Translation [Storytelling] A scholar in central Zhejiang

Recently, a scholar in Zhejiang carved ten masters of Huang Ming Bookstore, ranking Zhu Yunming first, Dong Qichang last, and even Tang Huan and Xu Guangzuo from Hangzhou ahead of Dong Qichang. This scholar is also a famous calligrapher, and his self-evaluation is not low. I advised him, "These two men are not only difficult to compare with Dong Qichang, but also cannot be classified as great calligraphers. Why not revise it again? " The man was angry, as if to say that I didn't understand at all. How can he talk nonsense casually? I just laughed and listened.

Another scholar-bureaucrat in Zhejiang said to me, "Not long ago, I met Zhou, a scholar's envoy on the West Lake. He suddenly asked me,' Needless to say, the recent calligraphers, such as Huang and Dong Qichang, are all human, but I don't know who is next?' His words are very strange, so I won't answer them. I said, "Why don't you make it clear to him?" The scholar-bureaucrat said, "If you don't understand such stupid words, you can only slap him hard and argue with him." Huang's eight-part essay is very famous. He is not good at calligraphy, but he especially likes to brush two strokes. His dirty papers are all over the city, and even the couplets in the garden pavilion are mostly inscribed by him, which is why Zhou has that problem. There are many unjust, false and wrong cases in the world, but Dong Qichang has been humiliated many times, which is an example of a wise man's view on his room.