Chapter 8: Teaching
After Li Si walked out of the blacksmith’s shop, he went to the carpenter’s shop. He wanted to buy a peachwood sword, but after asking, he discovered that this carpenter’s shop had no peachwood. The carpenter said peachwood could not grow into large timber and was rather soft in texture, so it could not be used to make furniture. Therefore, he had no peachwood here.
Li Si was somewhat unwilling to give up, so he went to several more carpenter’s shops, but they all said they had none. When he asked whether he could order one, he was told there was no peachwood nearby.
“How could there be none?” Li Si was a little puzzled. He remembered from his memories that peachwood swords could drive away evil. Then peachwood swords should definitely be bestsellers. Yet in this world, the evil-warding effect of peachwood was not known at all.
With these doubts, he walked home and saw that some children were already waiting outside the door.
Li Si looked at the sun and found that it was almost the Shen hour, so he walked over and greeted them: “You came this early?”
“Teacher,” the group of children said respectfully as they bowed.
Seeing them bow to him, Li Si felt a little strange, but it would not be good to say anything. He could not exactly tell them not to bow, could he? In this world, etiquette was still taken very seriously. Even if someone studied well and performed well in examinations, if he did not understand propriety and righteousness, others would still look down on him.
Walking to the door, he opened the lock, and the group of children followed him inside.
“Wait here. I will come in a moment.”
Li Si walked into the kitchen, took some charcoal that had not completely burned from beneath the stove, and began writing on the wooden slips he had bought from the carpenter’s shop. What he wrote on them was Li Shen’s Sympathy for the Farmers from the Tang dynasty.
Hoeing grain beneath the midday sun, sweat drips into the soil below.
Who knows that the food on the plate, every grain, comes from bitter toil?
Under the gaze of the group of children, Li Si walked into the main hall, placed the wooden board on a chair, had the children sit on the ground, and sat on a stool himself. Pointing at the wooden slip with his finger, he said, “This is a poem called Sympathy for the Farmers. The word sympathy here means pity and compassion. Do you understand?”
“We understand!”
“Then do you know where food comes from?” Li Si’s expression relaxed, and he asked with a smile.
“It is bought from the market entrance,” Yu Hu immediately answered. Afterward, he seemed to think himself very clever and looked proudly at the companions beside him.
“That is also correct. Then before it reaches the market entrance, where is it?” Li Si smiled. That answer was also correct, but it was not the answer he wanted.
“I know, I know.” A skinny child with dark skin raised his hand and said, “It is grown from the fields.”
This child was from a nearby farming household, so he had some understanding of farm work.
Li Si nodded in satisfaction, then asked this child, “Sun Zhi, is farming tiring?”
“It’s really tiring. My dad leaves home every day before the sky is even bright, works in the fields at noon, and only comes home when the sky is almost dark. My dad’s waist can hardly straighten up now.” When Sun Zhi began speaking, he was still excited at being valued by the teacher, but by the end, his mood had become somewhat low.
“Sun Zhi, you answered very well.” Li Si first praised Sun Zhi to comfort his mood, then said to the other children, “Every grain of food we eat is grown from the soil. It is because there are hardworking people like Sun Zhi’s father that we can have food to eat. Finishing our food is respect toward such hardworking farmers. Do you understand?”
“We understand!” the children answered in unison. Some of the children from farming households even had tears in their eyes. They had never heard anyone praise farmers before. In this world, farmers did not have a high status.
Although the status hierarchy was scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, the farmers in it did not refer to poor farmers or tenant farmers, but to landlords.
Now, after hearing Li Si praise farmers, it was the first time they had heard such words, so it deeply moved the children from farming households.
“Then let us learn this poem. First, listen to me read it once.” Li Si smiled and recited, “Hoeing grain beneath the midday sun, sweat drips into the soil below. Who knows that the food on the plate, every grain, comes from bitter toil?”
Li Si’s powerful and resonant voice rang through the room, making the children feel that this poem was smooth and easy to recite. Combined with the questions Li Si had asked earlier, they only felt this poem was truly excellent, something they understood as soon as they heard it.
Afterward, Li Si led the children in reading it several times, then began teaching them to recognize the words in the poem and their meanings. These children were also extremely obedient and serious.
Because in this world, recognizing words was a very remarkable thing. A person usually recognized at most a few dozen characters. Sometimes, when reading official documents, a group of people had to piece together what they knew in order to read the document aloud.
After the children had memorized the poem thoroughly, Li Si brought out a sand tray from the study and taught them to write their own names in the sand. Then he wrote their names on small wooden slips and gave them to the children, telling them to study how to write them properly after returning home.
Finally, he gave them the wooden slip with Sympathy for the Farmers written on it, telling them to pass it around and read it carefully after returning home.
After telling them to come tomorrow at the Shen hour, Li Si saw them out.
After they left, Li Si pondered for a long time. He had considered teaching these children for quite a while. The original owner had already provided education and first lessons to these children before. If he did not continue doing so, the prestige the original owner had accumulated might disappear completely, and some people might even resent him. Prestige was also very important to him. It would be of great use to him in the future, so he did not mind teaching these children.
Moreover, he felt that giving children their first lessons was something that made him very happy. At the very least, these children respected him greatly and did not dare show him disrespect.
Looking at the sky, he saw that it had already reached the You hour, so Li Si went to a nearby restaurant and ordered a dish. Afterward, feeling that the meal was not quite satisfying, he ordered some wine as well.
The wine now was still low-strength rice wine, but Li Si still felt a little drunk from it. Fortunately, his mind remained relatively clear.
After eating, Li Si walked home. At this moment, he heard the sound of the night watch ringing on the road.
“The weather is dry, mind your fires and candles.”
The night watchman’s slow and fast beats were struck three times. Li Si’s drunkenness immediately faded. He saw that the street had grown somewhat dim and yellow, the road also somewhat hazy, and the pedestrians on the road were gradually becoming fewer.
“Night has fallen.” Li Si sighed softly and quickened his steps home. He estimated that once the sun set, ghost creatures would very likely appear in the world. Although he wanted to obtain soul points, he was not yet ready right now. He had to first understand the Decapitated Ghost’s abilities. After that, he would go take a look at Squire Zhang’s home.
He could not be impatient right now. He still had more than a year of time. No matter what, he should be able to get 200 soul points in more than a year. He believed that as long as he did not give up and advanced steadily, he would definitely live better and better in this world.
After entering the house, Li Si took out the cloth pouch hanging before his chest and removed a piece of mottled black jade from it. With a thought, a little child who looked carved from jade and powdered with rouge appeared in the room.