Chapter Ten: Teaching According to Aptitude

The next morning, as usual, I opened the door and took my seat at the hall. The difference was that I no longer had to worry about household chores. Thanks to my persuasive words, An Mingshan agreed to take on tasks like sweeping, laundry, cooking, and tidying the room. Not only had I secured a (reserve) talent for the Paranormal Bureau, but I had also found myself a free “housekeeper,” truly killing two birds with one stone. And I must admit, her cooking was quite decent—at least I could save the daily expense of ten or so yuan on meals and countless instant noodles. Even better, all my accumulated dirty clothes finally had someone to wash them, sparing me from wasting money on new clothes because of dirt. Considering her low level of education, I really have no idea where she learned these skills.

Feeling refreshed that morning with nothing pressing, I began to teach her. I didn’t use Liu Shan’s teacher-style method of direct instruction to have An Mingshan study the Book of Changes. Instead, I first took out a dictionary to teach her how to look up unfamiliar characters. Then I bought her practice books and patiently taught her how to write, especially her own name, hand in hand.

An Mingshan sat by the desk, holding a pencil and writing on paper, while I watched her.

I said, “Now, I’ll teach you how to write your own name. No matter how illiterate a person is, they should at least learn to write their own name. Come, I’ll say it and you write it. The first character: dot, dot, horizontal fold, then write below... a left-falling dot, a left-falling stroke, a horizontal stroke—that’s the character An, your surname. Remember, your surname is An, meaning ‘safe,’ so I’ll just call you ‘An An’.”

An Mingshan replied, “Don’t mind what I said before. Call me whatever you want. It’s all because of them, always making me work. I’ve already forgotten a lot of what I learned before, so writing is a bit hard now.”

I said, “I’ll call you An An, nothing else. You can call me whatever you want, no problem. As for what you learned before, I’ll help you recall it. The next character: vertical, horizontal fold, horizontal, horizontal, then on the right... a left-falling stroke, horizontal fold hook, horizontal, horizontal—that’s the character Ming, meaning ‘bright’ or ‘clear,’ made up of sun and moon.”

An Mingshan said, “I know this one. It means the light of the sun and moon shining brightly.”

I nodded, “Not bad, you still know some things. Now, the last character: horizontal, horizontal, vertical, rising stroke, then on the right... a left-falling stroke, horizontal fold hook, then another left-falling stroke, horizontal fold hook, and a horizontal stroke through—it’s the character Shan, meaning ‘coral,’ a tree-like organism formed from the accumulated skeletons of coral polyps in the ocean. An, Ming, Shan—that’s how it’s written.”

An Mingshan said, “This character has so many strokes, it’s a bit difficult. Also, what’s this... coral polyp you mentioned?”

I said, “Never mind the coral polyp for now. The point is, no matter how hard it is, you must overcome it! There’s a lot you’ll need to learn in the future; this little thing is nothing.”

An Mingshan asked, “What’s ‘nothing’?”

I said, “It’s English—‘case’—which means ‘meaning’ or ‘nothing’ in this context.”

An Mingshan said, “You keep saying ‘meaning’ and ‘nothing,’ it’s confusing me.”

I said, “I mean the word translates to ‘meaning,’ like ‘no big deal.’ Ah, I’ll teach you English later. For now, focus on mastering Chinese.”

An Mingshan said, “Tch—why didn’t you say so earlier?”

...

Through daily chats with An Mingshan, I learned she had only attended school for two years, unable to recognize even large characters, only knowing some simple characters and basic knowledge; the rest was about doing housework. So I had to start by teaching her to read and write, then basic cultural knowledge. Laying a solid foundation was necessary before introducing her to the Book of Changes and more advanced knowledge.

The study at Sui Yi Residence was filled with many books—professional texts, classic works at home and abroad, and strange tales. Of course, some books were unsuitable for her because, given her knowledge level, she couldn’t truly grasp the ideas expressed in those books. So before she could see them, I hurriedly found excuses to send her out, then sorted those books and burned them in a secluded spot. Even though some were rare ancient editions purchased secondhand, I was determined not to let them corrupt her mind, no matter how precious they were.

At the same time, I realized that teaching knowledge alone was not enough; I had to correct her mindset and establish proper values so she could truly break free from her past experiences.

Subsequently, I bought her many different types of practice books and dictionaries, along with some ideological and political education books. My own handwriting was a wild cursive style—free-spirited and unrestrained. Because of this, from a young age, I had lost count of how many times teachers called me to the office or summoned my parents, and how many times I had to redo my homework. No one except myself could read my handwriting, and sometimes even I couldn’t decipher it, having to look at my own cursive and recall what to rewrite.

Guiding An Mingshan hand by hand, I gradually realized her handwriting was about as bad as mine—at best, I could recognize it. Seeing this, I could only have her practice writing on her own with the copybooks. Meanwhile, I held daily ideological classes to correct her thinking; I also had her watch the news every day and showed her patriotic red films and TV dramas. While learning culture, ideological education could not be neglected.

What surprised me was how well An Mingshan accepted my methods. Within a week, she could skillfully use the dictionary and write characters by copying them, even better than I did. I told her to ask me whenever she didn’t understand something, and I would patiently teach her until she mastered it, never resorting to Liu Shan’s traditional Chinese cramming methods.

After a while, she recognized most characters and had a grasp of cultural knowledge, so it was time to introduce her to the Book of Changes. I had her first read the vernacular version, then the version with both classical and vernacular texts side by side, and finally, I asked her to interpret the original text without translation. When she could understand its content, I guided her through the Five Elements, the stems and branches’ cycles of generation, overcoming, clashing, combining, transformation, punishment, harm, and breaking, as well as their corresponding directions, seasons, colors, tastes, and so forth. She learned to read the Luo Pan compass, the trigrams, the sixty-four hexagrams, the original hexagram, and how to deduce changing, mutual, reversed, and composite hexagrams, how to check empty positions, cast hexagrams, assemble them, and interpret them. For each topic, I explained with a wealth of knowledge. For example, when teaching about “empty positions,” An Mingshan kept asking why the character for “death” was pronounced “wu.” I explained it was a phonetic loan character and gave her the definition, showed her many classical texts, pointed out which were loan characters and what they were substitutes for, and had her find such characters in the texts and tell me their original forms.

I also had her try receiving some clients to see how much she had truly learned. Ridiculously, those clients either ogled her with ill intentions or looked on with envy and jealousy. Several times she was flirted with, and she didn’t even realize it herself.

Thus, five months passed in an unnoticeable blur. During these months, while teaching her, I also learned a great deal. The best part was that An Mingshan gradually let down her guard and almost followed my instructions without question. When I asked her something, she told me everything without hiding a thing. From this, I learned about her background and even uncovered many ugly deeds related to the divination teachings. I repeatedly warned her to keep these matters absolutely confidential—only she needed to know.

Even better, I finally received another raise, bringing my salary up to that of a Special Investigation Division Chief—30,000 yuan per month. The reason given was that I had nurtured a rare talent for the Paranormal Bureau and had to support her. Though I knew this was a stretch, hearing the news nearly made me laugh myself unconscious.

Come to think of it, just for myself, a few thousand yuan a month was enough, but now that Sui Yi Residence had added another mouth to feed, a raise was inevitable. Though the director was like old ginger, I was a fresh flower. After all, “old ginger is spicy,” but “flowers are fragrant when fresh.”

Five months later, early one morning, we arrived at the director’s office. As usual, he sat with his back to us, trying to look important, and said, “You’re here? Sit down. I know everything you’ve done these past five months. You’re quite capable, huh? You said five months, and you really did it.”

I said, “I do what I say, must do...” Just as I was about to continue, someone knocked and Liu Shan entered.

The director looked at him and said, “Liu Shan, you see, Shu Cheng’s method is better than yours. You should change your training approach.”

Liu Shan looked at me and An Mingshan and said, “You two must have conspired to mess with me. That doesn’t count, doesn’t count.” I was speechless... but An Mingshan stood up beside me and said, “Who do you think conspired? Oh, I know. It must be because you’re useless and have the nerve to blame others, humph!” I was stunned to see An Mingshan like this because she had always been a delicate, obedient girl in my presence.

I shouted, “Enough arguing!” They both paused and looked at me.

An Mingshan quickly reverted to her obedient self and whispered, “Shu... Shu Cheng, don’t be angry. I didn’t mean it.”

I said, “It’s okay. Now, recite the Dao De Jing I taught you to that fat idiot and show him.”

An Mingshan was surprised but then, after a tap on the back of her head, she immediately began like a tape recorder: “The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; the named is the mother of myriad things. Therefore, always be without desire, so as to see the mysterious; always have desire, so as to see the manifestations. These two emerge together but differ in name; both are called profound. Profound and more profound, the gateway to all mysteries...”

A clash of readers.

Question: Author, which do you think is more important, exam-oriented education or quality education?

Answer: Both are important. Quality education teaches moral cultivation and practical skills, emphasizing hands-on ability; exam-oriented education imparts knowledge and test-taking skills, emphasizing intellectual effort. One focuses on virtue, the other on intellect—both are indispensable. As the Zizhi Tongjian says: “A sage is one who combines virtue and talent; one without either is a fool; one with more virtue than talent is a gentleman; the reverse is a villain.” Thus, talent without virtue becomes a “high-IQ barbarian,” while virtue without talent only makes a “headless civilized person.” They complement each other and neither can be neglected.