History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 118 Summer Grand Exam Begins

When Wei Yao and her mother returned home, it was already dark. Wei Yao learned that her kitchen had been burned down by a roving bandit surnamed Niu, who had also kidnapped her father and Wei Mao. She was completely flustered.

"Did the bandits hurt my father?"

Even though she had just brought her father a meal.

“I only scraped my skin, it’s nothing serious. Luckily, the neighbors in the alley called the police quickly, and I rushed home in time to kill that bastard with my own hands. Yao’er, there was a bloody incident in our family. Even if I don’t tell you, you will hear about it from the neighbors. I’m afraid you’ll have nightmares tonight. Your father isn’t home, so sleep with your mother tonight.”

"Okay, I'm going to sleep with Mother now." Wei Yao jumped up happily, then quickly ran to the side room to carry the bedding to the main room.

Zhao Zhi was even happier. Her daughter hadn't mentioned Wei Mao at all, which meant that it was just a one-sided crush on him!
The scent of ink in the main room was stronger than usual; Wei Yao could tell it was pine soot ink. "Huh? Where did Father borrow so many scrolls again?"

"Don't touch that!" Zhao Zhi hurriedly closed the book box, for the first time forcing a fake smile and lying to her daughter, "These are some letters, children shouldn't look at them."

Wei Yao pouted and snorted, "Fine, if you don't want me to see, then don't. Stop lying to the child."

The next morning.

When Wei Yao returned to the Wei Academy, as she expected, her fellow student Mao was already there. She had just put down her book bag when Wei Mao said, "I've wiped Master Song's desk."

Only then did Wei Yao realize that her new teacher's surname was Song. She asked, "Will Teacher Song be teaching us often from now on?"

"Yes. Which places did you travel to?"

"Gaoliu, Fangling, Yonggu, Wuzhou, Guoshan, Hengshan, and finally, we stayed overnight at the Sanggan River."

"Is it fun?"

"Yeah, it's fun."

Her smile was warmer than the morning light streaming into the house. Wei Mao couldn't get enough of her, so he took a satchel from his book chest and made her smile again: "Yesterday the bookstore received some 'Shuowen Jiezi' and some unwanted ink scraps. The quality wasn't very good, but I brought them all. If you'd like..."

"I want them! Hehe, I want them all. Please allow me some time to organize and copy these notes before I give them to you."

"No rush." ​​It's good that you're thinking of me. Wei Mao tried his best to control his smile. He'd looked in the mirror; his own laughter was different from others'. His wide grin had a menacing, almost menacing look. "The joint exam is tomorrow. How's your studying going?"

"I've caught up on all the lessons I missed, have you?"

"I've always been diligent. By the way, after the joint entrance exam, Jing is going to Shuozhou. Before he leaves, he invited Zhen, Wu Ji, Wei Jian, and the others to get together."

"Okay."

Fellow students arrived at the school dormitory one after another.

"Oh? Fellow disciple Yao is back."

"Fellow disciple, it's been a long time."

When Wei Zhen arrived, she happily handed Wei Yao a letterbox: "I thought you would come today. Here, this is a letter that Gao Loujin asked someone to bring."

Wei Yao gave a gift to her fellow disciple Zhen: "This shuttlecock is made from the feathers of various birds that I collected in the Sanggan River. You mustn't complain about it."

"How could I dislike it? It's so beautiful, I love it." Wei Zhen nimbly kicked the shuttlecock, but it fell to the ground and was snatched away by Wu Ji.

"Give it back."

Wei Yao watched her fellow disciples playfully with a smile, then put away Gao Loujin's letter, intending to read it when she got home.

Jing Tongmeng took leave today, which shows that he no longer cares about the results of the joint entrance examination. Wei Yao recalled that Wei Jing left Pingcheng in her previous life, which was probably around the time of summer to autumn this year.

At 1:15 AM, Master Song arrived. Wei Yao, upon first seeing her new teacher, bowed and paid her respects. Song Renzhong was overjoyed. A teacher's duty is to treat all disciples equally, but who is without selfish desires? Of course, he most desired to teach the intelligent and well-mannered child prodigy.

The students clicked their tongues when they saw the teacher's smile, because the teacher was usually very strict, but look at him now... tsk tsk tsk.

Wu Ji, being mischievous and bold, exclaimed, "So the Master can laugh!"

"Mischievous monkey."

Qu Rong almost arrived late. After he sat down, he saw that Wei Yao, whom he hated the most, had returned, which made him even angrier. If it weren't for the joint exam tomorrow, he would have asked for leave today.

Yesterday, my father was rummaging through his things when, by sheer coincidence, he found two volumes of strange tales. My father went to a scholar on the street who helped people write letters and saw that they weren't poems. He was furious! So when he got home, he got a beating again and is still in pain all over.

When Qu Rong met the new teacher, he was kind to Wei Yao, just like the former teacher Duan had been. He was stern to the other students who were just studying. Qu Rong missed the time when the teacher Du was still around.

Sigh, is this the life he has to live? His family is not as good as others, and at school, he is not as good as his classmates.

The sound of the ruler striking the ground drew the attention of all the students, who began to listen attentively.

"Today we'll still be discussing 'Xiao Rong' from the 'Qin Feng' section. Yesterday we talked about the character 'shou' in the line 'Xiao Rong yi shou,' which means 'zhen.' By the way, whoever took the complete notes yesterday, please help Wei Yao with her notes after class."

Master Song took out several scrolls of paintings. He opened one first, which depicted an oxcart. He pointed out the shape of the "axle" part in the cart's structure. The other scrolls contained images of "a hoe, a spear, and two bows with interlocking bows" from the poem.

With the help of the teacher's illustrations, the scene of going to war in the poem "Xiao Rong" is presented more vividly in the minds of the students.

After the second class, Master Song helped his disciples move their desks to the examination hall, which was still the same place as the spring joint examination. Having learned from the previous experience, the location of each school and the position of each student were marked in advance, and no one was allowed to change them without permission.

Wei Yao and Wei Mao's exam seats were next to each other, and Wei Zhen and Wei Puti were next to each other. These two must have had some kind of conflict again, because they were ignoring each other.

Before Wei Yao could ask any questions, Wei Mao told her, "In last month's joint exam, I came in first, Chen Yu from Dormitory 5 came in second, and Wei Zhen and Wei Puti tied for third. However, only one of them could attend classes at Zheng Academy. The academy re-evaluated their papers, and Wei Zhen was chosen instead."

"Then I wish Zhen continued progress and that she will surpass Chen Yu."

I won't dwell on this.

The second day of the seventh lunar month, at Chen time (7-9 AM).

The summer joint examination for the study of the Book of Poetry has begun.

The officials in charge of the study of the Book of Poetry from the Secretariat visited and recorded the proceedings at the state academies, the Mu family academy, the Wei family academy, the Cui family academy, and the Zheng family academy.

Governor Yuan went to the Cui Academy where his nephew Yuan Heng was studying. However, this time Governor Yuan brought another nephew, Yuan Yu, with him. Yuan Yu will be starting school this winter, and Governor Yuan wanted Yuan Yu to experience the atmosphere of the major examination in advance.

The official who came to the Weishi Academy was Yuan Fan.

The first question has only one sheet of paper, with the question consisting of less than two columns of text. Students must write their answers in the large blank space provided.

Question: Write down the poem title, verses, and historical figures mentioned in the poem's preface and commentary, corresponding to the phrase "思之笃厚" (si zhi du hou).

The time allotted for answering the questions is 15 minutes.

Yuan Fan thought he had misheard and whispered to the headmaster of the Wei Academy, "Can you finish answering in a quarter of an hour?"

"Yes. If you can answer, a moment is enough; if you can't, even two moments won't help."

Nonsense! How can it be a waste of time? Can't you think of the answer in one moment and use the remaining moment to answer the question? If he had been tested like this when he was a child, he probably would have given up on school long ago.

俴 (jiàn): meaning shallow.

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(End of this chapter)