My Wife Is A Sword Immortal
Chapter 248 - 203: Six Arts of Confucian Students and First Class Scholars

Chapter 248: Chapter 203: Six Arts of Confucian Students and First Class Scholars

Within Fenglin Courtyard, before the stone table.

When a lady as elegant as an orchid uttered the eight characters "The path is long and obstructed," the air became serene.

The wisps of white smoke in the teacup on the table gradually dispersed.

At the entrance of the courtyard, two Academy students who were serving the teacher looked inside curiously, and then exchanged glances filled with curiosity.

Beside the stone table, the two Academy teachers were speechless.

Yan Jidao gazed at the woman in the Confucian robe with light in her eyes.

He knew that the direction of their conversation had implications of scholarly debate, and what followed would likely be a serious discussion of their philosophies, challenging and proving each other’s beliefs, thus refining their understanding of the Great Dao.

Even if the conversation lasted for three days and nights, Yan Jidao wouldn’t find it strange.

However, he wasn’t planning to agree to such a debate.

Yan Jidao picked up his teacup, merely touched the rim with his lips, and then set it down. He looked up at Zhu Weirui, nodded, and then shook his head.

Zhu Weirui’s bright eyes gradually dimmed, and she too nodded, flashing a slight smile, "I apologize for the intrusion today. When the elder visits the Academy again, Weirui will definitely bring a gift to apologize. If there’s nothing else, I shall take my leave now."

"Ms. Zhu is too polite. I will ensure this piece of paper reaches Zhao Ziyu’s hands. Please take care."

Zhu Weirui gathered her own teacup, stood up to bow, and then turned to leave.

Yan Jidao stroked his beard while watching Zhu Weirui’s retreating figure.

The reason he did not engage in scholarly discussion with Zhu Weirui was not only because he was very unfamiliar with calligraphy and did not understand it well, but also because Yan Jidao did not favor Zhu Weirui’s approach, which was considered unorthodox, and did not believe that calligraphy could give birth to a new branch of the art of writing.

In his view, isn’t calligraphy just the vehicle for poems, classics, and articles?

Be it clerical, cursive, or regular script, as long as it’s written neatly and isn’t hard to look at, that’s enough. How aesthetically pleasing these characters are crafted seems unnecessary to him. Excessive pursuit is inverting the primary and secondary, a waste of energy.

Could you even write out flowers?

The grand treatises of the various schools of thought from Jixia Academy, have they ever required calligraphy? If you can explore the profound and perceive the Heavenly Dao through your work, even if you write like chicken scratch, the heavens have to hold their noses and recognize it.

Besides, not to mention the special scripts of the ancient myriad clans, speaking only of the initial purpose of the Human Clan’s early sages creating characters, it was merely meant to be a method and tool for recording language to ensure its longevity.

Nowadays, book art that has evolved over tens of thousands of years and involves meticulousness in the writing of characters is nothing more than a pastime of the idle scholars in the empires below the mountains.

The cultivators of the various schools on the mountains concentrate their main energy on exploring the ultimate Heavenly Dao; none has heard of a mortal who studied calligraphy and managed to gain insight into the Dao. Why would the cultivators pay attention to such mundane skills?

This wasn’t only Yan Jidao’s understanding, but actually the common knowledge held by the entire Xuanhuang Cultivation World.

The art of writing isn’t like painting or music, both of which can manifest the "Great Dao" concretely and are recognized pathways for cultivators. As for calligraphy, how can a single character reveal its own meaning beyond what has been assigned to it, like how a complete work can embody the Great Dao?

In history, there have been those unbelievers who wished to test this. They also wanted to enter the Dao through the law, but in the end, didn’t each crash against the southern wall, left battered and bloody? A rather well-known "example" of recent times happened right at Linlu Academy.

Right before Yan Jidao’s eyes.

Yan Jidao watched as Zhu Weirui’s figure vanished from his sight, and he sighed softly.

This lady must be quite lonely, amidst the Confucian Academy with fellows from the same school all around, yet unable to find a single "companion on the path"...

He slowly withdrew his gaze.

Within the Xuanhuang Realm, Confucianism has the Six Arts, which were explored by the Confucian sages over tens of thousands of years.

Scripture Meaning Skill.

Poetry and Prose Skill.

Ritual Skill.

Music Art.

Chess Skill.

Painting Skill.

These Six Arts each have a corresponding path of cultivation for Confucians, mature methods of training for Confucian Scholars to choose from and delve into.

This is also what new students at the Confucian Academy must learn in their first year after joining.

Among these, they are divided into two major arts and four minor arts.

The two major arts are Scripture Meaning Skill and Poetry.

The four minor arts are the remaining four.

Zhu Weirui giving up the bright future of majoring in the Scripture Meaning Skill path of Confucianism and instead turning to the "lesser technique" of calligraphy, not only spread widely within Confucianism but also caused quite a stir among the other Hundred Schools of Thought.

"A first-class Confucian Scholar indeed, why bother, leaving the Jixia Academy to come to this tiny Wangque Continent..."

Yan Jidao turned his head, gazing into the distance mountains, muttering to himself.

For the cultivators from the Hundred Schools of Thought, transitioning from a scholar to a gentleman is extremely difficult.

Take Confucianism for instance; new students entering a Confucian Academy who manage to be taken as disciples by a Teacher can earn the title of scholar.

However, obtaining the title of gentleman is extraordinarily difficult, with very few proportions, and an average Confucian Academy may only have a handful of such cases; they are the mainstays of the school.

Once granted the title of gentleman by the Central Continent Confucian Temple, even an unknown person could instantly become famous across the Seventy-Two Academies of the Nine Provinces.

Just like the new gentleman from the Siqi Academy that Zhao Rong learned about not long ago in the Residence Report up on the mountain.

And a first-class Confucian Scholar is a special existence among the wide array of Confucian scholars.

Every certain number of years, the Central Continent Confucian Temple will select the most promising "Reading Seeds" from all the young Confucian students of that period, list them in the roster, and mark them as first-class scholars.

The Confucian Temple focuses on observing and cultivating them.

They are all potential candidates for Gentlemen.

Zhu Weirui was such an individual.

Gifted in academic studies, with cultivation of the Great Dao.

They are the cream of the crop among their generation of Confucian students.

Originally destined for great things, expected to become a gentleman, and even more so as a female scholar who could be recorded in the annals of Confucianism, becoming one of the very few to be remembered by future generations—yet, what causes some to laugh and others to sigh, is that Zhu Weirui just happened to be one of those who hit the southern wall, which happens a few times in the history of the Hundred Schools of Thought after a certain period.

Yan Jidao, who had been silent all along, suddenly frowned slightly.

This time Zhu Weirui came to Linlu Academy, yet the Mountain Master let her also serve as an Art Studies Teacher for some reason unknown to anyone.

This matter had already begun to stir murmurs and discussions within the Academy.

It’s not that she isn’t qualified to be an Art Studies Teacher for the new students—if even a first-class Confucian Scholar is not qualified to pass on art, then the other ordinary Teachers might as well resign and go home.

The murmurs within the Academy arise because the Mountain Master actually approved Zhu Weirui to teach a Seventh Art outside of the "Six Arts of Confucian Students," which she named as Calligraphy.

Looking across the Seventy-Two Academies of the Nine Provinces, this kind of action is unprecedented.

Even if you are the much-welcomed Teacher Orchid among the male students within the academy, you can’t just recklessly mess around and break the rules.

Suddenly, as if recalling something, Yan Jidao stood up and went inside the house to fetch the homework papers previously handed in by the students.

In the past, this had always been done by the senior disciple, Li Jinsu.

Yan Jidao rifled through the papers for a bit, pulling out a particularly noticeable scroll and unfolding it, which indeed bore the name Zhao Ziyu.