Chapter 32: A room full of snowflakes (middle)
Now, Su Shi, who "picked up all the cold branches and refused to live", fell asleep "lonely". The furniture in the room was simple, and there were women in the room, and the children were not young. It was obviously not the time to keep customers. The students had put the goods on the spot, so Zhao Xing had to return to Huangzhou City in a bad mood.
The next day, Cheng Xia brought her classmates to the morning salute. Seeing Zhao Xing still in a daze, Cheng Xia bowed: "Teacher, should we go to the government office first or to the Xueshi Hall first, or to study at home?"
"Ministry?... Wait for the afternoon. Xu Zhizhou's appointment with us is suitable for the afternoon. Where is the bachelor's degree... Let's wait until we come back from the street. Let's go figure out the chalk and the greystone are there first." Zhao Xing blinked his eyes and made a decision.
Huangzhou was still a simple small county town at this time, and the market was not big. Zhao Xing asked several shops in succession, but no one knew what the "white gray surface" he was talking about was. But since Su Dongpo could find lime here, there must be something on the market. Zhao Xing refused to give up and continued wandering the streets, thinking while walking.
Lime is not a painting pigment, and it cannot be a painting pigment. Now, all calligraphy and painting shops have been visited, and Zhao Xing searches one by one along the shops. No matter what goods the other party sells, he goes in and asks... Finally, in a cloth shop, Zhao Xing obtained a vague message.
"Are the customer asking about 'white gray powder'? There are two types of white gray powder in the shop, one is used for vomiting numbness and the other is used for drifting silk. Which type is needed by the customers?" Lao Chaofeng from the cloth shop asked Zhao Xing.
There are actually two types of white gray powder?
"I want both, two pounds each," Zhao Xing answered without hesitation.
The old worshiper looked at Zhao Xing in surprise, as if he wanted to say something, but he immediately suppressed his impulse and without saying a word, he ordered the client to meet the customer's request - 4 kilograms of dust powder, a total of one penny. Lao Chaofeng also gave Zhao Xing two cloth bags.
Zhao Xing, impatiently, ignored the shopkeeper's eyes. He returned to his residence with a cloth bag and immediately closed the door to check the two "white gray powders". This thing is not complicated, and is common in modern life. After a simple identification, he confirmed that one of them is alkaline surface and the other is lime.
In other words, the people of the Song Dynasty used alkaline surface to bleach the raw silk; soaked lime repeatedly to bleach the raw hemp. How much hemp can two kilograms of lime ferment? No wonder Lao Chao stopped talking but with such a small amount - such a small portion is probably the smallest business in the store.
Both of these are alkalis. People in the Song Dynasty actually knew that the two alkalis had different properties and were used in different industries, which made Zhao Xing admire them.
What is even more admirable is Su Dongpo. This person is really a person with a very jumpy mind. He can use bleaching drugs as pigments to paint white snowflakes on the walls. This extraordinary jumping thinking is amazing.
Others don’t know, but Zhao Xing knows how useful the two alkalis are. Especially the alkali surface, with it, modern industry.
Looking at the white powder spread on the table, Zhao Xing felt vaguely in his heart that he had grasped something. He closed his eyes and pondered, and his mood was in chaos.
In fact, he didn't know that the "China's No. 1 lime kiln" was near Huangzhou. Its kiln opening time was exactly the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. The application of alkaline surfaces made the silk weaving industry in the Song Dynasty reach the peak of Chinese civilization. At this time, the silk exported by the Song Dynasty was transported to Europe by ocean. After Europeans bought it, they were as proud as modern people bought Bentleys. This kind of silk bleached in the country was still bright in color a thousand years later.
While thinking, time passed quickly. After a while, almost noon, Cheng Xia gently knocked on the door and whispered: "Teacher, let's have a meal. We have to go to the government office."
Zhao Xing's thinking was interrupted.
According to the agreement, Zhao Xing went to Xu Zhizhou's prefecture first and made a few papers in advance under the "care" of Xu Zhizhou... In fact, Zhao Xing knew in his heart that these test papers might be - no, they must be the answer questions this year.
However, none of these matters anymore. Zhao Xing obsessed with the test paper, left enough wine for Xu Zhizhou, and then completed the naturalization of Chengjiaao at the government office. He immediately led the students to the "snow house" by the river.
Today, there were more than a group of guests coming from the smirk... It is said that Su Dongpo was usually full of guests, but when he was exiled to Changzhou, the house was neglected. However, today the situation was wrong. It seemed that someone would give him a gift to the official who was guilty.
When Su Mai saw Zhao Xing, he greeted him calmly, and regardless of whether he had followed or not, he just buried his head in the yard. At this time, several wingers were still moving things into the yard - four large bamboo baskets, which seemed to be very heavy, and the two wingers were struggling to carry it. Zhao Xing stopped at the gate of the yard and immediately picked up a basket in one hand without seeing any sign of it. As he walked, he exclaimed: "It's so heavy, I'm afraid there are 50 kilograms in one basket."
Kilograms are not a word from this era. But at this time everyone was busy and no one paid attention.
The smirk was very quiet. Su Dongpo was writing a poem. A man dressed in a master was standing next to him, as if waiting for Su Dongpo to reply. Mrs. Wang was dressed very neatly today. She was also standing by the table and nodded naturally to Zhao Xing, saying hello, then lowered her head and continued to grind the ink quietly.
When Su Dongpo wrote poems, his expression was focused. He didn't pay attention to Zhao Xing's coming in. Zhao Xing did not dare to alarm him. He slowly rubbed against the table without seeing him, and looked at the great writer writing poems with his face.
The characters written by Su Dongpo are plump and ups and downs, and they have unique experience in using ink. Although they are very intentional, they are innocent and unrestrained. Perhaps it is precisely because the characters he wrote abandoned all the rules and regulations of the past and were unique that later generations described him as "the head of the four major calligraphers of the Northern Song Dynasty."
What he wrote—"The cold official door is declining,
I am half lonely when I have a close relationship with old music books.
Only the magistrate of Zhang County, Taiyuan,
He specializes in sending grapes every year."
After writing this poem "Thank Zhang Taiyuan to Send Wine", Su Shi handed it to the master and said, "I will thank Zhang Taiyuan for my sake and say that I, Su Zizhan, have a love affair."
"Absou" seems to be the name of the master in the Song Dynasty. There was no "Shijun" system in the Song Dynasty, only "Shijun". "Shijun" became popular since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, the court restricted the shogunate system relatively strictly, and the employment was changed from self-destruction to the central appointment, and a large number of shuo-secretaries were assigned to the official positions, so they became minor officials such as "Absou" and "Secretary".
Chapter completed!