Wentang

Chapter 407
"This assessment is jointly held by the Ministry of Rites, the Department of Educational Instructions, and Weishui Academy..."

"Do not carry it privately, do not whisper, do not..."

"...Cheaters will not be allowed to be an official for life, and they will not be allowed to teach and educate people..."

Chen Yu from the Politics and Education Department personally read the exam rules to [-] candidates, and there was an uproar at the scene when he heard that cheaters were punished by being barred from official positions for life.They didn't expect that the recruitment examination of an academy would be so strict.

"Silence." Chen Yu shouted displeased.But his voice was scattered by the noise, and the people a little behind couldn't hear him at all.

His face became even more ugly, and he turned around and snatched a gong from a staff member of the Political and Education Office next to him, and knocked it a few times.

The crowd finally quieted down, and Chen Yu roared: "If there are any more noisers, they will be expelled from the examination room."

The students on the field were silent, and no one dared to make a sound.Even Wang Lu and other aristocratic children who were watching jokes with the old god cheered up. After all, no one wanted to be kicked out under such circumstances.

"Everyone enters the examination room one by one, and it must not be crowded." Seeing that these people were frightened, Chen Yu's expression turned pale, and he said.

So the students lined up to enter the examination room under the guidance of the staff.

At the same time, in a three-story office building in the academy, Yue Shan, Kong Yingda, Li Gang and others stood in front of the window and watched the situation outside. They didn't look back until the students began to enter the examination room.

"What do you guys think?" Yue Shan asked.

"That's right, try to eliminate human interference as much as possible, and select the best candidates in the fairest way. If the imperial examination can adopt this method, it will be able to select more people with real talents and knowledge for the country." A middle-aged man in his forties said the young man.

This person is Lu Kuan, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, who is the nephew of Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, and later joined Li Yuan for support.

When Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng were fighting, they favored Li Shimin. After the Xuanwu Gate Revolution, he was reused, and he was promoted to Minister of Rites a few years ago.

The imperial examination was presided over by the Ministry of Rites, and Li Shimin asked him to come over to learn advanced experience, and then apply it to the imperial examination.And he naturally knew Yue Shan's status in Li Shimin's mind, so his posture was quite low.

"The law is a good law, but I am afraid that the elected officials will be bookworms." Li Gang was not so optimistic.

Li Gang's status in the arena is too high, everyone didn't know what to say for a while after hearing him say that.

"Mr. Li's words are wrong." Yue Shan did not have so much scruples, and retorted: "There is no perfect way in the world. All we can do is to eliminate human factors as much as possible and create a fair environment for the imperial examination."

"It's not unreasonable for you to worry that some scholars have forgotten how to behave and do things in order to become officials. But it is not impossible to prevent it."

"As long as the imperial court fiddles with the exam questions, it's fine. For example, you can express your own views on some historical events, and give your own decisions on some difficulties encountered by the imperial court."

"We can even issue a separate test paper with some topics related to people's livelihood. For example, let them write down the local yield per mu, the growth cycle of certain crops, etc."

"Haha...well, Cuilan is indeed Cuilan. You have already thought of this, so I can rest assured." Li Gang laughed and said: "Tomorrow I will personally write a letter to the saint to reform the imperial examination system. Do you have colleagues? By?"

"Someone is willing to follow the tail." Kong Yingda was the first to stand up and said.

"It's the same for a certain person." Lu Kuan also said.

Several other Confucian scholars also expressed their willingness to participate in the table.

The imperial examination is a big reshuffle. In the long run, the most affected are the aristocratic and wealthy families, and in the short term, the most injured are the big nobles and bureaucrats.

Because the imperial examination at this time is divided into two parts, the submission of papers and the scientific examination.

Submission is to submit your article to the dignitaries, and if the dignitaries appreciate it, they will recommend him.Nominations from dignitaries are more important than test scores.

Even as long as a powerful person recommends you, you can become an official without taking an exam.Conversely, without the recommendation of powerful people, no matter how good the test scores are, it is useless.

Accepting students' submissions has also become an important way for the powerful to expand their power.

This situation did not change until Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, and he could become an official through the recommendation of the powerful and the imperial examination.It was not until the Song Dynasty that the examination paper was completely abolished, and the imperial examination only looked at the test results.

It can be said that canceling the submission of papers and selecting scholars purely based on the results of the imperial examination will offend a large number of dignitaries, and ordinary scholars do not have the courage and courage.

Besides, the rich and powerful are powerful, and it is useless for ordinary people to write letters.Only when a leader in the literary world like Li Gang writes a letter, can he form a general influence among scholars and force the powerful to bow their heads.

Afterwards, everyone discussed the matter of writing the letter before leaving. Only Li Gang and Kong Yingda were left behind by Yue Shan.

"I wrote a book and I want to ask you two to correct it." Yue Shan took out two books and handed them to them respectively.

"Oh?" Li Gang was shocked, and reached out to take a book.Kong Yingda also took one curiously.

After seeing the handwriting on the cover clearly, the two showed surprised expressions at the same time.

"Only respecting Confucianism? Yuehou, you are..." Kong Yingda said in disbelief.

"Let's talk after reading." Yue Shan stretched out his hand to signal him to read the book first.

Kong Yingda hurriedly flipped through the book in her hand, but only opened it because her hands shook several times.

This book has been written by Yue Shan for two years and revised dozens of times, and the final version has only been finalized recently, and the timing is more appropriate.

In the past six months, Li Shimin has expressed his dissatisfaction with Confucianism from time to time. Even one of the questions in the imperial examination last September was critical of Confucianism. Now the Confucians are panicked.

Why did the reviews about the big dictionary suddenly reverse?It's not that those scholars hope to please Li Shimin through the big dictionary.

Now that Yue Shan brought out the "supreme Confucianism" to give timely assistance, even if the Confucianists disliked him, they still praised him with their noses.This is how fame and influence are earned.

When he has enough influence, he can naturally interpret Confucian classics according to his own ideas.

The final version of Sovereign Confucianism is the same as the first version in terms of overall framework. It first introduces the situation in the pre-Qin period, and then introduces the chaos of national unity but not unified thought in the Qin and Han Dynasties.And draw a conclusion: a unified country can only have a common culture.

Then it introduced the advantages and disadvantages of the hundred schools of thought, and followed the course of the year to lead to a conclusion: Confucianism is the most suitable theory, so there is only Confucianism.

The third part talks about how the Central Plains civilization formed a unified large ethnic group after the exclusive respect for Confucianism, and what great achievements this ethnic group has created in the following hundreds of years.

Even after going through the chaos of the Five Dynasties, he has always stood firm, and he can rise again if there is a chance.

In the fourth part, which is the last part, he also slightly pointed out the defects of Confucianism after its dominance.He also said that Confucianism should maintain the spirit of advancing with the times and constantly innovate itself in order to adapt to different dynasties, different times, different enemies, etc.

Confucianism pays most attention to respecting the ancients, and it is best to find arguments in the classics written by the predecessors to put forward any views. Yue Shan used Confucius and Mencius as the argument of "advancing with the times".

Now when we mention Confucianism, we must talk about Confucius and Mencius, and think that Confucius and Mencius are the two sages of Confucianism, but this was not the case in the Tang Dynasty.

Mencius has not yet been granted the title of 'zi', so everyone calls him Meng Ke.At this time, he was just an ordinary Confucian sage, not even close to Yasheng.

The book "Mencius" is not yet a Confucian classic.

To be precise, before the Song Dynasty there were only the Five Classics but not the Four Books.The Five Classics was established by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the Four Books were established only in the Song Dynasty.Among the four books before the Song Dynasty, only the Analects of Confucius was the core classic of Confucianism, and universities were also very important.

"The Doctrine of the Mean" and "Mencius" can only be regarded as relatively important treatises.

Until the period of Han Yu, in order to establish Confucian orthodoxy, he emphasized that Confucianism originated from Yao, Shun, Yutang, Wenwu, and Zhou Gong, and then passed on to Confucius and then to Meng Ke.

At this time, Mencius' status was elevated to the ranks of the core figures of Confucianism for the first time.In the Song Dynasty, in order to perfect the Confucian classics, Confucian scholars raised Mencius's "righteousness" to the level of Confucius' benevolence, and respected him as the sub-sage.

Later, the Four Books were established to further supplement the essence of Confucianism.

Yue Shan borrowed Han Yu's statement and made further modifications.

He said that Confucianism started in the period of Yao and Shun, and was developed by Yu Tang, King Wen and Wu of Zhou. On this basis, Confucius put forward the idea of ​​"benevolence", and later Mencius added "righteousness".

Officially summarized the Confucian thought as "benevolence" and "righteousness", and put forward the thought of "Confucius said to take benevolence and Mencius said to take righteousness".

Of course, this is just a passing mention. His real intention in doing so is to draw a conclusion.

Confucianism was gradually perfected through generations of sages and sages who introduced the old and brought forth the new to keep pace with the times, and finally became the winner of the contention among a hundred schools of thought.And how can we, the descendants, forget the advantages of our ancestors and become complacent?

This is the end of Confucianism.

The full text has a total of more than [-] words, and it can be said that there is not a single word in it, so Li Gang and Kong Yingda read it very slowly, and it took a long time to turn a page.

But it could be seen that they were very excited, Kong Yingda didn't say anything, he was already trembling with excitement, and even a great scholar like Li Gang became short of breath.

Naturally, the lunch was delivered by the staff, and the two of them ate a few mouthfuls before continuing to study the book until the sun set to the west.

"The emperor's great book, Confucianism and Taoism will be upright from now on." Li Gang said in a chant-like tone: "My way is not alone."

"Yue Hou, please accept my worship." Kong Yingda was more direct, bowing deeply to Yue Shan and was unwilling to get up for a long time, but Yue Shan couldn't see it and forced him up.

"You two, I don't want to hear you praise how good this book is, but I want you to point out the fallacies in it. Otherwise, it's a small thing for me to laugh at myself, and it's a big thing to damage Confucianism and Taoism." Yue Shan shook his head.

"Cuilan is too modest. Every word in this book is worth a fortune. I have nothing to say. And I want to have the audacity to write a preface for this book. I hope you can agree to my request." Li Gang said seriously.

"Where is Mr. Li, it is my honor to have you write the preface." Yue Shan replied quickly.

"With Li Gong as the preface, I won't make a fool of myself." Kong Yingda said: "If necessary, I can recommend this book to my old friends."

"I can't wait for it, there is a Bachelor of Lao Kong." Yue Shan thanked him.

This is exactly the purpose of Yue Shan's search for the two. He hoped that Li Gang would write a preface. With his preface, the leader of the literary world, this book would be more easily accepted by people.

Kong Yingda is the direct descendant of Kong Sheng, and with his approval, this book becomes more legitimate.

Moreover, both of them are relatives and friends all over the world, so this book can be spread all over the world at the fastest speed.

"Speaking of which, I, a descendant, am a little ashamed of my ancestors. I don't know as much about Confucianism as you, Yuehou. And last time you reminded me that I had a new interpretation of the thoughts of my ancestors, but I still dare not publish it because of too many scruples. .Compared to Yue Hou, I am really ashamed." Kong Yingda sighed.

Before Yue Shan could speak, Li Gang stepped forward and said, "Oh? You have a new idea about Confucius' thoughts? Can you tell me something about it?"

"This interpretation comes from the difference in sentence reading. People can make it from it but not make it known. Yue Hou thinks it should be read: People can make it from it. No, make it known. Inspired by this, I have a different interpretation of the Analects of Confucius. Opinion." Kong Yingda said.

"The people can, let them know. No, let them know." Li Gang murmured: "Wrong, wrong, we all misunderstood it before, so I said how could a sage say such foolish words."

"It's wonderful, it's really wonderful, it's just in line with the holy meaning of the sage's words."

Having said that, Li Gang looked up at Yue Shan again, and praised: "I didn't expect Cuilan to be so young, but you have such a thorough understanding of Confucian classics. I admire and admire you."

"Li Gong's praise is just something I got occasionally, so I don't deserve your praise." Yue Shan said modestly.

Then he said to Kong Yingda: "Actually, I have long wanted to make a new interpretation of the Analects, but my knowledge is so shallow that I dare not do it. Since Scholar Kong also has this intention, how about we work together?"

If Yue Shan had said this to him before, Kong Yingda would have spit on him, but now he is only happy.He nodded again and again and said, "I can't ask for it, I can't ask for it."

"I don't know if the old man can also intervene?" Li Gang also said at the side at this time.

"Really?" Kong Yingda said in surprise.

Although he is also a bachelor and a direct descendant of Confucius, he is a junior compared to Li Gang in terms of knowledge.Now that Li Gang actually said that he wanted to edit the book with him, how could he not be surprised.

Yue Shan's expression was calm, he had already guessed that Li Gang would be tempted.

Afterwards, the three of them discussed the matter of "Only Respecting Confucianism" together, and agreed on a date to revise the book together. In the end, Li Gang was too old and had to leave separately.

The publication of the book is officially confirmed, but Li Gang's preface has not yet been written, and it will take some time to print it, so there is no way to publish it yet.

The matter of compiling books has to be delayed, and it must wait for the academy to get on the right track and the exclusive Confucianism comes out.

Let’s talk about the admissions exam first. It took three days to finish the exam, and then it took half a month to revise the exam papers, and finally determined the top [-].

Those who passed the exam were naturally very happy, while those who failed the exam were downcast, but no one said it was unfair or anything like that.

But those who failed the exam did not leave, but chose to live in Sixingping.

Because Weishui Academy allows students to borrow books, the shortcoming is that they can only take large-scale open classes, and there is no way to receive targeted teaching.But compared to no one taught, this situation is already very good.

The academy soon got on the right track, and when Yue Shan was preparing to publish a book, an unexpected incident disrupted his pace.

Pei Ju is dead.

(End of this chapter)