Top Scholar

Chapter 483 The Final Trial!
Time passed slowly, the golden dragon pillar disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, it was noon.

The Guanglu Temple had set up drinking water and snack stations at the north and south corners of the east and west corridors for candidates to use as they pleased.

The candidates started preparing before dawn, and by this time they were inevitably thirsty and hungry. Most of them got up and quietly went to get some food and water.

After all, it was the imperial examination, and the court regarded them all as respectable prospective officials. Although the rules were strict, they were not without consideration.

However, there were also extraordinary individuals who focused solely on answering questions without eating or drinking, such as Su Lu, the top scholar in the imperial examination.

He remained seated cross-legged, staring intently at the four large characters "Follow Heaven and Follow Ancestors" on the draft paper, his mind racing with thoughts as he mobilized all his wisdom to answer the emperor's question.

To solve this problem, we must first break the deadlock.

The civil officials clung to the theories of "interaction between heaven and man" and "the laws of ancestors cannot be changed," interpreting celestial phenomena as inviolable divine pronouncements and ancestral rules as untouchable iron laws. He had to find a new way, to put new wine in old bottles, and redefine these two terms!
What is the sky? Is it the sun, moon, and stars hanging high overhead? Is it the natural disasters and anomalies that civil officials often use as 'warnings'? No, no!
Su Lu recalled a passage from the Book of Documents: "Heaven sees as the people see, Heaven hears as the people hear!" Confucianism inherently advocates that the will of Heaven and the hearts of the people are in harmony. When the people's hearts are unsettled, chaos ensues; when their hearts are at peace, the world enjoys tranquility!

Therefore, the will of the people is the will of Heaven! This is the fundamental principle of following Heaven's will!

Su Lu suddenly had a flash of inspiration. As long as the heavens were brought down from their ethereal altar and brought down to the basic needs of the people, the civil officials would lose their footing if they wanted to use celestial phenomena as a pretext.

~~
Everything is difficult at the beginning! But once you get started, nothing in the world is difficult!

Su Lu rubbed his hands excitedly, pressing his advantage—what was that 'ancestor'?
Is it a law or regulation established by Emperor Taizu? Or a rule left by Emperor Taizong?
This is also not right!

Our ancestors braved wind and rain to establish this foundation, not so that future generations would remain stuck in old ways, but so that the Zhu family's empire would be secure forever and that the people of the world could live in peace and prosperity!
Therefore, the so-called "following the ancestors" means following the original intention of our ancestors! It is that original belief of caring for the common people and stabilizing the country, rather than being bound by the old system from a hundred years ago.

At this point, finding evidence in Confucian theory becomes much simpler.

Mencius said: "There is a way to gain the world: gain the people, and you will gain the world. There is a way to gain the people: win their hearts, and you will win the people."

This means that there is a way to gain the world, and that is to win the support of the people; there is also a way to win the support of the people, and that is to win their hearts!
This is what is meant by: 'To love what the people love and to hate what the people hate; this is what it means to be a parent to the people!'

It can be called: 'The sage has no fixed mind; he takes the mind of the people as his own!'

The saying goes: 'The ruler is the boat; the common people are the water. Water can carry the boat, but water can also capsize it!'

It's all about grandstanding, let's see who can sing the loudest tune! Lao Tzu, Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi—let's all come at them and see who can admit they're wrong!
That's absolutely right, because this is originally the Confucian idea of ​​prioritizing the people's welfare, only it has been distorted by later generations...

~~
With the two powerful tools of "Heaven's will is the people's will" and "following the original intention of our ancestors," the emperor could break free of those two shackles!
In this way, if the emperor wants to reform the old and establish the new, as long as the purpose is to "protect the country and bring peace to the people", it is not a violation of ancestral precepts, but rather a true inheritance of the ancestors' grand vision!

Once Su Lu understood this, he suddenly felt a sense of clarity, and all the fog dissipated!

Then, one can proceed with unstoppable momentum and clearly answer the emperor's questions, layer upon layer—

If a founder has no ancestor to emulate, then what is there to emulate?

It is naturally the will of the people!
Emperor Taizu rose from humble beginnings to establish the Yuan dynasty, relying on the people's anger and support for the oppressive rule of foreign powers! If one loses the hearts of the people, even with a vast army, it will ultimately be nothing but a mirage, and great achievements will be difficult to accomplish!
The Han, Tang, and Song dynasties, despite their professed emulation of Heaven and ancestors, achieved far less than the ancient dynasties, and this is precisely the root of their problems.

Those emperors shouted slogans of following Heaven and their ancestors, but in reality they were only following the empty name of Heaven and adhering to the old rules of their ancestors, completely forgetting the most fundamental desire of the people!
When the emperor inquired about the balance between punishment and benevolence, the answer became immediately clear—the civil officials either blindly advocated leniency or insisted on harsh laws, both of which represented a narrow-minded perspective!
As long as we put the people first and take their concerns to heart, we can understand that governing a country requires different approaches – we should be strict with officials and lenient with the people!

Corrupt officials are vermin that erode the foundation of the nation and must be severely punished! We must rigorously examine official performance evaluations to eliminate corruption and fraud! We must strictly prohibit collusion between officials and their cronies, severing the ties between power and money! We must rectify the abuses in the canal transport, salt, and iron industries, and severely investigate those who embezzle public funds—every aspect must be strictly controlled!

The common people are the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. They should be treated with kindness and compassion, with light taxes and levies, disaster relief, water conservancy projects to irrigate fertile fields, the establishment of numerous village schools and free academies to enlighten the talents of the poor, and the relaxation of restrictions on making a living along the coast to alleviate the people's hardships. Every single thing should be put into practice!
Therefore, when the emperor asked about the most urgent matters, the answer, given the principle of putting the people first, was naturally to first eliminate the corruption of officials and then promote the interests of the people!

If the bureaucracy is corrupt, even the best benevolent policies will be exploited at every level and will not reach the people. Only by first rectifying the officialdom and eliminating corrupt officials can we talk about nurturing the people's strength and enlightening their minds!

The emperor also inquired about the monarch's integrity and the appointment of loyal and upright officials—

Under the principle of putting the people first, we must first discard those hypocrites who talk about morality in vain. The true emperor is not someone who sits in the court all day reading scriptures and lecturing, but someone who personally observes the people's suffering and clearly distinguishes right from wrong in rewarding and punishing!
Appointing loyal and upright officials is not about who shouts the loudest slogans, but about who can actually get things done, who can improve the canal transport, develop water conservancy, strengthen border defense, and bring benefits to the people!

Finally, the focus returns to the emperor – we earnestly request Your Majesty to uphold the principle of "putting the people first and never forgetting the original aspiration," and to implement a policy of strict officials and lenient treatment of the people. Only in this way can you truly respond to the will of Heaven, inherit the ancestral teachings, and ensure that the Ming Dynasty's national fortune will be at its zenith and prosper for a long time!

~~
With the draft in mind, Su Lu immediately opened the ink box, picked up the ancestral Wuxin Sanzhuo brush, dipped it in thick ink, and wrote the work in one go!
After finishing the draft, he let out a long sigh of relief, only then realizing the discomfort he felt inside. His bladder was swollen like a ball, his stomach was rumbling, and his throat was burning dry!

There was no way to leave it unattended, so he stood up and respectfully reported to the patrol officer.

The patrol officer was very impressed with him; not only was Hui Yuanlang smart, but he also had a big bladder, managing to hold it in until now before urinating…

He then took Su Lu's examination paper and draft, and gave him a bamboo plaque inscribed with "Respectful Departure and Return".

Holding the token, Su Lu followed a Jinyiwei captain to the purification room set up behind the palace. Once inside, the Jinyiwei captain remained close by.

Su Lu knew this was to prevent cheating, and he couldn't hold back any longer, so he pretended that Su Lu didn't exist.

Seeing that Su Lu had urinated for almost the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the Imperial Guard was filled with admiration...

At the examination hall, Jiao Fang stared intently at the examination paper in the inspector's hand, wishing she could snatch it and stamp it with excrement to smear that little beast's paper!
But he only dared to think about it in his heart, because the emperor had said he would personally read the scroll, and even if he had the guts, he wouldn't dare to do anything reckless on it.

Moreover, Li Dongyang and Wang Ao were watching him closely from the sidelines, and he figured if he dared to touch their precious possession, the two of them would fight him.

Oh right, Yang Tinghe is also that kid's fellow townsman and senior. Three against one and he still managed to beat him to a pulp?

~~
After returning from the washroom, Su Lu went to the corridor to drink some hot tea and eat some snacks from the Guanglu Temple to tide him over. They were indeed terribly unpalatable…

While eating, he took the opportunity to stretch his waist and neck, only to find that the emperor was gone.

In fact, Zhu Houzhao originally intended to stay on stage the whole time, mainly to be a companion.

Unfortunately, the officials who were supposed to be reading the papers finally got a chance, and a swarm of them, like flies, swarmed around him, relentlessly presenting their arguments. Zhu Houzhao couldn't withstand it and had no choice but to make his escape…

Having resolved his personal issues and engaged in some physical activity, Su Lu was rejuvenated.

But by then the sun was already setting. He didn't dare delay, so he handed in his name tag, took the paper, and returned to his seat. He quickly checked the draft carefully, and after confirming that there were no errors, he immediately began to copy it stroke by stroke.

After a magnificent 2,800-word essay was neatly transcribed, and Su Lu had just checked for any typos, the bell rang to signal the end of the exam.

"Stop writing!" the proctors shouted in unison.

By this time, most of the candidates had already finished answering the questions, and Su Lu was almost the last one to finish.

He himself did not expect that he, who had always been calm and composed, would actually perform an extreme maneuver in this final stage.

But right now, none of that matters anymore...

Having completed the final exam of his life, Su Lu let out a long sigh of relief, held the exam paper in both hands, walked steadily to the examiner, and bowed as he presented it.

When the top scholar handed in his paper, all the other students stood up and lined up. This is called respect.

The examiner took the paper, carefully checked the name and place of origin, then folded up the first four folds, affixed a sealing strip, stamped the sealing seal, and handed it over to the examiner in charge of the paper for safekeeping.

Unlike the provincial and metropolitan examinations, the palace examination papers were not simply sealed with the candidate's name; they were not copied. Every word and sentence was written in the candidate's own handwriting.

After everyone had handed in their papers, Su Lu and his classmates lined up again on the steps of the imperial court. They bowed deeply to the now-empty golden throne and thanked the examiners.

Then, following the two vice ministers of the Ministry of Rites, they slowly left the Golden Palace, which shone brightly in the setting sun.

They passed through Fengtian Gate, then through the left side gate of Wumen Gate, out of Duanmen Gate, and then through Chengtian Gate.

Upon reaching this point, the two vice ministers stopped and smiled at everyone, saying, "Alright, we'll see you all off here. See you again at the grand ceremony for the announcement of the results!"

"Thank you so much, sir. You've worked hard!"

The candidates bowed in unison to express their gratitude and watched the two vice ministers depart.

At first, they managed to maintain their composure, but as soon as they stepped out of the left gate of Chang'an, they could no longer contain themselves and cheered in unison. Now they were finally completely liberated!

"Let's go! We have to celebrate tonight, we won't leave until we're drunk!"

"I will never touch the Four Books and Five Classics again in my life!"

"Let's go to Fenzi Hutong, it's my treat..."

Cheers resounded throughout the streets, filled with the joy of overcoming hardship.

P.S. This policy essay took me most of the day to prepare, so I finally finished writing it. I'm loudly requesting monthly votes!!!
(End of this chapter)