During the evening class, seven students from the upper house sat in the small lecture hall dedicated to the upper house and burned the midnight oil, studying the three art-making questions assigned by Lin Yan during the day.
Wei Chen spread out a large piece of paper and neatly copied down the title and the broken questions in the sample essay. Next to the title, he silently wrote down the sentences before and after the title, as well as Cheng Zhu's comments.
The first question came from the examination twenty years ago, and the title was "The Duke of Zhou and the barbarians and the Di drove away the ferocious beasts while the people were at peace."
The author of the model essay is named He Shao. He was one of the top five classics in the imperial examination that year and a former lecturer of the Hanlin Academy.
He Shao used only two sentences to solve the problem: "On the ancient saints, they eliminated the great harm in the world and achieved great success in the world."
Wei Chen read the essay's essay several times, trying to figure out its subtleties, and then began to work on his own essay.
An hour later, Wei Chen found Lin Yan and said with a grimace: "Sir, the broken questions in this model essay are really perfect. Students feel that they can't surpass it no matter how they write, and they don't know how to write."
When Lin Yan heard Wei Chen's question, his expression was extremely strange, as if he was suppressing a smile: "Idiot, if you can write a better essay than this essay, you will be a Jinshi by now!"
Wei Chen was stunned when he heard this, yes, this model essay was written by He Shao, one of the leaders of the Five Classics in the past. If he could just write a broken question and be better than He Shao, wouldn't he be able to get a Jinshi immediately?
Seeing Wei Chen covering his face in embarrassment, Lin Yan couldn't help but laugh and said: "The art of craftsmanship is not urgent. It is like poetry and poetry. It relies on both your own understanding and daily accumulation. You are in Shangshezhong You are the youngest, but your understanding is the highest. As long as you take it step by step, you will eventually achieve something."
Wei Chen asked tentatively: "Sir, isn't there any quick way?"
Lin Yan had a serious face when he heard this. What he hated most in his life were people who took shortcuts and took advantage of opportunities.
He immediately wanted to reprimand Wei Chen and tell him that haste makes waste, but then he thought about it, others have said it ten times, it is better to experience it yourself. Only by letting Wei Chen experience the pain, will he know that there is a shortcut. It’s not that easy to walk!
Lin Yan had made up his mind, so he stopped thinking about scolding Wei Chen and said calmly: "Of course there is a quick way, just follow me."
After saying that, Lin Yan led Wei Chen out of the lecture hall and to the door of the newly built library in Yi Xue.
The so-called three major affairs of the academy are: one is giving lectures, the other is offering sacrifices, and the third is collecting books.
The reason why Lin Yan asked Sheng Wei to build a library in the free school was to slowly move Sheng's free school from the Caotai team to the right track and gradually accumulate his own heritage.
At first, Sheng Wei reluctantly built the library because of Lin Yan's request, and was not very willing to spend the money. Later, after understanding Lin Yan's good intentions, Sheng Wei began to do his best to buy books and collect them. He even went to provincial capitals and spent a lot of money to collect rare ancient books.
Up to now, the collection of books in the Yixue Library has been small in scale. Although it is not as good as those of the large academies with thousands of years of history, it is still quite impressive.
Lin Yan led Wei Chen into the library, pointed to a bookcase on the wall and said: "Most of the books I have read before are here. If you really want to find a quick fix, it's easy. Just put Read these books thoroughly, and I guarantee you will at least be a scholar!"
When Wei Chen saw the crammed bookcases, he secretly admired him. Mr. Lin was indeed a tribute prisoner. He was really well-read!
Lin Yan was very satisfied when he saw Wei Chen's surprise. He thought that his beating on Wei Chen was quite effective. He must have given up the idea of taking shortcuts after seeing so many books. .
Just when Lin Yan was about to strike while the iron was hot and teach Wei Chen that he must be down-to-earth when studying, he suddenly heard Wei Chen ask innocently: "Sir, if I memorize all these books, will I be able to become a scholar?"
Lin Yan's face suddenly froze, and an unknown fire surged in his heart: This kid is too ungrateful, and all his hard work as a teacher has been wasted!
Lin Yan did not get angry on the spot, but restrained his anger, pulled out a book from the bookcase and handed it to Wei Chen.
Wei Chen took it and turned a page, his eyes widening immediately.
It's not that there is anything shocking in this book, but that everything used in it is in small print, so densely packed together that you have to open your eyes wide to see it clearly.
Wei Chen compared the thickness of the book with his hands. It was at least two hundred pages, and any page contained thousands of words. This book alone might have more than two hundred thousand words.
Lin Yan said coldly: "This is the "Four Books on Major Titles and Small Titles". All the major and minor essays in the period articles are here. There are fifty volumes in total!"
Lin Yan deliberately emphasized the words "fifty volumes", almost gritting his teeth.
Sure enough, as Lin Yan hoped, Wei Chen had a look of shock on his face.
Lin Yan sneered secretly: Now you know how powerful it is. Even if you memorize so many words sleeplessly and until you are a young man, you still can't memorize them!
This "Four Books, Major Questions and Small Questions, Wenfu" is equivalent to the question bank of the college entrance examination in later generations. If the imperial examination is an open-book examination, no one may necessarily carry the Four Books and Five Classics, but everyone must have a copy of this Wenfu.
Lin Yan once heard that some old boys who failed in many tests relied on the Wenfu government to get through the imperial examinations.
But this is also a matter of good luck. Many old boys have memorized the literature all their lives, and they can only memorize a few volumes. Moreover, they still remember the back and forget the front, remember the front but forget the back, and continue to memorize it until they die of old age. , and I can’t memorize the entire text.
What Lin Yan didn't know was that instead of retreating despite the difficulties, Wei Chen had already begun to memorize the book in his hand.
In fact, Wei Chen didn't think much about it before memorizing it. This was just a habitual action for him. He would just memorize whatever book he got. It didn't take much effort anyway.
This time, Wei Chen discovered a problem.
The speed at which I can read and recite books is actually three points faster than before!
Is it because the content of the book is simpler?
Wei Chen thought about it over and over, and only came up with this explanation.
The same person can definitely read online novels much faster than research professional papers.
Wei Chen used to memorize the Four Books the most, followed by the annotations of Cheng and Zhu's Four Books. Now he memorizes mostly eight-legged articles in Wenfuzhong. The first two are obviously more clumsy than the latter.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this that Wei Chen's reading and endorsement speed has accelerated again.
He roughly estimated that if he memorized it at the current speed, it would probably take more than a month to memorize the entire "Four Books, Major Titles, Small Titles and Wenfu".
Thinking of this, Wei Chen couldn't help but sigh.
If it lasts for more than a month, it will be really difficult...
However, it doesn’t hurt to memorize it.
Wei Chen didn't really want to get through the examination by guessing the questions, but he planned to read this literary house carefully and try to figure out the famous writers' methods of solving questions, carrying on the questions, and starting their lectures.
Just like the problem-solving tactics used by later generations when studying, the purpose is to learn lessons from them, find out the rules, and master the methods and ideas of solving problems.
Read the book a hundred times, and its meaning will become apparent.
Like ordinary people, endorsement is just a method to assist learning for Wei Chen. However, this method is particularly simple and effective for Wei Chen, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people.
After making up his mind, Wei Chen immediately took down the first few volumes of "Four Books, Major Titles, Small Titles and Wenfu" from the bookcase, intending to take them back and read them first, and then come back to pick up the next few volumes after reading them.
Wei Chen held the book in his arms and bowed to Lin Yan: "Thanks for your advice, Mr., I will take this book back to the students to read first."
Lin Yan nodded numbly. When Wei Chen came out of the library, he was still standing there, a little confused.
"Does this kid understand the purpose of being a teacher?"
