Wiping the Dust at the Five-Hundred-Stone Grotto Heaven, Vol. 5

If he succeeds in this endeavor, it will truly be a blessing for our local community. Brother Lei referring to a scholar-friend treats his agricultural work as he would his studies; he does not engage in empty theorizing, and his resolve is formidable. Zezhu has been teaching students away from home for nearly twenty years. Even now, upon his return, he has no fields to plow. In his pursuit of learning, he strives for breadth, and his memory surpasses that of ordinary men, showing no decline even in old age. I once bet him that he could recite the biographies from the Four Histories The Records of the Grand Historian, the History of the Former and Later Han, and the Records of the Three Kingdoms without missing a single word. A pedant nearby almost scolded us, thinking we were reciting standardized exam essays.

Youxin obtained the position of bocui gong a special recommendation for the Imperial Academy this year and entered the National University. Upon taking the final court examination, he was assigned as the Magistrate of Qianzhong. He has long shared a bond of brotherhood with me. In the year of the bing-shen cycle 1596, he stayed in Zhao'an for the New Year, and we saw each other every day. Observing his character, he is certainly not one who would "bow for five pecks of rice" idiom for compromising one's integrity for a meager salary. Nanqing possesses deep prestige and influence in the Zhang prefecture. Like the Hall of Lu Lingguang a symbol of endurance and architectural grandeur, many successors have emerged from his lineage. Ruishu is skilled in calligraphy and painting, and his mastery of standard exam essays is merely a secondary skill Shuyuan’s Superfluous Talks describes An’s calligraphy and painting in great detail in one entry.

He is from Chenghai, Chaozhou, and when he arrived to lead the lectures, his pupils filled the city. As for the poem I composed for him to appreciate, during the xin-mao cycle provincial examination, I got drunk and spent the night at a courtesan's house, which caused me to be late and denied entry to the second session. Only when the list of failed candidates was posted did I realize that my essay for the first session had already been selected as the top entry, and the results were already being published. I was filled with immense regret and hatred. Friends once playfully changed the phrase "First in Jiangnan among the failed candidates" to "First in Fujian among the failed candidates." Both Shaoting and I enjoy composing poetry, though we have long been separated from them.