Prime Minister

Chapter 254
Hearing the news that it was delayed for a quarter of an hour, all the examinees were both happy and regretful.

But this quarter of an hour passed quickly, the dragon gate opened, and the candidates entered the arena one by one.

Zhang Yue couldn't help looking into the distance.

Fortunately, Guo Lin stepped on the spot at the end and arrived in a hurry, but seeing him covered in rain, snow and mud was quite embarrassing.

Guo Lin was about to explain to Zhang Yue, Zhang Yue said: "Not much to say, let's go into the examination room."

Guo Lin nodded immediately, and finally said: "Junior Brother Tired is worried."

Finally, a group of people stepped into the Gongyuan, but said that in front of the gate of the Gongyuan, the prison gate officer took a look at the number of people, and then the people from the bookstore came up to verify their identity.

To solve the test, the provincial test stipulates that in order to prevent candidates from hiring gunmen or fake memberships, three people must be bonded together.

Zhang Yue, Huang Lu and Sun Guo had bonded before, but after Sun Guojie failed the exam, Zhang Yue and Huang Lu invited Guo Lin.

Immediately, the three of them were in front of the main gate together, and after being confirmed by the people in the bookstore, they took the numbered ticket and handed it to the gate supervisor for inspection, which was considered to have passed the first level, allowing them to enter the dragon gate.

As for the second level, after entering the dragon gate, the officers and soldiers here will conduct a search.

The search and inspection is generally aimed at candidates like Guo Lin, who are candidates for Mingjing subjects, but not for Jinshi subjects.

However, during the Zhenzong Dynasty, a courtier reported that Jinshi had been busy with too much work in recent years and was not solid in learning, so he copied a few ancient and modern prose and fu, and entered the examination under the guise of arrogance.

In the end, the Jinshi Department also had to search and inspect, and the imperial court stipulated that except for the official "Yunlue", no book policy should be carried out.Let the gate guards and shop inspectors be aware of it subtly, and if they find candidates entrained, they will help them out immediately.

Qianjia found out that it was very good, and it was not a loss to the official term.

Zhang Yue understood that this entrainment was really of limited help to Jinshi.

However, there are still many candidates who are not quick enough in writing and thinking to use poetry bags and other tools to compose poems and poems. They are used to it and cannot change it for a while, so they are brought into the examination room.

When Zhang Yue learned poetry and fu from Chen Xiang, he also used poetry bags, but he has become proficient in writing recently, and this problem has been corrected.

He opened the examination box, and there was nothing but a rhyme book. The officials let him and Huang Lu into the examination room without searching carefully.

As for Guo Lin, in addition to opening the test box to check, he also needs to search his body. This is a strict search.

Zhang Yue, Huang Lu and Guo Lin went to look at the sitting pictures in the examination room, and entered the Gongyuan after identifying the direction.

However, it shows that the imperial examinations of the Ministry of Rites and Examinations in the Qing Dynasty were dedicated to the Tribute Court. However, the imperial examinations in the early Northern Song Dynasty were not mature, so the places of the Tribute Court also changed.

The earliest tribute courts were sent to the South Court of the Ministry of Rites of Shangshu Province, such as the old residence of Liang Taizu Zhu Wen in Xingguofang, and the old residence of Shu King Meng Chang. The more sad reminder is that Kaibao Temple has always been used as a tribute court for Kaifeng government examination or Guozijian examination. The first time it became a tribute court for the Ministry of Rites was during the Xining period. As a result, the only provincial examination failed.

Finally, when Huizong of the Song Dynasty sent the Gongyuan to Taixue.

Now the tribute court for the exam was changed from the Temple of King Wucheng. Some officials have always said that this is a bit inappropriate, but they have been making do with it.

But I have to say that compared with the Kaibao Temple test room, this test environment is really a heaven and a ground.

When Zhang Yuehuanglu arrived at the examination room, he bowed to Wang Gui, Fan Zhen and Wang Chou, the chief officials.

Zhang Yue didn't know any of these three bosses, only Fan Zhen met him once when he sent Fan Zuyu to Taixue.

The old man in the middle is naturally Wang Gui.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, there was a prime minister also named Wang Gui, who was the grandson of Wang Sengbian, who came from the Karasuma Wang family and was a branch of the Taiyuan Wang family.

This Wang Gui's family background is not bad either. He came from the Wang family of Huayang.

Then the family loyally took refuge in the Song Dynasty, and became an official and produced many famous officials and scholars.

Wang Gui is also a great person. When he passed by Yangzhou, he left a good story with Chen Shengzhi, Wang Anshi, and Han Qi.

He was the same age as Wang Anshi, but his official career was smoother. Now he is a Hanlin scholar, and most of the court's grand ceremonies are in his hands.

After Zhang Yue bowed to several examiners, he came to his own examination room - a long corridor. Many examinees who arrived first were already sitting in the corridor, and white curtains were set up between each examinee. Prevent the left and right from whispering and exchanging news.

It's freezing outside but taking the exam outdoors, one can imagine what it feels like, Zhang Yue came to his seat in the corridor, but saw a table behind the curtain, with a felt mat underneath, facing him directly. In the courtyard, sporadic snowflakes are flying.

Tea soup drinks are being burned in the courtyard, and the officials are serving bowls of bowls to the examinees. The central hall, also known as the Dutang, is also known as the Purple Hall, and incense is being burned now.

Ouyang Xiu wrote a poem when he presided over the imperial examination in the second year of Jiayou.

Burning incense in the purple hall is warm and blowing lightly, and Xi Qunying is clear in the Guangting.No brawling warrior titled Meiyong, writing the sound of spring nibbling leaves.

That's the scene.

After Zhang Yue sat down, he took out the leather pad from the test box and spread another layer on the felt pad.

This felt pad is just a thin layer of single mat, how can it keep out the cold, so a layer of leather pad must be added.

This is what the people of the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty complained about in the examination room, "how can a single seat be a polite person".In the couplets, the cold felts are all warm seats. Anyway, when you are a guest at someone else's house, it is quite rude to sit a single seat for a guest.

Generally, another layer should be laid on the mat, just like "sitting on the kang" in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Candidates often complain about the bad environment of the examination room, such as 'single seat', 'cold weather', etc.

Zhang Yue laid down the leather mat, and soon the officials brought a bowl of hot tea soup.Zhang Yue said thank you, grabbed the money from the examination box and stuffed it into the person's hand. The official took it and said with a smile: "There is also pepper soup, perilla soup, what would you like to drink?"

Zhang Yue said: "Perilla soup."

The weather was very cold, Zhang Yue held up a bowl, and poured a bowl full of dried ginger tea soup into his stomach, which relieved a lot of the chill on his body.

After a while, the examiner issued the printed papers that the candidates had handed in before, and then showed the test questions.

This is the first poem in the four provincial examinations.

Poetry and Fu came first, because he was the most important of the four games.

The most important thing in poetry and fu is Fu.

But the method of examination of endowment is also changing all the time.

From the Tang Dynasty to the Jiayou Year of the Song Dynasty, the format of Fu was restricted.For example, official rhymes are limited to eight characters, and there are rules on how to write eight paragraphs, how to turn rhymes, and how to involve them.

The more stringent examiners also need to have "four flats and four flats". If "five flats and three flats" appear, they will be downgraded.

When it comes to poetry and prose model essays, it should be "Wooden Chicken Fu", with the rhyme of "I am invincible so far, so I can sing first", and then write it in the format of "Ping, Ping, Ping, Ping Ping".

Before Jiayou, most of the candidates who studied Fu had to use this model essay for the exam.

But the change came after Ouyang Xiu presided over the imperial examination.Ouyang Xiu advocated the way of advocating literature, and especially hated the "disease of vocal rhythm".

Therefore, Ouyang Xiu advocated that the style of Fu can be as plain as letter paper, and the most important thing is to have something to say.

In the second year of Jiayou, he applied this reform to the provincial examination of that year.

As a result, after the exam, Ouyang Xiu was besieged by Tai students.However, the facts proved that Ouyang Xiu was correct. The gold content of the Jinshi list in the second year of Jiayou was the highest in the imperial examination for 1000 years.

In the fourth year of Jiayou, Ouyang Xiu once again insisted on this standard of balance for the chief examiner of the palace examination.

Now in the sixth year of Jiayou, Wang Gui is the chief examiner.

Wang Gui and Ouyang Xiu co-chaired the provincial examination in the second year of Jiayou, and they were also Ouyang Xiu's staunch political allies, so they must still firmly support Ouyang Xiu.

Therefore, Zhang Yue has weighed before the exam, and it is of course the best to be able to write Fu in Siping and Sizhen rhyme like "平奇平奇平气平延".

But in the examination room, it is difficult to write an article that contains mediocrity, rhyme, eloquence, and thorough reasoning. It is really difficult to fully balance the three.

If you take everything into consideration and write an article like a wooden chicken, you are really the best of the best.

So for Zhang Yue, he had to make a choice, or even make a second choice.

Abandon Siping and Siping, choose word rhyme, reasoning, and choose two of the three for provincial examination Fu.

Of course, Jiayou's previous style of writing was to choose flatness and rhyme instead of reasoning, so he was as bad as Liu Ji.

Of course, there are candidates who don't believe in evil, but you need to know that an egg cannot hit a rock. Isn't Liu Ji, who is so good, changed his name to Liu Hui now?

Immediately the assignment was held up on the card.

The title of the poem is "Kim Jae-yong's Fu".

The rhyme of Fu is "gold is in good governance, seek to make it into a tool".

Zhang Yue read the title and knew that the title came from the Han book Dong Zhongshu. cast'.

The whole topic discusses the meaning of this "gold is in the middle".

This question makes Zhang Yuyu unexpected. Generally speaking, the titles are from the Six Classics, followed by the official history.

This topic is a bit biased, but even though it is a bit biased, the Fu topic is easy to understand. Even if you haven't read the biography of Han Shu Dong Zhongshu, you can write one or two reasons.

After that is the rhyme 'Gold is in good governance, seek to make it into a tool'.

This rhyme is given by the official.

The whole Fu is divided into eight sections.

The first paragraph uses the word "gold" as the rhythm, the second paragraph uses the word "zai" as the rhyme, and the eighth paragraph ends with the word "device".

Zhang Yue breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the question here, at least he didn't get too far in the test, but how to make a gift depends on each person's level.

Of course, if this fu is written well, it can be said for a lot of reason. It is not difficult to rhyme these eight characters, but if you want to stick to the format of Siping Sizheng, it will not only be difficult for Zhang Yue, but also for Jinshi Ke who is present. It is even more difficult for most of the candidates to do this step.

As for literary talent, it is even more unpredictable.

Just like Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of the King of Teng" and Fan Zhongyan's "The Story of Yueyang Tower". If you want to say which one is better, it is hard to say, but in the imperial examination room for the sixth year of Jiayou, the examiner will definitely choose Yueyang Tower.

Thinking of this, the official served a second bowl of tea soup to Zhang Yue.

Zhang Yue stuffed a handful of money to the other party as usual, then put the paper into the oilcloth bag, drinking tea soup, while thinking about how to write Fu.

In this moment, Zhang Yue has already drawn up a general framework, which is to use discussion as the endowment, mainly to discuss politics and reasoning, and the third rhyme to the seventh rhyme are all filled with discussion.

We win with eloquence throughout the text, and do not follow the line of literary grace and rhythm.

Thinking of this, after Zhang Yue drank the second bowl of tea soup, he picked up his pen and ink and began brewing on the manuscript paper.

Ps: Jiayou's six-year provincial examination Fu has long since been lost, and it took a long time to choose it, and Fan Zhongyan's Kim Jae-yong's Fu was used as the title.

(End of this chapter)