Chapter three hundred and sixty seventh exam questions with no tendency
The question was quite satisfactory and did not contain any political insinuation. It seemed that it was entirely Zhang Bangqi's attempt to test the scholar's knowledge.
In the college examination, we should avoid the behavior of imposing personal thoughts on the imperial examination questions like Kuang Yangming. Such questions look very neat, but it is precisely this kind of article that is difficult to write because you are not very good at grasping the politics of the examiner.
tendency.
If you cannot discover his political leanings from the question, you will not be able to find out his likes and dislikes. You will tend to look forward and backward when writing an article, and even write articles that conflict with the political ideas of the examiner. No matter how talented you are, you will fail in the end.
And return.
first question.
Questions from Mencius.
The meaning is very simple, that is, it is impossible to govern the world and cultivate the land at the same time. Officials have their own affairs, and ordinary people have their own affairs. Some people use their brains, and some use their strength.
As for the saying "Those who work hard will govern others, and those who work hard will govern others" is a classic saying. It means that if you want to become the upper class of society, you must rely on reading to gain a higher position. If you just want to rely on physical strength to survive in this world, you will always have to suffer.
People govern.
"Those who govern others eat others, and those who govern others eat others." This illustrates the principle that the governed provide food and clothing to others, while managers rely on others for food and clothing.
In Zhu Xi's "Collected Commentary on Mencius' Chapters", this paragraph is expressed as: "Those who govern others will see that they are governed by others. Those who eat people will pay taxes to the public. Those who eat from others will see that they are fed by others. This is
The four sentences are all ancient sayings, and Mencius quoted them. A gentleman without a villain will be hungry, and a villain without a gentleman will be in chaos. This exchange is just like a farmer cultivating and exchanging millet with tools. This is because they help each other, not because of each other.
It’s a disease. If you want to govern the world, don’t you have to do it by plowing?”
Generally speaking, it is a matter of division of labor in society.
Even if you are a laborer who manages people, you still have to rely on laborers to support you. This is an interpretation of social relations. In front of social animals like humans, a clear division of labor must be achieved to ensure the normal operation of society. Ultimately,
Become the spirit of all things and rule the world.
Mencius could clearly see this in an era when social productivity was extremely backward, which was also an important reason why he became the Confucian sub-sage.
Zhu Hao believes that the first question does not involve political leanings and is easier to write. All you need to do is explain the argument.
"Things come from specialization and proficiency in doing things. If the country is peaceful and not chaotic, it means everyone is doing their own thing."
Break the topic at the beginning and pay attention to stability.
In line with Tang Yin's advice, in front of such an examiner who is dedicated to stability, there is no need to talk about big principles or show off. As long as you can express your thoughts on paper, you will be qualified as a county case leader.
It can ensure the title of scholar.
As for the discussion, it only needs to be consistent with the argument of "everyone has his own way" in the question.
…
…
The first question should not be too difficult for Zhu Hao and the candidates present.
The difficulty lies in the second question.
The literal meaning of the second question is:
Confucius said that the Doctrine of the Mean cannot be widely practiced in the world. I know the reason. It is because "the wise make mistakes and the fools fall short." The reason why a person cannot understand the profoundness of the Doctrine of the Mean is also because "the wise make mistakes and the unscrupulous fall short."
Zhu Xi discussed: "The Taoist is the natural principle of nature, and it is only in the middle. If you know that the foolish and virtuous are not good enough, you will lose it because of the difference in your talents. The wise know the fault, and they do not follow the Tao; the fool does not know enough, and also
If you don’t know why you do it, this is the reason why you often fail to practice it. The sage does something wrong because he doesn’t know the way. The unworthy person fails to practice it and doesn’t seek to know the reason. This is why the way is often unclear. The way cannot be separated, and people themselves
If you don’t pay attention, you will have the disadvantage of making mistakes and not doing enough.”
When Confucius talked about this passage, it can be said that it was very consistent with the Doctrine of the Mean.
Generally speaking, if you have no end to your learning and have reached the standard of "perfection", you can understand all the laws of the world and the ways of the world, and understand the changes of all things, you should understand the golden mean, right? I'm sorry, Confucius said, you
You are a wise man, a sage, but you cannot understand the profoundness of the golden mean.
Zhu Hao had the illusion that "this is fucking talking about me".
Because to a certain extent, Zhu Hao feels that the Confucian doctrine of the mean is a harmful thought, forcing people to move from the highest good to the "sub-good", or even to mediocrity. People do not pursue the highest principles, but only pursue the ideal.
Pursue moderation and put it nicely to facilitate your conduct in the world, but this is exactly the result that the ruler hopes to see.
People like Zhu Hao who are not born with the idea of supremacy of imperial power will not accept being fooled and must make every compromise in order to survive in the world.
Of course, it would be easier to understand if we say "fools are inferior".
If you are stupid and cannot understand, then you are not qualified to achieve the "moderate" mentioned by the sage. In the sage's view, other people's ideas are still very high-end, which is not something that a lowly person can expect.
Here comes the problem.
Everyone understands its meaning, but how to explain it?
On the golden mean?
But the problem is that the question asks you to discuss the reason why the golden mean cannot be widely used in the world. It is just that smart people and stupid people are excluded because they have exceeded their cognition and cannot reach the category of upper and lower geometric numbers.
?
Or are there too many too smart and too stupid people in this world?
More importantly, you don't know what Zhang Bangqi is thinking.
Zhu Hao will study it carefully.
…
…
Zhu Hao closed his eyes and thought seriously.
The absence of political inclination is precisely the greatest political inclination.
Zhang Bangqi is a young man who has achieved great success. He has been admitted to the imperial examination when he was young. His path to the imperial examination was smooth. Will he pursue the golden mean?
meeting!
Does Zhang Bangqi have political ambitions to pursue fame and fortune?
This is natural.
Based on Zhang Bangqi's growth experience, he should be an unfulfilled official. Now he stares at a group of scholars every day. He became a professor in his thirties and trained students all day long. However, the students' performance does not determine their professional title evaluation.
It feels like I will never get over it.
What does he think of the golden mean?
Thinking of this, Zhu Hao felt it was still difficult to draw a conclusion.
He suddenly felt that when Zhang Bangqi passed by Anlu the first year, Tang Yin asked him to meet him. Maybe he met him at that time. If he had more contact with this person, he might be able to find some clues, and this question would be easier to write.
But the problem is that Zhu Hao, who is the accompanying student in the palace, meets Zhang Bangqi with his background in the palace, which is not a good thing for a young and outstanding child like him.
Zhang Bangqi was not a local magistrate, so he didn't have to look up to Prince Xing's palace. If people didn't like you, they could deprive Zhu Hao of the fame he should have received with just a casual word. This was why Zhu Hao insisted not to meet him.
You must show a humble attitude in front of the examiners of future imperial examinations.
Just as I was thinking about it, suddenly the wooden fence was opened from the outside.
Then an official came in, it was Zhang Bangqi, the examiner who came to inspect the field.
Zhu Hao thought to himself, the opportunity has come.
…
…
Zhang Bangqi's tour may have started in the Jiazi test shed. After he stood still, he looked around and found no possible cheating. Then he walked around the No. 1 building and finally left.
Originally, the exam had just begun, and most of the candidates had not written. As the examiner, Zhang Bangqi could not enter the dormitory to check what the candidates had written on their papers. This was to avoid suspicion and prevent others from accusing a certain candidate of colluding with them. He
Check first what candidates wrote specifically to facilitate final admission.
So this visit is just for a routine inspection.
Zhang Bangqi first walked from Yuan Rulin's side. When he arrived at Zhu Hao's dormitory, he was only a few steps away from the door. He suddenly found that Zhu Hao had already finished writing the first article on his draft paper.
"hehe."
Zhang Bangqi smiled and shook his head, then walked out of the examination shed and went to inspect the next yard.
The examiner walked around and didn't seem to have much clues, but Zhu Hao could see the easy-going nature of Zhang Bangqi.
In addition, this person pays attention to being neat and without making any mistakes when writing questions. In the past year, he has traveled all over Huguang, and he has been a scholar and a candidate in the academy. With so many questions, can he consider the tendencies of the questions one by one?
Some examiners directly follow a classic. They will publish this paragraph today, and tomorrow they will go to the next place and directly select another paragraph. Anyway, they are all words of saints. You can read and write. In the end, as long as they are almost the same, I will pass them on to you...
Zhu Hao immediately thought that Zhang Bangqi's academic thoughts were recorded in "History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Zhang Bangqi": "If you are not good at learning, you will not be good at learning, and you will not be able to practice well. Although you are good at writing, I will praise him, but I will criticize him."
This means that if he is not like Confucius and Yan Hui in terms of study, and is not like Zeng Shen and Min Sun in terms of behavior, even if his articles are like those of Yang Xiong and Zuo Si, I will still reprimand him.
Yang Xiong and Zuo Si are both famous writers of poetry and poetry in history. Their poetry can be said to be gorgeous and rare in the world. When Zuo Si's "Sandu Fu" was circulated in the market, it even contributed to the birth of the idiom "Luoyang Paper is expensive".
This means that Zhang Bangqi paid less attention to the rhetoric of scholars, and paid more attention to the diligence and self-denial of scholars in learning.
Returning to the second question involving the golden mean, it seems that Zhang Bangqi’s thoughts have little to do with the golden mean.
But Zhu Hao immediately found common ground.
This is because "everyone eats and drinks, and rarely knows the taste."
Even Zhu Xi said, "Tao cannot be separated, and people do not notice themselves, so they have the disadvantages of making mistakes and failing."
Emotions Zhang Bangqi’s mention of the golden mean is just a cover. Asking students to self-examine on the way to school is the purpose of your questions. If you really fall into the trap and talk about the golden mean, then no matter how good you write, you can only
Fall into mediocrity.
Understanding this, Zhu Hao found the direction to solve the problem.
Studying lies in cultivating the mind, and Doctrine also lies in cultivating the mind. This is the essence of the topic, and this is also in line with the mind-study thought that was gradually developed during the Zhengde period...
"The Doctrine of the Mean lies in learning clearly and keeping one's heart; the Tao can only be determined by one's own mind after knowing right and wrong."
When discussing the Doctrine of the Mean, we first talk about diligent study, which is very consistent with Zhang Bangqi’s academic philosophy. Moreover, I talked about it in a subtle way, and also discussed the issue of keeping one’s heart. What is important is that one’s original intention should not be messed up because of too many wisdoms, otherwise it will exceed the limit.
The category of the mean as spoken by the sage.
What I am saying is that no matter how knowledgeable you are, you can still maintain moderation. It does not depend on how much knowledge you have, but on whether you can keep your true heart.
The key to guarding one's mind lies in self-examination and understanding of reason. If you achieve these two points, you will not be afraid of the problem of being too wise and being too wise.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
The third update is here. Please support me with subscriptions and monthly tickets!