In the Gongyuan, more than 11,000 candidates are still completing their most critical exam, which is also the first exam of the Hui Exam, the five questions of the Four Books and Five Classics, and the most critical ones are the four books and essays of the first two questions.

On the first day of the ninth day of the exam, in just one morning, he wrote the manuscripts of the three five scriptures, checked them by the way, and in the remaining two and a half days, he was able to prepare the last two four texts with all his might.

Although he had a lot of ideas in mind, at the end of the day, he had to be very relevant, not only to think that he was relevant, but also to make the examiner feel very relevant.

Because the question of "Mencius" is slightly biased, his attention shifted to the second question, which is also the most easily misunderstood, thinking that the second question is from Su Zhongyu, but it is also from Zhang Yujue's question.

The second question: "Shun Qi is also filial piety!" ”

Speaking out of the seventeenth chapter of "The Mean", Confucius first expressed his feelings, the meaning of this sentence is that Confucius said, Shun should be the most filial person, right? From this, it is believed that the ancient emperor Shun was a saint in terms of virtue, and his status was the highest Son of Heaven, and his wealth was rich all over the world.

From this, we get the conclusion that as long as there is "great virtue", there will be achievements, and even become a great man.

Finally, he came to a conclusion: "Therefore the great virtuous will be ordained." ”

If it is an ordinary candidate to do this question, considering that it is Su Zhongyue's topic, the focus of the discussion is no longer in the aspect of pure filial piety, but that pure filial piety is only a part of the "great virtue", they take into account Su Zhongyue's appreciation of ancient elegance, they will inevitably do their best to praise the ability, and will try their best to highlight the theme of "Therefore the great virtue must be ordained", and the theme of highlighting pure filial piety has been deviated.

This is also the most confusing part of the examination.

From pure filial piety, discussion to great virtue, most of the time will be regarded as the candidate's far-sighted performance, but because of the different directions examined by the questioner, it is also easy to cause a misunderstanding of the candidate, many candidates think that the deeper the discussion, the easier it is to be appreciated and get a high score, but some questions must take into account the direction of the examiner's examination, so as to get the examiner's appreciation.

Obviously, this question is not a test of "great virtue", but a test of "pure filial piety".

Shun in history is a person famous for pure filial piety, so Shun can get the foundation of the country and be transferred to the throne, Ji Ning himself knows very well that this topic is from Zhang Yujue, since Zhang Yujue has the idea of pure filial piety, he can't discuss the topic very deeply, but just talk about the theme of "pure filial piety" in simple terms.

The scope of his own discussion is narrow, and he knows that if he wants his essay to be outstanding, he must start with the literary aspect.

Considering Zhang Yujue's resistance to the idea of moderation, as well as Zhang Yujue's admiration for Legalism and miscellaneous thoughts, Ji Ning has to start in this aspect and write an article that makes Zhang Yujue feel satisfied, then it is necessary to determine a main theme: "The world must be pure filial piety, and the court and the government must also ensure the guidance of public opinion on the world's pure filial piety, and even use the state apparatus and the law to maintain the continuation of this thought......

Ji Ning also considers how a person who admires Legalism ensures the respect for pure filial piety, and a person who believes that everything should be solved by law is particularly respectful of Legalism, and wants to use what he has learned to maintain a maintenance of moral standards in society.

Although Ji Ning does not recommend such a tough method, the reality is that in this era, unfilial piety is also a sin, and even to bear the responsibility, and the society still has not completely standardized the world for a kind of filial piety and etiquette.

What Ji Ning wrote on the scratch paper is based on this aspect.

“…… The people of the world stand in the body with filial piety, and only by the best are heard by the princes, and by the gentlemen with filial piety, and by the wisdom of non-sinners......"

With a theme, Ji Ning has a lot of ease to write articles, and it is only an essay of about 300 words, with the talent at hand, let alone 300 words, even if it is 3,000 words and 30,000 words, it doesn't take much time.

An article to take its essence, after writing, it must be carefully scrutinized, Ji Ning did not intend to be a maverick in such an exam overnight, he also knows how to use scratch paper, after the article is written, it is necessary to constantly check, determine the article, and then repeatedly scrutinize, and finally write his own article.

But he was still in no hurry to write the essay on the exam paper, which was to be done on the third day.

……

……

After the completion of the second topic, Ji Ning turned around and studied the first "Mencius" topic.

Ji Ning felt that it was very difficult for him to be perfect in this "Mencius" question, because he no longer accepted this kind of "human nature is good" in his thoughts, and he even felt that it was very similar to the image of the little monster character in Mencius's theory.

As a thinker of the Warring States Period, the most famous thought of Gaozi is: "There is no good and no bad sex." ”

It means that there is no good or bad in human nature.

Ji Ning believes that his views are similar to him, in human nature, there are indeed many beautiful things, such as respecting the old and loving the young, helping others, etc., but there will be greed and cruelty in human nature, which are still fundamentally different from the "goodness" advocated by Confucianism.

If it is purely from Mencius's point of view, human nature is kind, then at most it can only be said that a newborn child does not have the ability to steal other people's survival resources, and once they have, they will also know how to dominate, and they will also know how to be greedy and have no scruples.

Even the mind can't accept "human nature is good", so Ji Ning naturally feels that he has fallen into a misunderstanding on this topic, if he wants to write this topic well, there must be a lot of remarks that are against the heart, and since it is against the heart, it is impossible to be perfect...... This is a paradox.

If you write an article against your will, it is impossible to write the article to the fullest, and if you don't even like an article, how can you hope that others will appreciate it?

"What a contradiction!" Ji Ning sighed, "If I write according to what I think, it means that I want to challenge the entire Confucianism, with my current ability, it is obviously not up to this level, but if I don't speak, let me write an article against my will, it is not my intention." ”

"Is it more important to gain fame in the examination, or is it more important to express one's opinion in the examination? Since this is an era of controversy, why can't I write an article that I think is right and others think is undesirable? I'm going to be an uninhibited thinker, not a pug in a cage! ”