Chapter 75 — Honesty (Bonus chapter for 570 pink votes)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
The tutor Dou Huaiying had hired for his daughter was surnamed Jiang, given name Li, courtesy name Yougong—an old juren past sixty who had served for fifteen years as household tutor to the Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, none other than Dou Huaiying's own patron He Wendao. Pleading old age and failing vigor, he had asked to resign his post and return home, but Dou Huaiying had talked him round.
"...Editor Dou says the pupil is a young girl, and that it matters little what she studies, so long as she grasps some larger principles." Jiang Yougong's words were courteous, yet his tone carried a distinct haughtiness. "And with Vice Minister Dou adding his word on her behalf, I could hardly refuse for face's sake. Though I know my learning is shallow, I had no choice but to stiffen my neck and come."
The Dou family held no fewer than three posts at court in the capital, so he had no choice but to address them by their official titles.
Dou Zhen thanked him profusely, then summoned Tutor Du to keep him company. He personally arranged for Jiang Yougong to lodge in the outer study of the West Dou compound, assigned him two young servants, two maids, and two drudges for rough work, and called Dou Yan out to pay her respects to Jiang Yougong. Only after the date for lessons to begin was fixed did he return to the East Dou compound.
The Second Madam asked her son, "What sort of man is he?"
Dou Zhen gave a bitter smile. "His learning is first-rate, but that temper of his... I wonder whether we can even keep him."
The Second Madam frowned.
Dou Yan, for her part, was so furious she wanted to curse.
Why couldn't her father simply leave things be? This man surnamed Jiang had hardly come to be her tutor—he had plainly come to go through the motions!
A man who had already reached the age of sixty ears and still clung to the great divide between men and women—during lessons he had to set up a screen to separate himself from Dou Yan, and he was forever going on about how things had been at Minister He's house. Nor did he care whether Dou Yan understood a word. He simply sat there lecturing away, and when he was done he left, as though Dou Yan were a block of elm wood: no matter how well he taught, she could not grasp it, and no matter how poorly he taught, she would not know the difference. And so he taught with the barest minimum of effort. Yet Dou Huaiying had promised him, besides a yearly fee of one hundred taels of silver, two suits of clothes for each of the four seasons.
He was simply taking advantage of the fact that she was a girl.
It so happened that Dou Yan was home one day when Jiang Yougong was lecturing her on "Teng Wen Gong, Part II" of Mencius. Dou Yan sent for Cui Min and asked Dou Yan to compose an examination essay on the theme "The Duke of Zhou took in the Yi and Di barbarians and drove out the fierce beasts, and the common people were at peace." The next morning she placed it on Jiang Yougong's desk. Jiang Yougong gave it a cursory glance at first, then uttered a startled "Eh?" and picked it up to read closely for a good while. Then he asked Dou Yan, "Who wrote this?"
Dou Yan, without so much as a change in expression, replied, "Your student wrote it in jest."
Jiang Yougong gave a snort of contempt and tossed the essay aside. Then, using "Teng Wen Gong" as his text, he began to lecture her on the way of concubines and wives.
Dou Yan said not a word, going to her lessons and coming home each day without wasting a single moment.
When Chen Yanzhou heard that the Seventh Master of the Dou family had invited a tutor from the capital for his daughter, he burst out laughing. He wrote to Dou Yan, saying that flattered by her regard for him, he had decided to set out at once for Zhending County to take up a teaching post in the Dou household.
Dou Yan installed Chen Yanzhou at the country estate.