The Emperor's Policy Question: Selecting the Worthy, Securing the Realm, Pacifying Foreign Peoples, and Achieving Good Governance

The doors of Chongzheng Hall stood open, and morning light poured in from outside.

One hundred and thirty-six desks had already been arranged inside.

Each desk was laid with Xuan paper and supplied with a brush, ink, and an inkstone.

They stood in perfectly straight, orderly rows.

The space between the desks was neither too wide nor too narrow, just enough for one person to sit.

The candidates would neither get in one another's way nor feel too far apart.

As Wei Nisheng followed the Guiding Official into the hall, his gaze swept over the desks one by one.

The hall was quiet, the footsteps of more than a hundred men echoing through its empty expanse.

Then each man stood before his assigned place.

Chongzheng Hall was neither tall nor spacious nor magnificent, but it was silent.

In the century and more since the Founding of Great Zhou, it had witnessed countless lives turn here, rising and sinking with the tides of fortune.

Standing before it, one felt small-as small as a speck of dust.

Wei Nisheng's place was in the center of the first row.

The privilege of ranking first in the Provincial Examination extended beyond standing at the head of the line; he also sat at the very front during the Palace Examination.

Thus, his desk was closest to the imperial throne, close enough for him to make out the patterns in its gold lacquer.

He could smell the faint sandalwood fragrance of golden thread nanmu.

Wei Nisheng withdrew his gaze and examined the objects on his desk one by one, before stopping at its upper-right corner.

There lay the Jade Balance used to weigh down the Xuan paper, which was also a Jade Seal.

Mutton-fat white jade, warm and delicately smooth.

A Chi Tiger Knob was carved