Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 5: Resentment from He Cong

"He Cong, next in command."

"Lu Beigu, top scorer!"

When the academician loudly announced the score of Lu Beigu's policy essay, the entire examination room fell silent.

"Ace in armor?"

Everyone's expression froze on their faces, as if they had heard something out of the ordinary.

"That's impossible!" He Cong stood up suddenly, shaking the desk with his bang. "In all the years in the county school, no one has ever gotten an A in policy essays!"

Xuezheng glanced at him coldly: "Mr. He, please pay attention to your manners."

He Cong then realized his own gaffe and sat down again with a flushed face, but he could not hide the shock and unwillingness in his eyes.

Indeed, since the establishment of the Qingli New Deal, the highest score in the policy essay examination in Hejiang County School was only B+. Even for those scholars with a deep family background, getting a B-medium in the policy essay was already outstanding.

A grade? That's an unimaginable result!
"A-level." The scholar who had just supported Lu Beigu muttered to himself, his eyes gleaming with disbelief, "Brother Lu is so talented?"

His companions were equally shocked: "I thought getting a B-grade would be the limit, but getting an A-grade is simply unbelievable!"

Discussions gradually rose in the examination room, and everyone was shocked by this unprecedented score.

And a huge question arose in their hearts.

That is, what kind of policy paper did Lu Beigu write?
"quiet!"

The principal shouted loudly, and after the examination room quieted down again, he continued to announce the results of other people.

But at this moment, no one really cared about their own score. Everyone's mind was still on the shocking "A-level".

After the results were announced, He Cong stood up and shouted loudly.

"Please allow us to read Lu Beigu's policy paper!"

He Cong's voice was particularly harsh in the examination room. His face flushed red, and several wealthy children behind him also followed suit and said, "Yes, let us also see this top-notch work!"

Xue Zheng frowned and was about to scold him, but the magistrate Li Pan had already walked out of the inner room with Lu Beigu's answer sheet in his hand.

"Want to see?" Li Pan's hoarse voice was filled with a hint of sarcasm. "Then see as much as you want."

He instructed the school registrar to post the original draft of the policy paper on a bulletin board under the eaves of one of the roofs of the county school.

The paper shimmered in the sunlight, and students immediately swarmed around to watch.

He Cong squeezed to the front, his eyes piercing the "Summer Defense Strategy" like knives.

The more he looked, the paler his face became, and even beads of sweat began to seep out of his forehead.

"This this."

"Brother He, why are you silent?" someone deliberately teased, "Didn't you just say that Brother Lu stole someone's manuscript?"

He Cong's lips trembled, but he couldn't utter a word.

He had been influenced by his uncle who worked in the provincial government since he was young, so he could naturally see the importance of this policy paper. Apart from anything else, the degree of consistency of the quotations from classics alone was something that no ordinary person could write!

"What a metaphor! 'Wearing the royal robe yet managing profits in the market, holding weapons yet calculating pennies!'" One student couldn't help but applaud. "This metaphor is absolutely brilliant!"

"Look at the third strategy, 'strategy to disrupt the heart', it analyzes the internal contradictions of the Xia Kingdom so thoroughly."

The discussions came like a tide, and He Cong felt a buzzing in his ears. The policy paper he wrote "Imitating the Story of Emperor Wu of Han" was so childish and ridiculous compared to this "Proposal for Protecting against Summer".

He came from a wealthy family and had always been the top student in the county school, so he was used to being arrogant.

I was beaten this time and lost so miserably. How could I not feel bad?
At this time, He Cong squeezed out of the crowd and met Li Pan's gaze outside.

"Mr. He," Li Pan said slowly, "I heard your family's restaurant business is doing well, so I guess you have a large collection of books at home. But when it comes to policy writing, you ultimately have to rely on your own insights and thinking."

As the county magistrate, he held absolute authority over the entire county. Therefore, Li Pan could say whatever he pleased to anyone in the county school.

What's more, what Li Pan said was not really that embarrassing.

But when He Cong heard this, his face turned from red to white, and then from white to blue, as if he was changing his expression.

“Yes, the students know.”

After He Cong bowed, he lowered his head and left. The voices around him were like countless needles piercing him. No matter what the people around him said, it automatically turned into a mockery of him when it fell into his ears.

"I heard he just laughed at Lu Beigu."

"This is such a huge loss of face."

"He usually relies on his family background to show off his power, but he is just a dandy boy."

He Cong gritted his teeth, clenched his fists tightly, and his nails dug deep into the flesh of his palms.

"Lu Beigu! What's the point of just being good at policy essays? The county exam is only two months away, there's no way you'll be able to get into the provincial academy!"

Afterwards, County Magistrate Li Pan returned to the room. At this time, the County School Director brought out Lu Beigu's previous academic records, which were exactly what Li Pan had asked him to see.

Looking at Li Pan who was flipping through the documents, the chief imperial edict carefully considered his words and spoke.

"Lu Beigu's Mo Yi scores were poor, and his calligraphy and poetry scores were only average. The county exam isn't far off."

The implication was to tell the county magistrate that even if the policy essay was good enough, Lu Beigu's other grades were still lagging behind, and it would be difficult for him to pass the county examination.

And this is also Lu Beigu's fatal flaw.

In fact, in the complex imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty③, most normal scholars, unless they felt that their future in the imperial examinations was hopeless, would actually take the Jinshi examination.

Since the third year of Taiping Xingguo, the examination content of the Jinshi degree has been fixed to five items: poetry, prose, policy essays, calligraphy and calligraphy. A large-scale adjustment was made in the fourth year of Qingli, but many of the items were changed back afterwards.

In the first year of Jiayou, the examination content is still these five items, but the priority of policy essays has been raised to the highest level, and the assessment of Mo Yi is more inclined to the candidate's understanding rather than rote memorization.

But in any case, there cannot be a serious imbalance in these five subjects with only one being very strong, because the overall score will make it difficult to pass the county exam.

Li Pan nodded slightly when he heard this. Although the county magistrate was also in charge of the county school, he had the right to assess the students of the county school for promotion to the provincial school.

However, the Song Dynasty attached great importance to the fairness of the imperial examination system, and many things had been decided in order to prevent the resurgence of aristocratic families.

Although for those who have a particularly strong family background but not so good abilities, the loophole of "Enyin④" is specially left.

But for the vast majority of scholars who took the imperial examinations, the imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty was indeed countless times fairer than that of the Tang Dynasty.

Under this system, even if Li Pan valued talent, he could not openly recommend students with poor overall scores in the county exam.

If he insists on doing so, he will be asking for trouble and giving others a handle.

"Go and call Lu Beigu now."

There are some unfinished ideas in this policy paper that cannot be discussed in public.

Li Pan also planned to have a good chat with Lu Beigu in private about some other things.

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① Mo Yi, that is, questions are asked from the classics and candidates are required to answer them in writing. The questions are usually selected from "Spring and Autumn Annals" or "Book of Rites", and the number of questions is set at ten.

② Posting scriptures, that is, cutting off the front and back sentences of the original text of the classics, leaving only one or two sentences or one or two lines in the middle, and asking the candidates to fill in the front and back. The test questions are usually selected from "The Analects of Confucius", and the number of questions is set at ten.

③The imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty was divided into regular subjects and special subjects. Regular subjects included Jinshi subjects, various subjects, and military subjects. Special subjects included Zhi subjects and Tongzi subjects. Among them, various subjects referred to the Nine Classics, Five Classics, Kaiyuan Rites, Three Histories, Three Rites, Three Commentaries, Mingjing, Mingfa, Mingzi and other professional subjects for selecting scholars. Although the difficulty of the various subjects was relatively low, the official career after passing the examination was often extremely difficult.

④ The younger generation is given the privilege of attending school and becoming an official due to the merits of the older generation.

(End of this chapter)