Chapter 92

The next morning, Wang Ju once again made the students envious.

While washing and grooming himself, he chatted and laughed with Li Wan yuan and the others, his attitude very relaxed.

However, some people were jealous. Why was he so relaxed? This was called being confident.

Regardless of what they thought, the autumn examination officially began.

Before entering the main examination hall, there was another body search.

This was just a formality, and everyone went in one after another, sitting down according to their seat numbers.

However, after just a moment, some students' faces changed. Cheng Kan walked in with a smile and said, "This time, I will be your chief examiner."

Some students thought, "Old man, you should go back and rest."

This was cheating. Some had given gifts to the original chief examiner, while others hoped to be familiar with the chief examiner and do some small tricks during the exam, such as passing notes or looking around. Cheng Kan, on a whim, replaced the chief examiner and came himself, eliminating all these hopes.

"Are you unhappy because you can't take shortcuts?" Cheng Kan asked, looking at some of the students with bad expressions.

Who dared to answer?

Cheng Kan waved his hand, and the soldiers brought in an incense table. Cheng Kan led the students in a bow, then retreated behind the curtain, which was also a rule.

He would not collude with the students, but others might, especially at the state-level preliminary examination. If the chief examiner walked around, looking here and there, and remembered the students' papers to favor them, even the system of anonymous copying would be ineffective.

However, once he sat behind the curtain, no student dared to cheat.

In addition to him sitting behind the curtain to supervise, there were also other supervisors, several clerks, and several soldiers standing at the door, ready to handle any emergencies.

The clerks distributed pens, ink, paper, and inkstones.

The exam lasted three days, covering policy essays, poetry, and classics. Originally, the order was classics and commentary first, poetry in the middle, and policy essays last. Now it had changed: policy essays first, poetry in the middle, and classics and commentary last.

This change was mainly due to some officials wanting to elevate the status of policy essays. The first proponent was not Fan Zhongyan, but by the time of Fan Zhongyan, the importance of policy essays was officially established.

In other words, if Student A wrote a good policy essay but average poetry, and Student B wrote good poetry but an average policy essay, Student A would be admitted. Later, this reform was abolished, and now it has returned to the original order, with poetry being more important than policy essays.

However, after this reform, the status of policy essays began to rise, which was good news for Wang Ju.

Another piece of good news was that the popular literary style during the Song Dynasty was the Taixue style.

Shi Jie despised the Xikun style initiated by Yang Yi, which was characterized by "excessive beauty, embellishing the wind and moon, playing with flowers and grass, and frivolous and luxurious words, corrupting the ancestors' legacy." He proposed, "I dislike words that are beautiful in form but not in substance, but I do not dislike words that are beautiful in substance but not in form."

This theory had a significant impact on Taixue students. However, from the Five Dynasties to the early Song Dynasty, people preferred to write about the wind and the moon. If they didn't write about the wind and the moon, what else could they write about? Thus, a strange and obscure literary style emerged, represented by the early Song writer Liu Kai.

It wasn't until the imperial examination of the second year of Jiayou, when Su Dongpo took the exam, that Ouyang Xiu, as the chief examiner, severely criticized the Taixue style, causing a significant controversy. After this examination, ancient prose finally took the stage.

This was even more helpful for Wang Ju.

He could write ancient prose, but writing in the Taixue style would be more headache-inducing than writing poetry.

Unfortunately, poetry is still more important than policy essays, otherwise, it would be even more beneficial for him.

However, after this reform, the order of policy essays first was retained.

On the first day, the exam was on policy essays.

Three policy essays in total.

Actually, the standard was five policy essays!

This was considering the abilities of the students and the clerks in Yan Prefecture.

If the students in Yan Prefecture had to write five policy essays in one day, most would likely submit blank papers. After writing, they would also need to copy them, and Yan Prefecture lacked the manpower.

The next morning, the exam was on essays. Then, the government sent lunch, and after eating, everyone took a short break, brought in the "Qieyun" (a rhyming dictionary), and wrote a poem.

On the third day, they wrote poetry, classics, and commentary.

However, for most students, the first day was a critical hurdle. Even with the consideration, it was still three policy essays, over a thousand words. How could they write them?

After the clerks distributed the pens, ink, paper, and inkstones, they posted the questions, written in large characters, on the hall's front.

Each time a question was posted, there was a commotion.

The first question was about the national horse policy.

There was also an appendix, including two memorials by Xue Xiang and one by Ouyang Xiu.

Cheng Kan's choice of this question was reasonable for Yan Prefecture. Last spring, he established a horse-buying society, which was later abolished.

How should this be written?

If Cheng Kan did the right thing, why was it later abolished?

If it was wrong to establish the horse-buying society, wouldn't that be slapping Cheng Kan's face? Would anyone dare to write that and still hope to pass?

The second question continued, about the Western Xia's invasion of the Quye River and Tumen.

Tumen was also a victim of the invasion by Muzang Epon. Cheng Kan's choice of this question was also reasonable.

The key was that when Cheng Kan saw the lax military discipline, he adopted a passive defensive attitude, which once made the people in the northern border areas of Yan Prefecture very dissatisfied.

Cheng Kan directly raised this issue, making it difficult to write. Should he say that Cheng Kan's passive defense was right because the Western Xia was too powerful? Or that peace should be maintained between the two countries? That didn't seem appropriate. We are not those students in the Central Plains who don't know the dangers of the Western Xia. Could we say such things in Yan Prefecture?

Or should he say that resistance was necessary because the Western Xia wasn't that powerful? A group of villagers once defeated over 600 Western Xia soldiers, but could that be written?

When Wang Ju saw these two questions, he was also taken aback.

What was Old Cheng trying to do?

The third question came: "Three years of silence is a common occurrence."

This phrase comes from the "Book of Documents: Shuomeng." When the father of Emperor Gaozong of Shang died, he was so sad that he didn't speak for three years. The ministers then recommended Fu Shuo, and the Shang Dynasty was well-governed. In the "Five Classics Commentary," it is noted, "The king, in mourning for his father, entrusted the government to the chief minister and remained silent for three years. Three years of silence is a common occurrence. The historian recorded this sentence at the beginning to indicate that after the mourning period, he could speak but still remained silent, thus starting with this sentence."

However, the "Five Classics Commentary" is so thick that, given the level of the students in Yan Prefecture, how many could remember it? They might think it was "three years of silence, then a loud cry."

Some students commented that the question was wrong.

Cheng Kan coldly snorted from behind the curtain, "This was set by me. Could it be wrong?"

Most students had strange expressions, still pondering why "three years of silence, then a loud cry" had become "three years of silence is a common occurrence."

A bold student came forward to ask, which was also a rule. If there were any doubts about the questions, the students could ask outside the curtain, and the chief examiner would answer from behind the curtain. If the examination was large and divided into several main examination halls, the chief examiner's deputy would answer.

Cheng Kan, displeased, said from behind the curtain, "If you don't even know this, why are you taking the exam? Do you want me to take it for you?"

The student who asked was stunned and had to retreat, thinking hard again.

Wang Ju looked at the questions, not thinking about how to answer them, but about Cheng Kan.

This was a significant secret in Wang Ju's heart. The exam was about luck, and this luck was not just about the questions being familiar, such as the "three years of silence," but also about whether what he wrote would meet the examiner's taste.

To determine whether it met the examiner's taste, one had to understand the examiner's character.

If it were someone else, Wang Ju might not be able to figure it out, but he knew some things about Cheng Kan, and they had interacted several times.

Cheng Kan was a practical official who didn't like to talk much. He was neither radical nor conservative, belonging to the moderate faction, similar to officials like Zhang Fangping. For example, when Muzang Epon invaded Tumen and plundered the people, Cheng Kan only adopted a passive defense. When Wang Wenliang sought refuge with Cheng Kan, Cheng Kan did not immediately accept him, unlike Guo Quan.

However, Cheng Kan also had the flaws of an official, such as a strong sense of officialdom, being high and mighty, and not to be challenged. He was somewhat greedy for credit and lacked decisiveness.

There might be other characteristics, but these were what Wang Ju knew.

This was a kind of cheating, which should not be publicized. However, few people had this advantage. Even those from prestigious families might not know the personalities of all the officials.

After thinking about Cheng Kan's character, he then thought about the questions.

The students chattered a few times and finally quieted down. Many began to write.

Cheng Kan smiled slightly, thinking that this time, there would be many strange answers. He looked at Wang Ju, who was sitting there in a daze. Was this kid also stumped?

That didn't make sense. At least the horse policy wouldn't stump him.

He continued to observe. Still in a daze, he finally couldn't resist and called a clerk, saying, "Ask that kid why he hasn't started writing."

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