Frost for a Thousand Years

Chapter 143, the Poetry and Prose section, is over!
At the same time, in three examination halls, the imperial examination for the subject of poetry and prose was being conducted.

The main examination hall of the Imperial Examination Hall.

There were also separate examination rooms for the two Song brothers and the little Song brother.

Such a high-level scientific expedition is bound to be nerve-wracking.

Song Ce had already underperformed once last year, so even though he was excited and nervous this time, his performance was not affected in any way.

Besides, composing poems is something I'm naturally good at.

After the scholar read the question aloud, he simultaneously wrote it down on paper, which made him even more confident.

Is this year's imperial examination's poetry and prose section purely descriptive?

That's something I excel at.

Last year, he passed the imperial examination solely based on his knowledge of poetry and prose.

However, having suffered such a 'great calamity,' Song Ce had a deeper understanding of officialdom and politics, and he quickly saw through the ulterior motives in this imperial examination.

Although the title is "Red Water," seemingly intended to favor Song Shi'an who returned from the north wind, anyone with a clear head knows that his greatest strength lies in reasoning. His "Exhortation to Learning" is a profound work comparable to the classics. Using water as the theme this time truly benefits…

It's Sun Qian.

The struggle was hidden within the exam.

The old scholars hoped that Sun Qian would become the top scholar, even if it didn't represent anything, they at least wanted this emerging literary leader to be someone who valued literature, was noble, moral, and sociable.

But Song Ce wasn't worried at all.

If it's my older brother, then there's definitely no problem.

.........

"As the year draws to a close and winter deepens, the false Qi, with an army of 100,000, besieged the north wind, losing and sinking their ships, and ultimately fleeing north. The Chishui River, flowing from the Wumeng Mountains, irrigates the fertile fields of Liangzhou and nourishes the people. Now it serves as a natural barrier, protecting the borders of Yu and defending against foreign invaders. I request that this poem be written about the river to extol the magnificence of the mountains and rivers of the Holy Dynasty. It is not limited to the Chishui River, but can be written about any river within the territory of Dayu."

Upon hearing the topic, Song Shi'an smiled.

So, is that arrogant little Sun trying to become a custom champion?

Moreover, it even seems like they're favoring me.

They'll resort to these underhanded tactics.

It doesn't matter, I just won't write about Chishui, right?

The Dayu River has thousands of tributaries; there's so much to write about.

All you need to do is choose one that you can memorize from your own text library.

To be honest, Song Shi'an didn't really have many purely descriptive articles in his collection.

But to put it another way, what he would specifically write down must be a masterpiece that has stood the test of time.

This magnificent writing is beyond the capacity of even the latitude of Dayu.

And what's quite good is that there are so many Dayu Rivers that there's no need to change their names.

Sili is the center of the world.

Besides the new city of Sheng'an, there is also an old city, Luocheng, which is now the seat of a mere prefecture.

Other dynasties, even those that briefly ruled for several generations, all...

It can be considered to have some strategic importance.

The river that Luo City depends on is the Luo River.

Actually, it wasn't exactly a coincidence. This fictional dynasty wasn't too different from real history in terms of geography. Sizhou was roughly the same as Henan, and there were too many similar place names. It's just that Luoyang had lost its core position in the empire.

Then, let's start writing.

Although there are many differences between the work and the Dayu era due to the location, time, and allusions, some minor revisions have been made without changing the overall feel of the work.

However, those literary and insightful descriptions can certainly be used.

On the manuscript paper, he picked up his pen and began to invoke the gods!
……

Sun Qian's expression suddenly froze the moment he heard the question.

There hasn't been an exam for prose poems that only describe landscapes for many years.

In the past, the emphasis was mainly on reasoning.

But now, there's no way to reason with them.

Could it be that Father has made a move?

No, if that were the case, he couldn't possibly not have told me.

Those Grand Secretaries were openly following the Emperor, trying to promote themselves.

What a boring bunch.

Do I need your help?

Sun Qian didn't take it seriously.

But since we're in our comfort zone, we should give it our all.

With a stroke of the pen, I penned five characters: "Ode to the Mountains and Rivers of Dayu".

The great river originates from the mysterious garden of Kunlun, flowing forth from the celestial abyss. It cleaves the Qilian Mountains, carving out colossal ravines, traversing Qin and Long, descending to the Dragon Gate. Its nine bends nurture its spiritual veins, its myriad ravines hold hidden dragon scales. Its waves crash against the majestic pass, once shattering the horse of Ji Wang; its torrents sank the sword of Qi…

……

Those who could pass the imperial examination and become a Juren were the best among scholars. In that era, prose and poetry were the main forms of writing. Everyone's level had a certain lower limit. When this topic was presented, most people could say that they were very satisfied.

It's true, it's very simple.

Compared to last year's provincial examination question book, it was not difficult at all.

The theme is within a general consensus, unlike a 'book', which has vast and boundless boundaries and the deeper the better.

It's perfectly acceptable to express patriotism; national sentiment has been the dominant theme for scholars since ancient times.

But just as it's difficult to get a perfect score on a composition that reflects the mainstream ideology, shortcuts are often the hardest to find in academic pursuits.

All the Grand Secretaries of the Imperial Academy held this view.

Those who read books very well believe there is only one standard for judgment—

"This year, there will definitely be many beautiful essays," said Sun Kang, the chief examiner of the poetry and prose section, with great anticipation.

“There are very few questions this difficult.” The others chimed in. “Scholars with strong writing skills will definitely try their best to make their writing beautiful.” “Beautiful writing is never a flaw, unless it’s the kind of pretentious piling up of words that creates castles in the air,” Gu Yixin added. “Scholars who use words only as decorations and embellishments, writings that are empty and devoid of any substance, should be able to tell the difference from the papers.”

These old scholars naturally know what constitutes a good article and what constitutes an "appearingly good article."

However, this standard is difficult for people who lack sufficient knowledge to distinguish.

Just like in calligraphy, the "Jianghu style" is criticized by laymen, who then attack the mainstream for creating academic barriers.

Some poor poems are not recognized by many people.

Admittedly, some calligraphy masters may boast a bit to attract attention, but most of them are quite accomplished.

It can be placed within an article.

What kind of writing style can be considered good writing style?

How do we distinguish between writing for the sake of writing?

All writers should learn from this.

First and foremost, good writing must be fluent.

The vocabulary can be obscure, but it shouldn't be entirely detrimental to reading.

Secondly, the visuals are layered and progressive, giving the viewer a sense of time and space.

What cannot be written lacks cinematic quality; when it's haphazard and disorganized, one still insists: "This is montage."

Finally, and most importantly, is the meaning being expressed.

Which timeless masterpiece fails to tell a story clearly?
Does it fail to convey the author's state of mind?

“Master Gu, but I still think we can’t place too much trust in these scholars from the Imperial Academy,” Zhang Zhao said. “We need to read more of their works. We won’t miss any good articles, but those that are superficial and lack substance will likely be praised.”

“That’s true.” Gu Yixin nodded and said, “This kind of exam question hasn’t been asked for many years. I’m afraid that the students below will have rigid thinking and blindly follow a fixed pattern.”

Blindly following a formula means applying a set pattern to an article.

A good article is one that is grand, magnificent, rich in allusions, and ultimately elevates to a higher level.

“That’s right.” Sun Kang knew this best and said, “Some students are very cunning. They sew dozens of articles together, modify the beautiful sentences in various works, and piece them together. Some young people who haven’t read many books are still saying that the articles they write are good and good.”

There is a consensus among everyone.

That is, this poem is just a display of skill.

But some skills were stolen.

The scholars who spend their days repairing and reading books certainly understand, but what about the other scholars who grade papers?

“We estimate there are nearly three thousand articles in total,” Zhang Zhao said. “They should all be good, but only about six or seven hundred are truly outstanding. We will personally grade these articles. Then, we will select the best ones and rank them.”

That is, an average of one hundred articles per person...

Hearing this, everyone felt immense pressure and broke out in a sweat.

“Master Gu can watch less, I’ll watch more,” Zhang Zhao added with a smile, also worried about mistreating the old man.

"Thank you so much, that's kind of you." Gu Yixin joked with Zhang Zhao about his 'yin and yang', and then decided, "Okay, we can't miss any good articles, and we can't let incompetent people take advantage of us."

The so-called "incompetent fools taking advantage of loopholes" means that some articles that are not up to standard are graded as second-class because they are well-made, without going through the hands of the senior scholars.

Although this imperial examination only recruited thirty Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest level of the imperial examination), those in the second-class category were all outside the top one hundred.

But there's still one subject left.

I was lucky to get a B grade here, but my essay performance was excellent, reaching the middle of the A grade. Combining both subjects, it's possible I barely made it to the top of the imperial examinations.

Only thirty people were selected for the imperial examination.

This does not mean that both subjects must be in the top thirty.

If someone is in the top 30 in both subjects, then they might be in the top 10 overall, which is terrifying.

"Since we're going to rank them, should we single out Song Shi'an and Sun Qian's articles?" someone asked slyly.

This is indeed a problem.

Unlike the imperial examination, the essays submitted to the Grand Secretaries were all to be copied.

If the goal is to create hype and select the top scorer, what if someone else is accidentally ranked higher?

"Do you think they can't be rated A?" Gu Yixin asked.

"Getting a top grade is definitely not a problem, but there are thousands of candidates from all over the country, and getting into the top ten..."

“If you don’t have the ability to stand out at a glance, how can you expect to be the top scholar of my Great Yu?” Gu Yixin said decisively. “Change it however you need to change it.”

.........

Soon, Song Shi'an wrote down the partially revised article on the manuscript paper.

After reviewing it multiple times, I finally copied it onto the final exam paper.

Neat handwriting, without any scribbling, is a very important factor in the grading.

A little while later, he finished writing.

Slowly, he put down the pen in his hand.

The scholar who was proctoring the exam was stunned.

Does this mean it's finished?

"carry out an assignment."

Song Shi'an raised his head.

"..." He was stunned, because less than half an hour had passed. So he asked to confirm, "There's still a long way to go before it ends. Are you sure you want it to be over now?"

Although the topic is simple, writing an essay requires careful word choice and sentence construction.

To finish writing at such a fast speed is equivalent to...

Just open your mouth?

"Ah."

Song Shi'an answered without hesitation.

Upon hearing this word, the scholar solemnly stood up: "Anonymous."

(End of this chapter)