Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 300 A Bountiful Year Brings Abundant Granaries

The moment Mo Yi's exam paper was taken away, Lu Beigu's nerves, which had been stretched to the limit, suddenly relaxed, and a deep sense of exhaustion welled up in his heart.

The calligraphy practice in the morning was just an appetizer, not very demanding, but the ten questions on the meaning of ink in the afternoon, especially the last few difficult questions on the Guliang Commentary, left him feeling as if he had been trekking through thorns all day, which had taken a huge toll on his mental energy.

Lu Beigu rubbed his slightly throbbing temples, his vision still showing a faint, lingering skewness.

There was no time to think about the Mo Yi exam again. He immediately relit the cold copper hand warmer, stuffed it into his bosom, and quickly wrapped himself tightly in the blanket. He lay down on the hard board to allow the blood in his body to flow back to his heart more effectively.

The chill inside the cell was still biting, stubbornly seeping in through the cracks in the bricks and the gaps in the reed curtains.

The cold pancakes and water he had eaten at noon didn't give him much warmth, and his young body instinctively curled up, drawing on the precious warmth from the hand warmer.

On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month in the north, it is freezing cold. Under such temperature conditions, one can stay in a dilapidated house with the door open for three days without hot water or hot food.

Only those who have experienced the imperial examinations know how grueling it was!

After experiencing it firsthand, Lu Beigu still couldn't imagine how Su Xun, Zeng Gong, and others had managed to persevere for so many years.

"Thank goodness I have this cloak to keep warm."

Lu Beigu wrapped his green squirrel fur cloak tightly around himself. The animal skin was far more effective at keeping warm than cloth, and he relied entirely on it to stay warm. If he had relied solely on bedding, he would have been seriously injured by the cold.

After lying down for a while, the mild dizziness and blurred vision caused by high tension disappeared after the blood supply to the heart and brain was relieved.

He dared not lie down any longer and struggled to stand up.

In this temperature, moving around too much can easily deplete your energy, but lying down too much can easily lead to hypothermia.

Wearing a silk robe and a green squirrel fur cloak, Lu Beigu paced back and forth in the cramped examination room, trying to warm himself up as he began to chew on salted meat jerky. The sesame cakes he had for lunch, being pure carbohydrates, were not very filling and did not provide as much energy as meat.

As for why he didn't spend more money to buy better food, it wasn't that Lu Beigu was unwilling to spend money or didn't want to buy it.

Furthermore, although students need to bring their own exam materials, there are strict regulations on the types of items that can be brought in. Among them, it is clearly stipulated that only unfilled cakes can be brought in as staple food, while other foods such as rice and glutinous rice balls are not allowed.

In addition, items such as sugar and snacks are also on the list of prohibited items.

There is a reason for this regulation.

Although the ancients did not understand the specific principles behind "eating sugar can make the brain more active," they understood the intuitive cause-and-effect phenomenon. However, sugar and sugary snacks were not affordable for all test takers.

Driven by the desire to maintain the fairness of the imperial examinations, the imperial court needed to legally prohibit all examination items that could lead to unfair results from being brought into the examination hall.

In this way, no one can gain additional benefits through items, and everyone can only rely on pure strength to pass the test.

Of course, factors such as age, physical condition, and intelligence are impossible to balance. The Ministry of Rites provincial examination, as a civil service examination, was still a selection examination, so one had to adapt to and endure the specific examination environment.

In such situations, younger and healthier candidates actually have an advantage; they are not only more resistant to the cold, but also have more active minds and recover their energy faster.

Therefore, while the imperial examinations could be taken indefinitely on the surface, in reality, most people had a window of opportunity, which was about thirty years from their teens to their forties. Once they got older, it was unlikely that they could endure it.

It's no exaggeration to say that just these three days of exams can take half your life.

As night fell, just like the previous night, Lu Beigu still couldn't fall asleep.

Although he knew very well that sleep was the key to restoring his energy at this moment, the effects of his intense concentration were still lingering. Fragments of the exam questions, the atmosphere of the exam hall, and the pitiful cries of the cheating student from last night—various images were still flashing through his mind.

Lu Beigu took a deep breath, forced himself to clear his mind, and once again used the method of calming the mind taught by Zhou Dunyi to eliminate distracting thoughts and focus on long, slow breaths, allowing his body to gradually relax.

The youthful vitality ultimately prevailed.

Although the cell was cold and hard, the extreme mental exhaustion and the calming effect of introspection allowed him to quickly fall into a light sleep that was not deep but enough to restore his energy.

The body's fatigue gradually dissipates during sleep, accumulating strength for the tough battle of the next day.

"Thump! Thump-thump! Thump!"

The sound of the clapper was like a cold whip, suddenly striking the eardrums of every candidate in the examination hall.

Lu Beigu opened his eyes; it was still dark, and the examination room was dimly lit. Although he was very sleepy, he was afraid of delaying things, so he dared not close his eyes again.

He braced himself against the wall and slowly rolled over and sat up on the long wooden bed, his joints making a slight "click" sound in the cold.

Lu Beigu got out of bed and moved his hands and feet to dispel the stiffness.

Although the warmth in the quilt had long since dissipated, thanks to the protection of the blue squirrel fur cloak covering him, he did not feel an unbearable chill.

Lu Beigu removed the tabletop and rekindled the bronze stove. The warmth from his palms dispelled the chill from his fingertips.

He took out the frozen sesame cake again, and chewed and swallowed it in small bites with the icy gourd water.

The cold biscuit and cold water brought a strange sense of clarity, completely dispelling the lingering drowsiness.

"when--!"

Before long, the clear sound of the gong rang out on time.

"Silence, students!"

"In the second year of the Jiayou reign, the Ministry of Rites held its provincial examination, and the poetry questions were distributed to the candidates!"

Familiar footsteps approached from afar, the reed curtain was lifted, and a new examination paper was handed in by a clerk.

Lu Beigu unfolded the scroll and saw the poem topic from that morning.

—From the poem "A Bountiful Year with Abundant Grain"

The requirement is a five-character, six-rhyme regulated verse, with the first line starting with an oblique tone and not rhyming, and rhyming with the level tone "先".

Upon seeing this title, Lu Beigu felt more certain.

The poems for the provincial examinations of the Ministry of Rites typically praised the emperor, celebrated virtues, and sang of peace. Phrases like "abundant harvest" and "high granaries" directly pointed to the prosperity under the dynasty's rule.

For this type of question, the technical requirements are far higher than the depth of the theme, or rather, you can't write anything about the depth of the theme at all, and you don't need to write anything about the depth of the theme. Just sing praises and praises and that's it.

The core test points are the skill in using words and constructing sentences within a strict metrical framework, and whether the praise of the grandeur of the holy dynasty is appropriate and well-crafted.

His mind instantly flashed through commonly used characters with the "先" rhyme: year, field, field, chapter, pious, dry, etc.
Meanwhile, words and allusions describing harvest, storage, auspiciousness, and saintly virtues also emerged one after another, and many images were almost ready to be evoked.

What Lu Beigu needed to do was to weave these elements into a poem that conformed to the rules of etiquette and regulations, was somewhat literary, and could move the examiners, in accordance with the strict requirements of five-character six-rhyme regulated verse.

After a moment's thought, the draft was complete in my mind.

The first couplet must praise the emperor, the second couplet must describe the scene of a bountiful harvest and the abundance of granaries, then use auspicious omens to echo the classics, and the final couplet must attribute the merit to the emperor's virtue and the emperor's favor.

Then, the structure should be clear, the allusions should be appropriate, the parallelism should be perfect, and the diction should be elegant.

After confirming that everything was correct, he picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and steadily placed the brush on the draft paper, moving smoothly and without any hesitation.

"A Poem on Abundant Harvests"

Holy rule shines throughout the world, and millet yields abundant harvests.

The fields of Taiji are vast, and the granaries are overflowing with grain.

Like clouds climbing over fields, they stand side by side, hidden in the suburban fields.

Auspicious omens appear in the Zhou Dynasty's odes, and auspicious signs are recorded in the Shun Dynasty's annals.

The granaries are well-stocked, and the temples are filled with even more devout offerings.

"Singing praises of Yao's strength in striking the earth, his great achievements are attributed to Heaven."

(End of this chapter)