Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 473: Provincial Examination

"The price is too high, lower it a little." Jia Lian took a look and made a decision.

"Five hundred wen per copy is already a very low price. If it were any lower, we would be losing money," Jia Rong explained.

Jia Lian shook his head: "I don't expect these books to make money, the important thing is to spread knowledge."

Jia Rong naturally had nothing to say about this decision.

I went home, took a nice bath, felt relaxed, and started to lie down.

It is very difficult to go out these days, even if you take a boat or a sedan chair.

Thinking back to my previous life when I was young and went out to study, I had to sit on a green train alone for 36 hours. I almost lost my life.

The news that Jia Lian was the chief examiner of the provincial examination spread quickly. What Jia Rong caught off guard was that the books in the "Jia's Practical Learning" series sold out instantly.

In the words of the scholars, it’s impossible to get it.

Who would have thought that Jia Lian would be the chief examiner? Candidates naturally wanted to understand the examiner's knowledge and preferences.

What if after you finish writing an article, the examiner takes a look at it and finds that it does not contain any content from Jia's practical learning, and gives it a bad review.

Those who were luckier were eliminated from the top three, while those who were unlucky fell directly to the ground.

To tell the truth, Jia Lian had never thought of this. Fortunately, this book was printed on woodblocks, so he could find the woodblocks at any time and print them.

The hot sale lasted for almost a month, and all the 5,000 sets that were urgently printed were sold out.

One good thing about Jia Lian's series of books is that it focuses on application and contains a lot of experimental content. As long as you read it carefully, you will always learn something.

Three days before the provincial examination, Jia Lian was taken away by the Dragon Guards and imprisoned in the Imperial Examination Hall along with more than twenty other people.

As the chief examiner, Jia Lian lived in a single room. The deputy chief examiner Sun Hao did not know him before, but after communicating with him, he found out that he was the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites. They really did not have much interaction before, but Jia Lian was quite familiar with the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, and the Inspectorate.

As for the exam questions, Jia Lian asked the first question on policy essay, which was about family, country and the world. Sun Hao asked one question, and the rest were asked by other examiners on the spur of the moment.

Whether or not it was planned in advance, that didn't happen. Apart from Jia Lian, anyone else who could be the examiner would be notified and taken away on the same day.

The degree of involution in the imperial examination system is far higher than that in the college entrance examination.

There were a total of 5,000 candidates in Zhili and Shuntian Prefecture, half of whom were from Shuntian Prefecture and the other half from Zhili. After all, the population of the capital was large, and Shuntian Prefecture had more than a dozen counties under it.

When the time came, the dragon gate was opened. Jia Lian sat at the door, watching the candidates being checked and entering. He couldn't help but sigh for himself back then.

The body search during the imperial examination was very strict, but of course it also depended on the time, place, and examiner.

There was a provincial examination in the Ming Dynasty, I forgot which province it was, but the perverted examiner asked the candidates to strip naked for examination.

It really makes the scholars lose face. How should I put it? The logic is that only by severely humiliating them before they pass the exam, will they cherish it after they pass.

Jia Lian’s requirements were not that high, just a normal examination.

Time passed little by little, and finally a shout was heard: "Time is up, close the dragon gate!"

The heavy door, although temporarily oiled, was still difficult to move and made a harsh friction sound.

Jia Lian walked back to his single room at a leisurely pace to have a nap first. He had gotten up too early in the morning and it was difficult for him to adapt to the new sleeping place.

These days, not only the candidates are tortured, but the examiners are also tortured.

Especially these examiners, many of them are old. For example, Sun Hao, who is sixty years old, is afraid that he will not have the opportunity to advance further in this life. The meaning of choosing him as the deputy examiner is obvious, to serve as a background for Jia Lian.

The other examiners were similar. They were usually frustrated, older officials with little room for advancement.

Jia Lian stood out among the group of people. No one dared to take advantage of his seniority. This shows how painstaking the person who arranged all this was.

The first exam was over, and the students left the room. The examiner remained inside. Before marking the papers, Jia Lian emphasized, "The topic of family, country and the world contains the concept of governing a country. Everyone, please remember that no matter how he writes about changing the brocade, he cannot deviate from this principle."

The contents of many books are purely personal understandings. No matter how Confucianism develops and how it accommodates Buddhist and Taoist thoughts, its essence remains the same and it all revolves around participating in the world and governing the country.

To be precise, it is to govern the people.

Confucianism generally advocates a policy of keeping the people ignorant. The purpose of this policy is to monopolize knowledge and then the right to speak.

We are all human beings, and we all have one mouth. Whether someone listens to what we say or no one listens is two completely different things. Once society enters a stage of highly solidified classes, the rules of the game are similar.

Education has become popular in modern society, and thus happy education has been developed.

For children, the learning process is destined to be unhappy. What is the purpose of happy education? Isn’t it something that can be seen at a glance?

What’s scary is that at that time, the call for happy education was very popular on the Internet.

Many things look different but are essentially the same.

For ordinary people, the most awesome person you will ever meet in your life may be your college teacher.

this is the truth!
There is no universal education in this era. The reason is actually very simple: the cost of studying is too high.

In economically underdeveloped areas, one family has to support one student, and most families cannot afford it.

As the chief examiner, Jia Lian did not participate in the marking of the papers. Instead, he strolled around the marking area, occasionally picking up a fallen paper to take a look.

I mainly look at the content of the first question. After a day of reading it, I didn't find any problems, which means that the examiners are unlikely to have cheated.

Including Sun Hao, these examiners were actually very grateful to Jia Lian. If he had not been the chief examiner, no one might have had the opportunity to be an examiner. You must know that this is an achievement, and maybe because of this, the last stop in their official career can be moved forward.

After the three exams, Jia Lian only focused on two things. One was the result of the math test. People who are good at math have strong logical thinking ability. There is no doubt about this.

To put it bluntly, mathematics is the most challenging subject for IQ.

(PS: My math grades in high school were very poor and my IQ was average.)
This year's math test actually had two solid geometry questions, which surprised Jia Lian greatly. When he was studying, he was tortured to death by solid analytic geometry.

Jia Lian also discovered a phenomenon, that is, pencils were widely used in arithmetic examinations. He was surprised and then he remembered that he had asked craftsmen to make this thing, and the money earned went into the account of the Research and Development Department.

That’s okay!

As long as the pencil is produced by Jia Lian, the price will definitely not be too high. The emergence of pencils has undoubtedly reduced the difficulty of reading and writing.

Writing with a brush is not as difficult as writing with a pencil. After all the papers were corrected, the top ten papers were sent to Jia Lian. Jia Lian did not act dictatorially, but called several major examiners.

First, look at the test paper, mainly the first question, the policy essay, and then look at the math score. If the math score is less than 80 points, you will not be able to enter the top ten. This is Jia Lian's arrangement, and no one else has any objection.

When looking at the papers, Jia Lian almost thought that these people ranked the students according to their mathematics scores in order to curry favor with them.

The top three students all got full marks in math. After reading the articles, I realized that they were not just trying to flatter me. Not only were the three students’ writings brilliant, but their core ideas were also very solid.

The ultimate version of the so-called family, country and the world is how to govern the country. The highest realm of Confucian scholars is to govern the country and bring peace to the world.

No wonder these examiners did not object to his point of view. In fact, there was no difference in everyone's cognition.

There are still differences among the top three. The first one takes Confucius as an example. He traveled east to promote the concept of governing the country. Although he failed to gain the approval of the monarch, he cultivated enough students. Under the guidance of the saint's thoughts, later generations realized the unfinished great cause of the saint. Therefore, Zhu Xi, the semi-saint of Neo-Confucianism, cried out that if Confucius had not been born, the world would be dark forever. As for how to govern the country, this person's experience is insufficient, and he just sticks to benevolent politics.

Well, that’s not a big mistake. The writing is excellent and Jia Lian feels that it is better than his own.

The second one is centered around Mencius, and the theory of martyrdom is also indispensable, which roughly means that the people are more important than the king. Of course, it is unknown whether his understanding of the people is the same as Jia Lian's understanding of the people.

The third one is the most interesting to Jia Lian, and it is actually the thought of Xunzi. Well, you can search Baidu for Xunzi.

Jia Lian read with great interest. In fact, looking at the test paper, one can discover the students' reading range. Soon Jia Lian saw another one advocating Guanzi's thoughts.

To be honest, Jia Lian laughed at this. These scholars are really interesting. There is not even one complete disciple of Zhu Xi. Among the top ten, except for the first one who wrote about Zhu Xi, the others would rather use Wang Yangming's ideas than Zhu Xi's ideas. No wonder the book says that if Neo-Confucianism was not an official school in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it would be eliminated. No one believed it. The imperial examination was really a stepping stone.

"I've read it. I have no problem with it. Do you have any questions, everyone?"

Jia Lian was too lazy to assert his power as the chief examiner. Whoever won the first place in the imperial examination was his student. There was no point in adjusting the rankings.

Everyone agreed. Just as Jia Lian was about to make the decision and post the notice, an examiner raised his hand and said, "I have some objections. Please take a look at this paper."

Jia Lian also became interested, took the paper and looked at it carefully.

After reading for a while, you will understand why he was left out. This guy's writing style is indeed very good, but he is a disciple of Yang Zhu.

Under the premise that Neo-Confucianism was the official school of thought, he actually held high the banner of Yang Zhu, which is truly courageous.

Well, to use more modern terms, Yang Zhu’s thoughts are extremely sophisticated egoism.

This person thought so and wrote it down on the examination paper, which shows that he really believed it. To be honest, other candidates who studied Zhu Xi's thoughts may not believe in them. They studied because the examination required it. But those who dared to use Yang Zhu's thoughts in the provincial examination must be his loyal disciples.

There are all kinds of birds in a big forest. It's not a big deal to believe in Yang Zhu, but you are too much to openly reject Neo-Confucianism!
When Jia Lian was promoting Jia's practical learning, he always put on the guise of "investigating things to gain knowledge" as a pretext.

Yang Zhu's "self-esteem" thought, to put it more seriously, is about not having a monarch or a father. Writing about this in the main battlefield of Neo-Confucianism is indeed a way to kill yourself.

After reading it, Jia Lian put down the paper and asked the examiner, "What do you think?"

"I think we should send a letter to the county school where the candidate is studying to revoke his academic title. Such a person who has no respect for his king or father is not worthy of reading the books of sages."

Well, this guy is going to put the nail on the coffin.

After a moment of hesitation, Jia Lian said calmly, "There's no need to make a big fuss. I believe that no examiner would accept him as a juren. You can't kill a dog just because it barked at you. That's it, open the envelope!"

When opening the seal, Jia Lian was very curious whether Pan Youan had passed the imperial examination.

Because of the anonymous system, Jia Lian really didn't give him a back door. At most, he hinted to Yingchun. Whether Yingchun understood and told Si Qi, and whether Pan Youan understood, was his business.

If Pan Youan failed, Jia Lian would not do anything and could only wait for the next exam.

The final list came out. There were 1308 people who passed the exam, and Pan was ranked third from the bottom.

Jia Lian took his paper specially to have a look. This guy did not go off topic and expounded his philosophy around the Doctrine of the Mean.

To be frank, if his writing was better and his math score was a few points higher, he would be ranked higher.

Pan Youan passed the imperial examination, that was all. It was worth the two visits to Yingchun. During the casual chat, he implicitly mentioned his family, country, and the fact that he had scored full marks in mathematics.

As for the future of Si Qi and Pan Youan, Jia Lian really didn't care. But what can I say? If Si Qi cries one day and Yingchun comes to complain, Jia Lian will definitely punish Pan Youan, a mere scholar!

The list was posted, and Jia Lian saw the name of the top scorer in this year's Shuntian Prefecture, Zhang Fa. Just from this name, his parents had high expectations for him.

Jia Lian did not get involved in the process of posting the notice. He went to the palace to report to the emperor.

Because of Si Qi, Jia Lian went to Yingchun's place after returning home, but Si Qi was not there.

Yingchun even said sarcastically: "If she wants to be the wife of a juren, my small temple can't accommodate her."

Jia Lian laughed out loud, knowing that Yingchun was worrying about her own marriage.

"Wait for me to have someone kidnap a scholar and bring him back to be my second sister's husband!"

Yingchun spat and turned her head away shyly.

Jia Lian thought to himself, Juren, look back.

You're right, at the Lu Ming Banquet, Jia Lian saw a young scholar, about seventeen or eighteen years old.

Jia Lian deliberately walked up to him and asked, "What's your name and how old are you?"

"In reply to my teacher's words, I am Mi Jie, who has reached the age of coming of age." This man has a baby face and looks young, but he is actually the same age as Jia Lian.

Mi Jie was actually quite dizzy as well. He was not among the top ten candidates, and the examiner unexpectedly took the initiative to talk to him.

Jia Lian looked carefully at his attire and saw that he did not look like someone from a wealthy family.

After silently noting down his name, Jia Lian went back and asked someone to investigate, and it turned out that this person really had not proposed marriage. After he passed the imperial examination, some people came to propose marriage, but he rejected them one by one.

Mi Jie's family background was indeed ordinary. Although his parents were still alive, he had four older brothers. In order to support his studies, three of his brothers had not married.

After further investigation, it was found that after Mi Jie passed the imperial examination, he did not accept other people's land in his name like other candidates did, but only accepted some land in his clan's name.

From this point of view, this family is relatively honest.

Jia Lian acted decisively and asked Lai Da to go to Mi Jie's house.

(End of this chapter)