Tong Su sighed and shook her head.

Yao Jinrong is a good scholar, but he is selfish and narrow-minded. Even if he manages to pass the exam, he is unlikely to achieve great things.

As more and more students entered the examination hall, the exam officially began, and soon the exam papers were distributed.

"Not by the rules".

The title is just four characters: "Not according to rules".

Tong Su raised her eyebrows.

The imperial examinations have always tested different things throughout history. For example, when the imperial examinations were first established in the Sui and Tang dynasties, they were divided into two subjects: one called Mingjing and the other called Jinshi.

The main examination content of the Mingjing examination included copying classic texts and interpreting them in calligraphy.

The "Tijing" (帖经) is somewhat like a fill-in-the-blank exercise in modern exams. The questions usually involve quoting a sentence from the scripture and covering up a few words, and the examinee needs to fill in the missing words. As for the "Moyi" (墨义), it consists of questions and answers about the scripture.

The Jinshi examination mainly required candidates to compose poems or essays on specific topics, and sometimes also included classical texts.

However, as the imperial examination system developed, its drawbacks gradually became apparent: the "Tie Jing Mo Yi" required rote memorization, which produced bookworms; while the "Jinshi" examination was too free and undisciplined.

It is well known that emperors who demanded feudal autocracy did not want their subjects to have too much freedom of thought.

These free-flowing, divergent thinking questions were gradually replaced by the more rigorously structured "zhiyi" – the so-called "zhiyi," or eight-legged essay.

The rules stipulated that each article must consist of eight parts: introduction, development, opening, entry, first part, middle part, second part, and conclusion, also known as the "eight-part essay".

When you receive a topic, the first step is to reveal its main idea, which is called "breaking the topic"; then, you elaborate on it based on the preceding text, which is called "carrying on the topic"; then, you begin to discuss it, which is called "starting the discussion"; and finally, you "get started," which serves as the breakthrough point for introducing the main text after the initial discussion.

The eight-legged essay was based on the Four Books and Five Classics, and the content had to be written in the style of Confucius and Mencius. It required four couplets with tonal parallelism and rhyme schemes, and it was forbidden to use allusions to romantic or poetic subjects to disrespect the sages. Free expression was absolutely not allowed.

The length of sentences, the complexity of characters, the pitch of tones, etc., must also be relatively consistent with the text, and there are also restrictions on the number of words.

The text consists of four parts: the opening section, the middle section, the closing section, and the concluding section. Each part should contain two parallel and antithetical paragraphs, for a total of eight paragraphs.

For example, the question we are asking now, “Not following the rules,” comes from Mencius, Book 4, Part 1.

The original text reads: "Mencius said: 'Even with the keen eyesight of Li Lou and the skillful craftsmanship of Gongshu Ban, without the compass and square, they could not make squares and circles; even with the keen hearing of Shi Kuang, without the six musical pitches, they could not correct the five tones; even with the way of Yao and Shun, without benevolent governance, they could not bring peace and order to the world.'"

Simply put, it requires the monarch to establish laws and then implement benevolent governance to rule the world.

As Tongsu ground the ink, she pondered for a long time, until she had a clear idea in her mind. Finally, she picked up her pen and wrote a line of words.

[To disregard rules and regulations is to rely solely on cleverness and skill.]

This is the opening statement, which is to state the main point of this article: Some people do not follow the rules because they think they are clever and cunning, and they are just being shrewd.

Across from her cell, Yao Jinrong hadn't yet figured out which of the Five Classics or Four Books the phrase "not following the rules" came from. In his panic, he saw Tong Su start writing, and he broke out in a cold sweat!

Xia Qingzhai has actually started writing?

Does he know how to write it?

How could that be!

How could he write that? He must have just made it up. Don't worry, don't rush, you can definitely write better than Xia Qingzhai!