Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 197 First Examination of Calligraphy
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. During these days, Zhang Dai worked very hard, repeatedly memorizing the classics he was studying, including their meanings and annotations.

The text he chose to study was the Zuo Zhuan. As a major classic, the Zuo Zhuan is extremely long and has many annotations, which naturally makes it more difficult.

However, the other classics are equally difficult to understand. Moreover, the Zuo Zhuan is both a classic and a historical text. If one can master it, the benefits will not only be immediate but will also be of great help in other aspects.

When people are focused and attentive, they inevitably neglect other things. Zhang Dai had been burying himself in his studies these past few days, and if his family hadn't reminded him, he would have even forgotten the exact time of the exam.

On the day of the exam, he got up very early. After having breakfast, he was escorted out of the house by his family and headed straight for the Ministry of Personnel.

It was still dark, and a cool breeze was refreshing. There were few pedestrians on the long street, except for officials in their entourage heading to court early in the morning, or candidates like Zhang Dai taking the provincial examination.

As they walked across the Xinzhong Bridge, the number of pedestrians on the street gradually increased. Many idle men from the neighborhood saw Zhang Dai wearing the distinctive hempen robes of a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) and surrounded by a large retinue, so they followed behind him, shouting auspicious words and asking for a few coins.

Don't underestimate this business. Most of the candidates are happy to get a reward. If they are quick on their feet and talkative, they can earn a lot of money. After a few provincial examinations, they may be able to earn more than ten strings of cash.

Although Zhang Dai was unaware of these customs, his family was, so they prepared several strings of copper coins in advance and put them in their pockets. When they encountered people asking for good fortune, they would scatter the coins along the street, which would earn them even more enthusiastic compliments.

At present, the imperial examinations do not have a dedicated and fixed examination venue. They need to borrow the Ministry of Personnel's selection office and avoid the time of the Ministry of Personnel's selection.

When Zhang Dai arrived in the capital province, the candidates for the provincial examination had already begun lining up for inspection and preparing to enter. While the other servants lined up, Ding Cang, who had accompanied the group, began to check the items required for the examination again and again.

The imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty were not as strict and rigorous as those in later dynasties. Although they were divided into three sessions, they were conducted separately and not consecutively. Each session lasted only one day. However, the policy examination required answering five policy questions, which took longer and required staying overnight at the examination venue.

However, spending the entire day in the examination room requires quite a few tools. Pens and ink are the most basic, but there are also eating utensils, mats for sitting and lying down, etc. Once you enter the examination room, there is no communication between the inside and outside, so forgetting anything will naturally cause trouble.

The Zhang family had risen to prominence through the imperial examinations, and they were well-prepared for the exams, so Zhang Dai didn't need to worry about anything. Therefore, Zhang Dai simply stood outside the examination hall, waving and greeting the scholars he knew.

Although the rules of the imperial examination were not as strict as those of later generations, the checks were still very rigorous. The candidates' clothes and luggage were carefully searched. Except for the second essay test, in which candidates could bring rhyme books, no paper was allowed to enter the examination room for any of the other tests.

So even if the candidates weren't stripped naked, after the inspection they were all disheveled and looked very uncouth.

But if you're going to enter the examination hall, you have to abide by these rules; otherwise, you might as well just give up. Such arrogant students also existed in the Tang Dynasty, who, unwilling to be humiliated by the officials, simply left the examination hall and refused to take the exam.

Such checks are necessary; right outside the examination hall, there were many books and cheat sheets that had been confiscated.

Those candidates who were caught cheating stood there looking dejected. They would have to accept certain punishments before they could enter the examination room. If they encountered a harsh and unreasonable examiner, it would be recorded, and even if they passed the exam, they would be looked down upon in future selections.

Yan Tingzhi, the examiner, dressed in a scarlet robe, stood with his hands behind his back in front of the examination hall, watching the candidates enter from the left and right after they had been checked.

Zhang Dai had long admired Yan Tingzhi, but this was their first meeting. Since the prefectural examination last year, Yan Tingzhi had closed his doors to visitors and refused to accept any personnel or matters related to the provincial examination. Few people could adhere to this principle at the time, so Yan Tingzhi's role as an expert on the imperial examinations was widely recognized by both the court and the public.

At this moment, Yan Tingzhi did not show leniency because of the candidates' recent commotion and the fact that he had regained his lost job. He still stood here meticulously to supervise.

When Zhang Dai stepped forward for inspection, the clerk prepared to loosen his belt and turn his robe inside out, but Yan Tingzhi raised his hand to stop him, saying in a deep voice, "This is Zhang Yan Gongsun. If he is found to be smuggling or cheating, it will ruin his family's reputation. Let him pass."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Dai loosened his belt and displayed his clothes inside and out to show his openness before carrying his examination box and walking inside.

Inside the examination hall was a main hall facing south, flanked by two rows of long corridors and pavilions, which served as examination booths. Different scriptures were labeled on the pillars outside the examination booths, and candidates would go to the corresponding examination booths to take their exams based on the scripture they were studying.

It is worth mentioning that the examination halls for the two classics, *The Book of Rites* and *Zuo Zhuan*, were more than twice as wide as those for the other classics, and the locations were also the best. Although the imperial examination did not emphasize the study of the classics, candidates who chose the more difficult classics could enjoy certain preferential treatment.

However, it seems that not many people are willing to accept this preferential treatment. Zhang Dai was one of the later entrants, but when he entered the examination hall for the Zuo Zhuan, there were only a dozen or so people, which was in stark contrast to the crowded situation in other examination halls.

What surprised Zhang Dai was that Li Yi, who had previously instigated the disturbance, was also in this examination hall, and he too had chosen the most difficult subject, the Great Classic, to study. "Sixth Brother is indeed a man of considerable talent, daring to enter this place!"

When Li Yi saw Zhang Dai walk in, he couldn't help but show a look of surprise. He stood up to greet him and said to Zhang Dai with a smile.

Having colluded with each other before, Zhang Dai had a good impression of him, so he put down his various examination tools and exchanged a few pleasantries with him.

As they chatted, Li Yi pointed to a man in his thirties sitting at the very front of the examination hall and whispered to Zhang Dai, "This man is a formidable opponent. He is the top scholar in the Western Academy, named Du Wei. He claims to be a descendant of Du Wuku and considers the Zuo Zhuan (Commentary of Zuo) his family's classics. Even when the academic officials of the Western Academy discuss the classics with each other, they cannot exhaust his knowledge."

Du Yu of the Western Jin Dynasty was also a great scholar of the classics. His commentary on the Zuo Zhuan was regarded as a model by successive dynasties and was even the officially recognized textbook. When Zhang Dai heard Li Yi say this, he couldn't help but feel great respect for Du Wei.

So why did the imperial examinations emphasize miscellaneous essays? If they emphasized classical studies, how could a group of newly emerging scholars and poor students compete with the old money families who had inherited their wealth for generations?

Even among miscellaneous texts, once these people figure out the rules and patterns, the energy they unleash is astonishing.

Take the Lu family of Fanyang, a traditional family of scholars, for example. According to incomplete statistics, in the more than ninety years of the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty, the Lu family produced more than 110 Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations), averaging more than one per year. This enabled the Lu family of Fanyang to successfully transform from a family of scholars in the medieval period into a new family of officials who passed the imperial examinations.

Of the hundreds of candidates who took the imperial examination, only about thirty actually used the Zuo Zhuan as their primary text. The other examination halls were overflowing with people, and Zhang Dai and his group even threw tantrums here. Even Wang Changling and Chang Jian, whom he knew, did not come here.

He originally thought that the spacious trial examination area was a privilege, but judging from this situation, there weren't that many people taking the Zuo Zhuan exam, so they didn't need that many trial examination areas! Of course, choosing the Zuo Zhuan isn't impressive; what's impressive is passing the exam.

Zhang Dai dared to choose the Zuo Zhuan because even if he failed the essay exam, he could later apply for an additional essay exam to redeem the essay.

For others, writing an extra essay would be a life-threatening task, but for him, the more exams he took, the greater the chance of encountering a timeless masterpiece he had mastered, so he wasn't afraid at all!

After all the candidates had entered the examination hall, they first went into the examination shed to put down their luggage, and then they all came to the examination hall in front of the supervisor, Yan Tingzhi, to listen to his instructions. This was also a pre-examination ceremony called "court audience," which was held every day during the examination period.

"You scholars, cultivate your skills and talents, so that you may serve the country..."

Yan Tingzhi stood before the hall, first offering words of encouragement to the successful candidates, then explaining the regulations for the examination, and finally announcing the punishment for those found to have brought in cheat sheets: they would be responsible for cleaning and sweeping the examination hall and fetching water to ensure the candidates' needs were met. If they could fulfill these duties, they would be allowed to continue taking the exam.

Upon hearing this, the cheating students were all moved to tears and bowed to express their gratitude to Yan Tingzhi.

Zhang Dai had assumed that Yan Tingzhi was a rather rigid, inflexible person, but he was somewhat surprised to see such a magnanimous side of him.

He didn't think that Yan Tingzhi's punishment was condoning evil or tolerating wrongdoing. After all, the imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty were very different from those in later periods, and those who needed to resort to cheating were basically not powerful or wealthy families.

Because the children of the powerful and wealthy have too many ways to cheat, they don't need to resort to any crooked tricks at the last minute or in the exam hall.

It's not that being poor makes one right, but rather that they weren't competing on a level playing field at all. Take Zhang Dai, for example. He could find all of Yan Tingzhi's official documents and private correspondence since he entered officialdom, study them in depth, imitate his writing style, and have a thorough understanding of his literary style and interests.

However, most test takers would probably need to refer to the anthology of contemporary essays compiled by Zhang Dai last year to gain some understanding of Yan Tingzhi.

Therefore, there is really no need to condemn these cheating students outright and deny them any chance to correct their mistakes. Otherwise, we would be committing the dogmatic error of "those who steal a country become princes, while those who steal a hook are punished."

After the court hearing concluded, everyone returned to their respective examination booths and sat down. As for the students who had been punished, they took tools and went out to fetch water, filling several large stone vats in the examination hall before wiping their sweat and hurriedly returning to their examination booths.

Then Zhang Dai and the others got up and took their water-filling tools to fetch water, either to brew tea or to moisten ink.

After all the candidates had returned to their beds, soldiers from the Imperial Guards pulled oxcarts into the examination hall and distributed the exam questions from the carts to the different examination tents.

(End of this chapter)