Chapter 33 The examination room is like a battlefield
It is mentioned in [Yang Shen] that there is no god in the world. When more people worship him, there will be a god.
Here, Huang Shang also had similar emotions.
Confucius was not a saint at first, but he became the most holy when many people worshiped him.
It is unimaginable that a statue made of ordinary clay in an unremarkable Gongyuan in the prefecture would have such splendid literary style.
"The most holy teacher, the teacher to all generations!"
Huang Shang sighed in his heart.
No matter how much later generations discuss Confucius and Confucianism, we cannot deny the changes he brought to the world.
As a Confucian scholar in this life, Huang Shang listened to the command of the salute officer and saluted together with all the students.
A bow!
Goodbye!
After paying homage to Confucius, Academician Guo began to lecture the candidates, using the same old advice, mainly emphasizing discipline in the examination room and not cheating.
After speaking, he opened the test questions in front of everyone.
The test questions are all distributed from the capital to the states. The test papers are unified across the country, wrapped in yellow silk and sealed.
Under the attentive gaze of the candidates, the scroll was opened, and the test questions that determined their fate were taken out.
After signaling his fairness and impartiality, Bachelor Guo waved his hand, and the six examiners quickly copied it and prepared to post it in various examination rooms.
The candidates have been divided into six batches, with nearly forty people in each batch, heading towards the actual examination room.
This examination room is not a honeycomb-like room in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but a large examination room like modern times.
Forty pairs of tables and chairs were arranged neatly, and there was a piece of paper attached to the upper right corner of each table with the candidate's name, place of origin, and grade in grade written on it.
Don’t have a strong sense of déjà vu.
Huang Shang found his seat, put down the test box, hung the test bag by the table, and took out the pen and inkstone.
His movements were neither hasty nor slow, but more soldiers had already begun to race against time.
First, take a water cup and go to the drinking fountain at the door to pour warm water. Use half for drinking and half for grinding ink. Then return to your seat, take out the food you brought with you and start filling your stomach before the exam papers are handed out.
Huang Shang looked at it and marveled.
They are all veterans of the examination room!
Indeed, as mentioned before, the system of selecting candidates in the Song Dynasty was not lifelong. Those who passed the examination but failed to pass the examination would have to take the examination again.
Therefore, in this examination room, there are many re-takers who are familiar with the road.
Of course, there are also beginners.
That's even more stressful than the college entrance examination.
After all, modern college entrance examination students have gone through many battles, especially in the third year of high school. There are one small test every three days and one big test every week. Examination has become a daily routine.
But in this era, there are only three imperial examinations. For example, in the capital city, it is okay, there is the idea of mock examinations, but for some children in remote places, they have studied hard for more than ten years. The first examination is to have thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge, which determines a person's life.
.
Who can bear this?
Therefore, many students' hands holding pens were shaking, and some even had a look of collapse on their faces without even seeing the exam papers.
Some simply glanced at the other candidates with hostility, as if they would definitely win as long as everyone else in the examination room died.
The small examination room is full of life.
Huang Shang looked at it and his heart calmed down.
The literary spirit flows throughout the body, faintly resonating with the statue of Confucius in Gongyuan Square.
He mentioned Zhuge Bi in a leisurely manner.
"Let's get started!"
…
…
"Let's get started!"
A few days later, Academician Guo looked at the pile of papers in front of him, and like a general on the battlefield, he sounded the clarion call to charge.
Indeed, a different kind of war has begun.
Change the paper.
There are not many people taking the exam in Yongzhou, but there are also very few examiners.
With less than ten examiners, faced with hundreds of test papers, they were unable to distribute them equally and made repeated corrections.
Because the marked examination papers will eventually be sent to the Ministry of Rites for review and review of the examiner's marking work.
If there is a first misjudgment, you will be fined. If you misjudge again, you will be demoted directly.
Therefore, the pressure of correcting papers is still very high. You need to concentrate on it and not misjudge a word.
The test papers were spread out one after another, and the examiners looked at them and began to write "pass" and "no" on them, and attached their own opinions.
The topic this time is "The Analects of Confucius" with ten essays, ten ink meanings, five strategies, and one poem each.
The ten chapters of "The Analects of Confucius" are filled in the blanks and written silently.
This is the most basic test question, and it is also the first thing the examiner will review when judging the paper.
If you can't even memorize "The Analects of Confucius", you don't even need to read it later.
The following Ten Meanings is a written answer to the meaning of the scriptures. Some fragments from the Nine Classics are selected as questions and the candidates are required to write the meaning of these sentences.
This is also a basic skill. If you make a mistake, you will be eliminated.
Soon, the unqualified test papers were eliminated one after another.
The number of test papers has been reduced to half.
And the rest, policy and poetry, are the key.
The so-called policies are questions and answers, which are closer to reality and ask about the current status of national policies.
But in fact, this is not taken seriously. After all, if you let a bunch of scholars talk about national affairs, you can imagine how ridiculous those answers are.
It was not until ten years later, in 1073, that Wang Anshi carried out a reform and changed the imperial examination questions to CE questions on classics and meanings, so that CE questions were taken seriously.
However, every examiner is different, and some examiners "pay attention" to policy, such as the current Bachelor Guo.
"It's what Mencius said again! Ridiculous! Ridiculous!"
Bachelor Guo's beard trembled and he wrote a big "No".
His judgment criteria are very straightforward.
As a supporter of Sima Guang, he would follow anyone who said Mencius was good.
Of course, even if we want to deny it, it cannot simply be because we support Mencius. There need to be other reasons.
Find faults in poetry.
Unless you really have top talent, how difficult is it to find fault with someone and make a judgment?
He is the examiner, so as long as he speaks truthfully, other examiners will naturally give him some respect, even if he returns to the Ministry of Etiquette for review.
If it is not a too low-level mistake, the so-called review is just a formality after all.
In this way, after approving dozens of papers and coming up with various reasons for rejection, Academician Guo closed his eyes tiredly.
The marking process became more and more boring until a paper appeared in front of me.
"Huh? The characters are transcribed like this, and the original volume is even more unusual!"
Academician Guo's eyes lit up.
What these examiners are correcting now are actually not the candidates’ test papers.
The candidates' papers have already gone through the two major procedures of anonymity and transcription, that is, their names are covered and they are transcribed by someone.
This is to prevent examiners from identifying candidates through handwriting and cheating through upstream and downstream communication.
During the writing process, someone will specifically pick out papers with stained papers, illegible handwriting, and special marks, and they will be eliminated directly and will not even be eligible for correction.
On the other hand, those in Sanguan's regular script are extremely standard, and the writing will be neater, which will increase the first impression.
But the test paper in my hand now is more than just bright and clean. I can't describe the feeling. Anyway, it is different.
Academician Guo nodded. He read the previous foundation and found that everything was correct. When he read the poems and poems again, he felt even more happy.
He took a deep breath and looked at Ce Wen carefully.
I had a love for talents in my heart, and I thought if this student also agreed with Mencius, who was disrupting the world with benevolence and righteousness, would I want to be open to him?
But after reading the entire article, there was no mention of Mencius' remarks, which immediately made him smile, feeling greatly satisfied.
As for whether the policy addresses current events and is useful to the country, that is secondary.
Academician Guo wrote a big word "tong" and attached the best praise.
Yongzhou's position as Jieyuan is basically determined.