Chapter 45: Handing in the Paper Early

Establishing a grand unified theory that explains the mysteries of heaven and earth and the cycle of birth and destruction of all things through the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and Four Seasons has always been the ultimate goal of the Agriculturalist school.

This proposition is far too vast and far too profound. It cannot truly be answered — not even by a Minister of Agriculture of official First Rank.

But precisely because of that, anyone can actually score points on the final question.

A clerk only needs to answer according to the current theory, write down what he has memorized by rote, and he can always scrape two or three points out of twenty.

If he can slightly link the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and Four Seasons together, he can get half the points.

To score higher, he must offer something with a touch of originality.

But he cannot be too outlandish either — he must still base himself on existing theory, otherwise it counts as 'baseless fabrication,' and even seasoned agricultural officials may not manage that.

Then since it's so hard to come up with something original, why pose this question at all?

Because the Five Elements and Four Seasons theory is extremely important — every agricultural official, when cultivating the Seasonal Ordinances, will reference the Five Elements and Four Seasons theory to cast his spells.

If the Four Seasons are not manifest, one must fix the Four Seasons — how? It must be done in conjunction with the Five Elements.

If the Four Seasons are in disarray, one must correct the Four Seasons — how? Still by harnessing the power of the Five Elements.

Therefore this question is essentially never out of date.

"Clerks may answer freely and write their own views and speculations, but their answers must also cater to the examiner's preferences."

"If the examiner is from the Celestial Timing Sect, he will inevitably want you to approach the question through the theory of the book 'Celestial Timing Grand Five Elements'; if the examiner is from the Dili Sect, then the 'Earth Rules Midsummer Theory' is most appropriate."

"If it's the Benwo Sect? Then it's the 'Yin-Yang Five Elements Benwo Scripture.' But the Benwo Sect is weak, its ideas are not in vogue, and they don't align with mainstream doctrine — using it to approach the question would be a forced answer." Zhao Xing thought to himself.

The Benwo Sect holds that living beings have their own internal operation of celestial timing — in plain terms, a 'biological clock' — matching the five viscera to the Five Elements, and the other organs of the body to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

This set of ideas is called the 'Minor Five Elements Four Seasons Theory,' also known as the 'Internal Five Elements Four Seasons Theory' — from the name alone you can tell it is not accepted by the mainstream; it is rather obscure and niche.

But by the time of the resurgence version, the Benwo Sect rose to prominence, and this theory became wildly popular, crushing the other schools.

Because 'one can open up pure-element soil within the body,' 'the Origin Dantian can nurture primordial seeds,' and even internally observe heaven and earth, forming a world of one's own.

But if you write that down now, even people from the Benwo Sect would think you were a madman — because at present the most one can do is 'open up pure-element soil'; a self-contained world within the body? Are you insane!

So Zhao Xing ruled it out at once.

"The earliest Five Elements chapter matched Jia to Wood, Bing to Fire, Wu to Earth, Geng to Metal, and Ren to Water. But the correlations were too weak — it never considered the harmony of the four seasons at all."

"Later, the four seasons were divided into the three months of 'First,' 'Middle,' and 'Last.'"

"The three months of spring — First Spring, Middle Spring, and Last Spring — lie in the east, belong to Wood among the Five Elements, and are matched with Jia and Yi."

"The two months of summer — First Summer and Middle Summer — lie in the south, belong to Fire among the Five Elements, and are matched with Bing and Ding."

"The third month of summer, 'Last Summer,' lies in the center, belongs to Earth among the Five Elements, and is matched with Wu and Ji."

"The three months of autumn — First Autumn, Middle Autumn, and Last Autumn — lie in the west, belong to Metal among the Five Elements, and are matched with Geng and Xin."

"The three months of winter — First Winter, Middle Winter, and Last Winter — lie in the north, belong to Water among the Five Elements, and are matched with Ren and Gui."

This is the mainstream 'Earth Rules Midsummer Theory.'

Zhao Xing had no intention of giving a brilliant answer, because he was unlikely to lose points on the questions before this one — he was already set to stand out in this examination — so he simply copied the mainstream theory onto the paper verbatim.

That way, he could get about thirty percent of the points no matter what.

"If this question appeared on a formal temple examination, I could add a bit of improvement — the current matching of the Five Elements to the months is unbalanced; Fire and Earth are too weak, together covering only two months."

"Should I drop in just a touch of my own view?"

Zhao Xing deliberated for an hour, his brush poised but never touching the paper.

In the end, he still decided to write a couple more sentences.

"Among the Five Elements, none is more valued than Earth; Earth's relation to the Four Seasons is one of commanding all, not sharing merit and fame with Fire."

"Wood, Fire, Metal, and Water each govern one season; Earth dwells in the center, holding the plumb-line and ruling the four directions."

After writing these two sentences, Zhao Xing wrote no more — this only slightly improved the flaw of the unbalanced matching of the Five Elements to the months, and was not a major change.

In effect, it removed 'Earth' from 'ruling the Four Seasons' and gave it the empty title of 'ruling the four directions.'

But it was enough — for a minor clerk to write this much already shows that you have real ideas.

In truth, this was the embryonic form of the later 'Earth Rules the Four Seasons Theory,' but Zhao Xing had no intention of releasing the improved 'Earth Rules the Four Seasons Theory' of later generations now — virtue does not match the position, and speaking too much is sure to bring disaster.

After finishing the last question, Zhao Xing noticed that the sky had already brightened — it was already the second day.

"The exam started in the afternoon, and now it's the morning of the next day — I actually took this long? Looks like I spent too much time on the last question."

A true top student has to consider controlling his score — in the last examination, Zhao Xing not only controlled his own score, he controlled other people's scores too.

This time he had to consider the real consequences, so he thought even longer.

"I'm starving — I didn't even eat; the food they sent is all cold."

After striking it rich from the river salvage, Zhao Xing could no longer stomach this cold 'staff meal.'

He was planning to hand in his paper early anyway, so he'd leave the examination hall and eat at a restaurant.

Zhao Xing organized his answer sheets, not missing a single one, and carried them in his arms toward the proctoring hall.

It was early morning and the sky had not fully brightened, yet the patrols and proctors were not lax — for a formal temple examination, even Yin Gods would come to proctor, to prevent ghosts from helping people cheat!

"Hm? Why are you handing in your paper this early?" Xue Wenzhong sat inside the hall, watching Zhao Xing walk in with the guards, and could not help furrowing his brow.

He thought Zhao Xing was far too arrogant — the exam time wasn't even half over, and he had already finished?

Xue Wenzhong had set the questions himself, so he naturally knew their difficulty — to screen talent for recommendation to the commandery, each successive exam was harder than the last.

Zhao Xing's aptitude for spells was indeed good, but theory was another matter — a muscle-bound brute is not necessarily capable of composing an elegant essay.

"Two top grades — has that bred an arrogant heart in him?"

Zhao Xing submitted his answer sheets, then bowed and said, "My lords, I have come to hand in my paper."

Gao Li-nong, Tang Wanchun, and Pang Yuan were rather surprised at the sight — their thoughts were much the same as Xue Wenzhong's: you've finished in this little time?

But they immediately composed their expressions, showing neither joy nor displeasure, while each harboring the same thought:

Good, good, good — we don't fear you being arrogant, boy, we only fear you not being arrogant enough. The first to hand in his paper — we must certainly review it carefully and absolutely cannot go easy on him!

Chen Shijie's view differed from theirs; his confidence in Zhao Xing far exceeded that of the others — it stemmed from a natural trust in one's 'bosom friend.'

"Good, the first to hand in the paper — I knew I hadn't misjudged you. Wait here a moment; we will be able to review the results shortly."