Chapter 61

After the Winter Solstice, the next class would be the New Moon and Full Moon class.

For the first half of the month, the New Moon and Full Moon class would still be conducted by the head of the academy, Lin Yin, who would set the questions. The topics would be the twenty chapters of the Analects, the thirty-three chapters of the Doctrine of the Mean, and the ten chapters of the Great Learning.

In the second half of the month, there would be a special focus on the Analects, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean, covering the breaking of the eight-part essay and the main ideas of the questions. The monthly class would involve three eight-part essays based on the Analects, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean. This was the general structure of the month's curriculum, which would be followed by a review of the Mencius from the previous month.

Lin Liao had to go through the Four Books within two months. Of course, this was possible because the outer dormitory students already had a foundation. For them, the Four Books class was merely a review. If one were to seriously study the Four Books, it would take at least two years.

In the three years of primary education, students learned how to recognize characters, write, pronounce words, and recite the Three Hundred Tang Poems, the Thousand Character Classic, and the Expanded Wisdom. Then, they would study the Four Books for two years, choose one of the Five Classics as their main text, and study it for a year. Finally, they would practice various techniques for writing the eight-part essay, dedicating several years to this effort before feeling confident enough to take the child examination and compete with others.

This was the typical experience of an ordinary scholar, truly a decade of hard study with no one asking.

Of course, there were also prodigies who could shorten this period significantly.

After the Winter Solstice, the academy's days remained peaceful. However, the number of people staying in the Two Plum Book House to study increased.

As the quarterly class approached every three months, the pressure on the academy students to study grew. Lin Yanchao noticed that his classmates had been speaking less in recent days.

Lin Yanchao was also affected by this, thinking to himself that it was indeed as Yu Qingzhou had said: one could not afford to relax for a moment, as any slackness would result in someone catching up from behind.

Finally, the New Moon and Full Moon class arrived.

During the exam, Lin Yanchao felt that about five or six pairs of eyes were occasionally glancing at him.

Lin Yanchao immediately guessed that they were suspicious and peering at something, which made him find it somewhat amusing. He sighed in an adult's tone, "Young people, young people."

The exam questions were twenty questions on the classics, five questions on the ink meanings, and one question on the literary style.

There were ten more questions on the classics than the last time, indicating the academy's emphasis on this fundamental skill.

Of course, whether there were ten or twenty questions on the classics, it made no difference to Lin Yanchao; it just required a bit more ink.

After reviewing the questions, Lin Yanchao answered them seriously.

He completed the questions on the classics and the ink meanings without much effort. Of course, for his outer dormitory classmates, the number of questions did not increase the difficulty. The real challenge was in the literary style question.

The last literary style question was, "In serving a ruler, one should first respect the task and then consider the food." This question was from the Analects of Confucius, Chapter Wei Ling Gong. Due to the rushed curriculum, Lin Yanchao had only memorized the Analects and the Analects Commentary, and had only read five or six volumes of the Great and Small Questions of the Five Classics. He had not yet memorized the Wei Ling Gong chapter.

Without having memorized it, he decided to answer it himself. Lin Yanchao had memorized many model essays and had listened to Lin Liao's many explanations of breaking the questions in class. He felt that his skills in writing the eight-part essay had improved recently.

"In serving a ruler, one should first respect the task and then consider the food." In modern terms, this means, "Public servants should first do their job well before talking about their salary."

Lin Yanchao thought of Zhu Xi's commentary on this passage: "When a gentleman serves, those with official duties should perform their roles, and those with responsibilities should fulfill their loyalty. They should all respect their tasks and not have the desire for rewards first."

So, the breaking of the question would be based on Zhu Xi's commentary.

After much thought, Lin Yanchao had an idea and wrote on the draft paper, "A gentleman serves to perform his duties without seeking rewards."

Lin Yanchao used three points: "A gentleman serves" to point to "serving a ruler," "performing his duties" to point to "respecting the task," and "without seeking rewards" to point to "considering the food later." This breaking of the question covered all the meanings of the question without missing any, which could be considered a successful break. Lin Yanchao felt a small sense of excitement, as he had finally broken a question on his own. However, since the breaking was based on Zhu Xi's commentary and lacked his own insights, it would be difficult to score high.

Then, Lin Yanchao wrote step by step and finally submitted his paper to Lin Liao.

Lin Liao took Lin Yanchao's paper and, without looking at the classics or the ink meanings, directly examined his essay. His expression improved slightly, probably because he saw that Lin Yanchao had not used the model essays from the Great and Small Questions of the Five Classics to answer the questions, which made him feel better.

Lin Liao briefly looked at the paper and drew a triangle next to Lin Yanchao's breaking of the question with a red pen.

Lin Yanchao knew that the ancient method of grading papers was similar: a circle for excellent, a triangle for good, a vertical line for average, and a cross for poor. A cross meant a complete lack of understanding, a vertical line meant barely passing, a triangle meant worth considering, and a circle meant the best.

Then, Lin Liao drew several vertical lines at the承接题 (承接题, which means the part that connects the breaking of the question to the main body of the essay) and the起讲 (起讲, which means the introduction of the main body of the essay) and the中股 (中股, which means the middle part of the essay). Of course, this paper was not as good as the one he had received from the county school teacher during the last monthly class, which had several small circles.

But it was still his own work.

Seeing that Lin Liao was about to speak to Lin Yanchao, all the outer dormitory students perked up their ears to listen.

Lin Liao then said to Lin Yanchao in a gentle tone, "The breaking of the question is acceptable, but the承接题 and the分股 (分股, which means the division of the main body of the essay) are still lacking. Overall, you have made significant progress."

Lin Yanchao was delighted and said, "Thank you, sir."

What does "significant progress" mean? The other students were not calm. Lin Yanchao had ranked second in the outer dormitory last time, and now he was said to have made significant progress. Was he going to rank first this time?

The other students sighed.

Lin Liao's words to Lin Yanchao soon reached the ears of Chen Xinggui and Yu Ziyu. They also heard from others that Lin Yanchao had been diligently working on his paper during the exam without cheating.

There was really nothing they could do about it.

Before the results were announced this time, no one asked Lin Yanchao how he had done.

In the afternoon, the results were announced, and Lin Yanchao ranked twenty-second in the outer dormitory.

The other students were bewildered. From second to twenty-second, this was what Lin Liao meant by "significant progress."

This world was truly incomprehensible. The other students were frustrated and even lazy to go and see Lin Yanchao's paper.

Lin Yanchao, however, stood in front of the results board and read through the papers of the top three.

Ye Xianggao's paper read, "The sage discusses the righteousness of a minister, which is to fulfill one's duties without seeking profit. To serve for the sake of rewards is not how one should serve a ruler..."

Lin Yanchao thought to himself, "I used to only know that Ye Xianggao's paper was good, but I didn't understand why. That was because the gap was too large. Now, I can understand it to a large extent, which means the gap between us has narrowed."

It seems that memorizing model essays is not entirely useless. In the past one and a half months, I have indeed made significant progress, as my teacher said.

"Brother Lin!" Lin Yanchao was standing in front of the results board when someone called out to him from behind.

Lin Yanchao turned around and saw Chen Xinggui.

"Brother Chen, what advice do you have?"

Chen Xinggui smiled and said, "I wouldn't dare to give advice. I read your paper, and you have made significant progress."

Lin Yanchao blushed and said, "Where? From second to twenty-second, how can that be significant progress?"

Chen Xinggui smiled slightly and said, "I mean that your paper has improved significantly compared to the last New Moon and Full Moon class, not the last monthly class."

Lin Yanchao was surprised. Could this person see through my abilities?

Chen Xinggui quickly said, "Brother Lin, don't misunderstand. I'm not here to pry. Everyone has their own way of studying. You have just taken a different path. However, next month, we will start studying the Five Classics. Have you decided which one to focus on?"

The Five Classics are the Book of Changes, the Book of Songs, the Book of Documents, the Spring and Autumn Annals, and the Book of Rites. In the imperial examinations, candidates only needed to master one of the Five Classics. In the provincial examinations, the top five candidates were selected based on their performance in each of the Five Classics.

Lin Yanchao said, "I have only been at the academy for two months. Please advise, Brother Chen."

Chen Xinggui said, "I wouldn't dare. It seems that Brother Yanchao hasn't decided which classic to focus on yet."

Lin Yanchao nodded and said, "Yes, I wonder which classic most of the academy students focus on."

Chen Xinggui smiled and said, "The head of the academy is skilled in the Spring and Autumn Annals, the second assistant in the Book of Songs and the Book of Documents, and the lecturer in the Book of Songs. Therefore, many students in the academy focus on the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Book of Songs."

"The Spring and Autumn Annals and the Book of Songs!" Lin Yanchao nodded, thinking of how the aristocratic families of the Wei and Jin dynasties valued lineage and the transmission of knowledge.

In the Han dynasty, the study of the classics emphasized the transmission from generation to generation, with a strong emphasis on the teacher-student relationship. For example, the Book of Songs had four schools: the Lu School, the Qi School, the Han School, and the Mao School. Each school had different interpretations of the Book of Songs.

The Spring and Autumn Annals also had three commentaries: the Zuo Commentary, the Gongyang Commentary, and the Gu Liang Commentary, each with its own school and system, passed down from teacher to student.

Therefore, in the Han dynasty, one had to choose a specific school to study the Book of Songs or the Spring and Autumn Annals.

In the Ming dynasty, the imperial examinations specified how to interpret the Five Classics, but generally, students followed their teachers' focus. This was a continuous tradition.

Logically, Lin Yanchao should have studied the Spring and Autumn Annals or the Book of Songs, but he had other plans.

PS: The double update is here! Please give me your recommendations! There will be another update tonight, but it might be a bit late, but it will definitely come.