Chapter 5: The Grudge from He Cong

"He Cong, Lower Bing."

"Lu Beigu, Middle Jia!"

When the School Director loudly announced Lu Beigu's essay score, the entire examination hall instantly fell silent.

"Middle Jia?"

Everyone's expressions froze on their faces, as if they had heard some absurd fabrication.

"This is impossible!" He Cong suddenly stood up, knocking his desk so that it shook violently. "In the county school's many years, no one has ever received a Jia grade for an essay!"

The School Director cast a cold glance at him: "Student He, mind your demeanor."

He Cong then realized his loss of composure; his face flushed red as he sat down again, but the shock and unwillingness in his eyes could not be concealed.

Indeed, since the establishment of Hejiang County School during the Qingli Reforms, the highest score for an essay examination had been Upper Yi; even for scholars from families with deep scholarly traditions, achieving a Middle Yi on an essay was already considered outstanding.

A Jia grade? That was a result one dared not even dream of!

"Middle Jia." The scholar who had just been supporting Lu Beigu murmured to himself, a look of disbelief flashing in his eyes. "Does Brother Lu possess such great talent?"

His companion beside him was equally shocked: "I thought achieving an Upper Yi was the limit; Middle Jia is simply inconceivable!"

Murmurs gradually rose up throughout the examination hall, everyone stunned beyond measure by this unprecedented score.

And in their hearts, a huge question arose.

That was: what kind of essay did Lu Beigu actually write?

"Silence!"

With a sharp shout from the School Director, once the examination hall fell quiet again, he continued to announce the scores of the others.

But by now, no one truly cared about their own scores; everyone's thoughts remained fixed on that shocking "Middle Jia."

And after the scores were finished being read, He Cong stood up and shouted loudly.

"I request the School Director allow us to view Lu Beigu's essay!"

He Cong's voice was particularly grating in the examination hall; his face flushed red, and several wealthy young men behind him joined in the clamor: "Yes, let us also see this Middle Jia work!"

The School Director frowned and was about to reprimand them, but County Magistrate Li Pan had already stepped out from the inner room, holding Lu Beigu's exam paper in his hand.

"Want to see?" Li Pan's hoarse voice carried a hint of mockery. "Then look your fill."

He signaled the School Recorder to paste the original draft of the essay onto the notice wall under the eaves of the county school.

The paper shimmered faintly in the sunlight, and the scholars immediately swarmed to gather around and view it.

He Cong squeezed to the very front, his gaze like a knife digging into that "Strategy for Controlling Xia."

The more he read, the paler his face became, and fine beads of sweat gradually began to seep from his forehead.

"This... this..."

"Brother He, why have you stopped speaking?" someone deliberately taunted. "Didn't you just say Brother Lu stole someone else's draft?"

He Cong's lips trembled, yet he could not utter a single word.

Having grown up under the influence of his uncle who served in the prefectural yamen, he naturally understood the weight of this essay; setting aside everything else, the mere precision of its citations and allusions was something an ordinary person could never write!

"What a brilliant 'Wearing a king's robe while wielding market profits, holding weapons while calculating every penny'!" one scholar could not help but clap in admiration. "This metaphor is absolutely perfect!"

"Look at the third strategy, the section on 'Stratagems to disrupt the heart and abdomen'; it analyzes the internal contradictions of the Xia state so thoroughly."

The murmurs surged like a tide; He Cong felt only a buzzing in his ears. The essay he had written, "Emulating the Stories of Emperor Wu of Han," seemed utterly childish and ridiculous in comparison to this "Strategy for Controlling Xia."

His family was wealthy, and having always been number one in the county school, he had grown accustomed to being arrogant and looking down on others.

Having been outshined this time, and losing so miserably, how could his heart not feel pain?

At this moment, He Cong squeezed out of the crowd and outside, where he directly met Li Pan's gaze.

"Student He," Li Pan said slowly and deliberately. "I have heard your family's restaurant business is doing well, so your family's book collection must be quite abundant, but the path of the essay ultimately relies on one's own insight and thought."

As the County Magistrate, the ruler of a hundred li, his authority within the county was second to none.

Therefore, when Li Pan spoke to anyone in the county school, he could say whatever he wished.

Moreover, the words Li Pan had spoken were actually not particularly humiliating.

Yet upon hearing these words, He Cong's face turned from red to white, then from white to green, changing like a mask.

"Yes, this student understands."

After bowing, He Cong lowered his head and departed; the sounds around him were like countless needles pricking his body. Whatever people around him said fell into his ears and automatically transformed into mockery directed at him.

"I heard he was just mocking Lu Beigu."

"Now he has lost face completely..."

"Usually relying on his family background to show off and bully others, he is nothing but a prodigal son."

Gnashing his teeth, He Cong clenched his fists tightly, his fingernails digging deep into the flesh of his palms.

"Lu Beigu! What good is it to write a good essay? With only two short months until the county examination, you will never be able to pass the prefectural school exam!"

Afterwards, County Magistrate Li Pan returned to the inner room. At this time, the County School's Chief Instructor brought over Lu Beigu's previous academic records, exactly as Li Pan had ordered to be seen.

Watching Li Pan flip through the records, the Chief Instructor weighed his words carefully before speaking.

"Lu Beigu's scores in Ink Meaning are too poor; his scores in Text Filling and Poetry and Rhapsody can only be described as mediocre. The date of the county examination is not far off."

The implication was to inform the County Magistrate that even if the essay was excellent enough, Lu Beigu's other scores were dragging him down, making it very difficult to pass the county examination.

And this was Lu Beigu's fatal flaw.

In fact, within the complex imperial examination system of the Great Song, ordinary scholars, as long as they did not feel their prospects in the examination field were hopeless, mostly took the Jinshi track.

And since the third year of Taiping Xingguo, the content of the Jinshi track examination was fixed as five items: Poetry, Rhapsody, Essay, Ink Meaning, and Text Filling; a large-scale adjustment was made in the fourth year of Qingli, but many things were subsequently changed back.

In the current first year of Jiayou, the examination content was still these five items, but the priority of the Essay was raised to the highest, while the assessment of Ink Meaning leaned more towards the candidate's understanding rather than rote memorization.

But regardless, these five items could not exhibit a severe imbalance where only one item was extremely strong, because in such a case, the comprehensive score would be very difficult to pass the county examination.

Upon hearing this, Li Pan nodded slightly; although the County Magistrate also managed the county school and possessed the authority to assess county school students for promotion to the prefectural school.

The Great Song placed great importance on the fairness of the imperial examination system; many things were already set in stone, precisely to prevent the resurgence of powerful aristocratic families and clans.

Although a special loophole called "Hereditary Privilege" was kept for those with powerful backgrounds but weak abilities.

But for the vast majority of scholars taking the imperial examinations, the Song Dynasty's system was truly countless times fairer than that of the Tang.

Under this system, even if Li Pan cherished talent, he could not openly recommend a student whose county exam composite score was inadequate.

If he insisted on doing so, he would be asking for trouble, effectively handing others a handle to use against him.

"Go fetch Lu Beigu now."

Some unspoken implications in this policy essay cannot be discussed in public.

And Li Pan also intended to have a proper private conversation with Lu Beigu about other matters.

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① Mo Yi: asking candidates to answer written questions drawn from the classics, with exam topics usually selected from the Spring and Autumn Annals or the Book of Rites, stipulating ten questions.

② Tie Jing: cutting out the beginning and end sentences of a classic text, leaving only one or two sentences or lines in the middle for candidates to fill in the missing parts, with exam topics usually selected from the Analects, stipulating ten questions.

③ The Song Dynasty imperial examination system was divided into regular and special subjects; regular subjects included the Jinshi, various, and military categories, while special subjects included the Imperial Decree and Child categories. Among these, the "various" category referred to specialized subjects for selecting scholars in the Nine Classics, Five Classics, Kaiyuan Rituals, Three Histories, Three Rites, Three Commentaries, Mingjing, Mingfa, and Mingzi. Although the various subjects were less difficult, the official career path after passing was often extremely arduous.

④ Treatment granting the next generation entry to school or appointment to office due to the merits of the previous generation.

(End of Chapter)