Zhou Chong carried the huge test box and said to Wang Yuan: "Second brother, everything is packed. You can check it again."
Wang Yuan squatted in front of the examination box and looked through it slowly. He found two writing brushes, two inkstones, three ink sticks, dry food, drinking water, candles, fire seals... everything was available. In addition, there were oilcloths and blankets, which were bundled and not needed.
Put it in the test box.
"Gah!"
Several doors in the courtyard were pushed open one after another.
The book boys held torches, and the students clasped their fists and blessed each other: "You will definitely succeed in this subject!"
Although Jin Lei didn't say anything, he still cupped his fists and returned the greeting to the others.
The students in the yard outside were also ready. There was another burst of blessings, and everyone came to the street one after another.
Qingyun Street was crowded with people, the light of torches was everywhere, and laughter could be heard from time to time. Occasionally, there was an exclamation, but I forgot to bring my admission ticket, so I ran back to my residence to get it.
Even if you rent a house near Gongyuan, you have to pack it up at one o'clock in the morning. If you stay in a hotel farther away, you have to prepare to go out the night before.
Before the fourth watch, at about 2:30 in the morning, all living beings gathered in front of the dragon gate.
The government has prepared long lanterns, each with the name of a place written on it. For example, Wang Yuan and others gathered in front of the lantern of "Xuanweisi, Guizhou" - if it were a place in the south of the Yangtze River, they would line up in county units.
, because there are many candidates in each county.
Tian Qiu said goodbye to Wang Yuan with fists clasped, and ran to line up in front of the "Guizhou Sinan Mansion" sign. There were only more than ten people in his line.
Wang Yuan carefully observed the entire Guizhou team and found that there were nearly 400 people taking the exam. He may have been stimulated by the two additional quotas for candidates this year.
If we follow the imperial court's standard of one out of thirty, the number of full candidates in Guizhou should be 630. If there are more than one, you cannot register. After the provincial examination, the academic officials of each province will determine the list based on the results. The number of candidates cannot exceed the province.
The quota is multiplied by thirty.
There are several gates in the Gongyuan. All Guizhou scholars gathered at the west gate and were called by the examiner. The middle gate received the most attention, and the examiner personally called the names.
"Wang Yuan, student member of Guizhou Xuanwei Department!"
When Wang Yuan heard his name, he walked over quickly carrying the test box.
One proctor took the admission ticket and carefully compared Wang Yuan's appearance and features. Another proctor searched Wang Yuan's exam box, and finally another proctor searched him.
After the examination, the examiner said to Wang Yuan: "Go and get your papers and wait for the admission number."
Wang Yuan received the answer sheet and draft paper and stood inside waiting.
Li Ying came in a long time ago and said with a smile: "I hope I won't get the shit number, haha."
Shit rooms are rooms specially used for defecating and peeing. Each examination room has one or two rooms.
Fortunately, in the Ming Dynasty, exams lasted only one day, so there was not much urine and feces. In the Qing Dynasty, exams lasted for three days, during which time they had to eat, drink, and defecate in the examination room. You can imagine the stench of feces.
After waiting for a while, it was finally Wang Yuan's turn to enter and he quickly found his seat.
Oh my god, we are four or five exam seats away from Shit No., so at least the impact will not be too big.
The examination room is a large square. Some provinces are very wealthy and directly pave it with bluestone slabs. The Yunnan side is a little worse, and the ground is all tamped mud. Since the Gongyuan has not been opened for three years, the grass grows taller than people, so it needs to be done in advance.
After a month or two of cleaning, some grass poles remained under Wang Yuan's seat.
There are many trumpets in the square, each about ten feet long, like a bamboo cage for livestock. The trumpets are divided into countless trumpets (examination rooms), which are about the same size as security booths, but very low. Wang Yuan
You can only go in while bending down.
As soon as Wang Yuan entered the dormitory, a soldier came over immediately. This type of soldier was called "Hao Army".
A trumpeter guards a candidate to prevent cheating, but they can only stand outside the dormitory and cannot enter the room to disturb the candidate's answer.
Wang Yuan Mao stood up and cleaned the cobwebs, dust and other foreign objects in his cell. Then he took out hammers, nails and oilcloth, and covered the entire cell with oilcloth to prevent the wind, sun and rain.
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If the oilcloth is not nailed firmly, you have to worry about accidents - let alone the rain, if there is a strong wind, the answer sheet you wrote will be blown away, and you will not be able to cry at all.
Nailing oilcloth is an essential skill for scholars, and even the giant baby genius Jin Lei is very good at it.
After finishing all these preparations, it was already the fifth watch (about five o'clock in the morning).
"Boom...boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
One slow, four fast, and five tones signified that the watch was being played outside. The watchman even shouted a slogan to ward off ghosts and exorcise ghosts: "Repay injustice when there is injustice, and revenge when there is hatred!"
After working hard for most of the night, the candidates still wanted to take a nap, but when they heard this shouting, they couldn't sleep anymore.
Wang Yuan was more careless and fell asleep on the table.
But less than a quarter of an hour after falling asleep, the trumpeter standing outside knocked on the dormitory and reminded: "Mr. sir, get up, the question paper is here!"
Historically, due to the serious phenomenon of cheating in the imperial examinations, the Jiajing Dynasty carried out many reforms. For example, the questions of the rural examination must be decided by the examiner and the supervising officer on the day of the examination, and candidates were allowed to give random and strange questions.
But it is still the Zhengde period, and there are not so many rules in the rural examination. The examination questions are given two or three days in advance, and questions that disturb the meaning of the classics are not allowed - such questions can at most be asked when the candidates are taking the exam.
At this time, the sky was slightly bright. Wang Yuan lit a candle and studied the ink while reading the title.
The rural examinations in the Ming Dynasty were very intense. There was one test a day. In the first test, seven eight-part essays were required, including three questions from the Four Books and four questions from the Five Classics. The papers had to be submitted in the evening. In other words, the real time to answer the questions was only
In one day, seven eight-part essays are enough to keep candidates busy.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was much more time. The content of the examination did not change much, but there were three days and two nights to answer the questions, and even a foreigner could grind out the exams.
After briefly scanning the seven questions, Wang Yuan closed his eyes to formulate the first question.
When the sky became clear, Wang Yuan blew out the candles and began to sketch on the draft paper. No one came to stamp the provincial examination, so he could freely arrange the time and just hand in the paper before dusk.
The first question is taken from "Mencius: End of the Heart": "What is great and transformed is called sage, and what is sage but unknowable is called god."
The examiner was very tricky in setting the questions. He was discussing the word "sacred" and even Zhu Xi's annotations did not explain it clearly.
Zhu Xi just quoted Zhang Zai and Cheng Yi, and added his own understanding to explain, to the effect: "It can be done in a big way, but it is difficult to do in a big way. In a big way, it means that a person's greatness has been integrated into all aspects.
You can’t even see his greatness, this is a saint. As for God, it’s not that there is a god-man above the saint, but that the god-man has reached the ultimate level, which mortals can’t even imagine.”
If you connect it with the context of "Mencius", you can explain it from the perspective of "learning and achieving it", but if you want to write the eight-part essay brilliantly, you must connect it with the "only sincerity in the world can be transformed" in "The Doctrine of the Mean".
Most of the candidates have already started writing at this time, but they are basically limited to "Mencius: All the Heart", and it is difficult to associate with the relevant content of "The Doctrine of the Mean".
Wang Yuan smiled and quickly answered the question: "The great sage was named after the Holy Spirit to show his great achievements in learning."
He also started the topic from "learning to achieve it", and then used "principle" to carry on the topic: "As far as the Holy Spirit is concerned, it is all the same principle." Then he started talking: "But if it is not learning, how can it be tamed? Is that so?"
The wonderful thing is that after "Zhonggu", it goes directly to "The Doctrine of the Mean", which explains that only those who are sincere can reach the Holy Spirit. The whole article concludes with "Learning with Sincerity", and returns to "Mencius: Whole Heart" to Learning, sincerity, benevolence, wisdom, kindness, and rationality are perfectly combined with greatness to transform into sage, and sage is unknowable.
At any rate, Wang Yuan studied with Wang Yangming for more than a year and unconsciously integrated into the idea of "unity of knowledge and action", but the expression was not abrupt and did not violate Zhu Xi's annotations.