Chapter 6: Enrollment

 

The next day, Yinzhen really came to Yinyou with a kaleidoscope and a box of chess.

 

When he came to find Yinyou, Yinyou was standing at the rosewood table practicing calligraphy, with a serious expression on his face. Yinzhen thought he was angry and practiced calligraphy because he was teased by everyone at the Qianqing Palace last night, so he walked to the small table and said, “Seventh brother, have you finally thought it through?”

 

“Brother, when did you come, why didn’t the servants report it?” Yinyou put down the pen in his hand and glanced at the little eunuch standing at the door.

 

“I saw you were serious about practicing calligraphy, so I didn’t let the servant call.” Yinzhen sat down on the chair beside him, and soon a palace maid served him tea.

 

Asking the palace maid to help wash his hands, Yinyou spoke happily, “Brother, what did you bring me?”

 

“I think you only care about the gadgets in my hand, how can you miss me,” Yinzhen took a sip of tea, and realized that it didn’t taste as good as his courtyard, so he put down the teacup, took out the kaleidoscope and chess box and put it on the small table, twisting his face slightly, as if he didn’t want to pay attention to Yinyou anymore.

 

When Yinyou saw Yinzhen like this, he suddenly felt that the child in front of him was so cute that his heart trembled, and he hurriedly grabbed Yinzhen’s sleeve, “But I like brother too?”

 

“Is that so?” Yinzhen tilted his head.

 

“I like my brother the most.” Yinyou twisted his body and leaned on Yinzhen's body, “I like my brother the most, I like my brother the most.” The soft body twisted and twisted, Yinzhen was afraid he would fall to the ground and he hugged the little bun with difficulty, “Don't be awkward, you will fall to the ground later, see how embarrassed you are to wipe your tears.”

 

Yinzhen originally wanted to tease Yinyou. Seeing him acting like a spoiled child, he smiled helplessly. “Okay, okay, I know, stand up.”

 

After a while, watching the child openly stuff the white jade chess pieces into the purse hanging on his body, Yinzhen was amused and angry. He had to give the chess pieces to Yinyou and finally promised to let the little eunuch bring the chessboard tomorrow.

 

Being a prince, it is always taboo for other brothers to think about taking his things as their own, but Yinzhen is willing to give them to Yinyou. In his mind, Yinyou is his own person, and if he does not share his things with him, who else can he share them with.

 

Their time as innocent playmates always passed quickly, and soon arrived the autumn of the 26th year of Kangxi. Yinyou got the will of Kangxi and went to Wuyizhai [1] to study with several other brothers. At the same time, he entered The Room of No Leisure, the eighth brother Yinyou, who is several months younger than him also went.

 

[1] Kangxi’s children were brought up under strict discipline, and were schooled in a classroom called “The Room of No Leisure” (or simply Wuyizhai). On long summer days, the children’s lessons began at 5 a.m. First, the teachers would arrive and check their homework. The children would then continue their lessons until 7 a.m. That is when the emperor, who had already been up and working for a few hours himself, would arrive. At 9 a.m., Kangxi would leave to attend to state affairs and his children would then practice calligraphy until lunch. After lunch, they were taught horseback riding and archery in the courtyard. Read more here.

 

In the past two years, the eighth brother has gradually received some attention from Kangxi, and it was not against the system to enter Wuyizhai a few months earlier, so there was no objection. In this way, compared with the eighth brother who entered Wuyizhai earlier, the seventh brother who was also enrolled in the school was not paid attention to.

 

It’s just that Kangxi rewarded him with a set of ink treasures before entering the school, and Wei Zhu, who was quite trusted by his side, picked out a set of beads for him, and encouraged him to work hard and seriously.

 

Not cold, but not too favored, Kangxi’s attitude towards him made Yinyou incomprehensible. He thought, maybe he lived two lives, but he was still not be able to see through the thoughts of this eternal emperor.

 

On the second day at Yin Shi [2], the eunuch and the maid waited on Yinyou to get up. Yinyou looked at the sky that didn’t had a single trace of light at all, and suddenly felt a sad mood of being reborn as a royal prince. After washing, he reluctantly used some snacks, drank a bowl of Wensi tofu soup [3], and went to Wuyizhai wearing the bestowed beads.

 

[2] 寅時 - 寅 yín 时 (時) shí. 3-5 am (in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in former times). 

[3] Wensi tofu soup or 文思豆腐羹 is a traditional famous dish in Huaiyang area, which belongs to Huaiyang cuisine. It started in the Qing Dynasty and has a history of more than 300 years. Legend has it that during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, there was a monk named Wen Si in Tianning Temple. The tofu soup made with soft tofu, golden needles, fungus and other raw materials was very delicious. ecause the dish was created by Monk Wensi, people called it “Wensi Tofu” and it has been spread all the time. 

 

What he didn’t understand was that Wuyizhai was in Changchun Garden. This should be the place where the Crown Prince studied. He remembered that there were records in history that the 13th and 14th were studying in the Maoqin Hall, and some younger brothers used to study in Zhaoxiang. Was it because his age was not too different from that of several older brothers, so he was just sent there by the way?

 

Yinyou didn’t bother to pay attention to these little things and hurried to Wuyizhai. When he arrived at Wuyizhai, he found that several older brothers had already arrived, and even the eighth brother who was younger than himself was there. On the contrary, he came the latest.

 

“I thought that little seventh would be late, but look, he’s just in time for the master." The Crown Prince was thirteen years old, his face was already showing his features, and he only had a gentle smile on his face when he saw Yinyou panting, showing an elder brother’s gentleness to the fullest.

 

When Yinyou heard the words, there was a little helplessness and coquettishness on his face, “Brother Crown Prince, the seventh brother doesn’t dare to be so late tomorrow, so don't make fun of me.”

 

Seeing his sloppy appearance, the Crown Prince laughed again. He was quite fond of this seventh younger brother who didn’t have a powerful maiden family behind him. He he treated him mildly and said with a few jokes, “Knowing that you love to haunt your fourth brother, your second brother will take the initiative to empty the position next to the fourth brother for you. Now tell me how you will thank the second brother.”

 

Yinyou knew in his heart that now Yinzhen and the Crown Prince were getting closer, and since he has a good relationship with Yinzhen, it means that he belongs to the “Crown Prince’s faction”. The prince naturally wants this, so he arranges for him to sit with Yinzhen. If you don’t pay attention to the twists and turns, you really wouldn’t understand it. These young children are really not easy to deal with.

 

Yinyou thought about all of this in his heart, but his face was different, and he looked rather embarrassed, “What I have and don’t have, surely the Crown Prince brother also has, so what should I do?”

 

This is just a child’s embarrassment, but to the Crown Prince’s ears, it was very comfortable to listen to. This shows that a Crown Prince’s status differs from the other brothers. It’s true that what they don’t have he surely has it. But in contrast, what he has, they don’t necessarily have it.

 

“Don’t mind it, don’t mind it, the second brother is just joking with you.” The smile on Crown Prince’s face remained the same, “But on the day of the second brother’s birthday, how about you give a thicker gift?”

 

“The Crown Prince brother is so stingy, he obviously said to forget it, and he still wants his younger brother to give a generous gift,” Yinyou hummed, “In the Crown Prince brother birthday, this younger brother will give you a penny of money.”

 

“Seventh brother, you are getting more and more rude!” Yinzhen was nine years old this year, and he was much taller than Yinyou. When he heard Yinyou talking like this, he was afraid that he would anger the prince, so he hurriedly scolded, “Where have you forgotten the rules of respecting your brother?”

 

“Okay, fourth brother,” the prince smiled and stepped forward to touch Yinyou’s freshly shaved half-shaved head. “Isn’t the seventh brother coquettish to us as a younger brother? In my birthday, even if he doesn’t give away half a penny, as an elder brother I will still love him. Fourth brother, don't be too strict.” As he said, he stretched out his hand and pulled Yinyou’s face before returning to his seat.

 

 

Hearing this, Yinzhen breathed a sigh of relief, pleaded guilty to the prince again, and then pulled Yinyou to sit down next to him, wrote a few words for Yinyou to copy, and then began to review the knowledge he learned yesterday.

 

However, Yinyou knew in his heart that his behavior would only make the Crown Prince relax his vigilance against him. A prince who would act like a spoiled brat to the Crown Prince, if you say it nicely, you could call him lovely and cute, if you say it unpleasantly, he would be called a simpleton. Right now, Yinzhen’s move of getting closer to the Prince, whether the meaning is to protect himself or to be really loyal to the Crown Prince, the first one was clear, but if he was really loyal, only Yinzhen himself would know.

 

The eight brother was not close to the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince looked down on eight brother’s origin, so no one sat at the same table as him. Eight brother  didn’t care, he only looked indifferently at the seventh brother who was obediently bowing his head to copy, and slowly lowered his head.

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At Mao Shi [4], the Manchu master and the Chinese master [5] arrived at Wuyizhai on time. Yinyou saw that these masters saluted the Crown Prince first, then the rest of the princes, and finally stood aside.

 

[4] 卯 mǎo 时 (時) shí. 5-7 am (in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in former times). 

[5] Before the Qing Dynasty, the ruling ethnicity was the Han Chinese, in the Ming Dynasty. But after the Manchus’s coup, the ruling ethnicity was the Manchus. That’s why the hairstyle of half-bald was a staple, wearing it means you accept the Qing Dynasty, not wearing it was an act of defiance. One of the differences between the Han and Manchu was their language, although they were very similar. It’s the same thing in modern China, now most Chinese people are Han and they learn Mandarin as their lingua franca, and later they learn a dialect (it depends on where they live if they learn a dialect though); for example, in Hong Kong people speak Cantonese, so there they speak Mandarin and Cantonese. 

 

Yinyou was a little surprised, but seeing that Yinzhen didn’t move, he sat obediently, and then saw Tang Bin [6], an old Chinese master, standing in front of each prince’s table to check the prince’s learning situation yesterday, but when he arrived at the Crown Prince table, he actually knelt down and listened to the Crown Prince’s recitation.

 

[6] An official who was too direct, he made many enemies. He was a minister and governor but was poor, and when he taught the Crown Prince Yireng, who was spoiled, they did not suit well together. His enemies spoke ill of him to the Emperor and therefore Kangxi convicted Tang Bin and demoted him to five ranks; the people were indignant of this, so Kangxi had to gave him a pardon, but still Tang Bin fell ill and died. He also wrote this famous quote: “The kindness of the king is as high as the sky, and the heart of the minister is as straight as an arrow.” You can read here his story.

 

Yinyou felt that his cognition was a little subverted. When Tang Bin, who was in his fifties, returned the scriptures and got up and trembled slightly, his hand holding the brush became heavy.

 

After a while, Tang Bin began to talk about “Book of Rites” [7]. Yinyou could not understand half of it, and then he felt that the ten years worth of books he read in his previous life were wasted, what’s the use of putting it here. If nothing else, even many doctoral students may not be able to memorize the “Four Books” [8], but the princes of the Qing Dynasty may have been able to memorize the “Four Books” thoroughly within two years of schooling.

 

[7] The Book of Rites, also known as the Liji (禮記 Lǐjì), is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The Book of Rites belongs to the Five Classics which lay at the core of the traditional Confucian canon. As a core text of the Confucian canon, it is also known as the Classic of Rites or Lijing. (Wikipedia).

[8] The Four Books (四書; Sìshū) are Chinese classic texts illustrating the core value and belief systems in Confucianism. They were selected to serve as general introduction to Confucian thought, and they were, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examination. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism. (Wikipedia).

 

Tang Bin didn’t let the two brothers who just arrived to follow the “Book of Rites” but he gave each a copybook and said, “The two brothers, if there is anything you don't understand, please ask Weichen [8].”

 

[8] 微臣 wēichén: this small official / humble servant.

 

Yinyou took the copybook, which was in italics [9] for beginners. He smiled and said, “Thank you, Master Tang.”

 

[9] 楷体 kǎitǐ: regular/standard script (Chinese calligraphic style). This is the most modern of the Chinese writing styles (appearing during the Cao Wei dynasty around the year 200 and maturing stylistically around the 7th century), so it is very common in modern writings and publications (post-Ming and Gothic styles, used exclusively for printing). // There are five major script types used today in China. In the general order of their appearance, there are: seal script, clerical script, cursive script, running script, and standard script; the standard script is the type that most learners of Mandarin today encounter first during their studies

 

 

Tang Bin hurriedly saluted when he heard the words, “Weichen dare not.”

 

He spent the morning in the boring study of Manchu and Chinese literature. At noon, all the elder brothers went to the next wing, and the guards quickly served the food. Yinyou ate the food, and it tasted very good. Those who wanted to work at the Iimperial Kitchen didn’t dare to be careless about the princes’ food.

 

The princes’ meals were carefully cooked, and were delicious. Yinyou picked a white steamed goose with his chopsticks. It tasted very good, but the dishes were too small. He only ate a few bites before it was gone. He licked the corners of his lips with some regret. He didn’t eat this thing in his courtyard.

 

At this moment, a palm moved over, the empty bowl disappeared, and then a plate of steamed goose that had barely moved appeared in front of him.

 

Yinyou was stunned for a while, turned his head to look, only to see that Yinzhen was burying his head to eat, but in front of him there was a fresh empty bowl. What a shame, was there anything more embarrassing than an old uncle robbing a nine-year-old child’s food?

 

The eighth brother pulled back his hand at the edge of the bowl. He glanced at Yinyou who was sitting on his left, and silently lowered his head to eat.

 

After eating and resting for a while, the other princes began to read the “Book of Rites” again, while Yinyou and Yinsi continued to practice calligraphy.

 

After practicing for about an hour and having some snacks, they started to practice riding and shooting in the large yard outside Wuyizhai. Although it was called a yard, Yinyou felt that the yard was bigger than the football field when he was in college. He somewhat felt that this was the difference between before and after the land price increased? If there was such a large vacant land in the first-tier cities of the 21st century, those real estate developers would not be happy.

 

The elder brothers went to practice riding and shooting, but Yinyou and Yinsi were too young, so they had a special master to teach them some of the most basic fighting skills, and then he let the two of them to practice freely.

 

After practicing for half an hour, Yinyou was so tired that he gasped for breath. He looked enviously at the fourth elder who was dashing on the horse, and took a sip of the tea handed by the eunuch next to him. After stopping, he couldn’t help but say, “Eighth brother, let’s take a break for a while. Haste is not enough [10].”

 

[10] 欲速則不達 yù sù zé bù dá. Idiom; refers to being too impatient and trying too fast, but can not achieve the goal; eager for quick success and instant profit, prosperity leads to decline, monthly gains lead to losses, overcorrection.

 

Eighth brother was taken aback for a moment, but stopped as Yinyou said to, and smiled at him.Yinyou asked the eunuch next to him to hand him a towel to wipe his sweat, and then took a sip of water and looked in the direction of the prince and the others as if yearning, “I will be as good as the brothers in the future, and then be a mighty general.”

 

“General?” Yinsi had heard about Yinyou’s lame foot. Such a person was destined to not be able to fight against the enemy on the battlefield. Thinking all of this in his heart, Yinsi only listened obediently when he saw the yearning look on the other’s face.

 

“En, a General,” Yinyou smiled brightly, “wearing armor to protect our Qing Dynasty, how majestic!”

 

Yinyou’s smile was very bright, but there was no smile in his eyes. He knew that his unintentional words as a child would soon reach the ears of different people.

 

A brother who has good wishes but is born with flaws, wasn’t that funny and pitiful?

 

***

 

 

▲ Footnotes 

[1] Kangxi’s children were brought up under strict discipline, and were schooled in a classroom called “The Room of No Leisure” (or simply Wuyizhai). On long summer days, the children’s lessons began at 5 a.m. First, the teachers would arrive and check their homework. The children would then continue their lessons until 7 a.m. That is when the emperor, who had already been up and working for a few hours himself, would arrive. At 9 a.m., Kangxi would leave to attend to state affairs and his children would then practice calligraphy until lunch. After lunch, they were taught horseback riding and archery in the courtyard.

[2] 寅時 - 寅 yín 时 (時) shí. 3-5 am (in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in former times). 

[3] Wensi tofu soup or 文思豆腐羹 is a traditional famous dish in Huaiyang area, which belongs to Huaiyang cuisine. It started in the Qing Dynasty and has a history of more than 300 years. Legend has it that during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, there was a monk named Wen Si in Tianning Temple. The tofu soup made with soft tofu, golden needles, fungus and other raw materials was very delicious. ecause the dish was created by Monk Wensi, people called it “Wensi Tofu” and it has been spread all the time.

[4] 卯 mǎo 时 (時) shí. 5-7 am (in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in former times). 

[5] Before the Qing Dynasty, the ruling ethnicity was the Han Chinese, in the Ming Dynasty. But after the Manchus’s coup, the ruling ethnicity was the Manchus. That’s why the hairstyle of half-bald was a staple, wearing it means you accept the Qing Dynasty, not wearing it was an act of defiance. One of the differences between the Han and Manchu was their language, although they were very similar. It’s the same thing in modern China, now most Chinese people are Han and they learn Mandarin as their lingua franca, and later they learn a dialect (it depends on where they live if they learn a dialect though); for example, in Hong Kong people speak Cantonese, so there they speak Mandarin and Cantonese. 

[6] An official who was too direct, he made many enemies. He was a minister and governor but was poor, and when he taught the Crown Prince Yireng, who was spoiled, they did not suit well together. His enemies spoke ill of him to the Emperor and therefore Kangxi convicted Tang Bin and demoted him to five ranks; the people were indignant of this, so Kangxi had to gave him a pardon, but still Tang Bin fell ill and died. He also wrote this famous quote: “The kindness of the king is as high as the sky, and the heart of the minister is as straight as an arrow.” You can read here his story.

[7] The Book of Rites, also known as the Liji (禮記 Lǐjì), is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The Book of Rites belongs to the Five Classics which lay at the core of the traditional Confucian canon. As a core text of the Confucian canon, it is also known as the Classic of Rites or Lijing. (Wikipedia).

[8] The Four Books (四書; Sìshū) are Chinese classic texts illustrating the core value and belief systems in Confucianism. They were selected to serve as general introduction to Confucian thought, and they were, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service examination. The Four Books and the Five Classics are the most important classics of Chinese Confucianism. (Wikipedia).

[9] 楷体 kǎitǐ: regular/standard script (Chinese calligraphic style). This is the most modern of the Chinese writing styles (appearing during the Cao Wei dynasty around the year 200 and maturing stylistically around the 7th century), so it is very common in modern writings and publications (post-Ming and Gothic styles, used exclusively for printing). // There are five major script types used today in China. In the general order of their appearance, there are: seal script, clerical script, cursive script, running script, and standard script; the standard script is the type that most learners of Mandarin today encounter first during their studies

[10] 欲速則不達 yù sù zé bù dá. Idiom; refers to being too impatient and trying too fast, but can not achieve the goal; eager for quick success and instant profit, prosperity leads to decline, monthly gains lead to losses, overcorrection.

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