Generally speaking, Imperial Examinations rarely involved disputes among the sages. Appeals to the Sage's Words mostly tested common knowledge.
Yet this year's Beginner Scholar Examination had unexpectedly included questions concerning disputes over the Sacred Way. Who knew what deeper meaning the sages intended?
Fang Yun had not thought much about it while answering the questions, but now that he had spare mental energy, he sank into thought.
Like Sacred Way and the Literary Gazette, the content of the Imperial Examination could reveal things ordinary people found difficult to notice.
Shen Ming continued reading the questions and comparing answers. When he reached the third page, he paused slightly and said, "This question seems to test material from the Zuo Commentary. It asks for the approximate distance between Qufu, the capital of Lu State, and the border of Qi Kingdom during Duke Zhuang of Lu's reign. This question... is likely one of the difficult ones in this Beginner Scholar Examination. Void Sage Fang gave an extremely extensive answer, with three separate passages. It seems that during Duke Zhuang of Lu's reign, the adjacent territories of the two states changed at least three times. Did any of you answer it?"
Academic Official Deng shook his head. "Given enough time, I might have been able to finish this question. But it is exceedingly tricky. The shifting border is one matter; the hardest part is the distance between Qufu and Qi Kingdom's border. Even after finishing the examination, I kept thinking about it. So far, I have not found any book that explicitly records the distance between the two places."
Constable Lu Hong nodded. "When I saw this question, I too was at a loss. I do not know which book recorded that distance. As for the border changes, with enough time, one might slowly