Top Scholar

Chapter 278 Retest
On May 24th, the final examination of the provincial examination was held, which was also the only final examination.

The roll call and body search were still conducted at dawn, with all the rules being the same as the first performance. And since practice makes perfect, everyone was much more efficient this time.

With only one hundred candidates left, everything is much more relaxed now.

Before dawn, everyone took their places and waited for the Grandmaster to arrive... This time, all the candidates were in the Minglun Hall, and the Grandmaster personally supervised the examination.

They waited for a full half hour, until it was broad daylight, before they finally started beating the ceremonial drum.

The Grandmaster, dressed in a scarlet robe, emerged from behind the screen, surrounded by his subordinates.

"Greetings, Grandmaster!" The examinees hurriedly stood up and bowed in unison to welcome him.

"No need for formalities," the Grandmaster said, settling down behind the large table and gesturing with his hand.

"Thank you, Grandmaster!" The candidates then returned to their seats and sat up straight.

"You have been taking the exams since the beginning of February, and now we have finally reached the last one." The Grandmaster looked at the hundred candidates and said with a kind smile, "Each of you has worked very hard. If the academy can decide, I am willing to admit you all."

Although everyone knew the Grandmaster was just being polite, the test takers still felt a warm glow in their hearts.

"However, the imperial court has rules that admissions must be strictly based on the quota, so half of you will have to come back next year." The Grand Master sighed softly and said, "This exam will include one question on the Five Classics and one question on current affairs. Each of you must answer with all your might according to your respective classics, and you must not be careless, or you will surely make a mistake."

"Yes! We will follow the Grandmaster's teachings," the candidates replied in unison.

"Let's start with the questions." Xiao Tixue then tore open a wax-sealed envelope in front of everyone and took out five questions on the Five Classics.

Shui Xuezheng hurriedly copied the answers onto paper in large characters. After finishing one, he pasted it onto an examination board and finally stood all five examination boards up in front of the examinees.

You don't need to do all five questions; you only need to do the one from your own scripture.

Su Lu then copied the title of the *Book of Rites* onto the manuscript paper—

The Record says: "The ritual of drinking wine in the village is to clarify the order of seniority." It also says: "Ritual is the order of heaven and earth; the superior man is careful in his solitude." Observing the village of the sage, one can see the complete meaning of ritual. Even though drinking wine is a minor matter, the sage was so careful in it. Is this not because he practiced ritual, practicing the smallest thing to govern the greatest?

This question clearly illustrates the difference between questions on the Four Books and the Five Classics. The former usually presents a sentence or two from the Four Books, testing general principles and broad concepts. The latter, however, presents longer passages with deeper meanings, emphasizing specialized knowledge and institutional interpretation, making them much more difficult.

Actually, this question is considered quite simple among the Five Classics questions, at least easier than the ones that Mr. Gangshan had Su Lu do. This is because the Grand Master considered that young students were just beginning to study the classics, and if the questions were too profound, they simply wouldn't be able to handle them, which would only benefit the old masters.

For the preliminary examinations, the younger the candidates, the better. That's why in many provinces, the preliminary examinations were divided into those for adults and those for children.

As a remote province, it doesn't have the resources for such detailed divisions, but the great masters would always go easy on the Five Classics questions, precisely to accommodate the younger candidates...

~~
Whether it's easy or difficult, just do it.

Su Lu carefully examined the question. This question takes the "Ritual of Drinking Wine in the Village" from the Book of Rites and the "Xiangdang" from the Analects as its core, and uses the specific ritual of "drinking wine among villagers" to explain the core Confucian idea of ​​"using ritual to establish people and to govern the country".

This is a question about etiquette that uses a small example to illustrate a larger point.

The approach to solving this type of question is completely different from that of the Four Books questions. Unlike the latter, it does not have a high degree of freedom. Instead, it requires an accurate and thorough explanation of the meaning of the classics.

For example, when addressing a topic, one must condense the theme with the words "respect for elders" and "caution in small matters," emphasizing that the core of etiquette is inner sincerity and respect, rather than external forms, which aligns with the view in the Book of Rites that "etiquette is something one obtains from within oneself."

The next step should be to cite the Book of Rites to explain the three rites of the village drinking ceremony, clarify the institutional basis of "clarifying the order of seniority", and then transform the abstract meaning of rites into specific rituals - the arrangement of ranks, the setting of sacrificial vessels, and the rise and fall of ranks, demonstrating the textual research skills of "distinguishing the traces of rites".

Each part then has its own specific task requirements, and each part must be well-reasoned and supported by evidence, together forming a logically rigorous mini-paper.

If you cannot explain all the basic knowledge points in a thorough manner, no matter how elaborate your essay is, you will not get a high score.

For scholars accustomed to divergent thinking, tackling the Five Classics questions is indeed a painful experience. Many people have studied for half their lives, producing brilliant answers to the Four Books questions, but their Five Classics questions are abysmal, precisely because they lack rigorous academic training.

But this was no problem for Su Lu. He was a professionally trained, top-notch lecturer who had undergone rigorous training from Mr. Gangshan. The Five Classics questions were actually his real forte!
It's just that I didn't have the chance to showcase my abilities in the county and prefectural examinations before...

Thanks to the Grand Master, I can finally work out a question on the Five Classics properly.

After reviewing the question, Su Lu first conceived a plan in his mind, and then began to draw a mind map, outlining the solution and all the key knowledge points.

~~
At this moment, Xiao Tixue also got up from behind the big case and began to patrol the Minglun Hall.

When he reached Su Lu's side, he stopped and looked at this highly accomplished student of the senior Pang mentioned by Magistrate Jia, the prodigy of Luzhou who was being frantically pursued by the county magistrate and prefect.

He was a remarkably handsome and spirited young man, possessing a composure beyond his years. Even when deep in thought, his expression remained unchanged.

Xiao Tixue looked at Su Lu's manuscript with curiosity, and was stunned. Then he frowned. What kind of nonsense was this? Why was there a tree drawn horizontally?

Could it be that Senior Pang only taught him the Four Books and didn't have time to teach him the Five Classics? Alas, young people are really too ambitious. Why bother studying the Book of Rites? Let's start with an easier classic first, and then we can talk about the Five Classics later.

He couldn't help but shake his head, feeling both disappointed and secretly relieved. This way, his junior brother could enjoy the glory of the Junior Trinity all to himself...

Otherwise, if we get a double yolk, we'll have to go through the trouble of explaining it to Teacher Yang.
Su Lu was completely absorbed in his work and had no idea that the Grandmaster had walked past him...

After completing the mind map, he repeatedly checked the entire process to ensure that the approach was correct and that no knowledge points were missed before he began to draft the outline based on the mind map.

By the time he finished writing a long article of over two thousand words, the sun was already high in the sky.

Putting down his pen, Su Lu stretched his aching wrists and finally realized how dry his mouth was.

It was now the height of summer, and even in the well-ventilated Minglun Hall, it was still so hot that one's back was covered in sweat.

He took out his water bottle, took a few sips to replenish his fluids, then put the bottle away and began to carefully review and revise the draft...

~~
After lunch, Su Lu made some more revisions and finally finalized the article.

Then he switched to a small white cloud, took out the test paper from the bag, and began to copy it stroke by stroke in the afternoon breeze.

After finishing writing and checking it again, Su Lu found that it was still word for word, without any errors or omissions, and the format was also correct. He then put down his pen and breathed a long sigh of relief.

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly; the Five Classics questions were incredibly taxing, one of them was equivalent to more than two essays on the Four Books...

I don't know if this is a problem unique to the Book of Rites, or if it exists in all five classics?
Once the ink on the exam paper had completely dried, Su Lu closed the folded booklet and put it into the exam paper bag.

With nothing else to do, he closed his eyes and began to meditate, like an old monk entering deep meditation.

If you look closely, you can see that he inhales through his nose and exhales through his mouth, his breaths are even, fine, soft and long, and each breath is different—'shh, heh, si, chui, xi, hu,' and so on, six different breathing patterns in a cycle.

This is a set of breathing exercises taught to him by the old abbot. It is said to have been created by Tao Hongjing, a Taoist priest of the Southern Dynasties. It can cure diseases, strengthen the body, and prolong life.

Considering that the old abbot was already eighty years old and was getting more and more energetic, Su Lu decided to believe him.

But in the grandmaster's eyes, he was simply asleep...

Meanwhile, the other candidates were still writing furiously, making Su Lu's actions seem particularly out of place.

Xiao Tixue couldn't help but shake his head again. This kid started writing later than everyone else, but finished earlier than anyone else.

Moreover, he was teaching the most difficult text, the Book of Rites. Even Xiao Tixue himself would have found it difficult to achieve perfection in such a short time, let alone a student who had only studied it for a year or two...

'No need to read it, his article must be terrible.' Xiao Tixue was in a dilemma again. If he ranked him too low, how could he pay his respects to Senior Pang after the exam?
'Regardless, let's give him sixth place...' Xiao Tixue secretly calculated. Because the top five must be the best in the Five Classics, hence the title of "Five Classics Champion." This is true in all examinations involving the Five Classics.

Therefore, Su Lu did so poorly on the Five Classics questions that it was impossible for him to be in the top five.

Unless someone else does a worse job than him...

But that was impossible. Xiao Tixue looked at the list of students in his hand. Luzhou was a place that valued etiquette. There were four students studying etiquette within ten miles, a proportion that was astonishing.

~~
As dusk fell, the clapperboard sounded, and the Grandmaster said in a deep voice, "Submit your papers."

The candidates all stopped writing, picked up their exam papers, and stepped forward one by one, placing them neatly on the desk before bowing and taking their leave.

After all the candidates had left, the staff divided the one hundred exam papers into five stacks according to their meaning.

The most numerous are naturally the Book of Poetry, with thirty-two copies; followed by the Book of Changes, with thirty copies; the Book of Documents, with eighteen copies; and the fewest are naturally the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Book of Rites.

There are only eight copies of the *Book of Rites*...

Upon seeing this result, Xiao Tixue was slightly surprised. It turned out that there weren't many scholars in Luzhou who studied the Book of Rites, but they were all quite skilled.

He suddenly remembered Zhu Liu, who had passed the imperial examination last year and studied the Book of Rites, and realized that they must all be members of the Zhu family...

The five advisors were assigned to manage the Five Classics... That's how he recruited them in the first place... So each of them took their own stack of the classics and went down to conduct the initial review.

The old gentleman with the white beard was studying the Book of Rites, so he only had eight papers in his hands. As he read through the papers, he kept marveling at them, and the other teachers had to ask him to be quiet because he was disturbing them.

"I'm so sorry, I was just really excited to see such a few papers. I didn't expect that all of them would be from such experts!" The white-bearded old man said apologetically, bowing with his hands clasped.

"Oh? So the quality of the 'Gift Room' this time is very high?" the fat man asked with a smile.

"Yes, every paper is very solid. I don't even know who to recommend as the top scholar." The white-bearded old man nodded, then turned to the next exam paper. After looking at it for a while, he opened his mouth wide and never closed it again.

"I know who should be the top scholar! No, he's the only one worthy of the title!" The white-bearded man twitched excitedly, picking up the exam paper and rambling incoherently:
"Master Dong, open your eyes! The text of the Book of Rites can be written like this!"

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(End of this chapter)