On the outskirts of the capital city, at Mianyang Pavilion!

Several luxurious carriages were parked by the pavilion. The rolling hills in the distance were a light brown color, and the cold wind of the outskirts blew fiercely.

The sun was warm and mild, bringing a sense of warmth that was not inferior to that of summer in this early winter day.

The Ziyang Hermit of the Yunlu Academy was about to take office.

For the Yunlu Academy, which was gradually declining in the officialdom, this was a great joy.

The teachers of the academy sang and danced, and the students were elated, feeling that the day when they could hold their heads high was fast approaching.

Inside the pavilion, three old men sat drinking tea. One of them wore a purple robe and had white hair on both temples. He was the protagonist of the farewell party.

Yang Gong, also known as Ziqian, was the champion of the Yuanjing Year 14. The following year, he retired and returned to the Yunlu Academy to teach. In the 22 years since then, he had become a famous scholar throughout the world.

He should have had a better future, with no problem entering the cabinet and becoming a prime minister. However, he left the officialdom at the height of his career. There were various rumors about this matter, some saying that he had offended the emperor and had to retire, while others said that he had offended the current prime minister and was not as capable as him.

But no matter what, after 22 years, he finally came out of seclusion and went to Qingzhou to take up the position of governor.

A real frontier official.

The identities of the other two were equally high, not to mention their status in the Yunlu Academy, their reputation outside was not inferior to Ziyang Hermit.

Li Mubai, who wore a gray robe and had a goat beard, was a master of chess, once known as the number one player in the world. Five years ago, he played three games of chess with Wei Yuan, all of which he lost. In anger, he threw the chessboard and never played again.

Zhang Shen, who wore a blue robe, was a master of military strategy. His early work, "Six Annotations on the Art of War," was still a must-read publication for officials and generals in the Great Feng.

He was the only military strategist in the Great Feng who could be compared with Wei Yuan.

Outside the pavilion stood a group of students who were seeing them off, all of whom were promising students of the Yunlu Academy.

Xu Xinnian was among them.

"Ziyang Master has finally come out of seclusion. If we can earn his appreciation, our official careers will surely prosper in the future." A familiar classmate whispered, "Cijiu, have you prepared your poem?"

"My brother prepared it for me...and it's half of a seven-character poem..." Xu Xinnian looked into the pavilion and said lightly, "Yongshu, you are too utilitarian."

Seven-character poems have a strict structure, requiring each line to have seven characters, with eight lines in total, arranged in four couplets.

The seven-character poem Xu Qi'an gave him only had two couplets. When Xu Xinnian asked him about the other two couplets after dinner, his cousin evaded the question and changed the topic.

"This is not utilitarian. The sea of learning is the same as the sea of officialdom. One must work hard and strive to succeed." His friend seemed to know that Xu Xinnian was not good at poetry and did not ask further."Uncle Yong is right. Nowadays, the officialdom is corrupt and the underlings collude with the corrupt officials to harm the people. With consecutive natural disasters, if we want to change the situation, we need to be more resourceful." Another student joined the conversation.

The student named Uncle Yong nodded and looked at Xu Xinnian. "You always say that poetry is insignificant, but even if you write great articles, who will remember you after decades? But poetry can be passed down through generations."

Poetry is insignificant, it cannot govern the country or benefit the people, it is just a form of refined entertainment... Xu Xinnian was about to say this, but he swallowed his words when he realized that he was currently trying to please his elder with this refined entertainment. He mumbled ambiguously instead.

Uncle Yong looked at him in surprise, but he didn't argue!

The famous Li Mubai sighed, "If you had the same talent as them, Yang, you wouldn't have wasted more than twenty years."

The hermit Ziyang smiled.

"That's not true," the military strategist Zhang Shen laughed and drank tea. "Yang had ambitious plans and was paving the way for the 'establishing life' realm."

Upon hearing this, Ziyang sighed, "In the end, he was still pushed out of the officialdom."

"That's not your fault. Those people from the Imperial College won't let us, the Yunlu Academy, rise up," said Zhang Shen.

"Hmph, a bunch of petty people who only know how to flatter their superiors and play with power games. In less than two hundred years, they've turned the world into this mess," said Ziyang.

This matter involves an interesting history.

Confucianism originated from the sage, and the BaiLu Academy, founded by the sage's eldest disciple, claimed to be the orthodox Confucianism. And it was true.

But two hundred years ago, it was completely despised by the emperor of that time due to the controversy over the national essence.

Coincidentally, at this time, the BaiLu Academy had a traitor, which the BaiLu Academy itself believed.

Find the original at "pawread.com".

The traitor was originally a teacher at the BaiLu Academy, and he took the opportunity to establish his own school with the concept of "preserving justice and eliminating human desires" to please the emperor. With the emperor's support, he became a grandmaster and established the Imperial College.

Since then, the Imperial College has replaced the Yunlu Academy and become the main institution for delivering officials to the court.

The dispute over the orthodox Confucianism has continued for two hundred years because of this.

Ziyang said in a deep voice, "I am going to expand the territory of the BaiLu Academy and lay the foundation for the officialdom. But it is not enough for me alone to restore the past glory of the academy. We need to work together and we need outstanding young people."

Li Mubai and Zhang Shen smiled at each other, and the latter turned his head to look at the students outside the pavilion. "Is there anyone willing to compose a poem to send off Master Ziyang?"

"If you want to compose a poem, there must be a reward, otherwise, it's not interesting," said Ziyang, taking off a purple jade from his waist. "The one who wins the bet will get this jade pendant."

The purple jade pendant shimmered with a divine and extraordinary light.The students outside the pavilion's eyes lit up in unison. The jade pendants carried by the great scholars were imbued with magical energy, and would be of great benefit to anyone who could obtain them.

At the same time, the hermit Ziyang used purple jade to make a decoration, which had an even deeper meaning.

The items carried by the elders were only given to their juniors and students. In other words, if you took this jade pendant, little brother, you would be my person...my student.

"My student wishes to compose a poem to bid farewell to Ziyang Hermit." A student wearing a blue scholar's robe and a jade pendant around his waist stepped forward and bowed to the three great scholars in the pavilion.

Li Mubai smiled and said, "This is my student Zhu Tuizhi, who has some talent in poetry."

Ziyang Hermit smiled and nodded.

After Zhu Tuizhi recited the farewell poem, Ziyang Hermit's smile deepened, clearly very satisfied.

"Not bad." The military strategist Zhang Shen praised him with a sentence, without any further comment. The two great scholars present were both more talented in poetry than he was.

But a good beginning does not necessarily lead to a good ending. The following scene could probably be described as a dog's tail continuing a beautiful story.

The later poems were barely passable.

Li Mubai sighed, "Since the Imperial Academy began annotating the classics for the sage, focusing on the principles of heaven and suppressing human desires, students throughout the land have been confined to the classics, buried in words and phrases. Over time, they have become trapped in a state of 'shackled words and phrases, fragmented and convoluted.' Articles and poetry have lost their spirit."

As he spoke, he became increasingly distressed.

This was also the reason why Confucianism began to decline in modern times. Two hundred years ago, the famous saying of Confucianism was: "Buddhism is great, Taoism is wonderful, and hey, sorcerers and witches are not bad either. The unique and unconventional Gu and Wu practitioners are also very spiritual and worthy of praise...oh, coarse warriors, please leave, this is a gathering of refined people. And while we're at it, take the weird creatures of the demon race with you. As for the rest of you present, forgive me for being blunt, but you're all garbage!"

That's how cool Confucianism used to be.

And now?

The various major cultivation systems: What's going on, little brother?

Confucianism trembled in fear: Mmp.

Ziyang Hermit sighed, "Never mind, let's not dwell on that. Are there any other students who would like to compose a poem?"

There was silence for a while.

Zhu Tuizhi stared at the purple jade, his eyes burning with desire, feeling that it was already in his pocket.

"Teacher, I have a poem." Xu Xinnian stepped out of the crowd and came to the edge of the pavilion.

He had deliberately remained silent until now. He was modest and unassuming, and did not want to embarrass his classmates by throwing out a good poem too early. He had absolutely nothing to do with the previous exchange of barbs with Zhu Tuizhi.