On the sixth day of the fourth lunar month, the government examination was held as scheduled.

A total of more than 1,000 candidates from 11 counties in five states of Zhending Prefecture gathered at the gate of the Zhending Examination Institute before the fifth watch, and the noise was better than when the county examination was made.

The name of the Zhending Examination Institute is good, in fact, it is a big examination shed, which is not like the temporary examination shed built during the Shenzhou County Examination, this is a long-term building, which is a long-term building, which is persuaded by the successive prefects and counties to donate to the people, and has been repeatedly added and expanded.

The procedure of the prefectural examination is almost the same as that of the county examination, except that candidates are not allowed to bring one thing into the examination, and pens, ink, special paper, etc. will be provided by the examination room, and the name will be confused when submitting the paper.

In addition to taking off their clothes and shoes for inspection, even the clothes and shoes that have been taken off must be checked for dissection.

After entering the house, it was already the beginning of the hour, and after the Han prefect wore court clothes and said a serious cliché about serving the country and serving the country, Zhao Yan was led by the small official to his seat and sat down, and then sharpened the ink, waiting for the official to carry the lantern to show the exam questions.

In the first test of the government examination, there are four books and two questions, and each one is limited to more than 200 words; The Five Classics are limited to more than 300 words, and the total number of the three questions shall not exceed 800 words.

When the official carried the lantern to show the exam questions, Zhao Yan glanced at it and suddenly became happy, when he took the county exam, he thought that Li Zhizhou was taking the 'Gou Rixin' language, but the result was the 'way of the university'.

For this 'Gou Rixin', Zhao Yan had worked hard to write an eight-strand essay before, and now he is just using it.

The title of the second four books is 'the gentleman's illness is not worthy of the world', the title of the five classics, because Zhao Yan's book is the "Book of Changes", so the title is also taken from it, is 'Kun' Yuan Heng, Shangliu, the dragon fights in the wild, and its blood is yellow. ’

Zhao Yan ignored these two questions, but first copied the eight-strand text of 'Gou Rixin' to the scratch paper, and then began to read the title of the second four calligraphy.

The gentleman is sick and unworthy of his name, and he speaks out of the "Analects of Wei Linggong", which means: until he dies and his reputation is not praised by others, the gentleman hates it, and to put it simply, he is afraid that he will be nameless before and after his death.

Since the topic is there, according to the definition of the eight-strand article, it is necessary to solve the problem first, that is, to establish the central idea of the article first.

Zhao Yan has already integrated the three views of later generations with the three views of people at this time, and the perspective of looking at the problem is more comprehensive than others.

The so-called life in the world, only the word fame and fortune, for the sake of a "name", how many young people's heads have been white, and how many heroic tears have been shed.

The old man is about to die, and he is afraid that his name will not stand. This is the fear of Qu Yuan, the Sanlu doctor, in "Lisao".

Ten years of cold windows no one asked, and in one fell swoop became famous all over the world. This is the highest ideal and spiritual comfort for scholars in the imperial examination era.

It can't be remembered for a hundred years, and it is better to be stinked for ten thousand years. Huan Wen's words have pushed the pursuit of 'fame' to the extreme, and how many people in later generations are actually practicing it?

After reading through the Confucian classics, it can be seen that 'making the reputation of the public be applied to the body', Confucianism is not that it does not respect the name, it is not that it does not like the name, but it is just against the reputation of the people, the sale of fame, and the deception of the world to steal the name.

The pursuit of fame is human nature and should not be blamed, but if the pursuit is a temporary name, it is very hateful, so Confucianism advocates the pursuit of the name of the eternal generations, and the name will remain in history.

Zhao Yan didn't know how long he had been thinking about it, now that his thinking had been straightened out, he was about to start solving the problem.

"There is no name of the posterity, and the worries of the saints are also", this is the words of the saints.

After taking this sentence as the central idea, Zhao Yan continued to 'inherit the topic' and wrote: "The name of the husband for the time does not need to be there, and the name of the future generations cannot be dispensed without." Therefore, the gentleman does not seek fame, and he has to be anxious about this. ”

After writing the article in a free way, Zhao Yan went back and forth twice, and felt quite satisfied, so he copied it on the main volume together with the first article.

After the transcription was completed, Zhao Yan stretched his back, and at this time, he was in a state, and continued to concentrate on the topic of the Five Classics.

During the county examination, the title of the "Book of Changes" was the loss hexagram, and this time the government examination was the kun hexagram, which was literally interpreted as: good luck, the dragon fought in the wilderness, and the blood flowed all over the land.

This sentence is not a full hexagram, it looks similar to the 'interception question' after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but there is only interception, no ride, for Zhao Yan, there is not much difficulty, and it has been written with a little effort.

Because the first four calligraphy articles save a lot of time compared to others, after Zhao Yan finished writing all the articles, it was only the end of noon, and the food sent by the handyman on the table was still warm.

After hastily eating a few bites of unpalatable food, and drinking a few sips of water, Zhao Yan carefully checked the article to confirm that there were no omissions and mistakes, then closed his eyes and rested, and after a while, he saw someone hand in the paper, and then rang the small bell on his side.

Hearing the bell, two officials came over with white paper, paste and the exam box, and after confirming that Zhao Yan was handing in the papers, they quickly pasted the name of the papers, and then put the exam papers into the exam box.

After waiting for a while to get enough people, Fang Shi released the dragon gate, and everyone had said before the exam that there was no need to wait for others after the exam, just go back to the inn first.

Han Zhifu took a sip of tea, this Shifeng Longjing soup is green, fragrant like an orchid, and the taste is mellow and fresh, which is the most satisfying to him. It's just that good tea is like a beauty, there are always some things that can be met but not sought, a few days ago, the Han prefect finally got a little bit of it, and regarded it as a treasure, today he came to the main examination of this house test, in order to refresh himself, he brought some over, at this time the tea soup has become quite light, but the Han prefect is still smacking with relish.

Seeing a few small officials walking over with the exam box, Han Zhifu put down the fine porcelain tea set in his hand and beckoned: "Has anyone already handed in the papers?" Let's take it and let the official take a look at it first. ”

Several old men came over when they heard the sound, and after the little official took out dozens of test papers in the examination box, they also picked up a vague test paper and looked at it.

"Huh? This article is written smoothly and straightforwardly, but it is a rare good article, please take a look. An old man presented the test paper in his hand to the Han Governor's Mansion, and he and several other old men were all well-known scribes in their respective states and counties, and the lowest ones were all famous.

According to the law, in addition to the Han prefect of the prefecture, the professors and instructors of the government school are not allowed to participate in the marking of the papers, for the sake of fairness, but also to share the workload for themselves, the Han prefect invited these people from various states and counties to help invigilate the examination papers, which is quite praised by the people.

Han Zhifu took the volume, nodded after reading it, and said: "It's really good, it's just that the volume has been named, but I don't know who made it." ”

The old man was from Jizhou, and said with a smile: "The old man is a little familiar with this text, it must be the article of Jiang Youbin, the head of the county trial case in Jizhou." ”

"Hehe, Senior Zhou is blunt." Han Zhifu laughed disapprovingly, and then drew a circle on the frontispiece, which means that this volume has been taken, and if there is no accident at the time of the case, it should be in the inner circle on the list.

Dozens of test papers were read by a few people in a while, and only four or five copies could be circled.

Another gray-bearded old man was holding a scroll to read carefully, and after a while, he suddenly patted his thigh and praised: "Fuzun, look at this volume." This article is rigorous and long-meaning, and it reads like a sweet wine, which is really a rare and good article. ”

Seeing that the old man was overjoyed, and there was a tendency for the old man to talk about juvenile madness, he was amused in his heart, but he couldn't help but be curious about the article on the volume, and then took it in his hand and looked at it intently.

After the tea time, Governor Han looked surprised, and sighed: "What the old man Liao said is true, this article is indeed rare. Since the beginning of our country's dynasty, the southeast literary style has flourished, and there are many talents, and the official only thought that only the literati there could write such articles, but he did not think that I really decided that the mansion was also Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, if there was no accident, this article should be the head of the case. ”

"Fuzun Mingjian, this person's first four-book writing is already good, I didn't think that the second article 'The gentleman is sick and unworthy of the world', and the problem is even more brilliant. There is no name of posterity, and the worries of the saints are also the worries of our old people. ”

The gray-bearded Liao Lao spoke in a low voice, he is now sixty-five, and he has been promoted to the rank of scholar during the Yongle period, and then entered the Metropolitan Procuratorate to supervise the imperial history.

In the sixteenth year of Yongle, Zhou Xin was falsely imprisoned by Ji Gang, the commander of Jinyiwei, and Liao Lao repeatedly and directly admonished Chen to intercede for Zhou Xin, but it turned out to be useless, and finally Zhou Xin was still asked by Yongle Emperor Zhu Di for capital crimes.

Afterwards, Liao Lao was also hated by Ji Gang for interceding for Zhou Xin, and was finally dismissed from office, and was ordered by Zhu Di not to be used for life, although Zhou Xin was later rehabilitated, and Ji Gang also deserved to be executed, but the court seems to have forgotten that there is such a person as Liao Lao in the world.

Decades have passed in a blink of an eye, and Liao Lao is already dying, and he has taken a light look at the past, but at this time, this article has aroused his heart.

There is no name of posterity, and the worries of the saints are also my worries. When you die, will the world still remember what you have done, and will you still remember yourself as a person?

That's it, time flies, like a white cloud and a dog, the old man is just a mortal, and it is useless to think more, but this person's article has won the hearts of people in my generation, and presumably the name of a case leader can't run.

Liao Lao is the oldest and respects others, at this time, seeing that he and the Han Governor's Mansion have opened their mouths, the rest of the people also feel that it is really good after reading the article.

Two days later, the first case of the government examination began to occur, Zhao Yan and Liu Jing walked to the front of the trial hospital, and from time to time someone on the road gave up to Zhao Yan, saying that 'insisting on Qingshan will not relax'.

Seeing this, Liu Jing teased: "Brother Xian, you are also a celebrity in the city now, I don't know if you go to the Spring Pavilion again, will the girl in it still accept your money?" ”

Zhao Yan replied when he heard this: "Brother Liu laughed, if the fame can be eaten, then how about the younger brother invite Brother Liu to the Spring Pavilion every day?" ”

Liu Jing laughed: "Very good, it's decided." ”

A few people were laughing and talking to themselves, and the case had already begun to be committed over there.