Forty-eight years of Qianlong

When the bell rang in the examination hall, Xi Peilan, who was notified by the invigilator to start in a dormitory of the administration school that was temporarily used as an examination room, opened the kraft paper bag in front of her and took out the contents.

With a feeling of anxiety, when I opened the paper with the title of the four books, I saw the five big characters "poor but not merciful" printed on it.Xi Peilan thought for a moment, then pursed her lips and smiled, couldn't help but patted her chest, and let out a long sigh of relief.

This question comes from "Mencius. Gongsun Chou [-]", and there are also the same words in "Mencius. Wanzhang [-]".The original text is: "Liu Xiahui does not shame the emperor, nor humbles the small officials; advances and does not conceal the virtuous, but must follow his way; what is lost does not complain, and the poor does not show mercy."

It means that when a person encounters a difficult situation, how should he maintain his spiritual integrity and not be sympathetic to others.Candidates should write an eight-legged essay of no more than [-] words according to the above meaning, and the time limit is three days and two nights.

As for the policy topic, it is about the "land reform" implemented in Beihai Town. It quoted a paragraph about "rent reduction and interest reduction" in the "Regulations on Land Management and Private Lending", and asked candidates to explain their own understanding. Within a thousand.

Seeing this, Xi Peilan frowned.There was an explanation of the land reform law in the training materials that were distributed before, but due to time constraints, she only read it in general.

After thinking about it for a while, she decided to put it aside and finish the four books.

Not long afterward, Lin Qizong and most of the candidates in the examination hall spent half an hour to an hour after seeing the questions, and they also thought of the source of the questions, and their hearts that had been hanging were finally relieved.

The theory of policy makes many people a little confused, but in Lin Qizong's view, it is always a good thing to reduce rent for the poor.In addition, when he saw the endless fertile fields in Beihai Town, he also had some concerns in his heart.

Because there were less than 200 students who came to take the exam, Wang Zhong and the others didn't think about increasing the difficulty too much when they came up with the questions; anyway, even if they passed the imperial examination, there was still a year of professional study in the future, and Beihai Town didn't think much of it. Rely on the Four Books and Five Classics to rule the world.

Give an upright question, just answer it honestly. The main purpose is to test the candidates' mastery and understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics, as well as their understanding of Beihai Town's policies.

To be honest, the total content of the Four Books is not much, and the content suitable as the title of the eight-legged essay is even more limited.Nowadays, in areas where culture and education are developed, qualified and diligent candidates may even master and recite silently all the contents that are most often used as examination questions in the Four Books.

Why is it said that in the Qing Dynasty, the Tongsheng Examination Three Passes was more difficult than the Juren Examination?
If an ordinary person starts reading at the age of six or seven, he wants to read the Four Books and at the same time learn Zhu Xi's various annotations. It will be difficult to do it in less than six or seven years; and the Five Classics will be longer, at least seven or eight years; In addition, there are the first four histories - "Historical Records", "Hanshu", "Later Hanshu", and "Three Kingdoms".

Basically, it is very difficult for a 20-year-old scholar to master the above content, except for geniuses and super academics.So you understand why any scholar in the Qing Dynasty is a proper master of Chinese studies in later generations, right?They are more than enough to be professors in the Chinese department!Of course, donations are not included.

May I ask which professor today can recite the Four Books and Five Classics in their entirety, and even write a stereotyped essay on a random topic?
To put it bluntly, the children's test is to select the seeds of reading through the examinee's mastery of the Four Books and Five Classics, and whether the meanings in the writing are smooth.

In addition, the second difficulty of the children's exam is the interception question.Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, almost all the questions that can be used in the Four Books have been published. In order to test the strength of the students and ensure a low admission rate, the examiners have played tricks, causing countless candidates to suffer from desire for immortality. The spirit of death is ravaged.

In the third year of Qianlong's reign, the Qing court stipulated that more difficult interception questions could appear in the children's test.For example, the topic "Learn to be strong" is an intercepted topic, which comes from "Mencius. Under King Hui of Liang".

Although the Qing court requires that the two sentences involved in the interception question must be coherent in meaning and cannot separate the meaning of the text.However, it is too difficult not to split the meaning of the original text, so there will be some strange and even obviously problematic questions in the Tongsheng test.The reason is that the examiner was sloppy, or deliberately showing off, or deliberately making things difficult.

For example, during the Guangxu period, a magistrate used "Yuan, Zhe, Jiao, Dragon, Fish, and Turtle" as propositions, and asked each of the six counties under his jurisdiction to use one word as the examination question.The vast majority of candidates are instantly confused when they see the topic, and they don't know where to start writing, so many of them are dismissed.

In fact, this question comes from a passage in "The Doctrine of the Mean": "Today's husband's water is as much as a spoonful, and it is extremely unpredictable. Turtles, dragons, fish and turtles will be born, and goods and wealth will be multiplied."

However, this kind of taking out the names of animals and using them as test questions is no longer absurd, it's just a bastard.

In addition, a certain government assigned the topic "Being a King, Being a Father, Being a Minister, and Being a Son" to the four counties under his command, and each took one "Being a Man" as a topic.This kind of question is really terrible for candidates!

Because according to the rules of answering questions, not only are the words "junchen father and son" not allowed in the composition, but also the words "stop to respect" and "stop to kindness" in the back must not be written, but in the writing, every sentence must not be separated. the above meaning.If this kind of question is a little careless, it will not conform to the etiquette, and the stereotyped essay is the most etiquette, as long as you make a mistake, you will be dismissed.

What's more, some examiners couldn't find the topic in the Four Books, but they found it in the "Hanshu".Fuck me~~ I haven't learned the Four Books and Five Classics neatly yet!However, candidates cannot say that the examiner is wrong, because "Hanshu" belongs to the first four histories, and it is also the knowledge content that children should master.

Therefore, for children like Lin Qizong, a four-book question is like an open-book exam, and it is completely free!What everyone has to compete is the writing skills and calligraphy level.

On the side of the scholars, this exam was also reduced to two sessions, the first session was four-book questions, and the second session was two topics on current affairs policy.

The Four Books that Sun Yuanxiang and his fellows got had three titles, namely, "For the purpose of etiquette, harmony is the most important thing. The way of the former kings, this is the beauty. The small and the big are the same, and there is no way to do it. Knowing harmony and making peace, not using etiquette, It’s also not feasible.”, “It’s possible for all countries in the world to be equal, it’s possible to resign from a noble position, it’s possible to fight a white sword, and it’s impossible to be moderate.”, and “Praise his poems, read his books, and don’t know his people. Is it possible? It's about the world."

Among these three questions, the first question comes from "The Analects", the second question comes from "The Doctrine of the Mean", and the third question comes from "Mencius".The requirement for answering the question is to write three stereotyped essays based on these three paragraphs, each of which must not exceed [-] words.

The rules of the four-book questions in the first round of the rural examination in the Qing Dynasty were basically the same. Three questions were asked from the four books; "The Analects" and "Mencius" were mandatory, and then one was chosen from "The Doctrine of the Mean" or "The Great Learning".For scholars who have already familiarized themselves with the Four Books and Five Classics, the routine game of intercepting and answering questions cannot be used.

Because the Juren examination is to speak on behalf of the sages, so what is emphasized is "halal, elegant and upright".Moreover, it is necessary to quote scriptures and classics, absorb the essence of various schools of thought, and avoid side-by-side miscellaneous theories, so as to achieve the realm of vertical and horizontal manipulation.

As for the second topic, there are two policy topics. The first one is about river control, explaining how to fundamentally solve the problem of Huanghuai floods every year; opinion.

That's right, Beihai Town is preparing to train its own water conservancy talents.Zhao Xin and Chen Qingsong planned to select a few candidates from this year's candidates, so as to build Beihai Town's anti-yellow team.

Since the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River has been governed year after year, and natural disasters and man-made disasters will occur if we relax a bit.Of course there are reasons for official corruption and cutting corners, but the most important thing is that during the Jingkang Incident, Du Chong, a privy scholar guarding the Daming Mansion, ordered the digging of the embankment in order to stop the Jin soldiers. The eight hundred miles of water in Liangshan disappeared. Since then, the Huanghuai area has been flooded and flooded continuously, and the Shandong area has also become a dry area.

In the history of another time and space, until the fifth year of Xianfeng, the Yellow River burst again, but this time it miraculously separated from the Huaihe River, taking the Jishui waterway from Shandong to the sea.Although the Huaihe River is still frequently flooded, the Yellow River has finally stopped.

The problem is that for Zhao Xin and others, after they enter the customs, they can't wait decades for the Yellow River to divert, right?In addition, investing large sums of money every year to strengthen the embankment cannot completely solve the problem, and we have to find a solution from the root.Chen Qingsong's plan is that not only the Huaihe River will be dammed, but the Yellow River will also have to open another canal, forcing it to divert to Shandong and enter the sea.

Speaking of which, when it came to the level of the rural examination, scholars not only had to memorize the Four Books and Five Classics upside down, but also delved into the first four historical records, the hundred schools of thought, and even "Li Sao" and "Wen Xuan" of the past dynasties, and had to understand government affairs; Because starting from the second and third rounds, the content of the exam will involve astronomy, geography, history, literature, government officials, wealth, water conservancy, diplomacy, and military affairs. Only read the books of sages" can answer.

Without these two brushes, let alone the examination of Jinshi, I don’t even have the qualifications to be a master or a staff member, so I’m going to be a private school teacher!

Therefore, it is not that there is a problem with the traditional Chinese reading education method, but that there is a problem with the theory of "successful fame is the success of virtue" of Neo-Confucianists under the feudal autocracy, the talent selection system that only emphasizes the Four Books, and the resulting institutional corruption in officialdom. .Even those top figures who can be effective in the world can only move forward with difficulty in the cracks in the officialdom.

Take a look at the "New Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou" in Beihai Town. None of them are masters of Confucian classics who have studied extensively, but each of them has a different focus of knowledge.Think about Hong Liangji, Lin Zexu, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, and even Liang Qichao in another time and space
Sun Yuanxiang sighed slightly after reading the topic.Although he already knew that there would be no rhyme questions in this exam during the training class, he still felt a little regretful that he couldn't bring out his best strengths!

Originally, Wang Zhong and the others had drawn up the title of the poem, but Zhao Xin rejected it.In his view, writing poetry is purely a personal hobby, even if it reaches the level of Li Du, it is of no use to the economy and people's livelihood.Besides, good poems in the Qing Dynasty never came from imperial examinations.

Although Sun Yuanxiang was thinking about how to solve the problem, his wife always appeared in his mind.

"I don't know what questions will be asked in the Tongsheng Examination. If there are intercepted questions, Yunfen must have a headache."

But what he didn't expect was that when it came to four o'clock in the afternoon, Xi Peilan had already finished typing the draft of the four-book questions. She decided to have a good sleep after eating, and start transcribing them on the answer sheet tomorrow morning .It's just that she doesn't know at this time that she will be the first candidate to hand in the paper in the first session of this year's children's examination.

The first day of the exam was over like this. At dusk, bright lights were lit up in each room, and the two exam buildings became brightly lit.Fortunately, all the candidates had seen the electric lights in Beihai Town before, and the previous training sessions were all at night, so no one would make a fuss.

You must know that in the examination room under the Qing Dynasty, you must bring your own candles at night, because the quality of the official candles is really bad.

Lin Qizong put down the brush, stretched his arms unconsciously, rubbed his sore wrists, picked up the cup and took a sip of water. Feeling a little hungry, he raised his head and looked at the hanging wall hanging in front of the room. The "Western Clock".

The lunch prepared for candidates at the canteen in Beihai Town includes a piece of fried salmon, two sea prawns, a serving of vegetables, and a small bowl of tofu soup. The staple food is rice or steamed buns. what to eat.When the long and short hands on the dial pointed to five o'clock, Lin Qizong's nose suddenly moved, and his heart said!

After more than 20 minutes, two young people wearing white aprons sent pine food boxes into the examination room.Lin Qizong opened the box and saw that there were fat braised pork stewed vermicelli and potato shreds inside, and he immediately salivated profusely.He couldn't wait to pick up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and stuff it into his mouth.

Tsk tsk~~satisfied!

Because the examination room in Beihai Town was not the examination shed of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, as soon as Lin Qizong started to move, other people in the room had to put down their pens, clear the table and prepare to eat.

At this time, there was a sudden commotion outside the door, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps, and two people in white coats flashed past the door.Lin Qizong and others didn't dare to stand up and look around, so they pricked up their ears to listen carefully.

After a while, I saw two "white coats" passing by the door carrying a stretcher with a person lying on it, accompanied by an invigilator.

Afterwards, Lin Qizong knew that the level of the person who dared to be carried out was really poor, and he was nervous when he took the exam. Even after the training class, he still didn't work well.

This candidate named Wu Yun is from Wendeng. He sat with the exam questions from 08:30 in the morning until [-]:[-] in the afternoon. He didn't even bother to eat lunch.In the end, he hurriedly wrote a four-character poem with a brush on the table, and then fell to the ground and passed out.His poem says: "It's only so, so it's so, I knew it was so, I regret not being so."

Fortunately, the Beihai Town Hospital had arranged two doctors and several medical staff in the examination room, and all the medicines were in place.After Wu Yun was carried to the temporary emergency room, he was infused with glucose and inhaled some oxygen, and then he woke up. Then he looked ashamed again, and said that he was sorry for his parents, wife and children.He thought that he would be dismissed this time, but the invigilator who accompanied him came over and asked him if he would still take the exam after hearing that there was nothing serious about him?
Wu Yun's eyes widened in disbelief, and he said, "Can the students continue the exam?"

"Of course! You didn't violate the discipline of the examination room, you just fainted. It's not easy after ten years of cold weather. If you still want to continue, you can go back after a while. By the way, I will ask someone to bring you a bowl of porridge. Let's not Patronizing the exam, you have to eat too!"

Wu Yun's tears flowed out immediately.He took the exam from the age of 15 to the age of 35. Every time he was under a lot of pressure, he fainted as soon as he entered the exam room, so he failed repeatedly.Moreover, there was a rule in the examination room in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. If an examinee fainted and was carried out of the examination shed for treatment, even if he recovered, he would be disqualified. Let’s talk about it next time.

Who knew that Beihai Town didn't have such rules and could continue, Wu Yun couldn't help being extremely excited.He also forgot that he was getting an injection. Although he couldn't get up, he was about to raise his hand to thank him, but then he felt a sharp pain in the back of his hand. He lowered his head to look again, and couldn't help screaming: "Ouch! It's bleeding!"

Because the exam institute was completely closed during the exam, Zhao Xin could only ask Wang Zhong about the situation by phone. When he learned that only one candidate fainted and the others were fine, he, Chen Qingsong, and Yu Deli finally felt relieved.

It is said that it is not a problem to faint due to psychological pressure in the imperial examination room in the Qing Dynasty. Some people committed suicide in the examination room due to mental and physical torture.In the Guangxu period in another time and space history, candidates for the provincial examination in Zhejiang committed suicide many times, such as those who cut more than a dozen knives on their stomachs, stabbed themselves in the neck with candle sticks, and the most violent thing was that one of them actually shattered his testicles and died. .

It hurts to think about it.