History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 63 Circumventing the Case
Each chief invigilator read aloud in their respective invigilation area: "The first round of quizzes begins. Do not write anything yet! Listen carefully to the questions... The preface to the poem 'The Wall Has Thorns' mentions 'Prince Wan.' According to the writing requirements, write down which ruler was his father? Who were Prince Wan's five sons?"

"Now, listen to the instructions for writing... Each of you, pick up this bamboo slip that has been given to you..."

Wei Daozi, Xue Nixia, and Wei Shanseng formed a triangle and made corresponding writing gestures as Master Xue explained each step, ensuring that all the elementary school children in this area could see clearly.

Master Xue's explanation was also forceful and clear: "Hold the bamboo slip with your left hand at eye level, and write with your right hand. You are allowed to lower the pen and the bamboo slip to think while answering questions, but you must return to the required posture as soon as you start writing. You are only allowed to bend over and get close to the desk when dipping the ink. After answering the questions, you only need to put the bamboo slip back on the desk. You cannot sit, move around, or make any noise to disturb the other students answering questions."

"Rules complete. Two quarters of an hour's time limit. Begin answering the questions!"

Wu Ji, Wei Jiezhi, and Wei Jian, who were not good at studying but had great courage, all raised their hands. Master Xue turned around and looked in other directions, ignoring the three of them.

Ugh... It's over, raising my hand doesn't work anymore. What were the test questions again? Which poem mentioned which young master? Ugh... I was so focused on memorizing the rules that I forgot what the test questions were.

Every major examination hall has its share of these mischievous students who can make people laugh out loud.

Yuan Heng, relying on his uncle's position as governor, who had even come specifically to inspect the examination for him, had forgotten the questions. Seeing that raising his hand was useless, he frantically mumbled, "Hey, hey, husband—, husband—, husband, husband, husband—"

Knowing he could no longer remain in the examination hall, Governor Yuan handed the whip to the chief examiner and pointed it at Yuan Heng: "If that wicked brat causes any more trouble, slap his mouth."

Director Cui led the Prefect to see the answer sheets from yesterday's monthly joint examination; this was another purpose of Yuan Zhi's inspection tour. Those that were poorly answered didn't need to be shown. After Prefect Yuan sat down, he first asked, "How many perfect scores were there this time?"

Ok……

"It's exactly the same as last time."

She still stands out from the crowd, still the graceful and charming.

Governor Yuan snorted in anger, setting aside Wei Yaoda. Below him were the students of the Xunyi Academy, who had indeed made considerable progress, especially Cui Zhi and Kong Mi, but were still far from achieving a perfect score.

After reading to the end, Yuan Zhi asked, "What about the state academy? Why isn't Xi Jiao's name on it?"

"Xi Jiao's results were almost the same as last time, so I didn't show them to the governor."

"Sigh. Show me Yuan Heng's, and also that boy from the Changsun family named Fuming."

It's something you chose to see yourself.

Yuan Heng's only improvement was that he understood the rules and no longer only answered the first half of the sentence, but his foundation was poor, so it didn't matter whether he understood the rules or not.

After throwing his nephew's answer sheet aside, the prefect, still not satisfied, crumpled it up and threw it against the wall.

And look at Changsun Fuming's... oh dear!
Upon seeing it, Governor Yuan felt that his remaining eye was also not good!
The entire paper is filled with the repeated words "asking questions," densely packed together in various sizes of characters, scattered haphazardly like a drunkard planting onions! What does this answer sheet have to do with the Book of Songs?
At the Weishi Academy's grand examination hall, Wei Yao became the first student to finish the first round of preliminary tests, followed by Wei Mao and Chen Yu from the fifth dormitory, then Wei Puti, Bao Rongzi from the second dormitory, and Bu Yanzhen from the Bushi Academy...

If you usually memorize every poem completely, you won't find this question difficult, because the answers are all clearly stated in the annotations of the poem's preface!
Gongzi Wan's father was Duke Xuan of Wei. Gongzi Wan had five sons: Qi Zi, Duke Dai, Duke Wen, Lady Huan of Song, and Lady Mu of Xu.

Therefore, when grading papers, the evaluation criteria are definitely whether the handwriting is neat and whether there are any circles used to replace words. For example, if you want to write the answer completely on a bamboo slip, you must first plan the size of the characters and the spacing. You can't wait until later to consider this issue and end up writing smaller and smaller characters that are squeezed together.

This question has a two-quarters time limit. Most students finish it in less than half a quarter of an hour. Some are leisurely, while others immediately think about what the second round of questions will be.

The papers are collected.

Master Xue: "The second round of tests begins. Listen carefully to the questions... The poem 'Green Robe' has four chapters, each with four lines. You need to write the first two lines of each chapter, along with annotations and Zheng's commentary."

"Writing requirements... Each person picks up the blank bamboo slips given to you. Leave the two outermost bamboo slips blank and do not write anything. There are a total of twenty-five blank bamboo slips. You can adjust the writing length on each bamboo slip according to the length of the poem, preface, and note." "In this round of testing, an additional rule is added: after writing on each bamboo slip, walk around your desk to the right once, return to your original position, and then continue writing."

As Master Xue recounted the story, Wei Daozi and his three fellow disciples each found the nearest desk to demonstrate. They first faced east, then walked around the desk in the direction they had been walking, returned to their original positions, and stood up their writing tablets, assuming a writing posture.

Fearing that some of his junior disciples might not understand, Xue Nixia explained, "This is called circling to the right."

Wei Daozi added, "Don't get it backwards."

Master Xue: "The requirements for holding the bamboo slip, holding the pen, keeping your eyes on the screen, taking breaks to think, and maintaining discipline after submitting the questions are all the same as in the first round of the quiz. The time limit for answering questions is half an hour. Once the rules are in place, you will begin answering questions after hearing the chime. Who is speaking? This time, I won't call names, but this is a one-time exception!"

There was no way to take attendance; the area around us was buzzing like a swarm of flies.

The schoolchildren were forced to shut up, and their anger doubled!
Couldn't you explain the rules first and then the questions? It makes them so focused on remembering the questions that they forget the rules, and by the time they understand the rules, they've forgotten the questions! And having to stand and write is bad enough, but then they have to walk around the desk, and only to the right! Why, why, why?!

The chime rang.

This scroll of bamboo slips is made of three ropes bound together, dividing the writing area into three sections: upper, middle, and lower.

Wei Yao first untied the rope, unfolded the bamboo slips, and aligned the front of the second bamboo slip with her line of sight. She only wrote the poem title on this bamboo slip: Green Robe.

He circled the desk to the right and returned to his original position.

All the students remained still, but she moved, immediately attracting the attention of all the invigilators, especially the chief invigilator at the front.

It's Wei Yao from the first dormitory; it must be her.

Qu Rong was getting impatient. He had just turned the second bamboo slip to face him, and now Wei Yao was already circling around.

On the third bamboo slip, Wei Yao wrote from top to bottom: "Green is my garment, green with a yellow lining."

After finishing writing, she walked around the desk a second time.

By this time, quite a few students had already completed the first lap.

Wei Yao returned to her original position and wrote only the first two characters of the annotation on the fourth bamboo slip: "兴也".

These two words refer to the writing techniques used in this poem.

Wei Yao circled around for the third time.

Wei Mao, Bu Yanzhen, and Chen Yu circled the second time.

Qu Rong circled the first time.

Wei Yao began writing intensively from the sixth bamboo slip, creating an unsettling sense of urgency around her.

This is based on her past life experience: you can write slowly later, but you must be fast at the beginning!
At the Cui Academy, the Yuan governor really wanted to send his nephew to Instructor Cui to be his nephew. Only then did he realize that Ah Heng couldn't tell left from right! Didn't he even look to see how others were turning? He turned backwards himself, twice out of three times! Couldn't he even read the footprints...?

It's all Cui Xueguan's fault! He compacted the ground so hard that you couldn't even leave a footprint.

Unbeknownst to Governor Yuan, the joint entrance exams at the nearest prefectural primary school were abruptly interrupted by a brawl!
(End of this chapter)