The Provincial Examination

"Have you heard? The Fairy has gone off in search of immortals and the Dao. She'll never divine our fortunes again!"

"My mother cried half the night. She regrets not asking about my prospects."

"Alas..."

No one knew what had happened in the battle inside the Fairy Temple.

But for more than a month afterward, all of Yong Prefecture—and even Jinghu South Circuit—seethed with undercurrents.

Huang Shang didn't know exactly what Wu Que and Nightingale were up to, but judging by their nocturnal activities, they had paid visits to nearly every official and local gentry.

Even if ordinary people discovered the Fairy's true nature, daring to use it as leverage against the powerful would surely end in disaster.

But what sort of people were star-ranked Reincarnators? With a few deft moves, they had those people eating out of their hands.

The network of connections that the He family and the Ming Cult behind them had spent so much effort building was now being used by Wu Que and Nightingale.

After that, they simply covered it all up.

The Fairy Temple had once been crowded with fervent believers. But once its doors were sealed, the faithful drifted away, and the place was left to its fate.

It proved that no one was so indispensable that the world couldn't go on without them.

During this time, Huang Shang had returned home only once before moving out.

It was to prevent retaliation from the Ming Cult.

The He family's matriarch and Zhu Yan were still alive; they had been imprisoned.

Their disappearance could be passed off as their having left the cult after turning traitor.

But the movements of the upper ranks in the prefectures and counties made their hostility toward the Ming Cult unmistakable.

The Ming Cult would inevitably fly into a rage and strike back.

Wu Que and Nightingale hadn't let their guard down. At a time like this, they couldn't afford to be distracted by protecting Huang Shang and his entire family.

And so, everyone was happy.

While the Reincarnators were busy running around, Huang Shang stayed at a Taoist temple and applied himself to his studies.

It was common for scholars to lodge in temples before an examination.

Unlike Buddhist monasteries, Taoist temples didn't have a constant stream of visitors. Huang Shang was glad of the peace and quiet. He studied the classics and polished his writing, making his final preparations for the Provincial Examination.

At the moment, he was studying Mencius.

Later generations would speak of the Way of Confucius and Mencius as one, placing the two on equal footing. But in the Song dynasty, Mencius hadn't yet attained such stature.

During the Han and Tang dynasties, Mencius had been merely one of the Confucian sages, and not a particularly prominent one. It wasn't until Han Yu rose to prominence, championed Mencius, and established the theory of the Confucian lineage that things changed. He claimed that the Confucian lineage had passed from Yao to Shun, from Shun to Yu, from Yu to Tang, and from Tang to King Wen, King Wu, and the Duke of Zhou. King Wen, King Wu, and the Duke of Zhou had passed it to Confucius, who had ultimately passed it on to Mencius.

That elevated Mencius's status enormously.

As an aside, among the later generations' list of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, Han Yu held a particularly special place.

In literature, Han Yu had been a pioneer of the Classical Prose Movement.

In Confucian thought, he had also been the source of the many schools of Song learning.

It was worth remembering that Buddhism and Taoism had flourished during the Tang dynasty, while Confucianism had actually fallen into decline.

Han Yu had risen to prominence and restored the Confucian tradition.

Among Zhang Zai's students, whenever anyone mentioned Han Yu, they called him Master Han, showing the depth of their respect.

Even so, there were still two sharply divided views of Mencius among Confucian scholars.

Sima Guang, for instance, disliked Mencius so much that he had even written Doubting Mencius.

"Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance is practically a textbook for rulers. Naturally, he wouldn't care for Mencius's view that the people were more important than the ruler. The great Confucians of his school all feel the same way."

"My teacher, Zhang Zai, reveres Mencius, and Wang Anshi champions him as well. They belong to the other camp."

"Hmm. I need to find out which camp this year's examiners belong to."

There was no doubt about it: Huang Shang was sorting the examiners into factions.

He had already reached the required level of learning.

Now all that remained was to figure out the examiners.

That was crucial.

Don't assume the Provincial Examination couldn't go wrong. The king of hell was easy to meet, but his underlings were hard to deal with. It was impossible to say how easily one might stumble at the last hurdle.

If an examiner despised Mencius and you went out of your way to praise him in your essay, the examiner would surely trip you up.

Mencius wasn't the only potential taboo. There were plenty of other subjects that could land you in trouble.

An examination was an examination. You had to know when to adapt.

Huang Shang understood perfectly well that only after achieving success and fame could he better realize his ideals.

He shouldn't be in a hurry to pour all his thoughts and ambitions into a single exam paper.

How could he learn about the examiners?

Simple. He had Reincarnators, after all...

Sure enough, Huang Shang had only to hint that he wanted to know, and Nightingale happily rushed off to take care of it.

In just one night, a detailed dossier on Yong Prefecture's chief examiner was laid out on the table.

August.

The triennial imperial examination finally began.

A barricade had already been erected around the Yong Prefecture Examination Hall.

Wu Que and Nightingale had come to see Huang Shang off, but they could only reach the gate in the barricade. They waved at him repeatedly, just like parents sending their child off to the college entrance exam, their eyes full of expectation.

Once Huang Shang passed through the gate, he saw scholars waiting to enter and patrol soldiers keeping order.

There were also clerks in charge of examination affairs, lined up outside the Examination Hall gate. Each held a sign, looking just like people waiting to meet someone at an airport.

A clerk with a booming voice shouted, "Check your name slips, find the clerk assigned to you, and line up! You'll enter in order in fifteen minutes!"

The scholars jostled into lines. Some were so nervous that sweat already drenched their foreheads.

After a spell of confusion, everyone finally stood in order. The gates of the Examination Hall opened, and a second group of clerks—who had been waiting for some time—began checking the rosters.

They scrutinized each candidate closely: name, place of origin, age, appearance, and so on.

This was to prevent anyone from taking the exam in another person's place.

Only after everyone's identity had been verified did the clerk carrying the sign lead them farther inside. But they still hadn't reached the examination halls.

Standing stiffly in a shed to the right, he told the students, "Before paying respects to the Most Holy Sage, you must bathe and change clothes. You have the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Then collect your belongings at the exit."

Huang Shang and everyone else quickly began taking off their clothes.

At first glance, it seemed strange. Did the examination grounds really have a bathhouse?

In fact, this was a way to prevent candidates from sneaking in crib notes.

Throughout history, smuggling in notes had been the best way to cheat. The tricks were endless, and it was impossible to guard against them all.

So when Tang dynasty candidates entered the examination grounds, not only were their belongings inspected, they were also searched from head to toe, inside and out. The search inevitably involved a lot of groping.

By the Song dynasty, the literati had gained considerable influence. The scholar-officials considered such searches an insult to their dignity, so they came up with the idea of having candidates bathe instead.

The candidates could wash inside while the proctors searched outside.

That prevented cheating without offending propriety.

Of course, this was the Song dynasty, which treated scholars better than any other. The method was both time-consuming and labor-intensive.

By the Ming dynasty, they simply had candidates strip naked and stand still while they searched them thoroughly, all in the name of freedom.

Huang Shang was glad he'd been born in this era.

When he entered the bathhouse, he found that it bore some resemblance to those of later generations.

Several thick bamboo pipes ran overhead, each lined with small holes that sprayed water.

It wasn't just a shower; the water was pleasantly warm, far better than what most households had.

Huang Shang nostalgically enjoyed a hot bath, dried himself with a towel, then collected the clothes provided by the Examination Hall and put them on.

Once all the candidates had gathered in the square, looking refreshed, the chief examiner, Scholar Guo, appeared before them in a crimson official robe.

The statue of the Most Holy Sage had long been placed on the incense altar.

Before Confucius was born, the world was like an endless night.

The other candidates watched the examiner. After all, it was the living who truly held their fate in their hands.

But Huang Shang stared at Confucius without blinking.

In his eyes, it was no longer a clay statue.

It was a vessel for Literary Qi!

A vessel for an indescribably dense Literary Qi!

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