I slay demons and demons with poetry

Chapter 385
As the sound of the start of the exam spread to all directions, many petty officials walked into the room quickly. They each performed their duties and began to distribute pens, inks, papers and inkstones.

Immediately, a small official raised a placard and handed out a scroll to each student without squinting.

Song Mu reached out to take the question scroll, and printed his name on the paper he was in charge of recording, and then he was able to carefully open the scripture test question.

This year's exam questions may be difficult. Song Mu, who has listened to this speech for a long time, is inevitably a little excited when he looks at the scroll in front of him.

As Song Mu slowly unfolded the question paper, the questions of the Jingyi Exam had already come into view.

At the first glance, Song Mu raised his eyebrows unconsciously, and was a little surprised by the many scriptural questions listed above.

These are now all lyrical questions, and even the last one is no longer an interception question, but three sentences of sages juxtaposed, which makes people discuss their meaning.

Confucius said: The benevolent loves others.Self-restraint and return to courtesy are benevolence.Filial piety is also the foundation of human beings.

Mencius said: The people are the most important, the country is second, and the king is the least.

Dong Gong said: A country is a country of kings, and there are no exceptions to kings.

Song Mu was also taken aback when he saw this situation. Although these three sentences are familiar to the ears, the meaning in them is hard to write.

Confucius, Mencius, and Dong Zhongshu are all representatives of Confucianism, and there are many aspects to connect the three, but what should be explained?
What kind of discussion can explain the truth, and what exactly does the questioner want to see?
Song Mu suddenly had an illusion in his heart, that is, this kind of topic was not really intended to make auspiciousness appear in this test, but to make everyone make a big mistake here and fall hard.

Song Mu's thoughts were running wild for a while, but he felt that he couldn't grasp the key point, or even understood it, and felt that the following text was like a fog, and he didn't know how to proceed.

Song Mu raised his head and looked outside, the sky had already darkened, the winter day was dark especially early in the cold night, and the cold wind suddenly blew.

I don't know if it's the wind or this scripture topic, which makes people's hands and feet cold.

Song Mu roughly read the questions in his hand, but put down the paper in his hand first, and prepared to eat something first.

This Jingyi paper has three full days, leaving a lot of time for myself to think, so don't be careless.

Immediately Song Mu took apart the table board, lit the stove by the door of the test house, and began to cook the meat porridge. While cooking the porridge, he did not forget to think about the solution to the last question.

There were clattering sounds in the surrounding test houses at the moment, and many people had already lit candles, planning to make more things on the first night of the first day.

……

At the same time, in a pavilion in the tribute courtyard, the place was brightly lit, and many officials in red robes were sitting in it, and they were counting the situation of today's candidates.

And an old man with gray beard and red face is sitting on the main seat at the moment, drinking tea, waiting for everyone's report.

This person is Yan Fu, the chief examiner of this exam. He is now a hundred years old and has been an official for seventy years.

Today's Yan Fu no longer participates in government affairs, because his cultivation base is stagnant now, and he is mostly concentrating on exploring a way to go further.

It's just that this is no longer an ordinary state, a breakthrough may require an opportunity, and Yan Fu has been thinking hard for many years.

Therefore, Yan Fu also found himself a slightly easier job as the editor-in-chief of "Tianxia Wenkan".

This job is quite comfortable, and being able to read articles gathered from all over the Wen Dynasty every day, and feeling the vitality of literati and students in this world often makes Yan Fu feel a lot.

It's just that at the beginning of this year, I was ordered to be the chief examiner of this exam.

Yan Fu was born as an orthodox civil servant, and had also served in the Ministry of Rites. He was reasonably familiar with the imperial examinations, but he was unexpectedly the chief examiner who had never done any imperial examinations.

It's not that I'm not knowledgeable, but that I don't understand my own opinions on weekdays, and because of my official position change, I haven't been an imperial examination examiner.

As for why he has now become the chief examiner of this test, Yan Fu is very clear in his heart.

Seven years ago, Tan Zhongye, Minister of the Ministry of War, who had been supporting His Majesty, was promoted to the right minister and became a real minister.

And the power struggle started from that time. The left and right ministers seemed to be at odds suddenly, and there was a faint suspicion of forming factions, and the disputes continued from this.

But His Majesty seemed very happy to see this situation and allowed it to grow wildly. Today, the left and right factions each hold a lot of real power, and their swords are often at war.

The chief examiner of this test had already had such a dispute, but it seemed that His Majesty was unwilling to trust them this time, and somehow remembered himself.

Yan Fu was not very happy about this, such things were not easy to do, and he had no intention of official affairs, but now he was forcing himself to make some choices.

And this time, Prime Minister Tan's son seems to be among them, and that kid has seen it himself. There should be no problem in reaching the level, but how to rank it may be troublesome.

And a nephew of Feng Xiang...

Thinking of this, Yan Fu's face seemed a bit worried, so he simply didn't want to, put down his teacup and got up.

"How's it going?"

Yan Fu asked a group of officials from the Tribute Court in front of him, and these people quickly straightened up, and an official came forward to report immediately.

"Returning to my lord, there are 430 candidates who entered the Tribute Academy for this exam, and there is no difference after several inspections."

As he said that, he handed over a roster to the convenience, but Yan Fu didn't take it, he just looked outside and asked.

"Then how many students are there in Taixue this time, and how many people are there in the north and south?"

"This……"

The officials of the Tribute Court were taken aback for a moment, searched quickly, and then cupped their hands and said.

"My lord, there are 170 four people from Taixue taking the exam, and students from the south accounted for... [-]%."

Hearing this, Yan Fu nodded silently, but was suddenly a little surprised in his heart.

Several elders of the Ministry of Rites said that the south has talent, and that the future of the literary dynasty will mostly depend on the students from the south.

But this is not a good thing.

At the moment Yan Fu was thinking this way, but suddenly remembered something, and asked several people again.

"Is there a student named Song Mu taking the exam?"

Hearing what Yan Fu said, an adult immediately stepped forward, nodded and said.

"Your Excellency is talking about Xie Yuan Songmu from Jiangnan West Road the year before last? Now he is in the examination room, at No. 380 Guiquan."

Yan Fu nodded, and immediately spoke.

"This son is amazing. I was so touched by his Xingwen poem at the beginning. I expected this person to have a bright future. Now he is only 20 years old, and he is already famous all over the world. This time he will go to the exam. But I don't know what kind of ability he has."

Saying this, Yan Fu's heart moved, and he smiled and said to everyone.

"My lords, I think it's getting late now, and I'm going to have dinner. Why don't you take a walk around the examination room with me, and first take a look at the many students who have taken the examination in the 30 years of our Wen Dynasty Chongwen?"

All the officials looked at each other and nodded immediately.

So everyone filed out, and immediately stepped into the examination room of the Tribute Academy.

Arriving in the examination room, Yan Fu looked up and saw the huge disc-shaped examination room in front of him, now lit with fire, and many students were writing furiously, so he couldn't help but nodded.

"Let's go see that Song Jieyuan first."

Yan Fu flicked his sleeves and led the crowd forward.

……

(End of this chapter)