Chapter 53

When he heard this, Yu Ziyou's face turned somewhat ashen. The inner dormitory students received three taels of silver each month, which was a considerable sum for students from poor families, but it was not something he valued. His family had gone through great lengths to send him to Lianjiang Academy, and he needed to achieve good results to give his family a satisfactory answer. However, failing the county examination was one thing, but not being promoted to the inner dormitory after three years in the outer dormitory was truly frustrating.

The outer dormitory students could not help but discuss the halo of being a disciple of the great master Lin Yanchao. Lin Yanchao, however, remained the same, writing down the lecture notes and then handing the notes from the previous few days to Lin Liao in the evening.

The next morning, before the class started, Lin Liao returned the lecture notes to him and said he would give him a new set every five days. Lin Yanchao took back the notes and read through them. The notes had been thoroughly revised by Lin Liao with red ink, correcting not only the errors and omissions but also the misspellings and grammatical issues.

Feeling Lin Liao's meticulous approach to scholarship, Lin Yanchao also felt that he should work hard to repay Lin Liao's efforts in nurturing him.

Thus, Lin Liao lectured on the seven chapters of the *Mencius* for fourteen days, and Lin Yanchao took notes for fourteen days, memorizing the entire *Mencius* and its annotations.

After fourteen days of lectures, half a month had passed, and it was time for the monthly examination, known as the Shuowang Exam.

The results of the Shuowang Exam determined the rankings in the three dormitories. Although promotions and demotions only occurred every three months, the exam was of great importance to the students.

On the last night before the exam, it was almost the third watch, but the outer dormitory was still full of students.

Everyone was holding the *Mencius* and its annotations, reading them. Lin Yanchao also reviewed the lecture notes he had taken over the past few days.

The other students in the outer dormitory were envious and jealous, wondering how Lin Yanchao, already a disciple of the great master, could still be so diligent.

The next day, before the exam, the students were already getting ready.

Soon, Lin Liao entered the classroom and distributed the exam papers. The Shuowang Exam papers were set by the headmaster, Lin Yin, and were called the Master's Exam. The monthly and quarterly exams were set by the professors, county magistrates, and prefectural governors, known as the Official Exams.

The exam time was from the first hour of the morning (7 AM) to the middle of the day (12 PM), a total of five hours.

The exam paper consisted of ten questions on the *Tiejing* (scripture excerpts), five questions on the *Moyi* (explanations of the classics), and one essay on the *Zhiyi* (literary composition).

First were the ten *Tiejing* questions. The first question was: "Mencius saw King Xiang of Liang. He came out and said to others, 'He does not look like a king...'" The rest of the sentence was left blank.

Without hesitation, Lin Yanchao wrote, "...and he does not show any fear." Suddenly, he asked, "How can the world be stabilized?"

Lin Yanchao wrote the answers to all ten questions in one breath. For someone as familiar with the *Mencius* as he was, this was not difficult at all.

However, he thought that the other students in the outer dormitory would not make mistakes on these questions. The *Tiejing* questions were the most basic, and even children in village schools might make mistakes, but for the academy students, getting one wrong would be a disgrace.

Next were the five *Moyi* questions, which were a bit more challenging.

Lin Yanchao carefully read the first question: "King Xuan of Qi saw Mencius at the Snow Palace. The king said, 'Do the virtuous also have this joy?'"

Mencius replied, "They do. If people cannot obtain it, they will blame their superiors. It is wrong to blame one's superiors when one cannot obtain it; it is also wrong for a ruler not to share the joy with the people. When the ruler shares the people's joy, the people will share his joy; when the ruler shares the people's worries, the people will share his worries. If the ruler shares the people's joys and worries, he will surely become a king."

The phrase "When the ruler shares the people's joy, the people will share his joy; when the ruler shares the people's worries, the people will share his worries" is the origin of Fan Zhongyan's famous saying, "Worry before the world worries, and enjoy after the world enjoys."

Lin Yanchao recalled the interpretation of this phrase by Zhu Xi in the *Mencius* annotations and wrote, "If the ruler can share the people's joy, then everyone will have this joy; otherwise, those who do not have this joy will surely blame their ruler. It is clear that the ruler should share the people's joy and not let anyone be deprived of it, not just sharing it with the virtuous."

This was a ready-made answer, and not a word should be changed. Of course, this was something Lin Yanchao had memorized over the past fourteen days, and with his photographic memory and ability to recite things backward, it was not difficult at all.

After finishing the five *Moyi* questions, Lin Yanchao wiped his hands. It had taken him less than an hour, leaving him plenty of time to write the *Zhiyi* essay.

The topic was, "The people can now retaliate."

Lin Yanchao quickly recalled that this phrase was from the *Mencius: Liang Huiwang Xia*. The original context was that the state of Zou and the state of Lu were at war, and many officials died, but the people were indifferent. The king of Zou wanted to punish the people, but Mencius said it was not right. He said that how you treat others is how they will treat you, and the people were simply retaliating for how the officials had treated them. Therefore, "The people can now retaliate." The next sentence was, "The ruler should not blame the people," which was Mencius advising the king not to blame the people.

This was a small topic, and the essay should follow the eight-part essay format, with a minimum of 300 characters.

Lin Yanchao could only smile wryly. The eight-part essay required the topic to be from the Four Books, and the answer should be written in the voice of the sages, based on Zhu Xi's annotations. This could be achieved through reading and memorization, but the first step in writing the essay, breaking down the topic, required personal insight, not just knowledge.

Lin Yanchao did not sit there pondering, but instead lay down with his eyes closed, thinking. After about an hour, he had a clear idea and began to write.

After the exam, everyone asked Lin Yanchao how he did. Lin Yanchao simply said, "I did poorly, I'll be at the bottom of the list."

Some believed him, but most did not. They said, "Brother Yanchao, you're being modest again."

"Look, Brother Yanchao, your humility is truly admirable."

Lin Yanchao smiled and went to have lunch.

In the afternoon, the results were announced. According to the academy's rules, the quarterly exam results were announced on a large board, while the monthly and Shuowang exam results were announced on a small board. The small board showed the rankings within each dormitory, while the large board showed the rankings for the entire academy.

Before the results were announced, everyone was discussing.

Lin Yanchao overheard two older students talking.

"I did poorly this time, I'll be ranked after the fifteenth place. I don't know how my parents will react."

"I'm in trouble too. I missed a question in the breaking down part, and my essay will probably be rated low."

"This time, the competition in the outer dormitory is much fiercer than before. If I can't get into the top ten this year, my parents will think I'm not working hard enough and might make me study at home."

"You're lucky, at least you haven't given up on the imperial exams. My father might make me work as a minor official in the government, and I won't be able to enter the elite class."

"The results are out!" someone shouted, and everyone rushed to see.

Lin Yanchao pushed through the crowd and looked from the bottom up. He found his name in the third-to-last position, 28th in the outer dormitory.

Lin Yanchao was not surprised and calmly returned to his desk to read. Many people looked at him with mixed feelings.

"Brother Yu, is this the disciple of the great master? Don't joke with me," Chen Xinggui said with a smile.

Yu Ziyou replied, "I didn't expect him to be so weak. Maybe he was just too nervous for his first exam."

"Want to check his paper later?"

"Sure, let's see how he answered."

Besides Chen Xinggui and Yu Ziyou, other students were also interested. They had expected Lin Yanchao to do well or at least average, but not to do so poorly.

"Brother Yanchao?" a classmate who had spoken to him a few times asked with a hint of schadenfreude.

Lin Yanchao, who was buried in his book, looked up and said, "What?"

"Brother Yanchao, why did the great master choose you as his disciple?"

"Maybe I was lucky."

"Did you perform poorly this time?"

"No, I did just fine!"

"But you only got 28th place."

"That's right, 28th place is at the bottom, just as I said. How can it be considered poor performance?"

The classmate was speechless.

Another student asked, "Brother Yanchao, why aren't you upset about getting 28th place in the outer dormitory?"

Lin Yanchao leaned back and said casually, "You consider not passing as a disgrace, but I consider being upset about not passing as a disgrace."

The student was taken aback, thinking that Lin Yanchao's words were truly profound. He forced a smile and said, "Brother Yanchao, you really know how to save face, ha ha!"

Lin Yanchao also smiled, "Yes, ha ha!"

The ancients knew that a conversation ended with "ha ha," and the student left with a disappointed look, having achieved nothing.

The students continued to discuss.

"Is he just pretending to be weak?"

"Or is he really hiding his true abilities?"

After the midday class, Lin Liao evaluated the papers.

According to the tradition of the outer dormitory, the best three papers were evaluated. Lin Liao chose the first paper of the outer dormitory, which was written by Ye Xianggao. Ye Xianggao was a new student in the outer dormitory, but his grandfather was a famous scholar, and his father was a tribute student. His writing was indeed excellent, so even though some were unhappy, they could not argue.

"The great sage understood the resentment of the people of Zou and saw the self-inflicted consequences of the officials of Zou!"

When Lin Yanchao heard the first sentence of Ye Xianggao's breaking down, he felt enlightened. He realized that his own efforts to break down the topic could have been done this way. The "great sage" referred to Mencius, and one could not directly name the sages in the breaking down. Confucius was referred to as the sage, and Yan Hui, Zisi, Zengzi, and Mencius were referred to as the great sages, while Confucius' disciples were referred to as the sages.

This first sentence, combined with the context, meant that Mencius understood the people's resentment and saw that the officials of Zou had brought it upon themselves. The breaking down of the topic "The people can now retaliate" was that the people were simply retaliating for how the officials had treated them.

Just this breaking down was enough to win the first place in the outer dormitory.