Jia Yao of the Red Chamber

Chapter 38 Top Scholar in Baoyu ([-])

Since the results of the general examination came out, Xu Zhengling no longer handed Baoyu the Four Books and Five Classics essays, but started to talk about current affairs and politics to him.In these years, he has also been infiltrating these things for him, how to behave in the world, and which path he should take, and what choices he will face if he becomes an official in the future.These princes and the forces behind them, the things behind Baoyu, and the location of Jia's mansion.It can be seen from this that in fact, Baoyu's grasp of the current situation and his thoughts on the path of Jia's mansion are slightly clearer than Jia Yao who can predict the future.It's a pity that the two of them didn't talk to each other, otherwise, if the two of them shared what they had mastered, they might be able to benefit more in the future.Of course, even if the two did not carry out the so-called resource sharing of later generations, Baoyu is moving in the direction Jia Yao expected, which can be regarded as a kind of consonance.Sometimes things are so unpredictable.What should be encountered is missed, what is not wanted is here, and what was not expected has come true. Maybe it is because of all kinds of mistakes in the world.One thinks that the younger sister doesn't know and works hard, the other thinks that the elder brother doesn't understand and makes arrangements. After many years, the result is the same happy reunion.Isn't it wonderful?As for Jia Yao and the person he was destined for, one thought that it would be difficult to achieve his wish in this life and was willing, while the other had already met Qing's family and could never forget it.In the afternoon when no one would think of it, Daiyu's unintentional remark about gathering and parting depends on the sky, which is really reasonable.Of course, this is all over the years, and now, they are all young and ambitious.Baoyu is still studying hard with his master for the upcoming palace examination, trying to understand the inextricable lines behind those forces, the expectations of the superiors, and the way not to fall into the vortex of struggle.

At the same time, the center of the imperial city represents the supreme palace in the world, Qianyuan Hall.The emperor was sitting on a magnificent and majestic dragon chair, and several thick stacks of materials were placed on the sandalwood dragon case.The eunuch Wu Zhiyuan who was serving beside him waited silently, as if the silence had become a statue.On Nuo Da's palace, the sound of an embroidery needle falling to the ground can be heard so quietly.After a while, the expressionless old emperor raised his hand to pick up a memorial with dragon patterns on the black background in front of him and opened it to read.There were a few wrinkles on his face that showed the bleakness of time, but there was no trace of joy or anger. After a long while, he closed the dark shadow that would never appear in front of the eyes of people other than his confidantes and servants. Folding, pointing to the stack of black notebooks, he said in a low voice, "Take it and burn it." Wu Zhiyuan respectfully agreed.Soon, a white and clean little eunuch came up without a sound and took away the stack of secret papers that the emperor had turned over twice.I saw that although the little eunuch was described as young, he acted very steadily, coming and going quietly.Wu Zhiyuan winked, and an ordinary-looking court lady came up, took away the untouched tea from the huge black dragon case, and poured another cup of Yuqian Longjing, which was presented only the month before last.The old emperor lightly clasped the dark short case with his index finger, and asked in a normal tone for a while, "I think I treat Lan Xin well. Why is he so impatiently looking forward to my death? So that he can sit on this seat?" The people serving at the side all panicked and knelt down, no one dared to make a sound, but bent down deeply, with their foreheads pressed against the golden gorgeous but cold marble floor.The emperor continued to speak, "Lin Ruhai will return to Beijing next spring to report on his duties?" Before Wu Zhiyuan got up, he said yes in a kowtowing gesture.The old emperor smiled slightly, "His nephew is a good nephew. At least he knows how to be alone." Wu Zhiyuan echoed at the emperor's feet, "This Mr. Jia is really blessed, and he fell into His Majesty's eyes." The old man The emperor shook his head, "I really don't want to support his family, but those families are too capable! I think his family is more honest." After a pause, his tone dropped, "It's also true that my sons are more capable than each other! "Wu Zhiyuan didn't dare to answer again.The old emperor smiled inexplicably, "I just don't know how the Jia family is so smart!" Then Wu Zhiyuan thought for a while, and then said, "I think Mrs. Jia is still clear. Besides, Mr. Lin didn't say a few words." You know." The old emperor stopped talking for a while, and waved his hands to tell all the eunuchs and maids who were kneeling on the ground to go down.

In the warm autumn afternoon, the Yangguan Pass cannot penetrate through the layers of palace walls, and cannot shine into the grand Qianyuan Hall.The emperor sitting alone on a high place squinted his eyes at the frozen light from the bright but cold palace lanterns all over the hall.No one knew what he was thinking.

The days of preparation are always short, and the retest before the palace test will come soon.Jia Baoyu was about to enter the huge and fortified palace for the first time in his life.Before the palace exam, there is a re-examination.It is stereotyped composition and other items.Naturally, Baoyu had no problem and passed easily.As far as Jia Yao knew, the palace examination in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was on April 21st of the next year, but after traveling to the Red Mansion, she discovered that there were many things here that were different from the era Cao Xueqin lived in.There are still small re-examinations after the general examination, but this re-examination is more like a procedure.Jia Yao didn't even know if the grades came out, and the palace examination began.

The palace examination only examines policy questions. Beginning at dawn, candidates enter the palace, go through the etiquette of roll call, loose papers, praise, salute, etc., and then issue policy questions.In the topic of policy making, in the early Qing Dynasty, one topic of current affairs policy was used, and the topic was two to three hundred characters long, and one or two things were asked; after Kangxi, the topic was five to six hundred characters long, or even about a thousand characters.In the 26th year of Qianlong's reign, the title of four circled out of the eight articles was changed to the minister who read the scroll.There is no limit to the length of the policy essay, generally around [-] words, and there are certain format and word limit for writing at the beginning and middle.The palace examination method used in the Red Chamber is between the Kangxi Dynasty and the Qianlong Dynasty. The minister who reads the paper circles five questions and distributes them randomly to each candidate.The title is about a thousand words long.The policy theory of the palace examination particularly emphasizes that writing must be in orthodox style, that is, the so-called "yuan style" and "guange style". The characters should be square, bright, black, and big.From a certain point of view, calligraphy is often more important than articles.Of course, Baoyu has been practicing calligraphy for ten years, and he has made some achievements in one stroke.

When candidates visited the emperor, the old emperor slid around everyone's face, impartial.Then he encouraged them with a benevolent smile.It also relieved some of the tension in the candidates' hearts.After Baoyu got the test questions, he first roughly read the meaning of the topic.I have a general idea in my heart.I had no time to think about other things, and carefully read the thousand-character topic twice from beginning to end, and first made a detailed outline in my heart.

Those examiners bowed their heads to answer, and the emperor sat high on the dragon chair, looking down from top to bottom at these examinees, who had real talents and learning, although many of them were behind the scenes, with majestic and kind expressions.He smiled admiringly when he saw a candidate from the Cao family in the south of the Yangtze River who had been involved with his fourth son in his desk materials first put down his pen confidently.It seemed to be a signal, and it didn't take long for the candidates to finish their answers one after another.The old emperor said a few more words on the occasion and a few words of encouragement according to the script, and then asked them to go home and wait for the news.

The results of the palace examination are the fastest, because the emperor already knows the number in his heart.Within a few days, the scroll readers handed over the ten excellent scrolls they had selected to the emperor.Because the examiners were selected by the emperor himself from among his confidants, there was no need to consider the interests of the princes.The ten selected examination papers were all approved by the examiner.The emperor looked at the ten marked examination papers on his desk, including those from the Zhen family in Jiangnan, the Cao family from Jiangnan weaving, the Jia family he had noticed, and the Xie family from the former empress's family.He flipped through it symbolically, and saw that the Cao family's child was ranked first in the test paper.The old emperor couldn't help but think again and again, and still felt that there should be no influence from his fourth son, Mo Lanfeng.Presumably, although his four sons are quite powerful in the palace, they still have little influence in the court.It should be that the children of the Cao family are really talented.Looking at Cao Qinghua's policy theory, the old emperor knew why the examiner had chosen him as the number one.The gold content of these articles is similar to each other, but this article is particularly sharp, and the writing is also gorgeous.It is inevitable to appear brilliant among a group of policy theories that strive to be calm because of their presentation.But... the old emperor put that theory directly at the bottom of the pile of theory with a blank face.After all, he is the one sitting on this seat, so there is no need to get used to those big-minded servants.The emperor thought about it, but picked up Lin Ruhai's nephew's article.After roughly reading it twice, I feel that this article is excellent and unassuming.The old emperor had nothing to do, and gently threw the paper aside, "Let's mark it as No. 1." Wu Zhiyuan next to him knew that he had already made up his mind, so he just complimented him as usual, "Congratulations, Your Majesty. get talent."

The old emperor became the No. [-] and Tanhua again, namely the Nian family and the Shi family in the capital city, both of whom were descendants of aristocratic families in the capital city and the Bianji area who were innocent or loyal to the emperor.And the children of the party families who hooked up with his sons were all ranked second on the list.

Not to mention how happy the people in the Jia family were when the number one scholar was implemented on Baoyu, but only to say that in the future Baoyu will be able to enter the court as an official in a serious manner and carry forward the Jia family.Although it is also necessary to start as an editor at the Imperial Academy, everyone knows that the number one scholar has to practice in this position for two years.As long as there are no major mistakes in the past few years, the emperor will transfer him out in two years and assign him a specific position.The person in this position will always be the emperor's spare tire, darling, and is registered in the emperor's heart.A little gilding would do the trick.