Chapter 049 Can Be the First in the Case
After copying it, Shen Yichen turned his attention to the first question: If the people are satisfied, how can the king be insufficient?
This question comes from the Analects of Confucius, Yan Yuan. The full text is that Duke Ai asked Youruo: "There is a famine this year and the necessities are insufficient. What should I do?"
Youruo replied, "Why not?"
He said, "Two is still not enough for me. How can I be thorough?"
He replied: "If the people are well-off, how can the ruler be dissatisfied? If the people are dissatisfied, how can the ruler be satisfied?"
The question setter captured a fragment from the last answer, which was also a common way of setting questions in ancient eight-part essays.
Relatively speaking, the questions this time are quite considerate of the candidates, at least the excerpts are complete. You should know that many examiners make questions by putting two words here and two words there, making the whole sentence difficult to read.
This kind of underworld test question is also called "intercepting question".
The full translation of this conversation roughly means that Duke Ai of Lu asked Youruo: "The harvest is poor and the national reserve is insufficient. What should I do?"
Youruo replied: "Why not implement a tax rate of 10%?"
Duke Ai of Lu said, "Two out of ten is not enough, why do we have to implement one out of ten?"
Youruo replied, "If the people have enough, how can the monarch be short of money? If the people have insufficient money, how can the monarch be sufficient?"
If you want to write eight-legged essay
However, many times, even if you know the full content of the text, it is not easy to solve the problem accurately, and this is the case with Shen Yichen now.
Just from the literal meaning, this is the discussion between Duke Ai of Lu and Youruo on people's livelihood issues. It is proposed that as a ruler, the interests must be consistent with the interests of the people. Only when the interests of the people are protected can the personal interests of the ruler be satisfied.
The direction pointed out by the whole article is actually Confucius's "benevolent government" thinking.
But the question is, how should we express it, and which words of the saints are appropriate to substitute?
Another more important point is that this is not an examination by teachers like Li Tingxiu or Lin Zhen. All you have to do is to solve the problems accurately and write beautifully.
This is a county exam, and the examiner, County Magistrate Zhou, will judge the candidates. Everyone has their own preferences for writing styles. This means that in addition to answering accurately, you also have to satisfy County Magistrate Zhou, otherwise you may not get a high score.
This is why writing eight-legged essays is difficult. Many times, one must not only consider the essay, but also the human heart.
After hesitating for a long time, Shen Yichen finally started writing.
The first sentence he wrote was "If the people are prosperous below, the monarch will naturally be prosperous above." This sentence means that if the people below are prosperous, then the monarch above will naturally be prosperous.
Shen Yichen judged two core ideas of this test question. The first is that the monarch should care about the suffering of the people, and the second is to share the wealth with the people.
Originally, Shen Yichen's idea for solving the question was close to the first point, but then he thought that the idea that the monarch cares about the suffering of the people did not sound like what the county examiner would express. It was more like the way of thinking required for the imperial examination to select the pillars of the country.
So he chose the idea of sharing wealth with the people.
Now that he had a direction, the difficulty of the subsequent writing, such as the topic development and introduction, suddenly decreased for Shen Yichen.
Because now the contents of the Four Books have been engraved in Shen Yichen's mind. It may be an exaggeration to say that he can recite them by heart, but it should be almost the same that he knows them by heart.
So the advantage of eight-legged essay is that it does not require too many words of expression of one's own. As long as one has a good enough memory, one can always find suitable sentences in the Four Books or annotations to substitute.
With the first article solved, the second article, Four Books and Eight-part Essay, was a piece of cake. Shen Yichen was completely in the test state, writing furiously throughout the whole process, not paying attention to the changes in the outside world.
When it comes to the final five-character and six-rhyme poetry, that is no problem at all.
This is not to say that Shen Yichen is so good at poetry and can write it easily, but the trial poem is not critical anyway, just write it in the right format and it will not affect the overall situation.
When Shen Yichen finished all the test questions, he raised his head and subconsciously wanted to look around, but apart from the blue bricks and black tiles, he could not see the situation of other students at all.
But these are not important. Shen Yichen immediately began to copy his test paper. You know, in ancient imperial examinations, neatness of the test paper was a very important indicator, and the higher the level of the exam, the more important it was.
When copying, your hands must not shake. If you make a mistake and then correct it, your impression score will be greatly reduced. If you are unlucky and meet a strict examiner who rejects your test paper directly after seeing the mistake, you will have no place to cry.
Of course, for school-level exams such as county exams, the requirements for neatness of the papers are not so strict, and some minor corrections and typos are acceptable.
But in order to get the highest possible score, Shen Yichen wrote the entire test paper neatly, and coupled with his standard Taige style, it looked quite pleasing to the eye.
After copying the paper, Shen Yichen did not hesitate and stood up to hand in the paper in advance. He was thinking whether he could talk to the chief examiner, County Magistrate Zhou, to ease the previous misunderstanding.
If I really had to reject my own test paper just because of a “little friend” address, how unfair it would be…
After standing up, Shen Yichen walked out of the cell. The patrolling soldiers saw that he was holding the test paper in his hand and knew that he was going to hand it in early, so they did not come to stop him.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to hand in the papers, Shen Yichen also took a curious look at the other students. Some were as relaxed as he was, while others were racking their brains and looking worried as they looked at the papers.
Shen Yichen even saw students in two dormitories sleeping soundly on their desks. He didn't know what kind of mental qualities they had to sleep so soundly in such an environment.
In addition, Shen Yichen also saw Zhu Qingyu's dormitory in the "golden location" of the dormitory. Probably because they were in the same Chengguogong private school, the two people were actually not far apart.
The boy supported his chin with one hand and ground ink in the inkstone with the other hand. The test paper was blank except for a few big characters. He was in a daze and didn't notice Shen Yichen walking past him.
If nothing unexpected happens, we will see this kid taking the exam again in the next Jiangning County Examination.
Jiangning County Magistrate Zhou Shun sat in the chief examiner's seat at the top of the examination room, his eyes scanning the surroundings from time to time. In addition to preventing cheating by making noise, he also wanted to prevent any students from making fire to cook and causing a fire.
However, the county exam was only one day long, so anyone with a normal brain would not bring raw food in. Even those who finished quickly like Shen Yichen did not even need to eat, and left at noon.
"Your Excellency, I saw a candidate walking out of the dormitory. I wonder who will be the first to hand in the paper this year."
The fellow examiner, Jiangning County Magistrate, saw what Shen Yichen did and said something to Zhou Shun.
"Oh, it's only noon, who can answer questions so quickly."
Zhou Shun was also a little curious. Anyone who could hand in the paper so quickly must be very knowledgeable and talented.
Of course, there is another possibility, that is, just write something without any knowledge, and hand it in quickly so that you can have a good lunch...
However, if you just write something sloppily and hand it in, it will leave a very bad impression on the examiner, and you will basically have no chance of passing the county exam under him in your lifetime.
As the examinee who handed in his paper gradually approached, Zhou Shun finally saw clearly who the person was. He was Shen Yichen, the illegitimate son of Duke Cheng!
To be honest, Zhou Shun didn't feel surprised when he saw Shen Yichen was the first to hand in his paper. Maybe it was because of his performance at the family dinner that day, or maybe it was because of the lyrics and music that were circulated at the Winter Solstice Poetry Meeting, which made him believe that Shen Yichen was a talented person.
"Father and mother, student Shen Yichen has handed in his paper."
As Shen Yichen spoke, he handed the test paper in his hand to Zhou Shun, and at the same time observed the changes in his expression to see if there was any possibility of easing the relationship.
"I won first place in this county exam, not bad."
Zhou Shun praised him affirmatively, but his facial expression showed no joy, anger, sorrow or happiness, which made Shen Yichen a little uneasy.
I don’t know whether the other party is just being polite or sincerely praising me.
"My dear father, if there is any misunderstanding, please be lenient."
Shen Yichen also took the risk and apologized directly. No matter whether the other party accepted it or not, at least his attitude was shown, which was better than being rejected for no reason.
Zhou Shun was a little confused when Shen Yichen suddenly said this. What was this kid thinking? He just handed in the paper in advance. Is it necessary for him to be lenient?
Could it be that this kid just wrote something randomly and handed in the paper casually?
When he thought of this possibility, Zhou Shun quickly opened Shen Yichen's test paper and checked it. In his mind, this student was a very talented person and would not do such a stupid thing.
Seeing that County Magistrate Zhou started to review his test paper directly, it was Shen Yichen's turn to be confused. This kind of behavior of the other party was called an on-the-spot interview in the county examination.
In theory, the examiner is very fond of this student, and after reading the opening, he is very satisfied with the essay, so he will review it in class. Then he will give another question to test the student, and if he passes it, he will be admitted directly!
Is he planning to pick me out right away, or is he planning to eliminate me right away?
After Zhou Shun opened the test paper, he didn't even read the opening question. Just the handwriting that caught his eyes shocked him.
Not to mention Zhou Shun, the two examiners on both sides showed surprise on their faces. This handwriting doesn't look like something a schoolboy can write. If it is put in the imperial examination, it can be regarded as the top scorer's handwriting, right?
Zhou Shun suppressed his inner shock and continued reading. The more he read, the more shocked he became!
Because these two eight-part essays not only have accurate introductions to the topics, but are also well-balanced with parallel prose and beautiful rhymes and rhythms in each essay, it is no exaggeration to call them model essays for the imperial examinations.
What is even more valuable is that these few words fully explain the scholar-officials' strategy for governing the country.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Zhou Shun slowly put down the test paper in his hand and looked around.
"Everyone, I think this article deserves to be the first in the case!"
