As the stars turn and the drums sound at the fourth watch, the banquets in Bianjing gradually subside. The guests either lie down with beautiful women or return home under the stars, preparing to sleep until the sun turns west, and then continue to have fun. "
》
Chen Ke belongs to the latter. Although he likes to look for flowers, he doesn't like to sleep in brothels. Without the feeling of home, he can't sleep well, which is also an important reason why he has been reluctant to move out.
When he got home, Chen Xiliang had already gotten up and was preparing to go to court after breakfast. Chen Ke wanted to ask Wu Lang about his marriage, so he went to the front hall to ask for a greeting. Chen Xiliang looked at him and said: "No matter how good your health is, you can't live for three days."
The two of them played all night long."
"It's only every three to five at most, how can it be every two days." Chen Ke sat down, and Lan Pei, who was now promoted to his aunt, served him a bowl of tangerine peel hangover soup.
Chen Ke took it and drank it in one gulp. Lan Pei served him another bowl of fish porridge. He asked a few questions about Wu Lang's marriage and heard that it had been decided and that the daughter of the Wang family was a beauty. Chen Ke said happily
: "It's true that he couldn't find anything after trying hard to find it, and it took no effort to get it. It turned out that marriage was waiting for him there."
"Yes, I finally got rid of my heart disease." Chen Xiliang looked at him and said, "Don't just listen to me..."
Chen Ke knew that his father was going to nag him again, so he stood up and was about to leave, but Chen Xiliang stopped him again and said: "As a rule, after passing the imperial examination, you will have a year's leave to go back and take care of your family affairs. You wait until the imperial examination is over,
Just take a leave of absence quickly and go back to fetch Su Xiaomei. When the time comes, I will ask Erlang to go back as well. You must also arrange for his marriage to be smooth. Whether it is a knot or not, you have to give him confirmation. Why are you hanging on like this all the time?
!”
"Oh." Chen Ke responded casually: "Go out quickly, be careful that you will be fined for being late."
"I have to leave a long time ago." Chen Xiliang took the official hat from Lan Pei, stood up and went out.
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When we arrived at Dailuyuan, there was already a lively discussion. After a brief celebration, controversy arose. Because of Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi, they suppressed the "Tai Xue Ti" with thunderous means, which led to a group of highly vocal candidates
This one-size-fits-all approach will naturally arouse heated discussions among officials. Moreover, among the candidates affected, there are many children of prominent officials in the capital, so there are some angry and even abusive voices.
At this time, Chen Xiliang, who has vested interests, is naturally cautious, and he will inevitably be shot while lying down, and be ridiculed. Most of them are based on the relationship between his sons and Ouyang Xiu. There are also hints that Chen Ke's achievements are
He got it by cheating. Brother Xiaoliang has a bad temper. At that time, he grabbed those people and made a fight outside Xinzheng.
Not to mention the two instigators, Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi, were scolded to death...
"The Taixue style does not have the rigidity of parallel prose. It is not straightforward and plain, and the words and sentences have new meanings. It can fully reflect the talents of scholars, what is wrong with it? What's more, such a style of writing is respected by the world, but why should it be the same?
Beat him to death with a stick?" an official was heard sighing.
"The purpose of recruiting scholars is to select talents from all over the world for the imperial court. The drunkard and Wang Jiefu deposed the world-recognized talents based on their own likes and dislikes. They are really abandoning the public service for private purposes and acting wantonly!" Someone else said angrily: "Treat the country.
Is this official weapon used as a tool for them to select their disciples?!"
"I heard that the drunkard recited poems and made music with all the examiners while he was locked up in the courtyard. After he left, the others were still very interested in poetry, and his singing and compositions were enough to publish several poetry collections. If he was so obsessed with singing, how much thought was put into grading exams?
Can the evaluated scores really represent the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses? I don’t think so.”
"Besides, Wang Jiefu, who was only in his thirties, became the examiner of the general examination. How can such a shallow young man judge the world's scholars, and how can he convince the public?" As soon as this statement came out, there was a chorus of echoes: "Yes,
We want to join him, as well as Uncle Ouyang Yong, who recommended him, to bring justice to all the scholars in the world!"
The sounds of crusade came and went. It was not until Ouyang Xiu entered the waiting courtyard that he temporarily stopped.
But the barriers in people's hearts did not disappear. Finally, someone couldn't help but ask: "Drunkard, I heard that you tried a method for the society, 'Through its changes, the people will not tire of their gifts.' I am puzzled.
When I went home and looked up the "Book of Changes", it was clear that the original text was 'Through its changes, the people will not be tired', so why is there an extra 'and'?"
"Although the proposition of the general examination requires that every sentence has its source, it does not have to be word for word. Adding the word "er" to 'to make the people untiring through changes' does not change the meaning, but the tone becomes more pronounced when read.
Soothing, ups and downs are exactly the beauty of poetry and music, why not?" Ouyang Xiu responded calmly.
"Sure enough, it's the 'drunkard who prefers exogenous things'!" Someone immediately answered.
As soon as this statement came out, there was a lot of snickering. This was not a discussion of literary issues with Ouyang Xiu, but a use of the homophonic pronunciation of "exogenously born" to insinuate the old news that he had an affair with his niece.
That was a scandal used by political opponents to attack him during the Qingli New Deal. It turned out that Ouyang Xiu's sister was widowed soon after she got married, and her evil husband's ex-wife left an orphan. Ouyang Xiu took pity on them and took them into his home to raise them. His niece
After growing up, she married Ouyang Sheng, Ouyang's distant nephew. However, she did not follow the rules of a woman and had an affair with a domestic servant, and was reported.
Ouyang Xiu's political rivals, Du Yan and others, realized that this was a good opportunity to get rid of Ouyang Xiu, so they ordered You Si Qu to make a move, forcing the niece to admit that Ouyang Xiu had 60xs with him, and also misappropriated her natal family's property - someone had purchased her natal family's property in advance.
The land was owned by Ouyang Xiu.
Obviously this was a premeditated political struggle, with the purpose of putting Ouyang Xiu to death. Although the officials did not believe that Ouyang Xiu would do such an immoral thing, and issued many edicts to express their attitude, people's words are terrible, not to mention Du Yan and others
He was as unwilling as a mad dog, so he had to demote Ouyang Xiu to Chuzhou.
This was a scar that Ouyang Xiu could not remove for the rest of his life. He was so angry that his face turned red, his lips kept moving, and there were signs of a stroke.
Fortunately, at this time, all the gentlemen arrived one after another. Han Qi glanced at everyone coldly and said in a voice like stone: "Are they all stepped on the tail? If you see it, lift it up! The book has been read into the dog's belly.
I'm ashamed of you for spreading rumors and slandering here!" Then he said to the censor on duty: "What do you do for a living? Just let them make such a noise?"
"I have said it several times," the censor quickly lowered his head and said, "but it's useless."
"It's you who are useless, it's not the censor who is useless." Han Qi snorted coldly and entered the room.
As expected, Xianggong Han's power was endless. After that, there was silence in the courtyard, and no one dared to gossip anymore.
It was not until the bell rang that Wang Anshi arrived belatedly. He stood in line as usual and did not notice anything unusual in the atmosphere.
Next to him was an official of the same age who was thin, with a yellow face and a black beard, and a square appearance. When he saw that Wang Anshi had escaped, he couldn't help but smile and said: "Studying all night again?"
"Yeah. I just lay down for a while at midnight, and my wife didn't call me in time." Wang Anshi nodded and said to the man: "Jun Shi, the books you recommended are really good. I was very impressed by them. I'm here tonight.
I'll go over there and we'll light up the lamp and talk at night."
"There's no rush." The man he called Jun Shi was none other than Sima Guang, who had yet to realize his lofty ambitions. He was destined to be on the bench after his failure, so there was plenty of time. He said softly: "You'd better fight.
Please be patient and get over this hurdle."
"What's wrong?" Wang Anshi asked strangely: "What happened?"
"Didn't you cause it yourself?" Sima Guang used the time before going to court to briefly explain to him the incident just now.
"..." Wang Anshi listened silently and nodded slightly to show that he understood.
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In the early dynasty, it was true that there were censors who participated in Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi's reckless behavior, but the officials said that such selection of scholars was their own instruction and took over the responsibility.
Others used the admission list to make trouble, pointing out that many of Ouyang Xiu's students Zeng Gong, Chen Ke, and their relatives were in the middle of the exam, and Chen Ke, the sixth place in the exam, was able to pass the exam successfully even though he was suspected of cheating.
If you are successful, I am afraid that there may be disciplinary violations such as leaking the questions in advance and the examiner showing favoritism, and the court is required to investigate strictly.
In the official way, except for poems and poems, which were ordered by Ouyang Xiu, the rest of the examination questions were all composed by himself and were not announced until the last moment. Moreover, this subject emphasizes policy theory and neglects poems and poems. All the candidates are selected based on policy theory.
It's not based on poetry, so it's untenable to reveal the topic in advance.
As for Chen Ke's suspicion, Zhao Zhendao said that the matter had been found out. It was because of a personal grudge that someone bribed the inspection soldiers and framed him. For this reason, the imperial court changed the chief examiner and sent the imperial city soldiers to conduct a new inspection.
This is enough to ensure the fairness of the imperial examination.
"However, the truth was found out after the examination, and the examiner did not know about it. Why did he dare to allow him to take the examination and win the exam before he was cleared of suspicion?" Officials in the Song Dynasty would not be polite to the officials.
.
Zhao Zhen looked at Wang Anshi and said, "Wang Qing's family is here to explain this problem."
"Well." Wang Anshi came out and said, "Then Chen Ke was able to enter the exam after he was cleared of suspicion."
"How do you prove that he is exonerated?"
"I asked him to memorize the Complete Annotations of the Five Classics on the spot." Wang Anshi said calmly.
"full text?"
"full text."
"How is it possible?" The official didn't believe it: "If the entire article is 100,000 words long, how long will it take to copy it?"
"I don't know how long it took to copy it. But it took him a day and a half to write the words silently. To be precise, it was sixteen hours." Wang Anshi said lightly: "In Zhigongzhong, there are twenty-seven examiners.
The signature is signed as proof. It has been archived in the Ministry of Etiquette along with his test paper, and you can retrieve it at any time."
"Transferred." Zhao Zhen waved his hand, and immediately officials from the Ministry of Rites, accompanied by the guards of the Imperial City Department, hurried out of the palace to get it.