After waiting for more than half an hour, I heard a clear bang in front of the dragon gate, and the yamen servant shouted loudly: "Candidates are entering!"
Eight hundred candidates rushed forward and lined up in front of the dragon gate.
While queuing up, many children gathered around Wei Chen. They all heard about Wei Chen's title as the head of both cases and came to Wei Chen to seek good luck.
There were even a few gray-haired old boys who shamelessly begged Wei Chen for mercy and let them have some luck with Wei Chen.
Seeing the pitiful expressions of those old boys with tears in their eyes, Wei Chen really couldn't say no to them, so he could only close his eyes and let them do what they did.
But the expression on his face was like that of a righteous man who was going to die generously. Sheng Changbai and others who were watching on the side couldn't help laughing.
At this time, a shout came from a distance: "Those who have taken the title, come to the examination booth and prepare to enter!"
Hearing these words, Wei Chen felt as if he had been granted amnesty. He bowed his hands to the children around him and said, "I'll take the first step. I wish you all immediate success!"
Although the children who had not rubbed enough were a little reluctant, they had no choice but to take back the dog's paws that were stroking Wei Chen's body and return the favor.
In front of the gantry, the candidates who had taken their hall numbers were searched one by one. When Wei Chen walked under the gantry carrying the examination basket, the yamen officer nodded to him and just checked him as usual before letting him pass.
Wei Chen walked to the court and saw an official in his forties sitting at the head, presumably the newly appointed Hai Xuezheng. Magistrate Shen Du sat on one side as the promotion officer.
The rules of this college examination are stricter than the previous two. Candidates are only allowed to bring a long-eared examination basket with some pens and ink and food. They are not allowed to bring much else. Even the inkstone is prepared by the government office.
Walrus Gan also requested that all prefecture and county academic officials should be present and accompany the roll call in front of the hall. When a student comes, the county's academic officials will identify him in person to avoid anyone taking the exam for him.
"Youyang County candidate Wei Chen——"
When Wei Chen answered the call and entered the door, he felt that all the examiners' eyes were on him, especially the Academic Affairs Master, who looked at Wei Chen from head to toe several times.
Wei Chen felt uncomfortable being stared at. After bowing to Walrus Qian and Shen Du each, he took the paper with the seat number on it and hurriedly prepared to leave.
But I heard the leader, Walrus Gan, say: "Are you the chief executive of the government, Wei Chen?"
Wei Chen had no choice but to stop and reply: "The student is Wei Chen. I wonder what you would like to say, Master Xuezheng?"
Walrus Gan said calmly: "I have read your imperial examination articles. Please remember that the article should be plain and honest first, and you must have your own true knowledge and insights."
Wei Chen's heart moved when he heard this. He knew that Walrus Gan was reminding him not to continue the writing style he had during the imperial examination. He bowed and thanked him: "Thank you, Master Xuezheng, for your advice."
Walrus nodded slightly and said nothing more. Wei Chen picked up his paper, walked down the steps, and entered the examination room under the guidance of the clerk.
The examination room is facing the first row of the courtroom, and this is the treatment of being promoted to court.
Wei Chen took out all the pens, inks and other stationery from the examination basket, placed them on the desks, and then began to close his eyes and concentrate, calming his mind.
Soon after the candidates were admitted, the examination room was locked and locked, and the government officials retired, leaving soldiers to patrol the venue. These soldiers were transferred from outside to prevent local government officials from engaging in malpractice for personal gain.
Then, the scribes began to distribute examination questions to each examination room.
Like the government examination, there are four questions in total, including one question on the Four Books, one question on the Five Classics, and two questions on five-character and eight-rhyme poems.
The only difference is that the order of the questions has been changed, and the first question has been changed from a question about the Four Books to a question about the Five Classics.
The Four Books and Five Classics were often referred to together in later generations, generally referring to the Confucian classics, but they are actually very different from each other.
The Four Books, namely "The Great Learning", "The Doctrine of the Mean", "The Analects" and "Mencius";
The Five Classics are the Book of Songs, the Book of Documents, the Book of Rites, the Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals.
The Four Books are easy and the Five Classics are difficult.
Therefore, in the scientific examination, the Four Books are compulsory, while the Five Classics are optional. Scholars only need to be proficient in one of the Five Classics, and the selected scripture is the scholar's "main classic".
If the scriptures are different, the test questions will naturally be different.
The top five in the provincial examination are also called the Five Classics Leaders, because the top five are all the first in their respective meridians, and the final ranking is determined after comparing with the first in the other four meridians.
In other words, among the top five, there must be one person who treats the Five Classics, and there will not be a situation where all of them treat the "Book of Songs" or all of them treat the "Spring and Autumn".
According to the tradition of focusing on the first question in the examination, the Four Books are generally the first question, followed by the Five Classics. This is the so-called "the Four Books are used to select scholars, and the Five Classics are determined."
But this time Walrus Gan changed the first question to the Five Classics question, so it became the Five Classics to select scholars, and the Four Books were determined.
As soon as the questions were handed out, there was a commotion in the examination room, and several candidates even started to howl like mourning.
Many of them do not have a solid foundation in skills. In order to be able to succeed, they have been practicing the four book questions hard and are relatively neglectful of their own classics.
Unexpectedly, Walrus Gan actually went against common sense and took the Five Classics questions as the first question. Now these candidates who ignored the classics would be in trouble.
Seeing a commotion in the examination room, a clerk immediately shouted: "Whoever dares to make noise again will be punished for disturbing the examination room!"
Only then did the examination room become quiet.
Wei Chen didn't think much about it. He was already proficient in the Four Books and Five Classics, so it didn't matter which one he chose as the first title.
The classic of Wei Chen's classics teacher Lin Yan was "Shang Shu". Wei Chen naturally chose "Shang Shu" as his own classic. Later, after becoming a disciple of Zhuang Jun, he began to study the other four classics concurrently, but his level was worse than that of "Shang Shu". Far.
Of course, as far as the "Shang Shu" is concerned, Wei Chen is quite confident.
The biggest difficulty in studying "Shangshu" is that you must be knowledgeable about ancient times, because all the allusions used in "Shangshu" are from ancient pre-Qin times, and there are a lot of unpronounceable names.
Therefore, to manage "Shangshu", you must first be knowledgeable and read the classics, and this is exactly what Wei Chen is best at.
The first question on the Five Classics sent to Wei Chen had only nine words: King Wen's obedience means Kang Gong Tian Gong.
This sentence comes from the chapter "Shang Shu·Wu Yi". It is a sentence given by Zhou Gong to the king. The general idea is that King Wen of Zhou was frugal and not greedy for pleasure, which was the reason for the prosperity of the Zhou Dynasty.
It is not difficult to solve this question. The difficulty lies in how to write to your own level.
Wei Chen just thought about it for a moment and then wrote down the title: "I dare not admire beauty, so I value civil society. Those who are humbled by the husband should obey, and those who dare not be humbled are meritorious."
This broken question is enough to make the examiner's eyes shine, but the discussion in the following article is where the real skills are revealed.
Wei Chen was not in a hurry to write, but closed his eyes and meditated, and started drafting.
In the courtroom, Walrus Gan, who was sitting at the top, had a clear view of the ten candidates taking their seats. Seeing Wei Chen delaying in writing, he couldn't help but smile and said to Shen Du beside him: "Is it that Chief Wei has run out of skills?"
Shen Du took a sip of tea and said lightly, "That young man is indeed talented. Don't be impatient in studying politics. You will know after reading the article."
Walrus smiled dryly. When he saw the list of titles for the imperial examination that day, he was in awe of the article "On the Return of the Perfect Brick to Zhao" and had the intention of cultivating it in his heart.
However, the article that asked Wei Chen to take the lead in the Zhongfu trial made Walrus Gan, who values righteousness, feel that it was flashy.
If Wei Chen were to take the exam again with the same articles as those from the government examination, Walrus Qian would not be merciful and would definitely depose him.
This is the helplessness of science examination candidates.
From the county examination to the palace examination, examiners have different standards for the quality of articles, and they will kill articles they don't like at every turn.
Apart from inquiring about good news in advance and trying to figure out the examiner's preferences, candidates can only ask for their own blessings.
