Wuchang Gongyuan is located on the shore of the East Lake about three miles northeast of Wuchang Mansion. Gongyuan sits in the north and faces south, the gate is a wooden archway of four pillars and three doors and double-layer eaves and warped corners glazed tiles, the three gatehouses are hung with red bottom bucket big gold plaques, from left to right are "open the door and call Jun", "Wenyun Tiankai", "Zhu Yi points to the head". Behind the archway, there is a courtyard on the left and right. The left courtyard is called "to the public court", which is an important place for examination affairs, and the courtyard is symmetrically built with the receipt of papers, sealing, transcription, and reading of the signatures; To the north of the two academies, there are corridors on the east and west sides, and there are rooms for candidates to take independent examinations. In order to facilitate the distinction, the "Thousand Character Text" is used as the serial number of the house, and the ink pen is written on the door wall. Outside the gate of the Gongyuan, on the left is the "Tengjiao" workshop, and the plaque "seeking talents for the country" is hung in front of the square; Between the two squares is the square, and there are two pavilions built in the field, which are used as the places where the scholars enter and receive the lots.

On August 15, it is the period for candidates to pay tribute. As a result, it has changed from the silence of the past to a place that people flock to.

Just after the hour, thousands of talents gathered in front of the Gongyuan one after another. While waiting for the call, the candidates can be described as all kinds of beings: some have nervous faces and solemn expressions, as if they are facing a great enemy; some are confident and eager to try, as if they can't wait; some point fingers and talk highly, like the return of a king; and some are neither humble nor arrogant, and their faces are calm, like old monks in a fixed state.

Early in the morning, Shen Lingshan sent the mute maid to bring washing water. After washing, Chen Wenqi cleaned up the items used in the exam into the examination basket and packed them, handed over the remaining items to Jing Xing, and told him to go to the inns first, and if there was a half-room guest room, he would move the items. After three days, the exam was over, and I waited in front of the Gongyuan Temple.

While talking, Shen Lingshan and Ruizhu had already come to the backyard, just like yesterday's dress. Listening to Chen Wenqi's instruction to find an inn, he didn't even say that he didn't have to, anyway, the house was vacated, and staying for one night was no different from staying for three nights, so let Jingxing live here. Chen Wenqi considered that Jingxing was young, and it was the first time he went out, so he was not familiar with the place, and it was inevitable that he would be distracted by living outside. Besides, if you insist on moving out, it will also seem a little hypocritical, so I nodded and agreed. Because he had to eat and live in the Gongyuan for the three days of the exam, Chen Wenqi asked Shen Lingshan to take him to meet "his" mother, Shen Lingshan said that his mother was doing morning classes, so it was inconvenient to disturb, and said that he had made it clear to his mother that he would not let Chen Wenqi pass. Chen Wenqi couldn't, so he had to bow to the front hall from afar to show respect.

couldn't stand Shen Lingshan's soft grinding and hard bubbles, Chen Wenqi had no choice but to agree with "him" and "Zhu Rui" to lead the way for him. But after thinking about it, I felt that I should tell Shen Lingshan what happened last night, so that "he" could take precautions. Along the way, the two children took turns carrying the book basket and walked in front, and Chen Wenqi whispered to Shen Lingshan in the back about someone hiding in the bushes last night, so that "he" could be careful, and after he entered the Gongyuan, he and "Zhu Rui" would return home as soon as possible, and don't cause trouble. When Shen Lingshan heard this, she remembered her uncle's words last night, and hurriedly nodded in agreement.

When Chen Wenqi and Shen Lingshan and others came to the Gongyuan, it was already the end of the end and the beginning of the year. On the roll call stands on the left and right sides of the gate, there is a supervisor standing in each place, holding a roster in his hand, ready to call by name.

At the right time, a cannon rang out, and the supervisor on the roll call platform began to roll call and issue signs, and the candidates who were ordered stepped forward to take the signing paper and queued up at the entrance of the Dragon Gate of the Gongyuan to enter the examination room.

"Huangzhou Mansion Chen Wenqi-". There were too many candidates, and the two prisoners shouted hoarsely, and it was not until about a quarter of noon that Chen Wenqi's name was called.

Chen Wenqi squeezed under the roll call stage while agreeing, took the signing paper handed over by the roll call officer, and saw one side written: "Chen Wenqi of Huangzhou Mansion, Xuanzi No. 59." On the other side, a schematic diagram is drawn, clearly marking the location of No. 59 Xuanzihao She, as well as the path it passed.

Chen Wenqi squeezed out of the crowd, came to the place where Shen Lingshan and the others were standing, took the test basket from Jing Xing's hand, and said goodbye to Shen Lingshan:

"Brother Xian, please go back. ”

Shen Lingshan refused, insisting on seeing Chen Wenqi leave after entering the Tribute Courtyard. Chen Wenqi had no choice but to let them wait here, and went to the gate of the Gongyuan with the exam basket to line up.

The body search was very strict when entering the venue, and prohibited items such as books and manuscript paper carried by the scholars were found from time to time. One candidate was expelled from the crowd and not allowed to take the exam because he refused to hand over the entrained notebook. As a result, the team moves very slowly.

Seeing this, Shen Lingshan and the others hurriedly went to the side of the baked cake stall to buy a few baked cakes and gave them to Chen Wenqi to satisfy their hunger.

At the end of the hour, Chen Wenqi finally got to the side of the search officer. The investigator first took the signed paper in Chen Wenqi's hand and looked at it carefully, then picked up the clothes and toiletries on the examination basket and put them aside, and saw that there were only three things in the examination basket: pen, ink, and inkstone, so he shook off the clothes and looked at them smoothly, and carefully pinched them with his hands in the collar, cuffs, shoulders and other places with sandwiches, and found no entrainment, nodded at Chen Wenqi, signaling that he could go in.

Chen Wenqi put the toiletries into the examination basket, turned around and beckoned to Shen Lingshan who was standing in the distance, and turned back to step into the gate of the tribute courtyard.

According to the schematic diagram on the note, Chen Wenqi successfully found the "No. 59 house" of Xuanzi. The "house" had only a small bed and a table with a few candles on it, but nothing else. In order to prevent candidates from cheating, the "number room" has walls on three sides, and the side facing the corridor has no walls and no doors, and the tables are placed in a place without walls to facilitate the monitoring of the invigilator.

Chen Wenqi put down the examination basket, took out the toiletries, rice, and vegetables and placed them next to the small bed, and took out the pen, ink, and inkstone and placed them on the table.

It was still early, and the candidates in the advanced room had nothing to do, so they walked out of the room one after another and gossiped with the candidates next door. Although they have never met, and they are still competing "opponents", after all, they are both "in the same year", and they have a common language at this time, so everyone is in groups of three or five and talks about it. Some introverted candidates couldn't bear the loneliness, and were quickly infected by the emotions around them, and joined in one after another, quietly acting as "listeners".

Chen Wenqi walked to the left room, where several candidates were chatting. Seeing Chen Wenqi coming, one of them greeted him: "Brother Nian just came in?

Chen Wenqi pointed to No. 59: "Oh, here." ”

Everyone stretched out their heads to see that Chen Wenqi's examination basket was empty, and there was only a pen and ink inkstone on the table.

"Brother Nian's books and pieces of paper were also confiscated? I didn't expect to be searched so carefully, not to mention that the things he was carrying were confiscated, and people almost couldn't get in. ”

Chen Wenqi smiled slightly, which was a response. He knows that everyone has more or less entrainment, and if he tells them that he didn't bring anything, it will inevitably attract suspicions such as "fake Qinggao", "hypocrisy", etc.

"What if you bring it in, who knows if it's to take the "Mean" or "University", is it possible to bring in the "Four Books" and "Five Classics"?" said a slightly chubby scholar next to him in Yue Yang's accent, and everyone nodded, showing a little self-deprecation and helplessness.

"Yes, if the examiner also comes to an exam question like 'Seventy-two Sages of Confucius, Virtuous and Virtuous', even if you move the study at home, you won't have time to find it. Standing at the back of the building, a tall and thin candidate said quietly, his tone was slightly Sichuanxi, and he seemed to be a candidate from Jingzhou Mansion or Yunyang Mansion.

"'Seventy-two sages of Confucius, virtuous and virtuous and virtuous'? When did you take this kind of question?" someone in the crowd asked, not knowing this allusion.

Everyone laughed, the anecdote in the examination room that had just passed in this dynasty, he had never heard of it, and this old man was too ......

The scholar who spoke with a Hunan accent saw that he was a little embarrassed, and hurriedly played a round: "This happened during the Chenghua period of this dynasty. One year, Li Xian, a scholar in Zhejiang, paid a private visit to the provincial college exam, and saw two candidates gossiping about the exam while playing chess, and one candidate was absent-minded when playing chess, always thinking about reviewing. Another candidate said angrily: 'There is no need to review, there is no problem in making the list.' He, Lord Li Xian, can't make a strange question with a hundred names in his debut to make things difficult for us, right?" Master Li Xian became angry when he heard this, and after he went back, he really came up with a strange question containing a hundred names: 'Seventy-two sages of Confucius, what is the virtue of the virtuous and virtuous? Master Li Xian is also none, if you don't answer everything, I won't take it. As a result, no one was selected in the Zhejiang Academy Examination that year. ”

"Alas, even if you have the talent of the world, I am afraid that it will be difficult to answer, I hope you don't have to meet such an examiner. Someone said with a sigh.

"I'm afraid that it may not be, as far as I know, not long after the hospital examination that year, someone gave an answer, and he is still a young man under the age of ten. Chen Wenqi interjected.

"Really? When everyone heard that there was really an answer, they were amazed and urged Chen Wenqi to speak quickly.

In fact, it can't be said that he answered this question, but a couplet written by the young man at that time can just be used as the answer to this question. ”

"Don't sell it, just talk about it. "The crowd was impatient.

Chen Wenqi smiled and said: "This person's name is Lun Wenxu, a native of Nanhai County, Guangdong, born in Chenghua for three years. This person is intelligent and talented, and is known as a 'prodigy' and a 'ghost talent'. However, since he was a child, his family was poor and dropped out of school, and he relied on his parents to grow and sell vegetables for a living. On this day, Lun Wenxu picked vegetables to sell in Xichan Temple, and the two monks who cooked in the temple knew that Lun Wenxu would chant poems against each other, so he deliberately said: "If you want to buy your dishes, you can do it, but there is a condition, our temple is still missing a couplet, and this couplet should be exactly the number of a hundred." If you're right, you will pay a high price, and if you are right, you won't buy this dish. Lun Wenxu asked the monk to take a pen and paper, pondered for a moment and wrote a couplet: Xingtan 72 sages, sages and sages, and Yuntai 28 generals, will be crowned marquis. The number of the couplets matches and the content is appropriate. The two monks praised it one after another, and then bought Lun Wenxu's dish at a high price. Isn't this couplet the answer to that strange question?"

Suddenly heard a few cannons while speaking, everyone knew that the roll call was over, and began to seal the "number", after the title, as usual, there were inspectors to inspect the various houses, so they returned to their numbers.

Chen Wenqi returned to the 59th, had nothing to do, remembered that he was going to curl after the child, and it was inconvenient to wake up in the middle of the night with a black light and blind fire, so it was better to take advantage of the fact that the sky was still bright, and first ignite the fire fold for later use. He took out the fire sickle and flint he carried with him, knocked out the sparks and lit the fire fold, and inserted them into the bamboo tube for preservation.

After doing this, I was just about to serve rice and cook, when a sound of footsteps sounded, and then I heard a noisy number check and question from the number house on the left. Not long after, the group came to No. 59, and a patrol officer held a booklet in his hand and asked Chen Wenqi: "Are you Chen Wenqi?"

"Yes. ”

At this time, an old man in the crowd who was in his fifties and did not look like a patrol officer was dressed in a low voice, and asked, "Are you from Huangzhou Mansion?"

"Exactly. Chen Wenqi replied. Who is this old man? How do you know where you come from? I see that this old man seems to be familiar, but I can't remember when or where I saw it.

In surprise, the old man smiled slightly, and said slowly: "'When you meet on the river, you are all old, and all the nations are dressed and crowned. The Ming Dynasty worked hard to Chang'an Road, and the star sword shot the bull'. Little brother, I look forward to your writing like a sword and a bullfight. ”

Chen Wenqi was stunned for a moment, wasn't this a collection of poems that he had written in the "Kung Fu Teahouse"? He looked carefully at the old man in front of him, and suddenly realized that he was one of the two old men who played chess that day. Chen Wenqi looked at the old man and wanted to recognize him, but he saved himself from being a scholar to be examined, and he was talking to the invigilator here and now, and he was inevitably suspected of being attached to the old man, so he said: "In the world, people know each other, and the group meets good work." He generation has no Xiushi, look at the treasure knife hero. ”

This is another five-character collection of sentences, respectively taken from the famous Tang Dynasty poet Gao Shi's "Drunk Gift Zhang Jiuxu", "Reward the Secretary and Brother", "Song Zhong Meets Secretary Liu" and "Send Li Shiyu to Anxi", except for the first sentence "The world is acquainted" (the next sentence of the original poem is "This Weng Shu is not") vaguely expresses the acquaintance and respect for the elderly, and the rest of the sentences are more straightforward, and they should be in the upcoming township test. The appropriateness of the sentences and the agility of the writing and thinking are rare.

The old man smiled again and praised: "The future is terrifying." He nodded to Chen Wenqi and took the lead in walking towards the next house.

Chen Wenqi didn't take this little episode seriously, and after the group passed, he brought his own rice and vegetables, and went to the Xuanzi Shehao Army to borrow a pot to cook. After dinner, I asked the army to notify me in time when the title paper arrived, and then returned to the house, blew out the candles and climbed onto the small bed, and after spitting for an hour, he fell asleep.

The next day, the drum had just beaten, and in the haze, I seemed to feel that there were whispers around me. Before he opened his eyes, the army happened to come to the house and stretched out his hand to pat Chen Wenqi a few times. Chen Wenqi turned over and sat up, and in the faint light of the waning moon, he saw the first test paper on the table. Chen Wenqi took the bamboo tube, shook the open flame fold, lit the candle, dropped a few drops of wax oil on the table, glued the candle, and washed it with the clean water prepared in advance last night, before picking up the paper roll on the table, only to see that it was written:

"In the second year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty, Ji You Zhengke Township Test Questions (the first scene, the three righteous roads of the "Four Books"):

A, 'Therefore, the government is in the people, take the people with the body, cultivate the self with the way, and cultivate the way with benevolence';

B, 'The predicate of the Mandate of Heaven, the predicate of the Will, the predicate of the Dao, the predicate of the Path';

C, 'He who desires nobility is also of one heart among men.' Everyone has something more than himself, Furth. He who is noble is not noble.' ”

Chen Wenqi looked at it and knew it in his heart. There are three interpretations, the first two are from "The Mean", and the last one is from "Mencius", the four books and five classics have been read since childhood, and it is not difficult to solve their meanings.

He took out the ink, added water to the inkstone, and polished the ink while typing the draft. After a long time, the ink has become thicker, and the article has been clearly understood. Chen Wenqi mentioned Zhu Hao, dipped it in thick ink, and walked the dragon and snake on the rice paper:

A, analysis of "Therefore for the government in the people, take people to the body, self-cultivation to the Tao, cultivation to benevolence" righteousness: this sentence is from the "Book of Rites: The Mean". This chapter is the pivot of the whole text of "The Mean", which is introduced from the question of the public and asked about politics, and proposes through the mouth of a sage that the rise and fall of political affairs is related to his person, and the superiority of a person is related to conduct: the quality of character is related to self-cultivation, and self-cultivation is based on morality, and morality is based on benevolence ......".

"B, analysis of the predicate of the Mandate of Heaven, the predicate of spontaneity, and the predicate of cultivation of teaching" Righteousness: The opening volume of "The Mean", that is, the nature of speech, Taoism, and teaching, all of which are the core of the "Confucian Mind". What is 'sex'? Sex is the natural endowment of human beings,......".

"C, analysis of "Those who want to be noble, the unity of people is also." Everyone has something more than himself, Furth. The Buddha said: 'Heaven and the world, for me alone'. This theory of Yasheng is also in common with the words of the Buddha. Those who respect themselves are respected by others, and those who are noble are ......".

At three o'clock, Chen Wenqi had already typed the draft of the three questions. He put down his pen, moved his slightly sore right hand a few times, stood up, gathered the draft in one place, pressed it with a paperweight, and asked the invigilator, who was watching from here to the left and right of the houses, to take care of it, and went to the army to eat breakfast. In this dynasty, during the examination, meals are served in the main venue, and in the morning it is millet porridge and white flour buns. Chen Wenqi's draft was completed, and his intuition was good, so he was in a good mood and had an excellent appetite, so he drank two bowls of millet porridge and three white flour buns with pickles. After breakfast, I walked back slowly along the corridor, and saw the candidates in the rooms on both sides, all of whom were holding tubes and groaning and meditating, and there were few people with relaxed expressions.

Back on the 59th, Chen Wenqi added water to the inkstone again, and held the ink in a circle and grinded it unhurriedly. He likes to write in thick ink, and the words on the rice paper are particularly eye-catching, not like the words written in light ink looming, without any spirit.

When the ink was thick, Chen Wenqi began to transcribe. Although the cursive writing is very good, the habit of many years, serious articles, Chen Wenqi is written in block letters. But seeing the upright and delicate willow body, like a black pearl inlaid on the white and slightly yellow rice paper, people can't put it down.

Because he still had to make minor changes to the draft while transcribing it, and he did not use cursive writing, it took Chen Wenqi almost two hours to complete the correction. Then it took a little half an hour to "mend the grass" before it was completed.

At this time, it was still the end of the afternoon and the beginning of the afternoon. According to the rules of the examination room, after noon, the examination inspector will come to ask the scholars for stamps. When stamping, there must be more than a dozen lines on the test paper, and at least three or five lines must be written. If the test paper is not stamped, the examinee will be deemed to have committed a foul when handing in the paper. Even if the offender can still take the next two exams, there is no hope of passing. While waiting for the stamp, Chen Wenqi went to the military room to bring clean water, washed the inkstone and brush to remove the remaining ink, and drained it for later use.

As soon as noon passed, a cannon was heard, and the soldiers who had already completed the exam could hand in their papers. In order to ensure order, each trade size is equipped with two receivers. After Chen Wenqi sent the test paper to the "Xuan" character acceptance officer, he walked aimlessly back and forth in the corridor. Therefore, most of the candidates were still answering the papers, and Chen Wenqi hurried back to No. 59 for fear of disturbing others' thoughts. It was still early before dark, and he didn't bring any books with him, so he was bored, Chen Wenqi simply meditated cross-legged on the small bed, looked inward with both eyes, and sank the qi of the dantian down into the perineum, and then passed through the meridian along the meridian through the meridians, the center, the large vertebrae, and the back pillow to the top of the head Baihui acupoint, and then led the Baihui qi forward through Yintang, Renzhong, Tiantu, Jizhong, and Zhongguan, and returned to the dantian downward. In this way, the lifting and descent run repeatedly along the small Zhou Tian, only to feel a stream of air in the body wolf rushing suddenly, the more urgent it goes, the stronger it gets, the more comfortable the four bodies and hundreds of remains, and the whole person gradually forgets about things and me.

I don't know how long it took, only to hear three cannon shots outside the dragon gate, Chen Wenqi opened his eyes and saw that it was getting dark, and the first exam was officially over. According to the rules, after the three rounds of gunfire, all candidates must submit their papers in full, regardless of whether they have completed it or not, without delay. For a while, the urging of the examiner, the regret of the unfinished paper, and the inquiry of checking and answering questions could be heard everywhere, and the originally silent Gongyuan instantly became noisy.

............

The second and third exams are no different from the first, they are all the first to be released on the next day, and the three cannons are fired at the end of the unitary period.

The second test is to test two "strategies": first, "officials can govern the people, but they can also cause harm to the people, how can the officials govern the people?" and second, "the river has been troubled for a long time, and it is blocked and sparse, which is the one who is blocked and which is sparse?"

These two questions are quite interesting: one is 'natural disaster' and the other is "man-made disaster". Respondents must not only have a certain degree of literary talent, but also have the ambition to govern the country and serve the people, so that they can pay attention to the shortcomings and think about countermeasures on weekdays. Under the guidance of Mr. Chen Wenqi, Chen Wenqi has set up a lofty ambition to help the people from an early age, and has already had a prescription for the two major carbuncles in society. After taking the test paper, I polished the thick ink and lifted the pen with a wave.

In the third exam, try to "discuss" one: "The emperor so he stopped the lake and collected wood".

"Huguang Wood Harvesting" was a major event in the early days of the founding of this dynasty. In the early days of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, after the army of the great general Xu Da captured Dadu, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, the Northern Yuan regime of the former Mongolian clan that retreated to the north of the Ming Dynasty continued to confront the Ming army and repeatedly invaded the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Di, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, felt that he was beyond the reach of the whip and decided to move the capital to Beijing. Therefore, since the fourth year of Yongle, in order to build the Beijing Palace, the imperial court sent people to Huguang and other places to supervise the collection of large trees, "with 100,000 people into the mountains to open up roads". Among them, more than 70,000 "cedar pine timber" are harvested once a year in Bingwu, and this long-term indiscriminate felling has caused soil erosion in the Huguang forest area to become increasingly serious, and the people have no fixed place to live. In the first year of the reign of Zhu Zhanji, the fifth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, coinciding with the disaster of the lake, the new emperor issued an order to stop the lake and collect wood to relieve the people's difficulties.

On "the first emperor so the lake wide wood" is nothing more than an analysis of the meaning of the lake wide wood, effect and praise the "Taiping Emperor" grace, as long as you are familiar with this history 63 years ago, it is not difficult to get to the point.

"On "The First Emperor Stopped the Lake and Harvested Wood": During the Bingwu period, the lake was drought, the people were waiting to be fed, and the court was worried. The first emperor Xuande Ye was compassionate and sympathetic to the people, and issued an edict to stop the lake and collect wood, in order to recuperate the people's livelihood ......".

In the last exam on the third day, Chen Wenqi also finished answering the questions early. After noon, the cannon that prompted that the paper could be handed in sounded, Chen Wenqi put down his pen and washed the inkstone, sent the answer sheet together with the draft, and sent it to the "Xuan" number of the receiving officer to hand in the paper, received a "quasi-sign", carried the examination basket to the exit of the Longmen of the Gongyuan, waited for a pillar of incense, gathered the number of people who "released the lot", and the Longmen was immediately opened, and the candidates who handed in the papers first came out.

At the gate of the Tribute Courtyard, Jingxing had already led the way. Seeing Chen Wenqi out of the gate of the Tribute Academy, he hurriedly ran over and said to Chen Wenqi anxiously: "Brother Wenqi, something happened......