Life is like a fickle God, you never know whether there will be heavy rain or drought next year.
But Li Zicheng knew!
"Actually, I can calculate every test question in the future..."
"..." Ai Yu's eyes widened when she first heard it, with a look of disbelief on her face.
He reached out and took out the silver.
Li Zicheng waved his hand and refused, "No, the secret must not be leaked. But the question of the scholar examination is not that important. I can show it off to you."
Ai Yuchu smiled slightly and said in a low voice: "Don't worry about this, Brother Li. I'm not talented, I know a few things."
"Oh?" Li Zicheng pretended to be surprised and gave a thumbs up, "I admire you! Are you a semi-immortal too?"
Ai Yuchu smiled but said nothing.
The Ai family is so powerful that it is easy to get through the back door.
Feng Qilong smiled and said, "I wonder what Brother Li just said about noble people..."
Li Zicheng took a sip of tea and said slowly: "Then it depends on your destiny. Those who know the current affairs are heroes, otherwise why would noble people support you?"
Feng Qilong thought for a moment and had no clue.
He took out a piece of broken silver and said, "These small things are really disrespectful. Someday..."
Li Zicheng pushed away, "No need. I later learned that the five-hundred-year-old half-immortal is short of money?"
By this time, Ai Chaodong, the county magistrate, had recovered.
He was in a good mood and said helpfully: "Brother Li, that's all I've said, how can I add anything more?"
"Then I'll tell you the truth." After Li Zicheng finished teasing, he stopped talking, "You, there is no problem in winning the national examination this year..."
Feng Qilong was secretly happy, pricked up his ears and concentrated.
"But...brother Yuntan, to be honest, you don't have a background in the Ai family. In the future, you will at best go to Lantian County to serve as an evangelist."
Feng Qilong smiled bitterly and sighed secretly.
Ai Yuchu asked: "Where is that noble man?"
Li Zicheng wants to say that the noble man is right in front of him, but he has to be believed. How can these gentlemen easily surrender to "thieves"?
"If you climb up to a noble person, your future is limitless. This is a story for later, let's talk about it later."
"Thank you, Brother Li." This was considered good news, and Feng Qilong felt happy again.
Li Zhensheng came over again, "Three Masters Lianzhu..."
Li Zicheng asked: "Who in our county was a Jinshi in the first year of Chongzhen?"
Ai Yuchu answered quickly: "My fifth brother Ai Yingyin."
Li Zicheng nodded, "Yes, so..."
Li Zhensheng said hurriedly: "The big exam in Xinweinian..."
"Snapped!"
Li Zicheng snapped his fingers, startling several people.
"In the fourth year of Chongzhen's reign, Ai Yuchu inscribed the name of Yanta; in the seventh year, Li Zhensheng succeeded him, and it was called the Three Masters of Mi Zhi."
Finally gaining true trust, Ai Yuchu and Li Zhensheng breathed a long sigh of relief.
Next to them, Feng Qilong and Ai Chaodong were busy congratulating each other; Ai Zhao shrank aside and did not dare to speak.
Ai Yuchu felt refreshed and said modestly: "Brother Li is joking, just use your words to make us happy. The strange power makes us confused, and I don't say anything. Ai has little talent and little knowledge, and he has to study hard to make a difference."
The old god Li Zicheng said: "Whether it is yes or no, we will naturally find out next year."
"that……"
Ai Chaodong, the preparatory magistrate, couldn't help it anymore, "Brother Li, according to what you said, I am at least a civil servant, right?"
In the early days, most of the county officials were Jinshi. Nowadays, the situation is declining, and even the candidates are getting ahead.
"Yes! Take your time, Ji Mao will not be able to escape."
"Thank you very much, Brother Li, for your kind words!"
Ai Chaodong doesn't have Ai Yuchu's background, so he is quite satisfied with being a county magistrate.
Li Zicheng gave him another surprise, "If you work for two years, you will be promoted to the fifth grade of Tongzhi. After that, you will be like Brother Feng. Those who understand current affairs are outstanding. Let's see if you can seize the opportunity."
Ai Chaodong bowed his head to the end and said, "I would like to borrow Brother Li's good words."
The whole hall was filled with joy.
There were many scholars in Mizhi County who had close ties with each other, and everyone asked about the future of others.
Li Zicheng came one by one, surprising them all.
Ai Chaodong couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Brother Yuanfu is five years older than his younger brother, but he was admitted three years later. I don't know why in the imperial examination, so I'm sorry for the uncertainty. If you really agree with that sentence, life and death will be uncertain in ten years."
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a saying that "thirty old people know the classics, and fifty young people are Jinshi". Anyone who passed the Jinshi examination at the age of fifty is considered young. There are many people who can't even pass the scholar examination at the age of fifty.
Ai Yuchu nodded, "How many talented people have outstanding talents, but they have been defeated repeatedly because of God's will."
Not to mention those who are far away, but those who are nearby include Li Shizhen, Tang Bohu, Wu Chengen, Gui Youguang, Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, Zhang Dai, Tan Qian and so on.
Feng Qilong shook his head, "Nowadays, some people only memorize model essays, hoping that if they succeed, they will not read any books."
There was an exam, and the question asked was "Since then, I have been a mean husband when I started doing business."
This sentence comes from "Mencius Gongsun Chouxia", which means that the first person to be levied commercial tax was a bitch.
As a result, some unlearned and unskilled candidates misinterpreted the meaning of the text and thought that "conquering merchants" meant conquering the Shang Dynasty, so they broke the topic and said: Using ministers to attack the emperor, King Wu is not a saint.
There is no need to read this kind of article below, just throw it in the trash can.
Even Mao Cheng, the number one scholar who had contributed to the establishment of the Jiajing Emperor, was found to have plagiarized his imperial examination strategy - "There are too many "Primary School History", and there is no complacency at all."
Therefore, Gu Yanwu lamented: "Today we are focused on getting the best results, no more than writing one or two hundred questions in the "Four Books" and stealing other people's writings. On the day of admission, just copy and copy, and you can get lucky with the Chinese style.
But there are no readers of the full text of this scripture."
Here's another example that didn't happen.
The small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty designated Zhu Qiyu's temple name as Daizong because it felt that he had replaced his brother on the throne.
People at the time said: "The Tang Dynasty kept taboos on the world, but Daizong still talked about Shizong. Modern people want to use it to highlight the emperor, but they don't learn from this."
Emperor Li Yu of the Tang Dynasty made great contributions to pacifying the An-Shi Rebellion. Originally, it was decided that his temple name would be Shizong, but he wanted to avoid being tabooed by Li Shimin, so he changed it to Daizong in the name of generations.
Generation and replacement have completely different meanings.
Therefore, those who gave Zhu Qiyu the ancestral temple title in the small imperial court of the Southern Ming Dynasty were purely unlearned and unskilled.
Some miscellaneous scholars in the Ming Dynasty read almost no books except the "Complete Collection of Xingli" authorized by Emperor Yongle.
Zhang Dai's "Night Sailing": Once upon a time, there was a monk who stayed with a scholar on a night boat. The scholar talked loudly, and the monk was so frightened that he fell asleep with his fists in his hands. The monk heard that there were flaws in his words, so he said: "Excuse me, sir, why did Tantai destroy the Ming Dynasty?"
One person or two people?" The scholar said: "It's two people." The monk said: "Yao and Shun are one person or two people?" The scholar said: "Of course they are one person!" The monk laughed and said: "This
When you start talking, wait for the young monk to stretch his legs."
The seat of the county school is the Confucian Temple, and there are statues of the Seventy-Two Sages inside. Tantai Mieming was one of the seventy-two sages under Confucius, but the scholars didn't know it? It took a lot of reading, let alone Yao and Shun.
Huang Zongxi was reading "Book of Song Dynasty" once and flipped through "Biography of Tao Yuanming". A Jinshi scholar was surprised when he saw it: "Is Yuanming from after the Tang Dynasty?"
Huang Zongxi smiled and said nothing.
Apparently that Jinshi couldn't tell the difference between "History of the Song Dynasty" and "Book of the Song Dynasty". He only knew about the Zhao Song Dynasty and not the Southern Dynasty Song Dynasty.
Lao Huang could only sigh: If the imperial examination studies are like this, why should we blame them for being hopeless and perishing in chaos?
Everyone sighed when they talked about the various shortcomings of the imperial examination.
Li Zhensheng also echoed: "The stereotype of recruiting scholars will cause great harm to people."
Li Zicheng agreed, "Once you practice Bagu, your heart will have to be thin, your energy will have to be humble, your vision will have to be narrow, your meaning will have to be sour, your appearance will have to be cold, and your intestines will have to be rotten..."
"When in this world, when talented people and talented people come out, they will not be restrained by the talented governors and even killed. The killing is not with swords, saws, water or fire; the writings are also killed, and the names are also killed.
The voice, smile, and appearance are also killed. The right to kill is not reported to the king, the officials, or the officials. The king and the officials will not accept it. The method is not up to the point. It only kills their hearts. They can be worried and angry.
A heart that can think, a heart that can act, a heart that is honest and shameless, and a heart that is free of scum. And it is not to be killed in a day, but to be killed gradually, maybe at the age of three, at the age of ten, at the age of ten, at the age of a hundred.
"
It's not easy for the scholars either. They have spent half their lives in stereotyped writing. They don't want to delve into stereotyped writing, but they have no choice. The court only sees this.
If you feed him pig food, he becomes a pig; if you feed him mathematics, physics and chemistry, he becomes a scientist.
After Li Zicheng finished the article, he said: "But there are two sides to the story. If the eight-legged article is well done, you can do whatever you want, poetry if you want, poetry if you want, poetry if you want. It will be a mark with a whip, and a slap with blood."
It cannot be generalized.”
The text of the classics is commonly known as the eight-legged essay. The essay is also the name of the dual.
Eight-legged writing is just a style of writing, and it is just a fixed format. How to break the topic, carry on the topic and end it. There is no good or bad format.
Can you say that five-character quatrains specifying five characters is a drawback? Tang poems and Song lyrics with flat and oblique rhyme and word count are a drawback? Couplets are also a drawback?
The article does not have standard answers like arithmetic, and is very subjective.
However, in the imperial examination, there are always standards for judging the performance of the test writers, which brings great inconvenience to the examiners.
Grading is difficult, examination is slow, and it is difficult for examiners to agree on opinions.
Therefore, a general framework is needed to limit candidates' performance.
Eight-legged writing came into being.
The three essentials of the Eight-part Part (Eight-legged Part) are: the meaning of the scriptures, the speeches made by the sages, and the Eight-part Part (Eight-legged Part) antithesis.
The scope of the questions, the ideas for answering the questions, and the stylistic format are stipulated respectively.
Eight-legged essay requires extremely high composition ability, which requires not only good prose but also good parallel prose.
Over the course of hundreds of years, the books from which the questions were drawn have been rotten, and it can be said that any sentence has been included in the question. Moreover, the scholars of the Ming Dynasty were only allowed to read Zhu Xi's annotations and were not allowed to have their own understanding.
So bad stereotypes are about restricting content.
However, the Jinshi mentioned earlier did not know which dynasty and generation Tao Yuanming came from. What does it matter? Does this mean that he cannot be a good official? Two different things.
The purpose of the imperial court is to select talents, and those who write essay questions only seek fame. The purpose of the imperial examination itself is not to improve knowledge and emancipate the mind.
From this point of view, there is nothing wrong with the imperial examination system, but it is quite advanced.
Although Confucianism is superficial, the problem still lies with the dog.
The great thing about Confucianism is that it is a theory that maintains the order of feudal society. Other schools of thought are not as powerful as him.
In the eyes of feudal rulers, the first priority is always to maintain imperial power. Therefore, Confucianism must be respected.
The emperor is the 1 in the front, and Confucianism is the string of 0s in the back.
Without 1, any number of 0s is useless.
"Anyone who does not follow Confucius's skills in the six arts should practice their own way. Do not allow them to advance, and any eccentric sayings are forbidden!"
"Several Confucian scholars argued about Confucius's teachings, but they were all silent but did not dare to agree or disagree."
I have been spinning in the circle drawn by Confucius my whole life, what can I do?
have!
Regardless of whether you have passed the exam or not, whether you like to study science or psychology in the future, that is your freedom. No one will restrict you.
Xu Guangqi, who had just been promoted to Minister of Rites, still believed in Christianity, which shows that our Ming Dynasty has a broad mind.
However, the common virtue of literati in the late Ming Dynasty was——
"The scholars of the past were those who studied Taoism; today's scholars are those who study and scold. Those who are reserved and honest are scolded as showing off; those who are committed to the world are scolded as utilitarian; those who read and write are scolded as playing with things and losing their ambition; those who pay attention to political affairs are scolded as
Common officials..."
…
A few people chatted for a while, and all the scholars already looked at Li Zicheng with admiration.
Seeing that the time was almost up, Li Zicheng selected a pile of pens, ink, paper and inkstones and prepared to leave. Naturally, Feng Qilong refused to accept money.
Ai Chaodong asked curiously: "I wonder what Brother Li does with buying so much paper?"
There are so many that when stacked they are almost as tall as a person.
Zhang Nai pinched his waist and said, "My godfather is going to Beijing to take the No. 1 exam!"
All the scholars fell to pieces.
Li Zicheng said, "Wipe the hook."
All the scholars were speechless.
These days, paper with writing should be cherished and should not be thrown away casually. It must be collected and burned. If you dare to use the paper with writing on it or even clean the ditch, take it directly to the county government to be slapped and served.
Before leaving the house, Li Zicheng turned back again, chattering non-stop and writing with a swipe of his hand.
"Nine out of ten people can look down upon them, but they are useless - they are just scholars. Apply what they have learned to help the world and the country. I hope you will do well in your own way."
Otherwise, I will send your soul away with a suona song.
After Li Zicheng finished writing, he floated away with his hands behind his back.
"Bai Wu-yong is a scholar..." Li Zhensheng murmured to himself, suddenly feeling endless aftertaste.
Other scholars crowded in front of the case to watch.
Ai Yuchu praised: "What a beautiful face and body, showing a strong and majestic spirit in the clumsiness."
As for the written content, it was naturally copied by Li Zicheng——
Scholars are the worst. Poor writing is as bad as mud. The country’s original purpose is to seek talents, but who knows it has turned into a trick to bully others...
"What a strange thing! Did Li Zicheng go to school?"
"Impossible! He used to herd sheep for my uncle in Dongguanzhuang when he was young."
"Is there really a gift from heaven?"
"He is now Li Banxian!"
Several people were chattering endlessly. This chapter has been completed!