The night was as cold as water and the sky became dark.
The princes left.
Yan Shu was the last to leave.
Zhao Jun saw that he was hesitant to speak before leaving, and seemed to have something to say to himself, so he offered to see him off.
When you walk out of Guanjia Hall, the fragrance of rice hits your nostrils.
The ears of rice swayed gently in the wind. Under the moonlight, the two people strolled on the lawn outside the palace.
The bamboo forest whirling around them, the fragrance of flowers filled their nostrils, and the reflection of the rockery covered them, hiding both of them in the shadows.
"Zhao Jun."
"Um?"
"The official said you can leave the palace tomorrow."
"Um."
"What are your plans after leaving the palace?"
"You must settle down first, then read carefully and master the meaning of the scriptures, and then go for a walk inside and outside Bianliang City to take a look."
"Well, this is best. There is no shortcut to learning. The only way is to take it one step at a time."
After Yan Shu finished speaking, Zhao Jun did not continue.
The two of them fell into a brief silence as they walked.
After a while, Yan Shu continued: "There are only more than twenty days until the provincial examination. Is it too late?"
"How will you know if you don't give it a try? The provincial examination shouldn't be that difficult."
"It's really not that difficult. You previously used the eight-legged essay of the Ming Dynasty to take the title from the Four Books and Five Classics. The Song Dynasty is not that complicated. You only need to memorize it."
"Rote memorization is my strong point. Later generations of liberal arts students will also emphasize rote memorization. This should not be a problem for me."
"Don't be discouraged even if you don't pass the exam. The worst thing you can do is ask your Majesty to take the Enke exam again next year. The Enke exam is to change the imperial examination that was originally held every two or three years to once a year. This does not violate the regulations."
"Haha, I don't want to waste a year. I have a lot of things to do."
Zhao Jun smiled.
"That's the best thing."
Yan Shu's lips twitched twice before he said: "Zhao Jun, don't blame us. We came here the same way back then. It's very gracious for the officials to define this year's scripture as the "Book of Filial Piety", which greatly reduces the difficulty. , you just have to work hard."
"I know."
Zhao Jun said: "I don't blame you, I just think that I should be qualified to let you open a door, and I don't ask you to help me cheat and write answers directly. I just adjust the test difficulty and the proportion of scriptures and meanings. I didn't expect that this would not work." , it just makes me feel a little disappointed, it seems that I am 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 used. If you do, it will break the rules. This is something that cannot be changed."
"Okay, I also know that special treatment is not a good thing. I'm not that petty."
Zhao Jun shrugged: "I hope you can pass on your examination experience to me seriously in the future. The provincial examination is still more than twenty days away, and the Spring Festival is still half a year away. During this half year, I will trouble you."
The examination of candidates is actually quite simple, consisting of strategies, poems, and classic meanings.
Among them, Jingyi only requires memorizing one of the seven classics, and you can choose to apply for it when the time comes.
The key is the Jinshi Department.
The reason why he insisted on taking the Jinshi examination was because the status of other Mingfa subjects, Mingjingjing subjects, and system subjects in the officialdom was lower than that of Gitong Jinshi, and they were more severely discriminated against, and it was basically difficult to be promoted to high positions.
Only Jinshi Ke Yijia can be promoted quickly, have a stable status, and have the possibility of becoming prime minister.
Therefore, there were situations like Zhang Dun in the Northern Song Dynasty. Even though he was admitted to the top three Jinshi, his ranking was relatively low. Because his nephew Zhang Heng won the first place in the exam, he was ashamed of his low ranking and angrily refused to take the exam again.
The content of the Jinshi subject is still mainly poetry, poetry, and essays, including one poem, one poem, and one essay each, five essays, ten essays on the Analects of Confucius, and ten selections of Mo Yi from the Six Classics. It is the "Spring and Autumn" and "Book of Rites" with the largest number of words.
Therefore, even if you choose the relatively simple "Filial Piety Classic" as the test content in the imperial examination, when it comes to the Jinshi subject, you will still have to take the other six classics, and you will still be required to memorize the other six classics by heart.
According to the statistics of Zheng Genglao, a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, the total number of words in the Song Dynasty version of the Seven Classics at that time was more than 800,000 words, and this was only the content. In addition, the annotations, interpretations, and explanations of various major Confucian scholars must be memorized. Added up, it may be necessary to memorize at least several million words of scriptures to be admitted to Jinshi.
This is also the reason why it is said that the thirty-year-old Ming Jing and the fifty-year-old Jinshi.
Since Zhao Jun understands the history of ancient imperial examinations, he naturally knows this, so he hopes to lower the proportion of classics and meanings and increase the proportion of policies and poems. This request is not excessive in his opinion. After all, his importance is far higher than that of The entire imperial examination must be high.
But for these Jinshi scholars who have studied hard for decades and memorized countless scriptures before passing the exam, this is completely unacceptable because it involves their principles.
This is where the differences exist.
However, their differences were finally resolved by Zhao Zhen. Zhao Zhen was the emperor and decided that the subject of this year's examination would be "The Classic of Filial Piety", which would not violate the principles and regulations.
After all, "The Classic of Filial Piety" is also one of the seven classics that must be tested, but because of its small number of words and low difficulty, it was basically not tested in the past.
Yan Shu was worried that they had not agreed to Zhao Jun's request, and Zhao Jun was a little dissatisfied, so he came up with an explanation to calm him down.
But Zhao Jun is not a person who cares so much. Since they have their own principles, they just have to act according to their principles. Now that Zhao Zhen can come up with a way to get the best of both worlds, it would be great.
"Um."
When Yan Shu heard Zhao Jun's words, he felt relieved and said: "Don't worry about this. You recite the meaning of the scriptures first. Let us prepare for whatever we want to teach you."
Finally, he thought for a while and said: "The classics and meaning are actually dead, mainly policy theory and poetry. This seems to be your strength, but the test content is within the prescribed scope. There are restrictions on both the writing format and the level of poetry. , it doesn’t mean you can pass whatever song you want to copy, no matter how good you copy it, you still have to follow the regulations.”
This is a tacit admission that Zhao Jun can copy policy papers and poems in the exam.
After all, does plagiarism of future policy poems count as plagiarism? It’s hard to define this kind of thing, so everyone can only turn a blind eye.
But even if you are copying, you have to pay attention to the format. For example, this year's college entrance examination questions are in spring, and next year's college entrance examination questions are in summer.
You copied an essay to get a perfect score for next year's college entrance examination. No matter how good the writing style is and how beautiful the meaning is, it will still be wrong this year and does not meet the meaning of the question, so you will still get zero points.
Therefore, they think that the sutras and meanings can be better memorized, and they can just memorize them by rote. However, the writing format, the flatness of the poems, and even the calligraphy all need to be practiced, at least to learn to comply with the prescribed meaning of the title.
"I see."
Zhao Jun agreed. Although the imperial examinations in the Song Dynasty were his strengths, mainly policy theory and poetry, he should not take it lightly. These are the experiences of Yan Shu and others, and they are still worthy of reference.
The two chatted for a while until they arrived at the Chen Arch Gate of the North Gate. After saying goodbye to each other, Yan Shu got on the sedan waiting outside and left.
"Xiao Lang."
Zhao Jun took Yan Shu all the way to the palace gate, when a voice suddenly appeared behind him and startled him.
Looking back, Wang Shouzhong had appeared behind him like a shadow, bending down and bowing his hands to him humbly.
Zhao Jun said speechlessly: "Old Wang, do you eunuchs make no sound when they walk? It's a bit scary, isn't it?"
Wang Shouzhong kept the smile on his face and said, "The officials are waiting for Xiao Lang to return."
"Are you spying on me?"
Zhao Jun stepped back and said dissatisfiedly as he walked: "I can leave the palace openly tomorrow and I won't run away."
Wang Shouzhong followed closely behind him, crouching and saying, "This servant is not monitoring Xiao Lang, but the officials say that Xiao Lang is the lifeblood of the Song Dynasty. We must protect Xiao Lang's safety at all times."
"Isn't that still spying on me in disguise?"
Zhao Jun doesn't hate the feeling of being followed all the time. It feels safer this way, but he still asks.
Wang Shouzhong shook his head stubbornly and said: "It's not surveillance, it's protection. Officials say that Xiaolang can travel all over Bianliang and even the Song Dynasty, but no matter where he goes, even if it is a mountain of swords and a sea of fire, Xiaolang must be protected. We will not hesitate to use the lives of the villains and even the officials themselves."
"Is that so?"
After Zhao Jun thought about it for a while, he couldn't help but feel a little moved. He raised his head and looked at the dark night sky, and whispered: "This brother did not admit it in vain."
The sky was getting darker and darker. When he returned to the wooden house where he lived, he saw Zhao Zhen standing there in the distance. There were maids holding lanterns around him for lighting. When he came over, Wang Shouzhong and the maids He retreated, leaving only him and Zhao Zhen.
"Dasun, what did your uncle say to you?"
"It's nothing. I just feel a little embarrassed that I can't open the back door for me. I can understand that. Although it's not blatant cheating, it's not good to be too biased towards me."
"That's good if you think so."
Zhao Zhen smiled, turned his head and looked at the room which had been tidied up.
In fact, there are not many things, just a large suitcase and a backpack. Apart from taking away clothes and laptop, Zhao Jun will leave the books behind.
At that time, Zhao Zhen will find some people to specialize in studying those primary school textbooks. Although the contents are mostly related to junior high schools, as long as they can be well organized and published into books, there will be no problem in providing basic primary education for Da Song Dynasty in the future.
"It's not a problem to stay in the palace all the time. Since you have the idea of changing the Song Dynasty, you naturally have to go out and walk around. However, the palace will always be your home. Anyway, you live outside Xihua Gate. You can come back when you want. "
Zhao Zhen patted Zhao Jun on the shoulder and said with a smile.
Zhao Jun nodded.
He could feel the sincerity of his old ancestor.
Compared with those scholar-bureaucrats, Zhao Zhen was actually more willing to change the Song Dynasty and preserve his Zhao family.
"Okay, let's go to bed early."
Zhao Zhen said.
Seeing that he was about to leave, Zhao Jun also smiled and replied: "Brother, remember to abstain from sex and take more Liuwei Dihuang Pills! Give me more little ancestors as soon as possible."
Zhao Zhen stumbled as he turned around and almost fell down. Before leaving, he only left one sentence: "Take care of yourself."
Looking at Zhao Zhen's leaving figure, Zhao Jun smiled and went back to the house to rest.
Zhao Zhen had helped him buy a house on Qingtai Street in Changqingfang some time ago, just outside Xihua Gate.
It is definitely not possible to stay in the palace all the time. Once the harem is closed for a long time, the concubines in the harem will definitely be resentful. Secondly, he must go out for a walk and see the situation in the Song Dynasty before he can plan for reform opportunities. It would be unreasonable to stay in the palace all the time.
So it’s time to go out for a walk.
The mood was stable this night.
Although I am full of expectations for the world outside the palace, this expectation is at most just curiosity about ancient society, architecture, and humanities.
As for yearning, not so much.
There is the prosperity of the modern motherland and the convenient environment of the new era.
No one would yearn for a backward, feudal country, even if it was the country where our ancestors lived thousands of years ago.
The next day, early morning.
Zhao Zhen and the others got up early and went to the court meeting.
Renzong was very diligent in the early days of the dynasty. Recently, Zhao Jun held meetings with them for seven or eight days. They had been suspended for too long and could not be delayed any longer.
He glanced at Zhao Jun when he got up in the morning, the two talked for a while, and asked Wang Shouzhong to arrange everything before leaving.
After Zhao Jun washed up, he ate the breakfast sent by the royal room, which was still ordinary porridge and steamed buns. He then followed Wang Shouzhong to Xihua Gate with his suitcase and his schoolbag on his back like a college student.
Xihua Gate is on the left side of Chuigong Hall of Yanfu Palace, separated by Jiying Hall and Huangyi Hall, not far from the place where Zhao Zhen went to court. However, he took the complex road on the west side of Yanfu Palace, passing Longtuge, but could not see Chuigong Hall.
Under the leadership of Wang Shouzhong, the eunuchs and maids who were going back and forth were surprised to see a young man in strange clothes walking swaggering on the Fudao of Yanfu Palace.
In a short time, he arrived at the gate of Xihua Gate.
There were a large number of guards standing guard at the door, and several young people stood under the city gate, looking at him eagerly.
One of them was about thirty years old, with a tall build and a resolute face.
Three words were tattooed on his face - Gong Shengjun!
(End of chapter)
