After waiting for more than half an hour, I heard a crisp banging sound in front of the dragon gate, and the official shouted loudly: "Candidates enter!" ”

Eight hundred candidates rushed forward one after another, lining up in front of the dragon gate.

When queuing, there were a lot of children gathered around Wei Chen, all of whom heard the name of Wei Chen's double case leader and came to Wei Chen for good luck.

There are even a few gray-haired old boys who are cheeky enough to beg Wei Chen for mercy and let them have some luck on Wei Chen.

Seeing the pitiful appearance of those old boys with tears in their eyes, Wei Chen really couldn't say anything to refuse, so he could only close his eyes and let them do it.

It's just that the expression on his face is like a righteous man who is going to die generously, and Sheng Changbai and the others on the side can't help but laugh.

At this time, a shout came from afar: "The person who is sitting in the hall number, come to the examination booth and prepare to enter!" ”

Hearing this, Wei Chen was like an amnesty, and immediately arched his hand to the group of children around him: "Take a step ahead, I wish you all success!" ”

Although the children who hadn't rubbed enough were a little reluctant, they had no choice but to withdraw the dog paws that were touching Wei Chen's body and return the salute together.

In front of the dragon gate, the candidates who were sitting in the hall number went through the search in turn, and when Wei Chen carried the examination basket and walked under the dragon gate, the official nodded at him, just checked it as usual, and let him go.

Wei Chen walked to the front of the court, but saw that there was an official in his forties sitting at the top, thinking that it should be the new Hai Xuezheng, and the prefect Shen Du was sitting on one side, as the promotion officer of the field.

The rules of this examination are stricter than the previous two examinations, and candidates are only allowed to bring a long-eared examination basket into the venue, put some pen and ink and food, and the rest are not brought much, even the inkstone is prepared by the government.

Walrus Qian also demanded that all the prefectural and county school officials should be present and accompany them in front of the hall to take a roll call, and if a student comes, he will be identified by the county teacher in person, so that no one will take the exam on his behalf.

"Youyang County candidate Wei Chen——"

When Wei Chen entered the door, he felt that the eyes of the examiners in the hall fell on him, especially the academic master, who looked at Wei Chen from head to toe several times.

Wei Chen was stared at uncomfortably, and after stepping forward and saluting Walrus Qian and Shen Du, he took the scroll with the seat number written on it, and hurriedly prepared to leave.

But I could hear the first walrus dry speak: "You are the head of the government trial case, Wei Chen?" ”

Wei Chen had to stop and replied: "The student is Wei Chen, I don't know what the academic master has to say?" ”

Walrus said lightly: "Your government test article, this official has read it." It is important to remember that the article should be plain and thoughtful, and you must have your own insight. ”

Wei Chen's heart moved when he heard this, and he knew that Walrus Qian was reminding himself not to continue the style of writing during the government examination, so he bowed down and thanked him at the moment: "Thank you for mentioning it." ”

Walrus Qian nodded slightly, didn't say anything more, Wei Chen picked up his paper, went down the steps, and entered the examination room under the guidance of the scribe.

The examination room is facing the first row of the public hall, which is the treatment of sitting in the hall.

Wei Chen took out all the stationery such as pen and ink from the examination basket, put them on a few cases, and began to close his eyes and calm his mind.

Soon, after the candidates entered the venue, the examination booth was closed and the key was locked, and the officials were retired, and the soldiers were transferred to patrol the field, all of whom were transferred from outside, just to prevent the local officials from favoritism and fraud.

Then, the scribes began to distribute the exam questions to the examination rooms.

Like the government exam, there are a total of four questions, namely a four-book question, a five-scripture question, and two five-character and eight-rhyme poems.

The only difference is that the order of the questions has been changed, and the first question has been changed from the Four Books to the Five Classics.

The Four Books and the Five Classics were often referred to together in later generations, referring to the Confucian classics in general, but they are actually very different from each other.

the four books, namely the University, the Mean, the Analects, and Mencius;

The Five Classics are the Book of Songs, the Book of Songs, the Book of Rites, the Book of Rites, the Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Period.

The four books are easy, but the five classics are difficult.

Therefore, in the scientific examination, the four books are compulsory, and the five classics are optional, and the scholar only needs to be proficient in one of the five classics, and the chosen scripture is the scholar's "original scripture".

The scriptures are different, and the exam questions are naturally different.

The top five in the township examination are also known as the five classics, because the top five are the first in their respective scriptures, and they compete for the final ranking after comparing with the first place in the other four classics.

That is to say, among the top five, there must be one of those who govern the Five Classics, and there will be no situation where all the "Book of Songs" or all the "Spring and Autumn" are governed.

According to the tradition of emphasizing the first topic in the field, the title of the four books is generally the first topic, followed by the title of the Five Classics, which is the so-called "Four Books for Scholars, Five Classics for Determination, etc."

And this time, Walrus Qian changed the first question to the Pentateuch question, so it became the Five Classics, and the Four Books were set to wait.

As soon as the questions were issued, there was a commotion in the examination room, and even a few candidates cried out in frustration.

Many of them do not have a solid foundation, and in order to be able to get the right one, they have been practicing the four books hard, and they are relatively negligent about their own scriptures.

But I didn't expect the walrus to play cards according to common sense and take the Five Classics question as the first question, and then these candidates who neglected the scriptures would be miserable.

Seeing a commotion in the examination room, a scribe immediately shouted: "Who dares to make a noise to disrupt the examination room and punish the crime!" ”

The examination room was quiet.

Wei Chen didn't think much about it, he was already proficient in the four books and five classics, and it was the same for him to use which one was the first topic.

Wei Chen's scripture teacher Lin Yan's scripture is "Shangshu", Wei Chen naturally also chose "Shangshu" as his own scripture, and later after apprenticing to Zhuang Jun, he began to study the remaining four classics concurrently, but the level is far worse than "Shangshu".

Of course, as far as the "Book of Shang" is concerned, Wei Chen is still quite confident.

The biggest difficulty in governing the "Book of Shang" is that it must be knowledgeable and erudite, because the "Book of Shang" uses allusions to the ancient pre-Qin period, and there are a lot of awkward names.

Therefore, the first thing to do is to be erudite and read the classics, and this is exactly what Wei Chen is best at.

The first Five Classics question sent to Wei Chen's hand has only nine words: King Wen's humble obedience is Kang Gong Tiangong.

This sentence comes from the "Shangshu Wuyi" chapter, which is a sentence of Zhou Xuan's admonition to King Cheng, to the effect that King Wen of Zhou was frugal and did not covet pleasure, so there was the prosperity of the Zhou Dynasty later.

It is not difficult to solve this question, but the difficulty lies in how to write your own level.

Wei Chen just thought for a moment, and then wrote down the topic: "I dare not worship beautiful clothes, so I attach importance to civil affairs." Those who are inferior to the husband obey, and those who dare not be humble are also meritorious. ”

This is enough to make the examiner's eyes shine, but the discussion in the following article is where the real skill is seen.

Wei Chen was not in a hurry to put down the pen, but closed his eyes and meditated, and started the draft.

In the public court, the walrus Qian who was sitting at the top of the hall had a clear understanding of the ten candidates who were sitting in the hall, and seeing that Wei Chen was slow to put down his pen, he couldn't help but smile and said to Shen Du on the side: "Isn't the head of the Wei case poor?" ”

Shen Du took a sip of tea, and said lightly: "That young man is indeed talented, don't be in a hurry to study politics, you will know when you see the article." ”

Walrus Qian smiled, when he saw the list of questions for the government examination that day, he was amazed by the "Treatise on Returning to Zhao after Completing the Arts", and he had the intention of cultivation in his heart.

But the article that asked Wei Chen to take the head of the Zhongfu trial case made Walrus Qian, who paid attention to righteousness, feel flashy.

If Wei Chen took the articles from the government examination again, Walrus would not show mercy and would definitely depose him.

This is the helplessness of scientific examination candidates.

From the county examination to the palace examination, the examiners have different standards for the quality of the articles, and they will beat the articles they don't like to death at every turn.

In addition to finding out the good news in advance and figuring out the examiner's preferences, the rest can only ask for more blessings.