"You dare to stop me from patrolling the examination grounds!" Patrol Officer Geng said sternly.
"No, I'm just afraid that these two students will be careless and offend you, Hanlin Academy. After all, your son died in the hands of Jingguo people. Our Jingguo cannot make you unhappy! I will personally replace the two students in the examination and you will supervise from the side! "
Feng Zimo said seriously and took over Fang Yun's book box. He slowly took out the items and placed them on the table for Patrol Officer Geng to see.
Fang Yun did not say a word, but he understood that Patrol Officer Geng wanted to use the two students to destroy his study.
"If I am angered, I will definitely fail this time's capital examination. I am afraid that this is just the beginning. In these three days, he will continue to use this method to harm me! I must think of a way to prevent him from acting rashly! "Fang Yun pondered in his heart.
After Feng Zimo placed all of Fang Yun's things on the table, he smiled and said, "Lord Geng, do you see anything that is missing?"
"Hmph!" Patrol Officer Geng stared at Fang Yun. No one knew what he was thinking.
Fang Yun suddenly said to Feng Zimo, "Lord Feng, I am a person who does not allow sand in my eyes. This examination is very important to me. If anyone dares to ruin my future, I will definitely ask the Holy Judge! I will ask the Holy Judge to uphold justice. "
Feng Zimo immediately said, "During the imperial examination, anyone can ask for the Holy Judge if there is any injustice. You are not an exception!"
"You … …" Patrol Officer Geng was speechless from the words of Fang Yun and Feng Zimo. Once he asked for the Holy Judge, the situation would be out of control. This was not the result he wanted to see.
Other people did not dare to ask for the Holy Judge, but since Fang Yun had asked for the Holy Selection before, he was not afraid at all.
"Hmph!" Patrol Officer Geng snorted and left.
Feng Zimo glanced at Fang Yun and left. At the same time, he removed the restraints on the two officers.
Fang Yun knew that Patrol Officer Geng would not make things difficult for him during the examination. He smiled and sat back on the chair. He began to tidy up the study. To prepare for the upcoming exam.
There were three subjects in the Prefectural Examinations. Among them, Sacred Speech and Poetry were exactly the same as the County Examinations. The third subject was Confucian Classics, which was not tested in the County Examinations.
There were 30 exam papers for the county examination, while there were 100 exam papers for the capital examination. Especially the last 10 pages of the examination questions, they basically required a large section or even an entire essay to be written from memory. More often than not, he would have to fill up nearly a hundred empty pages before he could finish. In other words, he would have to write nearly two hundred pages for the prefectural examination.
Generally speaking, the imperial examination's preaching would take about two days to finish, and then the poetry and scripture examination would begin.
Not long after, the oxcart that distributed the test papers arrived. The person who distributed the test papers placed two stacks of papers on Fang Yun's table.
One stack was filled with test papers. A stack of white paper was used for dictation.
Fang Yun looked at the two thick stacks of papers and was speechless for a long time. He thought to himself that this was probably the last bit of craziness. Once he became an Elementary Scholar, he would no longer have to deal with the boring and tricky process of asking for the Holy Word.
Out of habit, Fang Yun flipped through the hundred pages of the exam paper. Finally, he took down the first page and began to answer the questions.
This time, the first question for the Holy Word was a very simple fill-in-the-blank question. And it was the opening of the Analects of Confucius.
"Confucius said: Learning and practicing, isn't it delightful?" There was a blank paragraph after that. Fang Yun immediately picked up his pen and filled it in: A friend from afar, isn't it delightful? If one doesn't know and doesn't feel indignant, isn't he a gentleman?
In the process of answering the questions, the Heaven and Earth Book did not move, and Fang Yun did not use the power of the Heaven and Earth Book. He was purely relying on his own memory and understanding to answer the questions.
Fang Yun had already memorized all the works of the saints.
Very quickly, Fang Yun encountered an extremely tricky question. It tested when did the Wu Guo Half-saint and He Yunxiang go to Mount Ming.
Fang Yun racked his brains and found that He Yunxiang went to Mount Ming four times. Three times there were clear records, and all he had to do was write it down. But the second time, there was no record of when he went to Mount Ming.
Fang Yun thought about it carefully. He looked for all the works related to the second time He Yunxiang went to Mount Ming. In the end, he only found a long ancient poem and a memory of He Yunxiang.
The long ancient poem was called "Moon Mount Ming." It was written when He Yunxiang was nineteen years old and went to Mount Ming. At that time, He Yunxiang's Literary Name was not prominent. It was unknown.
"This poem must be the key."
Fang Yun recalled He Yunxiang's long poem and quickly found a line of the poem that was very interesting.
The strong wind cut half the moon.
Fang Yun thought, "A very important prerequisite for a poem is the 'Jing Zhen.' Although He Yunxiang was young, he would not have written it randomly. The phases of the moon change with time, such as a new moon, a full moon, a waning moon, etc. When the phase of the moon is the first half moon or the last half moon, there is only half of the moon left. It is like it was cut in half by a knife. It fits the sentence, 'The strong wind cut half the moon.' Other phases of the moon do not work. The seventh and eighth of every month are the first half moon. The twenty-second and twenty-third are the last half moon. "
"That means, I am not sure which month He Yunxiang went to Mount Ming, but it must be on the seventh, eighth, twenty-second, or twenty-third of a certain month."
"This ancient poem also has a line, 'Last night at midnight, an ice wheel appeared.' The ice wheel is another name for the moon. Midnight is between eleven at night and one in the morning. The moon rises at that time, so it should be the second half of the month. Because the moon rises early in the first half of the month, it is impossible to say, 'Last night at midnight, an ice wheel appeared.' So, I can rule out the seventh or eighth of the month. "
"But that is not enough. I still need to determine which month it is. The poem also has a line, 'The yellow dog is lying among the flowers.' In He Yunxiang's book, there is no mention of the yellow dog. But another Half-saint, Li Daoyuan, wrote about the yellow dog in his travels. He said that in He State, there is a yellow bug that the locals call the yellow dog. "
"The yellow dog bug likes the ash chrysanthemum. The ash chrysanthemum in He State only blooms in August and September. Now, I can confirm that this poem was written in August or September. And in He Yunxiang's memories, he wrote a line, 'Crossing Xu River, the water is up to the knees. This Xu River is at the foot of Mount Ming. And according to Li Daoyuan's' Commentary on the Water Classic ', Xu River is only dry between September and December every year. Only then can the water level drop to the knees. This can confirm that this poem was written in September. "
After a complicated analysis, Fang Yun quoted from the classics and answered this question.
"This question involves astronomy, geography, hydrology, plants, animals, poetry and other aspects. I dare to guarantee that most Grand Scholars would not be able to answer it! The person who came up with this question is really weird! "Fang Yun thought to himself. He shook his head and continued to answer the question.
Fang Yun continued to write. In the afternoon, a runner from the Institute of Arts delivered food. The capital examination took three days. The examinees' own food could spoil, so the Institute of Arts provided three meals for the tens of thousands of examinees.
After lunch, Fang Yun continued to answer questions. It was not until dinner time that he finished answering the first 90 pages. The last 10 pages were questions that had to be memorized. Fang Yun did not bother with them.
After dinner, Fang Yun checked the first 90 pages of Holy Words.
When he was checking the Holy Words, the World of Arts moved. Just like when Fang Yun participated in the county examination, the correct answers appeared in gold.
Relying on the World of Arts, Fang Yun quickly finished checking the 90 pages of Holy Words. He realized that he had remembered two questions wrongly. There were still three questions that he did not answer completely. He had neglected some details in the Sages Classic.
After Fang Yun corrected the wrong questions, he started to write down the questions on the last 10 pages. He wrote until midnight. Fang Yun then lay down on the simple bed in the examination room to sleep.
On the morning of the second day of the sixth month, Fang Yun woke up like many other examinees. He either waited for breakfast or continued to answer questions.
At noon, Fang Yun finished answering all the Holy Words. When the ink was dry, he collected it and sat down to rest. At the same time, he waited for the other two subjects.
In the evening, Holy Words ended. However, the bailiff did not take away the paper for Holy Words. Instead, he directly gave out the questions for poetry.
This year's poetry exam had three questions. They were more specific than the county examination. They asked him to write about weapons, rivers, and one of the Confucian sages. He only needed to write a poem.
Fang Yun thought for a moment. Because the real focus of the capital examination was the third subject, it tested the students' understanding of the Sages Classic. He could not waste too much time on poetry. Therefore, he wrote a poem:
The shore is broad and sparse, the waves are vague. How long can one think by the threshold alone. Far away from the sparse forest, half of the autumn mountain with the setting sun.
When the poem is complete, talent appears. Just a little more and he will reach the capital.
After he finished writing, Fang Yun did not waste any time. He wanted to do his best for the next subject. Therefore, he closed his eyes and memorized the Sages Classic.
No matter if it was the ranking of Xiucai, Juren, or Jinshi, they were all ranked according to the Holy Words.
If one person's Holy Words, Poem, and Holy Words were A, A, and B, and another person's Holy Words were C, C, and A, then the latter person would definitely win.
Poetry was the strongest aid to the Divine Path, but it was not the foundation of the Divine Path. The Holy Words were the foundation of the Divine Path. Even the direct disciples of Confucius often wrote the Holy Words.
However, the Holy Words could not be used directly like Holy Words or Poems. To write the Holy Words, Fang Yun had to rely on himself. This was because the Holy Words were his own understanding of the Sages Classic and the Divine Path. If Fang Yun could not write a good Holy Word, or if the Holy Words he wrote did not match his own ideas, it was equivalent to destroying his literary courage.
Fang Yun spent most of his time on the Holy Words. This was because he knew that he could learn the Holy Words from the Book of Wonders. He could even use a part of it like how he wrote a thesis in the future. However, he could not copy it completely.
As long as the Holy Words were written well, the foundation of the Divine Path would be stable forever. If the foundation of the Divine Path was stable forever, then there would be a chance of becoming a Saint. Therefore, even though the great Confucian scholar Yi Zhishi was not good at poetry, he was still the leader of the Four Great Scholars of the previous generation. He was also the one who had the highest chance of becoming a Saint.
On the morning of the third day of the sixth month, the School of Arts began the third subject, the Holy Words.
Using sentences from the Sages Classic as the topic, scholars would expound on the meaning contained in it. This was the Holy Words.
Unlike Holy Words and Poem, no one gave out the exam papers before the Holy Words exam began. All the candidates stood behind their desks and looked in the direction of the Divine Temple.
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