Chapter 98 A Mistake
When the candidates walked out of the examination room and were able to rest and take the next exam, the examiners became really busy. All the examination papers were covered and sealed and sent to the inner curtain official.
Unlike the imperial examinations, the provincial examinations of the Zhou Dynasty still adopted a three-round admission system. That is to say, if you fail the first round, you will not be eligible to participate in the next two rounds.
The rule of the Great Zhou Dynasty is that the final decision on whether to accept the test paper lies with the chief examiner, but in fact the deputy examiner plays a greater role in the marking. They will mark the paper from four aspects: "reason, method, wording, and spirit".
To put it bluntly, it is based on the mastery and understanding of Confucian classics, the use of contemporary literature, the ability to organize and express texts, and the intellectual talent contained in the article. The usual grading standard is "purity, truthfulness, elegance and correctness", which means that you have to express your central idea in a concise, elegant and fluent way.
The main purpose of setting such rules is to ensure fairness and impartiality, but rules are dead, while people are alive. Every examiner has different aesthetic tastes, so the people who are finally admitted will naturally be different.
At this time, the inner curtain officials were sitting in their seats. According to the rules, they could only review the test papers assigned to them and were not allowed to interfere with the review of other people's papers, nor could they discuss the quality of the test papers.
Xiao Hanlin had his own thoughts and was inevitably distracted when marking the papers. He couldn't help but glance at the deputy examiners around him, wondering which paper was Su Fengzhang's.
It was also that Lord Qian who did things inappropriately. If he really wanted to trip someone up, why didn't he get the manuscript earlier so that he could remember it at a glance? Why would he go through so much trouble?
Time was running out, so Xiao Hanlin put aside other thoughts and found a paper that really suited his taste.
The words on the paper flowed smoothly, the strokes were like dragons and snakes, and the iron-stroke and silver-hooked words were very moving. The handwriting was good and the answers were not bad either. Xiao Hanlin became fascinated as he looked at them.
Being able to enter the Hanlin Academy, Xiao Hanlin’s cultural literacy must be no problem, which also means that his literary aesthetic taste is also very good.
Excited by the sight of prey, Xiao Hanlin glanced over each stroke, nodding as he read. He couldn't help but read it twice. When he came to his senses, he had already picked up the blue pen and made a mark on the test paper.
This blue mark represents a top-notch test paper and will be recommended to the chief examiner this time.
After putting down his pen, Xiao Hanlin hesitated again. What if this paper was Su Fengzhang's? Wouldn't that be a slap in his face?
But then he thought, since Qian Tongzhi said that Su Fengzhang had a bad character, how could such a person be able to paint such a wonderful painting? Such a coincidence absolutely does not exist.
Not only did Xiao Hanlin not erase his mark, but he wrote a recommendation in a very eloquent manner. After finishing it, he felt quite proud and thought to himself that he was indeed a good talent scout.
If it is a joint examination, all examiners have to look at the candidate's paper, each person will give a score, and finally the candidate will be admitted based on the comprehensive score of the three exams and the opinion of the chief examiner.
However, the provincial examination was relatively relaxed because of time constraints. Several examiners would review the papers individually, and finally combine them together and present them to the chief examiner to evaluate their quality.
This process was even carried out in parallel. Bachelor Wang sat at the top and would come over from time to time to make sure that the examiners below were marking the papers carefully. After they had finished marking, someone would present the papers to him.
When Xiao Hanlin recommended the paper to Bachelor Wang, he was still a little nervous. After all, Bachelor Wang was notoriously strict. There were even rumors that he had criticized the emperor and the prince in person!
After handing it in, Xiao Hanlin discovered that except for himself, none of the other examiners had recommended the paper. He suddenly felt a little regretful and thought that he was too impulsive.
But Wang Xueshi did not give him a chance to regret. He took the paper and said, "If I hadn't seen anyone recommend a paper in a day, I would have thought that the students of Qingzhou Prefecture were just empty names."
Xiao Hanlin could only grit his teeth and wait, as he couldn't snatch the paper back.
Unexpectedly, when Wang Xueshi looked down, he exclaimed, "Great calligraphy!"
"The article is also good, not bad, not bad, this is more like a southern student."
When he mentioned this, Xiao Hanlin remembered that Master Wang was actually from the south. Although he was not from Qingzhou Prefecture, he always had some southern pride.
Scholar Wang not only praised the paper, but also praised Hanlin Xiao with a smile: "Master Xiao really has a sharp eye."
Xiao Hanlin had no choice but to smile in response. Just as he was about to add a few more compliments, he saw Lord Wang write the word "medium" on the test paper.
God was afraid that the blow he had dealt to Xiao Hanlin was not enough, so when he tore open the covered paper, he found that the paper that he had praised so much and even Lord Wang had praised highly, actually had Su Fengzhang's name written on it!
Xiao Hanlin's face changed all of a sudden. Seeing his men copying down the rankings and announcing the results, he felt mixed emotions and thought to himself how could it be such a coincidence!
Isn't Su Fengzhang of low character and mediocre talent? What does "mediocre talent" mean? If he's mediocre, then isn't everyone else's writing shit?!
At this time, Xiao Hanlin knew that he had probably been deceived by Qian Tongzhi. Although he didn't know what the conflict between the two was, Su Fengzhang's personality and talent were definitely not as described in the letter.
For a moment he struggled, feeling that he must not let such a great talent go to waste, but at the same time he felt that repaying the favor was the most important thing.
This struggle continued until the end of the second provincial examination, when another batch of papers were placed in front of them.
When he saw the beautiful calligraphy that he once admired, Xiao Hanlin thought to himself that this might be the opportunity given to him by God.
Finally, Xiao Hanlin gritted his teeth and thought that since Su Fengzhang was so talented, he would be able to pass the imperial examination in three years. It would only be a waste of three years. It was impossible for Qian Tongzhi to trip him up every time.
But he was different. If he didn't repay the favor this time, who knew what kind of trouble he would encounter next time. He was so worried about one thing that he couldn't eat, so he could only put Su Xiucai in a difficult position.
With a critical heart, Xiao Hanlin lowered his head to look at the paper, and he couldn't help but feel a little impressed.
Su Fengzhang is not yet an adult, and he is not born into a scholarly family. His beautiful handwriting can be said to be the result of hard work and practice, but the fact that every stroke of his pen is meaningful and his insights are profound is a natural gift.
For a moment, Xiao Hanlin even felt a little bit of admiration for the talent, and blamed Qian Tongzhi in his heart. If Qian Tongzhi had not been the one to interfere, why would he take action against such a talent?
Not knowing whether he was comforting himself or making excuses for himself, Xiao Hanlin cursed Qian Tongzhi while watching with pleasure.
After reading it, he took a deep breath and did not pick up the blue pen again. He put the paper aside with some regret, obviously having made a decision.
The stack contained all the rejected papers, that is, the papers that he did not like, but Su Fengzhang's paper looked very wronged and out of place among them, even Xiao Hanlin felt a little guilty.
It was not until the end that Xiao Hanlin thought about it and took out Su Fengzhang's paper from the discarded papers.
In the last exam, Su Fengzhang was the first, and it was even the paper he recommended. If he failed directly in this exam, it would be too far-fetched, especially since Master Wang had praised him before. What would he say if he was asked?
Xiao Hanlin thought about it and put the paper at the end of a large stack of papers. This batch of papers would also be used in the second exam. The quality of the papers was getting more and more average as they went down.
Bachelor Wang was a picky person. He would just glance over the poor papers and sometimes he would not even look at some of them. He had not even checked the papers in the last exam.
Xiao Hanlin stuffed Su Fengzhang's paper to the end, among the papers that Wang Xue Shi was most likely not to look at. By then, his ranking in the second round would definitely be very low. In this way, failing the third round would seem natural.
Xiao Hanlin made a plan with a careful calculation, thinking to himself that he was indeed meticulous and did not leave any clues.
As he expected, Master Wang was not the cautious examiner, or rather, he trusted his subordinate examiners more. He usually looked at the papers recommended by them first and then moved on to the next ones.
This time he thought of searching the failed papers, but he frowned as soon as he searched. Sure enough, those failed papers all had their own differences, and some of them were really eye-opening.
After reading several failed papers, Master Wang felt like he was going blind. He thought to himself that if such a person could also pass the imperial examination, it would be a misfortune for the Great Zhou. If it were not for the court's rules, he would not bother to read the failed papers.
After seeing the failed papers, Wang Xue Shi was in a bad mood and simply skipped the papers with lower rankings. After all, these had passed the second round, so the ranking was not important because he could still see it after the third round.
Seeing that the case report had already been copied, Xiao Hanlin was secretly delighted. He had not expected his plan to go so smoothly.
However, the clerk who copied the report was puzzled, wondering if Su Fengzhang was just biased in his studies. How could he be first in the first round but last in the second? The gap was too big.
However, as he was just a clerk who copied names, he had no say in front of the examiners and could only grumble about it to himself.
Outside the examination room, many scholars were waiting for the list of candidates for the second round to come out so that they could prepare for the third round of examination.
Standing next to Su Fengzhang was Wenzhu. He was free at the moment and seemed even more energetic than before. He smiled and said, "Fengzhang, I'll rush in and help you later. I'm good at this."
Su Fengzhang felt helpless after hearing this and laughed at him: "You are full of energy now."
Wen Zhu didn't even pass the first round. On the day the list came out, he pretended to be sick at home in order to avoid Mr. Wen's nagging.
Wenzhu laughed heartily and said, "As long as my father lets me go, I will always be in high spirits."
"Hey, it's coming out, it's coming out."
The outside of the venue suddenly became lively. Seeing the large crowd, Wen Zhu couldn't help but complain, "If you ask me, everything about this dynasty is good, but the provincial examinations are repeatedly criticized. In the previous dynasty, the results were released after three examinations, just like the imperial examinations."
Su Fengzhang made a gesture to keep quiet. He couldn't let others hear such words.
Wen Zhu quickly shut up and said that he went to see the list, but in fact he was short and weak, so he was pushed away in a few seconds. It was Su Fengzhang who supported him and squeezed in.
Wenzhu was sweating profusely from being squeezed and shouted, "Fengzhang, we both eat the same rice, but you look thinner than me, and how come you are so strong? Did you eat meat behind my back?"
Su Fengzhang was too lazy to answer such a boring question and looked up at the list. He frowned slightly when he saw it.
Wenzhu's reaction was even greater than his: "How is this possible? Why are you ranked so low?"
This attracted the attention of the people around, especially the scholar who was not even on the list, who was extremely jealous. Su Fengzhang grabbed Wen Zhu and walked out, saying, "It's good enough to be on the list. Let's go back. We have to prepare for the next exam."
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The author has something to say: Yesterday a friend asked me why I started thinking about a new one before I finished writing it.
Of course it’s because this manuscript is almost finished.
So start thinking of new
What kind of things do you like? Tell me quickly so that I can absorb them well.
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