Chapter 177

The calligraphy that had seemed perfectly acceptable on ordinary days was, in Master Zhu’s eyes, now worth less than dogshit. Consequently, Master Zhu issued a decree: in addition to their daily assignments of writing and recitation, everyone was required to transcribe the Four Books and Five Classics to practice their penmanship. Furthermore, Master Zhu set strict constraints—three hundred characters per hour, with no errors, no erasures, and no smudges on the paper; any sheet found to be dirty had to be rewritten from scratch. This left the five youths groaning under the unbearable burden. Xie Yousheng and Li Bendian, the two rascals of the group, received the most frequent beatings with the bamboo ruler. Wang Jixue and Li Bendao fared better, suffering the rod only once or twice on occasion. Lin Zezu had it the worst; he was used to writing with a free-flowing hand, and once he let his attention wander, his characters would drift off-line, leading to more corrections and, inevitably, more beatings. As a result, Xie Yousheng, Lin Zezu, and Li Bendian often found their left hands swollen like pig’s trotters, yet they still had to grit their teeth and keep writing.