Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

In his early twenties, standing before he arrives, he is the young and vigorous person with the best face. Although Liu Qi has not deliberately concealed the fact that he has passed the exam or failed the ranking, he feels ashamed of it from the bottom of his heart, subconsciously. Avoiding taking the initiative to mention it.

It was brought out inadvertently at this moment, he felt relieved even though he was annoyed.

Lu Ci was taken aback when he heard the words. With his calm temper, he couldn't hide his shock. He asked a stupid question that he regretted as soon as he uttered it: "Brother Liu, are you serious?"

Liu Qi couldn't laugh or cry and said, "No matter how free I am, I won't use my scars as fakes."

Lu Ci frowned, and said sincerely: "This is not a good thing. Even a talented person like Brother Liu, who is smart and eloquent, is not good for a small test, so how can there be a way for a mediocre person like me to survive in this world?"

This Liu Qi, whom he regarded as a strong competitor, had actually participated in the imperial examination, and even failed to get a Jinshi!

Even if there is an element of luck in every exam, but the strength is strong enough to a certain extent, even if it is affected, it will not completely overturn the result, at least the ranking is not satisfactory.

Especially from Lu Ci's point of view, Liu Qilang, who can write beautiful articles at his fingertips and recite clever poems casually, even if his achievements in policy theory and scriptures and ink meanings are not very impressive, at a time when poetry and prose are the most important. Still take advantage of it.

No matter how bad luck is, it is impossible to overturn the car and fall into the gutter.

Lu Ci was really hard to believe, and even suffered a lot of blows because of this, and had to refresh his perception of the difficulty of the imperial examination.

He has self-knowledge - his true level of poetry and prose is probably only one tenth of that of Liu Qilang and Fan Zhongyan.

Just one-tenth of this, there are still a lot of neat and good-looking writing, and the rolls and impression points obtained.

If even Liu Qi can lose Sun Shan's name...

Lu Ci let out a long sigh of melancholy.

——Obviously, he underestimated the rigor of the imperial examinations and made a fool of himself in Nanyang Academy.

Liu Qi: "..."

Looking at Lu Ci's eyes, disbelief and distress first flashed, and then he was extremely annoyed and incomprehensible, without the slightest fake look, even though he was as chic and straightforward as Liu Qi, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

"That's what you said," Liu Qi said with a wry smile and shook his head, "Don't talk about me too much, how dare you call yourself a mediocre person? If you are considered a mediocre person, no one in the world would dare to call himself a genius."

Zhu said he was listening, and nodded vigorously at this time, and echoed with a serious face: "Brother Lu, don't underestimate yourself."

Lu Ci reluctantly twitched the corner of his mouth, and sighed silently: "Thank you both."

Liu Qi took the initiative to reveal the secrets in his heart, not only did he not get the sympathy that made him feel embarrassed, nor did he have any subtle words of regret, nor was he asked urgently... It was clear that he had known each other for a long time, but he could also see it. The two young friends with a calm temperament were hit harder than him who failed the exam.

Liu Qi burst out laughing, feeling completely relaxed while feeling uncomfortable.

Lu Ci leaned back on the seat sleepily, ready to re-plan the future for a while; Zhu said to be calm, and never asked why Liu Qi failed the ranking, but asked roughly which year he was admitted Test.

Liu Qi has nothing to hide: "The second year of Dazhong Xiangfu."

Zhu said that he pondered for a moment, and couldn't help asking again: "I don't know when Brother Liu was applying for the exam, have you ever heard of 'a pen under the Ezai Peak'? He mentioned in the preface to the rigid poetry collection a few years ago that the first year will be entered. If you go to Beijing to take the exam, you will definitely be the top one."

Speaking of this, Zhu Shuo was startled, and suddenly reacted: "So, he and Brother Liu happen to be from the same hometown, and they are both from Fei County."

Liu Qi's eyelids twitched: "...I'm afraid Brother Zhu may have misremembered, when did he say that?"

Zhu said without hesitation: "I happened to bring that book of poems to the boat, and I would like to ask Brother Liu and Brother Lu to pick it up right away."

Before Liu Qi could speak, in order to prove that what he said was true, Zhu Yue got up immediately and walked into the cabin.

Lu Ci was still thinking about life, and didn't pay attention to what the two of them were talking about. Liu Qi looked left and right, and finally just rubbed his face silently.

After a while, he found the poetry anthology mentioned just now, and deliberately turned to that page: "Brother Liu, please have a look."

Speaking to Zhu who is so serious, Liu Qi didn't have any temper, and took it over with a blank face, looked at the bright lines, frowned and said: "May I ask, where did Brother Zhu buy this book?" of?"

Zhu said that he subconsciously glanced at Lu Ci, who was still looking like a loveless salted fish: "This is an old book that I bought from a book stand when I visited Liquan Temple City with Brother Lu that day."

Liu Qi touched the paper carefully, felt the texture of the paper, flipped through a few pages at random, carefully checked the ink on the top, couldn't help but frowned, and suddenly said: "This is a profiteer in the book market who carves books privately. Reprint, inferior product made by Mashaben!"

"Is that so?"

But all ordinary people hated book consumers, and Zhu Shuo was no exception.This time he accidentally became an accomplice, he was naturally sad, and just out of caution, he checked and asked: "How did Brother Liu know that?"

Liu Qi said angrily: "In this world, there is no one who knows better than me! That day I clearly only agreed to Wanjuantang to publish this collection, and I also specially wrote a preface for it. Where did Chen come from? You give up people to steal carvings, but you still use such rough-made Mashaben to deal with it!"

As soon as this remark came out, not only Zhu Shuo was taken aback, but even Lu Ci, who had been distracted, came back to his senses.

Zhu said slowly: "Brother Liu is 'a pen under Ezai Peak'?"

Lu Ci: "..."

Unpredictably called Po, Liu Qi's righteous indignation just now passed away, and he was still proud of it when he was young, but he felt a little ashamed when he was a grown-up, and it took a long time to reply: "When I was young, the villagers It’s an exaggeration to choose a name, and it makes Zhu Di laugh.”

It's a title that sounds delicious.

After Lu Ci made such an evaluation in his heart with his eyes open, he sat up straight without saying a word, lightly pulled the collection of poems out of Zhu Shuo's hand, and carefully flipped through them.

Zhu said that he shared the same hatred with the enemy: "This house is really hateful. Not only is it a pirated copy, but it also makes up nonsense, making readers think that Brother Liu is really so arrogant."

"..."

Liu Qi blushed.

In fact, the arrogant words such as "Going to win the first prize of Gao Dengke" seemed to be, indeed, maybe, said by him who was quite self-important and proud when he first responded to the election.

Although it is not so arrogant that it is written in the preface, it is difficult to say verbally.

In any case, seeing Zhu Shuo's indignant expression, Liu Qi resolutely swallowed back what he wanted to admit.

——Don't bring up the past.

This trip was under the guise of a study tour, so Lu Ci and Zhu Shuo didn't bring many books, and Liu Qi's collection of words was obviously a masterpiece that Zhu Shuo loved.

After learning that Liu Qi is "the next pen of Ezai Peak", Zhu said that he has no barriers against him, and also adds an aura of admiration and appreciation.

Liu Qi was a little uncomfortable at first, but later she was able to joke around as usual.

He had no reservations about the two of them, and he shared all his valuable experience when taking the exam, and even some exam questions he remembered.

After all, although he was unfavorable in the imperial examination, he was among the best in the provincial examination. He also came from an official household and was well-informed. What he revealed at this moment is extremely useful to the two who have no experience in applying for the examination.

"Although Jinshi subjects need to test the scriptures and Mo Yi, they are actually useless. They have not been tested for school, but mainly poetry and prose, and prose is the most important thing." Liu Qi emphasized with a serious face: " No matter the poems or prose, the examiner will set the questions, and the rhymes will be all stipulated. Once the rhyme is lost, no matter how outstanding the essay is, it will be dismissed on the spot. Therefore, you must also review the questions carefully."

Zhu said he couldn't help but nod his head, and Lu Ci was also engrossed.

No matter how thorough his investigation was, it was no more specific and precious than the experience shared by those who had actually participated in the imperial examination and reached the final step of the imperial examination.

After all, most of what he can get are the rules listed in plain text, not the tiny traps in Liu Qi's example.

The two listened carefully, and Liu Qi also had a good time talking.

Before he knew it, the sky was getting dark, the boat was moored, and Liu Qi's belly, which was actually empty after pouring countless cups of tea, finally started to make a fuss.

Lu Ci had just enjoyed a luxury in Xiuzhou City a few days ago, and in the short term, he has no intention of going to extravagance and waste.

"During this night, Lu Lang and Zhu Lang want to go down for a walk?"

Liu Qi kindly invited him, but Lu Ci just picked up the collection of poems and shook them, indicating that he would use this time to read them, and then declined the other party's invitation.

He looked through it carefully.

After Chuchu casually read the first few articles, while feeling dizzy, he felt more and more that the hope of being admitted to the imperial examination was really... very slim.

Lu Ci was not in high spirits, and after finally regaining his fighting spirit, he didn't even plan to get off the boat for a stroll, and even regretted his trip to Suzhou, preferring to spend all his time hugging Buddha's feet.

It's a pity that it's too late to regret.

Lu Ci didn't want to let Zhu Shuo, who rarely came to the door, sit with him stupidly, so he simply asked Liu Qi, who couldn't be idle, to accompany Zhu Shuo ashore for a walk, and brought him a takeaway by the way.

Liu Qi thought she had a thick skin, but she was too embarrassed to be in the same room with Lu Ci who was reading her own book, so she couldn't wait for this, so she couldn't wait to agree, and dragged the reluctant Zhu Shuo off the boat.

Lu Ci stayed in the cabin alone, continuing to study intently by the bright candlelight.

It’s just that for some reason, after the initial astonishment, he felt that although most of the poems were unfamiliar, there were very few, which revealed a strong sense of familiarity.

For example, this song "Watching the Sea Tide".

"...The heavy lake is stacked in Qingjia. There are osmanthus seeds in three autumns and lotus flowers in ten miles. Qiang pipes make the sky clear, water chestnut songs fill the night, playing and fishing for old people and lotus babies..."

After Lu Ci read it over and over four or five times, he fell into deep thought.

The author has something to say: Notes:

1. Piracy was rampant in the Song Dynasty, Su Shi and Zhu Xi were both victims.

At that time, there were also regulations to protect copyright.

Su Shi: "A certain party is sick and the market seeks profit, and he likes to publish a certain clumsy essay, and wants to destroy its board." It means that some booksellers privately engraved his works for distribution without Su Shi's consent, and he would like to have the engraving seized and destroyed.

Zhu Xi's book "Lunmengjie" "was published for the sake of the people in Jianyang who had nothing to do with it, and then it was destroyed. However, those who heard about the book have already published it everywhere."Later, in order to deal with piracy, Zhu Xi simply set up his own bookstore, that is, opened a private publishing house to print and distribute the works of himself and his friends, but due to poor management, the bookstore closed down later (...).

Since then, the printed books of the Song Dynasty have added copyright pages similar to today's books: "People in the Song Dynasty often engraved an ink picture and a tablet at the beginning and end of the book, after the sequence, or after the table of contents."This "card record" contains information such as the publisher, engraver, date of publication, copyright statement, etc.

The Guozijian in the Song Dynasty also governed the national book publishing, which is equivalent to the Ministry of Education and the General Administration of Publishing.At the request of Luo Yue and Duan Weiqing, Hangzhou Guozijian issued a notice to Liangzhe Road and Fujian Road Transportation Department, which had the most developed printing industry, requiring the transportation department of the two roads to "prepare words to restrain the affiliated bookstores" and "if there is any non-compliance Those who violate the law will look up to Chen Qi, who belongs to this scripture, chase after the board and smash it, and execute the crime."

2. "Looking at the Tide·Southeast Xingsheng" was written by Liu Yong from the 6th year of Xianping.

3. A pen under Ezi Peak: It is said that it is the title given to him by the people of Liu Qixiang when he was young

4. Among the great talents in the Song Dynasty, the unlucky one who was deposed because of the rhyme was none other than Ouyang Xiu's "Dongxuan Transcripts" Volume [-]

5. It is still possible to fail the palace examination in the early Northern Song Dynasty, and the failure rate is still very high. For example, in the fifth year of Xianping (5), there were 1002 candidates in the palace examination, and only 72 people passed the palace examination.It was from the second year of Jiayou that scholars who entered the palace examination would not be dismissed.