Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 44: The Way of Poetry
"I dare not keep you waiting for long." Lu Beigu bowed deeply.

Zhao Yan put down his pen and motioned him to sit down. "Did you read 'The Spring and Autumn Annals: A Brief Discussion on the Respect for Kings' when you got home yesterday?"

"I've just glanced through it," Lu Beigu answered truthfully. "Mr. Taishan's insights are profound, and I still don't grasp many of them."

"That's alright, studying the classics is not a one-day job."

Zhao Yan picked up a stack of papers from the desk and asked.

"Today, let's talk about poetry and prose. Do you know why poetry and prose are tested in the imperial examinations?"

Lu Beigu thought for a moment and replied, "Is it to observe the students' literary talent?"

"Literary talent is only one aspect." Zhao Yan shook his head. "Poetry and prose are the best way to reveal a person's character, knowledge, and stature. Poetry expresses aspirations, while prose depicts objects. Without true character, it's difficult to compose beautiful lines; without broad scholarship, it's difficult to use allusions; without a broad mind, it's difficult to achieve a certain realm."

He pointed to the Wen Yuan Ying Hua bookshelves that filled the room.

"Furthermore, even if we don't talk about these things, let's talk about the practical side of things. The imperial court at least needs talents who can write memorials and draft imperial edicts. Which of these official documents does not require the skill of writing in parallel four-four and six-six? This is the role of poetry and prose."

Not all Jinshi were sent out to govern a region.

On the contrary, many Jinshi scholars were not sent out to other places, but would stay in the capital to serve.

There are three main ways to take office.

Either become a secretary to the emperor, or become a teacher to the prince, or bury yourself in writing history to cultivate your reputation.

Among these three paths, the first one, promotion, is the fastest.

Throughout the dynasties, people with good calligraphy and high level of drafting imperial edicts, as close ministers to the emperor, can easily gain the emperor's favor.

Therefore, taking this path is much easier than working hard in the Hanlin Academy to compile history.

The second path is the one where promotion is slow, but once you are promoted, you will soar to the sky.

There is nothing much to say about the third path. Although it is slow, it is generally very stable, and there is no risk of betting on the wrong thing and never being able to recover in your lifetime like the second path.

Zhao Yan's meaning was very clear. Lu Beigu didn't necessarily have to take a certain path in the future, but if he had this skill, it would not only be useful in the imperial examinations, but also in future employment.

“Students understand.”

Lu Beigu nodded quickly. The other party's suggestion was obviously very meaningful.

Seeing that he understood, Zhao Yan stopped talking and just said.

"I heard from Li Pan that your poetry is not good. Judging from your policy papers and memorials, it's not that you lack talent, but you probably haven't mastered the method yet. In this case, if you can just master the method, your improvement will be much faster than Mo Yi, which takes time."

"Well, let's see what the specific level is first."

Zhao Yan pulled out a piece of paper and said, "This is the essay topic from last year's Meizhou provincial examination. Try to write it according to the examination room rules."

Lu Beigu's heart tightened.

Writing a topic is different from writing a policy essay.

The format requirements for policy essays are not strict. They are argumentative essays, and their main purpose is to examine the candidates' views on the topic. As long as they use allusions appropriately and are well-organized, they are basically considered qualified.

However, when writing a fu title, one is required to strictly follow the rules of the literary genre "fu" and there cannot be any mistakes.

The problem is that Lu Beigu has not done in-depth research on the prosody of poetry, lyrics, and prose!

The "Water Dragon Song" he had chanted on the Luzhou River earlier had a serious problem with its rhythmic structure, but since it wasn't an exam, Li Pan hadn't bothered with the details. But now, asking him to write a fu, even more difficult than poetry or ci, and to strictly adhere to the rhythmic structure, was truly a challenge!

Moreover, this is not a question for the county exam, but for the state exam!
You know, the state exam and the county exam are not of the same difficulty at all!
Generally speaking, in Sichuan's prefectures and counties, only students who rank at least in the top five out of 200 students in the county school can pass the county exam every year, and the admission rate is about 2.5%.

The county examination is held once a year, and the state examination is held every three years.

So the actual situation is that when you, as the best student in the county school, pass the county exam and enter the state school with great difficulty, you will find that not only are all the students here the best students in the county school, but there are more than ten generations of them!

Not only do you have to compete with your peers, but you also have to compete with seniors who have countless times more exam experience than you and have studied for much longer than you!

So what is the acceptance rate for the state exam?
Taking Jianzhou as an example, based on the number of places offered, the admission rate is around 1% all year round. The admission rate in Luzhou, where Lu Beigu is located, is higher, at about 2%.

Oh, if we count it by the number of successful candidates, it might look much better.

However, the status of Juren in the Song Dynasty was a one-time thing. It was useless to just pass the Juren exam. You had to have a Jie Que before you could go to the Ministry of Rites and the provincial examination.

Therefore, the status of a Juren can only prove that you were the best in the exam in a certain state in a certain year.

Of course, if we have to say something, there are some invisible influences. Generally speaking, no one wants to offend a Juren, because one day, he might become a Jinshi.

With such an outrageously low admission rate, every scholar who could enter the Ministry of Rites provincial examination was actually a genius in his own story.

However, there are differences among geniuses.

In fact, genius is just the threshold to seeing peerless genius.

Lu Beigu sighed in his heart and withdrew his thoughts.

Although the topic of this provincial examination was much more difficult than that of the county examination, he did not dare to refuse.

He had no choice but to take the paper and pen, spread them out on the stone table in the yard, and concentrate on thinking.

Two moments later, beads of sweat appeared on Lu Beigu's forehead, and he barely finished writing the poem.

Zhao Yan took it and examined it carefully. The stern teacher's brow furrowed deeper and deeper, and he finally sighed, "The allusions are inappropriate, the parallelism is not well-formed in several places, and the biggest problem is the rhythm. I'm afraid you can barely pass the county exam, let alone the state exam."

There is no way around it. Modern scholars do not study these things when writing papers. Even if there is relevant research, it is analyzed based on literature, aesthetics, and history, rather than writing it themselves.

Lu Beigu himself didn't know how to do it, and his predecessor's level was also terrible, so of course this was the only way.

Seeing that he lowered his head, Zhao Yan took back the words that were about to come out of his mouth, and at least he gave him a compliment.

"But you have one strength—a coherent and coherent literary style, which many bookworms can't learn."

As the saying goes, "teach students in accordance with their aptitude", knowing that Lu Beigu was not good at poetry and prose, and after roughly understanding his current level, Zhao Yan also adjusted his teaching plan.

He pulled out a manuscript from his desk. "This is my early collection of poetry and prose. Besides the emphasis on rhythm and allusions, it also contains the 'Three-pass Method'."

"May I ask what the 'three-time method' is?" Lu Beigu took it respectfully.

"First, establish the theme; second, refine the words; third, refine the characters," Zhao Yan explained. "Time is tight in the exam room, and many people rush to finish their essays, which results in numerous loopholes. This method is to spend two quarters of an hour first determining the theme and structure, another two quarters of an hour writing a rough draft, and then one quarter of an hour polishing each word, before finally transcribing it. It may seem like more effort, but it actually achieves twice the result with half the effort."

Afterwards, Zhao Yan opened the manuscript and gave Lu Beigu detailed explanations based on different poetry and prose titles.

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① Wenyuan Yinghua was compiled by over twenty people, including Li Fang, Xu Xuan, Song Bai, and Su Yijian, at the order of Emperor Taizong of Song. It began in the seventh year of the Taiping Xingguo era and was completed in the third year of the Yongxi era, with several revisions during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong. The work, comprising a thousand volumes, continues the Wenxuan and covers the late Tang and Five Dynasties period. It features nearly 20,000 works by over two thousand writers, approximately one-tenth of which are from the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and nine-tenths from the Tang Dynasty. The work is categorized by literary style into thirty-nine categories, including fu, poetry, gexing, zanwen, Zhongshu Zhigao, and Hanlin Zhigao.

(End of this chapter)