Chapter 213: Qian Changle's Situation Is Looking Excellent!

The hour of the rabbit.

The bronze bell that had hung in the examination hall for a hundred years was struck with force, its long, heavy toll piercing the thin morning mist, rolling past rows of examination cells and into every candidate's ears.

The examination had begun.

Qian Changle exhaled a puff of white breath and rubbed his hands, stiff from the cold.

He had deliberately skipped breakfast, and his stomach was now completely empty.

This was a technique passed on to him by Master Wang back in his village.

In every sitting of the examinations, the most critical time was the first two-hour period after receiving the question paper.

All his approaches and the broad direction of his answers had to be thought through clearly during this window, a full mental draft prepared.

At this stage, a slight edge of hunger helped keep the mind sharp.

Once this phase passed, even if hunger gnawed at his belly, he could only eat a little — he must never eat his fill.

If he gave in to the craving for a full stomach, the Mud Pill Palace would be clouded by damp mire, his spiritual light would dim, and his literary thoughts would clog and stagnate.

— Although Master Wang had sat the examinations year after year and in the end never even passed the juren degree, having to return to the village to teach.

Still, decades of hard-won practical experience stood behind him, and Qian Changle naturally treated his words as a golden standard.

What was more, today's clerk recruitment examination was unlike the provincial examinations: it lasted only one day, a single session deciding all, which made this first two-hour period even more critical.

Suddenly, from the far end of the cell-block alley came the sound of footsteps and the rumble of cartwheels — it seemed the officials and guards had come to distribute the question papers.

Qian Changle's spirits lifted; he hurriedly gave his inkstone a few more careful grindings and made every preparation.

Before long, the guards finally reached his cell. With practiced efficiency, they counted out six thick sheets of paper and thrust them inside.

"Six sheets per man, numbered one through six. Check them yourself."

"Inspect them carefully. If any characters are unclear or pages are missing, call out at once for a replacement! After half a shichen, no replacements will be permitted!"

Hearing this strict restriction, Qian Changle dared not let his mind wander. He hurriedly took the weighty stack of examination papers.

On the upper-left corners of the six sheets, pigments — cinnabar, orange mineral, gamboge, and the like — had been used to mark them with six colors: red, orange, yellow, green,

blue, and purple, making them distinguishable at a glance.

On the right side of the paper, a column of large Song-style characters was printed, square and upright: "Recruitment Examination for Clerks of the Various Prefectures, Subprefectures, and Counties of Northern Zhili (Seventh Year of Tianqi)"

Qian Changle's heart gave a violent lurch.

The various prefectures of Northern Zhili?

Hadn't they said the Shuntian Prefectural Office was recruiting clerks? How had the scope suddenly expanded to the whole of Northern Zhili?

Of course! With over two thousand people registered, how could the Shuntian Prefectural Office possibly absorb so many clerks? Wouldn't they have to be assigned elsewhere?

And if he passed, given his family circumstances and connections —

he simply could not produce the money for the necessary bribes. There was no need to think too hard: he would certainly be posted to some place far from the capital.

Wait — don't panic yet. Pass first, then worry about it!

Qian Changle shook his head and continued reading.

He discovered that the format of the examination paper was also oddly peculiar.

On the left, a separate area had been partitioned off, printed with:

Name:

Native place:

Cell number:

Household registration:

This much he could understand — he was to fill in his own information.

But by long-standing convention, this had always been written on the right side of the paper's head. Placing it here, on the left at the tail end, was truly unheard of.

He suppressed the doubt rising in his heart and shifted his gaze to the main body of the paper on the right.

Three large characters met his eyes:

Classics Interpretation Section

But he had no idea what level of difficulty the classics interpretation would be.

A thread of worry stirred in Qian Changle's heart. After all, he was no master of the classics; he had merely read through them enough to be literate.

Otherwise, he would not be here taking the clerk examination.

Yet when his gaze traveled further down, his feelings at once turned complex and hard to describe.

I. Single-Choice Questions (one point each, ten points total)

The Book of Changes says: "When pushed to the limit, one changes; through change, one finds passage; through passage, one endures." What is the meaning of "limit" in this passage?

(A) poverty (B) extremity (C) predicament (D) obstruction

This first question — though he had never read the Book of Changes in full, he did know this most classic of its lines.

The questions that followed were all of the same basic content. Even when they touched on a major work like the Zuo Commentary, they drew only on commonly seen phrases; the difficulty was indeed not high.

But —

Single-choice questions?

What did that mean? From these four — A, B, C, D — he was to select only one and write it down?

For some questions, it looked as though two answers could both be correct.

And how was he to choose? Circle his choice? Tick it? Or copy out the A, B, C, or D?

Qian Changle gripped his brush, his heart uneasy. He had not expected to be thrown into uncertainty right at the start of the examination.

If he wrote it in the wrong way, could a correct answer be counted as wrong?

Even as he hesitated, someone in a neighboring cell could no longer contain himself and bellowed at the top of his voice: "What is the meaning of this 'single-choice question'? Does it mean pick one out of four?"

"Yes! And what is meant by this 'point'?"

One person started it, and soon the examinees in the other cells were clamoring too, the alley buzzing with noise.

"Silence!"

The official guard on patrol barked out a furious shout.

"Speak only if you need to exchange your paper — otherwise, no talking!"

"Anyone who makes noise again will be charged with whispering together and expelled from the examination grounds at once!"

After several successive rebukes, the commotion was finally suppressed, and each cell sank back into a deathly stillness.

Qian Changle's heart pounded wildly, cold sweat nearly breaking out.

Don't panic, don't panic — the questions aren't hard, it's just the format is strange, that's all. Stay calm, stay calm!

Qian Changle forced himself to keep reading the questions.

II. Fill-in-the-Blank Questions (one point per blank, ten points total)

"The Way of the Great Learning lies in making bright virtue manifest, in ———, and in resting in the highest good."

Seeing this question, he finally let out a long breath.

Though the format was novel, it was quite similar to the "patch the classics" exercises the master used to test their recitation — nothing more than filling in the missing phrases from memory.

This one truly was not difficult.

Although there were still a few phrases he was unsure of, at least this was a format he could understand.

He steadied himself and continued to the third section.

III. Short-Answer Questions (each answer not to exceed five hundred characters)

What is the original text of the "cultivation, regulation, ordering, and pacification" spoken of in the Great Learning? (one point)

At the grand court assembly on the first day of the tenth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, His Majesty said: "The New Governance shall model itself upon the Way of cultivation, regulation, ordering, and pacification, so as to seek gradual progress." What does this refer to? Why was it said this way? (four points)

In light of "Though Zhou is an old state, its Mandate rests upon renewal," briefly state your views on the New Governance. (five points)

Qian Changle's head buzzed — he was already beginning to sense that the outcome of this examination would not be too favorable.

The first question came from the Great Learning.

This classic is short in length yet vast and profound in depth; most anyone who can read is able to recite it from memory.

As for the original text on cultivation, regulation, ordering, and pacification, he naturally knew it by heart.

The third question — "Though Zhou is an old state, its Mandate rests upon renewal" — he also knew came from the Book of Odes, meaning that although Zhou was an old state, its Heaven-decreed destiny lay in renewal.

But this second question —

"The New Governance shall model itself upon the Way of cultivation, regulation, ordering, and pacification, so as to seek gradual progress"

When had His Majesty ever said such a thing?

A wave of hollow dread rose in Qian Changle's heart.

The Great Ming Times — official edition priced at five wen a sheet, yet utterly impossible to get on the open market.

Hand-copied transcripts, though the price had come down, still easily cost tens or even over a hundred wen. A farmer's son like him — how could he afford that?

To read the paper, he had to walk a full twenty li to the Gujie Courier Station to the west just to make his own copies.

And even then, the hottest, newest issues were never his turn to copy — they were always reserved well in advance.

Even this much was only thanks to his maternal uncle who worked as a groom at the courier station, which gave him a sliver of face.

As a result, the papers he had were scattered and patchy, missing several issues. What His Majesty had said at the grand court assembly on the first day of the tenth month — he truly had no recollection whatsoever.

Yet it was also thanks to those few scattered papers that he had managed to gain some familiarity with Master Wang, and through that was able to borrow the Regulations on Interrogation and Punishment and receive much guidance on examination techniques.

Otherwise, with a family so poor he could not even afford the tuition gift, how would Master Wang ever have looked him in the eye?

But this one question was worth a full four points!

Wait —

This "point" — what exactly was it?

One tael, one mace, one candareen, one cash.

Could it be that one point was one candareen of silver? That whoever answered the most, and earned the most "silver," would be selected?

But why "candareen," and not "cash," nor "wen"?

He opened his mouth, wanting to ask again, but remembering the scene of those government students being rebuked earlier, he forced it back down.

Qian Changle stared fixedly at the strange new format on the exam paper, and a flash like lightning streaked through his mind.

That was it!

This was also part of the examination!

The New Governance! The New Governance! Since His Majesty ascended the throne, he had acted with thunderous decisiveness, never bound by convention in anything he did.

That red-and-green reward-and-punishment system — or those broken-line charts and bar charts he had seen in that issue of the paper on the "Man-Land Debate" —

Every single thing was an unprecedented novelty!

Was this entire examination, from its format to its content, itself an interpretation of the "New Governance"?

Otherwise, why would the very first classics question be "When cornered, one changes; having changed, one breaks through; having broken through, one endures"?

What was being tested was not merely the classics, but even more the ability to grasp the "new," to grasp "change"!

That was why no explanations were given, and why no one was permitted to ask questions!

Having thought this through, Qian Changle felt a pent-up stifling energy in his chest suddenly disperse, and a sense of ease flowed through his whole body.

He could not resist wanting to look at the examinees to his left and right — but all he saw was a cold, unfeeling brick wall.

Among the more than two thousand examinees in this examination hall, how many, he wondered, could grasp the true meaning within this?

But he, Qian Changle, could at least say to himself that he had glimpsed the truth of it!

He quickly calculated in his mind: aside from that question about His Majesty's speech, which he was unsure of, for all the other sections, all told, he should be able to get twenty points without a problem.

Thinking thus, Qian Changle's mind settled at once. He did not rush to write his answers, but instead, following the official guard's instructions, first turned over the second sheet of the exam paper.

The second sheet had its corner tipped with orange pigment.

The format was identical to the first sheet in every respect, except the heading at the top had changed to:

Arithmetic Questions

Below were ten questions, each worth three points, for a total of thirty points.

One: There is a field fifteen paces wide and fourteen paces long. What is its area?

Two: There is a wedge field (triangle) seventeen paces wide at the base and twenty-nine paces in vertical height. What is its area?

Three: There is a slanted field (right trapezoid), the upper base thirty paces wide, the lower base forty-two paces wide, and the vertical height sixty-four paces. What is its area?

The more Qian Changyue read, the brighter his eyes grew.

Of the ten questions, fully five were on the method of rectangular fields — from the simplest rectangle, to wedge fields, slanted fields, and then circular fields, progressing from easy to difficult.

Of the remaining five, three were construction-work problems, dealing with calculating the earthwork for building river dikes and digging canals.

The last two were equitable-transport problems, involving tax-grain forwarding and the conversion of rice and wheat.

After just a cursory glance, Qian Changyue could not help but clench his fist in excitement.

He had guessed right!

It really was cadastral survey!

The village headman had once said to him, a dry tobacco pipe dangling from his lips, "Young Le, all this talk of men and land in conflict, the question of the age — we farming folk don't understand it."

"But for generations my family has known one truth: a new reign, a new administration — how could there not be a fresh survey of the fields?"

"The Jiajing Emperor, the Wanli Emperor — which of them didn't launch a cadastral survey when they came to the throne? Master the method of rectangular fields in the mathematical classics, and I guarantee it will serve you well!"

The headman might not be versed in the Four Classics, but his words rang true!

It was precisely because he had heeded those words that he had thoroughly reviewed the method of rectangular fields once more; he could almost say he had it nine-tenths mastered.

As for construction work and equitable transport, he might struggle a little, but they should pose no great problem.

After all, had it not been for this clerkship examination, he would by now have already gone through Master Wang's connections to become an apprentice at a shop in Liangxiang County.

Excellent!

Adding the twenty points from the previous section, he should have twenty-seven points in hand here as well!

Excellent — the advantage is mine!

Qian Changyue's spirits rose even higher; with a surge of confidence he had never felt before, he turned to the third page of the examination paper.