination for a position in the history museum, and the topic was "The Difficulty and Ease of ZTE's Cause". This is a question that Zhu Song often thinks about. With his eloquent answer of several thousand words, he gained the attention of Zhao Ding, the Privy Councilor.
During the Shaoxing period, Zhao Ding paid homage to the prime minister twice. He was known as the first virtuous prime minister in Zhongxing in the Southern Song Dynasty and was given the posthumous title of "Zhong Jian". Later, Zhu Xi commented on him: "Prime Minister Zhao is just one famous minister of Zhongxing." Xin Qiji, a contemporary of Zhu Xi, also said: "Prime Minister Zhao is just one person who is loyal to Jane."
People often say, Success requires the help of noble people. Zhu Song received help from noble people one after another, and this time he was recommended by Zhao Ding and appointed as secretary of the provincial government. This should have been an important opportunity for Zhu Song to make a big difference. Unfortunately, important changes occurred in the Zhu family soon.
In August, Zhu Song’s mother, Mrs. Cheng, passed away. According to the Song Dynasty system, Zhu Song should go home to Dingyou for three years.
Dingyou is a traditional moral etiquette system in ancient China. If a court official's parents die, they must leave the official position and mourn for their parents for three years. For special reasons, forcibly recruiting Ding You as an official is called "seizing love." The most famous example of "stealing love" in history is Zhang Juzheng, the chief minister of the Wanli Dynasty cabinet in the Ming Dynasty. He was criticized for "stealing love".
It was unfortunate for Zhu Xi that his grandmother passed away, but what made him happy was that his father was back. Zhu Song, who was at home with Ding You, put a lot of energy into supervising Zhu Xi's study and became Zhu Xi's best teacher in his childhood.
Perhaps because of his mother's death, Zhu Song taught Zhu Xi "The Classic of Filial Piety".
Confucianism has been passed down from generation to generation in the Zhu family, and Zhu Song’s good friend Luo Congyan was a student of Yang Shi. Yang Shi is the protagonist of the idiom "Chengmen Lixue". It was he who brought Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi's Luoxue to Fujian. When Yang Shi returned from his studies, Cheng Hao watched him go away and said happily: "My way is south."
"The Classic of Filial Piety" is a Confucian classic that teaches filial piety. Zhu Song taught Confucianism to Zhu Xi , it is not surprising to choose to start with "The Classic of Filial Piety".
"The Classic of Filial Piety" is not very difficult. Zhu Xi mastered it as soon as he learned it. He wrote on the "Classic of Filial Piety": "If it is not true, it is not a human being."
In a certain sense It is said that the core of Chinese civilization is "filial piety". This is not only the core point of the debate between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, but also the conclusion of later generations' criticism of traditional culture. Indian Buddhism does not originally emphasize filial piety, which is not easy to spread in China. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Buddhism began to talk about filial piety, and believed that general filial piety was only a small form of filial piety, while treating all living beings as parents and helping them escape suffering and achieve happiness was a great filial piety. This formulation removed the biggest obstacle to the spread of Buddhism in China and it developed rapidly.
Zhu Song taught Zhu Xi not only the "Book of Filial Piety", but also the "Book of Changes".
In front of the Zheng family residence where Zhu Xi lived, there was a stream called Qingyin River, with a sandbar in the stream. This sandbank was a paradise for Zhu Xi and his friends to play in their childhood.
On one occasion, someone found a group of children playing on the sandbank, but Zhu Xi was the only one sitting on the sand thoughtfully. Looking closer, Zhu Xi drew a Bagua diagram on the sand and was meditating on it.
The story of Zhu Xi’s hexagram painting on the sandbank is also spread in Jianou, Fujian. This is because Zhu Song and his family settled in Jian'ou not long after, and Zhu Xi, who was about the same age, could draw hexagrams on the sandbanks of Youxi, and he would naturally draw hexagrams on the sandbars of Jian'ou. There was no contradiction between the two.
Of course, what Zhu Song taught Zhu Xi was far more than the "Book of Filial Piety" and "The Book of Changes". With the death of Zhu Xi's two brothers, Zhu Xi was the only one under Zhu Song's knees. Taught to Zhu Xi without reservation.
Zhu Song believes that "the Book of Rites contains many elegant sayings of various Confucian scholars, and only the Doctrine of the Mean comes from the Kong family's family tradition. The article "Great Learning" is the gateway to Taoism." Zhu Song should also consider this An idea was passed to Zhu Xi. Later, Zhu Xi combined "The Great Learning", "The Doctrine of the Mean", "The Analects" and "Mencius" into the "Four Books". The source of Zhu Xi's "Four Books" thought can be found in Zhu Song.
The Zheng Family House where Zhu Xi lived was originally a place for leisure and entertainment provided by the owner Zheng Andao for literary friends. It was naturally designed and constructed according to the garden style architecture.
There is a pond in the building, which is square and covers an area of ??more than half an acre. There are lotus flowers in the pond and peach trees around it. In spring and summer, the fields of lotus leaves and peach blossoms are charming, and the scenery is pleasant. In this beautiful scenery, there is a story of "half an acre of square pond with two peach blossoms".
Under the supervision of his father Zhu Song, Zhu Xi studied diligently during his childhood.
One day, Zhu Song told Zhu Xi the Tang poem "A Gift to Wang Lun": "Li Bai was about to leave in a boat when he suddenly heard singing on the shore. The water in Peach Blossom Pond is a thousand feet deep, not as deep as Wang Lun's gift to me." Zhu Xi was asked to write it silently. This Tang poem.
Zhu Xi immediately ground the ink and laid out the paper. He wrote it in a short while and presented it to Zhu Song for review. When Zhu Song saw that Zhu Xi's calligraphy had improved slightly, he was overjoyed. Suddenly his expression changed. It turned out that he discovered that Zhu Xi had written the word "peach" instead of the word "pick". He criticized Zhu Xi: "If the heart is right, the handwriting will be right; if the heart is not right, the handwriting will be wrong."
Zhu Xi secretly glanced at his handwriting, discovered the mistake he had made carelessly, and immediately admitted it: "I blame my carelessness. , punish me by writing a thousand words for 'peach'."
Suddenly the weather suddenly changed, there was thunder, wind and rain, and the peach blossoms by the pond were knocked to the ground. Zhu Xi was not affected by the unexpected situation and concentrated on writing the word "peach" stroke by stroke. When he finished writing a thousand words "peach", his hands ached and his back was sore, and his face was sweating.
Strangely enough, when Zhu Xi finished writing a thousand characters for "peach", the sky suddenly opened up again and the sun shone brightly. Zhu Song saw that his son could not be affected by the violent wind and rain, was not distracted in the lightning and thunder, and all the words he wrote were correct and powerful, so he couldn't help but praise his son.
When Zhu Song took his son out of the house, he couldn't help but be stunned by the scene in front of him. The peach blossoms that were originally knocked down by the storm were no longer red on the ground, but the peach blossoms on the branches were blooming with smiles as if they had not experienced the wind and rain.
This story of "half an acre of square pond with two peach blossoms" is rich in mythical color and is widely circulated among the people. When scholar Qian Wenzhong taught the "Three Character Classic" on CCTV's "Hundred Schools Forum", he used this story as a model of diligent study.
(To be continued)