three pools mirroring the moon used to be a private school where my ancestors taught. I want to talk about the meaning of "three flavors" in three pools mirroring the moon for your reference.
the origin of "three pools mirroring the moon"
after my ancestors settled in Shaoxing, when my great-great-grandfather Shou Fenglan arrived, he opened a "Shoutongsheng" hotel near Jinghu Lake outside Pianmen, Shaoxing, and made wine as his business. Later, due to the extortion of local corrupt officials and local tyrants, the operation of the wine shop was finally unsustainable and had to close down. So Feng Lan came up with the idea of setting up a private school to set up a school, for one thing, to make a living, and for another, to make future generations stop working and doing business. In order to run a private school and develop a school, Feng Lan first invited a famous teacher to sit at home and teach his son Shou Yunqiao ancient books and calligraphy. Yun Qiaogong studied hard, and in the future, he not only became proficient in writing and ink, but also worked hard in calligraphy. Later, Duke Yun Qiao invited his two sons, Shou Zhouyong and Shou Jingwu, to give lectures. After their academic success, they all made a living by teaching in a library (Shou Jingwu started a private school in three pools mirroring the moon for life, following his ancestors' footsteps, and was honored as "Mr. Shou Lao" by Lu Xun).
Because of his deep knowledge of official corruption, sinister official career and public regulations, only the ancient literary books left by the ancients, such as Four Books, Five Classics and hundred schools of thought, are taught in three pools mirroring the moon, and professors are not allowed to try to post poems, eight-part essays and other knowledge needed to obtain the imperial examination fame. In other words, three pools mirroring the moon was not designed for training officials in the Qing Dynasty. At that time, this kind of good intention could not be seen outside the world (even less in written records), but when Feng Lan instructed his son Shou Yunqiao (that is, Yun Chaogong) to change the word "Yu" on the plaque of a "Sanyu Bookstore" he brought when he bought a house, he clarified the meaning of this "three flavors": "The cloth is warm, the roots are fragrant, and the poetry books taste long." Take these three sentences as the teaching policy of private schools, and take them as the ancestral precepts handed down from generation to generation. Children and grandchildren are required to abide by it seriously, and they are not allowed to be officials of the Qing Dynasty. Be willing to be ordinary people, live by your own labor, and be willing to live a hard life. It should be said that the children and grandchildren have well abided by this tenet of Feng Lan Gong. Among the scholarly families followed by Shou's family for generations to come, two elders, like my grandfather Jing Wugong and my father Shou Jian Lin, have only passed the examinations of scholars in the county. After they have obtained the qualification of being a private school teacher, they will no longer take the imperial examination and teach in the "Shoujiamen Platform" for life. My uncle, Shou Xiaotian, only passed the examination until he was a juren, and no longer attempted other fame, although according to his profound knowledge, it was easy to get a position and take the road of being an official.
However, everything changes, and things are unpredictable. There is still a descendant in the Shou family who is unwilling to abide by the ancestral teachings. A grandson of Yunchao Gong, that is, my uncle Shou Zhulin, wants to take another road. He is keen to take part in the imperial examination. And when the exam is coming, he escapes from the confinement room set up by his father to prevent him from taking the exam, and hangs out from the window upstairs where he is shut, and escapes from taking the exam. Finally, he won the first place in the Korean exam and was appointed as the magistrate of Nong 'an County, Jilin Province. This violation of ancestral teachings greatly angered my grandfather, called him "unfilial" and even said that he would never recognize this "unfilial son" for a long time. Grandfather's "three flavors spirit" is strong, which can be seen.
A variety of opinions about the "three flavors" in three pools mirroring the moon
As mentioned earlier, the original meaning of "three flavors" is "warm clothes, fragrant vegetables and long taste of poetry and books", which includes the purpose of ancestors when they founded private schools. Although it is a family rule that must be followed, it must not be revealed to the public because of their anti-Qing consciousness. Three pools mirroring the moon naturally became interested in the meaning of "three flavors" after Lu Xun attracted people's attention. When someone asked about Shouzhu's neighbors, he replied that "reading classics tastes like rice beams, reading history tastes like dishes, and hundred schools of thought tastes like vinegar", that is, reading three kinds of ancient books is described by three flavors as an explanation. But this statement makes many people find it hard to believe and agree. Because there are more than three words in the biography of the Three Kingdoms Dong Yu: "Winter is over the age, night is over the day, and rainy is over the sunny day." Originally meant to teach people to cherish time and study hard, why should we change "Sanyu" to "Sanwei" and describe ancient books with taste to persuade people to study? Others suspect that a well-read scholar like Shou Jingwu-"a very square, simple and knowledgeable person in our city" (Lu Xun's language), how can he describe reading with "dishes" and "meat sauce"? It seems far-fetched if it is a plaque in a restaurant or pub and used as a plaque in a bookstore. In addition, there are also textual researches on "Sanyu" as "public surplus, meal surplus and tea surplus", and there are even quotations from the classics, which are found in Li Shu's "Handan Bibliography" in the Song Dynasty: "Poetry and books are too thick (the gravy used in ancient sacrifices), history is broken, and children are acyl sugar. It is for the three flavors of the book. " All these, to name a few. A plaque with "three flavors" was interpreted with so many flavors, which was probably unexpected by our ancestors.
time flies. Seeing this situation of different opinions and unable to agree, I feel that I should clarify the truth. Now there is no need to stick to family rules and keep my mouth shut about ancestral teachings. So I submitted the book "Shaoxing Luxun Research Special Issue", detailing everything I have learned since I was a child in the "three pools mirroring the moon". In particular, my grandfather Jing Wugong, my father Shou Jian, and my uncle Shou Xiaotian have taught me more than once the "three flavors spirit", which has left a deep impression in my mind since childhood.
The original meaning of the "three flavors" should not be concealed
In exploring the meaning of the three flavors, many benevolent people have made painstaking efforts to investigate and analyze, which, in a sense, boils down to persuading people to cherish their time and study hard, and all kinds of explanations are understandable. However, these three flavors are different from each other. From the perspective of respecting historical facts, I think we should seek truth from facts and return the original meaning of the "three flavors", and we should not let them be misrepresented, and even evolve to cover up the original appearance of three pools mirroring the moon's founding and development, the purpose of running a school, and the teaching staff.
there is no end to learning and exploration. Recently, I learned about the new situation of "three flavors" from the voluminous ancient books of local chronicles, and I added the following: During the Shunzhi period in the early Qing Dynasty, a Gansu official who was an official to Wen Linlang "Wang Wangwang" resigned from his post and lived in seclusion in the countryside because of unbearable official strife. In his later years, he wrote a picture of nave and two couplets for people, and what he wrote on that nave was actually "warm clothes, fragrant roots and the taste of poetry." Calculated, more than 16 years before the formation of three pools mirroring the moon! It can be seen that these three sentences of ancestral instruction handed down by Jing Wugong's dictation have their origins. It must have been seen by Yun Qiao Gong at the beginning, and the heart was connected with each other, which caused the same feeling, so he borrowed it as the content of "three flavors".