Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

It's still dark, and I'm hungry again.

I'm really not hungry with more than a dozen crabs. The river crabs are small and meatless, and it's almost like I haven't eaten them. They were just stuffed with water last night.

Holding his stomach until dawn, Zhu Ming took out the iron coin and looked at it.

It shouldn't be pure iron money, there may be other raw materials added. But it is inevitably stained with rust, and the four characters "Yuanfeng Tongbao" can be vaguely recognized. This thing was cast during Wang Anshi's political reform (it was also cast later, but the coin model has not been changed, it has always been Yuanfeng Tongbao).

Why was China's earliest banknote born in Sichuan?

Because Sichuan uses iron coins, they are very easy to rust and are too rough to be used. The exchange ratio of iron coins to copper coins has been around 10:1 for a long time (even more outrageous), and occasionally it can reach 5:1 when there is good money.

At that time, iron money was used to buy silk cloth in Sichuan. For a hundred catties of money, one could only buy one piece of silk.

How does this allow businessmen to do business?

Then use credit currency, paper money is much lighter.

Until Wang Anshi's reform, he ordered the Sichuan iron coins to be recast, with fine workmanship, sufficient materials, and not so easy to rust. The exchange ratio of iron coins to copper coins remained constant at 1.5:1, and it did not depreciate slightly until the Southern Song Dynasty.

"Dean Zhu, we are rich." Zhu Ming joked, throwing the iron money.

Zhu Guoxiang said speechlessly: "What's the use of a penny?"

Ju Ming said: "A penny is money. Let's go to the town to buy something to eat."

The penny obtained from the rogue was the entire wealth of the father and son. If converted into copper coins, it would only be 0.666666 penny.

The father and son were considered rich, and they quickly came to the rice shop in the town.

Ju Ming seemed to have a lot of money and was full of momentum. He asked loudly: "How do you sell this rice?"

The two of them were dressed in shabby clothes, and only a waiter came to greet them: "It is written on the sign, and the price is clearly marked, white rice is 50 cents per bucket. The brown rice here is 40 cents, 30 cents, and 15 cents." Which one do you two want to buy?"

A dou in the Song Dynasty, converted into modern units, is about 12 kilograms.

50 Wen per bucket of white rice, which is 4.17 Wen per pound.

The price of rice in the Northern Song Dynasty is hard to say. It fluctuates greatly depending on space and time, and it ranges from tens to hundreds of wen per dou.

Ju Ming glanced at the brown rice priced at 15 Wen. It was not only black and yellow, but also had a lot of chaff. He pointed to the most expensive white rice and said, "Just buy the best. I haven't eaten polished rice for a long time!"

The boy became a little more energetic and asked, "How many buckets should I buy?"

"Poof!"

Ju Ming bought the iron coin and said, "That's all, don't be short of money!"

The guy is down a bit and his brain is racing.

Seeing Zhu Guoxiang holding the clay pot, the waiter reached out and took a handful of rice and put it in dumbfounded.

"Anything less is definitely not enough." Ju Ming expressed dissatisfaction.

The waiter thought for a moment and grabbed another half handful of rice to make up for it, thinking it was to send the beggars away.

The first deal after time travel was concluded.

The father and son happily left the town and went to the river beach to set up a pot to cook.

I don’t even want to wash the rice, as that will cause starch to be lost.

Ju Ming also picked up a handful of rice soaked in the river water and said to the skinny horse: "Come on, you can also add some calories."

The thin horse stuck out his tongue and licked it, quite satisfied with the filial piety of humans.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "There is too little rice, not enough to eat."

Ju Ming stood up and said, "I'm going to get some wild vegetables."

There is a lot of cultivated land near the town, and there are very few uncultivated hillsides. Zhu Ming climbed the mountain with his sword, and while digging wild vegetables, he also picked up some dead branches and leaves.

Throw the wild vegetables into the clay pot and cook them together with the white rice. After a while, you will smell the aroma of the rice.

When the temperature cooled down a bit, the father and son feasted on the delicious wild vegetable pilaf, and finally licked their fingers clean.

"It's a pity that there is no salt. It would be better with some oil." Zhu Guoxiang objectively commented on the breakfast and pointed out its shortcomings.

Ju Ming said: "Sell the pen and you will have money to buy oil and salt."

So, the two took Shouma to sell pens.

Arriving outside the Bai family's mansion again, Zhu Guoxiang was responsible for guarding the gate, and Zhu Ming was responsible for guarding the side door, waiting for the Bai family's discerning people to come in and out.

After waiting for several hours, only servants came in and out, and no one was seen wearing clothes.

Father and son had no choice but to get together.

Zhu Ming expressed his feelings: "Dean Zhu, I'm hungry again. I'm so hungry that I can't eat wild vegetables with my hands."

"Stop yelling. You eat more than me. It's me who should yell that I'm hungry." Zhu Guoxiang said angrily.

Ju Ming said: "It's not an option to keep guarding all the time. I see that there are many people living in tile-roofed houses near the Bai family's mansion. They are already cooking at this time, why not... go and try to beg for food?"

Zhu Guoxiang swallowed: "Are you really a beggar?"

"What do you call a beggar? It sounds so unpleasant. We just beg for food to fill our stomachs," Zhu Ming corrected, "A man can bend and stretch, so begging for a few meals is nothing. Zhu Yuanzhang also begged for food back then."

Zhu Guoxiang still couldn't help but said: "Why don't you go get some wild vegetables? There are a lot of wild vegetables in spring, so you won't starve to death."

"Wild vegetables can't resist hunger." Ju Ming cried bitterly.

His stomach growled with hunger, and Zhu Guoxiang stopped carrying it. He pointed at the horse and said, "You can't carry this beast, otherwise you will definitely not be able to get food."

Ju Ming walked up to the horse and said with a serious expression: "I'm going to do something big, you can't follow me!"

"Puff!"

The thin horse snorted twice, but I don't know if he understood it. The beast was full of grass from all over the ground.

People in the countryside only eat two meals, usually cooking in the middle of the afternoon.

Seeing that the smoke from the kitchens everywhere had faded, I guessed that the food was ready, and the father and son officially started their begging journey.

Not far away, the thin horse followed.

"Go, go, eat the grass yourself." Zhu Ming pushed and kicked the horse back.

Shouma was a little aggrieved, standing far away and shaking his head, following the two of them dozens of meters away.

Zhu Guoxiang pointed to a house and said, "There was smoke just now."

Zhu Ming commented: "The poor people's courtyard walls are all made of bamboo fences, but this family has wooden fences, and the courtyard door is also made of wood. It should be considered a well-off family. Dean Zhu, you are here to negotiate. Your age makes you more reliable."

Zhu Guoxiang reached out and knocked on the courtyard door, and soon a man opened the door.

Zhu Guoxiang really couldn't save his face and said pitiful words, so he bowed his hands like the ancients and said: "How are you, big brother? My father and son are living here, and their money has been robbed by bandits. Can I have a bite to eat..."

"Bang!"

The courtyard door slammed shut, and the man cursed and said, "I have a horse asking for food. My family doesn't have money to raise a horse."

How could two strangers with strange clothes and strange behavior wander around the neighborhood with a horse from yesterday to now without attracting attention? Neighboring residents have been observing them for a long time.

After being rejected, Zhu Guoxiang felt a little embarrassed and said to his son: "Switch to another company and you will come this time."

Zhu Ming bravely went to the next restaurant. Although he was unsure, he was still teasing: "Dean Zhu, your begging skills are not good. Let's see me show off my power next!"

"You're the only one who shows off your power, and you can't even get rewards for live streaming." Zhu Guoxiang exposed it ruthlessly.

Ju Ming was surprised: "You actually peeked at my live broadcast?"

"Ahem!"

Zhu Guoxiang coughed twice: "My son is doing a live broadcast, and the father can't go and watch it?"

Zhu Ming immediately grasped the excuse: "You were against me engaging in self-media, saying that you wouldn't even watch the videos I made. Well, you, Dean Zhu, not only watched my videos, but also secretly watched my live broadcast!"

"Go and beg for food!" Zhu Guoxiang didn't want to mention this.

"Just go, it's just a few bowls of food, it's something you can get at your fingertips." Zhu Ming said confidently.

A few minutes later, the father and son stared at each other as the courtyard door closed again.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Do you still want to ask for it?"

"Perseverance, it's you this time." Ju Ming said.

Zhu Guoxiang felt numb about this. His dignified deputy dean of the College of Agriculture was actually stumped by such a thing as begging.

Zhu Guoxiang walked outside the gate of another courtyard, turned to his son and said, "How about baking two more sweet potatoes?"

"Those are seeds. You can't eat them anymore. Hurry up and knock on the door to beg for food." Zhu Ming refused.

Unsurprisingly, the begging operation failed again, mainly because he was killed by the horse.

The villagers may have good intentions and are willing to give alms to beggars, but they are definitely not willing to give alms to people with horses. Even though it was a skinny horse that was so hungry!

After hitting the wall seven or eight times in a row, I asked all the people in the tile-roofed houses, but couldn't get a grain of rice.

All that was left were thatched huts, and the father and son were not interested in begging.

The skinny horse came up to him uninterestedly, and Zhu Ming was too lazy to drive him away, letting the beast follow him step by step.

Zhu Guoxiang said as he walked: "Forget it, we are not made to be beggars."

Ju Ming gritted his teeth and said, "If it doesn't work out, go back downstream and become a bandit in that Black Wind Village!"

"If you are always hungry, you can only become a bandit." Zhu Guoxiang's moral bottom line dropped again and again.

Modern people who grew up under the red flag certainly don’t want to be bandits.

After saying that, both father and son fell into silence and walked forward without speaking.

When passing by several thatched houses, the sound of reading came from the courtyard: "Looking at the moonlight in front of the bed, I suspected it was frost on the ground. I looked up at the mountains and the moon, and lowered my head to think about my hometown."

Zhu Ming suddenly turned around and looked at his father, and Zhu Guoxiang also looked at his son in surprise.

Zhu Guoxiang was the first to speak: "Students talk better."

"That's not necessarily true, but you can give it a try." Ju Ming said happily.

The father and son ran towards the front of the yard, which was also surrounded by a fence.

There is compacted soil in the middle of the yard, and there is a long and narrow vegetable bed near the fence. Four mulberry trees were planted in the vegetable patch, and vegetables were planted around the mulberry trees. There are five thatched houses in total, and a child is sitting at the door of the main house reciting poems.

Suddenly a young woman brought out a small table and stools and placed them in the yard for dinner.

This is because it is almost evening and the light in the thatched house is not good, so I eat outside to save lamp oil.

The young woman had just set up the table and stools when another old woman came out carrying a clay pot.

The young woman asked: "Do you know this poem by heart?"

The child nodded proudly: "Mom, I can already carry it."

The young woman said: "Then you can eat once you recite it again."

With a smile on her face, the old woman continued to go back to the house to get the bowl, and the sound of children reciting poems resounded in the yard again.

The child was about five or six years old. He stood there with his head held high and his chest high, reciting in a childish voice: "Looking at the moonlight in front of the bed, I suspected it was frost on the ground. I looked up at the mountains and the moon, and lowered my head to miss my hometown."

"Very good, I can recite it fluently. Come sit down and eat." The young woman said happily.

Zhu Guoxiang stood outside the hospital, a little confused when he heard: "Why is it different from what I learned when I was a child?"

Ju Ming shouted loudly: "Wrong, wrong, wrong poem!"

A fence certainly cannot block the view.

The young woman heard the sound and looked outside the hospital, and found two short-haired men standing on the roadside. She couldn't help but stand up, walked to the vegetable patch, and asked through the fence: "Why did you say you memorized the poem wrong?"

Ju Ming said: "Li Taibai's poem should be like this. There is bright moonlight in front of the bed, which is suspected to be frost on the ground. Look up at the bright moon and lower your head to think about your hometown."

"There is a bright moonlight in front of the bed..." The young woman chewed the poem repeatedly, nodded subconsciously and said, "After changing it, it doesn't have a special charm, but do you respect the revised sentence?"

Ju Ming said: "Li Taibai's original sentence is like this, I did not change it privately."

The young woman was even more confused: "But the "Collected Works of Li Taibai" and the "Elementary School Poems" both write about 'watching the moonlight in front of the bed'."

"They are all wrong." Ju Ming refused to change his words.

In fact, Ju Ming was able to confirm that the "Quiet Night Thoughts" he learned was a modified version, while what the children in front of him recited was the original version.

Literati in the Song Dynasty liked to adapt books, not only literary works, but also Confucian classics. Many things in later generations were changed by them.

Take the Neo-Confucianists as an example. They first changed the original text of "The Great Learning" in the second step. On this basis, Zhu Xi then changed the text and arranged the order.

There were a lot of revisions to this chapter in "The Great Learning" in the Song Dynasty, but the Ercheng version was the most influential.

In their attitude towards Confucian scriptures, the people of the Song Dynasty insisted on "the Six Classics annotated me" and would not foolishly follow the classics.

The old woman had come out with bowls and chopsticks and saw her daughter-in-law talking to a strange man. Although she was a little unhappy about this, it was related to her grandson's studies, so she just stood there and listened quietly.

The young woman asked: "Does your Majesty have the original Taibai?"

Zhu Ming took the opportunity to hit the snake with a stick: "I was so hungry that I couldn't explain it for a while."

The young woman looked at her mother-in-law, and the old woman nodded in agreement.

So the young woman invited: "I am a distinguished guest passing by. Please come and have some food."

"That would be disrespectful." Zhu Ming grinned.

Zhu Guoxiang shook his head repeatedly. He suddenly had a deeper understanding of his son's shamelessness.

But, it smells so good!

Zhu Guoxiang quickened his pace and couldn't wait to go in to eat.

(The cover is hand-drawn by me and was uploaded yesterday. If the old cover is still displayed, you can open the phone manager to clear the cache.)