All preparations are in place and the county examination begins.
Let’s put the first question first: “Confucius said that the eight hundred people of the Ji family dancing in the court were tolerable or intolerable.”
The words come from "The Analects of Confucius·Eight Yi Chapter".
It is the same as the general understanding of "what is tolerable and what is intolerable", what is evaluated is the expression of one's will... If this can be tolerated, what can't be tolerated?
But in fact, the original meaning is: "Confucius said when commenting on the Ji family, he played music and danced with eight hundred people in the courtyard of his family temple. The Ji family had the heart to do such a thing, what else could they not bear to do?"
What you evaluate is what others do.
Zhu Xi's Annotations to the Analects of Confucius states: "The Ji family, as a great official, arrogated the pleasure of the emperor. Confucius said, if this can be tolerated, what can't be tolerated?"
It means, you can't bear to do such a violation of etiquette, what else can't you bear to do?
…
The regular imperial examinations, all the way to the provincial examinations, are mainly based on two or three four-book essays in the first session. If you pass the four-book essays and make no major mistakes in the subsequent five essays, policy essays, etc., you can be admitted and rank among the best.
Until the provincial examination, the main part of the general imperial examination consisted of two four-book essays. If nothing else, they were one question on "The Analects" and one question on "Mencius".
The main reason is that these two classics have a lot of words, and they are also the quotations handed down by Confucius and Mencius, the ancestors of Confucianism. Of course, they should be the main ones, but it is not absolute.
"University" and "Zhongyong" may also have questions.
When it comes to the provincial examination, because the examination will take place overnight, the first section will basically consist of three essays and four essays, and there will definitely be a question from "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean".
If you want to live well in this world, you must learn "The Analects" well. In the primary examination, there are very likely to be two questions on "The Analects". Who makes Confucius the sage and Mencius only the lesser sage?
Then comes the second question.
Just as Zhu Hao expected, there is another question from The Analects: "The Master said that if I add a few years and fifty to learn Yi, it will not be a big mistake."
The meaning is as literal as: "Confucius said, add a few years to my life and let me start learning "Yi" at the age of fifty, then I will not make any big mistakes."
…
The topic has been published.
It is related to whether to pass the county examination. The two essays take almost 800 words to write down. There is no punctuation mark these days. It is as many words as you say. It is not difficult to complete it in one day, but it is not necessarily easy to complete it.
The issue is……
Not everyone here can understand the gist of these two articles.
Zhu Hao was not busy writing.
He was also examining the topic with great interest.
According to the Zhou rites, only the emperor can use eight yi, the princes can use six yi, the ministers and officials can use four yi, and the scholars can use two yi. One yi is eight people, which means that only the emperor is allowed to use 8,864 people to dance together.
Either the emperor used eight hundred, or he violated the etiquette.
In ancient China, etiquette was the most basic thing. Everything could be done according to etiquette but not the law. Even the law was established to maintain etiquette.
Needless to say, the person who asked the question was Kuang Yangming, a magistrate who was about to step down.
The governor of Anlu Prefecture, who is likely to have a crown prince and is now the first heir to the throne, is about to step down. Such a question arises... Do you want to tell others that you have noticed that Prince Xing's palace has acted arrogantly, but you are embarrassed to say so?
, so you use this topic to express your true inner thoughts?
These scholars are the most particular about moderation in their work.
Also strive to be obscure.
In the past few years in Anlu Prefecture, Kuang Yangming was not a sycophant who committed crimes, but he was definitely not a clean and honest minister. However, he had very little contact with Prince Xing's Mansion. He occasionally interacted with each other, but he kept a good sense of proportion.
Mainly because he was born in the orthodox imperial examination, and he believed that the legal system was definitely not that the vassal king should inherit the throne. Even if the emperor had no children, he should find a descendant of the clan and raise him as an adopted son in the palace to inherit the throne.
In the Song Dynasty, in addition to the precedent of establishing an emperor's heir when Song Renzong passed the throne to Song Yingzong, there were also many traditions in the Southern Song Dynasty where the emperor had no children to raise the heir of the clan. There was even a precedent of Song Gaozong and Zhao Gou selecting sons among the people. In the Confucian Taoism, the tradition is complete
In the Southern Song Dynasty, this was actually the Confucian legal system’s recognition and affirmation of the idea of imperial power succession.
Zhu Hao should think about it carefully.
Kuang Yangming is about to resign from Anlu Prefecture, and his whereabouts are unknown. For a minister with a Jinshi background, before leaving, he asked a question to indicate that he had hinted that Prince Xing's palace had violated etiquette in the county examination. Is this for the sake of the possible future imperial court?
In the fight with Prince Xing's Mansion, how can one survive alone?
If this is the case, then Kuang Yangming has no intention of having too much contact with Prince Xing's palace, nor does he plan to make any "contribution to the dragon" under the circumstances that Prince Xing's crown prince may inherit the treasure.
This is a manifestation of Kuang Yangming's clear distinction with Prince Xing's Mansion.
After understanding Kuang Yangming's position on Prince Xing's Mansion and his understanding of "clan's violation of etiquette", Zhu Hao had a direction when writing his article - to write in the direction of criticizing the violation of etiquette. The more intense the criticism, the better.
.
Even Master Zhu Xi said: "When Confucius was in charge of government, he first corrected rituals and music, and then the Ji family's crimes would not be punished."
There is just a problem.
After the examination papers were sealed and opened, Kuang Yangming found out that Zhu Hao was a reading companion in Prince Xing's Mansion. Will he be hindered by this?
Knowing that I was an accompanying student in Prince Xing's Mansion, he angrily removed me from the list... All grades are nominally determined before Kaifeng, but the examiner still has the power to remove the name of a candidate who passed the county examination from the list.
.In other words, even if he breaks the rules and removes a student from the list, no one will care.
In this case...
In addition to harsh criticism, I also want to show that I am "in the Cao camp and my heart is in the Han Dynasty". After all, I, Zhu Hao, come from the Zhu family of Jinyiwei. How can I be kind when I enter Prince Xing's palace?
…
Find the direction of the topic first.
The second question seems to be nothing on the surface. Confucius thought that after the age of fifty, one should study the "Book of Changes" carefully, and said that there would be no big mistake in doing so.
But the problem is...
Many things in the Book of Changes are very mysterious, especially the "Book of Changes" from the pre-Qin era. You must know that Confucius once advocated that "the Master does not talk about strange things and confuses the gods". If you study "Book of Changes" after the age of fifty, are you going against yourself?
What are your views on the theory of yin and yang, ghosts and gods?
But in fact, it is easy to understand. The essence of "Yi" is the cycle of natural principles.
To put it bluntly, it is still the idea of "every plant and every tree is reasonable" in studying things to achieve knowledge.
Kuang Yangming is an orthodox adherent of Neo-Confucianism. During the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, the study of mind had already sprouted. Kuang Yangming may have wanted to use this question to show that he would resolutely fight against the thoughts of mind. Who reflected the mind in the imperial examination articles?
Studying ideas and being influenced by them... Want to enroll here? No way!
Another pit.
Although Kuang Yangming was not the one who nominally graded the papers, Kuang Yangming had the right to choose the graders. How could Kuang Yangming not know which old scholars in the prefectures and counties held what thoughts, or who was close to the emerging psychology?
When the time comes, the people he selects will all be old Neo-Confucian scholars. These people are equally good at studying the minds of the people who asked the questions. Then a group of Neo-Confucian scholars will pick out words and block all candidates who are serious about learning from the admission list...
Not only do we need to take such precautions for the county exam, but we also need to be careful for the upcoming government exam.
This is called danger.
The foundation of Neo-Confucianism was shaken not because the Neo-Confucianism wanted to challenge the tradition, but because there were many shortcomings in Neo-Confucianism. The old academics were unwilling to accept the rise of new schools and suppressed new schools in the past dynasties. Seeing that the Neo-Confucianism was about to be replaced by Wang Shouren
With the efforts of Confucianism, Confucianism will become an orthodox force in the next ten years or even decades, but at this time, there is still such an old stubbornness blocking the way...
Zhu Hao thought to himself, fortunately I didn't really study under Wang Shouren.
Otherwise, just with this level of status, I would have no chance of taking the imperial examination under Kuang Yangming, a conservative Confucian scholar.
…
Once you find the direction, it’s time to write an article.
The eight-legged essay is divided into "breaking the topic, carrying the topic, starting the speech, entering the topic, starting the part, the middle part, the back part, and the ending part", because from the starting part to the ending part, two parallel sentences are needed to proceed.
Argument, so it is called eight-legged essay.
The requirement is that in the "last four strands", the dual sentences must be written according to the format no matter what.
Breaking the question is usually a single sentence, but the number of words in the sentence can be increased or reduced, and there is no fixed format.
In articles, you can often add some argumentative sentences such as "inheritance", "transmission", and "conclusion", and there is no fixed format requirement.
This is different from writing parallel prose. Eight-part essay focuses on using the words of saints to discuss the topic.
"The husband, ruler, and ministers always have a moderate standard. They have correct etiquette and music, and the Tao and the law are natural."
This is a broken question.
Don't you, Kuang Yangming, admire the "Book of Changes"? Don't think that I don't know that you admire Taoism. Then I will talk to you about etiquette and law, and then I will talk to you about the law of nature.
I won’t tell you what is tolerable and what is intolerable. I will tell you about the laws of monarchs and ministers. The king is a minister, and the emperor is the emperor. Only by correcting the rules of etiquette and music can the dignity and inferiority of the emperor and his ministers be respected.
It has been settled, and the matter of "Ji's use of eight hundred", isn't it a transgression of rituals and music, to a transgression of the human heart and legal system?
If you want to correct the etiquette and music, then I will teach you the etiquette and music.
Now that I have solved the problem, the next step is to talk about what I, as a firm supporter of etiquette and music, should do if I find someone who violates etiquette and music: "A person with lofty ideals should follow the etiquette and teach one's morality and guard one's heart.
If you sit down and don't follow the rules, you will be determined by your ethics. If you are punished by being punished, you may be punished by your body."
It means that as a virtuous person, of course I cannot sit back and watch the existence of people who mess with etiquette and music. I not only have to be moral and understand that I do not mess with etiquette and music, but I also have to break with such people and cannot share the same principles with them. If I have the ability, I will
If I am put in jail, what does my small body mean if I don’t have the ability? Let’s fight him!
After writing this on the draft paper, Zhu Hao felt that he was going to be a man of lofty ideals and a benevolent person.
This means that we will die together with those who violate ethics and education.
Kuang Yangming, Kuang Yangming, when you heard my sincere confession, maybe you felt the sincerity and enthusiasm in my heart? Maybe you felt that you and I were the same people?
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
I will continue to ask for monthly tickets at the beginning of the month, thank you!