Fang Yun looked at the six incense sticks, lowered his head, and recited silently in his heart.
"As a mother, I may not be able to go back. Please forgive me for being unfilial. Please take care of yourself."
"The second one is for the deceased Fang Yun, thank you."
"Third and fourth are Fang Yun's parents, and fifth is Sister Yuhuan's father. As long as I am here, I will never let Sister Yuhuan suffer again."
"Sixth is Meng Haoran, thanking the ancient sage for his poems."
Fang Yun looked at the incense and candles for a long time, and his melancholy turned into a sigh, as if he was saying goodbye to the past.
After burning incense, the two sat facing each other at the dining table.
Fang Yun said: "Sister Yuhuan, let's set some rules for today's meal."
"Little boy, please give me your orders." Yang Yuhuan said with a smile. She hadn't smiled so happily for a long time because the burden on her shoulders was finally lighter.
"The rule today is, you pick up one chopstick, I pick up one chopstick, how much you eat, how much I eat! You don't have to tell me, this rule cannot be changed! How much I can eat today is all up to you."
Yang Yuhuan looked at Fang Yun quietly, with a warm current surging in her heart. She suddenly felt that with Fang Yun's words, all the hardships and tiredness of these years were nothing.
"Our little Yun has grown up and knows how to care for his sister. You are a student now, and our family will be much better off in the future. When you pass the imperial examination, this fish meat will not be a big deal. Today, thanks to you, my sister can have a good meal."
Fang Yun picked up a piece of greasy braised pork, handed it to Yang Yuhuan, and said softly: "No, it's all thanks to you. Without you, it would be difficult for me to study and survive. I will always remember this."
Yang Yuhuan's eyes turned red, she opened her mouth and ate the braised pork, chewing slowly.
Only when you are born in a poor family will you know how precious meat is.
Fang Yun picked up a piece of braised pork for himself. After eating, he picked out the chicken leg from the casserole and put it in Yang Yuhuan's bowl.
"One for each of us."
"Um!"
The two of them seldom eat meat once a year, so today they ate to their heart's content and ended up finishing it all.
Yang Yuhuan looked at the empty plate and felt a little embarrassed because she had eaten too much just now.
The two of them were so full that they were too lazy to stand up. They smiled at each other and chatted happily, filling the room with a warm atmosphere.
After a while, there was a commotion coming from the neighbors. It was Old Wang who was drunk and was lecturing his children to study hard and take the exam to become a student.
The two smiled. Yang Yuhuan looked at the sky and said, "The three examiners should be marking the papers now."
Fang Yun nodded.
Inside the Academy of Literature.
The spacious marking room was brightly lit, with rows of long tables neatly arranged. The test papers of more than 2,000 candidates were placed on them in order, covering the entire tabletops, which was quite spectacular.
Three examiners stood solemnly in front of the statue of Confucius in the depths of the marking room, with ten lecturers from the county academy of literature standing behind them.
Magistrate Cai said: "Please respectfully ask for your judgment!"
"Please give us your holy judgment." Everyone then said in unison.
A strange force descended from nowhere, and wind blew in the room, but all the test papers remained motionless.
Most of the test papers remained unchanged, but nearly half of them suddenly glowed orange.
Talent is revealed.
The orange lights varied in size, the highest of which was nearly three feet high, almost reaching Mingzhou's level.
The talent of the second-ranked paper was barely one foot high, which was a huge difference between the two.
Then, a gust of wind blew, and the test papers flew all over the sky.
The wind stopped, and a large number of test papers piled up in a corner. There were only a hundred test papers left on the table, arranged in descending order of talent.
"Choose people by their talent and rank them by their writings!"
After Magistrate Cai finished speaking, ten lecturers each held a copy of the answer to the Holy Word, and from the back to the front, each selected nine examination papers and began to examine and judge the papers.
The ten most talented test papers were left untouched.
Magistrate Cai took the lead and said, "Since you have produced a poem that is almost as good as Mingzhou's, I will not be polite and will let you have a sneak peek first." After saying that, he happily walked to Fang Yun's test paper.
The reason why the examination was conducted so late was that after the examinees handed in their papers, someone was responsible for stamping their names with paper so that they could not be seen during the examination to prevent cheating. Only after the top 50 were determined could the names be seen.
The poem was placed at the top. When Magistrate Cai saw the words "Spring Dawn", he couldn't help but frown. Although the words were neat, they were still too bad in his opinion. But when he thought that Fang Yun was a disciple from a poor family, he felt relieved.
Practicing calligraphy requires a lot of pens, ink and paper. Poor students don’t have that much money, so they either practice on the sand with tree branches or write directly on the table with a brush dipped in water. The latter still requires a lot of brushes.
Magistrate Cai looked at the poem and couldn't help but read on: "I slept through the spring without knowing the dawn, and heard birds singing everywhere; the sound of wind and rain came at night, and I wonder how many flowers have fallen."
The three examiners were all stunned. The words of this poem were very simple and one could understand it at once, but why did they feel a slight regret after reading it
The other two examiners also looked at Fang Yun's test paper and thought carefully.
"I feel like something is missing in my heart," said Wan Xuezhen.
Magistrate Cai was a fellow Jinshi graduate and held the seventh rank in officialdom, while Wang Yuanjun and Wan Xuezhen were only Juren graduates and both held the seventh rank.
Magistrate Cai read it several times and suddenly sighed, "It's wonderful. Although the words of this poem are simple and natural, the key word is 'real'. The scene is real and the meaning is real. The structure of this poem is also extraordinary. Look at the four lines of poetry, which are: I don't know, I know, I know, I don't know. It starts with 'I don't know' and ends with 'I don't know'.
The blank space of "I don't know" allows readers to think about how many flowers have fallen. Why do we ask about the flowers that have fallen
As soon as these words were spoken, the examination room fell silent, as if everyone was thinking about one question: How many flowers have fallen
Just five words, but they aroused everyone's concerns.
Wang Yuanjun nodded and said, "Brother Cai has described the beauty of this poem in one sentence. The reason why this poem is true is that every sentence has spring in it, and every sentence is relevant to the title. Spring sleepiness, spring birds, spring rain, spring breeze, spring flowers, it seems to be full of scenery, but it actually hides unspoken emotions. The most rare thing is that the words are simple and plain, the most natural, and the easiest to spread. If this candidate is not an accidental winner, he must be an extraordinary person."
The other two nodded continuously. It was very important that the story be easily spread. Literary fame was one of the pursuits of scholars, and even a semi-saint was not immune to it.
Wan Xuezheng said: "I can also write such words, but it is difficult to make a poem like a painting in front of my eyes, blending emotions into it, and making it so natural."
Wang Yuanjun said, "When the results are announced tomorrow, I will write a letter to recommend this poem to Zhou Yuanjun Li Daxueshi, hoping that he can recommend it to Shengdao, so that this poem can be famous all over the world."
"If this poem can be included in The Holy Way, it will surely greatly enhance the literary reputation and style of our Jingguo!" Magistrate Cai said with anticipation.
Wan Xuezheng's face darkened, and he whispered, "I am nearly fifty years old, and I have written thousands of poems and essays, but none of them have been published in the monthly magazine "Sacred Way."
Wang Yuanjun smiled bitterly and said, "The Holy Way is published by the Holy Academy. The selected works every month are all famous works. Everyone who publishes in the Holy Way is either a master of poetry, a great scholar of classics, or a great scholar of policy essays. The lowest ones are also masters of their own skills. We dare not dream of it."
Magistrate Cai nodded, picked up the pen, dipped it in cinnabar red ink, and wrote at the bottom of the test paper: The handwriting is simple, the feelings are true, the poetry is beautiful, and the meaning is long. He should be the best among all the students, A!
"Do you have any objections?"
"The best poem in this year's student poetry test is none other than 'Spring Dawn'!" Wan Xue Zheng Dao said.
"No objection."
Magistrate Cai took the examination paper with "Spring Dawn" written on it aside and said, "This man has extraordinary literary talent, but if he wants to compete with Fang Zhongyong for the first place, he still needs to see what the sage says."
Magistrate Cai looked at the words on the scroll and shook his head secretly. He looked at the first question carefully and his eyes lit up. He said, "I never thought this boy was so extraordinary! Even if I had encountered this question in the past, I would never have been able to answer it correctly."
The other two examiners also looked at the answer, looked down, and were extremely surprised, because they would never have been able to answer this question correctly before, even though they were juren. After all, this question was too biased, involving geography and inference ability.
Magistrate Cai continued to read with the pen in his right hand. After reading the first three papers, his expression was solemn. The other two examiners, one on his left and one on his right, were also reading the papers at the same time and were speechless for a long time.
Magistrate Cai never put down his pen.
After a moment's silence, Wan Xuezheng asked, "No mistake?"
“There is not a single mistake or omission, it’s incredible!”
Magistrate Cai continued reading, finishing the remaining twenty-seven test papers in one breath, and simply put the brush aside.
"Still correct?" Wang Yuanjun was a little surprised.
Magistrate Cai said solemnly: "It is miraculous. There are no mistakes, no typos, no erasures, and no stains. It is the only one I have ever seen in my life."
"Could he even get an A-level in the Candidate of the Holy Word? Since Candidate of the Holy Word was introduced into the imperial examination, our Jing country has never had an A-level Candidate of the Holy Word. Even Chen Sheng only got a B-level back then."
Magistrate Cai said, "What a pity! I really want to give him an A grade, but his calligraphy is really average. If I give him an A grade, I will definitely be criticized by the scholars."
After Magistrate Cai finished speaking, he wrote on the test paper for the Holy Word: The handwriting is poor, no mistakes, B-1.
"pity."
"pity."
Magistrate Cai reluctantly put down Fang Yun's test paper and picked up Fang Zhongyong's poetry test paper.
Since Fang Zhongyong was able to pass the county exam for poetry, he would have received extra attention from examiners in any place where he took the examination for a student. The examiners would have certainly written comments with praise. Unfortunately, he happened to meet Fang Yun, and also met Magistrate Cai, who was feeling regretful.
Magistrate Cai looked at Fang Zhongyong's poem and said nothing. He casually wrote "B Zhong" without even making any comments.
The ratings are divided into four major grades: A, B, C, and D.
No matter what the exam is, there can only be one A grade in each subject.
After that, grades B and C will be divided into upper, middle and lower grades, but grade D does not need to be divided, because no one who gets a grade D in any subject will be admitted.
The three examiners were immersed in the regret of not being able to give Fang Yun a double A. They marked the papers in silence. When they encountered mistakes, they marked them without hesitation and finally gave grades based on the number of mistakes.
After reviewing the top ten most talented candidates, the three examiners will rate the poems and sacred words on the remaining ninety papers.
Finally, these one hundred people will be ranked according to the order of their request for the Holy Word, and the top fifty will become students.
If they are equal, the one with fewer errors comes first.
If the mistakes are equal, the poems will be ranked according to their level. If the poems are equal, the quality of the text will be determined. If the 50th place and the rest cannot be distinguished, a semi-saint examiner will be asked to make a decision, and generally a few more places will be given to the examiners.
After the evaluation was completed, it was already late at night, but no one was allowed to leave the Academy of Literature and everyone slept in their own residences there.
The next morning, the three examiners and ten lecturers got up at six in the morning, washed up and had their meals, and then began to "review" at seven o'clock, rechecking to make sure there were no problems.
If the error in judgment is too great, the Semi-Saint will intervene, and the examiner will not only be embarrassed, but may even be dismissed from office and imprisoned.
Entering the examination room, Magistrate Cai said as he walked, "I couldn't fall asleep last night, and I still feel unhappy."