The first and most important one is the examination of the Four Books and Five Scriptures.

Unlike the township test, which examines three and four books plus four and five scriptures, the general examination only examines two four-book texts, plus three five scriptures.

The time is still three days, from the morning of the ninth day of February to the sunset of February 11, after the closing of the papers on February 11, and before the next day of the examination, there is a window period without exams.

Ji Ning fell asleep very late on the eighth day of the new year, and he didn't sleep well in the middle of the night, he always woke up, he was not very suitable for the environment of the Gongyuan, and he couldn't sleep all night, and the next day he woke up in a burst of gongs.

This is the sound of the opening gong, the whole Gongyuan is divided into many parts, the opening time should be as consistent as possible, and the opening gong is to be knocked on the outer curtain officials, the outer curtain officials have prepared the test papers, put them in a small wooden box, the wooden box is written on the candidate's examination house number.

The candidates in the south are on one side, the candidates in the north are on the other, in addition, the candidates are only recorded in the examination room, and even the examiner does not know which candidate is in which examination house, after all, the number plate drawn by the candidate is also random, and the final paper is sealed, and the examination paper has to be transcribed at the end.

Therefore, in the Gongyuan, the candidate's identity is only represented by the candidate's examination house, and whose results are good or bad also depends entirely on the examination number of this examination house.

It was not until the final results were set that the seal was opened, and the examiner knew who the three hundred people who were eligible to participate in the palace examination were.

In the early morning of the ninth day of the second lunar month, Ji Ning woke up differently than usual, he didn't need to freshen up, he just needed to tidy up his clothes, and sat down, under the small hole on that side, waiting for the exam papers to be handed in.

After a while, there was a bell outside, and then the small square hole on the door opened, and the voice of the soldier came from outside: "The lord inside, your roll is here, you put it away, check if there is a problem first, if there is a villain, the villain will immediately find an official to change it for you, if not, then inform the villain." ”

Ji Ning took the roll and looked at it carefully.

It is very similar to the test paper of the township examination, but the paper of the test should be more standardized, the sealing line is very wide, giving candidates enough area to write their names and places of origin, in order to avoid duplicate names, candidates also have to write the ancestral home of their ancestors for three generations, and finally start answering questions.

Ji Ning was most concerned not about the topics of the Four Books and Five Classics, but about whether his test papers and draft papers were defective.

For the more than 11,000 candidates in the Gong Academy, this examination has officially kicked off.

……

……

Ji Ning cleaned up his mood and first set his eyes on the three questions.

First of all, there are two four books, the first question is Mencius's question: "There is nothing wrong with people, and there is nothing wrong with water." ”

The second question is the middle question: "Shun Qi's great filial piety is also with!" ”

The two questions made Ji Ning's first feeling that it was not difficult, because these two questions were simply from "Mencius" and "The Mean", and there was no forced sentence change or patchwork from elsewhere, so it was not a truncated question.

It is also on the occasion of the examination, although the questions are more extensive, but at the same time, there are higher requirements for the questioners, what kind of talents the emperor and the Temple of Literature need to select, what kind of questions should you come up with, and you can't opportunistically come up with some "******" truncated questions.

As long as it is the original title in the four books, it will not be difficult to answer, mainly in terms of understanding.

After Ji Ning saw these two questions, the first thing he thought of was not how these two questions should be solved, but who these two questions came from.

Zhang Yujue and Su Zhongyu, although they are both examiners and both study Confucianism, they still have certain differences in academic thinking, mainly because of their differences in political views.

If Ji Ning considers the topic itself, he can't guess who the topic is from, but if he chooses it from the moral of the title, Ji Ning will probably understand.

Because Zhang Yujue does not respect the golden mean, it is not realistic to let Zhang Yujue come up with the golden mean, so the second question should be from Su Zhongyu, then all candidates will inevitably guess directly that the first question should be from Zhang Yujue.

But Ji Ning felt that things were the opposite.

In Ji Ning's view, although the second question is "The Mean Question", it is consistent with Zhang Yujue's idea of advocating pure filial piety that he investigated before, so Zhang Yujue will definitely bring his own thoughts into the topic of this examination, as for the first question, it is not like Su Zhongyu's handwriting, because Su Zhongyue admires elegant ancient texts, Su Zhongyue's academic opinions in the four books, Ji Ning has read several books before, all of which are discussing orthodox Confucian and Mencian thoughts, and the first question is from "Mencius? It is obviously not based on Mencius's orthodox theory, but Mencius's refutation of some of Confucius's ideological scholarship, and the theory formed is not in line with Su Zhongyu's academic style.

Ji Ning further speculated that in fact, the two questions were from Zhang Yujue.

Two examiners, one from the imperial court and the other from the Temple of Literature, turned out that on the most important four book topics, the two questions were from Zhang Yujue, the chief examiner sent by the imperial court, and Su Zhongyue, the chief examiner sent by the Confucian Temple, never gave a question, which made Ji Ning think more.

There are two explanations.

The first explanation is that the imperial court has the initiative to take the test, and the questions are all led by the imperial court, and the talents selected in the end are mainly used by the imperial court, and the choice of the Confucian Temple will be greatly compressed.

The second explanation is that the titles of the four books are from Zhang Yujue, and the follow-up titles are mainly from Su Zhongyu, and the two cooperate with each other in the topic and show their strengths.

Ji Ning looked at the topics in his hand, and read the three five scriptures, the five classics he chose were "Shangshu", so the three titles were also from "Shangshu", and these three topics were also very similar to the previous two and four book titles, all of which were in Zhang Yujue's style, and I couldn't see the thoughts that Su Zhongyue wanted to express.

Ji Ning thought to himself: "Could it be that like the Jinling Township Examination, the Hui Examination is also controlled by some forces in the imperial court, and even the direction of the questions is influenced?" Does that mean that the final direction of the exam should also be inclined to who is more inclined to 'plot rebellion and treason'? ”

He thought about it again: "The Jinling Township Test is likely to be led by the prince, and now although the prince seems to be dim, he still has the control of some key yamen in the Jingshi, I am afraid that this Zhang Yujue is also the prince's person, and Su Zhongyue was also bought by the prince!" ”