Chapter 149.2: Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine Ch 149 Pt. 2
Translated by gingercat
Edited by gingercat
He let go of Yaoniang’s hand and had her write in a way that made her most comfortable. Sure enough, Yaoniang’s posture when writing comfortably wasn’t great. She knew what the commonly used method was and she couldn’t help thinking how much it differed from hers. Naturally, her writing was more or less impacted.
“You must remember a few essential points. The fingers are firm and the palm is empty. Have a moderate grip, so there should be room for movement in the palm. Your fingers should firmly grasp the pen, but not too tight or too loose. Keep your wrist straight… You have to relax, don’t be too nervous…”
Jin Wang held Yaoniang’s hand and wrote the word ‘Jin’ on the rice paper. The handwriting was thin and vigorous, full of arrogance. The strokes were sharp, seemingly capable of breaking gold and cutting jade. This was the Shoujinti, a style of calligraphy that Jin Wang was best at.
This was the first time for Yaoniang to see Jin Wang write. Actually, it wasn’t that she hadn’t seen him write before. Occasionally, Jin Wang would bring back some books or confidential letters to go through and annotate. But Yaoniang had never approached him to observe, so this was the first time for her to see Jin Wang write.
“Your Highness’s calligraphy is so beautiful.” Yaoniang couldn’t really differentiate between what was good and what was bad. In her eyes, as long as the words were good-looking, then the calligraphy style was good.
“Since you are a beginner, copying Shoujinti is easy for you to go astray. Benwang will have someone send over a copy of Elder Yan’s “Multi-Pagoda Stele” tomorrow. If you copy it once or twice every day, you’ll gradually make progress over time.”
As he spoke, he held Yaoniang’s hand again and wrote a few characters in the Yan calligraphy style. His handwriting was strong, dignified, imposing and majestic. At first glance, one could tell that Jin Wang was also very familiar with this Yan style.
“Your Highness, you’re really knowledgeable.”
Despite how thick Jin Wang’s skin was, he couldn’t help but blush after being praised twice. He coughed lightly, let go of her hand, and interrupted, “You write a few words for me to see how well you can hold the brush.”
As Jin Wang retreated to the side, Yaoniang adjusted the small brush in the palm of her hand. But as she held the brush, she couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable and felt an urge to adjust the posture of her hand again.
Jin Wang didn’t say anything and only looked at her. Yaoniang shifted her hand a few times but still didn’t feel any better. Then she stopped thinking about whether her posture was right or not and started to apply what Jin Wang had just said.
‘The fingers are firm and the palm is empty. The grip should be moderate, the brush is straight and the wrist is flat.’
She kept reciting his words in her heart. The first two words she wrote were hindered by her posture, but her writing gradually became smoother. Although the words were still ugly, there were no more jerky pauses from before.
“You don’t have a solid enough foundation, so start with tracing the words first. Trace ten pages every day, and benwang will check.”
Jin Wang’s posture was so serious that Yaoniang became stunned on the spot and didn’t even have the chance to feel any anger. She nodded honestly, like a child who just started going to school.
“As for tracing the words, you’ll start tomorrow. You already practiced for a long time today, so you should go and get some rest first. When practicing calligraphy, you need to pay attention to relaxing when needed, so do it in moderation and you’ll be able to write good characters.”
Yaoniang, who was shocked speechless by Jin Wang, was coaxed back to normal just like that.
The two climbed onto the couch. Jin Wang found a comfortable position to wrap his arms around her, and the empty feeling he felt earlier immediately disappeared.
The snow fell for five days straight, sometimes lightly, sometimes heavier.
.
For those who had stayed in Jinzhou, this snow was really nothing, but for the people who lived in the capital all year round, this was extremely rare.
Many people’s houses in the outer city were damaged. The yamen of the capital and the soldiers were busy shuttling back and forth every day to settle these displaced people. Apparently, in places near the capital, such as Daxing and Wanping, a lot of disaster victims gathered together. This was because they wanted to enter the capital, where there were more resources but were stopped outside.
The capital was an important place. It wasn’t an appropriate place for refugees to gather.
Fucheng reported the situation outside to Jin Wang every day, but Jin Wang made no movement at all.
Yaoniang couldn’t bear it anymore, and asked him, “There are already people giving out porridge outside. Why don’t we also do that? We don’t need to do too much, just enough to show that our intentions are there.”
The people that had set up stands to give out porridge were those from the wealthy families. There has yet to be any movement from the homes of the ministers and officials.
Jin Wang shook his head and said, “The gun shoots at the first bird that takes flight.”
Indeed, the first bird appeared very quickly. It was Consort An.
Or more accurately, An Wang.
Recently, An Wang was in the limelight, while Hui Wang was abandoned. Out of the rest of them, he was the eldest and had entered a respectable place like the Ministry of Rites. One may think of the Ministry of Rites as an insignificant department, but it’s actually the lifeblood of the imperial court. The imperial examinations that are held every three years are presided over by the Ministry of Rites.
The officials and scholars placed great importance on these relationships, whether they came from the same hometown, the same year, or the same teacher.
It was said that the students came from everywhere under the heavens. Those who were nearer to each other were only separated by hundreds of miles, those further, by thousands of miles. The dialects they spoke were different and their surnames varied. But once they passed the exams and entered the government, the person who was their chief examiner would be addressed as master. The other examiners were addressed as teachers. Those who passed the exam in the same year call each other brothers. The disciples of the same master were also brothers. Once the disciples become masters and take on a new generation of disciples, the master’s master would be addressed as grand-master.
One could see how heavily they placed an emphasis on these relationships!
Between the master, teachers and disciples, whether from the same year or different generations, there stood a lot of benefits to gain.
Therefore, if one day a civil officer could be appointed as the chief examiner of the exam, or even only a deputy examiner, he could gain a lot from this.
Think about it. All the scholars who passed that exam would acknowledge him as their teacher or even master. How great is that!
Whenever the exam season approached, the gates of the household, whose master was suspected to be appointed as the main examiner, would be overrun with carriages and horses. Another place that would be under the scrutiny of the public eye would be the Ministry of Rites, along with the officials who work there. This was because, besides the chief examiner, who would be personally appointed by His Majesty, most of the other examiners were from the Ministry of Rites.
And An Wang just so happened to be appointed as the director of the Department of Rituals and Officials at the Ministry of Rites. This department was in charge of the imperial examinations.
An Wang propelled to the forefront of everyone’s minds, along with the entire Ministry of Rites. Despite the freezing winter, An Wang Manor was a popular place. Every day, countless people were turned away at the doors. An Wang seemed to be uninterested in socializing with these people.
Of course, this was all on the surface. What should be done was all done but in private. Those who worked for An Wang would all personally come out to socialize. Even the wily old fox, An Wang could barely keep his composure. After all, this was a once every three years opportunity. It was a good time for him to recruit a large number of young officials with great potential.
With the huge snow disaster, An Wang Manor opened a porridge shed to serve porridge with great fanfare. Word quickly spread that An Wang was a virtuous prince. Some even said that the only reason why the former crown prince was given that position was because of his status as the eldest di son. Otherwise, he wasn’t as good as the second prince, An Wang. If they were to appoint the new crown prince, An Wang was naturally the best choice.
All of a sudden, the voices expressing this idea grew louder and louder.
Finally, an old minister suggested during court that Emperor Hongjing should decide on the candidate for the new crown prince as soon as possible. He even claimed that this was for the good of the country. Emperor Hongjing’s attitude had always been unclear, which resulted in this matter being suppressed all this while. There was an outburst of cries amongst the crowd, and someone in the courtroom even began to berate Emperor Hongjing.
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