Amidst the sympathetic or gloating eyes of the crowd, Zhu Pingan completed his report and was led by the errand boy to the place where he would be working in the future – the Book Depository.
The Book Depository is situated in the north and faces the south, from the outside it looks like it has two floors, but in fact inside it has three floors, and in the middle of the gable waist there is also a dark floor. Book Depository covers a large area, there are six rooms size, with green stone brick, above is black glazed tiles, the entire Book Depository not a little wooden structure, in order to be fireproof, is the black glazed tiles are also in order to fireproof, in the eyes of the ancients, the black main water, to water to extinguish the fire to protect the safety of the Book Depository.
Cabinet of books outside chiselled a pool, inside the blue waves, once the Cabinet of books have any fire, it can be from the pool near the water to extinguish the fire.
This place was great, why was the crowd looking at themselves with sympathy and gloating? Zhu Pingan stood outside the Book Collection Pavilion, somewhat puzzled.
The errand boy led himself into the Book Depository, and there was a set of tables and chairs on the left side of the Book Depository hall, which was where Zhu Ping An’s office would be in the future. In addition to Zhu Pingan in the Book Depository, there are three small officials in charge of books, basically is responsible for the duties of cleaning and care, the main filing and finishing tasks have to be done by Zhu Pingan.
Entering the Book Depository, Zhu Pingan understood why other people were looking at him with sympathy or gloating.
Inside the Book Collection Pavilion, there was indeed a vast amount of books, too many to count, and there had to be tens of thousands of books on this floor alone, and the arrangement was also a bit messy. Some of the books in the pavilion are neatly placed on the bookcase, but there are many stacks of books stacked on top of each other in the bookcase, it looks like there is no order, and there are even some books piled up in the cabinet in a scattered manner. In addition, the bookcase of this bookstore is beautiful, there is a kind of beauty, but it is not practical, unlike the bookshelves of modern libraries that are easy to search and use.
Zhu Pingan up and down the three layers of the general look, Yongle Dazhi series of books relatively neatly placed, but other books placed on the complimentary. In short, compared to the modern well-organised library, this bookstore was like a group of headless flies.
Zhu Pingan had just settled down in the Book Depository. Zhang Siwei and another Hanlin Academy editorial writer came together, this Hanlin Academy editorial writer is about thirty years old, in the Hanlin Academy nearly three years, is considered a veteran. This person’s name is Zhang Bo. And Zhang Siwei is hometown, Zhang Siwei is also considered lucky directly and hometown in the office together.
“Ahem, why is it so messy.” After Zhang Siwei entered the book collection cabinet, he looked at the vast sea of books in front of him and couldn’t help but lament.
“The third floor is even more chaotic. Want to take you to open your eyes.” Zhu Pingan smiled.
“Don’t, when I come to help you clean up in the future, there will be plenty of opportunities to look.” Zhang Siwei shook his head, then introduced his former hometown to Zhu Pingan.
Zhu Pingan made a move to shuffle the tea cups and tea utensils, brewed a pot of tea, and entertained the two to sit down and sip tea. The tea was the ordinary tea that the Hanlin Academy equipped each person with, if one did not like it, one could also bring their own tea from home. Zhu Pingan did not have high requirements for tea, and felt that the Hanlin Academy’s tea was sufficient. However, when Zhang Siwei was drinking tea, he said that next time he would bring some good tea from home. He said that next time he would bring some good tea from home and share some of it with Zhu Pingan. Zhu Pingan did not excuse himself and thanked him in advance with a smile.
“Zi Hou, but you have a problem with Lord Li?” Zhang Bo asked as he picked up his teacup.
Zhu Pingan shook his head and told what he guessed about the scene at the Golden Palace, there was nothing unspeakable about it, there was no need to hide it.
“So that’s how it is.” Zhang Bo nodded at his words, then whispered to the two, “It’s no wonder, our dean is most at odds with Pavilion Master Yan, preconceived ideas. Even if you explain it might still backfire, but Lord Li is not an unreasonable person, when the misunderstanding is resolved later, Zi Hou will be able to leave this place of exile.”
“A place of exile?” Zhu Pingan looked at the books in the library. Still a little puzzled, “Although this Book Depository is a little more tiring and time consuming to organise and file, but with so many books for company, it’s not so much to call it a place of exile, is it?”
“Hehe, you are still young.” Zhang Bo smiled at his words.
“What is the explanation?” Zhu Pingan was even more puzzled.
“What else is here besides books and canons?” Zhang Bo explained. “Besides, are there fewer books for us to read after ten years of hard work? You’re still young and just stepped into the officialdom, how many people do you think can still stick to reading books after becoming an official nowadays? A lot of people Confucius and Mencius are almost forgotten, there are a lot of things to do after becoming an official.”
“Our Hanlin Academy is a place of purity and nobility, but it’s not that I’m hitting you Zi Hou, this canon filing of yours can be considered a complete place of exile. Why our Hanlin Academy is called the land of the storage of the prime minister, is because the daily work of our Hanlin Academy, but not just daily work, it looks on the surface is to deal with political affairs, in fact, it is more to exercise the ability of political affairs, to grow insights.”
Zhang Bo was a chatty one, and after taking a sip of tea, he gave Zhu Pingan and Zhang Siwei an in-depth explanation of the doorways in the work of the Hanlin Academy.
“Let’s take an example, for example, the drafting of edicts that I am currently responsible for, well, by the way, I drafted the edicts that your Tang Edicted to enjoin the Anjin.” Zhang Bo said and put down his teacup, looking at Zhu Pingan with a smile on his face.
“Thank you brother Zhang.” Zhu Pingan thanked him repeatedly.
“Where where, it’s all part of the job.” Zhang blogger smiled, then continued to explain, “Back to the main topic, the imperial edicts issued by our holiness, this kind of thing should be drafted by the cabinet, but in reality, it is also the responsibility of our Hanlin Academy, and I am also responsible for a part of it. This kind of drafting edicts, he is not a simple drafting task, this kind of work can help us adapt to the political affairs, deepen the experience, time is long for us to understand the affairs of the Ming familiar.”
Hearing this, Zhu Pingan and Zhang Siwei couldn’t help but nod their heads.
Seeing Zhang Siwei and Zhu Pingan’s reaction, Zhang Bo felt very satisfied, speak up more energetic, “Another example is now Ziwei is responsible for the Song dynasty factual records, editing the Song dynasty factual records of such work can increase the Song dynasty for a deep understanding of the political stories, understand more will understand how to do politics. In addition, there is our Hanlin is responsible for the scripture feast lectures, and can increase our understanding of the court rituals and national important political understanding, and at the same time this scripture feast lectures can also increase our relationship with the emperor, in the emperor that left an impression, the future for us is a great benefit. Oh yes, in our Hanlin Academy is also a good opportunity to get in touch with the scholar, powerful and noble. Sometimes, we will also participate in court deliberations and political affairs seminars, which can deepen our knowledge of the political situation and current affairs.”
“These are all good opportunities for us to accumulate experience and exercise our abilities.” Zhang Bo took another sip of tea and concluded.
Zhu Pingan duly filled Zhang Bo’s teacup again, Zhang Bo nodded with satisfaction and continued, “There are countless opportunities to work in our Hanlin Academy, but only Zi Hou you have some exceptions to this errand. There is no oil and water, not to mention the tedious and hard work, squatting in this cabinet, even the opportunity to contact the outside world are gone. Filing books and records can be an exercise, and there is no chance of contacting the Emperor and the powerful in this cabinet.”
“Oh yes, you can see how messy this is, some books are as hard to find as a needle in a haystack. Our saint sometimes passes a piece of paper to ask our Hanlin Academy to provide a certain book, tsk tsk …… The previous two Hanlin in charge of the canonical books were scolded very badly ah. The previous Hanlin Liu went to great lengths and almost lost his family’s money before he was able to make connections to transfer his position.”
No grease, no opportunity, no exercise, tiring and tedious, and crucially, scolded and punished.
Well, that’s the root of other people’s sympathy or gloating, isn’t it?
“Not so much.” Zhu Pingan said indifferently as he took a sip of tea after hearing this.
“Not so much?” Zhang Bo’s mouth opened wide when he heard this, shaking his head and lamenting, “A newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, alas, it’s good to be young.”
“Zi Hou, and endure, when some time passes, I’ll ask my uncle to give you a word.” Zhang Siwei thought that Zhu Pingan was comforting him, and could not help but pat Zhu Pingan’s shoulder to comfort him.
”Umm, what I said is true.” Zhu Pingan was somewhat speechless.
“It’s not a complete exile, isn’t it true that His Holiness will still pass notes to find books.” Zhu Pingan said.
“Stop, you’d better pray that His Holiness doesn’t look for books.” Zhang Bo looked at Zhu Pingan as if he saw a madman, exaggeratedly stretched out three fingers, “To tell you the truth, I know of these three years, the saint passed a note three times to find the book, each time is as difficult as heaven, not to mention you alone, the first few times we are on the Hanlin Academy, the shortest also spent a day and a night to find. Each time was scolded, the most pitiful time is Liu Hanlin, but also beaten court cane …… Tsk, that miserable ah ……”
But
No matter what, I have been a librarian in Daming, Zhu Pingan looked at the building full of scriptures, histories, and books and said silently
