Xie Shu sat quietly for a while, and when he heard the inspection outside was finished, the papers with fresh ink were handed out.
This year, the Ministry of Rites was in charge of the imperial examinations. The chief examiner was Lan Ying, the Vice Minister of Rites, and the examination questions were set by the Hanlin Academy.
Regardless of the dynasties, the Hanlin Academy has always been a well-known place for nurturing talents and storing promising prospects. It has a noble status. Only the three people who have won the first place in the annual examination and the first place in the second place are qualified to go to the Hanlin Academy, while the others need to take the imperial examination.
The main responsibilities of the Hanlin Academy were compiling books and writing history, drafting imperial edicts, serving as tutors for members of the royal family, and formulating questions for the imperial examinations. Of course, the responsibility of drafting imperial edicts has now fallen to the Secretariat established by Emperor Qing, and the Hanlin Academy has become much less busy.
Xie Shu unfolded the test paper and looked from top to bottom. The questions on classics were all from the Four Books and Five Classics. They were not tricky, but there were some tedious details that required attention. Xie Shu took a look and had a general idea in his mind, then looked at the poems.
I remember that during the previous provincial examination, the title was "Huang Hua Ru Scattered Gold" from "Wenxuan". This sentence seems ordinary, but it is extremely misleading. If you have not read the book "Wenxuan", you will only mistake Huang Hua for chrysanthemum and write about autumn scenery.
Therefore, Xie Shu was also paying attention to whether the poetry test would still be based on ancient sentences.
As expected, this time the poetry and prose test had a fixed title. The poem was titled "Poem of Tiande Qingming Festival", and the rhyme had to be the same as the word "ping" in the title, limited to five words and six rhymes.
It looks like a standard poem written in response to an imperial order.
It's just that the virtue of heaven is clear and bright? Which allusion is this?
Xie Shu felt somewhat familiar with these four words, as if he had seen them not long ago. After thinking for a moment, Xie Shu remembered that this title was actually derived from the Four Books and Five Classics.
There is an article called "Qingmiao" in the Book of Songs, which talks about ancestor worship. Later, in the Mao Shi Xu, a preface to the Book of Songs, it was mentioned that Qingmiao was the place where King Wen was worshipped.
It is said that "the virtue of heaven is clear and bright, and King Wen emulated it, so he offered sacrifices to it and sang this poem."
To know how to write this poem, you just need to understand what kind of person King Wen was.
King Wen refers to King Wen of Zhou, Jichang, who was also the founder of the Shang Dynasty. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, the world was in turmoil. He, who was still Xibo at the time, recruited talented people and attacked King Zhou of Shang, laying the foundation for the Zhou Dynasty to unify the Central Plains. Therefore, in the eyes of the people of the Zhou Dynasty, King Wen has always been a founding monarch with great power and virtue who cannot be surpassed.
There are quite a lot of poems in the Book of Songs that praise King Wen. The word "song" in Zhou Song also means to sing praises. Knowing this, the theme of this poem is not surprising.
Xie Shu was not surprised that such a question would appear in the imperial examination. After all, the admission list of the imperial examination still needed to be approved by the emperor, which meant that the emperor would most likely check the test paper personally.
The Hanlin Academy's obvious intention in setting the questions illustrates the emperor's style from a certain perspective.
However, Xie Shu was not opposed to this kind of commissioned poetry. It was a challenge to write wonderful words within the limited room for creativity.
The title of the fu is even more straightforward than the previous poem. It is titled "Fu on the Power of Zhou's Ancestors". This sentence comes from "The Biography of Guan and Cai" in "Preface to the Records of the Grand Historian": The Princess of Zhou made an alliance, Tai Ren had ten sons, Zhou's ancestors became strong, and Jia Zhong corrected his mistakes.
It talks about how the Zhou Dynasty prospered.
This is not difficult. Xie Shu simply writes the format first. He only needs to write the word "奉" on the first line and the title on the second line.
As for the essay, the scope of questions is often much broader and not limited to the Four Books and Five Classics, which is a difficult question for candidates.
At the same time, although the topic also has a proposition, it does not have such strict rhythm as poetry and is much more flexible and autonomous.
Xie Shu looked at the title of this paper and took a deep breath. It turned out that it was not from the Four Books and Five Classics, but a passage selected from the "Book of Han: Biography of Dongfang Shuo".
The title is "How is Emperor Wen's morality and benevolence?"
This title seemed to be similar in style to the previous poem, but Xie Shu soon discovered that the two were actually quite different!
First of all, the questions on poetry and prose are much more vague, and they test the examinees' mastery of the classics and their ability to apply them. However, as long as one is familiar with these allusions, one will understand how to answer the content of poetry and prose.
This is not the case with the essay. Although it is clearly stated that the person to be discussed is Emperor Wen, the main theme is quite ambiguous. This topic is also an extremely rare question sentence. In other words, the candidates are required to use this excerpt of historical facts to prove the morality and righteousness of Emperor Wen.
Since it is the Book of Han, then Emperor Wen of course refers to the Emperor Wen of Han who started the "Reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing". After he ascended the throne, he worked hard to govern the country, built water conservancy projects, and practiced frugality and simplicity. He has always been regarded as a wise ruler. In this excerpt from the "Biography of Dongfang Shuo", Dongfang Shuo's advice to Emperor Wu was based on the style of Emperor Wen.
Xie Shu's palms were sweating slightly. He now knew what was difficult about this question. The difficulty lay in how to prove it!
Since Emperor Wen was a benevolent ruler in the eyes of the public, what was the need for argument? Moreover, the essay focuses on the opening and the establishment of the idea. The opening is the starting point of the theory, and the so-called idea of the essay is all contained in it.
But this article must not only have a brilliant answer to the question, but also have a particularly unique idea, so that it can stand out!
Xie Shu carefully recalled the historical research he had read. There is no perfect person in this world. Emperor Wen of Han can certainly be called a benevolent person, but as long as one is a monarch, it is impossible to be completely benevolent.
At least there are two things that are worthy of criticism. One is that he went back on his word and promised to confer the title of king on meritorious officials, but in the end he killed them all. The other is that in order to consolidate power, he tortured the then Prime Minister Zhou Bo into confessing and imprisoned him unjustly.
How can these be considered benevolence, righteousness, and morality?
This way of writing does have a special meaning.
But Xie Shu's pen tip stayed in the air and he was reluctant to put pen to paper. Jiang Hong's words rang in his mind again.
The teacher once said that the imperial examination arena is ever-changing and one must be extremely cautious.
Therefore, when seeing a question, nothing is more important than understanding its meaning, and when understanding its meaning, nothing is more important than knowing its origin.
Then he should make sure that the answer he submits satisfies everyone.
Xie Shu pondered for a long time, and suddenly something came to his mind. He wrote down the following words: "Emperor Wen was originally a benevolent monarch, so his morality and righteousness all came from benevolence. If Emperor Wen did not have this benevolence..."①
It was not until the afternoon that Xie Shu finished writing the previous poems and classics. At noon, he just hastily ate some dry food he brought with him, but he did not feel hungry at all. Instead, he was full of energy and opened the paper of examination questions again.
There was only one hour left before the exam.
This time's policy questions were different from the imperial examination. Except for the first question which was about classics and history, the other two were about current affairs.
The second question asks about agriculture, which is the foundation of governing a country, and is related to farming. The third question asks about solutions to the problems of official administration, and is related to official administration.
Both questions raised questions about the country's policy shortcomings in a very targeted manner, and Jiang Hong had already predicted such a policy tendency before.
Xie Shu was no stranger to these two questions. The teacher had asked Xie Shu to spend the most time on current affairs these days.
Scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans are the foundation of the people, and the governance of the country is the foundation of the country. The significance of Shice Lun is not only to observe the gains and losses of the government, but also to understand the sufferings of the people. This is the significance of combining Shice Lun and Shiwu, rather than just focusing on the meaning of the classics.
Xie Shu thought about several points he was going to write on the draft, and when he started writing, he hardly paused.
After finishing all the test papers, Xie Shu checked them carefully to make sure that the rhythm was correct and the format was correct before he stopped.
It was already dusk when I left the examination room.
The sky was filled with mist and the golden glow of light was burning brightly, igniting a bright and endless flame.
As soon as the exam was over, the noisy sounds around me became real, but the joy and sorrow that arose became blurred.
At this time, Ximo, who had been waiting for a long time, saw Xie Shu in the snow-white linen clothes at a glance. He hurried to Xie Shu and nervously took the "stationery box" from his master's hand.
Xie Shu relaxed a little. No matter what the result was, it was useless to think about it at the moment.
Xie Shu walked out of the crowd quickly without waiting for anyone. He had promised his husband that he would write back to him after the exam.
Given the distance between him and his lover, it would often take more than ten days for him to receive a letter. Sometimes it would be delayed for a few days in the middle, so it would take an unknown amount of time.
Xie Shu had no choice but to write a letter every day so that his lover could see his letter every day.
The author has something to say:
① From "On the Ruler of Learning"
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