History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 36 One-on-One Battle

"No, no...wait?"

"She's going to take the Analects exam?"

“I knew something was wrong! She just stood there without moving.”

In contrast, Wei Mao looked refreshed and in high spirits! He carefully put away the betting agreement.

Ignoring the chaos around him, Zhou Tai asked directly, "Wouldn't Miss Wei's father have taught the Analects of Confucius?"

To avoid trouble, Wei Yao stood up again, bowed to the other party, and replied, "Yes. I have several boxes of notes at home, which I often look through."

Zhou Tai put away his harsh face and, unusually, performed all the proper courtesies. He then said to the four judges, Wang Ji, "I need to use the restroom. Let's test our knowledge of the Book of Poetry first."

"Man has three urgent needs," is a good reason, so let's test the *Classic of Poetry* first. Once Zhou Tai leaves, everyone else will take the exam; they can simply remain in their original seats.

The question setters were Cui Shang and Cui Zhi. Cui Shang's questions were simple, and he announced the first question: "The two characters '有梅' (youmei) in Youmei Garden and '今吉' (jinji) in Jinji Restaurant both come from which poem? Please recite the poem in its entirety, including the preface."

Hai Yeren raised his hand: "I'm not handing in my paper. I think the questions are unfair. I don't live in the Dongfang area, how could I know which poem they came from?"

"Shut up." Several pairs of eyes from his companions gestured for him to stop talking; it was too embarrassing.

No one seconded the suggestion, and Hai Yeren raised his hand for the second time, feeling dejected. This time, he was handing in his paper; otherwise, why would he sit there like an idiot? He also went to the outhouse, and as he left the restaurant, he bumped into Zhou Tai, who was coming in. Zhou Tai exclaimed in surprise, "I thought you'd run away!"

The other person was also taken aback: "They finished one question so quickly?"

The test was indeed over in no time because it was really easy. The answer was "Biao You Mei" from the "Zhao Nan" chapter. The two characters "You Mei" were easy to guess, and "Jin Ji" came from the end of the first line "Dai Qi Ji Xi" and the end of the second line "Dai Qi Jin Xi".

Cui Zhi helped grade the papers, eliminating another student who couldn't write a preface and whose poem contained more than half replaced characters. Thus, Changsun's side had fifteen people participating in the next round of the competition, while Lu Baozhen's side remained unchanged.

"Please listen to the second question. Recite the poem 'Kai Feng' from the 'Bei Feng' section of the Book of Songs. Recite the annotations after each line as well. You do not need to write the poem's preface, explanation, or Zheng's commentary."

Outside the screen, Zhou Tai was dizzy from listening. He had always thought that the Book of Poetry was the easiest part of elementary school, and that learning it was simply a matter of memorizing the poems. Now he realized he was completely wrong. Just then, Qiu Ruizhi finished his painting, and Zhou Tai pulled him out of the restaurant to ask, "Was this question difficult?"

“If it’s just about writing poetry… that’s fine, but who has the time to memorize the annotations after the verses? Isn’t it enough to just understand the meaning in your mind? Besides, writing poetry and memorizing poetry are not the same thing. Many characters in classical poetry are difficult to write.”

Good students usually have their own strengths, while poor students often share common weaknesses.

Sure enough, Haiyeren overheard this conversation when he came back from squatting in the outhouse, and immediately agreed: "It's good that you're studying the Analects. You'll know when you study the Book of Poetry. It teaches one poem every two days, and it involves a lot of historical classics."

Zhou Tai felt uneasy: What do you mean, "Luckily I studied the Analects"? Try it when you study the Analects!
At this moment, Wei Jing came over, covered his face with the drawing paper with holes, looked at Zhou Tai and the other two through the holes, and grinned, sticking out his tongue: "Look, it's done, it's done..."

"My painting! Don't tear it up!"

"Haha, can't tear it anymore, that's it..."

"Wei Jing, you're asking for it!" Hai Yeren also chased after him.

Just as Zhou Tai was thinking of "tearing it up," he suddenly realized that this was a good opportunity. He took advantage of Wei Jing running to the side of the screen and pushed him hard. Fortunately, Lu Baozhen had been paying close attention to Wei Jing since he started making a fuss. She instantly understood Zhou Tai's purpose and kicked him from behind, knocking him down onto Wei Jing.

The screen collapsed, the desk was smashed, and both sides violated the previously agreed-upon examination rules. According to the punishment regulations, one person from each of the candidates must be dismissed immediately.

Wei Jing belatedly realized he had caused trouble. He was on the verge of tears, looking helplessly at A Mao, then at his fellow student Wei Yao. What should he do? There were only two of them taking the exam. Who should give up? Wei Yao didn't move.

Wei Mao stood up abruptly, walked up to his friend, pointed at his mouth, and warned, "Shut up from now on."

Wei Jing nodded vigorously, not daring to even utter a simple "hmm".

Yuan Heng was the one who volunteered not to take the test. He was writing while lying down, straining his whole body. Honestly, his buttocks even cracked.

The exam continues.

Whether it was the dictation of "Kai Feng" or the previous question about "Biao You Mei," both were very simple, so simple that they wouldn't appear in the joint entrance exam. However, after the papers were handed in, only Xi Jiao and Wei Yao wrote all the characters correctly. Changsun Wuzhuo and Yuan Zizhi were alright; it was clear they could recite them, but they each circled a few characters they didn't know how to write.

Three more were eliminated. When the third question began, Wei Yao became the backbone of the team, using her knowledge to fight against the eleven members of Changsun's team.

"Please listen to the third question. Write down the titles of the eleven poems in the 'Zhou Nan' section and the ten poems in the 'Yong Feng' section. Only the titles are required."

This question tests not so much memorization, but primarily the accumulation of vocabulary.

The eleven poems in the "Zhou Nan" section are: Guan Ju, Ge Tan, Juan Er, Jiu Mu, Zhong Si, Tao Yao, Tu Ju, Fu Yi, Han Guang, Ru Fen, and Lin Zhi Zhi.

The ten poems in the "Yong Feng" section are: Cypress boat, thorns on the wall, the gentleman grows old together, mulberry tree, quail running about, the square in the center, rainbow, rat, awning, galloping.

Without hesitation, Wei Yao and Xi Jiao immediately began writing, and both of them wrote correctly, making it impossible to distinguish who was better.

The others made various spelling mistakes. Some wrote "汝坟" as "汝汶", others wrote "鹑之奔奔" as "鹌之奔奔", and the most common mistakes were in the characters "芣苢". Some added an extra horizontal stroke under the "不" radical in the first character, while others wrote the second character as "莒". Interestingly, no one made a mistake in the rather difficult characters "蝃蝀".

Two players were eliminated in this round.

The fourth question begins, with Wei Yao facing off against nine members of Changsun's team.

Cui Shang still set the questions, and Xi Jiao understood that the difficult questions were all on Cui Zhi's side, and were probably reserved for testing him and his fellow disciple Wei.

The fourth question is: "Write down the words in the 'Zhou Nan' section that describe lush vegetation."

After this question, Changsun's side has six people left.

The fifth question is: "Recite the preface to 'Shi Wei' from memory, and also recite the annotations to the preface from memory."

This is the last question in Cui Shang's hands.

Xi Jiao handed in his paper later than Wei Yao. Since it was already late, he carefully checked it after finishing and recalled what his teacher had taught in class. Fortunately, he found that he had missed the sentence "寓，寄也" at the beginning of the annotation. After adding it, Xi Jiao felt uneasy, as if a patch had been patched up. This showed that his foundation was not solid enough, and at least in the poem "Shi Wei", he was not as good as his fellow student Wei.

Finally, it was Cui Zhi's turn to pose the challenge. At this point, Wei Yao was facing only the commander-in-chief Changsun Wuzhuo, as well as Xi Jiao and Yuan Zizhi.

Yuan Zizhi was so annoyed. Why were his teammates outside the screen all huddled together, staring at him as if they had planned it all along? Did they all think he was about to be eliminated? He used to skip classes all the time and didn't want to study the Book of Poetry, but after arriving at Cui Academy, perhaps because of the teacher's good teaching or perhaps because he had suddenly become enlightened, he had been studying hard every day ever since Xi Jiao invited him to help Changsun Wuzhuo.

Remembering the hardships of studying, he straightened his back and stared intently at Cui Zhi, urging him to hurry up and set the questions! Even if he couldn't compare to the two from Xunyi Academy, could he really be inferior to Changsun Wuzhuo?

"Plums fall in the rain": This poem describes the season when plums ripen and fall, and the longing of a woman awaiting marriage for her fiancé to propose on an auspicious day.

Ge Tan, Jiu Mu, Zhong Si, Tu Ju, Fu Yi, Qiang You Ci, Di Dong, Gan Mao
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(End of this chapter)