Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1231 You From The Galaxy
"Sure enough, gold always shines!"

After Luo Cheng read Ma Zhou's test paper, he was also full of praise.Whether it is the mastery and understanding of the scriptures in the Moyi part of the scriptures, or the mastery of various histories, or current affairs policy, or judgment, they are all very qualified.Even his handwriting is excellent, and it can be seen that he has made a lot of progress compared to when he wrote the memorial on behalf of He Jin.

"Father, is Ma Zhou so powerful?"

"It's a talent."

"Then can the emperor arrange Ma Zhou to the East Palace?" the prince asked.

"Hahaha, you are really clever, but Ma Zhou may not be willing to go to the East Palace."

"Why?"

Luo Cheng checked his homework for the prince with a smile, and said, "A young man like Ma Zhou is talented and young, so he is proud of his talent, especially with the enthusiasm to do great things, and you The Eastern Palace is not really in charge of anything now, so in the eyes of people like them, it can only be regarded as an idle yamen, they can't do much, and it is undoubtedly not what he wants to study with the prince."

"But I am the crown prince, the future emperor, and I will be in charge sooner or later." The prince said a little unconvinced.

"Well, sooner or later I have to take care of things, but it's not now after all. But I also appreciate Ma Zhou's drive. If you are an ordinary scholar, if you invite him, he will definitely be very happy to come to the East Palace and stay in the East Palace for 20 years. , He will be able to soar into the sky in the future. But no, Ma Zhou, he doesn’t want to wait so long, he just wants to do something practical now. I hope that all the young and passionate scholars admitted by the imperial examination will be.”

Luo Cheng continued to look at the prince's homework, and couldn't help frowning.

"Prince, you don't read this book very carefully."

The prince immediately became honest.

"Father, my son is studying hard."

"When reading, you have to understand it with your heart, not memorize it by rote. Let me ask you a simple question. Why do you say we are called Han people?"

"Father, the Han people are because of the Han Dynasty."

"Then you said that the Han Dynasty had perished hundreds of years ago, and after that there were Wei, Jin and other countries, but the surrounding Hu people called us Han people more than others?"

Now the prince couldn't answer.

"Before Liu Bang established the Han Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty ruled the world for more than [-] years, and the King of Zhou was the co-lord of the world. However, since the Spring and Autumn Period, the princes began to fight each other. The co-lord of the King of Zhou was actually unable to restrain and govern the princes. Therefore, at that time , In fact, the people of the world at that time had already begun to be called Chu people, Qin people, Jin people, Song people, Qi people, etc., and they were all called vassal states.

Until Qin merged with the six kingdoms to unify the world, all people in the world were called Qin people.

It's a pity that Qin II died, and later in the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty ruled the world for hundreds of years. The name of the Han people was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. It has become a more common mainstream name than Huaxia. "

"Therefore, although my father and I established the Great Qin Empire, we are both Qin people and Han people."

"Oh, so it is."

"Then father will ask you again, do you know why the dynasty established by Liu Bang is called Han?".

"I know this, because after Liu Bang and Xiang Yu destroyed Qin, they were crowned King of Han by Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu."

"Then why do you say you were named King of Han?"

"Because his fief is in Hanzhong."

"What is Hanzhong famous for?"

"There is Han River there."

Luo Cheng chuckled, "It seems that your geography is not bad, so I ask you again, where did the name Hanshui come from?"

Now the prince couldn't answer.

"Let me tell you, the Han in Hanshui originally meant the Han of Xinghan, and Xinghan refers to the Milky Way in the sky. The ancients called the big river that originated in Hanzhong, flows through Xiangyang, and finally flows into the Yangtze River as Hanshui. Because the ancients believed that this river was very similar to the Milky Way in the sky, they named the river after the Milky Way."

"Of course, there is another distant legend. It is said that the people who lived in the ancient Hanshui generation actually descended from the Milky Way in the sky a long, long time ago, and have lived here for generations. He was born in the hometown of his ancestors, so he named the river in his new hometown Hanshui."

"Father, are they gods? Come from the Milky Way in the sky?"

Luo Cheng chuckled, "Maybe, have you read Shan Hai Jing?"

"I've read it a bit, but the teacher said that Shan Hai Jing is just an absurd book of ghosts."

"Wrong, Shan Hai Jing is not a book of ghosts, it is a history book, a geography book, and many of the records on it are only coded and need to be interpreted. It records the history of our ancient times. Where did it come from, what did it go through, and where did it go, it’s all recorded on it.”

"Father, isn't the Book of Mountains and Seas a fairy tale?"

"Prince, you have to remember that myths are actually our past history. Many places recorded in Shan Hai Jing exist. Many magical monsters are actually just some animals outside the Central Plains. In fact, the world is very big. , no surprises."

Put away the prince's homework, Luo Cheng returned it to the prince.

"You see, reading has to be like this. You have to diverge your thinking and learn to draw inferences from one instance. You can't just memorize it by rote. If you have doubts, no matter whether it is right or wrong, you must take the initiative to raise it. Even, it is better to have no books than to believe in books."

"Father recently intends to build a large zoo and a botanical garden in Luoyang City. He wants to bring in all kinds of animals and plants from all over the world. Then, it will be opened regularly for the people of Luoyang to watch, so that they can understand The world is so big and the world is so strange."

"For example, the brave in Sichuan, the ostrich in Tiaozhi, the white bear in the North Pole, the giant python in Jiaozhou, the elephant in Yunnan, etc."

The prince was full of yearning when he heard it.

The palace examination will be held soon.

The emperor personally interviewed the tribute scholars in the Xuanzheng Palace. The palace examination did not include scriptures, ink, meanings, and historical geography and arithmetic. There was only one question about current affairs and one doubtful case. The exam took one day.

The emperor selected nine examiners to assist in marking the papers, and read them in turn. After reading, five symbols such as circles and crosses were added to the papers, and finally the papers were ranked according to the number of circles.

In the end, the ten papers with the most circles were selected and handed over to the emperor, and the emperor selected the top three, the number one scholar, the second place, and Tanhua.

The palace examination only determines the ranking, and does not eliminate the tributes. After the palace examination, all the tributes are Jinshi.

All Jinshi are divided into three classes. Only three first-class candidates are selected as second-ranked Jinshi, 30 second-class candidates are from Jinshi background, and 190 and [-] third-class candidates are from fellow Jinshi.

Ma Zhou dressed in a Confucian robe, writing vigorously.

The topic of current affairs policy is only about [-] words, and they are required to make a policy discussion of [-] words. The topic is not about the current locust extermination and disaster prevention, but about taxes and frontiers.To link the imperial court's taxation system with the frontiers, you have to have something to say, about [-] words, which is not easy.

But Ma Zhou started answering the questions almost without thinking.

The second question is a judgment question. This case is a homicide case, but the homicide case also involves a property case involving the separation of the family. It can be said to be a case within a case.Fortunately, Ma Zhou devoted himself to the study of legal verdicts and many typical cases. Facing the materials and evidence given in this case, he quickly tried to judge the case.

After the examination of the Ministry of Rites, after Ma Zhou won the Huiyuan, he did not spend all day in banquets and entertainment like most of the other tributes who passed the examination. place to study.

He didn't come back until the day before the imperial examination.

These days of Qingxiu and reading kept his mind clear and his thinking still sharp.

It was only halfway through the exam time, and it turned out that Ma Zhou had already answered, checked, and transcribed the exam papers.

Sitting in the hall, Luo Cheng glanced back and forth among the 230 tributes. These tributes were selected from among the [-] scholars in the world. He was also in his early twenties, and there were no teenage prodigy or white-haired old Confucianism.

Everyone is good-looking, and they meet the conditions for a judgment in words and deeds.

Luo Cheng also saw that Ma Zhou had finished answering the questions early.

He smiled and said to Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng who were also in the hall today, "I think Ma Zhou thinks this exam question is too easy."

Wei Zheng said, "This kid is a little too sharp, I'm afraid it will be easy to break after the first pass."

"Just cherish it more, young people, wouldn't they be lifeless if they don't have vigor?" Luo Cheng laughed. "I think that since Ma Zhou finished his answer so early, it would be better to add another defense interview. This is also in line with the words in the sentence."

Fang Xuanling and the others were a little surprised. The content of the imperial examination was decided after several discussions.

"In the imperial examination, there was no imperial examination, nor county examination, county examination, Taoist examination, etc., but now there is no such thing. Now I want to add an interview and defense, which is fine."

When the emperor said so, the ministers naturally had no objection.

At sunset, the tribute scholars handed in the papers together.

Feng Lishi stepped forward and announced to the scholars that there would be an additional oral defense examination, and he would accept questions from the emperor and eight examiners.

The defense is not limited to their topical policy arguments and doubtful judgments.

Some tributes couldn't help but get dizzy when they heard this. This kind of interview must be easy to be nervous, especially since they don't know what questions the emperor and the examiners will ask.

Of course, Ma Zhou was still very calm.

"The sage has a decree. Yuan Ma Zhou of the church was the first to come forward to answer, and all the tributes listened in the hall."

This is the public defense, and some people are more nervous.

Ma Zhou got up, stood up, crossed his hands in return, and stepped forward.

"Ma Zhou, I ask you, what is China and what is barbarian?" The emperor directly asked a big question about the debate between Huaxia and barbarians. This is a big topic that has been debated for thousands of years. The mainstream of thought.

Ma Zhou thought about it for a while, and replied, "Reply to the saint, the students think that the debate between Hua and Yi should not be based on blood or region alone!"

"The people of the four barbarians have re-translated it. They admire the benevolence, righteousness, and loyalty of the Chinese people. Although they come from a foreign land, they can care about China. I don't call it a barbarian."

"However, the people of China are stubborn kings, forgetting benevolence, righteousness and loyalty. Although they are born in China, they turn their hearts to barbarians. I don't call them Hua."

"It's not just that the name of Hua is Hua, and the name of barbarians is called barbarian evil? The name of Hua has the heart of barbarians, and the name of barbarians has the heart of Hua. Those who know how to abandon benevolence and righteousness and be loyal to China are the barbarians of China. , Don’t wait for the barbarians to invade me, if there is a rebellion against China, if you are arrogant and not a king, if you abandon the benevolence, righteousness and loyalty, then you can’t have a relationship with others. Wouldn’t it be the barbarians of China? Those who have teeth, are they not the flowers of the four barbarians? Remember what I said, the names of barbarians are not yet barbarians, and the names of flowers are not as good as the names of barbarians."

Ma Zhou raised his voice loudly and answered confidently, the emperor nodded repeatedly.

(End of this chapter)