A few months before the exam, Li Jin kept making sure that he bathed in cold water at home in order to adapt to the imperial examination system.
After all, he passed through, and he had heard that many students who took the exam had frozen themselves to death in the exam room.
Among them, the most people died of freezing in Qiuwei. After all, Qiuwei took the exam for nine days in total, three days in each session, three times in a row. You have to rest in the numbered room at night. There are no quilts and thick cotton-padded clothes. People with poor physical fitness may have an accident.
Of course, Li Jin thought, washing himself with Qin Muwen does not count. How could he be willing to let his husband take a cold shower with him.
In fact, candidates who participated in the imperial examinations knew that the county examination in February was very cold. Therefore, they will also take various measures, such as drinking medicine, wearing thin cotton clothes in advance in the study to 'simulate the examination room environment'.
Drinking the medicine is not painful or itchy, and most people will drink the decoction to dispel the cold.
But wearing thin cotton clothes in advance and being frozen, most people can't stand it. Their families are also worried that doing so in advance will directly freeze the candidates and prevent them from taking the exam.
Li Jin stood there for a while, and when he came over, the heat generated by the movement was about to dissipate. The thin cotton coat could not resist the cold at all. When the wind blows over, it seems to blow directly on the human skin, taking away the remaining temperature.
But he still carried the bamboo basket and endured the cold calmly.
After a while, when the county magistrate started to call, Li Jin even heard the cold teeth chattering of the man in front of him, but that man endured it.
Everyone sacrificed for the imperial examination and fame.
"Hongyan Village, Li Jin."
Li Jin stepped out and walked towards the north gate according to the rules.
One person took the bamboo basket in his hand and checked his pen and ink and food. Because an exam lasts for a whole day, each person can bring two steamed buns for lunch, and other food cannot be brought.
These requirements were announced on the list last month.
The bamboo basket quickly disappeared from Li Jin's line of sight, and he himself took off his thin jacket, opened his hands, and searched one person's body while the other checked whether there was any entrainment in the cotton-padded jacket.
Li Jin's side was being carefully inspected when he suddenly heard someone shouting, "Yongle Village, Sun Shan, found entrainment in the steamed buns!"
Li Jin was taken aback, the person who checked him had already returned his cotton-padded coat and bamboo basket.
When he put on the cotton-padded coat again, he found that the cotton-padded coat was still warm. The riot next to him didn't last long, and soon someone dragged the entrained exam away. As for how to punish it, no one knew.
Because of what happened to Sun Shan, there were a few exams that had not come to check, their faces were as white as paper and their legs were shaking like chaff, but at this time no one dared to escape, so they had to bite the bullet and check.
Sure enough, some of these people found entrainment in the cotton wool of the cotton-padded clothes, and some wrote the small copy directly on the clothes.
In the end, without exception, they were all dragged away, no matter how much they cried and begged for mercy.
There was no problem on Li Jin's side. Another person took him into Beiyuan and stood in line behind the magistrate.
Only then did Li Jin realize that his steamed buns had been torn apart, and he suddenly lost his appetite.
At noon, the county government seems to provide hot soup, and it is probably fine to not eat steamed buns, Li Jin thought.
After everyone was called, everyone bowed to the county magistrate to the end, and then went into the lobby of the central hall to receive the answer sheet.
Originally, there was a singing protection link in the middle, but it is said that due to the war, there were too few talents in the country, and His Majesty recruited talents, which simplified the county test. Therefore, in recent years, more people have participated in the county examination.
But the difficulty of the question remains the same. On the contrary, math has been added this year, which has caused a lot of headaches for many people.
Li Jin looked at the number on his test paper, one hundred and thirty-two. He found his seat, put the bamboo basket at his feet, and placed the pen and ink on the table in turn.
By the time everyone was seated, the sky had turned from dark to bright.
Due to the large number of people taking the exam, the tables and chairs in the entire exam room were full, and the sizes were not uniform. It seemed that some of them were directly moved from a nearby private school.
Fortunately, although Li Jin's table and chairs are worn out, there are no big holes on the table top, which does not affect writing.
Li Jin had stood outside for a long time before, with cold hands, but according to the regulations, he could not do small movements in the examination room. He could only make fists with both hands, then slowly release them, repeating in turn, to regain his consciousness.
The people on the field banged the gong to announce the official start of the exam.
After filling in the name, place of origin and test number, the yamen held the test question board and went back and forth in the test room to ensure that everyone could see the test questions. [Note]
Li Jin first looked at his test paper. It was rice paper with red lines and straight lines. Each page had 14 lines, and each line was required to write 18 characters. [Note]
There are also two sheets of plain paper that can be drafted.
He thought that Mr. Song's account must not involve the era and name taboos of the late and contemporary emperors, otherwise this would be considered a crime below.
Li Jin made up his mind, and the person who happened to be holding the test question board also came to his side, and he picked up the pen and started copying the test questions.
This is the first field, also called the front field. The exam questions are fairly simple. There are two essays in four writings and one poem in five characters and six rhymes. The total number of words should not exceed 700 words. [Note]
The test of the four scriptures is to use the eight-legged writing method to integrate the four scriptures that you have memorized to test whether the students have a solid foundation.
Since Li Jin entered the examination room, he kept his mind straight, and did not take into account the gains and losses. His face was serious and serious.
After he finished copying the topic, he didn't rush to write, thinking about a stick of incense, he copied the core of the topic on the plain paper he drafted, and then used the 'brainstorming mind map' he had learned in his previous life to translate the "Four Books". The parts related to the title in the Five Classics are listed one by one.
In this way, if you start writing eight-part essays in a while, you can also justify yourself.
Although the eight-part essay has strict requirements on flatness and format, but whether an essay can be written satisfactorily, the most important thing is to ask questions and solve them.
Or simply sum it up in four words and justify it.
The main test is relatively simple, and each eight-legged essay is limited to 300 words at most.
Li Jin listed the draft first, then modified the sentence before transcribing it.
After he finished writing the first four essays, he wrote half the draft of the second essay. It was noon, and the yamen kept bringing in hot soup. If anyone needed it, they could raise their hands, but not make any noise.
This hot soup does not charge money, but Li Jin was surprised.
After consuming too much brain power in the morning and not wearing thick clothes, Li Jin felt that he needed a bowl of hot soup.
When the hot soup came, Li Jin was surprised to find that it was bone soup. Although the taste was very mild, it was much better than boiled water.
It can be seen that now Guotai and people are safe, and the government is also very rich.
But then again, the 200 essays for the exam before, probably also included the cost of rice paper, tables and chairs, and hot soup.
Li Jin was hungry. Although he really didn't want to eat the steamed buns, he couldn't stop eating every day because he had four days to go for the exam.
So enduring the habit of cleanliness, I peeled the broken steamed bun and soaked it in hot soup.
The steamed buns, which had been frozen solid, were quickly soaked and softened. Li Jin felt his whole body heat up after eating a bowl.
After noon, there is still hot soup, but this is charged, forty cents a bowl.
Chen Xiran sat diagonally in front of Li Jin. When Li Jin finished writing the second article and only had one poem left, he saw Chen Xiran raise his hand and ask for another bowl of soup.
Li Jin wanted to remind him, but he couldn't make a sound at the moment, so he could only watch him finish a bowl of soup.
Li Jin thought that there is only one day in each county test, which is not allowed to go to the toilet. If you drink so much, you will not be able to hold back until the test is over.
There is no Li Jin in the last trial poem, he has now found his own position in writing poetry.
The simple pastoral style that fits the farm life is very suitable for him.
But if the examiner likes the type with gorgeous rhetoric, he will not be popular like this. Not too much wrong though.
After Li Jin finished writing, he carefully checked the typo again. Then raise your hand and wait for someone to wrap it up.
He packed up his bamboo basket and had to sit on the spot until the final 'dispatch' before he could leave the examination room with others.
In the county exam, the county official, as the chief examiner, can only sit at the front, and cannot inspect the students' test papers, so as to avoid him recognizing the handwriting of some people and deliberately giving high marks.
Therefore, although there is a huge gap in the family backgrounds of the students who take the imperial examinations, all the test contents and scores are the most fair.
This is also the only way for poor men to get ahead.
Chen Xiran and Li Jin went out of the county office, and directly asked Li Jin to wait for him, while covering his stomach, he ran to the toilet.
Then came back and swore: "I will never spend money on sins again!"
In the second test, the number of people was dozens less than in the first test. Many people came to line up before dawn, only to be told that their handwriting was too ugly in the first game, and they did not pass. No second exam is allowed.
This means that the county officials screened the handwriting and answer sheets of all candidates overnight.
Naturally, I don’t have time to look at the content, or else these people will not be screened.
Li Jin saw that most of these people were still young, so it was probably what Mr. Song said, 'experience the atmosphere in advance'.
The second game is called Fu Fu, also known as the first Fu. There is not much difference from the first scene, but the poem is changed to a dictation of about 100 words of "The Holy Enlightenment".
The most stringent requirement is that the dictation process must not be mistakenly written or modified.
The answer sheet is so small, it is impossible to give a new one, so if you accidentally make a mistake, it means that you will miss the third exam.
Even Li Jin, who was as calm as Li Jin, copied it on plain paper first, and then copied it down carefully.
Because of this delay, when Li Jin finished writing, it was time for the rewinding. He went out with everyone.
At this time, several people turned pale and murmured, "It's over, I wrote a wrong line when I wrote it silently..."
One of them was already old, and his black hair was mixed with silver and white, and he actually started to cry.
When entering the third exam, Li Jin really saw the old man among the group of people whose names were not called.
Li Jin was still feeling that these people are not easy, but when he saw the exam questions, there was only a helpless feeling left in his heart.
Because the first three questions in the third session are fairly normal, they are nothing more than a scripture, a rhythm, and a test poem.
But the final dictation content is - the dictation of the seventh and eleventh sentences of the "Sacred Encyclopedia" in the front court.
Still can not typo can not be amended.
So before the fourth exam, dozens of people were screened.
After the fourth test, the county official sent someone to collect the answer sheet and announced that there would be a fifth test tomorrow, and the main test was math.
This is within the range of Li Jin's prediction, but obviously most people are at a loss.
Why is there still math? Although this is required knowledge, it has not appeared in the test questions for several years!
Obviously, the magistrate didn't come to discuss with everyone. After he made the announcement coldly, he let people arrange the show.