Where Did Confucius Go?

Fang Yun sighed softly.

The former Fang Yun had only an average memory. On top of that, he had only studied at the private school in the mornings and worked as a waiter at a restaurant from noon onward. He had learned and memorized very little. Without any surprises, that Fang Yun would have found it difficult to pass the Licentiate Examination.

Fang Yun had learned plenty on Earth, but none of it had been this.

Lost in thought, Fang Yun hoped those extra memories could help him. Then he placed his brush, ink, paper, inkstone, and other items on the desk.

Everything else was proper enough, except for the two paperweights, which were rather crude. Other people's paperweights were specially carved jade, metal, or rare wood, while his were merely bluish stone tools Yang Yuhuan had picked up by the river and slowly polished into pieces two fingers wide and as long as chopsticks.

The former Fang Yun had felt embarrassed every time he used those paperweights, thinking them shameful. Fang Yun, however, liked these simple paperweights very much, because they carried Yang Yuhuan's feelings.

Fang Yun laid out the first examination sheet and used the paperweights to pin down its upper edge. After glancing at the first question, he poured water into the inkstone and slowly ground the ink with a long ink stick in hand.

Fang Yun ground the ink while thinking, but he had no clue how to answer the first question.

"In the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao, where was Sage Kong? How would I know! This is the first question, so based on my past-life experience, it should have been the easiest." Fang Yun grumbled inwardly, racking his brains without finding an answer.

Once the ink was ready, Fang Yun selected a small regular-script goat-hair brush, dipped it in thick ink, then set it down again. He placed a piece of wool felt beneath the examination sheet. With the felt absorbing the ink, it would not seep through and ruin the paper.

Fang Yun picked up the brush and unwillingly glanced at the first question again. Certain that he did not know the answer, he was about to look at the second question when the cover of an ancient book suddenly appeared in his mind.

Records of the Historian.

Then, the Records of the Historian turned its pages by itself, opening to "The Hereditary House of Confucius, Seventeenth." Fang Yun was overjoyed, but the entire page suddenly blurred.

Fang Yun's heart lurched. He sensed something was wrong. Suddenly, several fragments of memory appeared in his mind and flew into the Records of the Historian. Before his eyes, "The Hereditary House of Confucius, Seventeenth" swiftly transformed into "The Annals of Confucius, Fifth." The content of The Annals of Confucius was far more extensive than that of The Hereditary House of Confucius.

Fang Yun was stunned, but he quickly understood.

The Records of the Historian contained twelve annals, eight treatises, ten chronological tables, thirty hereditary houses, and seventy biographies, each with different content.

The "Annals" came first. They served as the outline of the entire book, recording the most important emperors and dynasties, such as The Annals of Xia and The Annals of Qin.

The "Hereditary Houses," meanwhile, recorded the deeds of kings, marquises, enfeoffed states, and especially important figures. Their status was below that of the Annals.

In Earth's Records of the Historian, Confucius had only been included among the Hereditary Houses.

But Confucius of Saint Origin Continent was not the Confucius of Earth. His status and actual influence surpassed any emperor recorded in the "Annals." Thus, the Records of the Historian here had no Hereditary House of Confucius, only The Annals of Confucius, placed chronologically between The Annals of Zhou and The Annals of Qin.

On Saint Origin Continent, Sima Qian, the author of the Records of the Historian, was a Half-Sage enfeoffed as the "History Sage." He was a representative figure of the School of Historians, and quoting his books also counted as an Appeal to the Sage's Words.

The words in The Annals of Confucius, Fifth became clear. Dense black writing filled the page, and in the blink of an eye, some of those words changed from black to gold.

After Fang Yun finished reading the golden words, he let out a long breath of relief. The golden text was the part related to the question.

Fang Yun read through it again carefully and thought that the examiner was indeed devious. The very first question contained a small trap. It asked where Confucius had been that year, but in truth, Confucius had returned from Qi Kingdom to Lu State that year and had not remained in just one place.

That was not the end. One book after another surfaced in Fang Yun's mind. The first was the Zuo Commentary, which turned to the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao. Golden words stated that a man of Wu Kingdom named Ji Zha had gone to Jin Kingdom as an envoy.

The second was the Book of Rites, which opened to "Tan Gong: Lower Section." It stated that while Ji Zha was in Qi Kingdom, his eldest son died and was buried between Ying and Bo in Wu Kingdom. Confucius attended the funeral. Yet this Book of Rites did not state when the funeral had taken place.

Fang Yun was dizzy. Since these two books had appeared one after the other, they definitely had something to do with the question. Yet from the surface details alone, he could not determine whether the funeral had occurred in the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao, and thus could not determine whether Confucius had gone to Wu Kingdom that year.

Just as Fang Yun hesitated, various books such as Xiangdang Investigation, Records of Verifying Shusi, Study of Confucius's Return from Qi to Lu, and Family Sayings of Confucius appeared one after another, their text glowing with golden light.

Fang Yun carefully read these books. The golden words proved that Ji Zha had gone to Jin Kingdom as an envoy before returning. His eldest son had died when he passed through Qi Kingdom on his return journey, establishing the time of the boy's death.

Since Confucius had attended the funeral, it meant that in the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao, he had not only been in Qi Kingdom and Lu State, but had also gone to Wu Kingdom.

Even with all these books for reference, Fang Yun had nearly been led in circles. At first, he felt the question had no practical meaning, but upon closer thought, it was a comprehensive liberal-arts question involving history, geography, and other classics. Let alone ordinary people, even exceptionally gifted scholars would find it hard to answer correctly.

Fang Yun raised his brush and copied down the contents of the golden words.

"Lu was in chaos, and Confucius went to Qi. In the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao, a Qi minister wished to harm Confucius, so Confucius departed and returned to Lu. Ji Zi of Yanling went to Qi. His eldest son died and was buried between Ying and Bo. Confucius said, 'Ji Zi of Yanling was one of Wu Kingdom's men well versed in rites.' He went and observed his burial."

Qi Kingdom, Lu State, and Wu Kingdom were all covered.

After answering the first question, Fang Yun looked at his less-than-neat handwriting and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"This Licentiate Examination is far too difficult!"

After grumbling inwardly, Fang Yun noticed that the books in his mind had vanished. He could not help guessing at their origin.

"I vaguely remember that when the library caught fire and I jumped from the building, the Dragon-shaped Jade Pendant I was wearing shattered. Then I remembered nothing else. These books could not have entered my mind out of nowhere; they must have come from Dongjiang Library. Mother said this jade pendant had been left behind by Father and insisted that I wear it, saying it would protect me. Could my rebirth truly have been the jade pendant's doing?"

After pondering for a moment, Fang Yun immediately put those thoughts aside and carefully answered the second question.

The second question asked when King Xuan of Qi had said the words, "I am deeply ashamed before Mencius." This time, a book appeared immediately, and Fang Yun swiftly wrote: the third year of King Nan of Zhou.

Fang Yun's brush flew across the page as he answered several questions in succession. He discovered that apart from the first question, the others were not particularly difficult, and he relaxed.

Fang Yun settled his mind and slowed down, beginning to write stroke by stroke. He knew there were also "paper presentation marks" at this time. If his handwriting was too poor, he would be downgraded even if his answers were correct.

Neither version of Fang Yun had been particularly good at calligraphy, but it was already too late to practice. He could only deal with that after passing the Licentiate Examination.

When he reached the fourteenth question, Fang Yun stared at the examination sheet without writing immediately. What he had feared most had happened!

This was Saint Origin Continent, after all, not Earth.

Besides the sages who shared names with those on Earth, there were also Half-Sages who had never appeared in ancient China. Dongjiang Library could not possibly have held those people's works.

There was an unwritten rule for the Licentiate Examination and the Cultivated Talent Examination.

The Cultivated Talent Examination had a great many Appeal to the Sage's Words papers, ensuring that every sage's works would be tested. The Licentiate Examination was different.

Although the Licentiate Examination had thirty papers, the brush-written characters were relatively large, so the actual content was less than it seemed. Only a limited number of questions could be tested, while there were many sages.

Confucius and the six Second Saints held transcendent status and had to occupy at least half the questions. The works of several Half-Sages who had led the Hundred Schools in contending were also mandatory, or else it would fail to demonstrate that the Hundred Schools returned to Confucianism—using Earth's terms, a "united front" or "political correctness."

The works of several Half-Sages with extremely high historical standing were likewise required, such as Dong Zhongshu's Grand Unification, Zhuge Liang's devotion unto death, and Tao Yuanming's poetry and prose.

That left very little space, and the remaining Half-Sages simply could not all receive their share.

Thus, a custom formed: the Appeal to the Sage's Words section of the Licentiate Examination was divided into three parts.

Fang Yun was fortunate. Apart from the three Half-Sage examiners, the works of all sages tested in this year's Licentiate Examination had appeared on Earth, and Dongjiang Library had collected them all.

Before the Licentiate Examination, once the names of the Half-Sage examiners were confirmed, candidates everywhere would spend a great deal of time memorizing the examiners' famous works.

The questions on the other sages ranged from difficult to easy, but the questions from the Half-Sage examiners were exceptionally simple.

That was because living Half-Sages were all new sages with unstable foundations and a pressing need for literary fame. They naturally wanted everyone under Heaven to know their finest works.

"In the terms of my past life, they're giveaway questions. The scholars are grateful, while the new sages' literary fame spreads far and wide. It kills two birds with one stone."

After thinking it over, Fang Yun felt reassured, because he had begun memorizing the famous works of the three Half-Sage examiners last month.

The fourteenth question was simple. It tested the time and place at which a Half-Sage named Mi Fengdian had received his Saint Enfeoffment. Fang Yun could not recall it immediately, but he felt certain that he remembered it.

Mi Fengdian was one of the three Half-Sage examiners for this Licentiate Examination, and his name had spread throughout the land before the examination began.

Fang Yun pondered for a moment, then wrote: autumn of the one hundred and forty-fifth year of the New Calendar, Shu Kingdom, Shu Capital.

After Fang Yun finished answering, he suddenly saw a blank ancient book with a blue-gray cover appear in his mind. Then, a small fragment of memory flew into it.

That blank ancient book immediately became Fengdian's Annotations on the Five Classics (Volume One), by Mi Fengdian, Half-Sage, fifty-six years after his Saint Enfeoffment.

Then new blank ancient books appeared one after another, extracting fragments of Fang Yun's memories and forming collections of Mi Fengdian's writings and poetry. There were five books in total, none complete—either containing only one volume or consisting of incomplete passages.

Joy appeared on Fang Yun's face. He had not expected this to happen.

"I don't know what that truly is, but since it contains so many books and can absorb new ones, I'll call it the Strange Book World."

The next question also tested a Half-Sage of Shu Kingdom, Zhuge Liang, though he had already ridden a crane westward.

Zhuge Liang's experiences differed across worlds, so Fang Yun spent some time thinking to avoid answering incorrectly.

The state founded by Liu Bei bore the name "Han," claiming itself as the legitimate continuation of the Han imperial house. It had never called itself Shu Kingdom; only others refused to acknowledge it and called it Shu Kingdom with contempt, a name later generations continued to use.

On Saint Origin Continent, Liu Bei had likewise founded a state called "Han," aspiring to inherit the Han realm and unify Saint Origin Continent. Yet Eastern Wu and Wei Kingdom joined forces in opposition, forcing him to change the state name to "Shu." In the end, it endured through the support of Half-Sage Zhuge Liang, eventually becoming one of the Ten Kingdoms.

With the Strange Book World, Fang Yun understood Earth's Zhuge Liang even better.

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