The Kingdom That Never Sleeps CH 041 Correct Mistakes If Any, Maintain Good Record If Not
"'Escaping Mohism inevitably leads to Yangism,' originates from 'Mencius: Exhausting One’s Heart.' The original sentence is 'Escaping Mohism inevitably leads to Yangism, escaping Yangism inevitably leads to Confucianism.'
During the Warring States period, it wasn’t as vibrant with a hundred schools of thought as the Spring and Autumn period, but there were three major schools that were widely accepted: Mohism, Yang Zhu's school, and Confucianism. 'Escaping Mohism inevitably leads to Yangism' is Mencius's evaluation of these three schools. It means that abandoning the Mohist school inevitably leads to the Yang Zhu school, and abandoning the Yang Zhu school inevitably leads to the Confucian school.
In short, Mencius saw the Confucian school as the orthodoxy and the ultimate righteous path of all schools.
If we look at the topic itself, it isn’t particularly difficult to write about. The Mohist school advocates universal love and non-aggression, emphasizing self-sacrifice to benefit others and bringing prosperity to the people. The Yang Zhu school is about individualism, disregarding others and the world, not harming others and only benefiting oneself. Tang Shen could immediately think of two ways to approach the topic, such as writing from the perspective of benefiting oneself versus benefiting others, using the two schools to promote Confucian thoughts of benefiting both oneself and others.
However, all this is based on the premise of criticizing Mohism and Yangism and extolling Confucianism.
Tang Shen looked at the topic on the paper and then looked up at the distant Mingyuan Tower, sighing deeply.
But who in the world does not know that the current emperor Zhao Fu is pursuing immortality and refining elixirs, having long been inclined towards Daoism!
Yang Zhu's school is precisely one of the three classics of Daoism.
Although Zhao Fu has never publicly claimed to honor Daoism and values Confucianism greatly, even writing memorial articles on Confucius’s birthday every year, his obsession with Daoism is evident to all in the court. While there is no issue with Grand Secretary Li setting this question, if an examinee fully criticizes Yang Zhu, it might be reported to Zhao Fu if he ever rises to a high official position by a political opponent.
The emperor's mind is difficult to gauge, serving the emperor is like serving a tiger; who knows how Zhao Fu will react!
Tang Shen thought there were only two possibilities. Either Zhao Fu is not a tyrant who punishes speech and won’t care, or Zhao Fu is sensitive to criticism of his pursuit of immortality. In any case, if Zhao Fu ever wanted to punish an official, this essay criticizing Daoism could be one of the reasons for his downfall.
Other examinees might not think so far ahead, but Tang Shen had to consider it.
He was not just seeing the current examination but also looking towards the future!
Closing his eyes, Tang Shen discarded all his initial ideas. He chose the simplest, safest approach, which was also the least impressive, and then began writing: "Observing those with different ideologies from Confucianism, they often become easily angered and fearful due to their exposure to these wicked principles. Thus, abandoning Mohism, they turn to Yang Zhu, seeking broad-minded tranquility. But why, after abandoning Mohism, do they turn to Yang Zhu?"
Yes, Tang Shen discarded all the broader, more expansive ideas and directly tackled the question, writing an essay on why people abandon Mohism for Yang Zhu's school. This was a safe, generic essay; Tang Shen did not say Yang Zhu's school was correct, nor did he greatly denigrate it.
Never had he written such a laborious essay. Tang Shen knew that his approach to the topic was not outstanding, so he focused on logic and argumentation, spending three hours meticulously choosing every word, finally completing the second essay. By the time he finished, he found his back drenched in sweat!
In the cold month of February, he was drenched in sweat!
After completing the essay on the draft paper, Tang Shen stared at it, unsure whether he had made the right choice.
Was he overthinking it? This was just an essay in the huishi; he shouldn't worry so much.
But then he thought, "If it were Wang Zifeng, he would have done the same."
Having written it, Tang Shen believed his essay, while not extraordinary, was certainly among the top tier of examinees. He copied the essay neatly and slept, exhausted. When he awoke, it was already the third day of the examination.
Before sleeping, Tang Shen had already seen the third topic: "I examine myself thrice daily."
Zengzi said: "I examine myself thrice daily: in my dealings with others, have I been disloyal? In my interactions with friends, have I been untrustworthy? Have I failed to review what I have learned?"
This quote is from 'The Analects: Shu Er,' and it is a classic familiar to later generations. After finishing the second essay, Tang Shen was inevitably a bit frustrated, but upon seeing the third topic, his mood brightened, and he almost laughed out loud in the examination hall.
Typically, the three essays in the first session of the huishi would be two from 'The Analects' or 'Mencius' and one from 'The Great Learning' or 'The Doctrine of the Mean.' But Grand Secretary Li, the chief examiner, was not typical! The first topic was obscure and strange, the second could potentially anger the emperor, and the third topic was another from 'The Analects'!
In his previous life, Tang Shen had been a pure science student with limited study on language and literature, but he could not possibly be unfamiliar with the phrase "I examine myself thrice daily." He even knew another quote."
"Correct mistakes if there are any, encourage yourself if there are none!"
This is Zhu Xi's commentary on the saying "I reflect on myself three times a day."
At such a moment, Tang Shen did not hold back and directly used Zhu Xi's approach to start the essay. Following Zhu Xi's viewpoint, he wrote an extensive piece: "Zong Sheng reflects on himself thrice daily, observes benevolence and loyalty, and aspires to learn. If a sage does so, then I must also correct my mistakes if there are any and encourage myself if there are none!"
The third essay was written in one go, and when Tang Shen reviewed it, he found it stirring. Even with just the phrase "Correct mistakes if there are any, encourage yourself if there are none," he was sure to score high, even if the rest of his writing wasn't perfect.
After copying the final eight-legged essay onto the official exam paper, Tang Shen looked at the last task, a five-character eight-line test poem.
The topic was: "The wind and rain are bleak."
The wind and rain are bleak, the rooster crows. Now that I see the gentleman, why should I not be happy?
This is from "The Book of Songs, National Airs, Zheng Rain."
This poem depicts a bleak scene of wind and rain and expresses a woman's longing for her lover. After some thought, Tang Shen wrote his test poem:
I hear the news and search for the clouds, hearing the wind and startling the cicadas.
The rain hits the green plantains, and thunder rumbles in the depths.
…
The white-haired road to return is exhausted, the cuckoo cries in longing.
In the huishi, handwriting and calligraphy weren't that important since the final exam papers the officials saw were not handwritten by the examinees. Nevertheless, Tang Shen carefully copied the test poem onto the paper, checked it thoroughly, and then stood up to hand in his paper.
As he walked out of his assigned cubicle and entered the corridor, he unexpectedly ran into Mei Shengze.
Mei Shengze was also pleasantly surprised to see him and said, "Jing Ze, how do you feel?"
Tang Shen honestly replied, "What shamelessness!"
Mei Shengze immediately lost the joy of seeing his friend and gloomily said, "Utter shamelessness!"
The two laughed heartily and chatted as they walked out of the exam hall.
Mei Shengze said, "That first question took me two hours just to decide how to break it open. I'm not good at the eight-legged essay, and both you and Brother Liu Fang are better than me at it. Now great, the test poem topic 'the wind and rain are bleak' is extremely simple, but the first eight-legged essay was extremely difficult! Luckily, the next two eight-legged essay topics from Grand Secretary Li were simpler, otherwise, I would have definitely crashed my head into one of the pillars of the Mingyuan Tower today!"
Tang Shen immediately knew that Mei Shengze hadn't spent as much time thinking about the second essay as he had.
The two walked out of the examination hall and bid each other farewell.
Yao San had been waiting for Tang Shen outside the gate with a doctor for a long time. Tang Shen said, "Let's go home first. This time, my health is pretty good. Thanks to the experience from the xiangshi, I'm fine this time. Let's go home, take a bath, and sleep, and I'll come back for the exam tomorrow."
Yao San and Accountant Lin both sighed in relief.
That night, after a hot bath and a good night's sleep, Tang Shen returned to the gate of the Shengjing Examination Hall before dawn the next day.
Wang Zhen had once told Tang Shen that among the four grand secretaries of the Hanlin Academy, Grand Secretary Yang and Grand Secretary Pan liked "The Book of Changes," while Grand Secretary Zhou liked "The Spring and Autumn Annals." Only Grand Secretary Li's preferences weren't mentioned. Tang Shen didn't ask because he knew that if Wang Zhen didn't mention it, it was likely that Grand Secretary Li didn't have a particular preference among the Five Classics. He might prefer "The Analects," hence the two questions from "The Analects" in the first session of the exam.
Since Grand Secretary Li had a balanced liking for the Five Classics, Tang Shen chose the simplest topic and began answering.
Three days later, Tang Shen walked out of the exam hall, looking slightly pale.
Yao San immediately approached him.
Tang Shen said, "No worries, just tired."
After a good sleep, Tang Shen gathered his energy and returned to the prison-like exam cubicle, where he stayed for another three days and nights, answering the current affairs questions for the third session of the huishi.
The nine-day-long huishi with three sessions finally ended. As soon as they returned home, Shopkeeper Lu came over. He had clearly timed his visit perfectly for when Tang Shen finished his exam, but upon seeing him, Tang Shen waved his hand and said, "Come back tomorrow."
Shopkeeper Lu smiled helplessly and said, "Alright, I'll do as the little boss says."
The next day, Tang Shen slept until late morning. As he ate the Shengjing pastries bought by Feng Bi and drank porridge, Shopkeeper Lu knocked and entered. He saluted Tang Shen and said, "Little Boss, it's done! The day before yesterday, while you were still taking the exam, Shopkeeper Xing from the Qianli Tower approached me. He bluntly pointed out that I am the shopkeeper of Xixia Tower in Gusu and then subtly asked if we wanted to cooperate with Autumn Hall to sell soap and the Golden Wisp!"
Upon hearing this, Tang Shen immediately put down his bowl and asked, "He knows you are the shopkeeper of Xixia Tower?"
"Of course. Two months ago, I handed him the gift box containing Golden Wisp, and I was puzzled. Little Boss, we made our intentions very clear that we wanted to cooperate with Autumn Hall. Why did Shopkeeper Xing act like he didn't receive the gift and didn't understand at all? Now I understand, he didn't pretend not to understand, he was secretly investigating my identity before approaching us!"
Tang Shen smiled and said, "To make Qianli Tower and Autumn Hall the top brands in Shengjing, Shopkeeper Xing is certainly no ordinary person. How did your talks with him go?"
Shopkeeper Lu explained the preliminary agreements he had reached with Shopkeeper Xing, saying, "...I don't see this as a problem. Shopkeeper Xing's conditions are quite favorable. However, specific matters can't be decided by just the two of us shopkeepers. Shopkeeper Xing wants you to meet the owner behind Qianli Tower to finalize the details."
Tang Shen was surprised and asked, "Prince Xiaoyao, Zhao Ao?"
Shopkeeper Lu replied, "No, it's the heir of Prince Jing, Zhao Qiong."
A figure flashed through Tang Shen's mind, and he nodded, "Alright, a meeting is necessary."
AN: Neighbor Wang: No scenes today?
Little Tang Lang: Huh, what kind of scenes do you want then?