Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2887 Master Qingsong 105.0
"what?"

Upon hearing Qi Zhifeng's words, everyone except the Third Grandfather was stunned. Even Xue Mu, who was focused on grilling meat, stopped what he was doing and looked at him with a shocked expression.

"Every year?"

"Yes!" Qi Zhifeng nodded, his expression full of helplessness. "My maternal grandfather said that there is more than one every year."

"But why?" Xue Ruitian and Xiao Fengqi exchanged a glance, neither of them understanding. "At such a young age, what could be bothering them?"

“It’s not that they’re depressed, they’re probably just devastated!” Qi Zhifeng sighed and said, “Their academic pressure is immense. Many of them, especially those from poor families, are incredibly hardworking. They can go without food or sleep, but it’s absolutely impossible for them to stop reading, writing articles, or composing poems.”

"These pressures aren't imposed on them from the outside, but rather on themselves, right?"

“That’s right!” Qi Zhifeng nodded to Shen Cha. “Grandpa said that Yunshan Academy treats Yun family members and students recruited from outside the academy equally.” He held up two fingers. “The academy is divided into two parts: the inner academy and the outer academy. The inner academy is not open to the public and is directly for Yun family members. Grandpa wasn’t very clear about the specifics. The outer academy, on the other hand, is the normal academy, covering classics, history, philosophy, literature, and the Six Arts of a Gentleman.”

"Yunshan Academy also teaches the Six Arts of a Gentleman?" Xue Ruitian raised an eyebrow. "Are those poor scholars willing to put in the effort for this? It's not a required subject for the imperial examinations, and besides, many of them probably don't have any foundation in it, right?"

"Whether they want to or not is not within the academy's consideration. If they don't want to, they can leave. They don't have to stay at Yunshan Academy, right? If they want to stay here, then they have to abide by the rules here. That's the bare minimum, right?"

"That's true."

"Besides, the Six Arts account for half of the assessment at Yunshan Academy. If they don't pass the exam, they won't get what they want." Third Grandfather smiled. "The outer academy is divided into three levels: outer dormitory, inner dormitory, and upper dormitory. New students all enter the outer dormitory. For the next three months, there will be assessments every month. Those who achieve excellent grades for three consecutive months can be promoted to the inner dormitory. After being promoted to the inner dormitory, they can't advance any further so quickly. They have to study in the inner dormitory for at least four years. During these four years, those who need to take the imperial examinations will participate in the academy's examinations, and those who don't need to take the imperial examinations will participate in the academy's internal assessments. Those who rank at the top in the assessments for three consecutive years can be considered for promotion to the upper dormitory."

"It really is quite strict," Shen Cha nodded, "but it shouldn't be to the point that someone jumps off the back mountain every year!"

“It’s still true.” Xia Chen sighed softly. “Although I haven’t studied at the academy, my peers have. They don’t have to take the imperial examinations, but seeing those scholars who can take the exams, studying like ascetics, not eating or sleeping properly, spending all their time either reading or walking with books in their eyes. Even so, their exam results are sometimes not ideal.” He paused. “To be precise, they don’t meet their expectations, so they get very anxious, feeling like they’re inadequate in every way. In fact, in our opinion, their results are already very good, and they could definitely achieve a very good ranking.” “That’s right.” Third Grandfather nodded at Xia Chen. “After each exam, they are never satisfied, never satisfied. The result of this dissatisfaction is endless studying, studying day and night, ignoring everything anyone says, and being extremely stubborn.”

"Actually, you can't blame them; they're under too much pressure."

"That's true." Third Grandfather sighed. "Among the students that Yunshan Academy recruits, some come from well-off families, and some from less well-off families. Students from well-off families are a little more relaxed and don't feel as much pressure, but those from less well-off families, especially those who are exempt from tuition fees, have almost all had to use all their family's resources to send them in."

“I’m afraid it’s more than that,” Shen Cha sighed. “It could even be a village or a town.”

“That’s right.” Xia Chen spread his hands helplessly and said, “If they can’t achieve good results in the imperial examinations in the future, or if they can’t get a recommendation from Yunshan Academy and enter officialdom, the hopes of their whole family, their whole village, and even their whole town will be extinguished, and all their efforts will be in vain.” He shrugged. “For those children, this is no different from a catastrophe. When the future is bleak, they only have one path to choose from.”

“Actually, it’s not just the Great Xia that’s like this; the Liao and Jin dynasties are the same. Ordinary people who want to get ahead have to put in more effort and money, but…” Xiao Fengqi sighed, “things often don’t go as planned, and very few people actually succeed.”

"Therefore, when they feel that their chances of getting ahead are slim and their future is bleak, they will choose to break free."

"This," Jin Miaomiao shook her head, "I can't understand it. If they can't become officials, can't they do something else? If they approach officialdom with this kind of mentality, they may not become good officials in the future."

"That's a story for later, but to answer your earlier question, they couldn't do anything else because they knew nothing but studying." Xia Chen flipped the fish he was grilling. "When I was very young, my father was an examiner once." He looked at Shen Cha, then at Xue Ruitian. "He told you about it, right?"

"Yes!" Xue Ruitian nodded. "That time, something big happened. It wasn't about cheating in the imperial examinations, but after the results were released, several scholars were dissatisfied with their rankings." He paused, making a throat-slitting gesture. "They felt relieved, like they were free, but how much pain must their families have felt when they heard the news? They had poured all their resources into supporting their children's education, but their children, because they were dissatisfied with their exam results, ended their own lives, and they had to bear all the consequences. What kind of children are these?"

"I don't know how to evaluate this, right?" Xia Chen smiled wryly and looked at Third Grandfather. "This is probably the same as those people who jumped down from the back mountain of Yunshan Academy."

"Hmm!" Third Grandfather nodded. "At least he passed the imperial examination and got a degree, which at least gives his family and himself an explanation. But those children in the back mountain of Yunshan Academy," he sighed softly, "don't even have a degree, so it's even more impossible for them to give their families an explanation."