Chapter 45

"Your Highness, this is a detailed list of the expenses for this examination session from the Ministry of Personnel."

In the afternoon, a Ministry of Personnel official delivered the expense report for the examination to Zhao Hongrun.

Clearly, Zhao Hongrun's actions in the morning to retaliate against Luo Rong were seen by the Ministry of Personnel's invigilators as a warning to deter others.

However, Zhao Hongrun did not point this out.

"Thank you, sir. Please go about your business."

"Yes."

The Ministry of Personnel official bowed and left.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun picked up the stack of reports and began to read them carefully.

At this moment, he was sitting alone in a side hall room of the Confucius Temple, accompanied only by eight imperial guards besides Shen Yu and Lu Mu.

As the saying goes, 'If you are not in a position, you should not meddle in its affairs.' As a supervisor, Zhao Hongrun should theoretically be patrolling the examination hall to check on the candidates and catch any cheating. However, with over 2,600 candidates in the entire Confucius Temple, it was impossible for him and the eight imperial guards to monitor all of them simultaneously.

Even if he ran himself ragged, it would be impossible!

Therefore, Zhao Hongrun decided not to rush to catch any cheating. After all, his main goal was to deal with Luo Wenzhong. As for the cheating in the examination hall, he would see if he could find any clues.

If he really stumbled upon something, Zhao Hongrun would not mind helping the Great Wei clean up the examination hall. After all, the more stable the Great Wei, the more stable his position as a prince, and the easier it would be for him to achieve his goal of being a leisurely prince.

He took a few sips of tea from the cup beside him and then turned his attention back to the report in his hand.

As he had expected, this report from the Ministry of Personnel indeed contained false information.

'46,300 taels... Ha!'

Zhao Hongrun shook his head slightly.

According to the report, the Ministry of Personnel had submitted a request for 46,300 taels of silver to the Ministry of Revenue to repair nearly 3,000 examination rooms in the Confucius Temple, as well as the facilities inside the rooms, the candles distributed to the candidates, and the allowances for the officials and miscellaneous personnel involved in the examination.

Each item was listed in great detail, seemingly without any issues. However, Zhao Hongrun had personally seen the extremely shabby examination rooms and did not believe that the Ministry of Personnel had spent a large portion of the silver on repairs.

A quilt for ten taels? Are you kidding?

Zhao Hongrun found it hard to imagine that the thin, moldy quilts in the examination rooms, which seemed to have not been taken out of the warehouse for a long time, could be worth ten taels.

After all, a brand new, thick quilt filled with cotton that Zhao Hongrun requested from the palace's inner chamber only cost a dozen taels.

"Gaokuo, Zhongzhao, you two go and investigate. I want to know the source of these quilts. ... Go to the Ministry of Personnel's warehouse, give some silver to the miscellaneous personnel there, and get them to talk. If they still refuse to reveal anything after receiving the silver, you two decide what to do."

"Yes." The two imperial guards, Gaokuo and Zhongzhao, bowed and left.

At this moment, Zhao Hongrun put the report in his pocket and, accompanied by the remaining six imperial guards, walked out of the side hall of the Confucius Temple and headed towards the examination rooms.

The nearly 3,000 examination rooms were arranged in a '回' (square) shape, with an outer circle and an inner circle, facing each other. When walking down the path, one could see the candidates on both sides of the path, diligently writing their answers.

Zhao Hongrun curiously approached an examination room and glanced at the candidate's paper.

"..." The candidate, noticing something, looked up and stared at Zhao Hongrun, who was wearing a mask, feeling somewhat constrained.

Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun said calmly, "Continue writing. I'm just looking at the questions."

"Yes..." The candidate relaxed and continued writing.

'Hmm, the first day's exam is on the Four Books?’

After glancing at the questions, Zhao Hongrun walked away.

The so-called Four Books questions refer to using passages or sentences from the Four Books as the basis for the questions, testing the candidates' knowledge.

What are the Four Books?

They are the four books: *The Great Learning*, *The Doctrine of the Mean*, *The Analects of Confucius*, and *The Mencius*. The examiners often randomly select a passage or a few words from these books, with no additional hints, to test the candidates' familiarity with the Four Books.

The Four Books questions are also known as 'speaking on behalf of the sages.' As the name suggests, the candidates are to write essays in the voice of Confucius or Mencius.

Unlike other literary forms such as poetry, the structure of the Four Books essays is strictly defined, requiring the essay to be written in eight parts: [Introduction], [承接题] (承接题), [起讲] (起讲), [入手] (入手), [起股] (起股), [中股] (中股), [后股] (后股), and [束股] (束股). In the last four parts, each part must contain two parallel and antithetical sentences, known as couplets, which must be balanced in tone and rhyme.

Therefore, the Four Books essays are also called 'eight-part essays.'

The most stringent requirement is that all words and references used in the essay must be found in the classics or historical records, and candidates cannot invent their own terms or describe trivial matters.

In short, these essays are extremely dry and lack readability, but they can effectively test the candidates' understanding and familiarity with the Four Books, serving as a standard for evaluating their knowledge.

The question set by the Ministry of Personnel this time was: 'Confucius said to Yan Yuan, "When used, act; when not used, hide. Only you and I can do this!"'

This quote is from the *Analects* in the *Shu Er* chapter, where Confucius is speaking to his student Yan Yuan. The original meaning is: 'When the state uses you, act according to your principles and implement your ideas; when the state does not use you, hide your principles and ideas. Only you and I can do this.'

In Zhao Hongrun's view, this question was not difficult. As long as one could recite the *Shu Er* chapter, it was not hard to understand the meaning. The challenge lay in how to use the sage's words to write an essay and elaborate on the idea.

'Confucius said to Yan Yuan, "When used, act; when not used, hide. Only you and I can do this!" The appropriateness of the sage's actions and inactions is subtly revealed through the capable. The actions and inactions of the sage are not easily defined. Only Yanzi approached this, and only then could he be spoken to. Therefore, he specifically said: Throughout life, there are only one or two paths to choose from, and finding a way to not be trapped in the situation is rare. When one can have confidence, they may find themselves alone with no one to share with, or in solitude with no one to speak to. This idea may be entrusted to self-reflection, but I am fortunate to be able to speak to you now... Hmm, this candidate writes well.'

Zhao Hongrun walked and occasionally checked the answers of the candidates.

Some wrote so well that even Zhao Hongrun, who had no interest in this, felt inferior. Others wrote poorly, mechanically copying the sages' words without any original thought. What kind of 'speaking on behalf of the sages' is this? It should be called 'borrowing the sages' words to speak.'

During this time, Zhao Hongrun saw a peculiar candidate who translated the sage's words as: 'Confucius said to Yan Yuan, "When something is useful, it should be used; when it is not, it should be hidden. You and I, who understand this, are the only ones in the world with the spirit of a true man!"'

Zhao Hongrun was utterly shocked.

'What does it mean to say that "you and I, who understand this, are the only ones in the world with the spirit of a true man?" ... Is it really okay to translate it so boldly?'

Seeing that the peculiar candidate finished translating and then started drinking and eating chicken, as if celebrating, Zhao Hongrun was almost frightened.

'This guy is just here for a three-day tour of the capital. The world is full of strange things.'

Glancing at the candidate's luxurious red silk robe, Zhao Hongrun shook his head and walked away.

In his view, this candidate was likely the son of a local powerful family, just here to tour the capital. To participate in the examination with this level?

'I wonder how much he paid to get a place in the preliminary examination.'

Shaking his head, Zhao Hongrun dismissed the peculiar candidate from his mind. He didn't care about such a person, as he would never make the list.

Zhao Hongrun continued walking.

To be fair, aside from the peculiar candidate, the overall level of the candidates in this examination was generally acceptable. Some of the essays were so good that even Zhao Hongrun felt impressed. However, it was only the first day of the examination, so it was too early to judge the final results.

Besides assessing the candidates' levels, Zhao Hongrun was also secretly paying attention to any cheating in the examination hall. However, from what he saw, everything seemed to be in order, with all the candidates diligently answering the questions.

'This is strange. Is there no cheating in the examination hall? Or is it that... some officials from the Ministry of Personnel are involved?'

Zhao Hongrun pondered silently.

In his view, there were two types of cheating in the examination hall: one where candidates cheat on their own, and the other where candidates bribe examiners to cheat together. Any cheating incident would fall into one of these two categories.

Speaking of candidates cheating on their own, it usually involved smuggling in hidden notes. However, the officials in the Confucius Temple were very strict about this, so it was unlikely to have any loopholes. In other words, if cheating still frequently occurred in previous examinations, it was likely that some officials from the Ministry of Personnel were involved.

This type of cheating was hard to catch, as it involved many people, from the invigilators to the officials and miscellaneous personnel in the Confucius Temple. As long as the perpetrators kept quiet, it was difficult to find any evidence.

Around dusk, the two imperial guards, Gaokuo and Zhongzhao, returned with the results of their investigation.

They spent fifty taels of silver to bribe a warehouse guard from the Ministry of Personnel, who revealed that the warehouse was piled with many old and shabby quilts. These quilts were mostly collected from households in the capital, with prices ranging from two to four or five taels of silver. The Ministry of Personnel bought these shabby quilts at low prices but reported to the Ministry of Revenue that each quilt cost ten taels, passing off inferior goods as good ones.

Don't think that a quilt only earns a few taels of silver after being handled. With over 2,600 candidates, this amounted to nearly 20,000 taels of silver, a significant sum.

'It seems the court needs a supervisory body, like the Censorate... Relying solely on the Ministry of Personnel to self-regulate, ha!'

That day, Zhao Hongrun wrote down this matter, waiting to present it to the emperor in the future.

'PS: This chapter features a special guest appearance. Those who understand are not to reveal it. Additionally, thank you to "靇魻你好" for becoming the first hall master of this book. I just noticed. I will update as soon as possible, as I am currently working on the detailed outline and materials for this volume. Thank you very much.'

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