Officials participating in the rural examination can be roughly divided into two categories according to the nature of their work. One category is the inner curtain officer, the chief examiner, and the co-examiner. Qin Dewei also falls into this category this time.
The other category is outside officials, including promotion, supervision, supply and other officials.
In short, internal officials like Qin Dewei are only responsible for grading and admission, and have no regard for other chores and examination room discipline.
The Zhigong Hall is the core office of the Outer Curtain Officer. After the Zhi Gong Hall is the Feihong Bridge, and beyond the Feihong Bridge is the Inner Curtain Gate.
Behind the inner curtain door is the courtyard where the examiners live.
In the examination room, the inner curtain, that is, the examiner and the outer curtain, are mostly isolated from each other and cannot ventilate.
Note, this is most of the time, not all of the time...
After Qin Dewei arrived at the Gongyuan, he passed directly through the Zhigong Hall, the Dragon Gate, and then entered the inner curtain door, arriving at the deepest mysterious area of the entire Gongyuan.
For the next month, all examiners will be locked inside and are not allowed to go out or communicate with the outside world.
The entire provincial examination was graded here, and the future fate of countless scholars was decided here.
Qin Dewei, the examiner, is the biggest figure in this independent area at the deepest part of Gongyuan.
What's special is that Mrs. Li also followed Qin Dewei in.
It doesn't matter if she doesn't come in. She has been entangled with Qin Dewei for a month, leaving her to run around outside and leaking the situation of Chief Qin's exam. What should I do?
When other people in the courtyard saw Miss Li, they could only sigh with envy that she was a celebrity.
They have to become a monk for a month, but Qin Xueshi can bring his beautiful concubine to warm the bed. The difference in life is simply greater than the difference in fame.
A servant took Qin Dewei to his room to settle in. As the most distinguished examiner, his living conditions were very high-end.
I am alone in a courtyard. All the beds, couches, tables, chairs, curtains and other appliances in the room are newly made, and the decorations are embroidered with red brocade as usual. It is also for good luck and pleasing to the eye, making it look very magnificent.
Everything that Mrs. Li saw was new and she was overjoyed. She felt so happy that it was like a wedding room.
It was already late today, and Qin Dewei was not thinking about official business, but a police officer came to ask for instructions, and the examiners were all gathered together, whether to hold a banquet tonight.
For them, the examiners, there is no shortage of food, fish, meat, wine and food. Jiangning County and Shangyuan County from outside are fully supplying them, so they can eat whatever they want.
Qin Dewei thought for a while and agreed to meet the other examiners.
In addition to the chief examiner Qin Dewei, there are nine fellow examiners who are assigned to different rooms to read the papers.
These days, the instructors at the Nanzhili Township Examination School are co-examiners, unlike later, when magistrates with more distinguished status were used to recommend officials to serve as co-examiners.
When Qin Dewei came to the main hall, the other nine examiners had already arrived in advance and were waiting respectfully, without any of them being rude.
Not to mention that Qin Dewei, a young man in a high position, was not convinced and insisted on jumping out to provoke the person who was slapped in the face. There was no other reason than that the status difference was too much.
This examiner is the number one scholar in the Hanlin Academy, and most of his fellow examiners are county school instructors who have been promoted to college supervisors. Why should I be dissatisfied?
Qin Dewei invited everyone to sit down together, and then started chatting. There are also routines for scholars to meet each other.
You must first tell where you are from, or where you are from, to see if you are from the same hometown or province, or if you can establish regional friendship.
Most of the examiners for the Southern Zhili Township Examination are invited from the three surrounding provinces of Shandong, Henan, and Huguang.
Among them was an examiner named Tang Shangzhong, who was the county school teacher in Liaocheng County, Shandong Province.
The key point is that this person happened to have "worked" with the former county magistrate Zeng Mian. Doesn't this indicate friendship with the distinguished examiner?
After the scholars have finished talking about their regions, it’s time to talk about each other’s reputations. The main issue is seniority, and distinguish between higher and lower.
However, here is the number one scholar, and the others are all candidates and superintendents, so how can they have the nerve to talk about their fame?
Qin Dewei laughed and said very understandingly: "Looking at your age, you are all seniors in the literary world, so there is no need to talk about false reputations!"
Therefore, the examiners directly omitted the link of "discussing merit and fame" and entered the link of asking each other "what classics to treat".
To be honest, the low-level instructors who can be selected as examiners may not have good luck in fame and fortune, but their academic level is definitely not bad.
Qin Dewei, who was sitting in the main seat, just smiled and listened to others talking about classics and basically didn't interrupt.
The previous Liaocheng County magistrate Tang Shangzhong suddenly had an idea and said to Qin Dewei in a flattering manner:
"I heard that the examiner often writes a few sample essays and shows them to the examiners as a reference for marking.
Nowadays, the Qin scholar has chosen Nanji with the honor of being the number one scholar, so why not write a few model essays to show them, so that we can have a basis for evaluating our essays?"
Damn it! Qin Dewei looked at Tang Shangzhong very warily.
This person actually wants me to write an eight-legged essay. Could it be that he is loyal on the surface but deceitful at heart, and has some unforeseen plans for him?
But two people next to them also agreed, "What Brother Tang said is reasonable. We'll wait and see what Scholar Qin's splendid article will do!"
Qin Dewei waved his hand kindly and said: "How can there be a certain rule about the length of an article? Just judging the quality based on the model article is not an act of cutting off one's feet to fit the shoes."
Besides, you are all well-educated Confucians, and I am young after all, so I don’t dare to set an example!"
Qin Dewei's words made everyone very surprised. It may not be surprising for others to say this, but this is the legendary Qin Zhuangyuan!
According to rumors, Qin Zhuangyuan, not only arrogant and domineering, can also be called a coward.
From the princes and ministers to the talented and famous men, they were almost all ignored by him.
But such a person, in front of these young Confucian instructors, who are all famous and famous, is so humble, so courteous, and not arrogant at all.
The nine fellow examiners looked at each other and thought in unison, as expected, the rumors cannot be believed at all, as the saying goes, everyone's mouth makes gold.
Qin Dewei felt a little cold, coughed, and said again: "However, I also have some thoughts about this exam.
In recent years, exam-oriented essays have been a bit too rigid and rigid, and need some different elements to add vitality."
Everyone secretly speculated that Qin Zhuangyuan was also a believer in Xin Xue? The most fashionable thing in recent years is Xin Xue.
Qin Dewei did not let everyone continue to guess, "Actually, I prefer Qi science, and I would like to see more explanations of Qi science."
Qi science is a bit niche, but some smart people seem to have guessed something.
The reason is very simple, the more niche and unique it is, the easier it is to be discovered.
Tang Shangzhong still asked in a very unbiased way: "According to Emperor Gao's instructions, the essays on classics and meanings for examinations must be based on Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism."
Qin Dewei began to wonder in his heart whether Tang Shangzhong was really stupid or fake.
He continued to answer: "Concerning Neo-Confucianism and Qiology, their origins come from Confucianism.
When writing essays on classics and meanings for examinations, it is not a bad rule to have a little understanding of Qi science under the nature of Neo-Confucianism."
Some other fellow examiners shouted: "We know it, it's according to what Academician Qin said!"
There is no need to think about this. Whatever the examiner says is what it is. Besides, Qin Dewei has such a good attitude towards everyone, they can't be really ignorant and just sell it when it's time to show off their face.
