On the ninth day of August, midnight.

Zhou Chong carried the huge examination box and said to Wang Yuan: "Second brother, everything is packed, you can check it again." ”

Wang Yuan squatted in front of the examination box and slowly flipped through it, two brushes, two inkstones, three ink strips, dry food, drinking water, candles, and fire folds...... Everything but the kitchen sink. In addition, there are oilcloths and blankets, which are bundled and do not need to be put in the test box.

"Gah!"

Several doors in the courtyard were pushed open one after another.

The scholars lit torches, and the students hugged each other's fists and blessed: "This course must be successful!" ”

Although Jin Wei did not speak, he still clasped his fists at the others and saluted in return.

The students in the courtyard outside were also ready, and there was another sound of blessings, and everyone came to the street one after another.

Qingyun Street is full of people, the light of torches is everywhere, and there is laughter from time to time. Occasionally, I exclaimed, but I forgot to bring the admission ticket and ran back to my residence to get it.

Even if you rent a house near the Gongyuan, you have to pack it up at one o'clock in the morning. If you're staying at an inn farther away, you'll have to get ready to go out the night ahead.

In less than four watches, at about half past two in the morning, all beings gathered in front of the Dragon Gate.

The government has prepared long lanterns, each with the name of the place written on it. For example, Wang Yuan and a few of them all gathered in front of the sign lantern of the "Guizhou Xuanwei Division" - if it is changed to the land south of the Yangtze River, then it will have to be lined up by county, because there are many candidates in each county.

Tian Qiu said goodbye to Wang Yuan with a fist, and ran to line up in front of the sign lantern of "Sinan Mansion, Guizhou", and there were only more than ten people in his line.

Wang Yuan carefully observed the entire Guizhou team and found that nearly 400 people took the exam, probably stimulated by the two additional lifting places this year.

If according to the standard of one out of thirty in the imperial court, the number of full candidates in Guizhou should be 630. If there are too many applicants, the provincial school officials will determine the list according to the results after the examination, and the number of candidates cannot exceed the number of places in the province multiplied by 30.

There were several gates in the Gongyuan, and all the scholars of Guizhou gathered at the west gate, and the supervisors took roll calls—the middle gate was the most important, and the supervisors themselves called names.

"Wang Yuan, a student member of the Guizhou Propaganda Division!"

When Wang Yuan heard his name, he walked over quickly with the test box.

An invigilator took the admission ticket and carefully compared Wang Yuan's physiognomy and characteristics. Another invigilator searched Wang Yuan's examination box, and finally another invigilator searched him.

After the inspection, the proctor said to Wang Yuan: "Go and get the papers, and wait for the number to enter." ”

Wang Yuan received the answer sheet and scratch paper, and stood inside and waited.

Li Ying had already come in and said with a smile: "I hope I don't have a number, haha." ”

The number is a room dedicated to pooping and peeing, and each exam booth has one or two.

Fortunately in the Ming Dynasty, there was only one day of exams, and there was not much feces and urine. In the Qing Dynasty, an exam took place for three days, during which they had to eat, drink, and Lazar in the examination booth, and the smell of could be imagined.

After waiting for a while, it was finally Wang Yuan's turn to enter, and he quickly found his seat.

It's pitiful, there are four or five test seats away from the, so the impact is not too great.

The examination room is a large square, and some provinces have deep pockets and are directly paved with bluestone slabs. There is something bad on this side of Yunnan, and it is all muddy ground that has been tamped. Since the Gongyuan has not been opened for three years, the grass grows taller than a person, and it needs to be cleaned up a month or two in advance, and there are some grass poles left under Wang Yuan's seat.

There are many horns in the square, each of which is about ten zhang long, like a bamboo and wood cage for livestock. The horn was divided into countless number rooms (examination rooms), the size of which was about the same as a security booth, but it was very low, and Wang Yuan could only bend down to enter.

As soon as Wang Yuan entered the house, a soldier immediately came over, and this kind of soldier was called "Horn Army".

A trumpet guard to prevent anyone from cheating, but they can only stand outside the number room and cannot enter the house to disturb the candidates answering questions.

Wang Yuan stood up with his waist bent and cleaned up the cobwebs, dust and other foreign objects in his house. Then he took out a hammer, a nail and an oilcloth, and covered the whole house with an oilcloth to protect it from the wind, sun and rain.

If the tarpaulin is not nailed firmly, then you have to worry about accidents - not to mention the rain for the time being, if you encounter a strong wind, directly blow away the answer sheet you wrote, and you won't be able to cry at that time.

Nailing oilcloth, this is a necessary skill for scholars, and the giant baby genius Jin Wei is very proficient.

After these preparations, it was already the fifth watch (about five o'clock in the morning).

"Knock...... Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

One slow, four fast, five sounds, this is the outside of the watch. The husband even shouted the slogan of avoiding ghosts and exorcising spirits: "There is injustice to repay injustice, there is revenge to revenge!" ”

Originally, in the middle of the night, the candidates still wanted to take a nap, but they didn't feel sleepy when they heard this shout.

Wang Yuan was more big-hearted, and fell asleep directly on the table.

But within a quarter of an hour of sleep, the trumpet army standing outside knocked on the trumpet house and reminded: "Get up, the title paper is here!" ”

Historically, due to the serious cheating in the imperial examinations, the Jiajing Dynasty carried out many reforms. For example, on the day of the exam, the questions of the township examination must be decided by the examiner and the supervisor on the temporary flip book, and the candidates are allowed to give random and overlapping questions.

But it is still the Zhengde year, there are not so many rules in the township examination, and the exam questions are out two or three days in advance, and it is not allowed to disturb the Jingyi interception questions - this kind of question can be produced at most when the candidates are in the examinees.

At this time, the sky was faintly bright, Wang Yuan lit a candle, and read the question while studying ink.

The intensity of the Ming Dynasty township examination is very high, one test a day, the first one to make seven eight-strand essays, including three questions in four books, four questions in the Five Classics, and must be handed in at dusk. That is to say, the real time for answering questions is only one day, and seven eight-strand essays are enough for candidates to be busy.

In the Qing Dynasty, there was much more time, and the content of the exam did not change much, but there were three days and two nights to answer the questions, and the grinding workers could also grind it out vigorously.

After roughly scanning the seven questions, Wang Yuan closed his eyes and conceived the first question.

When the sky was clear, Wang Yuan blew out the candles and began to write on scratch paper. There is no one to stamp the township test, and you can freely allocate the time, and you can only submit the paper before dusk.

The first question is taken from "Mencius: Wholeheartedly": "What is great and transformed is holy, and what is holy and unknowable is God." ”

This examiner is very tricky, discussing the word "sacred", and even Zhu Xi's annotations are not clear.

Zhu Xi just quoted Zhang Zai and Cheng Yi, plus his own understanding to explain, to the effect: "It can be done, but it is difficult to do." The great thing is that a person's greatness has been integrated into all aspects, and you can't even see his greatness, and this is a saint. As for the gods, it is not that there are gods above the saints, but that the gods and men have achieved the extreme, and mortals cannot even imagine it. ”

If it is related to the context of "Mencius", it can be explained from the perspective of "learning to achieve", but if you want to write the eight strands wonderfully, you must connect with the "sincerity of the world" in "The Mean".

Most of the candidates have already put pen to paper at this time, but they are basically limited to "Mencius: Devoted to the Heart", and it is difficult to associate the relevant content of "The Mean".

Wang Yuan smiled and quickly solved the problem: "The great sage wrote the name of the Holy Spirit to show his extreme merit. ”

He also broke the topic from "learning to lead to it", and then used "reason" to undertake the topic: "As for the Holy Spirit, all of them are full of reason." Then he began to speak: "If you don't learn, how can you tame it?" ”

The wonderful thing is that after the "middle stock", it goes directly to the "Mean", explaining that only the most sincere can be consecrated, and the whole article concludes with "learning to be sincere", and returns to "Mencius: Wholeheartedly", which perfectly combines learning, sincerity, benevolence, wisdom, kindness, and reason with the great and holy and the unknowable.

Wang Yuan studied with Wang Yangming for more than a year, and unconsciously integrated into the idea of "unity of knowledge and action", but it was not abrupt, nor did it violate Zhu Xi's annotations.