The Provincial Examination
Zhao Ruyu had a system, but Zhao Ruxi didn't take it seriously. After studying intensively for a while, the provincial examination in August arrived.
Candidates from other places had to travel all the way to take the exams at the county government office, the prefectural government office, and the provincial examination hall, which was very tiring. Candidates from the capital city, on the other hand, did not have to travel so much, as the examination locations were almost always fixed.
After so many exams, not to mention Zhao Ruxi, even Zhao Yuanxun and Lady Zhu were much calmer.
Zhao Yuanxun escorted Zhao Ruxi to the entrance of the examination hall, watched her go inside, and then left. Only Ma Sheng's family remained, with their carriages taking turns to guard the area, in case Zhao Ruxi suddenly left or went home early.
It was the same place, with the same number of proctors, only the proctors were different.
With Zhang Li's example as a precedent, even if the imperial court carefully selects examiners, and even if they are chosen to be examiners who are at odds with the Earl of Suiping's Residence or Zhao Ruxi, they would not dare to cause trouble for Zhao Ruxi in front of everyone.
The chief examiner for Zhao Ruxi this time was Yu Qing, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites of Yu Qing. The other three officials were drawn from various ministries.
Everyone had arrived, but the appointed time hadn't come yet. Director Jiang of the Ministry of Revenue, having nothing else to do, whispered to an official from the Ministry of Works with whom he was on good terms, "Has Official Qian seen the Layperson Zhiwei?"
Official Qian shook his head. "I've never seen her. But I heard she's still quite young, just reached marriageable age."
Director Jiang, sighed, "Look at other people's children, how smart and capable they are! My grandson is already sixteen or seventeen and has only just passed the county-level imperial examination. Knowing his own lack of talent, he doesn't even dare to participate in the autumn imperial examination this time, afraid of failing and losing face. It's truly infuriating to compare oneself to others."
Official Qian laughed and said, "Your grandson is pursuing a steady and pragmatic approach; such a composed young man is rare."
Although Director Jiang spoke modestly, a sense of self-satisfaction was evident on his face.
Just then, voices came from outside the door, and a moment later an old woman led in a girl who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old.
The woman had bright and beautiful features and a tall figure. Upon entering and seeing them, she showed no fear, bowed respectfully to everyone, and said, "This student is Zhao Ruxi. Thank you for your help, esteemed examiners, these past few days."
The provincial examination lasted for three days, during which time everyone ate and slept in this room. There were three sessions in total. For the sake of Zhao Ruxi's reputation, Xiao Ge deliberately chose older examiners. For example, the chief examiner Yu Qing was already over sixty years old this year, at sixty-three. The other three were also over fifty.
Yu Qing was a kind old man. He smiled at Zhao Ruxi and said, "No need for formalities, please sit down."
The room was spacious. In the middle of the room was only a table and chair, which was Zhao Ruxi's seat. The four examiners' tables and chairs were scattered in the four corners of the room.
Zhao Ruxi walked to the table and sat down.
Director Jiang stepped forward and read out the examination rules. Then he had two old women lead Zhao Ruxi into the inner room to check if she had anything to hide.
After the inspection was completed, and seeing that it was almost time, Yu Qing and Official Qian went out together, brought in the examination papers, and placed them in front of Zhao Ruxi.
Zhao Ruxi picked up the exam paper and looked it over. She found that all the questions were complete, the handwriting was clear, and there were no missing or illegible questions. She read the questions again before dripping water onto the inkstone and starting to grind the ink.
The process of grinding ink is the process of conceiving a design.
The provincial examinations in the Great Jin Dynasty mainly tested policy essays, which included questions on understanding the Four Books and Five Classics, as well as questions on mathematics and law.
For example, the first major question in this exam selected a sentence from "The Great Learning" and asked you to provide an argument for it.
First, you must be familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, know which book this sentence comes from, and recall and connect it with the context in order to understand the meaning of the question. Only when you correctly understand the meaning of the question can you write an essay to argue for it.
This writing style is somewhat similar to the eight-legged essay of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but it places more emphasis on practical argumentation than on the formality of the eight-legged essay.
For example, the fifth question is about disaster relief. It asks how many people in a county have been affected by floods, how much grain the county has stored, and what the specific situation is. If you were in charge of disaster relief, what would you do?
This involves not only determining whether there is enough food, but also being familiar with the court's laws and regulations regarding disaster relief and the strategies for dealing with disasters.
If the preliminary examinations and the provincial examinations tested relatively basic knowledge, the provincial examinations focused on assessing political and administrative abilities.
Therefore, if someone ranks high in the provincial examination and has a good reputation in the local area, even a successful candidate in the provincial examination can become an official. This is because passing the provincial examination already proves that one has the ability to handle political affairs.
After reading the first question, Zhao Ruxi did not rush to write. She slowly ground the ink, read through all the questions, and pondered how to formulate her argument, what to write, and how to write it, striving to have a clear understanding of the entire exam paper before she picked up her pen.
After grinding the ink, she listed out her thought process for each question on the draft paper. After listing them out, she would review them to see if there was anything missing or needed to be added. Only when she felt that she had thought through each question on the exam paper did she begin to draft the first question.
The reason for doing the questions this way is that the exam time is too long, and you have to eat and sleep here, which means you can't sleep well.
Therefore, you'll be most energetic, your mind most active, and your head clearest on the first day. If you don't take this opportunity to figure out the solutions and writing methods for all the questions, and then try to think about the last few questions when you've had a bad night's sleep on the first and second nights, feeling dizzy, your back aches, and you're exhausted, you'll find your mind is completely blank and you can't remember anything to write.
Once you've clarified your thoughts and prepared an outline, even if your mind isn't working perfectly on the spot, you can still write a decent article based on your clear and complete ideas and your usual writing experience.
This is a strategy that Zhao Ruxi came up with after listening to the examination experiences shared by the great Confucian scholars.
Soldiers guarded and patrolled the men's examination area, so the examiners didn't need to keep a close eye on anyone and could even walk around the examination hall and take a look.
But in the girls' exam room, four people, eight eyes, stared at the young girl for three sessions and nine days straight. Even the girl with a weak heart was too scared to move. If everyone kept walking around and glancing at her, she wouldn't even need to take the exam.
Therefore, students are not allowed to move around in this examination room unless absolutely necessary.
This is incredibly boring.
When you have nothing to do, it's easy to overthink.
Just now, Director Jiang had finished talking with Official Qian about his grandson, and now he was thinking about the benefits of his grandson marrying Zhao Ruxi.
He was just being modest with Official Qian, but he was actually extremely proud of his grandson.
His grandson was intelligent from a young age and very handsome. Although he only passed the county-level imperial examination at the age of fifteen or sixteen and did not participate in the autumn examination this time, this was the result of their deliberate suppression.