Fang Yun said: "If this is the case, the three essays that everyone chooses are the Ten Kingdoms, the Monsters and the People. But in reality, it is impossible for all Jinshi to choose these three. The Holy Academy should have some means to avoid this, right?"
Prefect Dong said, "Of course. If you force yourself to choose these three questions and answer them poorly, then you are overestimating your own abilities and not knowing how to choose. You will have already failed before answering the questions. And Jinshi are not only selected from high-ranking officials in charge of a region. The Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Justice all need a large number of relevant talents. A person who gets a B in writing a policy essay on destroying demons and barbarians and goes to the Ministry of Justice is far inferior to a person who gets a B in writing a policy essay on legal theory. If the two are rated the same, then the latter is more likely to become a Jinshi, because my country Jing lacks Jinshi who are proficient in the judiciary. If both fail, then if nothing unexpected happens, the latter is very likely to become a 'Tong Jinshi', which is the additional Jinshi quota that Jing country requested from the Holy Academy."
"I see. If you want to be among the top three in the Jinshi exam, it's best to write these three essays. If you want to pass the Jinshi exam more easily, you should avoid at least one of the three. Although the Juren exam is different from the Jinshi exam, in order to prepare for the Jinshi exam in the future, it's best to choose the same thing for the Juren exam as for the Jinshi exam." Fang Yun said.
"That's right. You are competing for the first place."
"Students should remember this." Fang Yun said.
"In addition, due to the movement of Wenquxing, the number of places for this year's Juren and Jinshi examinations has increased. This is both good and bad for you. With more people, your chances of competing for the top spot will be smaller, which is the worry. As for the good news, it is that our country has an extra 30 places for the same Jinshi this year." said Prefect Dong.
Fang Yun was happy at first, because Jingguo only admitted 30 Jinshi last year. Even if they doubled the number to 60 this year, the extra 30 Jinshi would be a huge number. Then Fang Yun was stunned and said, "Happy? Could it be that this number of Jinshi has something to do with me?"
Prefect Dong smiled and said, "Of course it has something to do with you. Before you left the Saint Ruins, the people in the Saint Academy said that you passed the three mountains and two pavilions in your first attempt at the Book Mountain, and for some reason, a large number of scholars from Wu and Qing failed, which made the Semi-Saints think that the students from the two countries were unteachable, so they took away some of the quotas for the other two countries and distributed them to our Jing country. But now we know that you have not only passed the three mountains and two pavilions, you have already entered the fourth mountain! Those thirty fellow scholars will definitely remember your great kindness, which is a heavy connection!"
Fang Yun nodded, without being polite or modest this time. These thirty fellow Jinshi of Jingguo were entirely the result of his hard work in the mountain of books.
"This factor will also be taken into consideration when conferring a title. The title may only be a third-rank literary marquis, but other rewards will be very generous. Okay, let's continue talking about policy essays. The Ten Kingdoms, Monsters and Barbarians, and Peace for the People are the major categories in policy essays. The actual test questions are sometimes a sentence, sometimes a few hundred words written by a semi-saint, and sometimes even stories excerpted from ancient books."
Fang Yun nodded slightly.
Prefect Dong added, "The Jinshi exam is different from the Juren exam. The reason why the Jinshi exam has the old three essays is because the Jinshi exam is to select talents for the human race, so the questions are very long. But the Juren exam is mainly to select virtuous people for the country, so I will select three questions from the policy essays of previous years. You have to answer them quickly before dusk. I don't ask for perfection, but to let me find out your strengths and weaknesses. After you finish answering the three questions, I will leave you ten questions. I will come to judge them tomorrow evening."
Fang Yun looked bitter. It took others at least twelve hours to answer three policy essays, but he only had three hours at most.
"Don't pretend to be stupid. I know you have a quick mind and can write quickly. You can definitely finish it. Get your pen and paper ready!"
After saying this, Magistrate Dong picked up the brush from the table and thought for more than ten breaths. He picked up the brush and wrote, saying, "I will select three questions from the imperial examination nineteen years ago, and you will answer them."
Soon, Prefect Dong finished writing the first question, handed it to Fang Yun, and said, "You answer this policy essay first."
Fang Yun took it and looked at it, frowning slightly. The topic of this policy paper was a double question, and the beginning was "The sage teaches and governs the country. A wise ruler knows how to strengthen the foundation, emphasize agriculture, and manage the army and prepare for war."
The following question in this article is based on the previous one. The saints are responsible for education, while the monarch is responsible for government affairs. A true monarch should focus on agriculture and military affairs first. So, as a scholar in a country, how should one offer advice to the monarch
Fang Yun did not answer immediately, but first thought about the relationship between farming and military affairs, because this type of question is called a "double question."
Fang Yun thought that double-choice questions were rare in the Jinshi examination, yet there was such a question in the Juren examination that year. He felt that the Juren nineteen years ago was unlucky.
The Ten Kingdoms attached great importance to the meaning of the classics, so the meaning of the classics had been studied to every detail by the candidates. Although poetry and policy essays had been studied, the books were not easy to buy. Fang Yun had only read seventeen books on writing guidance for policy essays, and the methods of answering double questions in those books were too vague.
There is no solution to the double questions in the world of Qishu, so Fang Yun can only rely on himself.
At that time, Fang Yun collected all the double-question policy essay topics he could find in recent years, a total of 32 questions, and then found model essays for these topics, a total of 170 articles. He then repeatedly read the excellent policy essays and the poor policy essays, comparing the differences between the two, and then looking for the similarities between the excellent policy essays.
After a day of hard work, Fang Yun finally discovered that the key points of the double-question policy essay are "correlation", "equal emphasis" and "unity". After understanding this point, Fang Yun compared it with the model essays and found that those who could write well on these three points were mostly grade A, and those who wrote well on two points were at least grade B. Those policy essays with poor grades, except for answering irrelevant questions, mostly failed to grasp the two points well.
Fang Yun's thoughts were in a frenzy as he applied his own experience to this policy essay question.
"If you want to get a B grade, you must have good countermeasures for farming and military affairs respectively, and connect the two. But if you want to get an A grade, it is not as simple as just connecting them, but you must stand at a higher angle, stand in the position of a prime minister, and unify farming and military affairs. Those A grade essays are good, but they are not brilliant, because they force the two different categories to be unified. Taking this article as an example, farming is farming, and military affairs are military affairs. Forcibly unifying them can only be some old-fashioned means such as "military farming", but if you want to unify the two more perfectly, you should add a link! And this link cannot be stronger than farming and military affairs in today's country, otherwise it will be out of place and off topic, and directly get a D grade."
"So, a true first-class double-question essay must not only have 'connection', 'equal emphasis' and 'unity', but also a 'bond'! This is the direction, and how to make specific suggestions on farming and military affairs is the path. If you want to get the first class, both are indispensable!"
Fang Yun has experience living in a highly developed society, so he naturally knows what a universal bond is.
After thinking of the link, Fang Yun analyzed the current situation of Jingguo and then thought of countermeasures.
A quarter of an hour later, Fang Yun picked up his pen and pointed directly to unification at the beginning, answering: "I answer: Without agriculture, there is no stability; without the army, there is no solidity; without business, there is no wealth. Farmers..."
Prefect Dong was standing next to Fang Yun. He only read the first twelve words and his eyes flashed.
The most taboo in a policy essay is to avoid going off topic. It is clearly about farming and military affairs, but it adds a businessman whose status is not as high as the other two. If it is well written, it's fine, but if it is not well written, it will probably be directly demoted to D grade.
However, Magistrate Dong did not jump to conclusions, but continued to watch.
After five injections of talent and the blessing of the star of literature, Fang Yun's thinking became extremely quick. He quickly connected everything he knew, saw and heard, and then quickly categorized them, selected the content that was suitable for this policy essay, and finally further refined it.
The writing process of ordinary scholars was done subconsciously, but after Fang Yun was blessed by the star of literature, his thinking had reached the level of a Jinshi, and these processes appeared very clearly in his mind.
After writing a few sentences about farming, a smile suddenly emerged on Fang Yun's face, because he had made new discoveries in the process of writing. This policy essay is different from the interpretation of classics. The interpretation of classics is the analysis of the words of sages, and it is necessary to cover all aspects and mainly express the way of sages. He himself is still in a secondary position.
The essence of policy essays is to offer suggestions and to show yourself to the emperor and the examiners. Therefore, trying to cover everything is actually inferior. Being versatile is the second element in answering policy essays.
Therefore, when writing about farming, Fang Yun did not offer advice in thousands of words like in the policy guide books. Instead, after writing some solutions to problems, he changed his tone and wrote: "Without agriculture, there will be no stability. How can agriculture be stabilized?"
Then, based on what he had seen and heard, Fang Yun focused his farming work on "stabilizing agriculture."
When Prefect Dong saw it, he almost clapped his hands in approval. In terms of farming, many people have proposed ideas and countermeasures that emphasize agriculture, but "stabilizing agriculture" is more specific and precise than "emphasizing agriculture". It not only catches the examiner's eye, but is also more in line with the concept of policy essay.
Prefect Dong stared at Fang Yun's head, wanting to know what was in this guy's head and how he could be so clever, because once the four words "How to stabilize agriculture" came out, even if the strategy to stabilize agriculture written by Fang Yun was exactly the same as the strategy to emphasize agriculture written by others, these four words alone could overwhelm the other candidates.
After writing about farming, Fang Yun began to write about military affairs. Jing State was facing serious border troubles. If the candidates from Jing State were to answer the questions, they would certainly focus on how to deal with monsters and barbarians. However, Fang Yun adhered to the concept of specialization in answering questions. He did not write about military industry or soldiers and generals, but about "military discipline". He then extended the topic from military discipline to military morale, clearly stating that only military discipline can make soldiers have heart and soul.
After finishing writing about military affairs, Fang Yun breathed a sigh of relief, calmed himself down a little, reread the previous text, and finally nodded, making sure that what he wrote was consistent with what he thought, and his expression became more calm.
Prefect Dong had been observing Fang Yun. When he saw this scene, he secretly sighed in his heart that Fang Yun lived up to his reputation. Fang Yun's actions just now seemed ordinary, but they were close to "knowing oneself". The longer a person lives, the more he knows that it is the most difficult to understand oneself, and "knowing oneself" is higher than "self-reflection". Self-reflection only reminds one's own mistakes, but "knowing oneself" can accurately know one's mistakes and rights. Not only should one correct one's mistakes, but one should also insist on being right.
Prefect Dong had been immersed in the two strategies of "stabilizing agriculture" and "military discipline". He had not expected that a young scholar could write such profound truths, which were not only far beyond his level as a Jinshi, but also very feasible.
"Mr. Dong, I have finished answering. Mr. Dong?" Fang Yun said.
"Oh?" Prefect Dong stopped thinking about the two strategies, then sighed and looked at Fang Yun.
"If you were in Mizhou nineteen years ago, I would not have been the first place winner."
Fang Yun suddenly realized that this was the question that Prefect Dong had asked in the exam. Not only did he take the exam 19 years ago, but he was also the top candidate in Mizhou. (To be continued...)