Sage Zhu's Twelve Volumes, Xu Qingxiao Comprehended the Sage Dao, a Heaven-Shaking Phenomenon! [Seeking End-of-Month Votes]

The Capital's Examination Hall.

When he saw Zhou Renming's essay, Xu Qingxiao's expression changed slightly.

[Strategy for Strengthening the Nation-Honor the Sage and Prosper, Scorn the Sage and Decline]

This was the opening of Zhou Renming's essay.

The prose flowed at lavish length, but its content amounted to little more than this: for a nation to grow strong, it needed a belief, and that belief was the Sage.

Sage Zhu!

By honoring Sage Zhu, everyone would possess virtue, benevolence, righteousness, and morality. Thus, everyone in Great Wei would strive upward.

Had the chief examiner belonged to Sage Zhu's Lineage, he might have awarded this essay an excellent grade regardless.

But the chief examiner was Xu Qingxiao.

As before, Xu Qingxiao would not single anyone out. As chief examiner, he had to be fair.

Xu Qingxiao respected Sage Zhu too.

The problem was that this sort of essay offered no nourishment whatsoever. From beginning to end, it praised how wonderful the Confucian Dao was, how wonderful Sage Zhu was, and how much Sage Zhu's Lineage had contributed.

Moreover, an inexplicable mockery permeated its contents: if everyone failed to honor the Sage, the nation would decline, and if even one person failed to honor the Sage, that person was morally corrupt.

It also gave examples of the contributions those who honored Sage Zhu made to the nation after becoming officials.

And of the national interests harmed by those who did not honor Sage Zhu after becoming officials.

The essay was hardly brilliant, but it did not exactly point at his nose and curse him either.

All he could say was that it was an essay written purely to disgust people.

After reading the final word, Xu Qingxiao picked up his brush and wrote his assessment directly on it.

[Poor]

That single word