Chapter 44: 043: Admitted on the Spot?

In the winter of the first year of Chongzhen, snow lay two feet deep across Yanshan County — no one knew how many common folk and livestock froze to death.

Compared with Shaanxi, this was paradise.

The drought in Shaanxi still dragged on, and the central court, to say nothing of sending disaster relief, had not even dispatched a single special commissioner to inspect the conditions.

Moreover, the court kept pressing for tax payments.

The Chongzhen Emperor was benevolent and waived all arrears from three years ago and earlier, but the back taxes from the sixth and seventh years of Tianqi still had to be paid. The first year of Chongzhen was even more outrageous — so what if the whole province of Shaanxi suffered a great drought? They actually owed 52,000 taels in taxes, showing the new Emperor no face at all!

Collect taxes, keep collecting taxes — the Liaodong levy must also be collected in full!

In the blink of an eye, it was already the second year of Chongzhen.

The Lantern Festival holiday had just ended when the Chongzhen Emperor summoned the senior ministers of the Grand Secretariat and the ministries to pass judgment on the case of "Wei Zhongxian's treason."

The freshly minted Chief Grand Secretary, Han Kuang, though a leading figure of the Donglin Faction, wanted no more factional strife and demanded that the list of the eunuch faction be capped at fifty names.

The Chongzhen Emperor was displeased and said there were surely still fish that had slipped the net.

Han Kuang withstood pressure from all sides and still refused to widen the scope, submitting a second list of the eunuch faction that still contained only a few dozen names.

The Chongzhen Emperor finally grew angry and personally drew up each category of crime — anyone who had ever flattered Wei Zhongxian counted as part of the eunuch faction!

Chief Grand Secretary Han Kuang had no choice and ultimately submitted a list of 258 names for the eunuch faction.

The Chongzhen Emperor remained suspicious and kept planting agents from the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, throwing everyone into a state of panic for a time.

Factional strife?

After what Chongzhen had done, the court could no longer play at factional strife. Crushing the eunuch faction was only a pretext; the real spearpoint was aimed straight at the Donglin Faction. Ministers adept at reading the imperial will busied themselves in secret, making preparations — they needed only to wait for the right moment to strike and they could topple the Donglin-dominated Grand Secretariat in one blow.

From a certain angle, Chongzhen was also a master of political combat, gaining supreme authority with a combination of moves.

…

The third month, bright spring.

Zhao Han took a boat to the seat of Yanshan County to sit the child-student examination together with Fei Ruhe.

He had not wanted to take the civil examinations at all, but Fei Yinghuan urged him to try, and Pang Chunlai urged him to try, so he figured he might as well go sit one.

To qualify for the exam, Zhao Han temporarily changed his name to Fei Han and was finally transformed from an unregistered person into an adopted son, his household registration entered in the Fei clan's official registry.

The day before the county exam, the group took lodgings in the county seat.

His fellow examinees were Fei Ruhe and Xu Ying. Fei Chun, though also a study companion, did not even have the qualifications to take the exam.

They rose in the middle of the night and went early to wait outside the examination shed, undergoing identity checks and entering at dawn.

The examination facilities in Yanshan County were very good — no need to bring one's own desk and stool, much less make do with the county yamen as a makeshift exam hall.

Fei Ruhe yawned and grumbled, "Why haven't they opened the doors for the body search yet? I'm still waiting to get inside and catch up on sleep."

Zhao Han laughed. "The exam lasts a whole day — plenty of time for you to sleep."

Fei Ruhe sighed. "Ah, I've only just finished studying the Analects. I haven't even read Mencius or The Doctrine of the Mean, yet Father insists I come take this damned child-student exam!"

"Didn't your family bribe the County Magistrate for you?" Zhao Han teased in a low voice.

Fei Ruhe rubbed his chubby face. "What use is bribing the County Magistrate? Even if I pass the county exam, I'd still just be a schoolboy. To become a child student, I'd have to bribe the Prefect as well."

Zhao Han turned and asked Xu Ying, "How confident are you?"

Xu Ying shook his head. "Not the slightest bit. I started my schooling too late and still haven't finished Mencius. If not for you, sir, telling me to take the exam, I would certainly have waited until next year."

"Taking it this year is for your own good, so you won't be completely unfamiliar next year. Don't be nervous — just treat it as a tour of the examination shed," Zhao Han consoled him.

Outside the exam grounds, only Fei Chun had accompanied them.

Fei Yinghuan had also come, along with Qinxin, Jiandan, and Jiupo, but they were all back at the inn snoring away, saying they would head to Shitang Town to visit friends once the sun was up.

As for his son's exam, Fei Yinghuan could not be bothered to care — it was just a day trip to the exam grounds.

The sole useful thing Young Master Fei had done was to find a few xiucai to serve as joint guarantors for Zhao Han and the others.

At dawn, the examinees began to enter.

A runner confirmed Zhao Han's identity, then let him through for the body search.

The body search for the county exam was pure pretense — they did not even make you take off your clothes, just patted you down a few times for show. No one cared if someone cheated anyway.

Once inside the exam grounds, Zhao Han hurried to grab a seat number, making absolutely sure it was not next to the latrine.

A light rain suddenly began to fall from the sky. Zhao Han rushed to nail up his oilcloth canopy, and by the time everything was set, half his body was soaked.

Sleep!

Zhao Han and Fei Ruhe were not far apart. Neither took the exam seriously, and almost simultaneously they sprawled across their desks and fell into a deep sleep.

Only Xu Ying was nervous, having forgotten that he was here for a day trip.

In the faint light of early morning, Zhao Han was woken by someone.

A runner was walking among the exam sheds holding up a placard with the topics; the light was too dim to read it, so they had to wait for the runner to come closer.

Two questions, testing only the Four Books, with a time limit of one full day.

Zhao Han fixed his eyes on them — what the hell kind of questions were these?

The first one was manageable: "The Master said."

The second was absolutely absurd: "Do not eat much."

When Fei Ruhe saw the questions, he immediately began scratching his head and tugging at his ears.

The question "The Master said" was definitely from the Analects. But the whole text was filled with "The Master said," making it impossible to know where to begin — one had no idea from which angle to break open the topic.

The fat man thought for a long time, then decided to tackle the second question first.

After a moment's reflection, literary inspiration surged forth, and he took up his brush and wrote his opening argument: "Of food one must not eat much; if much, then one will surely grow fat!"

What a brilliant opening! Fei Ruhe was already lost in self-admiration.

Over on Xu Ying's side.

He was equally at a loss with "The Master said," because it appeared everywhere in the Analects — it was like being asked to prove that 1+1=2.

When he looked at "Do not eat much," Xu Ying immediately smiled. This question was very simple.

Zhao Han was exactly the opposite: the moment he saw "The Master said," he immediately thought of Su Shi's magnificent prose.

Back in university, though he had never memorized the full text, he still remembered the opening lines. He transplanted them directly to break open the topic: "A common man who became a teacher for a hundred generations; a single saying that became law for all under Heaven."

For the next several lines, he continued plagiarizing Su Shi's original text.

As he copied along, he forgot what came after, so he racked his brains, patching together bits and pieces from here and there to pile up the word count on the paper.

After fussing for a quarter of an hour, he had barely scraped together two hundred characters. He made a few cursory revisions, then began copying it onto the answer sheet.

Next came the second topic: "Do not eat much."

Zhao Han could not recall the original passage at the moment, but he could reason it out.

Confucius was a foodie, after all. The Analects has the most to say about eating, so this topic was probably also from the Analects.

After racking his brains for a good while, he finally, damn it, remembered. The original line must be: "He did not remove the ginger, but he did not eat much of it."

It can be understood as: Confucius liked eating ginger, never going a meal without it, but he did not eat much.

It can also be understood as: ginger can clear the mind. The other foods were all taken away, but the ginger could remain — only one must not eat too much of it.

Zhu Xi's interpretation is: ginger communicates with the divine intelligence and can purge filth and evil. Confucius did not eat much of it because he was free of greed.

This was a truncated topic, split from above and below. Breaking it open was extremely difficult — one could not mention the words before or after, yet still had to express the relevant content.

Zhao Han thought for a very long time, and finally took up his brush and wrote: "Through restraint and self-reflection, the sage cultivates his person."

The opening was brilliantly done. Unfortunately, the rest was hard to handle. Zhao Han scribbled a mess of nonsense, scraped together two hundred characters, then copied it out and handed in his paper.

It was still early, but four people had already handed in their papers.

Zhao Han was the fifth. He was about to set down his paper and leave, but County Magistrate Feng called him back.

"What instruction does His Honor the County Magistrate have for me?" Zhao Han asked, cupping his hands.

Feng Xun stroked his beard and said, "Why are you leaving? Wait here!"

Zhao Han stood obediently to the side. One fellow was currently undergoing the interview.

Feng Xun set a first line of a couplet. The fellow answered it in a flash, then was joyfully permitted to leave — apparently accepted on the spot.

The county exam did not require names to be covered. Feng Xun glanced at the paper and asked, "Which branch of the Fei clan?"

"Ehu," Zhao Han answered.

"What is Fei Dazhao to you?" Feng Xun asked again.

Zhao Han said, "My father."

Feng Xun's expression instantly softened into genial warmth. Smiling, he said, "Your esteemed father is a man of great talent. I imagine you are no different. Let me take a look at this magnificent essay."

Zhao Han was speechless. Was this county exam really this absurd? No attempt to avoid favoritism at all?

Feng Xun swept his eyes over the opening lines and abruptly slapped the table in admiration. "Wonderful, wonderful! 'A common man who became a teacher for a hundred generations; a single saying that became law for all under Heaven.' Truly, a tiger father begets no dog of a son!"

Zhao Han was stunned. Had this County Magistrate never read Su Shi's essays?

The first six lines of his eight-legged essay were copied verbatim from Su Shi!

In the late Ming, many scholars did not even memorize the Four Books and Five Classics, let alone Tang and Song prose. They simply crammed model essays by rote through a sea of exam topics.

Even the great literary talent Qian Qianyi only truly began studying ancient prose after he had been an official for many years, and he swiftly rose to become a rising leader in literary circles. Before that, though he knew of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song, he had never read the prose of Han Yu or Liu Zongyuan.

Feng Xun looked at the second essay and clapped his hands again. "The Fei clan has produced a qilin!"

Then the County Magistrate began to fret. The top seat had already been decided, and the second place also had a candidate. No matter how good Zhao Han's eight-legged essays were, he could only be ranked third. Truly, this child prodigy was being wronged.

Feng Xun instructed him, "Go home and prepare well for the prefectural exam."

Zhao Han was a bit dazed. I've been accepted on the spot, just like that?

Wasn't Jiangxi's civil exams supposed to be brutally hard? I haven't even finished studying the Four Books!

(End of chapter)