Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 411 Examination

What's more, there were many soldiers patrolling back and forth in the corridor with lanterns in their hands, with shiny long swords slung on their waists. They stared at the candidates with fierce and intimidating eyes, as if they wanted to shoot two sharp arrows from their eyes. Not to mention talking, you would be scolded if you looked at them for even a few more seconds.

Just now, a candidate walking in front of Yuan Qing was stopped by a soldier because he was looking around, and Yuan Qing also felt someone was looking at him fiercely.

He looked back at the soldier calmly, then naturally withdrew his gaze and continued to move forward with the clerk.

Soon, he arrived at his examination room, which was very low. With his height, he was afraid that he would hit his head if he stood up. There was a detachable wooden board in front of him that served as a desk, and there was nothing on it except the pen washer.

Yuan Qing walked in and placed the test paper he had just received on the desk. There were nine sheets of test paper in total, six sheets of plain paper were draft paper, and three sheets of Chengwen paper were the original papers written by Yu.

He checked the nine pieces of paper one by one, making sure that nothing was missing or scratched, then he took out the writing brush, inkstone, and inkstone from the examination basket and placed them one by one on the desk.

Then she tied up her loose hair again. This time the search was very strict. Not only did she need to undress and take off her shoes, but she also had to untie her hair for inspection.

After fixing his hair, he began to grind the ink and calm himself down as quickly as possible.

This was the first exam that would change his and his family's destiny, so he was naturally nervous. While grinding the ink, he followed the method Song Ying had taught him a few days ago. He took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. He repeated this several times, and his pounding heart calmed down a lot.

Thinking of Song Ying, he couldn't help but look at the examination basket. In it, except for the small steamed buns prepared at home, everything was prepared by her, including pills, candies, candied fruits, ginger slices, and the medicine sac on her body.

Thinking of this, Yuan Qing felt more relaxed.

Suddenly, there was a loud sound of cloud boards, the dragon gate closed, and the examination room became even quieter. In the corridor, some candidates who came in later couldn't help but quicken their pace, and under the guidance of the clerks, they quickly walked to their examination rooms and took their seats.

When it was getting light, there were no more candidates in the corridor, which meant that all the candidates had probably taken their seats.

After waiting for a while, the cloud board was struck three times, and County Magistrate Chen announced the examination room rules and said some encouraging words. Then the examination began.

Clerks were walking back and forth in the corridor, holding boards with test questions on them.

When he got closer, Yuan Qing hurriedly picked up his pen and wrote it down. The first question was about the Four Books. There was a man named Feng Fu in the Jin Dynasty. Feng Fu got off the car with her arms raised.

Yuan Qing was stunned when he saw this question. He had seen this question in an examination collection half a year ago. These two sentences were from the second part of "Mencius". Between the two sentences, there was a large section of classics that was omitted. It was a real patchwork question.

There are only so many books in the Four Books and Five Classics. The imperial examinations have been held for so many years, and almost all the questions have been asked. In other words, most of the questions have been written by predecessors, and there are almost templates in "Wenfu".

Some scholars do not study the classics or improve their writing skills, but instead devote themselves to copying and memorizing books. If they memorize enough, they can pass the examination and become a scholar.

But such a person would ultimately be despised by the literati, so after Shen Shangshu passed the imperial examination, he was scolded as a two-legged bookcase. It was not until he showed his true ability in the palace examination that the literati all over the world were convinced.

In order to prevent this kind of situation, cut-off questions and off-topic questions came into being.

In Yuan Qing's opinion, some so-called "interpolation" questions are meant to force punctuation, break up scriptures, and deviate from the meaning of Confucius, but it is also a helpless move by the examiners.

Questions that are connected with or off-topic questions often appear in boy's examinations. They are usually not asked in the main examinations such as the provincial examinations and the metropolitan examinations. However, this question stumped many candidates in the metropolitan examinations.

At this time, another clerk came over holding a test question board. Yuan Qing did not have time to think about it and looked up quickly. He saw that it was written: Yuan means the leader of good, Heng means the meeting of good things, Li means the harmony of righteousness, and Zhen means the execution of things.

Yuan Qing did not copy it. This was a question from the Five Classics, one question each from "The Book of Changes", "Spring and Autumn Annals", "Book of Rites", "Book of Songs" and "Book of History". Candidates only needed to answer the question from each of the five classics.

After waiting for a while, the clerk holding the examination paper of "Shangshu" finally came, and it said: Be cautious and do not be picky about what you say.

Yuan Qing quickly copied it down.

After the Five Classics, the next question was a five-character eight-rhyme poem titled: Paper makes good farmland.

After copying the three questions, Yuan Qing looked at the first question on the Four Books again.

The imperial examination has three levels: the eight-legged essay, the first round, and the first question. The first question of this round is crucial. If you answer the question on the Four Books well enough, and the subsequent questions on the Five Classics and the poems are not too absurd, you will be admitted to the county exam!

Yuan Qing couldn't help but get excited. Although half a year had passed, he still remembered the article roughly, especially the opening sentence, "The people of Jin initially changed their ways to do good, but ended up losing themselves by following others."

It was a description without creation, and it was well-behaved and fully expressed the meaning of the topic. When he first read it, he felt as if he had suddenly realized something, and he sighed at the talent of his predecessors. He felt that he could not compare with them, and he needed to work harder.

He picked up the pen and was about to write, when he suddenly remembered that he had looked at this question with Shen Jing and had discussed it for a long time. He remembered it, and Shen Jing should also remember it roughly.

In the same exam, the two people answered the same questions and the contents of their essays were roughly the same. Isn't there suspicion of cheating?

More seriously, some people would suspect that it was County Magistrate Chen who leaked the test questions to Prefect Shen, which would tarnish the reputation of both officials, and his county and prefectural examinations were in the hands of these two people.

Even if it is later proved that they had only read the same article and were cleared of suspicion of cheating, it would still be detrimental to their reputation, and I think County Magistrate Chen would not give them too high a ranking.

In addition, County Magistrate Chen probably set this question because he didn't want any candidates to plagiarize the writings of their predecessors. In this case, you still managed to plagiarize it, which is also a sign of your ability.

The level of the article is there and there is no cheating, so the examiner has to accept it, but the ranking will not be too high.

After some thought, Yuan Qing decided to write it himself.

Fortunately, these two sentences are from the same article, and they are spliced together very cleverly. When the two sentences are put together, there is no feeling of disconnection. It is not the most difficult one among the splicing problems. It is said that the most ruthless splicing problems are not in the same book. Similar to, the moonlight shines on the bed, and I am always sad. That is really a headache.

Moreover, he had carefully thought about this question and thought about how to answer it if he encountered it in the examination room.

The original text of this article means that there was a famine in Qi State, and Mencius' student Chen Zhen said to Mencius, "The people all think that you will once again persuade the King of Qi to open the granaries to provide relief. You won't do that again, will you?"

Mencius said that if you continue to do this, you will become Feng Fu.

There was a man named Feng Fu in the State of Jin who was good at beating tigers. Later, he became a kind scholar and stopped beating tigers.

Once he went to the suburbs and saw many people chasing a tiger. The tiger was standing in a dangerous place on the mountain and no one dared to approach it.

Seeing Feng Fu, they all went to greet him and asked him for help. So Feng Fu rolled up her sleeves and jumped out of the car. Everyone was very happy, but Feng Fu was ridiculed by the scholars at that time.