Five Elements Natural Disaster Scenario Question

The examination took place at the county office because the Ministry of Agriculture did not have that many tables and chairs.

The county magistrate concurrently held civil administration duties, so whenever there was a theoretical examination, it was basically held in the examination rooms of the county office.

County Magistrate Li Wenzheng was not seen, but the chief examiner and proctors were still familiar faces from the Ministry of Agriculture, though the number of officials dispatched from the county office for proctoring increased to fifty, and there were also clerks delivering food and water.

This time there was no need to test stamina, so during the exam, people would deliver food to the examination rooms.

The exam would take two days, so naturally there would be no shortage of test papers.

After finding his corresponding examination room and sitting down, Zhao Xing waited for the test papers to be distributed. Once they came down, there were a total of forty sheets!

Among them, thirty sheets were test questions, and ten were blank.

Zhao Xing was not in a anxious rush to write. He first glanced over the exam questions and requirements, and additionally checked for any errors or omissions.

The first fifteen sheets were free-point questions, belonging to questions that could earn points just by rote memorization.

For instance: ""Seventy-Two Pentads of the Lunar Calendar", from which ancient book does it come? By whom and when was it compiled?"

Without even needing to think, Zhao Xing directly wrote down the answer: "Coming from 'Commentaries on Seasonal Instructions', in the ninth year of Kaiping, compiled by Grand Agriculture Official Wu Cheng."

Or excerpting a sentence from a literary work, filling in the preceding or succeeding sentence.

Such as: Duckweed does not grow, and the yin qi is seethingly abundant.________

Answer: The mourning doves do not brush their feathers, and the country does not deploy troops; the hoopoes do not descend upon the mulberry trees, and political education is not impartial.

This question was a 'Yin Yang Seasonal Phenomenon Question', which stated that if the yin qi among the yin and yang qi was excessively heavy, then correspondingly some abnormal 'seasonal phenomenon' occurrences would appear, and at this time the nation had better not resort to military force, nor issue any new political decrees, otherwise the results achieved would be relatively poor.

Zhao Xing answered fluently, and soon the free-point questions concluded.

He arrived at the scenario Q&A questions that screened the candidates.

"There is wind south of the city, blowing violently, and spring and autumn often suffer from drought. There is a river east of the city, rainfall is overloaded, and summer and winter often suffer from floods, making it difficult for the five grains to survive. How is this solved?"

If it were a clerk with an unsound foundation in basic theories, they would definitely answer directly, 'Rectify it with the favorable weather spell, and the five grains will have a bumper harvest.'

Answering like this, if it were worth 10 points, they would only be given 2 points, or perhaps not even a single point.

Because there was only an answer without the process, which was unacceptable for a theoretical exam.

Moreover, the answer did not hit the mark, which belonged to either failing to carefully examine the question or having an insufficient reserve of spell knowledge and theory.

"The small city is constantly swept by southerly winds that blow violently, driving away the clouds and rain of spring and autumn, leading to droughts. However, there is a sea east of the city where vapor rises, leading to floods in summer and winter. Therefore, this is fundamentally not a celestial timing question, but an earthly advantage question. No matter what spells of the Celestial Timing Faction are used, they are all wrong." After seeing through the trap contained in the question, Zhao Xing began to answer.

Actually, it was also very simple; the method to solve it was something Cao Xi True Lord had done before.

"Nurture earth veins in the south so that high ground moderates the wind, construct canals in the east to guide water around the city, select another depression east of the city to store water in a lake, and further build a Return to Origin Waterwheel so that the rainfall across the four seasons is balanced. Supplemented by the Solar Terms Decree, in three years there will be favorable weather."

Having finished writing and making certain he could secure full marks, Zhao Xing continued to answer downwards.

Only until the very final question did he encounter difficulty.

This was a scenario Q&A question involving the prohibitions of the five elements and four seasons:

"The ground is gloomy and cold, spring wood is unused, summer yang steams, and locusts proliferate wildly. How is this solved?"

The fewer the words, the harder the question.

What was more, it was even a linked question.

Because it described seasonal disorder and natural disaster anomalies, the question linked the two together, so when answering, one also had to answer them jointly rather than splitting them apart.

The standard answer had to proceed from the direction of the Five Elements and Four Seasons Theory, and it was best to find a basis from classical works; otherwise, using the candidate's own words would lack basis and persuasion.

Without persuasion, even if the answer hit the mark, points would still be deducted.

After figuring this point out, Zhao Xing began to ponder and traverse various works, striving to find a perfect answer.

A quarter of an hour later, Zhao Xing picked up his brush to answer.

"If spring has residual coldness, the ground is gloomy, and all trees do not grow; it is necessary to take bing fire of the earth veins for seasonal adjustment. If the earth has no bing fire, take ding; if both bing and ding are absent, then defer the celestial timing."

"If summer yang is overly steamed, spring is short, and insect calamities run rampant, direct correction is required: restore celestial timing to spring, earth fire to ding, restore the timing by one pentad, and then restore it to summer. Shorten summer by one pentad, and submit to the proper alignment of the four seasons."

The standard answer referenced the contents of the 'Four Seasons Five Elements Theory' Earthly Advantage Chapter and Celestial Timing Chapter.

This question stated that if an agriculture official's jurisdiction experienced a situation where spring wood could not be utilized, earthly strength was gloomy and cold, and summer heat was intense, subsequently giving birth to locust calamities, how it should be resolved.

The question involved the five elements, the four seasons, and natural disasters.

When answering, one had to reply using the heavenly stems and earthly branches of the five elements, and provide a relatively perfect answer.

First, use the method of the Earthly Advantage Faction to regulate the power of the earth veins. Earth veins had different attributes, with bing fire being the most flourishing, which could be used to regulate gloomy and cold phenomena, and ding fire coming second, though it could also barely be used.

If the environment of that place was truly harsh and made it impossible to channel the fire of bing and ding, one could only change the celestial timing, making spring pass by rapidly to reach the next season, which was 'deferring the celestial timing'.

Excessive summer yang led to steaming heat, producing all sorts of insect calamities. This was because spring was too short; connecting with the preceding sentence, this formed cause and effect.

At this time, do not overthink; directly change the celestial timing because the insect calamity had already appeared, and summer was the most suitable time for insect calamities to run rampant. Remaining in summer left no way to resolve it.

Therefore, it was necessary to 'restore celestial timing to spring'. Could it be changed to autumn or winter instead?

No, because previously spring utilized 'earth vein bing fire' to solve the gloomy-and-cold problem, causing spring to be cut short by a section; now it was necessary to replenish spring by a pentad of time.

The earth vein as ding fire was relatively gentle, and would neither cause the gloomy-and-cold phenomenon to reappear nor stray too far from summer, because after resolving the insect natural disaster, one still had to return to summer, which was called 'submitting to the proper position of the four seasons'.

When answering the question, Zhao Xing considered the possibility of the insect calamity recurring, so when submitting and restoring positions, he wrote to make summer shorter by one pentad.

Because the heat of summer and autumn did not differ too greatly, shortening summer by a pentad and adding a pentad to autumn posed no problem and would not have too much impact, whereas shortening spring and adding a pentad to summer would lead to major problems.

"If the examiner is not blind, I have to get full marks for this question no matter what." Checking over his work, Zhao Xing turned the page and continued to answer.

Time slowly passed. By nightfall, many candidates had already stopped writing because most clerks did not possess the ability of Bright Eyes Night Vision.

Zhao Xing was also unwilling to waste time fooling around here, so he intended to finish as early as possible and submit his paper ahead of time.

Thus, even when the light grew dim, he did not stop writing.

After answering all the preceding categories of questions, he began to review, checking whether there were better answers and where points might be lost.

Having checked this way several times, he would then proceed to the next category of questions.

By dark, Zhao Xing had only the final category of questions left:

There was only a single sheet for this category of questions, and it was also the most difficult school-of-thought ideological question.

"Please match the five elements, heavenly stems, and earthly branches with the four seasons, and expound upon the matching ideology."

Friends who do not like these theories can skip them, and friends who like them should not fuss over details either, because blended into the xuanhuan framework, some parts have been modified by the author; after all, the real world cannot alter the four seasons, and things cannot entirely follow reality.