Chapter Seven: Could My Son Be a Genius?

Su Youcai had always felt that he hadn’t fulfilled his duties as a father, so he never put on airs. Instead, he was able to get along easily with his sons.

“But jokes aside,” he said, his expression turning serious, “you can’t be careless when it comes to learning. Like a fence needs three posts, you must lay a solid foundation.”

“Yes, Father,” Su Lu replied humbly, then explained, “But hadn’t I already memorized the ‘Three Character Classic’ before?”

“You could only recite up to ‘Master the classics, then read the histories,’” Su Youcai reminded him.

“I did forget a few lines, but once I looked at them again, I remembered,” Su Lu said.

“Then recite it for me,” Su Youcai requested, doubtful.

“Yes,” Su Lu cleared his throat and recited from “At birth, people are naturally good,” all the way to the final lines, “Diligence brings achievement, play brings no benefit. Take heed, and strive hard.”

Su Youcai listened, stunned. He hadn’t expected his son’s memory to be so remarkable. Even if Su Lu had recited the ‘Three Character Classic’ years ago at the clan school, it had been set aside for a long time.

Now, picking it up again and reciting it fluently from start to finish proved the boy’s mind was sharp indeed.

“Father, is that enough?” Su Lu asked.

Su Youcai came back to himself, coughed, and said, “It’s not enough just to recite the text; you must understand its meaning. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

“The meanings are all pretty clear from the words themselves,” Su Lu replied, puzzled. “Is there anyone who doesn’t understand?”

“Well, yes and no…” Su Youcai said quietly. Though the ‘Three Character Classic’ was only a little over a thousand words, it was an encyclopedic compendium—astronomy, geography, history, all contained within. Many children at the clan school could recite it flawlessly, but their limited experience meant they only memorized it mechanically, without true understanding. That was inevitable; children from the mountains couldn’t compare to those from Luzhou or Chengdu.

“Then let me test you,” he said. He didn’t believe Su Lu could grasp all the knowledge within the ‘Three Character Classic.’

“Alright,” Su Lu nodded.

“What does ‘Xiang at nine, warms the bedding’ mean?”

“It refers to Huang Xiang from the Eastern Han, who at nine years old knew to warm his father’s bedding.”

“And ‘gourd, earth, leather, wood, stone, metal. Silk and bamboo, these are the eight sounds’?”

“It’s about ancient musical instruments, which are divided into eight categories by material.”

“What does ‘gourd’ mean, and what instruments can be made from it?”

“It means ‘calabash,’ used to make instruments like the sheng and yu.”

Su Youcai quizzed him on several obscure points, and Su Lu answered them all correctly. Su Youcai couldn’t help but reevaluate him: “You know quite a lot, don’t you?”

“All learned by listening to Father,” Su Lu said modestly.

“Haha…” Su Youcai was about to laugh when he heard his eldest son snoring, so he quickly lowered his voice. “Looks like you have a knack for this. I shouldn’t have let your studies lapse.”

“Yes, I regret it deeply. But regret is useless; I can only work hard to catch up,” Su Lu earnestly implored. “Please teach me more.”

“Alright, I’ll do as you ask,” Su Youcai said, changing his usual teaching plan and, as Su Lu wished, turned to the page with the ‘Hundred Family Surnames.’

“This ‘Hundred Family Surnames’ has no real meaning; just make sure you recognize all the surnames,” Su Youcai instructed. “Read it once and see if there are any words you don’t know.”

“Yes,” Su Lu softly read through the whole list and found five unfamiliar characters: the ‘Dou’ in ‘Gan Dou Li Rong’; the ‘Yu’ in ‘Chi Qiao Yin Yu’; the ‘Qi’ in ‘Qi Guan Si Kou’; the ‘Zhang’ in ‘Zhang Du Zi Che’; the ‘Da’ in ‘Mo Ha Qiao Da.’

Su Youcai was once again astounded. When Su Lu recited the ‘Three Character Classic,’ he’d thought it was just because he had memorized it before. But the ‘Hundred Family Surnames’ was clearly new to him, and out of 568 characters, he only didn’t know five. That was a terrifying level of literacy.

He’d felt a bit sleepy before, but now he was wide awake, eyes as round as copper bells, scrutinizing Su Lu: “Weren’t you supposed to be illiterate? Why do you seem like a different person?”

“Well…” Su Lu felt uneasy under his gaze. He’d only thought about working hard and hadn’t expected to slip up. He laughed awkwardly, “Just by being around Father, I naturally learned a lot of characters without really studying.”

“That’s right! That’s what ‘proximity to vermilion makes you red’ means,” Su Youcai said, pleased. Then, puzzled, he asked, “But why did you hide your abilities before? Did you not want to return to school?”

“Yes, exactly!” Su Lu nodded vigorously. Having a father who liked to fill in the blanks for him was wonderful; he didn’t need to come up with excuses himself. He put on a remorseful face: “I was immature and felt constrained at school, plus there was so much homework…”

“Ah, everyone acts foolish at times, but it’s good you’ve come around,” Su Youcai said with regret. If the boy had awakened a few years earlier, who knows what he might have achieved.

He still thought it was a bit late for Su Lu to get serious, but as he always said, books and learning never fail those who pursue them; studying is always better than not. Suppressing his regret, he took up his brush and wrote three small characters beside each of the five unfamiliar words:

Dou—‘Tian Kou Qie’; Yu—‘Yu Wu Qie’; Qi—‘Qu Zhi Qie’; Zhang—‘Zhu Liang Qie’; Da—‘Dang Ma Qie.’

“Do you know what that means?” he asked Su Lu.

Su Lu shook his head, unable to make sense of it.

“This is the fanqie notation method,” Su Youcai explained. “You split the pronunciation of an unfamiliar character into two, using two common characters for reference. The first shares the initial sound, the second the final and tone. Combine them and you get the pronunciation.”

He smiled wryly. “It sounds simple, but it’s actually quite complicated. Many children study it for years and still get confused, unable to figure out the thirty-six initials, two hundred and six finals, how to split and combine…”

“For example, this ‘Tian Kou Qie’—do you know how it’s pronounced together?” Su Youcai didn’t expect Su Lu to answer correctly. Otherwise, what would he be needed for as a teacher?

He planned to spend a month teaching Su Lu the basics of fanqie notation. Of course, it would be difficult.

“Dou, pronounced ‘tou’,” Su Lu said crisply.

“Haha, no…” Su Youcai was about to say “incorrect” but caught himself, forcing the words back. “Not bad. You guessed well. Try the second one.”

“Yu, pronounced ‘yu’.” Su Lu realized suddenly that this character, which looked like something a Taoist might write, was actually the traditional form of ‘yu’—people in later generations often used it to demonstrate the superiority of simplified characters.

“Interesting. Do the last two,” Su Youcai said, now serious.

“Qi, pronounced ‘qi’. Zhang, pronounced ‘zhang’. Da, pronounced ‘da’,” Su Lu answered fluently.

“You really mastered fanqie in an instant?” Su Youcai’s jaw dropped yet again. He stared at Su Lu in disbelief. “Are you truly a genius?”

“All thanks to Father’s guidance,” Su Lu said quickly, modestly. Using modern pinyin was hardly something to boast about.

“Haha, does that make me a genius too?” Su Youcai laughed, then his face fell. “But why is it that the boys at the clan school never get it, no matter how I teach? Are they hiding their skills too?”

Su Lu dared not speak, for fear of bringing bad luck to his cousins.

With ‘Hundred Family Surnames’ finished, there was little more to discuss. Seeing that it was still early, Su Youcai decided to teach him the ‘Thousand Character Classic’ as well.

He marked ‘Za Se Qie’ beside ‘ze’ in ‘Sun and moon wax and wane,’ and ‘Xi Jiu Qie’ beside ‘su’ in ‘Stars and constellations arrayed.’

“Zi e ze, xi you su,” Su Lu blushed. Out of eight characters, he didn’t recognize one and got another wrong. His skills were truly laughable.

He straightened up and continued as instructed: “Cold comes, heat goes, autumn harvests, winter stores. Add leap days to complete the year, harmonize musical scales for yang. Clouds rise to make rain, dew condenses as frost. Gold is found in the Li River, jade comes from Kunlun…”

He recited to the end, only misreading ‘yi you you wei, shu er yuan qiang’—the ‘you’ in that line.

Su Youcai was completely numb, weakly saying, “That character is pronounced ‘you’.”

“Why not use fanqie?” Su Lu asked in surprise.

“With your level of literacy, what’s the point? Isn’t it unnecessary?” Su Youcai grumbled. Teaching this student only made him feel inferior—where could he complain about that?

But then he remembered that his student was his own son, and felt comforted. “So, do I need to explain the ‘Thousand Character Classic’ as well?”

“I’d still trouble Father to explain,” Su Lu said honestly. “The ‘Thousand Character Classic’ isn’t as easy as the ‘Three Character Classic.’ For example, ‘yi you you wei, shu er yuan qiang’—I don’t know what it means.”

“Alright, alright,” Su Youcai nodded enthusiastically, pleased for reasons he couldn’t name, and explained, “These sentences mean: when changing to a light carriage, beware of danger; when speaking, beware that walls may have ears…”

“So ‘you’ is a light carriage,” Su Lu realized.

For the remainder of the time, Su Youcai, as requested, explained difficult lines such as “Phoenix sings among bamboos, white colt grazes in the field,” and “The Bingshe opens to the side, the Jiashang faces the pillars,” and “Pass on good counsel to descendants, encourage them to be diligent and upright,” among many others.

Once Su Lu had no more questions, Su Youcai yawned hugely. Glancing at the round moon outside, he saw it had quietly climbed to the zenith.

Without noticing, it was already deep into the night.

“That’s enough for tonight,” Su Youcai concluded. “We have to work in the fields again tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Su Lu, though still eager to learn, had to stop.

“I’ll give you ten days to memorize the ‘Hundred Family Surnames’ and the ‘Thousand Character Classic’,” Su Youcai assigned. “Do you have confidence?”

“I’ll give it a try,” Su Lu said cautiously.

“Go to bed,” Su Youcai said, rubbing Su Lu’s head. “Reciting is best early in the morning.”

“Alright, let me look a bit more before sleeping,” Su Lu replied, though he didn’t move.

Su Youcai no longer concerned himself. He got up and lay down on the bed, deftly hugging his ‘bamboo wife,’ and recited, “I have no red sleeves to amuse my night, I rely on my green slave for coolness.”

Then he went to dreamland.

Su Lu, meanwhile, added a piece of pinewood to the porcelain bowl, took up Su Youcai’s inkstone, ground some ink as his father had done, picked up the well-used brush, and began copying the lessons he had just learned.