Chapter 41: Passing the border smoothly
Sun Hao’s quick handover not only surprised Sun Dan, but also surprised County Magistrate Zhang.
After seeing Magistrate Zhang take the paper, Sun Dan looked at it a few times, and then frowned slightly.
Sun Dan laughed in his heart. He knew the best in his heart what Sun Hao is. However, these two questions are memorable, depending on his mastery of basic knowledge. Besides, Li Meiting had asked Sun Hao and the others to do these two questions several times before, and they should have been able to memorize them.
If Sun Dan guessed correctly, Sun Hao would have no problem with today's exam today. However, his two essays must have no reading ability, and the format is only acceptable, but he cannot find any problems.
In a sense, the articles that Mr. Li Meiting instilled in the school children in advance were somewhat similar to the eight-legged essay written by Huang Hongxian, a Qing Dynasty man who copied Sun Dan before. It was boring and boring, but it could get high scores.
Zhang Duan and his elder brother Zhang Cong had a background in his family. He was also a famous talented man in Zhejiang and valued the most literary talent and style.
When I saw Sun Hao’s article today, I felt a little displeased. However, the test was not judged by his subjective will. After taking a look, I had to draw a circle on the paper helplessly.
Sun Hao was overjoyed and said, "Puuu! He knelt on the ground and kowtowed, and sang a fat promise: "Thank you, my parents."
It turned out that the county exam in the Ming Dynasty was not strict. When the examiner encountered a test paper that he had seen, he would be admitted on the spot. Just now, Magistrate Zhang picked up his pen and put it on Sun Hao's test paper, even if Sun Hao passed the test.
County Magistrate Zhang let Sun Hao pass, because Sun Hao is the eldest son of the Sun family, and secondly, he really can't find any problem with his test paper. He waved his hand and let Sun Hao leave the examination room.
When Sun Hao went out, he squeezed his eyes at Sun Dan and signaled him to speed up the time.
Unfortunately, Sun Dan didn't want to show off this, so she just smiled and buried her head again.
Time passed little by little, and in a moment, people kept getting up to hand in the papers, most of which were children of the Sun family.
County Magistrate Zhang is worthy of being a talented man. After taking the paper, he looked at it with a look at it. When he met someone he liked, he accepted it one by one on the spot. In less than an hour, six people were given away.
Sun Dan was surprised to find that five of the six people were school children from Sun Family School. It seems that Mr. Li Meiting is going to be proud this time.
Of course, the dry and boring articles of the Sun family's children still made County Magistrate Zhang frown and seemed very impatient.
Seeing the impatient expression of Magistrate Zhang, Sun Dan felt that there were any kind of teachers and students. Mr. Li was a monster created by the examination-oriented education system. Don’t expect to cultivate talented men and beautiful women and Confucian scholars.
This was Sun Dan's first time taking the imperial examination in ancient times. The boy exam was not difficult for him, but it was also good to take this opportunity to practice military training and be familiar with the atmosphere in the examination room.
With this mentality in mind, he sat next to him with his hands and looked lively.
It was already dawn, and although the boy exam was the first level of the imperial examination, it was also difficult for some students. The examination room gradually differentiated from two levels, and most of the people who could pass the exam were handed in one hour. The remaining crooked melons and jujubes bit the pen and sat in the examination room and thought hard.
Sun Tan looked around in the exam room, which seemed very prominent.
It doesn't matter if he sees this chaos, but it attracts the attention of County Magistrate Zhang.
County Magistrate Zhang heard that Li Meiting strongly praised Sun Dan, and remembered that he had come to take the boy exam for more than a month, so he was very concerned about it. Seeing that he had been sitting in the examination room for a long time and had not started writing, he was a little displeased and said to himself: "What can I learn in a month? I will come to take the boy exam. This Li Meiting is fucking me."
He walked slowly to Sun Dan with his hands behind his back, poked his neck and looked over, but he saw that Sun Dan only wrote the word "min" on his paper.
Magistrate Zhang shook his head and asked in a low voice: "Do you think this question is a bit difficult?"
Seeing that he attracted the attention of the magistrate, Sun Dan knew that he had been playing for a while. If he had known, he would have lie on the table and then talk about it. Unfortunately, it was a bit cold. He would sleep in the examination room, afraid that he would catch a cold.
He whispered: "Sir, students think this question is not difficult and can be finished in a short time. However, it is still early now. If you submit the papers and show up, students have no place to go. It's cold outside, so it's better to stay in the exam room to get warmer."
Magistrate Zhang was very unhappy and thought to himself that he was here to keep warm. The students taught by Li Meiting were all disgusting and their articles were useless. Reviewing their papers was simply torture. The scholars and students from the north were indeed dull and the things they wrote were not very spiritual.
When he thought of this, County Magistrate Zhang felt a little angry: "Sun Dan, you should do the exam immediately. Mr. Li said in front of me that you are a rare talent. Today, this county will stand by you waiting for you to write, and see how different you are from other school children in the Sun family. What you wrote in the Sun family is really ugly. I believe Mr. Li asked you to do a lot of similar texts in advance. You also wrote such things this time to stick to my eyes and will not take any."
Sun Dan was very helpless. It was impossible to be guarded by someone like this without attracting attention.
Forget it, let’s finish the question quickly and go to Sun Hao and the others.
After thinking for a moment, Sun Dan immediately realized that County Magistrate Zhang had an opinion on him. Moreover, the test papers handed over by the Sun family’s schoolchildren just now made him very depressed. If he wrote honest articles step by step, he would be afraid that he would not score high.
OK, since you want to read beautiful words in County Magistrate Zhang, I will write beautiful articles for you to read.
After thinking about it, he immediately remembered that there were two articles with the same title in "Tongzhitang Collection" by Nalan Xingde, a native of the Qing Dynasty. Nalan Rongruo was a famous talent in the Qing Dynasty. Plagiarized his articles should have made County Magistrate Zhang's eyes shine.
County Magistrate Zhang is from Jiangnan, so he must like this elegant and elegant writing style.
So, Sun Dan picked up his pen and continued to write after the word "Min": "After the people are richer than the lower, the lord is richer than the higher." This is a solution to the problem.
Then there is the question.
"It is because the richness of the king is hidden in the people. Since the people are rich, how can you have the reason to be poor alone? If you have a deep meaning of the unity of the king and the people, you will tell the Lord of Ai."
Now Sun Dan is not hiding his crotch, and he doesn't care about using the square and dignified style of the hall. He picks up his pen and is like the flowing clouds and flowing water.
This calligraphy was collected in the Palace Museum in Taipei in later generations. Sun Dan copied it many times at the beginning, but now he is willing to show off his skills in front of Zhang County, but he does not hide his shortcomings. He just takes two lines of large characters.
"Okay!" Zhang Magistrate Zhang suddenly shivered when he saw these two lines of big characters, and he couldn't help but scream: "I forgot the clumsy in my mind, my words are very thin, but Mr. Dongpo's writing style? The article is also wonderful. Zhong Ling is beautiful in water, and there is a faint water and spiritual energy coming out of the paper. Mr. Li trained a good disciple!"
Sun Dan didn't say anything, with a tense face, and his pen was like a dragon and a snake. He finished this article in a moment. Needless to say, this article was written in a colorful way, and Su Dongpo's "Cold Food Post" was ancient and vigorous, which complemented the ancient meaning of "The Analects of Confucius". When he suddenly looked, it was like he was about to circumvent it from the paper.
Flip the paper aside, replace it with another clean pepper white flour paper, and lift the pen to start the second question.
The county magistrate Zhang's beloved Sun Dan's talent was not caring about Sun Dan's rudeness. He also thought that he had been able to write such good writings for only more than a month. He was shocked: If ordinary people want to write such good writing, they don't know how much hard work they have to copy and how many calligraphy works of famous masters. The Sun Mansion naturally has no shortage of original works of famous masters, but they can be pondered every day. However, they can read and write articles in a month, and the ravines in their writing are made of their own, but they can only be described as genius.
Sun Dan picked up the pen and wrote a line of words on the paper: "There is no name for future generations, but the sages are worried."
This time, he changed into Mi Fu's running script "Shu Su Tie".
This line of characters is more in line with the intention of Zhang Magistrate Zhang than the previous Su Dongpo's "Cold Food Post". After reading only two words, he sighed: "For the sake of the strange and dangerous text, he does not follow the rules of his predecessors. It is unique in calligraphy and writing, and he is so beautiful that he can get the style of Wang Xian. Is it Mi Dian's style?"
"It's the word Mi Yuanzhang." Sun Dan nodded. When he was distracted, the last word "Ye" suddenly broke and was not connected because the ink trace had dried up.
Now, County Magistrate Zhang felt very uncomfortable in his heart and couldn't help but say, "What a pity, it's a pity. It's like a strong man using a thousand pound hammer. If this hammer goes down, it falls into a void, which is a pity!"
Sun Dan pointed to the inkstone: "The ink has dried up."
"No, no hurry." Magistrate Zhang smiled and added water to the inkstone, rolled up his sleeves and polished the ink for Sun Dan: "Only you have a good handwriting, you can get the first place in the current academic year, and write it slowly. I haven't seen such good handwriting for many years."
The owner of the housekeeper hurriedly said, "Sun Dan, don't you kneel down and thank the magistrate, you have passed this subject."
County Magistrate Zhang laughed: "It would be strange if you can't pass this way. Sun Dan, you don't have to get up and kneel down to thank you. After finishing the article, you can't see such good writing and such good articles. I'm lucky enough to meet it, but unfortunately I don't have any wine in my hand and can't be completely out of it."
Although expected, Sun Dan breathed a sigh of relief. After completing the county test, the next step was the palace test at the end of April, and then the Taoist test.
Chapter completed!