Once Chen Yi understood what had happened, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Mr. Yue Ming had truly gone to great lengths to obtain his calligraphy copybook.
But Yunsong Paper, such precious paper used only by great clans, was indeed extravagant for teaching calligraphy.
Chen Yi looked at the students sitting upright before the sand tables in the study hall and found that they likely thought the same.
He guessed that after the word "extravagant," most of them would add another word: "wasteful."
For the most part, they were somewhat unconvinced by him, this newly arrived instructor.
After pondering for a moment.
Chen Yi did not launch into a long, pedantic lecture like the other teachers he had seen the day before. Instead, he calmly poured water and ground the ink.
As he ground the pine-soot ink in the inkstone, he said,
"Before we begin, I need you to consider several questions."
"What is a 'character'?"
"What do you believe 'writing,' one of the Six Arts, is? And what is the 'method' in the two words 'calligraphy'?"
"Lastly, what is the 'Dao' in the Way of Calligraphy?"
At those words, everyone was stunned. They looked at one another, though they were not overly surprised.
A new teacher testing them before teaching was only proper.
What they had not expected was for Chen Yi to ask such simple, straightforward questions.
Very soon, someone stood up, bowed, and said, "This student believes that characters are the foundation of classics and arts. Without characters, the scriptures, histories, and ancient texts of countless sages could not have been passed down to this day."
"Writing is the writing of characters, recording all things between Heaven and Earth."
"The method in calligraphy means the 'method of writing.' It includes pictographs, simple indicatives, compound