Just from where Fang Yun was, he could see twenty people leaving, and many of the thousands of examination rooms were empty.
Fang Yun didn’t think that those people failed. In the imperial examination that affects one’s future in life, any trivial matter could be infinitely magnified, causing people to give up and try again after accumulating enough experience.
The lunch on the second day was no different from the previous day. With the power of the holy temple, the food brought could be guaranteed to remain unchanged for three days.
After eating a sausage, Fang Yun drank some water, rinsed his mouth, and then closed his eyes to take a nap.
After lunch, Fang Yun opened the last policy essay question.
There were ten policy essay questions, which took up five sheets of paper. Fang Yun placed the five pages on the table one by one.
According to convention, the first question of the policy essay is a compulsory question. Candidates must choose two questions they are good at from the second to the tenth questions. The purpose is to select candidates who are good at a certain skill. Candidates such as farmers, workers, doctors, etc. will choose questions that suit them. As long as they answer well, their chances of passing the imperial examination will be greater.
Fang Yun looked at the first question and read it carefully.
When he was halfway through, Fang Yun's eyes moved slightly. After reading the whole question, Fang Yun showed a look of reminiscence.
Fang Yun clearly remembered that when he passed the examination to become a scholar and went to the Book Mountain, he failed at the fifth level, and was then teleported to a mysterious hall and finally entered a grassland.
Old Man Shushan appeared there and asked Fang Yun to use only one thousand people to destroy a tribe of ten thousand barbarians. Finally, Fang Yun completed the mission with his understanding of the food chain and ecological balance, and thus gained supreme literary mind and great talent.
Not long ago, those strategies had been implemented against the monsters, but neither the human race nor the monsters had heard of it, not even Li Wenying, Yan Yukong and the others knew about it.
The first question of this policy essay requires candidates to find a new way to weaken all the barbarians in the grassland, commonly known as the Grass Barbarians, without fighting.
Fang Yun immediately remembered that when he left the mysterious grassland of Shushan, the old man had said something that he didn't care about at the time.
The old man Shushan once said: "If the imperial examination essays in the future involve the topic of exterminating the barbarians, you can use today's incident as a topic to offer your suggestions."
Fang Yun felt that the examination room suddenly became cold. Could it be that the old man Shushan had known about this question in the imperial examination? Could it be that the old man had set the essay question this time? Or was it just a coincidence
After thinking for a while, Fang Yun still couldn't be sure. He calmed down, took out a piece of white paper and spread it in front of him, holding the ink stick in his right hand and gently grinding the ink. He thought about how to write this policy paper.
Although Old Man Shushan said that he could share the strategy he had proposed that day, disclosing all the knowledge on food chain, food web, ecosystem, ecosphere and ecological balance would inevitably lead to unpredictable changes.
The people of Shengyuan Continent have a strong ability to accept new knowledge. Things like bacteria are no secrets to the semi-saints. However, the power of the holy way is far stronger than anything else. Semi-saints will not study the trivial things at the expense of the fundamentals.
As long as a saint appears in the human race, a single word can change the world. These knowledge are nothing in front of the saint. Even a sub-saint can quickly make the human race rise, but these knowledge are not enough.
"Then, let me slowly fill these insignificant forces, let the human race become stronger step by step, and slowly delay the monster race's offensive. Until another saint appears to suppress the monsters!"
Fang Yun reviewed the relevant knowledge in his mind, and finally felt that it was not appropriate to propose concepts such as food chains. He needed to take it step by step, transforming the use of ecological balance into a strategy discovered by chance, and then slowly perfect it when his literary rank was higher and he became a Jinshi and ruled a region.
Fang Yunyan finished the ink, and a light bulb suddenly came to his mind. He remembered that there was a chaotic exam a hundred years ago. One candidate had good sutras, which could at least get a B grade, but his policy essays were not good, which was a C grade, and he was likely to fail. However, he was ingenious and applied the ideas in the sutras to his policy essays. In the end, the examiner rated his not-so-good policy essay as a B grade.
The examiner concluded that because his knowledge of the classics was so good, then if he applied his ideas to his policy essays, no matter what the level of his policy essays was, he should at least get a B. However, the other examiner disagreed and had to ask the saint for judgment. Finally, the semi-saint nodded in approval, and the candidate got double Bs and successfully became a Jinshi.
Feng Zimo once said that the way to break the chaos in examinations is to seek order in chaos. If one lacks talent, then one should just write what one is good at. If one has enough talent, then the best strategy is to unify poetry, classics and policy essays, because the imperial examination tests a person's comprehensive ability. If a person gets an A in poetry but a D in the other two subjects, he still cannot be admitted.
The strengths should be as long as possible, but the weaknesses should not be too short.
Fang Yun fell into deep thought again. It could be said that his interpretation of the classics had reached its peak. He could only unify the essays and poems with the ideas of the classics, but could not change the meaning of the classics.
Fang Yun glanced at his own scriptures and saw that the first sentence of his answer was "The destiny lies in man". He suddenly smiled, because this answer was highly consistent with the first question of the policy essay.
The destiny is in the hands of man, so he should not only be able to live and work in peace and contentment where he lives, but also punish the enemies who harm him!
Fang Yun smiled silently, picked up the pen to threaten, but then he was stunned.
"What a twist of fate." Fang Yun sighed.
One of Xunzi’s four great ways is “the separation of heaven and man”. This separation of heaven and man cannot be understood literally as the separation of heaven and man. Rather, it means that although heaven created man, it cannot completely determine the society of the human race. However, “the gentleman governs heaven and earth” means that the human race can dominate heaven and earth at a certain time.
Fang Yun’s saying “God’s will lies in man” is consistent with Xunzi’s idea that “all things are created by heaven, but man is the most precious.”
Using ecological balance to eliminate the barbarians means that humans are controlling the world, which is "the gentleman governing the world", and is very similar to Xunzi's thought.
However, Xunzi's "separation between heaven and man" and Mencius' "theory of destiny" are different.
Mencius's philosophy is that people should follow the Way of Heaven and respect the Way of Heaven, and it is best to be in harmony with the Way of Heaven in thought and morality, which is the idea of the unity of man and nature.
Man can conquer nature and nature is one with man, but there are also differences, that is, whether man can "surpass" nature.
Mencius believed that the highest state of man is to be the same as heaven, but Xunzi believed that man can control heaven, but he did not say the words "man can conquer nature".
Thinking of this, Fang Yun shook his head helplessly. The holy way was too complicated. Xunzi alone could drive people schizophrenic. He agreed with Xunzi's theory of division of labor, but it was difficult for him to agree with the theory of nobility and inferiority. However, he agreed with the separation of heaven and man and the idea that man could conquer nature.
If this policy paper were to continue writing, it would inevitably trigger debates among relevant aristocratic families, just like the issue of whether human nature is good or evil.
Fang Yun used to support Mencius's ideas, but now he has to support Xunzi's ideas.
Fang Yun thought for a moment and decided to use a more reliable method to solve this problem.
He was now at odds with the Xun family. If he affirmed Xunzi's ideas, the aspiring people in the Xun family would be willing to resolve the conflict, but other members of the Xun family would never forget that he had suppressed the Xun family with his literary talent, so there was no need to do meaningless flattery.
Since the Meng family helped me, I don't need to flatter Mencius, but I should try my best not to turn the tables.
Fang Yun closed his eyes and continued to think and perfect the entire policy paper. There is a big gap between planning and writing a policy paper.
It was not until the night that Fang Yun finally decided how to write this policy paper and ensure that it was consistent with the destiny of the classics. He even thought of how to change the previous "Remembering Hometown".
The previous "Remembering Hometown" was mainly about missing home and was full of nostalgia, but after being unified with destiny, the natural changes in memory can be used to reflect the irreversibility of destiny. Instead, it makes people feel that the past is more precious and the nostalgia is stronger. It can be said that it was an accident that made the level of this poem even higher.
So Fang Yunxian rewrote "Hometown Reminiscence".
After finishing "Homesickness", Fang Yun picked up his pen to write a policy paper, but he did not start writing immediately. Instead, he wrote carefully on another blank piece of paper.
"This article may cause unusual movements. In order to prevent the demon saints from spying on it, I hope the three saint examiners can help. Fang Yun will be grateful."
Fang Yun sighed after finishing writing. He wrote this with sincerity, because the policy paper he was going to write next would have a huge impact on the entire pattern of Shengyuan Continent, at least it would be a national treasure. But if he asked the saints for help before writing it, he would definitely be mistaken for arrogance.
In order to avoid being discovered by the demon saints, Fang Yun had no choice but to give them a heads-up in advance.
Daofeng Mountain, Holy Courtyard, and All Holy Temples.
The three examiners sat in the depths of the hall, with countless changes of light in each of their eyes, which finally stopped on Fang Yun's white paper.
The old man on the left had a slight change in expression, as if he was unhappy, but returned to normal in an instant. The previous change seemed like an illusion.
The old man on the right stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Your courage is commendable."
Mi Fengdian, the half-saint of Shu Kingdom in the middle, smiled slightly but said nothing.
In Jiangzhou Academy of Literature, Fang Yun bowed to the sky, then picked up the pen and slowly wrote the text.
"I replied: Mencius said that the right time, the right place and the right people are all good. If there is no one to support you, then the right time and the right place will win. The sky has substance but no form. It can be followed or reversed. If it is followed, the crops will be abundant. If it is reversed, there will be endless disasters..."
Fang Yun started with Mencius' famous saying "Heaven is not as important as geographical location, and geographical location is not as important as human harmony", and smoothly transitioned to "Heaven", which was immediately highly unified with the meaning of the previous chapter, and was also consistent with Mencius in terms of prosperity and adversity.
But in the following, Fang Yun did not flatter Mencius, but used his own ideas to explain that humans can control heaven and earth. Because the details of the strategy had not yet been written, there was no vision throughout.
After explaining his ideas, Fang Yun slowly wrote down four words as the backbone and core of this policy paper.
Man can conquer nature.
Before he had finished writing the four words, he saw the black words on the white paper changing rapidly. The white paper glowed, and the black words glowed gold. It seemed as if there was a magical force under the paper, dragging the page slowly upwards.
Waves of pleasant and melodious sounds gushed out from between the lines, as if the power of heaven was reciting the article.
Before the vision of this article could be fully revealed, a force as mighty as a mountain descended from the sky, suppressing all the visions and making the black and white words become extremely ordinary.
Fang Yun secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least in the short term, he didn't have to worry about the demon saints finding out.
With the help of the three examiners, Fang Yun threw away all his selfish thoughts, his ideas flowed like a stream, and he wrote the policy paper quickly.
While Fang Yun was writing, the three semi-saints of the Holy Temple no longer cared about the other examination rooms and focused on Fang Yun's essay. (To be continued...)