The Kingdom That Never Sleeps CH 037 Provincial Imperial Exam
The imperial examination system of this dynasty followed that of the previous one. Provincial examination centers only accepted local candidates, but the Shengjing examination center was open to xiucai from all over the country. Students from the Northern Zhili province were assigned based on their place of origin and all took the exam at the Shengjing examination center. Additionally, many scholars from across the country came to Shengjing, admiring its reputation. This year, the Shengjing examination center had a total of 11,029 candidates for the xiangshi!
No wonder, for they all sought to become "students of the Son of Heaven!"
Xiucai who took the exam at the Shengjing examination center could boast of being "students of the Son of Heaven" if they were thick skinned enough. Taking the exam under the emperor's watchful eyes, they could claim, in a sense, to be students of the emperor. Moreover, some highly reputed scholars from nearby Northern Zhili would also come to Shengjing for the exam.
Passing the xiangshi at a poor or remote examination center was not as prestigious as at the Shengjing examination center, because the chief examiner here was an academic from Hanlin Academy. There are dozens of xiangshi top scorers each year, but only one chief examiner. The chief examiner was considered a mentor and having a powerful one would be much more advantageous for one's future official career than any other chief examiner!
The inspection process for the xiangshi was much stricter than for the tongshi. Tang Shen nearly had to strip naked for the government officers to check him. After each candidate was inspected, they couldn’t enter the examination hall immediately but had to queue outside until a hundred candidates were inspected and allowed in together.
After a hundred candidates were assembled, the government officer shouted, “Proceed!”
Tang Shen followed the crowd, squeezing in together.
Among the hundred candidates were young, vigorous lads like Tang Shen, as well as elderly men. Most were middle-aged men with beards who had already established their families and careers. These hundred people represented a cross-section of humanity. As they all stepped through the outer curtain door, they saw thousands of other candidates waiting outside the inner curtain door.
Seeing so many people at once, Tang Shen was momentarily stunned.
Once these people were lined up and entered the inner curtain door, they were finally inside the examination center. The crowd gasped in astonishment at the grand sight before them.
Entering the inner curtain door, they were met with a wide corridor. On either side of the corridor were endless rows of examination cubicles, over ten thousand of them!
Tang Shen drew a lot and received the examination cubicle labeled "Yue Ding." The "Yue" was taken from the phrase "Yue Zong Tai Dai" in the Thousand Character Classic, and "Ding" was taken from the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. The examination cubicles in the examination hall were labeled using the Thousand Character Classic and the Heavenly Stems, making it easier for candidates to find their assigned cubicle.
Tang Shen quickly located his cubicle.
The patrolling officer walked past him and struck a gong hard, shouting, "Hurry inside, no dawdling!"
Tang Shen looked at the small examination cubicle in front of him, which was no more than a square meter and a half in size, and smiled helplessly as he stepped inside.
This would be his home for the next three days!
It took a great deal of time for the more than ten thousand candidates to enter the examination hall. However, the exam had not yet begun.
It wasn't until the afternoon that all the candidates had been thoroughly checked and had entered their respective cubicles. Tang Shen sat in his cubicle, ate a little food, and with nothing else to do, lay down to sleep. Around midnight, the chief examiner suddenly beat the gong and drum, startling the candidates awake from their sleep. Officers split off into the corridors, entering each narrow path one by one to distribute the exam papers to the candidates in their cubicles.
Tang Shen picked up the exam paper and immediately opened it.
The first question topic: "At fifteen, I set my heart on learning."
As Wang Zhen had guessed, the chief examiner for this xiangshi at Shengjing Examination Hall was indeed Grand Secretary Yang. Although Grand Secretary Yang loved reading the Book of Changes, the first session of the xiangshi did not test the Five Classics, but rather the Four Books and a five-character eight-line regulated verse.
This first question came from the Analects, Chapter 2, "Governance," where the original text states: "The Master said, 'At fifteen, I set my heart on learning; at thirty, I stood firm; at forty, I had no doubts; at fifty, I knew the will of Heaven; at sixty, I was at ease with whatever I heard; at seventy, I could follow my heart’s desires without overstepping the bounds.'" Even in later generations, this phrase was widely known, familiar to everyone. It was Confucius's reflection on his own life, offering a self-evaluation to inspire others.
Confucius said, "At fifteen, I set my heart on learning."
Tang Shen carefully scrutinized this phrase, jotting down notes on his draft paper.
There were many ways to approach this question. He could start with the whole sentence, discussing Confucius's life, how he inspired and encouraged others, and how people should learn from Confucius. However, this approach was challenging and could easily lead to going off-topic.
Tang Shen sat in his small cubicle, facing a wall, with other candidates on either side of him. He couldn't see anyone, but he knew there were over ten thousand people in this examination hall.
Standing out among more than ten thousand people—how difficult that would be! But if he strayed off-topic on the very first question topic, the examiners might not even bother reading the rest of his essay and poem, and might directly mark his paper in blue, throwing it into the pile of failed papers.
"Hmm, I’ll start with the first sentence and not write too much."
Confucius set his heart on diligent study at the age of fifteen and remained diligent, constantly learning and reviewing what he had learned. This was Confucius's approach to learning, and Tang Shen decided to focus on the attitude of studying. He pondered for a long time and came up with four or five ways to break open the topic.
As he thought, his stomach started to growl. In the examination basket Wang Zhen had sent to Tang Shen, there were a few pastries and some dry rations. The pastries wouldn't last long, so Tang Shen ate those first.
After finishing his meal, he thought carefully for a long time and then began to write on his draft paper.
"People of the time entered learning through the Way of Confucius, first setting their will and then achieving learning. The will is boundless, but learning is exhausting. Although the sages achieved their way, they also said that life is finite, while knowledge is infinite!"
Everyone began their scholarly journey by studying the teachings of Confucius, aspiring to learn from the Sage. Yet, over a hundred years, aspirations change endlessly, and learning is often forgotten. Even the Sage said that life has an end, but knowledge is endless.
Indeed, Tang Shen planned to use aspiration as the entry point to persuade others to learn!
With a good start, the rest of the essay would flow easily. Tang Shen carefully pondered each word and outlined the structure on draft paper. He wrote down his main arguments and the quotes he planned to use on a branching diagram before starting his essay.
Under the scorching sun, Tang Shen finally finished his first eight-legged essay. Exhausted, he didn't transcribe it immediately but fell asleep. After two hours, he woke up, checked for mistakes, and carefully transcribed it.
It was then that Tang Shen noticed the candle Wang Zhen had prepared for him. He was surprised to find that it emitted very little smoke and did not irritate his eyes at all!
Tang Shen had heard about these candles from Jinling Prefecture. They were extremely expensive, costing a gold tael per inch. He didn't expect Wang Zhen to prepare this for him.
Wang Zifeng…
At this moment, Tang Shen's Senior Brother Zi Feng, who had been on his mind, was painting at home.
The steward entered the study and reported the day's events to Wang Zhen. Only then did Wang Zhen remember, "The xiangshi must have officially started by now."
The steward replied, "Yes."
"Have the items been sent to him?"
"According to your instructions, everything has been delivered."
Wang Zhen dipped his brush in cinnabar, his voice warm and pleasant, "Then wait two days before going to check on my little junior brother."
The xiangshi consists of three sessions, each lasting three days. Entering the examination hall counts as one day, leaving only two days for the actual exam.
Like the tongshi, the first session is the most important, followed by the second, while the third is more like going through the motions.
After finishing the first question topic, Tang Shen looked at the second one. This time, the topic was "I also wish to rectify people's hearts," from Mencius, King Hui of Liang II. The original passage reads, "I also wish to rectify people's hearts, eradicate heretical views, correct deviant practices, and eliminate lewd expressions to continue the work of the three sages."
Gongduzi asked Mencius, "People say that you enjoy debating with others. Why is that?"
Mencius replied to Gongduzi with this phrase.
Mencius enjoyed debating with others out of necessity. He saw the flaws in the society of his time and wanted to correct people's hearts, eradicate fallacious doctrines, resist biased behaviors, and criticize absurd statements to continue the legacy of the three sages.
"I also wish to rectify people's hearts" reflects Mencius' aspiration.
Mencius was an advocate of the inherent goodness of human nature.
After much contemplation, Tang Shen decided to approach the topic from the angle of "education," writing an essay on rectifying social customs and promoting moral education.
After finishing the second essay and carefully copying it, Tang Shen was exhausted and immediately fell asleep. By evening, he lit a candle and woke up to review the third essay topic. After patiently thinking it through, he began drafting the essay.
By the time he had finished all three essays, it was already the afternoon of the last day.
Even the most resilient person, even the youngest scholar, would lose their composure after being confined in a small examination cubicle for three full days.
Tang Shen forced himself to stay awake and lit the incense that Wang Zhen had given him. Fortunately, unlike the tongshi, the most unbearable smell wasn't from the stench of excrement (since the examination hall had designated latrines), but from the sweat of men who hadn't bathed in three days. The incense could somewhat mask the odor.
Tang Shen looked at the topic of the examination poem, and at the top of the exam paper, the large characters read "Flowers Through the Ages."
Tang Shen's heart skipped a beat, and he instantly felt clear-headed.
Flowers Through the Ages?
Grand Secretary Yang really dared to give such a topic; he wasn't afraid the topic was too grand and would overwhelm the candidates?!
This topic originated from a poet of the previous dynasty. The original poem's content was no longer important; just this phrase "flowers through the ages" encompassed all the flowers of the vast land of China, from ancient times to the present!
At this moment, Tang Shen heard someone next to him cursing. The examinee next door, speaking in a thick Shengjing accent, was practically cursing Grand Secretary Yang to death. When the officers patrolled by, the cursing ceased immediately. It was just that at the final moments of the first session of the xiangshi, nearly everyone began writing their examination poems simultaneously, and the sound of people gasping in disbelief couldn't be stifled.
Tang Shen, with a bitter face, thought that although he was a science student, there were plenty of famous poems about flowers that he could easily recall a couple of. However, the xiangshi required a five-character, eight-line test poem. Even if Tang Shen had the intent to plagiarize another poem to help him pass as the top candidate, he couldn't find any poem that matched the required format and structure.
Simply writing a common flower poem wouldn’t be wrong, but if he wrote it brilliantly, he might score high. However, since Grand Secretary Yang set this topic, it was clear he didn't want candidates to merely write straightforward flower poems.
Besides, with Tang Shen's literary talent, scoring high was possible, but ranking in the top few with a simple flower poem was too difficult.
Tang Shen suddenly remembered a poem: "Fallen flowers are not heartless things, they turn into spring mud to nurture other flowers!" His eyes lit up.
Yes, while people later used candles and gardeners to metaphorically describe teachers, ancient people had done similar things, using fallen flowers to describe the reciprocal affection between flowers and leaves. He could totally take this angle and write a good "flower affection" poem.
Having made up his mind, Tang Shen drafted his poem in his head and began to write.
The thunder rumbles loudly, as the clear weather brings forth brilliance.
The grass spreads, connecting with a solitary branch, the rain strikes down the flowers.
…
Fallen flowers and people part ways, the flowers themselves are even more heartbroken.
Unbearable to be crushed into mud, they tilt towards you in spring.
Tang Shen wrote with divine inspiration, completing the five-character, eight-line test poem in one go. After finishing, he copied it onto his exam paper, blew on the ink, and then went back to check his three essays.
Tang Shen sighed, knowing how difficult it was to win the top spot.
But this time, he aimed to be in the top three!
Finally, after three days, the candidates had one night to go home and sleep, returning the next day to continue the exam.
After the officers collected the exam papers, Tang Shen picked up his exam basket and followed the other candidates out. As soon as he stood up, he felt a wave of dizziness from the accumulated exhaustion of the past three days. He staggered out of the examination hall with the crowd, vaguely hearing someone calling his name.
Tang Shen turned his head and dazedly looked at the approaching person.
Someone bumped into him, and he stumbled into the arms of the approaching person.
Wang Zhen was slightly taken aback, raised his hand to gently pat Tang Shen's face, and smiled, "Little Junior Brother?"
A thought flashed through Tang Shen's mind, "Don't pat my face," and he actually said it out loud. However, the next second, as Wang Zhen's expression turned into an amused smile, Tang Shen fell asleep on his feet. Wang Zhen quickly held him by the waist, preventing him from falling.
Yao San rushed over and asked, "What's wrong with the little boss?"
Wang Zhen held the boy, sighing with a smile yet also with helplessness, "He fell asleep!"
AN: Neighbor Wang: This is my first time holding someone, and also my first time being scolded by someone. Little Junior Brother, what do you think I should do?
Little Tang Lang: Zzz…