Chapter 271: The End of the Spring Examination

The examination room for the Chunxun exam is a small dark room in a row, called the “No. House”. After the students enter, the soldiers responsible for supervising the number will padlock the door, leaving only a small window for delivering the examination papers.

Throughout the day, the schoolchildren’s eating and drinking were done in the small dark room.

Candlelight was like beans, the small house was tinted with a dim yellow color, Xu Erlang sat on the edge of the case, poured water into the ink stone and slowly ground it.

There was still a long time before the exams started, and it was enough time for him to settle down and think about things.

Since the ancient imperial examinations emphasize the scriptures and teachings, light poetry and fugue, coupled with the Dafeng poetry scene has been weakened for a long time, so this last session of the examination, for most of the scholars, is just to go through the motions.

When the party entered the courtyard, the familiar scholars were smiling and laughing and happy. Unlike the first two, their faces were serious and their minds were tense, as if they were about to go into battle in armor.

But while others could take it easy, Erlang Xu knew he couldn’t afford to be negligent.

He is a student of Yunlu Academy, according to the attitude of the courtiers to the students of Yunlu Academy, after winning the scholar, either sent to the poor countryside, or delayed to give the official body, snow.

Xu Erlang has his own ambitions, neither wanting to be sent to the poor countryside, nor wanting to stay in the capital snow.

“The road ahead is long ah ……..” Xu Xinxin sighed.

At that moment, the bugler outside the door knocked on the small window and said in an urn, “Master, the rolls are here.”

Participate in the chunan exam are lifts, lifts have the qualification to be an official, the big head soldiers are directly called the examination hall students as “master”.

Xu New Year received the scroll and spread it out on the table, at this time the sky was already bright, but the sunrise had not yet risen.

By the orange candlelight, Xu New Year fixed his eyes on the title, which was a quote from Cheng Zi – Gan Ge: “The three armies can take away the marshal but the pikers can’t take away the will.”

The well-read Erlang Xu instantly distills the core: chanting!

He stared at the exam paper with an uncontrollable dullness, while disbelief was in his eyes.

“Big brother must have stepped on dog shit before entering my house that day, right?” Erlang Xu muttered.

How could he guess that?

The matter of the lot that day, Xu Erlang right to deal with the annoying big brother, the chun exam questions, although you can guess, but is limited to the scriptures and curricula, after all, the two have traces.

Poetry questions, on the other hand, depend entirely on the mood of the examiner, and can come up with whatever they want, even if they are named after roadside wildflowers.

It’s all guessable?

Unless Big Brother stepped on dog shit that night, Erlang Xu really couldn’t think of anything else that could be possible.

Wait a minute ……… Xu New Year s shocked, confused, bewildered, and other expressions were all transformed into ecstasy and exhilaration.

Big brother guessed the right question. Big brother guessed the right question!

He straightened his back with a sudden burst of vigor and couldn’t help but want to let out three long whistles to express the excitement in his heart at this moment.

“With big brother’s poetic talent, since he guessed the test questions correctly, then the third session of the Society Poetry will be honored by me, Xu Erlang. I, I might be able to compete for the Hui Yuan.”

The person who wins the examination is “gongshi”, and the first name of the gongshi is “huiyuan”.

He thinks so is reasonable, first of all, will test paste name, his Yunlu Academy students identity will not be exposed, so will not be ostracized. Secondly, Xu New Year is a natural reading seed, the great scholar Zhang Shen’s favorite disciple, coupled with the Confucian system can not be forgotten, thoughts through the addition, their own level is far more than the State Prison students.

Finally, in order to prevent the imperial examinations from being fraudulent, the Dafeng arranged for three examiners, with multiple examiners, and the composition here was complicated, as the three examiners must have come from different parties.

Maybe they’re even hostile to each other.

Even if someone could buy off one examiner, it would be impossible to buy off the remaining two.

Therefore, in every session of the examination, among the examiners, there will also be a dragon fight, and then they will discuss and compromise with each other to make the final decision.

“Heaven does not give birth to me Xu New Year, will test for ages like a long night ah.”

Even if proud as Xu New Year, no one in the house at this moment, he completely lost control of his emotions, hand dancing, laughing like a fool.

If there’s a bed, he’ll roll around in it or wriggle around like a maggot.

“Big brother is really my lucky star! Calm down, calm down, what is the aria that big brother gave me ……..”

Xu New Year settled down and forced himself to calm down.

Luckily for him, the eighth rank of Confucianism, he had long ago managed to forget everything, and the poem given by his elder brother was really good, and he remembered it quite well, recalling it quickly.

Dipping his pen into the ink and unfolding the draft paper, it was at this time that he realized his hands were still shaking slightly.

“No talent, but it’s just the meeting examination, excited like this. Father has said that I have the qualifications of a chief minister.”

After self-mocking, Xu New Year relaxed a bit, his hand no longer shaking, and he flew to write on the paper:

The golden bottle of wine is worth ten thousand buckets, and the jade plate of treasures is worth ten thousand dollars.

I can’t eat when I stop my cup and make chopsticks, and I look around with my sword drawn in disbelief.

I want to cross the Yellow River, the ice is blocking the river, and I will climb the snow-covered mountains of Taihang.

I have been fishing on Bixi River, and suddenly I am in a boat dreaming of the sun.

It is difficult to walk, it is difficult to walk, there are many divergent paths, where are they today.

The long wind will break the waves sometimes, hanging straight from the clouds and sailing to the sea.

(Conscientious Author’s Note: Poems for the imperial exams, also known as fugue poems, are usually pentameter and octameter, quatrain and hexameter, rather than heptameter. I’ll give it a magical twist in the other world to facilitate the plot. (Note again: anti-bullshit!)

After writing the poem, I read it over several times to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake, but new doubts surfaced.

“What is the Yellow River? What is the Taihang? Is there any allusion to the two lines about idly fishing on the blue stream, and suddenly taking a boat to dream by the sun …….”

Jiro Xu frowned.

Xu New Year, a well-read poet, searched his belly and could not find where the Yellow River and Taihang, and according to his understanding of poetry, “fishing on the Bixi River” and “suddenly return to the boat dreaming of the sun” should be two allusions.

“Big brother really, when he writes poems he doesn’t know to make notes. How can this make me understand the state of mind he was in when he wrote the poem, and how can I understand his profound intentions?”

“The Yellow River and Taihang should be the name of the river and the name of the mountain, this can be replaced, as for the sentence “idly fishing on Bixi River” and “suddenly returning to the boat dreaming of the sun”, even if there is no allusion, it is not difficult to understand the intended meaning, the problem is not big. It’s not a big problem.”

So, after replacing “Yellow River” and “Taihang”, Xu New Year put his pen to the paper and answered the question:

“The Road is Hard to Travel

………….

The chief examiners of this chunan exam are Zhao Tingfang, a university scholar of the East Pavilion, Liu Hong, the right imperial historian, and Qian Qingshu, a university scholar of the Hall of Wuying.

Unlike the scholars, the examiners and co-examiners, since the beginning of the session exams, have not left the Tribute Courtyard for a step, the gate is padlocked, and unless they grow wings, they do not want to leave.

In order to prevent collusion between the examiners and the students, the examiners had to wait for the list of tributes to be finalized before they could leave the Tribute Academy.

Compared to the beacons of the first two marking sessions, the co-examiners have produced a great change in both attitude and mood.

“Bullshit, what kind of crap poem dares to make a fool of himself at the meeting test.”

“Borrowing bamboo as a metaphor for people, as a way to chant, although the angle is good, but chanting bamboo more than chanting, the cart before the horse.”

“Hey, after half a day’s reading, there isn’t a single amazing poem.”

“It’s been like this in years past, I’m used to it.”

The marking officials, also called curtain officials, read the papers while commenting on them. At first glance the atmosphere is full of gunpowder, but in fact it is the most relaxing to write.

Poetry was not taken seriously, and it didn’t matter if it was good or bad. Anyway, they are all dregs, and the poems made by the scholars are rare if they are in order. It is not worthwhile for the examiners to take it seriously.

In the capital, when it comes to poetry, there is one person who absolutely can not be bypassed, he is the night watchman Xu Qi’an. He was regarded by the Confucians as the leader of the poetry world, or, the savior of the poetry world.

“If that Xu Qi’an were to take part in the meeting examination, not to mention anything else, at least for this year’s meeting examination, a heirloom poem will be born, right?”

“Who says it isn’t, it’s a pity that Xu Qi’an isn’t a scholar, in the future history books will record that all of Yuan Jing Nian’s poetic masterpieces came from this man, how can we readers lose face.”

Readers have mixed attitudes toward Xu Qi’an, both celebrating his rise to prominence and giving these two centuries so many poems to hold that they will not be laughed at by future generations.

It is also lamented that he was a martial artist and not a scholar, for that is equally a thing that would be a disgrace to posterity.

Two hundred years of Da Feng, thousands of readers, but even a martial artist is not as good.

“A thousand mistakes are all Xu Pingzhi’s fault.”

Just then, one of the markers unfolded a transcribed paper, and after looking at it for a few seconds, he froze, and his body seemed to be petrified and motionless.

But his lips kept chanting, over and over again.

After it lasted for a few minutes, this marking official suddenly got up, looked around the room at his colleagues, took a deep breath, and threw out his voice, “Who says that Da Feng readers can’t compose good poems, who says that, who says that?”

The markers looked over, bewildered, wondering what he was mad about.

What’s so controversial about the fact that the poetry world has been in decline for two hundred years and that contemporary readers are not good at poetry?

“Pop!”

The marking official slapped the scroll on the table, his chest heaving, and said excitedly, “I dare to conclude that once this poem is released, it will be famous throughout the world. In this year’s examination, it will be written down by the historian.”

One of the markers on the side glanced at him, curiously walked over, picked up the roll, and fixed his eyes on it.

Madness seems to be contagious, the marking officer held the scroll and trembled with excitement, “Good poem, good poem, hahaha, who said that Da Feng readers can’t make good poems, who said that?”

Now the rest of the markers realized that there was a masterpiece in the making, and swarmed up, passing it around and reading it to each other.

“Good poem, when floating.”

“The long wind will break the waves sometimes, hanging straight from the clouds and sailing through the sea …….. This is the kind of poem a reader should write.”

“How can a schoolboy write this well-worn poem?”

“Perhaps he has failed the exams repeatedly and is using the poem as an epitaph.”

The appearance of this song “difficult to walk” is like a golden phoenix mixed in a flock of earth chickens, extraordinarily precious, a room full of marking officials kept circulating and commenting excitedly.

“Ahem!”

The sound of hard coughing came from outside the door, and the white-haired East Pavilion university scholar stood in the doorway with his hands behind his back.

He was attracted by the noise.

The room’s markers were silenced.

“What’s the point of making a lot of noise?”

Zhao Tingfang, the Grand Maester, reprimanded a few sentences, and then asked, “This official just heard someone say that once this poem is released, its fame will spread all over the world?”

Immediately, a marking officer came forward and respectfully handed over the rolls.

The East Cabinet university scholar first swept the crowd, which received the roll, squinting his eyes to look …….. His hand holding the scroll trembled slightly.

Anyone can see that this is a good, uplifting poem.

But the experience is different and the feeling is different.

This poem is both an aria and an experience of a difficult life. From “I am at a loss as to what to do” to “The long wind will break the waves, and I will sail straight through the sea”, anyone with similar experiences can quickly empathize with the poem.

And the last line, which is an aria, is also a nod to the poem, directly elevating the whole poem to a rather high level.

“This son is definitely a great talent, if the scriptures and strategies are both excellent, this official will appoint him as a Councilor!” The East Cabinet university scholar said in his heart.

……….

The day after the end of the Chun Exams, Xu Xinxin realized that his treatment at home had fallen off, in the past, every morning, Mother would let the kitchen heat up a bowl of steaming milk.

Thick chicken soup for lunch and ginseng soup in the evening.

During this time, Mother would still shush and show enough attention, though nothing tangible.

And father and big brother would ask a few questions at the dinner table, sister Xu Ling Yue did likewise, and even youngest sister Xu Lingyin would occasionally shout out, “Second brother, be diligent and hardworking ah!

But since the last game ended, the milk is gone, the chicken soup is gone, the ginseng is gone, and after asking when the list will be released, people don’t pay much attention.

At the dinner table, Xu Qi’an asked, “Why does Er Lang look in a bad mood, did he not do well on the last exam?”

Xu Erlang did not say anything, and when he finished eating, he pulled his big brother into the study and stared straight at him, “Big brother ……. You guessed the question.”

Both surprised and unsurprised by the result, Xu Qi’an nodded and asked, “Patriotic or Wing Chi?”

“Riki!”

Xu New Year asked for advice, “Where are the Yellow River and Taihang? Which allusion is it from when one idly fishes on the Bixi River and suddenly takes a boat to dream of the sun?”

……. Uh-huh? There’s an allusion to that line? I don’t remember it. Xu Qi’an was confused.

“Idle fishing on Bixi Creek is because I like fishing. Suddenly, I take a boat and dream of the sun, then it is, then it is …….. Oops, why do you talk so much nonsense? The exams are over and you’re still bleeping.

“Hurry up and tear up the Four Books and Five Classics, and Big Brother will take you to the Department of Education tomorrow to play around.”

Xu Qi’an cursed and fled.

Returning to the room, he found Zhong Li sitting on the edge of the bed bandaging his head, vaguely seeping blood.

“Fell again?”

“Uh-huh.”

Zhong Li nodded with some aggravation and said, “I realized that your sister’s life is very hard.”

“Which sister?” Xu Qi’an asked.

………..

PS: I’ve raised hell with myself today, I searched for two hours for relevant information in order to find out who all the examiners were in history and exactly what official positions they held, and found that there is only a general division of official positions on the internet, which is not precise.

Tried to go to the library and it was closed again, pissed me off.

It’s possible to make up whatever you want, but it feels like it’s better to be rigorous, and I’m a guy who’s afraid of getting jacked up.

Change before you change.