History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 119 Handwriting Examination

The curator, observing the situation, explained, "Because the joint exam is divided into a morning session and an afternoon session, the time left for grading at noon is too short. If the exam questions are more demanding, more students will submit blank papers or guess the answers, making it easier to grade them."

Yuan Fan smiled wryly: "You all know how demanding the exams are."

"Once the students get used to it, they won't find it harsh."

"When can we begin our inspection?"

"Now you can."

Director Cui took the lead and asked in a softer voice, "Shall we first see the Book of Poetry Room 1 of our Wei Academy? That's the room where Wei Yao's students are located."

"can."

However, the two had only reached the first dormitory when Wei Yao raised her hand and handed in her paper.

“思之笃厚” is a commentary that comes from the last line of the last section of the last poem in the “Yong Feng” chapter, “载驰”, which reads “不如我所之”. The figures mentioned in the poem’s preface and commentary include “Lady Mu of Xu, Duke Yi of Wei, Duke Dai, and Duke Huan of Song”.

Director Wei personally collected the papers, quickly glanced at them, and handed them to Yuan Fan with peace of mind, instructing him to look at them as he walked around, because lingering around the examinees or grading papers for a long time would make the students who were still working on the questions nervous.

They walked a few desks' distance away, and Wei Mao handed in his paper.

Director Cui naturally preferred to recommend Wei Mao to the officials under the Secretariat. He didn't mind the trouble and went back to personally collect Wei Mao's paper. It was very good, and all the answers were correct.

Director Cui told Yuan, "This student is named Mao, and he is the youngest son of Wei Qingbin, a Gentleman Attendant at the Palace Gate."

Yuan Fan turned around and said, "I know Vice Minister Wei. Everyone says his second son, Wei Jin, is intelligent and studious. I never expected his youngest son to be so outstanding as well." Judging from his appearance alone, this child doesn't seem like a good one. It's not good to praise him.

Director Cui: "Coincidentally, before the capital was moved, the Wei family examined Wei Mao's face and said that this boy had the appearance of a distinguished person."

"Hehe." Was the Wei family sure they hadn't heard a ferocious expression?

At this point, all nineteen students of Cui Xueguan Xunyi Academy had submitted their papers.

All answers are correct.

The second question will be presented, and the answering time will still be one quarter of an hour.

The task is to write down the poem title corresponding to "Spring (space) enters school" in Zheng Jian's commentary, the truncated sentence of the relevant section, and provide the corresponding explanation and the complete commentary in the commentary, along with the poem's preface and its explanation.

The official from the Secretariat who was patrolling the examination hall was named Lu Yuan. He and Governor Yuan were both at the Xunyi Academy when the first question was asked, but after the exam, he patrolled the hall alone.

He arrived at the Wenyin Academy, where Haiye Ren and other academically weak students were located.

Now this schoolhouse has almost become an outpost of the Eighth Branch School. Almost all the unruly sons of the imperial family that the Yuan governor originally arranged to go to Zheng, Wang, and Lu have been transferred here.

Everyone knows that Cui Xueguan is good at teaching poetry, but even the best teacher can't teach a clueless person!
The second question, "Spring, Entering School," corresponds to the poem "Jian Xi" from the "Bei Feng" section of the Book of Songs. A short excerpt reads, "The sun is at its zenith, high in front of us." The interpretation of these two lines is, "Teaching the children of the state, with midday as the appointed time."

The answers to the rest don't need to be explained, because only one student in the Wenyin Academy got to the step of "释" (shi), and the rest didn't know.

The other students either stared blankly at the chief proctor in front of them, or glared at the exam paper as if they had a grudge, or were grinding ink with a "swish, swish, swish" sound, I really don't know what they were grinding ink for.

Erzhu Rong and his teacher Erzhu Maiti also came to Wenyin Academy. Since they couldn't come in, they peered through the door frame. Then Hai Yeren and the others heard the brat chuckle and mock them, "This place is full of idiots, hahaha."

Erzhu Maiti covered the young master's mouth with one hand and tucked him under his other arm as they ran! You have to be careful who you get into trouble with, otherwise you'll just get beaten up by these imperial princes for nothing.

Lu Yuan circled around, shook his head, and left.

A little over a quarter of an hour later, the third question was presented.

At this moment, all the pageboys from the poetry recitation club arrived. Since they had come to Cui Academy to learn poetry, they were allowed to watch the grand examination of the Book of Poetry through doors and windows. Moreover, the current exam questions, along with the two questions from the previous exam, were distributed to them for review. Those who wished to answer could try and participate in the ranking of the grand examination at Cui Academy. The two female teachers, Zhang Wenzhi and Zhang Jiniang, who were leading the group, also came.

Seeing this, Erzhu Rong immediately ordered the tutor to take him to the poetry club. "There's no one there, I'll cause a huge ruckus! Charge!"

The young master was happy, and so was the tutor. He had Erzhu Rong ride on his shoulders, and he galloped away, shouting, "Charge!"

As soon as they entered the Guchang Bird Forest, Clerk Gou led his soldiers away from the Poetry Society and exited through a side gate at the other end of the forest. The direction they hurried towards was the Weishi Academy.

Xue Zhixiao and the others felt like they were sitting on pins and needles in the governor's mansion.

He really didn't want to stay in Pingcheng for another day, much less return to Luoyang with that scoundrel Zhao Xiu. He hadn't seen Zhao Xiu these past few days, but he heard every day that the man was accepting bribes in Pingcheng and making connections with military officers in the border towns—it was infuriating!

Zhao Xiu, that fool, doesn't he know that doing this will tarnish the Crown Prince's reputation?

The water clock ticks away; it's noon.

The sun is like fire.

A valiant warrior rushed over to report: "The governor has returned."

"Let's go." Xue Zhixiao and his subordinates went to intercept the person. They were determined to get a concrete solution to the matter the Crown Prince had entrusted to them today.

Yuanzhi was in a good mood. His nephew, Yuanheng, had done very well this time, getting one of the five questions correct this morning. Although it might seem like a small improvement, it was still quite an achievement, considering that many students at other schools had completely blank papers.

"Prefect Yuan is really busy!" Xue Zhixiao strode closer, his displeasure quite evident.

"Haha, I was worried that the students from Cui Academy who were traveling would fall behind in their studies, but I didn't expect them to do even better than before! Come, take a look. Oh, this isn't it. This is the exam paper of Wei Yao, the top student in the spring exam. All the outstanding students in Cui Academy will be evaluated together with Wei Yao."

Xue Zhixiao's heart skipped a beat. Since Governor Yuan would never agree to detain Wei Yao and Zhang Wenzhi without cause, he might as well settle for second best and take the opportunity to go to their door and examine their handwriting. If one of them matched the added characters on the wooden slip, he might be able to reply to the Crown Prince.

"May I see Wei Yao's exam paper?"

Yuan Zhi casually handed it over.

The handwriting is different! Wei Yao's handwriting is very neat, but it still looks childish.

Xue Zhixiao said in a gentle tone, "I was too hasty before and may have offended the governor. Please do not blame me."

"Not at all, actually I enjoy dealing with straightforward people like Xue Huben."

“The case of Wei Yao is related to the implementation of the new school regulations in the governor’s jurisdiction, and thus to the governor’s performance evaluation. It was indeed rash of me to investigate Wei Yao without cause. So forget it. Now I only ask the governor to do me a small favor: help me get the article written by Zhang Wenzhi, which will also complete the task assigned by the crown prince.”

"Well... you should have said so earlier. Let me think about it. No matter how small the matter is, it must be done flawlessly."

"Yeah."

"I've got it. For this joint examination at Cui Academy, the teachers and students of the Poetry Society are allowed to take a test as well. If Zhang Wenzhi took the test, the test paper is now in the hands of Registrar Gou. Come with me to find Registrar Gou."

"Walk."

"Walk."

One was excited, the other was hypocritical.

The so-called "watertight" means that things cannot go too smoothly, otherwise Xue Zhixiao will definitely become suspicious later.

(End of this chapter)