The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

"You dare to stop me from inspecting the examination room!" Inspector Geng said sternly.

"No, I'm afraid that the two students' rough hands and feet will annoy you, the Hanlin. After all, your son died at the hands of my Jing people, and we Jing can't make you unhappy again! I will go down in person to inspect on behalf of the two students, and you will supervise from the side!"

Feng Zimo said seriously, took Fang Yun's bookcase, slowly took out the things, and put them on the desk for Geng to see.

Fang Yun said nothing, but he knew in his heart that Inspector Geng wanted to use the two students to destroy his four treasures of the study.

"If I get angry, I will definitely fail this prefectural exam. This is probably just the beginning. In these three days, he will continue to harm me in this way! I must find a way to prevent him from acting rashly!" Fang Yun kept thinking in his heart.

After Feng Zimo put out all of Fang Yun's things, he smiled and said, "Sir Geng, do you see if there is anything missing?"

"Humph!" Inspector Geng stared at Fang Yun, not knowing what he was thinking.

Fang Yun suddenly said to Feng Zimo: "Sir Feng, I don't tolerate any injustice. This exam is very important to me. If anyone dares to ruin my future, I will definitely ask the Holy Judge! Ask the Holy Judge to be fair."

Feng Zimo immediately said: "In the imperial examination, if you encounter unfairness or injustice, everyone can ask the Holy Judge, and you are no exception!"

"You..." Inspector Geng was so angry at the concerted actions of Fang Yun and Feng Zimo that he was speechless. Once he asked for the Holy Judge, things would get out of control, which was not the result he wanted to see.

Others dared not ask for the Holy Judge casually, but Fang Yun had asked for the Holy Judge once before, so he was not afraid at all.

"Hmph!" Inspector Geng snorted coldly and left with a wave of his sleeves.

Feng Zimo glanced at Fang Yun, followed him and left, and at the same time untied the two runners.

Fang Yun knew that Inspector Geng would not embarrass him in the exam, so he smiled slightly, sat back in his chair, and began to organize the four treasures of the study on the desk to prepare for the next exam.

The prefectural examination has three subjects, among which the words of prayer and poetry are exactly the same as those in the county examination, and the third subject is the meaning of classics, which is not tested in the county examination.

The words of prayer in the county examination have thirty test papers, while the words of prayer in the prefectural examination have a full one hundred pages, especially the last ten pages of questions, which basically require large paragraphs or even whole articles to be written down, and often need to fill nearly one hundred blank pages to complete, that is to say, the words of prayer in the prefectural examination need to be written down nearly two hundred pages of test papers.

Generally speaking, the words of prayer in the prefectural examination take nearly two days to complete, and then the poems and classics will be tested.

Not long after, the ox cart for distributing test papers came, and the person distributing the test papers put two stacks of paper on Fang Yun's desk.

One stack is the test paper, and the other stack is white paper for dictation.

Fang Yun looked at the two thick stacks of paper and was speechless for a long time, thinking that this might be the last madness. Once he passed the examination, he would no longer have to face the boring and tricky words of prayer.

Fang Yun habitually flipped through the 100-chapter test paper of the Holy Words, and finally took the first page and began to answer the questions.

The first question of the Holy Words this time was a very simple fill-in-the-blank question, and it was the opening of the Analects.

"The Master said: Learning and practicing from time to time, isn't it a pleasure?" There was a blank after it, and Fang Yun immediately picked up his pen to fill it in: It is a pleasure to have friends coming from afar. It is a gentleman to not be angry when people don't know you.

During the process of answering the questions, the strange book world did not move, and Fang Yun did not use the power of the strange book world, and answered the questions purely based on his memory and understanding.

Fang Yun had memorized all the original works of the saints.

Soon, Fang Yun encountered an extremely tricky and strange question, which asked when the half-saint He Yunxiang of Wu State had been to Mingnan Mountain.

Fang Yun searched his brains and found that He Yunxiang had been to Mingnan Mountain four times, and there were clear records of three times, so he just needed to write it down directly, but there was no record of the time of the second time of the four times he went to Mingnan Mountain.

Fang Yun thought carefully and searched for all the works related to He Yunxiang's second visit to Mingnan Mountain. In the end, he only found a long ancient poem and a recollection of He Yunxiang.

The long ancient poem was called "Moon Nanshan", which was written by He Yunxiang when he climbed Mingnan Mountain at the age of 19. At that time, He Yunxiang was not well-known and unknown.

"This poem must be the key."

Fang Yun recalled this long poem by He Yunxiang and soon found a very interesting line in the poem.

The strong wind cut off half of the moon.

Fang Yun thought: "A very important premise of poetry is 'real scenery'. Although He Yunxiang was young at the time, he would not write randomly. The phase of the moon changes with time, such as new moon, full moon, waning moon, etc. When the moon phase is waxing or waning, only half of the moon is left, as if it was split in half by a knife, which conforms to the sentence 'a strong wind cuts off half of the moon'. Other moon phases are not suitable. The seventh and eighth days of each month are waxing moons, and the twenty-second and twenty-third days are waning moons."

"In other words, it is not certain in which month He Yunxiang went to Mingnan Mountain, but it must be one of the four days of the seventh, eighth, twenty-second and twenty-third days of a certain month. ”

“There is another line in this ancient poem, ‘Ice wheel appeared at midnight last night’, which is another name for the moon. Midnight is between 11pm and 1am, and if the moon rises at this time, it should be the second half of the month. Because the moon rises very early in the first half of the month, it is impossible that ‘Ice wheel appeared at midnight last night’, so the seventh or eighth day of the first lunar month can be ruled out. ”

“However, this is not enough, and we need to determine which month it is. There is another line in this poem, ‘A yellow dog lies in the flowers’. He Yunxiang’s works do not mention what a yellow dog is, but another semi-saint Li Daoyuan mentioned a yellow dog in a travel note, saying that there is a yellow insect in Hezhou that is called a yellow dog by the locals. ”

"Yellow dog insects like gray chrysanthemums, and the gray chrysanthemums in Hezhou only bloom in August and September. Now it can be confirmed that this poem was written in August or September. He Yunxiang wrote in his memoirs: Crossing the Xu River, the water submerged the knees. This Xu River is at the foot of Mingnan Mountain. According to Li Daoyuan's "Water Classics", the Xu River is only in the dry season from September to December every year, and the water level can drop to the knee position. This confirms that this poem was written in September."

After a complex analysis, Fang Yun quoted classics and answered this question.

"This question involves astronomy, geography, hydrology, plants, animals, poetry and other aspects. I dare to guarantee that ordinary Jinshi will not answer it correctly! The person who set the question is really weird!" Fang Yun thought to himself, shook his head, and continued to answer the question.

Fang Yun kept writing, and at noon, the messenger of the Academy of Literature brought food. The provincial examination lasted for three days, and the food brought by the candidates themselves might go bad, so the Academy of Literature provided three meals for tens of thousands of candidates.

After lunch, Fang Yun continued to answer questions until dinner time, and only finished the first ninety pages. The last ten pages were all questions that he had memorized, so Fang Yun left them alone.

After dinner, Fang Yun checked the first ninety pages of the Invitation to the Holy Spirit.

While checking the Invitation to the Holy Spirit, the Wonderful Book of Heaven and Earth began to move, and began to show the correct answers in golden letters, just like when Fang Yun took the county exam.

With the help of the Wonderful Book of Heaven and Earth, Fang Yun quickly checked the ninety pages of the Invitation to the Holy Spirit, and found that he had remembered two questions wrong, and had not answered three questions in full, ignoring some details in the Holy Classics.

After Fang Yun corrected the wrong questions, he began to memorize the questions on the last ten pages, and he kept writing until midnight, when Fang Yun lay down on the simple bed in the examination room to sleep.

At six o'clock in the morning on the second day of June, Fang Yun woke up like many other candidates, waiting for breakfast or continuing to answer questions.

At noon, Fang Yun finished answering all the Invitation to the Holy Spirit, waited for the ink to dry, and then collected them together, then sat down to rest, and waited for the other two subjects.

In the evening, the subject of "Please the Words of the Saint" ended, but the officer did not take away the test paper of "Please the Words of the Saint", but directly handed out the test questions of "Poetry".

This year's poetry has three propositions, and it is more specific than the county test. It requires writing about weapons, rivers, and one of the Confucian saints. You only need to write a poem.

Fang Yun thought for a moment, because the real focus of the provincial examination is the third subject of the classics, which tests students' understanding of the classics of the saints. You can't waste too much time on poetry, so he wrote a poem:

The shore is wide and the masts are sparse, the waves are vast, and I am alone on the dangerous railing. The trees are sparse in the forest, and half of the autumn mountains are in the sunset.

The poem is finished, and the talent appears, and it is only a little bit away from reaching the government.

After writing, Fang Yun did not waste time, because he had to go all out for the next classics, so he continued to close his eyes and recite the classics of the saints.

Whether it is a scholar, a juren or a jinshi, the ranking is arranged according to the classics.

If one person's words of request for the saints, poems and scriptures are of grade A, grade A and grade B respectively, and another person's are of grade C, grade C and grade A respectively, then the latter will definitely win.

Poems are the strongest aid to the way of the saints, but they are not the foundation of the way of the saints. The scriptures are the foundation of the way of the saints. Even Confucius' disciples often write scriptures.

But the scriptures can't be used directly like words of request for the saints or poems. Fang Yun has to rely on himself to write scriptures, because the scriptures are his understanding of the classics of the saints and the way of the saints. If Fang Yun can't write a good scripture, or the scripture he writes is inconsistent with his own ideas, it is equivalent to destroying his own literary courage.

Fang Yun spent most of his time on the scriptures before, because he knew that he could learn the scriptures in the strange book of heaven and earth, and even quote part of it like writing papers in later generations, but he must not copy it completely.

As long as the scriptures are well done, the foundation of the way of the saints can be permanently solid. If the foundation of the way of the saints is permanently solid, there will be a chance to be canonized. Therefore, even though the great scholar Yi Zhishi was not good at poetry, he was still the leader of the four great talents of the previous generation, and the most likely person to be canonized as a saint among the great scholars.

On the morning of the third day of June, the Academy of Literature began the third subject, the interpretation of scriptures.

The literati expounded the principles contained in the sentences in the classics of the saints, which was the interpretation of scriptures.

Unlike the two subjects of asking the saints for words and poetry, no one distributed the test papers before the examination of the interpretation of scriptures. All candidates stood straight behind their desks, looking in the direction of the holy temple.

Not long after, the whole Academy of Literature shook slightly, and everything seemed to form a strange resonance. An indescribable sound appeared. No one could describe the distance, size or other of the sound. It seemed to be a strange sound that went straight to the soul.