in2ebook Chapter 137 Entrance Ceremony
Chapter 137 Entrance Ceremony
"Follow me and I will take you to school."
"Yes, Master." The three answered in unison.
Master Chen led the way, the three children walked in the middle, and Lin Chuyi and Old Huang walked at the end, carrying the gifts for paying homage to their master.
The group quickly entered the school, and after entering, they had to go through the formal ceremony of paying homage to their teacher.
After listening to Master Chen’s description of the process of becoming a disciple, the three children began to follow the steps, stood in a row in front of the portrait of the saint, knelt on their knees, kowtowed nine times, then stood up and walked in front of Master Chen, knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to him.
When Lin Chuyi was chatting with Mrs. Chen just now, they talked about the specific process of becoming a disciple, so Lin Chuyi knew that now was the time to present the six gifts.
So Lin Chuyi and Grandpa Huang made a gesture, and Grandpa Huang instantly understood. He followed Lin Chuyi and walked to the three children. He handed the gifts in his hands to the three children, and they gave them to the teacher personally.
Master Chen accepted the six gifts from the three people in turn: dried meat strips, celery, lotus seeds, red dates, longan, and red beans.
Feeling the weight of these apprenticeship gifts, Master Chen did not show it on his face, but he was a little surprised in his heart. To be able to give such apprenticeship gifts, the family background of these children must be not poor.
That’s right, if you don’t have some family background, how can you send your children to school, let alone three at a time?
Master Chen handed the apprenticeship gift he received to Madam Chen who had just entered the school, and then took a few handwritten books from Madam Chen as a return gift and gave them to the three new students.
After respectfully accepting the gifts, the three children, under Master Chen’s instructions, recited the first chapter of The Great Learning sentence by sentence with him, emphasizing the principle that “the way of the Great Learning is to manifest the illustrious virtue, to love the people, and to rest in the highest good.”
After paying their respects to their teacher, the three began to "clean their hands" as requested by the teacher.
The so-called "cleansing hands" usually means washing your hands in a basin of water, but when becoming an apprentice, in addition to this literal meaning, washing hands also has a symbolic meaning.
The process of washing hands is not complicated. You just need to put your hands into the water, wash them front and back once, and then dry them with a prepared cloth.
Doing this has the meaning of cleansing the hands and mind, removing distractions and retaining essence. The main purpose is to hope that students can concentrate and focus on their future studies.
After "cleaning hands" comes "starting to write", which is an indispensable process in the opening ceremony of school.
At that time, scholars could only go to school after they had mastered the art of writing.
The process of starting to write includes three parts: "using cinnabar to open the mind", "beating the drum to express one's ambition" and "tracing in red ink to start writing".
The "Cinnabar Opening Wisdom" is done by the teacher, who needs to hold a brush dipped in cinnabar and dot a red mole on the student's forehead.
"Mole" and "wisdom" have the same pronunciation, so getting a mole means that the student will become wise, have clear eyes and a bright mind, and will be able to understand things quickly and learn them quickly in the future.
The tradition of "beating the drum to express one's aspirations" has a long history. New students need to beat the drum three times under the guidance of their teacher.
One drum beat means "respect elders and have clear aspirations", two drum beats mean "love learning and work hard", and three drum beats mean "learn etiquette and have a sense of shame".
After hearing Master Chen's explanation, the children all knew that the louder the sound of the drum and the farther it travels, the greater the ambition of the person beating the drum.
None of the three children wanted to lose to the other, so when they beat the drums, they used all their strength, and the sounds they made became louder and louder.
Master Chen has taught many students and is already accustomed to the competitive spirit among children.
After the three children completed the drumming task, he brought them back to the school and asked them to complete the last step of the calligraphy process, "tracing the red characters".
"Tracing red characters to start writing" means that students, under the guidance of a teacher, learn to write the character "人". It implies that to study, one must first stand upright and be as upright as the character "人".
Although Lin Wuyou and Lin Cheng did not study systematically in school, they learned to read from the eldest grandson of the village head some time ago.
At present, they don’t know many characters, but they can still recognize simple characters like “人” (person), and they have also copied the calligraphy given by Lin Chuyi for a period of time.
At this time, the teacher asked them to learn to write the character "人". Lin Wuyou and Lin Cheng both looked confident. They followed the teacher and picked up the pen, dipped it in ink, and wrote the strokes smoothly on the paper.
Compared with the twins' calmness and composure, Huang Xiaoshun seemed a little embarrassed. He had never written with a brush and didn't even know the correct way to hold a brush.
He pursed his lips, and the palm of the hand holding the brush was a little sweaty, but he did not make a sound to disturb the two friends who were concentrating on writing. Instead, he carefully observed the way they held the pen and then made corresponding adjustments.
Seeing that they just simply drew two strokes and then stopped, Huang Xiaoshun breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, there was not much to write.
Feeling the teacher's gaze coming towards him, Huang Xiaoshun quickly retracted his gaze, straightened his back, and imitated them, dipping the brush in ink and drawing two strokes on the paper.
When Master Chen saw the character “人” written by Lin Wuyou and Lin Cheng, his eyes showed admiration.
Very good, these two children must have practiced writing often at home, and there must be someone around to guide them.
Not only is the pen-holding posture correct, but there is also no delay when writing. The characters written are square and neat, with a symmetrical structure, and look pleasing to the eye.
But when Master Chen's eyes fell on the words written by Huang Xiaoshun, his breathing obviously stagnated, and then he smiled and nodded. These thick strokes were the normal level of a beginner.
Master Chen collected the works written by the three people, put them on the desk he used for lectures, and weighed them down with a paperweight. Then he smiled and looked at the three children in front of him.
"The apprenticeship ceremony has been completed. The three of you have officially become my students. From now on, you can call me Mr. in the school. You can bring your four treasures of the study to the school tomorrow."
The three children were very excited to hear that they could study in the school openly tomorrow. However, they still did not forget Lin Chuyi's previous instructions and performed the disciple salute to the teacher.
"Student Huang Xiaoshun thanks you, sir."
"Student Lin Wuyou thanks you, sir."
"Student Lin Cheng thanks you, sir."
Master Chen accepted the gift with a smile, then led his group out of the school and returned to the hall where he had just received the guests.
Lin Chuyi winked at Grandpa Huang, asking him to take the three children out first.
When she and Chen Kang and his wife were the only ones left in the room, Lin Chuyi took out six taels of silver from the purse hanging around her waist and handed it directly to Mrs. Chen.
"Madam, this is the tuition for the three children this year. Please accept it."