eriod.
且说陕西省西安府邠州淳化县，远接三边，近邻省会，一条泾河由西北流向东南，直贯县境，山冈起伏,田原肥沃，物产丰足，民风朴厚，颇是个好地方。在淳化黄崟山之南，沿泾河不远处，有一村庄叫王家塬。村中居民,大部是王姓，其中有一大户人家，姓王名竞，娶妻吴氏。家有良田数十顷，青砖瓦舍，囤满仓实，骡马成群，积福余庆，甚为乡人所羡。他上几世曾出过三两个举人、贡生，但都未曾出外游宦为官，谨守家园，耕读为业。到了王竞，虽也读了些圣人的经书，但生性朴拙厚道，不善于迎合时尚，不善于揣摩考官文路，就是写不好八股文章，因此连个秀才也没捞到。年过三十以后，拥有偌大家私，温饱有余，也就淡于功名之念，无意上进，不再过那走州赶府，提着考篮受掇弄的生活了。里居之暇，做些修桥、补路、斋僧、济贫之事，也很博得了几十里内乡亲的赞佩。尽管他没有什么科第封授，尽管他连州、县城都轻易不进，乡人们还都尊称之为王员外。县里的大缙绅，也不以土老财视之，待如同辈。他和那些穿过补服、告老还乡的，取过秀才、中过乙科的，都是平起平坐，在县里也算得上是个头面人物。
In addition, Chunhua County, Fubin Prefecture, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, is far away from the three sides and close to the provincial capital. A Jinghe River flows from the northwest to the southeast and runs through the county. It is quite a good place with undulating hills, fertile fields, abundant products and simple folk customs. In the south of Huangdan Mountain in Chunhua, not far from the Jing River, there is a village called Wangjiayuan. Most of the villagers in the village have the surname Wang. Among them, there is a large family, surnamed Wang Mingjing, who married Wu. The family has dozens of acres of fertile land, green brick and tiled houses, full of warehouses, mules and horses in groups, which are the envy of local people. In his last few generations, he has produced three or two people and tribute students, but none of them has ever gone out as an official, guarded his home, and cultivated and studied for an occupation. When I arrived at Wang Jing, although I also read some scriptures of sages, I was simple and honest by nature, not good at catering to fashion, not good at figuring out the style of examiners, and not good at writing eight-part articles, so I didn't even get a scholar. After the thirties of the year, with so much family and enough food and clothing, he was indifferent to the idea of fame. He had no intention of making progress. He no longer went to the state to catch up with the government and carried the test basket. In his spare time, he did some things such as repairi