History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 273 First Round of Mini-Test

At this time, the seven registrars of Changqiu Temple had already informed the seven royal princes one-on-one of the detailed rules for the "all-test".

Don't be intimidated by the "All-Test" format; the rules are actually quite simple. Just listen carefully to the instructions, and there are reminders between questions. Once you hear the reminder, you must decisively abandon the previous question that you haven't finished answering, or abandon the new question.

The hour of Wei (1-3 PM) has arrived.

Bai Zheng's voice is really loud; his words "The exam begins!" scared all the birds on the surrounding rooftops away.

Hong Shunu read the question first.

"Listen carefully to the first question..."

"The 'Guanju' poem describes the virtues of empresses and consorts, and the meaning of 'consort' is explained using the Erya."

Prince Yuan Yu of Guangling sat at the front, and he could see all the students' identical dumbfounded expressions. He couldn't help but laugh and took the opportunity to fan the hot breath coming out of his mouth with a palm-leaf fan.

Bai Zheng, Wang Zhi, and Xu Shushi, the three internal affairs officials, were sweating profusely.

Fortunately, some of the students in the palace have started writing.

Unfortunately, I started too late and didn't have time to finish writing.

The answer to this question is: 妃 (fēi), which means to match, to pair, to be comparable.

After finishing her writing, Wei Yao gave him two breaths to delay.

The seven students of Huangzong Academy were still racking their brains when, following Wei Yao's shout of "Read," they all stared in her direction.

Hong Shunu did not allow all the students to think, and read the second question: "Poetry is where the will goes; what is in the heart is the will, and what is spoken is poetry... Write down the names of two classics that record this idea."

This question is generally answered by students of the Imperial Academy. The answers include the Book of Documents, the Book of Han, and the Book of Rites. You only need to choose two of them.

Amidst the slight rustling of writing, four guilty sniffles could be heard from Yuan Hao, Yuan Shixian, Yuan Yongping, and Yuan Duan of the Imperial Academy.

Whether you sniff or not doesn't matter; even the worst student can't solve this problem.

This is the third question.

Hong Shunu: "Emotions are expressed through sound, and sound becomes literature, which is called music. The preface explains that sound consists of the five tones: 'Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zhi, Yu,' and writes the chapters in the 'Record of Music' in the Book of Rites that explain the five tones."

Yuan Yu waved his palm-leaf fan with a "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh," and was amused again by the seven sons of Huangzongxue.

The seven underachieving students were overjoyed when they heard the word "sound," thinking that the question was asking them to answer which five tones "sound" refers to.
So they all rushed to write down the answers.

After pointing to a dot on the top of the character "宫" (gong), Hong Shunu recited all the notes of the Chinese pentatonic scale: "宫商角徵羽" (gong, shang, jiao, zhi, yu).

The Seventh Prince, Yuan Ruo, stared intently at the ink spot on the paper. No, it wasn't an ink spot; it was his most beloved pet, a light-furred tiger cub.

He is about to lose to the Prince of Guangling.

Wow—a light-haired tiger is a rare find!

Yuan Yu joined the ranks of those who enjoy sniffing their noses.

The answer to this question is: Gong represents the ruler, Shang represents the minister, Jiao represents the people, Zhi represents affairs, and Yu represents things.

After Wei Yao finished writing, she paused for two breaths, then shouted "Read!" and the fourth question began.

Hong Shunu: "The preface to 'Guanju' records the sounds of a well-governed world, the sounds of a chaotic world, and the sounds of a doomed world. What are the descriptions of these three sounds in the 'Record of Music' chapter of the Book of Rites?"

The struggling students were furious: "Is this ever going to end?! Weren't we supposed to be tested on the Book of Poetry? Why are they always bringing up questions from the Book of Rites?"

No, even if I'm just making this up, I can't stand there dumbfounded anymore!

Six-year-old Yuan Hao wrote: "The eagle of the patriot marries the eagle, and becomes a great eagle. The eagle with a disordered gaze marries the eagle, and becomes a squinting eagle, the eagle of the kingdom..."

Before he could finish writing, the fifth question began. The chief proctor, Bai Zheng, was patrolling the room. Yuan Hao didn't want Bai Zheng to see his scribbled answers, so he covered them with his arm, but Bai Zheng still managed to peek at them.

oops!

What is this?! I didn't even understand the question!
Bai Zheng, his mind filled with thoughts of "marrying the eagle," left with a grimacing expression.

Question 5 is further divided into three sub-questions.

The preface to the poem "Guan Ju" contains the line, "Odes are descriptions of virtuous character." Students are required to first explain the character "颂" (song) using the "Shuowen Jiezi" (说文解字); then, using the classic text "Yi Jing" (易经), explain the origin of the characters "形容" (xing, description); and finally, use Zheng Xuan's "Zhou Song Pu" (周颂谱) to explain why "美盛德" (mei sheng de, virtuous character) is considered "容" (rong, appearance).

Some students from the palace joined the guilty-looking army of sniffing.

Gong Xuesheng wondered, "Who set this question?"

This is too difficult!
What makes it even more difficult is that the time allotted for answering the questions is so short it feels like you're being chased to your death!
Because I finished studying the preface to "Guanju" so long ago, it was never on the monthly exams, so who can remember it so clearly now?

The seven academic underachievers of the Imperial Academy behaved differently. Although they couldn't even understand the questions, they were bold and dared to make things up!
Yuan Yu was the best student among the seven children, and also the only one who remembered the original phrase "The praise is a description of great virtue".

He wrote: "The Shuowen Jiezi says... 'Song' refers to musicians singing together." After finishing, he scratched his head, feeling that it was too colloquial, so he added the word "also" after "song".

Then write: "The Book of Changes says..."

Oh no, what am I supposed to explain? Damn it, I can't keep scratching my head like that, I'm forgetting the question!

Leaving this column blank, he wrote the third sub-question: "Zheng Xuan said...a person who is both beautiful and virtuous is called 'character'."

Ugh—I really want to throw my pen!
Yuan Ren suddenly remembered that the second question was to explain the word "describe"!
The worst student in the imperial academy's exams was Yuan Hao; there was more ink on his face than on the paper.

He wrote: "In the Shuowen Jiezi (a dictionary of Chinese characters), the character '送' (send) is explained as the character '关' (gate) standing on a horse's back."

He further wrote: "The meaning of '行容' in the Book of Changes is to look at oneself and see if one is beautiful while walking."

It's so hot, it'll prevent him from getting good grades!
Yuan Hao wiped the sweat from his face with his dark left hand and continued writing: "If you want to know what 'Rong' means in the Zhou Meipu, let the Zhou Meipu ask the Yi."

Because the question was divided into three sub-questions, Wei Yao gave her six breaths of time to finish. "Read it!"

Hong Shunu: "Nan means that the transformation started from the north and went south... First, explain this sentence in modern terms, and then explain why it 'started from the north and went south'. The total number of words for the two sub-questions shall not exceed thirty words."

The term "modern language" refers to colloquial language that ordinary people can understand.

The scoundrel Yuan Hao almost burst out laughing. This question had hit him right in the head—it was too easy! Without even thinking, he wrote directly: "Now it is said... difficult, because the salt has turned to dust, from north to south, so the people's lives are difficult."

He didn't count the numbers because the next sub-question could be solved with just "four words"!
The reason for "from north to south": "The north is cold, and the south is hot."

Wei Yao has also finished writing.

The literal meaning of this question refers to King Wen's influence on the people, which spread from the northern regions to the southern regions.

Why educate the people from north to south, instead of from south to north? It is because "King Wen's kingdom was located northeast of Qizhou."

Wei Yao gave him a dozen or so minutes to catch his breath before starting the seventh question.

At this moment, the sniffling sounds that rose and fell were no longer signs of guilt, but rather the cries of the palace students. All thirty-two palace students in the two dormitories were crying.

They didn't know how others did on the exam; they only knew they had failed!
The grades were so bad that there was no need for a female teacher to grade them!

What should we do? After the monthly exams, will Changqiu Temple send them back to the labor camp as punishment? If that happens, what should we do?

His emotions were unstable, and he couldn't answer any of the subsequent questions well.

Finally, after reading out one question, Hong Shunu put away the long roll of paper.

This signifies the end of the first round of preliminary testing.