Another Destiny (Seek Follow-up Reads)

Another Fate (Please Keep Reading)

The three exchanged smiles, feeling that Far Embrace Inn truly knew how to do business.

Seeing that the sky outside had already darkened, Chen Jian'an, hoping for an auspicious start, first asked about the price of the lanterns. When he learned they were not much more expensive than outside, he bought three red lanterns, giving two to his fellow students and keeping one for himself.

Then...

The three left Far Embrace Inn carrying their lanterns.

"Have the candidates from Chang'an County arrived?"

The moment he reached the entrance of the prefectural yamen, Xu Xing heard a loud-voiced yamen runner calling out.

"Yes!"

Li Mingda hurriedly shouted back, then casually stuffed his lantern into Xu Xing's hands and quickened his pace to join the line of Chang'an County candidates.

The prefectural examination was for candidates from the counties under Jingzhao Prefecture who had passed the county examination.

Before entering the examination hall, the yamen runners admitted candidates in batches according to their county of household registration. Chang'an County, Xian County, and the like were the counties under Jingzhao Prefecture closest to the provincial capital.

Thus, candidates from Chang'an County, Xian County, and the like were among the first batch to enter the examination hall.

Li Mingda was from Chang'an County.

"Jingyang County..."

"Quick, quick, quick!"

After a brief interval, another yamen runner called out.

Xu Xing joined the line of Jingyang County candidates.

Slightly different from the county examination, the prefectural and academy examinations had hall-seat designations.

A hall-seat designation meant that the top ten candidates in each county's county examination would take their exams in the magistrate's public hall, under the personal supervision of the prefect and other high-ranking officials.

If one caught an examiner's eye during the examination, it was not uncommon to be selected on the spot in the prefectural examination.

Xu Xing had no such good fortune. He had placed fourteenth in the county examination and did not receive the treatment of a hall-seat designation. After going through the procedure of being questioned by the guarantor, he was led by a clerk to a corner of the examination sheds and seated for the exam.

Before long, the yamen officers raised their placard lanterns and patrolled back and forth.

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[Four Books Question:]

[King Hui of Liang said: "Jin was the strongest state under Heaven; is there a way to deal with neighboring states?"]

A truncated-answer question.

Both sentences came from the "King Hui of Liang" chapter of Mencius.

The moment Xu Xing saw the question, he secretly rejoiced that he had informed Filial Righteousness Hall early on and had them run errands to obtain information on Prefect Yin.

Like the county examination, the prefectural examination placed great importance on the first session, which was the regular examination.

And within the regular examination, the first question was the weightiest of all.

This truncated-answer question itself was not difficult; it was not hard to write an opening interpretation. The difficult part was writing one that happened to accord with the examiner's political leanings and earned his judgment of a superior among superiors.

The full text of the first sentence, King Hui of Liang said, was: "King Hui of Liang said: 'Jin was the strongest state under Heaven; this, old sir, you know. Yet in my time, I was defeated by Qi in the east, where my eldest son died; I lost more than seven hundred li of land to Qin in the west; and I was humiliated by Chu in the south. I wish to wash away this disgrace for the dead. What may be done?'"

The second sentence came from King Xuan of Qi asking Mencius, "Is there a way to deal with neighboring states?"

"The timing..."

"Late Qing, Kang and Liang submitting memorials, the Reform Movement..."

"The court's influence on local affairs."

"Prefect Yin..."

Xu Xing did not rush to put brush to paper. Instead, he first considered the intent behind the prefectural examination setting this question.

The imperial examinations had never been a matter of possessing strong literary talent alone and then earning one's name on the golden list. Since ancient times, countless poets and lyricists of exceptional talent had failed the examinations. They failed not because they lacked the talent to pass, but because they did not know how to discern the deeper meaning behind the questions, and so they fell from the list in dismay.

"In the fifteenth year of Guangxu, Prefect Yin submitted a memorial fiercely denouncing the Self-Strengthening Movement for bringing chaos to the nation, and destroyed the machinery within his jurisdiction."

"In the eighteenth year of Guangxu..."

Xu Xing recalled the materials concerning Prefect Yin.

Sentence after sentence seemed to show him standing in opposition to the Self-Strengthening faction.

"No, that's not right..."

He quickly overturned his own idea.

The Self-Strengthening faction was not the same as the Reform faction. The reason Prefect Yin rebuked Self-Strengthening was likely not because of Self-Strengthening itself, but because most Self-Strengthening officials were southerners...

After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the southern provinces had largely become self-governing, divided into separate domains.

The Qing court could only collect taxes from them.

Northern local officials opposing Self-Strengthening was politically correct; it did not mean they truly opposed Self-Strengthening.

According to the materials, Prefect Yin had a good relationship with Fang Yun, the Governor of Qin Province. The Reform faction, meanwhile, did not hold real power, but relied on the emperor's authority to carry out its reform movement. Therefore...

Time to write about reform!

Xu Xing let out a long breath, then immediately fell into deep thought. He put brush to paper and wrote: "The Sage transmitted the learning of the former kings, dispelling war from Lu; he brought forth the Duke of Zhou's virtue there. Though Qi was great, Duke Jing could not sleep in peace."

His opening still followed the same steady, orthodox formula.

Not radical.

The meaning of this opening was: back then, Confucius inherited the learning of the former kings, sparing crisis-ridden Lu from the ravages of war and carrying forward the Duke of Zhou's virtue within its borders. Even though Qi was powerful, Duke Jing of Qi could neither eat in peace nor sleep at night.

Yet after explaining this opening, Xu Xing's brush turned again, bringing up the line from the Minor Odes of the Book of Poetry: "Though Zhou was an old state, its mandate was ever renewed."

This line meant... that the learning of the former kings promoted by Confucius also carried the intent of reform.

History was a little girl anyone could dress up as they pleased.

So was Confucian learning.

Whatever one wanted, one only had to pick out the right words from the sages' teachings.

In short, Xu Xing's central idea was this: on the foundation of revering antiquity, carry out a small-scale "operation."

That way, he would not seem like some lifeless young man. He showed a willingness to reform, yet also added caution to that reform, rather than acting recklessly.

He understood when to advance and when to retreat!

Once he had finished the Four Books essay—

the following Five Classics questions and policy essays were no longer quite so "fraught with peril."

Xu Xing had a solid foundation and answered them one by one.

That evening, after leaving the Dragon Gate of the examination sheds, Xu Xing waited outside for his two fellow lodging students, Chen Jian'an and Li Mingda.

Before long, Chen Jian'an emerged from the examination grounds with a face full of bad luck, grumbling as he walked, "That Prefect Yin has no good intentions. What sort of questions were those...?"

"How did you approach the question?" Xu Xing asked casually.

The two were roommates, so there was no need to be overly guarded when discussing how they had opened their essays.

"I didn't dare answer it. I was afraid something might happen."

"Besides, I had no hope of passing the provincial examination this year anyway."

Chen Jian'an shook his head. He had a clear understanding of his own abilities.

For the Four Books question set by Prefect Yin, he could not grasp the prefect's intentions. Afraid that careless writing might bring down a literary inquisition upon him, he had simply not dared answer.

Literary inquisitions were frequent in the Qing Dynasty. The most famous was none other than the "Wei Min Suo Zhi" case.

In the fourth year of Yongzheng's reign, Cha Siting served as the chief examiner in Jiangxi and used the line "Wei min suo zhi" from the Book of Poetry as an examination question. Someone then claimed that he harbored sinister intentions and meant to cut off Yongzheng's head.

Remove the "head" from "Yongzheng," and what remained were the two characters "wei zhi."

"What about Brother Mingda?"

"He still hasn't come out?"

Chen Jian'an looked around in curiosity.

Just as they were speaking, Li Mingda was swept out of the examination grounds by the crowd. His complexion was flushed an unnatural red, and by the time he reached his two classmates, he was already short of breath.

"You've practically lost half your life. Why put yourself through it?"

Chen Jian'an shook his head and sighed, joining Xu Xing in supporting Li Mingda.

Three days later—

the prefectural examination results were posted.

To everyone's surprise, Xu Xing ranked first in this examination.

He was the prefectural top candidate.

At the same time, Xu Xing's white destiny [Literary Brilliance] advanced to a crimson destiny. Moreover, he condensed another destiny that he had never expected: [Reform].

I wonder if everyone likes the Republican-era storyline?

If you don't like it much, I'll write less of it. If you like it, I'll write more. Mainly because whenever I read story arcs set in the Republican era, there are very few comments...