The night was as cool as water and the sky darkened.
The gentlemen left.
Yan Shu was the last one to leave.
Zhao Jun noticed that he seemed to be hesitant to speak before leaving, as if he had something to say to him, so he offered to see him off.
When you walk out of the Guanjia Hall, the fragrance of rice hits your nose.
The rice ears swayed gently in the wind, and in the moonlight, two people strolled on the lawn outside the palace.
The bamboo forest around them rustled, the fragrance of flowers filled the air, and the reflection of the rockery covered them, hiding both of them in shadows.
"Zhao Jun."
"Um?"
"The emperor said that you can leave the palace tomorrow."
"Um."
"What are your plans after leaving the palace?"
"I must settle down first, then study hard and master the scriptures, and then go for a walk around Bianliang City and take a look."
"Well, that's the best. There's no shortcut to learning. The real way is to take one step at a time."
After Yan Shu finished speaking, Zhao Jun did not respond.
The two of them walked and fell into a brief silence.
After a moment, Yan Shu continued, "There are only twenty days left until the provincial examination. Is it still possible?"
"How do you know if you don't try? The provincial examination shouldn't be that difficult."
"It's really not that difficult. You mentioned before that the Ming Dynasty's eight-part essays were based on the Four Books and Five Classics. My Song Dynasty essays are not that complicated. I just need to memorize them."
"Rote memorization is my strong point. The liberal arts students of our generation also emphasize rote memorization, so this shouldn't be a problem for me."
"Even if you don't pass, don't lose heart. At worst, His Majesty can just hold another special examination next year. A special examination would reduce the exam schedule from once every two or three years to once a year, which doesn't violate the rules."
"Haha, I'm too lazy to waste a year. I have a lot of things to do."
Zhao Jun smiled.
"That would be best."
Yan Shu's lips moved twice before he said, "Zhao Jun, don't blame us. We went through the same thing back then. The government has shown great favor by designating this year's edition as the 'Book of Filial Piety'. This has greatly reduced the difficulty. You must work hard."
"I know."
Zhao Jun said, "I don't blame you. I just feel I deserve to be allowed some leeway. I'm not asking you to cheat and write answers for me, I'm just adjusting the difficulty of the exam and the percentage of scriptures. I didn't expect that even this wouldn't work. I feel a little disappointed. It seems I'm not that important."
"No."
Yan Shu shook his head seriously. "You are very important, more important than our lives. But there are some examples that cannot be set. If you set them, it will break the rules. This is something that cannot be changed."
"Okay, I know special treatment isn't a good thing, but I'm not that petty."
Zhao Jun shrugged. "I just hope you can share your exam experience with me in the future. The provincial exam is still more than twenty days away, and the spring exam is still half a year away. I'll be troubling you during this half year."
The examination for Juren was actually quite simple, consisting of policy essays, poetry, and interpretation of classics.
Among them, you only need to memorize one of the seven classics, and then you can choose to apply for the exam.
The key is the Jinshi degree.
The reason why he insisted on taking the Jinshi examination was that the other Mingfa, Mingjing and Zhike subjects had a lower status in officialdom than the Citong Jinshi, were more discriminated against, and it was basically difficult for them to be promoted to high positions.
Only those who passed the first class of the Jinshi exam could legitimately be promoted quickly, have a stable position, and have the possibility of becoming a prime minister.
Therefore, in the Northern Song Dynasty, there were people like Zhang Dun, who even though he passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the third class, he ranked relatively low. Because his nephew Zhang Heng passed the imperial examination and became the top scorer, he was ashamed of his low ranking and angrily refused to accept the imperial order to take the exam again.
The content of the Jinshi examination is still mainly based on poetry, songs, and essays. The test subjects include one poem, one essay, and one policy paper, five policy papers, ten scrolls of "The Analects of Confucius", and ten selected Mo Yi from the Six Classics. Under normal circumstances, the most common ones are "Spring and Autumn Annals" and "Book of Rites".
Therefore, even if you chose the relatively simple "Book of Filial Piety" as the examination content in the Juren examination, when it comes to the Jinshi examination, you will still be tested on the other six classics, and you are still required to memorize the other six classics thoroughly.
According to statistics from Southern Song scholar Zheng Genglao, the Song Dynasty edition of the Seven Classics totaled over 800,000 characters, and this was just the content. Furthermore, various Confucian scholars also provided annotations, interpretations, and explanations, all of which required memorization. Adding all this together, the Jinshi (Jinshi) exam likely required memorizing at least several million characters.
This is also the reason why it is said that at thirty one becomes a Mingjing, and at fifty one becomes a Jinshi.
Since Zhao Jun understood the history of the ancient imperial examinations, he was naturally clear about these things, so he hoped to lower the proportion of classics and increase the proportion of policy essays and poetry. This request did not seem excessive to him. After all, his own importance was far higher than the entire imperial examination.
But for those Jinshi who had studied hard for decades and memorized countless classics before passing the imperial examination, this was totally unacceptable because it involved a matter of principle for them.
This is where the difference lies.
However, their differences were finally resolved by Zhao Zhen. As the emperor, Zhao Zhen decided that the main examination subject this year would be "The Book of Filial Piety", which did not violate the principles and regulations.
After all, "The Book of Filial Piety" is one of the seven compulsory classics, but because it is short and easy to read, it was basically not tested in the past.
Yan Shu was worried that they did not agree to Zhao Jun's request, and Zhao Jun was a little dissatisfied, so he wanted to come out to explain and calm him down.
But Zhao Jun is not a person who cares about so many things. Since they have their own principles, then just follow their principles. Now that Zhao Zhen can come up with a solution that has the best of both worlds, it couldn't be better.
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