Two years passed by. In the 22nd year of Chenghua, after two years of study, Zhou Xiucai of the academy was very satisfied with Li Jie's learning progress and planned to let him participate in this year's county examination. He thought that with Li Jie's current level It shouldn't be a problem to win the students, so Li Jie was allowed to take the county examination.
In addition, Zhou Xiucai suggested to Li Jie that after passing the examination and gaining merit, he should go to Baisha, Guangdong to continue his studies with Chen Xianzhang. Zhou Xiucai had studied with Mr. Baisha for a period of time when he was young. Chen Xianzhang was the only famous Confucian scholar in the Lingnan area at that time. He advocated the importance of learning, knowing doubts, and independent thinking, and advocated a relatively free and open style of study. He gradually formed a school with its own characteristics, known in history as the Jiangmen School and also the Baisha School.
Chen Xianzhang's thoughts broke the boring and rigid model of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and opened the door to the Ming Dynasty's Neo-Confucianism. He was a key figure in the history of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism who inherited the past and forged ahead, and changed the trend. Wang Yangming and his disciple Zhan Ruoshui had an irreversible friendship and hit it off immediately. Through mutual discussions, they learned about the core philosophy of the Baisha School, which is to "respect nature and value self-sufficiency", which also laid the foundation and paved the way for the Yangming School of Mind that was later created.
At this time, Zhan Ruoshui had not yet become a disciple, and Wang Yangming was still shrouded in the halo of his father who was the number one scholar. He was currently planning to study the art of war to serve the court, and had not yet had the idea of questioning Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism.
Before dawn, the Lin family's house was already brightly lit. Xiaocui got up early and started to prepare the things Li Jie needed for the science test. The pen, ink, and inkstone needed for the test were already prepared in the test basket, as well as the food that Mrs. Wang had just prepared in the morning. , the boy has already parked the carriage at the door.
Mrs. Wang came outside Li Jie's room and knocked on the door: "Pingzhi, Pingzhi, get up quickly, or it will be too late!"
Hearing this, Li Jie replied: "I know, mother." After saying that, he opened the door. In the past two years, Li Jie has been diligently practicing his internal skills and has now achieved some success. When Mrs. Wang approached the yard, he had already noticed the footsteps. When Mrs. Wang Li Jie was already dressed when he knocked on the door.
Li Jie walked to the dining room and had a simple breakfast. Lin Zhennan led Li Jie into the carriage and rushed to the examination room. The reins of the carriage and horses flicked, the wheels started to spin, and the boy skillfully drove the carriage to carry the father and son to the examination room. On the carriage, Lin Zhennan looked nervous, as if he was going to take an exam. He hadn't slept since last night. He had huge dark circles under his eyes, and he clumsily comforted Li Jie from time to time.
"Pingzhi, don't be nervous in the examination room. Now that you have achieved some success in warding off evil swordsmanship, it doesn't matter even if you fail to pass the imperial examination."
"Don't worry, sir, I have no problem taking the imperial examination this time. With my current level, I should be a sure winner in the county examination." Li Jie looked at the nervous Lin Zhennan and felt dumbfounded. He relayed Zhou Xiucai's words to him, making Lin Zhennan feel at ease. .
The carriage bumped all the way, and after driving for a while, it stopped. The voice of the boy came from outside the curtain.
"Master, Master, the road ahead is blocked by cars coming to take exams, so we can only get out of the car and walk."
Li Jie opened the car door and saw cars rushing and horses rushing. The long street was full of carriages coming to take exams, blocking the street in front of them. Seeing this, Lin Zhennan and Li Jie could only walk towards the examination room, carrying exam blueprints. Li Jie and the two walked near the examination room.
Looking at the bustling crowd outside the examination room, there are both middle-aged Confucian scholars and teenagers. There are not many childlike children like Li Jie. Everyone is being guided by the yamen servants to line up. There was a long queue.
Outside the examination room, Li Jie met students from the academy who were also taking the examination. Li Jie gathered with them and chatted for a while, and soon he joined their group.
"I hope all students will pay attention. Entrainment is prohibited! If you are found to be involved, the county magistrate will not give you mercy!" The yamen officer who walked around from time to time to maintain order shouted loudly. A young man in his teens had just been inspected and found to be involved. Fuzhou city and county tests have not detected entrainment for a long time.
Not long after, it was Li Jie's turn to enter the room. After being searched, they were allowed to enter the examination room after finding that there were no problems.
The examination sheds for the county examination are relatively simple, with well-proportioned examination rooms interspersed between various corridors. Because there are too many candidates, there are many temporary sheds nearby. The temporary sheds will leak air everywhere. If it rains, It would be a miserable situation for the candidates inside. Li Jie followed the number plate and found his examination room. Fortunately, it was not the kind of temporary examination room.
The examination room is relatively low inside, but fortunately Li Jie is still young and has not grown up yet. He is only a little over 1.5 meters tall now. Entering the examination room, Li Jie took out the things needed for the examination in turn, and waited. After placing everything on the table, Li Jie's ears twitched slightly as people entered the surrounding examination rooms one after another.
After waiting for about an hour, with the sound of a drum, the exam began.
There was a moment of silence in the examination room. The candidates calmed down one after another, waiting for the examiner to issue the test questions. The officials walked back and forth from time to time, patrolling the examination room.
Then the examiner said some words of encouragement to the students. The chief examiner of the county examination is usually the local county magistrate. Then the candidates took the formal exam, and the government officials started walking around in the corridor holding vertical boards so that everyone in the exam could see the test questions, and the questions were written on the vertical boards.
A yamen servant held up the first question, the four book questions, the people are enough, the king is not enough. Li Jie now copied the title onto the manuscript paper.
The second question is about the Five Classics, which is mainly about dictating the meaning of the scriptures. The third question is about composing poems.
After Li Jie copied all the questions on the manuscript paper, he then wrote his name and household registration information on the examination paper.
The first question of the four books is: the people are enough, and the king is not enough. A decent four-book question.
This sentence comes from the Yan Yuan Chapter of the Analects of Confucius. The original text is: Duke Ai asked Yu Youruo: "I am hungry in the year and I don't have enough to use. What's the matter?" Youruo asked in reply: "Is it true?" He said: "Second, I am still not enough, how can I be so thorough?" He said to me: "The people are enough, which one of you is enough? The people are not enough, which one of you is enough?"
The main idea of the original text is that Duke Ai of Lu asked Youruo what to do if there was a famine and the country had difficulty in spending money. Youruo replied why he didn't implement the law and collect only one-tenth of the land tax? Duke Ai replied, "The current two-tenths of the land tax is not enough. How can we implement the thorough law?" (Chefa was an acre tax system implemented during the Zhou Dynasty, which advocated harvesting from every acre, with the people receiving nine and the public receiving one.) Youruo replied to Ai Gong, "If the people have enough, how come you don't have enough?" If the people don't have enough, how can you have enough?
Zhu Xi commented on this passage: "If the people are rich, the ruler will not be alone in poverty; if the people are poor, the ruler will not be alone in poverty. If you have a deep understanding of the unity of the ruler and the people, you can stop the public's exaggeration and be generous to others, which is appropriate." Thought deeply.
Zhu Xi's annotation shows his approval of Youruo's answer. He believes that Youruo's idea of the unity of the monarch and the people is correct, as is Zhu Xi's economic proposition. He believes that the wealth of the people and the wealth of the emperor are not opposites but unified.
Li Jie glanced at the candidates around him and saw that everyone was still thinking hard. He smiled and then started writing, solving the question: "If you are rich at the bottom, you will be rich at the top." According to Zhu Xi's annotations, Youruo's thoughts began to be further elucidated, revealing that when the people are satisfied, the emperor is satisfied, and the success of the people is caused by the implementation of the law.
