Chapter 30: The Ceremony of Becoming a Disciple

  It turned out that Liu Yitiao's worries were unnecessary. After sending the cattle back to Xia Dechang, although Xia Dechang felt a bit painful, he still paid the remaining silver money. The contract was clear and left no room for him to go back on his word.

  After several days of hard work, Liu Yitiao had accumulated a considerable amount of silver money in his hands, totaling nearly thirty taels. At the current market price of 1,000 wen per mu of good land, he could buy another 30 mu of good land. If he bought thin land, he would be able to buy even more.

  The Liu family makes a living by farming, and Liu Yitiao used to study agriculture, so after having some spare money in his hands, Liu Yitiao had already planned to buy land. However, all of this has to wait until the ox's illness is over, and he has even more spare money in his hands before it can be put on the agenda.

  Besides, after the Chinese New Year, Liu Yitiao will be eighteen years old. According to the Tang Dynasty's equal-field system, he can be granted 80 mu of mouth field and 20 mu of permanent field, which adds up to 100 mu of land. Adding the more than 100 mu of land owned by Old Liu, they have a total of nearly 200 mu of land.

  Two hundred mu, sounds like a lot, but in fact, according to the old system of measuring land, one step wide and 240 steps long is one mu, two hundred mu is not that much, not even as much as twenty mu today. Twenty mu, for Liu Yitiao, is still very little.

  One night without words, the next morning, Liu Yitiao led Liu Ertiao out of the door. Today was the day when Liu Ertiao officially became a disciple under Wang Zhihong's guidance. They had to arrive early, and making Mr. wait would be very impolite.

  Originally, Lao Liu should have gone according to etiquette, but there was a cow at home that needed someone to take care of it, and Lao Liu couldn't leave. Moreover, Lao Liu wasn't used to dealing with officials. As soon as he saw the people in the government office, he felt uneasy all over. So he took the initiative to stay behind. In his opinion, having one son accompany another was enough. County Magistrate Wang was willing to accept Liu Er as a disciple, and it wasn't entirely because of Liu Yi's face.

  When Liu Yitiao and the other person rushed to the county town, it was already around 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning. Because it was the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, and there were only five days left until the New Year, there weren't many official matters at the yamen. Therefore, Liu Yitiao and the other person only waited for a short while at the entrance before being invited inside.

  Wang Zhihong sat in the main hall, not wearing official attire, but a cyan-colored cotton robe, with tea by his side and attendants on both sides.

  Liu Yitiao and his brother walked in, bowed to Wang Zhihong and greeted him, saying: "We've seen County Magistrate Wang!"

  Wang Zhihong smiled and nodded, saying: "Liu Xiaoge, Liu Er Tiao, you brothers came so early. Hehe, sit down, today we are having a private meeting, no need to be too formal. Moreover, after today, we will no longer be strangers. It's better to be more natural here."

  Thus, we have troubled you, thank you, Lord Wang, for the seat!" Liu Yitiao bowed his hands in gratitude and sat down with Liu Ertiao on a chair beside them.

  At this time, Wang Zhihong spoke up and said: "Today is the day when I and my two apprentices are destined to meet," waving his hand to signal a maid on one side. The maid brought over a blue porcelain tea bowl and stood in the main hall. Wang Zhihong continued: "In accordance with ancient etiquette, both of you must show respect by offering tea, bowing your heads, before we can begin. Now is not yet noon, it's an auspicious time, let's start now."

  Is that all? Liu couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

  Liu Er Tiao stood up and walked in front of Wang Zhi Hong, then knelt down on one knee. He said respectfully: "Disciple Liu Er Tiao, greeting Master."

  After finishing, Liu Er Tiao loudly knocked three times on the ground, and waited for Wang Zhihong to nod in response before lifting his head. He took the tea water handed over by the maid, held it high above his head, and presented it to Wang Zhihong, saying: "Please, Master, have some tea."

  "Alright," Wang Zhihong took over the tea water with both hands, symbolically touched his lips and nodded: "Okay, get up."

  "Thank you, Master!" Liu Er Tiao finally stood up and bowed his head to listen to the teachings.

  Wang Zhihong put the tea bowl on the table and said, "From today on, you will be my disciple. As your teacher, I can only help you a little. If you want to enter officialdom in the future, you will have to rely on yourself. First, you need to become a student, then take the imperial examination. You should know that taking the imperial examination is the proper way to enter officialdom. Although I can also provide you with another path, it's ultimately an unconventional way. Unless absolutely necessary, don't do it."

  "Yes, I humbly listen to your teachings. As a student, I will definitely do my best and not disappoint you." Liu Er Tiao replied respectfully.

  "Hmm, you may sit down. From now on, don't be so formal in front of me either. If there's anything that puzzles you, feel free to come and ask me."

  "The student knew, thank you for your kindness." Liu Er Tiao bowed again and presented a gift he had prepared earlier: "A pair of couplets, to give to the teacher, to show the student's sincerity. Please take a look, teacher."

  "Oh?" Wang Zhihong nodded to the maid, who took it and unfolded it. His eyes were immediately drawn to the peculiar characters on the rice paper. He couldn't help but get up from his chair, walk slowly in front of the words, and savor them carefully.

  After a long while, Wang Zhihong finally came back to his senses from the words and looked at Liu Ertiao: "This calligraphy is probably not written by your hand, is it?"

  "Sir, you have a discerning eye, this is indeed the work of my elder brother." Liu Er Tiao acknowledged calmly.

  "Yi Tiao Liu?" Wang Zhihong shifted his gaze to Yi Tiao Liu, who was sipping tea leisurely, and asked: "Young Master Liu, I wonder which great master you learned calligraphy from? If there's an opportunity, I'd like to pay my respects."

  Wang Zhihong is also a book lover, and as soon as he saw Liu Yitiao's calligraphy, he noticed its uniqueness. The horizontal strokes are even and flat, the vertical strokes are thick and straight, with sharp corners at the beginning and end of each stroke. The characters are square and upright, with bold and powerful brushstrokes, like they were carved with a knife. They have the foundation of regular script, but are even more square and balanced than regular script. At first glance, they appear strong and powerful, yet elegant and refined. If this type of font were used for engraving seals or printing ancient books, the characters would certainly be clearer and more distinct than those in regular script. This font is simply born for engraving and printing.

  For the second time, Liu Yitiao gave the same answer. He stood up and replied: "This font was created by a commoner for temporary amusement, but later found it had some meaning so kept it. It's not a big deal."

  "Could it be your creation?" Wang Zhihong walked to Liu Yitiao's side, his eyes showing a hint of gentleness. "Liu Xiaoge is truly a great talent, I, Wang, admire you! Looking at the shape of your characters, they seem to be carved like a knife, and have the style of regular script, I don't know if it's from carving steles or modeling techniques that have evolved?"

  This Wang Zhihong's insight is not ordinary, and he actually saw the origin of Song typeface at a glance. Song typeface was indeed created by Qin Hui, who collected the strengths of his predecessors and specially created this font for engraving and printing. At present, the engraving and printing technology in the Tang Dynasty is still underdeveloped and rarely used, Wang Zhihong can see the origin of Song typeface, which shows that he has a good understanding of engraving and printing.

  Liu Yitiao said: "Mr. Wang's discerning eye, this font is indeed inspired by stone carvings and created. So between the fonts, there are still residual marks of knife engraving."

  Indeed, Wang Zhihong was enlightened, but being able to derive a new font from the stone carvings also shows off Liu Yitiao's talent.

  Recalling the widespread cattle intestinal obstruction that had been troubling him for days, and hearing that Liu Yitiao seemed to have a cure, Wang Zhihong asked with some hope: "I heard that Brother Liu has a good prescription for treating cattle intestinal obstruction, is it true?"

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  May 19, 2008, Martyrs' Day, let's mourn together for the compatriots who died in this disaster.