Chapter 68: CH 68

Before the yuanshi, the last of the three entry-level exams, Zhao shixiong and several other fellow beginner students tightly surrounded Cui Xie, hoping to receive some of his fortune after placing first in the examinations twice in a row. Pengyan and the Zhao Residence’s servants accompanied him to the examination grounds. It was so crowded that there was no free space to rest, so they could only wander around outside and help the students prepare their examination baskets.

The rules of the yuanshi were much stricter than the last two examinations. Examinees were only permitted to bring one long-eared examination basket into the venue, some pen and ink as well as some food and not much else. Even the ink-stone was to be prepared by the prefecture. On the day of the examination, Prefectural and County Officials needed to accompany the Superintendent in the hall to call roll. When a student was called, there had to be face-to-face recognition by that student’s county officials and teachers in order to guarantee there had been no substitute examinee.

When Cui Xie’s name was called and he entered the hall, he felt all the examiners’ gazes land on his body, particularly the Superintendent da-ren. The man looked Cui Xie down from head to toe several times, as if he wanted to have Cui Xie’s entire body enter into his eyes. Cui Xie was a little suspicious that a student who had failed an exam had furtively told the da-ren that he had cheated in the prefectural examinations, which is why the Superintendent da-ren had kept an eye on him. Cui Xie hurriedly looked down and bowed his head. He stared fixedly ahead of him as he entered the tent clutching an examination roll. 

It wasn’t until the exam questions had been handed out that he centralized his energy to focus on the exam and thoroughly threw the Superintendent da-ren’s gaze to the back of his mind. As per the rule, the first round of examinations had a question each for the Four Books and the Five Classics. The prompt for the Four Books was a patchwork question from 《Mencius·Teng Wen Gong I》in the fourth chapter: “The birds and beasts pressed upon men, they became almost like the beasts”, these two phrases. With the phrase “beasts and birds” linked in the subject, it was bound to be quite a passionate essay.

The original prompt originated from the story of peasant Xu Xing,  a great master of agriculture who tilled his own props and weaved his own clothes. From his studies, Chen Xiang, according to the Xu’s doctrine, asked Mencius:  The Prince of Teng is a worthy prince, but why does he choose to take the common people’s harvest to fill up his granaries, and not cultivate the ground equally and along with their people, and eat the fruit of their labor?

Mencius explained to him the principle of governing the world: The people under the heavens are divided into “great  men” and “little men”. “Great men” labor with their minds to govern others while “little men” manage the work of farming and weaving in order to support those that govern them. One man cannot do everything in this world at the same time. In the period of the Tang-Yu Coalition, the world was living in primitive times and the Sages were worried about the livelihood of the people and that they would have no time to farm.Could it be that the kings of the three earliest dynasties (Xia, Shang, Zhou) were not wise and capable then?

Naturally, that was not the case. It is merely that “great men” and “little men” have different duties. “Great men” worried about governing the realm and educating the common people; On the other hand, “little men” will come to be aware of ethics, loyalty and righteousness once they are well fed and warmly clad. They will handle various labor tasks to provide for oneself and offer the fruits of their labor to the “great men”. This is the way to a period of prosperity, a golden age.  

Therefore, although on the surface this prompt related people to beasts, it was essential that the concept of “great men” worrying about governing the realm to protect the people below them was included.

Since the general idea and main points had been identified, it was necessary to organize an opening using the sentences from the relevant section in the classic.

The prompt containing the line “The birds and beasts pressed upon men” referred to the fact when Tang Yao[1], one of the five legendary Emperors was on the throne. The era was still suffering from great famines and floods. The world was not at peace, people’s lives were harmed and there were different man-eating beasts. Yao recommended that Shun replace his reign to govern the realm, but Shun commanded for the mountains to be set on fire in order to drive away the beasts and also ordered Yu the Great to dredge the Nine Rivers to establish the Nine Provinces.

And the following phrase, “they became almost like the beasts” was in context to after the world had been pacified. Hou Ji[2] taught the people how to sow and reap so that the populace could eat till full and warm, as well as live peacefully. But, they ultimately lacked education. The Sage (Shun) was worried that the people would be like beasts, beings that only knew the pleasures of life, unaware of the Confucian code of ethics[3]. As a result, he appointed someone to be the Minister of Education to teach the masses the righteous relations of humanity.

The meanings behind these two sentences had nothing to do with each other and were merely related in the sense that both described the hardships the people experienced in ancient times. It really did not originate from Confucious’ original ideas. Consequently, when writing the essay, one should not combine the preceding and follow sentences into one and attack the prompt head-on, as in the prompt from the prefectural examinations, “And moreover, in the spring they examined the plowing, and supplied any deficiency of seed, that ramble, and that excursion, were a pattern to the princes”; instead, the prompt must be solved from the perspective of “banishing the beasts” and “staying away from the beasts” by the method of counter-breaking.

During the opening, the people and things mentioned in the original prompt must not appear, so the word “beasts” in the original prompt was replaced by “thing/object/creature”. The original prompt was not only about beasts, but also mentioned floods, and as such, the subject could not be avoided in the essay. When breaking open the topic, one must amalgamate beasts and floods into a single category——both calamitous existences that jeopardize people’s survival. And when solving the latter half of the prompt through the perspective of “people should not come close to animals”, it was necessary to capture the concept of “jeopardize”so that the top and bottom of the opening corresponded with each other and turned into an absolute whole. 

While Cui Xie pondered over this, he simultaneously grinded ink using the bluestone inkstone supplied by the examination grounds.

The inksticks repeatedly skidded over the inkstone and weren’t able to produce any pigment. It took a long time to grind out half a pool of ink. However, in order to prevent the students from cheating in the examinations by smuggling outside materials, the examinees were uniformly allocated this hard-to-use and crudely manufactured inkstone. In any case, Cui Xie had practiced riding and shooting as well as martial arts. His two arms had the strength to lift several tens of 5 kilograms. As for those weak scholars who usually didn’t take a step out the door, he was afraid that they wouldn’t be even able to grind any ink out.

He silently muttered out a rough outline of his sentence, slightly dipped the tip of the brush into that little bit of precious ink and wrote on the draft paper, “Those who harm creatures, will harm the will of the people.”

Breaking the topic should be based on breaking the meaning above all else. The meaning behind these sentences was that if people’s conscience were to lose education and they began to love ease and comfort while hating work, even if the Sage expels the beasts to pacify the lands, the common people would not be able to live peacefully.

After the opening, one had to write the chengti, or the amplification. The opening had used the anpo[4] method and was crucial in fusing and harmonizing the sentences. However, this meant that it was necessary to write the chengti in a clear, agile and neat manner. When it comes to these sentences, there was no need to find any alternative names to refer to the characters and subjects in the original question. Cui Xie directly used the word “beasts” and in accordance with the key tip of “counter-breaking the topic leading to proper amplification while counter-breaking each section would lead to several different sentences of prose clarifying the theme” , the paragraph inherited the meaning of “harming the will of the people” and then turned to launching into an argument as to why the beasts were to be harmed and why people could not get too close to such beasts.

“A furen does not associate with beasts and while it is concerning that beasts are pressing against men, what happens if one does get close?”

After the chengti, a line from the “original question” should be used to quote the preceding text where this point at issue was located. The preceding part of the text was when Mencius lectured Cheng Xiang on the rise and fall of previous rulers in the Tang-Yu Coalition as well as the phrase, “Great men have duties while little men have their own duties”. Great men concern themselves with governance while little men are short-sighted and only seek an easy and comfortable life. Therefore, if great men and little men associate with each other without knowing their position, there is the danger of jeopardizing the whole world.

And in the era of great flood and desolate famines, waves of Sages continuously rise to the call, all for the purpose of protecting the people.

In the following qijiang, or preliminary exposition, one or two comparative couplets were used to stay on subject. The first part about ‘beasts pressing against men’ was to be explained: In the sentence, it is suggested that in in the world of Yao and Shun, there were “Sages who stepped forward”, burning the wilderness to drive out the beasts; but, the matching couplet contrarily wrote about the the rise and fall of heavenly laws. Because Shun possessed the virtue of fire and Yao possessed the virtue of water, it was a heavenly order that the water virtue would eventually replace and prevail over the virtue of fire [5]. Therefore, after Yao abdicated his throne to Shun, burning the wilderness to drive beasts out was beneficial and such threats would no longer harm the people.

After that, Cui Xie would add a phrase ‘illustrating the theme’, and point out the harm caused by beasts pressing against men mentioned in the first half of the prompt. Then he would use two comparative phrases to link the top and bottom. From how beasts would attack without warning, these actions drew out an inevitable response so that people had no choice but to counter without warning. Thus, this led to the second half of the prompt stating “they became almost like the beasts”.

Since the middle two comparative sentences were not incisive enough, for the following two sentences afterwards, a “惟 (wei)” character was used at the start of each sentence as a function word[6]. Since beasts and people were contrasted, this pushed the argument of the middle two comparative sentences a further step forward as it discussed how beasts and people should each be at peace with their nature. Beasts should live peacefully in the mountains and forests without approaching people to harm them. And to discuss the matter of the people——the so-called “little men” mentioned by Mencius——they ought to feel content with manual labor, farming as well as weaving. But they could not love ease and comfort but hate work, otherwise, they would become like beasts who only cared to eat and play till they were satiated.

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The last two legs or comparisons were the core of the essay’s discussion and it had required one to write in a tranquil yet powerful manner. It took quite a lot of brainpower to write these two long sentences. Just as Cui Xie was about to shut his eyes to take a break, upon looking around, he suddenly caught sight of an examiner walking over after patrolling over from the right side of the examination tent. Those pairs of eyes were lifted from someone else’s paper and collided directly with Cui Xie’s gaze.

His heart quivered and he immediately roused up his vigor and refocused his gaze onto the scroll in front. His train of thought then began to rustle and his writing became like moving clouds and flowing water[7] as he wrote the final argument, the last two legs, of the essay: It was once again a comparison of beasts and humans, contrasting beasts that tended towards water yet feared fire against the little men who preferred leisure and disliked work. Once this part was written, there was even a conclusion——Let the Sages be anxious and worried about these matters, it will unduly improve and establish ideas that can help to take care of the problem.

When Imperial Censor Dai made his rounds to the youth, Cui Xie didn’t dare to raise his head as he carefully wrote stroke by stroke with the utmost care. He only hoped that upon seeing his serious and conscientious attitude of writing up the draft, that the Educational Commissioner would quickly be convinced that Cui Xie was a good student who did not cheat and leave feeling relieved.

Cui Xie dilly-dallied up till the last word and only then did the Educational Commissioner da-ren finally move. Unexpectedly, the other did not set off, but reached out a hand to pick up that draft and softly instructed, “Don’t you have a highly retentive memory? Write the draft from memory on another examination paper, I’ll take a look at this first.”

Cui Xie lifted his head in surprise but Imperial Censor Dai had already turned around and faintly said, “Write well, do not half-heartedly write the next question!”

He rolled up the draft and leisurely began making his rounds again, leaving a lonely Cui Xie who stared at his blank paper with a sense of loss. Behind him, a patrolling bailiff came over to refill his water, quietly giving a meaningful glance and nodded at Cui Xie.

Educational Commissioner da-ren regards you with great importance,  no need to pay for the water.

Cui Xie mistakenly thought that the other’s glance meant that the “Educational Commissioner da-ren regarded your essay as having good prospects and is not here to find fault with you”. The knot in the pit of his stomach loosened and he hurriedly fumbled out a few pieces of silver to give. He then took a sip of hot water, picked up his brush and began to scrutinize the prompt about the Book of Songs.

The convention at the yuanshi was that the Headmaster of the examinations would read the papers alone and pass whoever he took a fancy to. Holding Cui Xie’s manuscript, Dai Ren headed back to the hall to sit and read it carefully several times. He only felt that such a novel style was different from the prefectural examinations: it was not scrupulously abiding to rules to the point that it was like a carpenter’s straight line marker, and there were literary quotations littered throughout the text, taking the phrases from the chapter as his own words; his writing still was more natural and unconstrained, and more prone to making majestic and boundless comments. It used grandeur and imposing rhetoric typical of the ancient classics to suppress the spirit.

Dai Ren then called over the Qian’an County Dean of Educational Affairs  and asked, “Is this student’s papers from the county examination available? Did his essays from the county examinations have such a style? Transfer them over later, I want to compare the two.”

The Dean looked at the scroll and differentially replied, “They are similarly in style to this one. The County Magistrate had given him a few pointers in the past so that he could integrate ancient and contemporary prose better,” but after speaking, the Dean could not help but put in a few good words for Cui Xie: “But the essay’s format is upright and honest, and it is pretty good.”

Imperial Censor Dai wasn’t looking to nitpick, but after hearing the Dean say Cui Xie’s essay writing had been guided by County Magistrate Qi, he remembered those lucid and elegant, yet simple travel notes in 《Qi’s Travel Anthology》. He couldn’t help but laugh, “It was truly your County Magistrate who made such advice? The articles written by the two of them are too different. Magistrate Qi’s article seemed to have been written by a gentle and elegant 16-year old or a minor. On the contrary, this article seems to emanate the writing technique of a mature and serious person.”

The Dean didn’t dare to criticize his superior and only stood to the side and quietly listened.

Dai Ren chatted and laughed and looked at the scroll full of ink words in his hand, “The rhetoric is not ornate enough, but the commentaries is warped and weft in weaving[8] and the transitions are peculiar, yet prominent. You can see that he wrote about beasts, people and even included the Sage…….this momentum is like a mountain piercing through the masses of clouds.  Every sentence strings up the previous and the top and bottom has been completely linked up. It is a rare article that does not use words but composition to overwhelm people.”

The Dean began to fathom the other’s meaning and carrying a few degrees of cheer, he asked, “Has da-ren taken a liking to this student?”

Dai Ren said, “I would also like to take him as my disciple. Unfortunately, I will be retiring from my duty as Superintendent and he is also entering the county school. Our fate is just too shallow ah.”

Among the students that passed the yuanshi, generally, the top 20% was to be assigned to the county and the bottom 80% would stay in the prefecture. Being able to get into the county school not only showed that one was selected, but that the student was also ranked at the very front. This type of good student who could write essays and have the hope of taking the Imperial examinations in the future was what the county government’s two Educational Commissioners wanted. To be able to land into the county, in the future, to be selected from the countryside and take the metropolitan examinations, would be a part of the achievements of these academic officials!

Jiao Yu joyfully rose and faced Dai Ren with a cupped fist salute, “This lower official will thank the da-ren’s support and grace on behalf of the student!”

Dai Ren smiled and instructed the other to prepare the papers from the county examinations, and pressed the draft onto the table before continuing to wind his way around the room as he patrolled. 

There were no major counties  known for their Imperial examinations in the Yongping Prefecture. There were more than a 100 new students who had been selected in the prefectural examinations and in addition to the tongsheng who had not been selected yet from previous years, as well as students from the military, the number was less than 2,000.

That examination tent had been newly constructed by the Yongping Prefecture and it could accommodate two to three thousand people. This time, Dai Ren had combined all the students from the six administrative counties and military to have them take the same exam. The examination room still seemed absolutely empty and you could tell at a glance that there were some people cheating by whispering and making noise. As he patrolled,  he dismissed a few people and scanned all of the students’ drafts and had some expectation in his heart….

Seeing that a “Little Tertiary Winner” was about to be born under his hands, Educational Commissioner Dai’s heart began to fill with a little bit of joy. He picked up a brush to write a letter to his fellow peer from the same hometown. In a reserved and calm manner, he informed, “I have stumbled across a child prodigy in the Yongping Prefecture.”

Footnotes:

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