The first time, it was named, saying that the wedge is applied to Dayi Chen, and the full text is hidden by celebrities. It means that a short story is used to illustrate the great meaning of the book, and a story of a famous person is used to illustrate the idea of the full text. The celebrity mentioned by the author is Wang Mian.
Wang Mian, a native of Zhuji at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, was born in a poor family because of his father's early death. He lived alone with his mother and was extremely filial. Everything delicious was wrapped in lotus leaves and sent home to his mother. Since childhood, I have been herding cattle for a living. Although I didn't continue to go to school, I was born smart, studious, well-read and talented. One day after the rain, I watched the lotus, and when I saw that it was delicate and smart, I had the idea of learning to paint. People were smart, and self-taught paintings were vivid. Villagers and neighbors were scrambling to buy it. Wang Mian also had the ability to support his family.
Wang Mian is aloof and arrogant, neither seeking fame nor making friends. He studies behind closed doors all day, imitates Qu Yuan's clothes, takes his mother around and doesn't care about other people's comments. Some dignitaries heard of his reputation and wanted to meet him, so he avoided his hometown. Zhu Yuanzhang admired his visit, and Wang Mian talked about serving people with righteousness and settling the world. Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply impressed. After winning the world, he came to ask Wang Mian to be an official, but Wang Mian fled to the mountains early and lived in seclusion.
Wang Mian has his own views on the four books, five classics and stereotyped writing. He said that this method is not well formulated. In the future, since scholars have this road to honor themselves, they all look down on the source of that writing.
In the book, Wang Mian is diligent, intelligent, self-taught, meticulous in astronomy and geography, and extremely filial. When I was young, I used lotus leaves to wrap food for my mother. Later, I also cared for my mother many times. When I saw refugees in other places, I missed my mother and went home immediately. His dying mother didn't want him to be an official, but he strictly abided by it. In ancient times, filial piety was the best virtue. The author expressed this point in order to show that Wang Mian's noble morality was a supplement to Wang Mian's image.
Wang Mian is admired by his neighbors, and the dignitaries are willing to make friends with him. However, Wang Mian doesn't like the officials' oppression of the people at ordinary times, and he doesn't want to associate with them, and even goes away for it. He was a great master of the world. He once instructed Zhu Yuanzhang to achieve the world, but he did not crave fame and lived in seclusion. It belongs to the image of an intellectual with infinite ability, infinite morality and infinite realm, with a free and independent personality and self-reliance ability, which is the benchmark and example for the intellectuals created by the author.
Wang Mian does exist in history, but in The Scholars, the author made artistic processing and attached his perfect intellectual image to Wang Mian. With Wang Mian indifferent to fame and fortune, he despises the greatness of fame and fortune, showing the smallness of all kinds of people who are obsessed with fame and fortune. Poet Li Bai said, oh, how can I gravely bow and scrape to men of high rank and men of high office, who never will suffer being shown an honest-hearted face. It is also the pride of the author himself. In the author's view, it is the right way for intellectuals to stress the source of literary works like Wang Mian. By creating such an image, the author expressed his requirements for intellectuals.