As the same examiner of this township examination, Wang Yangming has been living in the tribute courtyard for several days.

The moment he was identified as an examiner, he had to go to the Gongyuan immediately, and he was not allowed to go home or visit halfway. The promoter and the invigilator also have to padlock, only allowed to enter and not out, which is called "locking the hospital", in order to prevent the examiner from colluding with the candidate to cheat.

It was not until the list of Jinshi was determined that Wang Yangming could leave the Gongyuan, and he would probably have to live here for more than half a month.

In the past few days, Wang Yangming has been annoyed because there are too many banquets.

After the chief examiner and fellow examiners arrived, the Gongyuan held a banquet. When the question is asked, a banquet is also held. After the first exam, there will be a banquet.

Historically, Yan Song served as the examiner of Zhengde for 12 years, and described it in the "Southern Province Chronicle": "Out of the curtain banquet, out of the question banquet, five days of a big banquet, three days of a small banquet." ”

Originally, the time was tight for the questions and marking the papers, and the examiners were still drunk.

Wang Yangming only drank one at the banquet, and then kept coughing (pretending). Old friends knew that he had lung disease, but they didn't dare to persuade him more, and finally escaped the drudgery of drinking.

After the first exam, the copied paper will be sent for approval.

Wang Yangming and Wen Renhe belong to the examiners of the "Book of Rites", and all the corrections are the test papers of the "Book of Rites".

Wen Renhe, the word Minhuai, a native of Huayang, Sichuan, was edited by the Hanlin Academy at this time. He is a few years younger than Wang Yangming, a junior sergeant later than Wang Yangming, and his official position is not as big as Wang Yangming, so this room is naturally dominated by Wang Yangming.

The Zhu scroll was submitted, Wang Yangming and Wen Renhe were half of each other, and after the review was completed, they were handed over to the other party to repeat the review.

The comments given by the two are very interesting, take the test paper of Shizi Mao Xian as an example-

Wang Yangming's evaluation is: "Jingyi is noble and fair, although this work is not very peculiar, take its fairness and record it." ”

Wen Renhe's evaluation is: "Speaking two words is like a word, covering up the seal, understanding and conciseness, and reading it is enough to arouse people's benevolence and filial piety." ”

It seems that no article can enter Wang Yangming's eyes, and every time he evaluates it as "the atmosphere is quite smooth", "take it fair", and occasionally add "nothing peculiar" and "not very brilliant". His requirements for Jinshi's articles are not high, he can write smoothly and explain the reason.

And Wen Renhe can always find out the highlights of the article and boast and praise it, which is just the opposite of Wang Yangming's review style.

About the afternoon of the next day after the first exam, Wang Yangming finally approved Wang Yuan's paper.

Only seeing the first four-book text, Wang Yangming remembered his disciples in Guizhou, and the style was too similar.

However, he was not sure, because the imperial court had regulations on the examination articles, which must be written in a simple and concise manner, and no rare words or fancy characters should be used, so everyone wrote about the same.

However, Wang Yuan's style of writing is precise, the inheritance is tight, and the words are not cumbersome, and the characteristics are still very strong, so Wang Yangming feels déjà vu at a glance.

"Although the purpose of this work is not very peculiar, it is better because the language theory is well-founded and the atmosphere is quite smooth, so it is recorded." This is Wang Yangming's comment on Wang Yuan's first four-book essay.

Wen Renhe's comment is: "The truth of the reasoning and the wording are not formal, the arguments are detailed and the main idea is consistent with the commentary, the writing is thorough and the succession is flawless, and the author of this topic should be a profound Taoist person." ”

Just looking at Wen Renhe's comments, it seems that Wang Yuan has become a master of Confucianism, but in fact, it is not the case at all. As long as Wen Renhe is optimistic about the volume and the comments are all praised like this, he can always find the subtlety of the article.

It wasn't until Wang Yangming read Wang Yuan's third "Book of Rites" question that a strange smile suddenly appeared on his face.

He was finally able to determine that this was his student's paper!

Because when the article was discussed, there was "the way to cover heaven and earth, first to incarnate and then to form." The incarnate heaven and earth, that is, the parents; The parents of the begotten are heaven and earth".

This passage is not in the annotations of the "Book of Rites", and it is also not recorded by predecessors. It comes from Wang Yangming's in-depth understanding of the "Book of Rites" in combination with "Zhuzi's Language", and he has not told other disciples about it, but only mentioned it casually when Wang Yuan asked for teaching.

Wang Yangming shook his head and smiled, and wrote a comment: "It's a matter of family affairs, and it is thorough." This essay is fair and should be recorded. ”

Wen Renhe's comments are as praise as ever: "Relatives and things are nothing more than love and respect." The purpose of this essay is the same as the old, but the parents of heaven and earth have new ideas, which are in line with Zhu Zi's language, which is thought-provoking and makes me suddenly open. Looking at the works of scholars, there is no one who exceeds this article. Be the first in this "Book of Rites"! ”

The examination essay pays attention to neutrality, peacefulness, simplicity and conciseness, but if you can write a new idea that conforms to Zhu Xi's theory, it will definitely make the examiner inexplicably excited - this is more difficult than writing with flowers and magnificence.

Wen Renhe was shocked by Wang Yuan's article, to be precise, by Wang Yangming's understanding, Wang Yuan just moved the content of Wang Yangming's lecture to the answer sheet.

If the two room officials can correct some of the papers, they will immediately send them to the deputy examiner, and the deputy examiner will send them to the chief examiner after correcting them. You can also change it all and throw it to the deputy examiner, but you must catch the deputy examiner off guard, because the time for marking is very tight.

Fortunately, the number of candidates for "The Book of Rites" is scarce, and Wang Yangming and Wen Renhe have the lightest marking work.

The examiner in the "Book of Songs" room only reviewed a quarter of the test papers, and Wang Yangming and Wen Renhe had already finished correcting the "Book of Rites" volume. And they review it very carefully, and the wonderful articles have to be tasted several times, but they are called off super quickly, who makes the number of candidates for "The Book of Rites" so small.

The situation is similar on the other side of the "Spring and Autumn" room.

The content of the remaining two exams is not taken seriously, and it doesn't matter if you do well in the exam, as long as you don't make mistakes in the format of the official document and don't make common-sense mistakes.

The main reason is that the working time for marking papers is too tight, and there is no time to look at the answer sheets of the remaining two sessions in detail, and it is difficult to distinguish which is better and which is worse than those official documents and policy theories.

On the 25th of February, each room presented all the approved red scrolls, and the promoter also sent the candidates' ink scrolls.

The house officials should give the Zhu Roll and the ink roll the number, and those who do not match the number will not be taken.

There are more than 7,000 copies of ink scrolls and zhujuan, and there was no computer search in the Ming Dynasty, so it was necessary to find the same serial number in the mountains of scrolls for comparison.

If the number is correct, you have to compare the content of the Zhu scroll and the ink scroll, and once you find that the content is different, you will discard it as cheating - if the transcription officer copied it wrongly, then the candidate can only consider himself unlucky. This rarely happens because of the repeated cross-checking required during the transcription phase, but occasionally candidates are shot while lying down.

The chief examiner and deputy examiner did not have time to read the papers carefully, and most of the time was spent on the relevant procedures for recognizing the papers sent by the real estate officer. Their duty is not to take the best papers, but to make sure that the papers they take are not wrong, and if they do, their future will be ruined.

"Why doesn't Brother Bo'an recommend this volume? In this life, it is likely that he will be judged by the chief examiner as the leader of the rites. Wen Renhe asked, pointing to Wang Yuan's scroll.

Wang Yangming has a good relationship with Wen Renhe, knowing that the other party is upright, and he does not deliberately hide it, he only smiled bitterly: "It's not recommended, but to avoid suspicion." ”

"Avoiding suspicion?" Wen Renhe was puzzled.

Wang Yangming explained: "The candidates for this paper are very likely to be the students I accepted in Guizhou. His style of writing is very distinct, you can see it at a glance, so I can't be his room master. ”

Wen Renhe was surprised: "Brother Bo'an has only lived in Guizhou for more than a year, and he actually teaches such an excellent student!" ”

"This son is only sixteen years old this year, to be exact, there is still more than a month to turn sixteen," Wang Yangming smiled with relief, "and when I taught him, he had just finished studying the Four Books." When I left Guizhou, his "Book of Rites" could only be regarded as rough, but I didn't expect to make great progress at this time. I thought he would only be able to take the exam in three years. ”

"This prodigy too!" Wen Renhe praised and said with a smile, "Since Brother Bo'an doesn't recommend it, then it will be cheaper for me." It's time for me to be the master of this trial! ”

The meeting test is the same as the township test, and the five classics must be selected, and the huiyuan is the head of the five classics, so the top five must be different from each other.

Wang Yuan's answer sheet can only be regarded as excellent, and it stands to reason that it would be good to be ranked in the top 100. If he is elected as the leader of the Book of Rites, it will all depend on transferring the content of Wang Yangming's lecture to the answer sheet.

Those few sentences are related to psychology, but they are not out of the category of Cheng Zhu's science, they are created by Wang Yangming on the basis of science, and Wen Renhe's comment is direct: "Let me open my mouth!" ”

If you can't be selected as the leader, then which candidate has this qualification?