Time: June 6th.
Examination venue: Jiangnan Gongyuan.
Okay, it's time. No business is allowed around Gongyuan. Watermelons are not allowed to be sold and people are not allowed to shout. No one is allowed to knock bricks and pass Morse code. The streets outside Gongyuan are closed to business and traffic.
The invigilators arrived, as did the chief, deputy, and examiner in sedan chairs.
Everyone, please line up, make noisy noises, and don't push each other. This is a carp leaping over the dragon's gate. It would not be good if you fall into the river and drown. Everyone, be energetic, hold the basket at your feet in your hands, and prepare the steamed buns. If you haven't bought the steamed buns yet, you can go to Wu Dalang's house and buy some sesame seed cakes.
If you want to enter Gongyuan, you need to undergo inspection first.
First, take a look at the items in your basket, including pens, ink, inkstones, and candles. They are not included. Why does this steamed bun look irregular? Could it be a steamed bun that you steamed yourself?
Break open the steamed buns and check, okay, you dare to carry a note, someone, please push him down and send him to the Ministry of Rites first, and let the Ministry of Rites hand it over to the judicial department for disposal!
And the guy who was eating steamed buns was sent over as well.
The test basket is fine, the hair is fine, just take off your clothes.
The coat is okay, the inner coat is okay, the underwear... ahem, what about that, the shoes and socks are okay, okay, this is your brand, you can go in.
After entering the Gongyuan, don't run around and take your seat according to the number on the sign.
There are tens of thousands of rooms in Gongyuan, all of which are single rooms. You will take exams and sleep in this single room.
Be comfortable, think about future generations, where will there be single room treatment...
However, this single room is a bit special.
It's called room number.
The specifications are as follows: five feet long, four feet wide, and eight feet high.
One foot is about thirty centimeters, and you can tell with a few gestures that this is not some kind of luxurious self-service private room, it is obviously a prison cell.
Later generations called being in prison a cell, and the cell here was the cell.
Yes, taking exams is like going to jail, it’s so sour.
Apart from knowing that I can see the sun tomorrow and occasionally writing a few hundred words, it is really no different from being in jail.
There are people guarding and watching you outside, and you are not allowed to run away. You cannot eat well, drink well, or sleep well. Personal hygiene problems must also be solved inside, not to mention how uncomfortable it is.
The person said, isn’t it just that it’s narrow? Just squeeze in and hold on. It will be fine after the exam is over.
However, this exam is not over in two or three days. He often has to take the proficiency test.
Seven or eight days...
Now that everyone is here, let’s start the exam.
The examination in the Ming Dynasty was divided into three sessions. In the first session, there were three tests on the meaning of the "Four Books", each with more than 200 words, and four tests on the meaning of the "Jing", with each test of more than 300 words. Those who failed were allowed to lose one sentence each.
Among them, the meaning of "Four Books" is the famous eight-legged essay.
The titles of the eight-part essay are all taken from the Four Books and Five Classics. Whether you can write the eight-part essay well is directly related to whether you can win the first place.
Eight parts refer to the eight parts, namely breaking the topic, carrying the topic, starting the lecture, entering the topic, starting the part, the middle part, the back part, and the closing part.
These eight parts all need to be composed with paired sentences.
At the end of the bundle, you should also write a few dozen or more than a hundred words of summary text, that is, the big knot.
Eight-part essay has been trampled on for a long time, not only by later generations, but also by the ancients.
For example, Song Lian, Zhu Biao's teacher, described the talents selected for the eight-legged essay as follows: "When talking to him, his eyes are blank and his tongue is weak." Think about it, do you look like an idiot...
In the late Ming Dynasty, Gu Yanwu even said bluntly: Idiots believe that stereotyped writing is more harmful than burning books.
In his view, Qin Shihuang only burned a few books, but the Eight-legged essay harmed all learning, that is, the so-called "Eight-legged essay is prosperous while the Six Classics is weak, the Eighteen chapters are prosperous but the Twenty-one Histories are abandoned."
Of course, if eight-part essays were just garbage, no one would keep using them. After all, the imperial court was not a garbage dump.
Wu Jingzi, a later generation, wrote in "The Scholars": If the eight-part essay is well done, you can do whatever you want - poetry if you want, poetry if you want, poetry if you want, all with a whip and a mark, and a slap with blood.
It can be seen that the eight-part essay is a basic style of poetry.
Rationally speaking, there are problems with the eight-part essay, but it is inappropriate to directly link it to the ignorant and stupid people.
The purpose of setting up the eight-legged essay was to comprehensively examine the scholars' mastery of the classic meanings and their ability to refine the diction. It was not necessarily the best method in that era, but it was indeed a style that fit the times.
It is not entirely correct to say that eight-part essays constrain thoughts. It can only be said that some people are stupid in reading and regard the format of the article as the thought of the article. The format has a framework, so they also frame their own thoughts.
There's nothing you can do about it, you got yourself into it.
How many powerful figures in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were not selected through the Eight-Part Part Essay examination?
Xie Jin, Yang Rong, Yang Bo, Wang Shouren, Yu Qian, Wang Fuzhi, Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, etc.,
Who didn’t come out of the Eight-part Guan Wen?
They are not stupid, nor are they shackled, because they know that eight-legged essays have a format, but thoughts have no format.
Many people have intentionally or unintentionally inserted their own opinions into eight-part essays and written wonderful articles.
For example, Wang Shouren’s eight-part essay:
What he did was only because:
Reason and desire have no chance to coexist, and those who are fatal and determined to stabilize the world will regret it even until death.
Those who do not have the strength to achieve both ends of their lives and sacrifice their lives to pursue the difficult path of benefiting the world will have no regrets even if their bodies are destroyed.
Amazing read.
After the first exam, there is the second exam: a trial essay, more than 300 words, five judgments, and a imperial edict on internal medicine.
After that, there is the third session, which tests the five ways of history and policy. Those who fail are allowed to reduce two of them, both of which are more than 300 words.
In the scientific examination examination room, there is relative fairness.
No matter you are the son of a cabinet minister or a common man, whether you are rich or penniless, as long as you come here, everyone will be on the same level.
The superiority and inferiority all depend on the article.
Yang Shiqi walked in the Gongyuan, stopping from time to time to look at the people's answers, nodding or shaking his head, and then walked away to continue his inspection.
When night came, candles were lit in the room.
In the brush strokes, in the crouched body, in the silence gazing at the starry sky, in the murmurs with bowed heads, under the lonely and swaying lights, there are actions with the ambition to serve the country.
In the Wuying Hall, Zhu Yunwen finished processing the memorial and ordered Shuangxi to present it to the General Affairs Department. Then he stood up and walked out of the Wuying Hall, and asked Liu Changge: "Is everything going well in Gongyuan?"
Liu Changge replied: "Your Majesty, everything goes well."
Zhu Yunwen nodded with satisfaction and said: "There is a question in the meaning of the Four Books, which was written by Jie Jin, and it is called Yi Kuang Tian Xia. Haha, do you know what it means?"
Liu Changge shook his head in shame and said: "Your Majesty, although I know some words, I have no knowledge and I don't know its meaning."
Zhu Yunwen put his hands behind his back, looked into the distance, and said softly: "One rule of the world comes from "The Analects of Confucius: Xian Wen". Confucius said: Guan Zhong, Prime Minister Huan Gong, dominated the princes, and one rule of the world, and the people are now receiving his blessings."
"Confucius believes that although Guan Zhong first assisted Zi Jiu and then assisted Duke Huan of Qi, his behavior was wrong, but in terms of his merits, it is the greatest benevolence to be used by the world. Liu Changge, is your benevolence still with me?"
