Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Shenjing, Gongyuan, March 20th, sunset.

The first calligraphy test in the spring of the fifteenth year of Jiazhao came to an end.

When the officials of the Spring Examination collected the test papers, the candidates, who had worked hard for three days, finally had a slightly relaxing night.

The first round of the Spring Examination lasts for three days, and one needs to complete seven questions from the Book of Classics. The time seems to be ample, but it is not.

Not to mention the seven test questions, each of which needs to be written independently, which will take a lot of time.

For a candidate to stand out among more than 3,000 candidates and be listed on the list, it is not enough to just answer all the test questions.

For every topic and every essay, not only must one be better than others in terms of the topic and idea, but also in the opening and planning of the essay, and one must also choose words and sentences carefully and strive to make them exquisite and vivid.

Otherwise, how can you win the favor of your fellow examiners and the chief examiner?

For every candidate, every article and every word and sentence, whether they have done their best and are perfect, is related to their future career and prospects.

Therefore, all candidates racked their brains, put in all their efforts, and exhausted their hearts and souls to write their essays when facing the exam questions.

With such heavy mental exertion and enormous exam pressure, the three days will pass very quickly.

As the highest level of the imperial examination, the candidates compete not only with their talent, but also with their luck, character, patience, and even physical strength.

……

Starting from this morning, Jia Cong, sitting in his own room, heard coughing sounds and even slightly heavy breathing coming from the narrow and long alley.

Candidates who can enter the imperial examination are all Juren. There is a saying that there are only poor scholars in the world, but there is absolutely no such thing as poor Juren.

As long as scholars achieved the title of Juren, they would become scholars and officials. Not only were they eligible to be appointed officials by the court, but they would also have a certain amount of tax-free land under their names.

As long as you pass the provincial examination, wealthy landlords will rush to donate land to you.

Among these candidates who took the spring examination, some had been candidates for only a few years, while others had been candidates for more than ten years.

Almost all of these people have quite a lot of wealth and live a life of luxury. Apart from studying, they do nothing else. They are not like ordinary poor people who can endure the hardships of wind and sun.

The dormitories in the Imperial Examination Hall were not only narrow and simple, but also open, making it difficult to avoid the wind and sun. At night, apart from having a tile to cover the head, there was not much difference between sleeping under a tent and sleeping on the ground.

It is now the end of spring, and the nights in Beijing are still chilly and cold. In addition, there have been several spring rains since the 18th, and the temperature has dropped further.

Those candidates stayed in the dormitory for three days and two nights, and many of those who were weak caught a cold.

In this era, a cold could be fatal, and since the examination lasted for nine days, there was no reason to leave the venue to seek medical treatment.

In the imperial examinations over the years, it was not uncommon for some candidates to be stopped from taking the exam and carried out of the examination hall due to serious illness.

Fortunately, Jia Cong had no such problem at all. Although he was born into a wealthy family, he was pampered after the age of ten.

However, he had been practicing qigong and swordsmanship with Qu Hongxiu since he was a child, so he had a solid foundation and a strong body.

Even in the extremely cold Liaodong region, he was still able to lead troops into battle and was free from all diseases. He was by no means comparable to the ordinary weak scholar.

Therefore, after the first three days of examination, Jia Cong was still in good spirits, and his first essay on the classics was fluent and smooth. He felt very good about taking the test. For him, the nine-day examination was off to a good start.

After Jia Cong packed up his writing brushes and ink, he saw a servant from the Imperial Examination Hall restaurant pushing a small cart filled with food into the alley in silence, but he did not hawk his wares, because silence was the iron rule of the Imperial Examination Hall.

Even for high-end imperial examinations such as the Imperial Examination, the court did not provide free meals. The meals in the restaurants of the Imperial Examination Hall were charged, and not only was the taste questionable, but they were also known to be expensive.

Even though these candidates had some family wealth, most of them provided their own dry food.

Jia Cong naturally had no shortage of money, but he did not touch the dishes in the restaurant of the Imperial Examination Hall. He just saw that his rice smelled clean, so he spent some money to buy some.

He also took out the seafood and southern delicacies and various fine dry foods prepared by Wu'er and Lingguan, heated them up on the small stove in the dormitory, had a comfortable dinner, and then fell into a deep sleep.

……

On March 21st, there was a slight dawn in the east, but it was not yet fully light.

The drum of admission sounded in the Imperial Examination Hall. After a night's rest, countless candidates woke up from their dormitories, tidied up their appearance, and waited for the new test.

After the cloud board sounded, the officials of the Spring Examination distributed the manuscript paper again, and the two runners walked back and forth in the alley as usual, showing the candidates the test questions for the second round of the examination.

The second examination was to test "Essays", "Imperial Edicts" and "Judgments".

"Lun" is similar to the later argumentative essays, and also uses excerpts from the Four Books and Five Classics as topics, but it does not require answering in eight-part essay style. There is more freedom in expression, and the difficulty is lower than the first round of essays on books and classics.

"Edicts and imperial edicts" is a collective name for various official documents of the imperial court. Scholars were required to imitate the words and deeds of their superiors and draft official documents. It was also a test of their ability to enter officialdom in the future.

"Judgment" is somewhat special compared to others, that is, it is the comments on documents submitted by subordinates.

Jia Cong once listened to Liu Jing'an explaining examples of the verdicts in the previous spring examination, such as: how to deal with corrupt officials, how to deal with criminals who resist arrest, how to punish those who know about and hide the crime, etc.

The main test is on the candidates' governance logic, as well as their familiarity and application of the laws and regulations of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Among the three examinations in the imperial examination, the second one was very special. Some candidates found it easy, while others were confused.

The former is like Jia Cong, who not only served as the chief official of the Ministry of Works for the past two years, but also observed government affairs in the Ministry of War.

Therefore, he was very familiar with all kinds of official documents circulating in government offices, and even came into contact with many official documents issued by superiors from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works.

As the chief officer of the Firearms Department, he also needs to issue instructions on daily affairs of the Firearms Department and the construction of firearms workshops outside the city.

During his two visits to Nanjing to investigate major cases, he came into contact with a large number of legal documents from the three judicial departments: the Nanjing government office, the Dali Temple in Shenjing, and the Ministry of Justice.

He is also an expert at all kinds of criminal laws and emergency handling.

In addition to studying hard for the exams in the past six months, he also studied and pondered the laws of the Great Zhou in detail, leaving out almost nothing.

Therefore, the two examinations seemed difficult and complicated, and they found it difficult to grasp the right balance for those candidates who had not yet become officials, had never experienced government affairs, and could only talk about military affairs on paper.

But for a candidate like Jia Cong, he seemed very familiar with it.

In the two examinations, there are one question each on essays, edicts, imperial edicts, and memorials, totaling five questions, a total of nine questions.

Jia Cong only took three hours to finish the draft. This must have been the easiest of the three exams for him.

I revised it carefully on the first day and went to bed early. On the second day, I studied it carefully again and finally finalized it.

It was not until the morning of the third day that I began to carefully copy the papers. After that, I felt quite bored and waited for the officials to come and collect the papers at sunset.

……

On the morning of March 24, when the drum of the Imperial Examination was struck again, the third session of the imperial examination in the 15th year of Jiazhao finally began.

The three rounds of the Spring Examination consisted of policy questions. Compared with the first round on writing classics and current affairs, and the second round on official documents and judgments, this round was more broad-minded and practical.

In the previous dynasty, Confucianism was at its peak. There were three examinations, and the first one, which dealt with classics and contemporary essays, was always given more importance, while the third two, which dealt with policy questions and comparisons, played a supplementary and auxiliary role.

However, when the Mongolian cavalry ravaged the Central Plains and the remnants of the previous dynasty fled south in large numbers, Li Tianling took advantage of the situation when the mountains and rivers were in tatters and swept across the Central Plains and established his rule over the world.

The Li family of the Great Zhou rose in the midst of war and killing. Compared with the royal family of the previous dynasty, they had less Confucian softness and more sharp spirit of being practical and useful.

As the wheel of history turned to the new Zhou Dynasty, many changes also took place in the imperial examination system that had been passed down for thousands of years in the Han Dynasty.

When Emperor Jiazhao ascended the throne, he valued practical achievements more than the previous kings of the Great Zhou Dynasty. He even felt disgusted by the court officials' memorials that were full of parallel sentences and meaningless.

If there is something good on the top, it will be great on the bottom.

The emperor's inclination towards doing things naturally influenced the country's selection criteria, so the weight of the three policy questions in the imperial examination also rose accordingly. Although due to the thousand-year tradition of the imperial examination system and the rules of the Great Zhou imperial examination, the importance of the three policy questions did not overshadow the first question of the classics, but they were already on par.

Moreover, after the joint examination, the candidates who are on the list will face the palace examination to determine the top three rankings.

The palace examination was presided over by the emperor, and only tested policy questions. Those who passed the palace examination became the emperor's disciples.

There were hundreds of candidates on the list of each imperial examination. The top candidate was called Huiyuan, and the others were ranked accordingly. Just like the provincial examination, there was also an elegant event called Sunshan at the end.

However, even if a candidate is ranked low on the list, if he has the talent to answer questions with extraordinary eloquence and writes a brilliant essay that wins the emperor's favor, he can turn his success and failure around and still be ranked high on the list.

Therefore, any candidate who has the ambition to rise to the top and wants to be the best must be proficient in the art of policy-making.

There were more than 3,000 candidates taking the imperial examinations in the Imperial Academy. After two six-day examinations, they worked hard and racked their brains. Most of them were exhausted.

However, all the candidates, either unsatisfactory or complacent, performed well in the first two examinations.

No one will relax at all. Everyone is trying their best and pouring their remaining energy and hope into the third round of strategy competition.

The policy questions in the imperial examination of the Great Zhou Dynasty were similar to the regulations for the examinations before, and also included five questions on policy.

However, compared with the previous dynasty, there are also some differences, mainly because of the focus on practical matters and the pursuit of depth in matters.

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Therefore, the imperial examination consisted of three sections with five policy questions. The first question was the theme, and the remaining four questions were asked based on the first question as the main topic.

The last spring exam question was based on the first question, which was divided into four sub-topics: maritime administration, river defense, border affairs, and taxation.

In other words, the first question in the policy paper is of utmost importance.

If the answer to the first question is not well written, it will be terrible. The other four questions will lose their basis and all three examinations will be a complete failure.

The study of policy questions seems to be more free and easy than the rigorous and formal eight-legged essay of book classics, but mastering the study of policy questions is by no means something that can be achieved overnight.

Since Jia Cong became Liu Jing'an's disciple, Liu Jing'an would give him a large list of books every year, covering various subjects, so as to broaden his horizons and strengthen his theoretical foundation.

It takes years of hard work to achieve success, and success only comes after a drop of water wears away a stone. If you want to be one step ahead of others in the imperial examinations, there is no shortcut.

……

When the three drum beats stopped, Jia Cong ground the ink and dipped his brush in it, only to see two officers holding examination cards walking into the alley.

All the examinees looked intently at the first question on the exam card:

Scholars spend their whole lives studying classics, pondering deeply in their research, and finally become kings. The beginning of the ancient emperors was the unchangeable tradition of sages and wise men.

However, there were changes in the Spring and Autumn Period, some kings were wise and some were foolish, some people were rich and some were poor, some enemy chiefs were numerous and some were few, and some ministers were loyal and treacherous.

The teachings of the sages cannot be changed, but if there is no definite theory about the laws of a certain time, how can they govern the affairs of the world for hundreds of years?

The ancients said: Use the heart of one person to integrate the hearts of heaven and earth, and use the heart of heaven and earth to integrate the hearts of the world.

It is the basis of the original way of governance, and all laws are unified, so that all people in the world, scholars and common people, can share the same principles and righteousness.

There is no danger of disobedience between the primary and the secondary, so how can there be different trends between the upper and lower levels?
……

Jia Cong concentrated on reading the test questions on the test sheet and took notes quickly, but after reading the content of the first question, his heart moved slightly and he seemed to be thinking about something.

A dozen rooms ahead of Jia Cong's were the rooms of Lin Zhaohe, the top scorer in the imperial examination in Hangzhou.

When the officer's examination card came to the examination room, he looked at the first question with full concentration and wrote it down quickly.

After recording the other four policy questions, Lin Zhaohe went back to the first question and read it carefully.

When he finished reading the question, he pondered it for a moment, and something strange occurred in his mind, and his brows slightly furrowed...

As the officers walked around the alley holding the examination signs, more and more candidates saw the first question clearly, and many of them looked troubled.

We have to admit that the first question of the policy test is grand in meaning and profound in thought, but the more such questions there are, the more difficult it will be for the candidates to control the policy test questions.

Many candidates had already cursed in their hearts that the first question of this policy was too majestic, strange and beautiful, too vast and unrestrained, and too imposing.

I don't know which of the three examiners came up with the answer, but he himself was showing off his talent and looking very proud.

However, it is not easy for candidates to write a suitable questionnaire for such a grand and difficult question. I wonder how many candidates' ambitions will be crushed by the questions in this examination...

……

In every alley, the officials holding the examination cards walked back and forth non-stop. Wherever they went, many candidates could not help but utter low murmurs of distress and lamentation.

In a dormitory far away from Jia Cong, Wu Liang saw the first question on the examination paper clearly and wrote it down quickly.

When he read the sentence in the title: Use the heart of one person to integrate the heart of heaven and earth, and use the heart of heaven and earth to integrate the hearts of the world.

He seemed to have some understanding in his mind, and he recited it silently several times with his head shaking. Then an idea seemed to come to his mind, and he picked up a pen and started to write an outline on the manuscript paper.

In another alley, Zhou Yan, after two six-day exams, was dishevelled, pale, with dark circles under his eyes, and was extremely exhausted.

He had passed the imperial examination many years ago, and although he had failed twice, he had some foundation in talent and learning after years of hard study.

Moreover, he was already familiar with the hardships of the imperial examination. Besides, he was in his prime, so he should not have been in such an embarrassing state after taking only two examinations.

However, before the imperial examination, he had some confidence because he had immersed himself in classics, contemporary essays, and official documents for many years.

I got an exclusive topic proposed by the chief examiner Huang Hongcang. I tried to figure out his train of thought and literary context through the topic and was determined to get the right answer in the third round of policy questions. I thought I would definitely pass the examination.

But he never expected that when he entered the Imperial Academy to take the exam with great hope, he would realize too late that all his original ardent expectations were dashed!
When a person's spirit is crushed in an instant and his hopes are killed in an instant, his abilities can be reduced by 30% out of 10.

Moreover, he spent most of his time before the exam trying to figure out Huang Hongcang's proposed questions, and even neglected his original purpose. All his energy and efforts were in vain.

Zhou Yan was not as talented as Jia Cong and Lin Zhaohe. When faced with such a sudden change, he was panicked, speechless and unable to calm down. Naturally, his defeat became even more severe.

Being in such a depressed state of mind, he lost a lot of his agility and flexibility in the first two rounds of the examination, and did not perform very well, and he was so tired that he almost fainted.

When the exam sign floated in front of him, he saw the first question of the essay that many candidates had secretly cursed, and racked his memory.

But my mind seemed to be a mess, and I got nothing out of it. I felt more and more miserable in my heart. It took me a lot of effort to finally write down the five questions.

……

Jia Cong pondered over the somewhat difficult first question for half an hour, his thoughts immersed in it, and gradually he figured out the clues, nurturing his literary thoughts, and wrote:

The laws and theories of a certain time cannot govern the affairs of all ages, because the social conditions at that time are different.

In an age of virtue, the way to govern the world is the same. In an age of great chaos, the way to govern the world is different.

The only difference is whether the world is orderly or chaotic. The so-called way of governing the world is no different.

If those who govern have no different intentions and no different ways of doing things, then the effectiveness of governing the world will be the same.

Correct its source, the way to govern the world will not change; it will change according to the strategies of the times and will be the same across hundreds of generations.

When the mind is clear, the Tao will be established; when the Tao is established, the governance will be implemented.

The world was in a desolate state, and orthodox learning was not passed on. The common people had no sight of the wisdom of the emperor. However, the torch was passed on, people cultivated land with swords and fire, fought in the mountains and rivers, and passed on their blood, and the way to govern the world began.

Scholars inherit the teachings of sages and wise men, encourage themselves and seek knowledge. Due to their learning, they get rid of the old and give way to the new. Their minds are broad and the world is vast.

If the origin is righteous, then one can establish oneself as a family, from the family as a country, from the country as the world, and there will be no policy that will not be established and no matter what will not be done... (End of this chapter)