It had just begun, and Ji Ning noticed from the questions of the two and four books that this time the test was not simple.

Logically speaking, the examination is the most fair and just examination in the entire Dayong Dynasty, and this kind of examination should logically not have any personal fraud, but because the situation of the court and the Temple of Literature is not very clear now, Ji Ning guessed that there may be something to teach and receive privately.

The Temple of Literature seems to have lost the propositional authority of this examination, so in the subsequent examination papers, it will inevitably be the imperial court that occupies a leading role, and the final result may be that no matter how well some people play in this examination, they will not be admitted in the end.

"The possibility of trying to cheat is not high, and I will try to play tricks in grading, and the chances of success are not great, but unfortunately I can't meet Shangguan Wan'er now, otherwise I can ask her what conspiracy is behind the prince!" Ji Ning was very entangled in his heart, he originally thought that he would learn by swaying himself well in the test, but who knew that this had just begun, and it was like eating fly, which made him very unhappy.

In order to prevent others from targeting his scriptures, he also specially changed the scriptures from the "Book of Songs" to the "Book of Songs", but the problem was not that others targeted him alone, but that all the candidates were targeted.

But Ji Ning still didn't understand how the prince or someone from other forces would influence this test.

For the time being, he can only focus on the topic itself.

The three questions of the Five Scriptures will not form any difficulties in themselves, mainly because the people present choose different scriptures, and in the Five Classics, the topics are different, and it is very difficult to compare whose articles are better, so the most important competition is also in the four scriptures in the first and the questions in the third scene.

Because the second exam is an application exam, as long as the format and dictionaries are basically accurate, you can pass.

And the place where the competition is learned, that is, the answers to the four books and the questions, both sides are strictly speaking, argumentative essays, but the direction of the discussion of the four books and essays can not express their own opinions, but can only be based on the theme of "speaking on behalf of the sage", speaking in the tone of the sage, and the quoted scriptures must also be the four books and five classics or the "Four Books and Chapters and Sentences Collection Notes" and other ancestors' remarks, just to say their own opinions, it is easy to violate the ban, Ji Ning is not the first time to participate in the imperial examination, of course he understands this truth.

The first question, "There is nothing wrong with people, and there is nothing wrong with water." ”

Uttering "Mencius? "There is nothing in human nature that is not good, and there is nothing in the nature of water that does not flow downward." ”

Mencius? The content of "Confucius" is mainly a discussion of Mencius and Confucius's different academic and political views, because Confucius is not very famous in history, so that this person has not left any works, his biggest role in history is to put forward several theories that Mencius find difficult to accept, and Mencius has been criticized, so Confucius has become a key villain in "Mencius", and any views he puts forward are incorrect in Mencius's opinion, or biased, The end result, of course, was that Mencius was correct and gave a reasonable explanation.

Even in this kind of four-book book, there are examples of this kind of "Ultraman fighting little monsters", and the university asks the family to defeat the nobody with their words.

In Mencius? In the second stanza of the Confession, Mencius also plays the role of such an "Ultraman".

The reason why Mencius made such a statement that "human nature is inherently good" is because Confucius believed that human character is like flowing water, and if the opening of the flowing water is in the east, the water will flow to the east, and if the opening of the water is in the west, the water will flow to the west.

The content of the original text is: "Human nature is not divided into good and bad, and water is not divided into things." ”

However, Mencius believed that although he accepted the idea that human nature was similar to the flow of water, he believed that the flow of water does not distinguish between things but into upper and lower levels, and that water always flows from high to low, and he came to a conclusion: "There is nothing wrong with man, and there is nothing wrong with water." ”

In Confucianism, the concept of "human nature is good" has been emphasized, and even in the Three Character Classic, it begins with "At the beginning of man, nature is good", which can be said to be a summary of Confucianism, but in Ji Ning's view, this idea is not completely correct.

Because in human nature, many are "evil", because in the law of natural selection, many human beings are formed on the basis of competing for survival resources, people have greed and possession, on this basis, they will appear to have their own greed for wine and wealth, which are all natural phenomena, as for why a gentleman can abide by his duty and restrain this greed, in fact, it is mainly constrained by social opinion, morality, law and other factors, rather than relying on the so-called "human goodness" to restrain it.

Without the restraint of these moral thoughts, people are likely to enter the ancient society, do as they please, and in order to possess the qualifications for survival and reproduction, they will kill their companions, eliminate the weak among them, and only the strongest can survive in the living environment where the weak eat the strong.

Although Ji Ning had such thoughts, he still couldn't answer according to his own thoughts.

Because of Confucianism, especially the question of "Mencius" in the four classics of Confucianism, if the theme of "human nature is inherently good" is denied, then Ji Ning basically does not need to participate in the examination, and others will attack him until he can't bear this kind of social public opinion and avoid the world, or commit suicide.

This is the cruelty of an era, which seems to be a hundred schools of thought, but in fact, it still uses the framework of public opinion to restrain people's psychology.

Since it is not in line with his own point of view, Ji Ning can't write as he likes, but even so, such a topic is too simple for him.

It is not difficult to discuss the "inherent goodness of human nature", but the difficulty is that Ji Ning has to grasp whether there is a hidden meaning in it.

What Ji Ning wanted to think of was Zhang Yujue's purpose for coming up with this question.

If Zhang Yujue's "The Mean" title is to highlight the theme of "pure filial piety", then Zhang Yujue's "Mencius" title is elusive.

Before Ji Ning figured out this, he didn't rush to write the first question, and he didn't even rush to write the second "The Mean" question, he first went to complete the Five Classics of "Shangshu", although there are three questions over there, and each topic needs to write about 400 words, but the content of the investigation is always very shallow, which makes Ji Ning feel confident that he can complete it well.

There are simply three days for an exam, and instead of writing when you don't understand it, it's better to wait for everything to be thought through and complete it again.

(It's about to be the New Year, let's talk about the update plan for the Spring Festival: continue to maintain three watches every day, and the fifth day of the Lunar New Year (February 1) will explode once, at least eight watches.) Thank you all for your support. ）