Be a master through ancient times

On September [-]th, the latest issue of the Education News was sent to all schools in a hurry.

The students who had rested at home for a day immediately opened the education news when they received it.The place at the top of the newspaper that originally published current political news was moved down a bit, and the vacant positions were the positions of examination rooms No. [-] to No. [-].

Among them, Jiang County attached to Guofu City is the second test room, Guo County is the fifth test room, Xi County is the third test room, Changping County is the sixth test room, Yuan County is the first test room, Wan County is the seventh test room, Quan County For the fourth examination room.

In addition to introducing the location of the examination room, the following also describes the things that students are required to bring.In the formal examination room, charcoal and candles are issued by the government.But they are mock exams, so they don't need to pay this extra cost, so they are allowed to carry them by themselves.In addition to these necessary things, Chu Ci also listed the things he had prepared for the examination room that day so that they could refer to them.

After the exam notification comes out, the next step is preparation time.Some examination rooms are close to each other, so they study at home.If the examination room is far away, you have to go to the hotel one day in advance to avoid being late.

In the early morning of September 800, the school halls of all counties officially opened their front doors.There are a total of more than 120 students who participated in the mock exam this time, and they are evenly distributed. One exam room can accommodate more than [-] candidates.

When entering the venue, in addition to checking the admission ticket, a body search is also required, but this body search is not as strict as the rural examination, and it is only checked to see if there is any entrainment before being put in.

The students are very calm, after all, everyone understands, even if they cheated and got No.1 this time, so what?This result is not linked to the results of the provincial examination.And the newspapers have made it very clear that if someone cheats in this kind of ordinary exam, those who are serious will be dismissed as a scholar.

Because of the small number of students, the inspection process only took an hour and ended.The students who had never entered the township examination hall sat in the narrow examination hall, feeling a little uneasy.Even though they knew that their results this time could not be counted, the sense of immersion was too strong, and they were already starting to panic.

Different from these students, another group of students who had already entered the scene at this time, the old god was present, took out the rags in the basket and began to clean slowly.They are going to stay here for nine days, how can they stay without cleaning up?

According to the previous rules of the township examination, because there were too many people, the entrance on the first day was used to check the identity of the students, and the test questions would not be distributed until the next morning.Chu Ci felt that instead of sitting for a whole day, it would be better to advance the exam time, so he ordered them to close the exam room at Chenshi, and then post questions and answer them.These changes have been notified to everyone in the Education News, so no students were surprised by it.

As soon as the hour came, the baffles of each test room in the examination room were raised up, and a lock was added outside to prevent anyone from walking around at will.

The chief examiners of the counties ordered people to carry the unsealed boxes of test questions and walk around the examination room to show justice.Then the test questions began.

"Master Tixue is here!" The chief examiner of the Jiang County Examination Center had just finished distributing the examination questions when someone came to report that the boss had come to inspect.He hurriedly led a group of proctors to greet him at the gate of the examination room.

"You don't need to be too polite, I'm just here to take a look, you can perform your own duties, don't worry about me." Chu Ci went in without waiting for them to come out to greet him.

The invigilators received the order, their expressions became solemn, and they began to walk around the examination room.Their eyes sternly swept over each candidate, as if maintaining the fairness and justice of the exam was their lifelong pursuit, which was completely different from the slightly lazy state when Chu Ci didn't come.

Chu Ci chuckled, and Gu Zi walked in.When he passed each examination number, he would look inside.In the past, when he was an examinee himself, he only focused on doing the questions and had no time to take care of other things.Now that he is an examiner, he finds that the scene of all living beings can also be presented in this small examination room.

Some people put their heads down and worked hard on the questions, some held up the test questions with a blank face, and some simply closed their eyes and lay on the baffle. I don’t know if they thought the questions were too difficult and gave up.When Chu Ci passed by him, he tapped on the baffle with his fingers, signaling him to get up and do the questions.The man opened his eyes and sat up in fright, and finally wiped the corners of his mouth with his hand, as if wiping his saliva, Chu Ci was speechless.

After he quickly inspected the entire examination room, he found an old student with white hair and beard sitting in a certain examination number, holding the test questions in both hands with a crazy expression, and muttering something to himself, Chu Ci guessed that he It should be through the education newspaper sold by the bookstore to get the news and come to sign up.The person who signed up for the mock exam was just to have one more chance to adapt himself in advance, but this candidate didn't seem to have passed seven or eight exams, at least five or six exams.If you miss every game, unless you are really unlucky, it is usually because of your own lack of strength.

Chu Ci sighed slightly. For this kind of person who is dedicated to the imperial examination and lives to pass the exam, he can only express his deep sympathy and best wishes. I hope he can get his wish in the imperial examination next year.

After leaving the Jiang County examination room, Chu Ci went to the next examination room, and he followed suit. Only when he showed his importance, other officials would be more responsible.

After nine days in a row, not only the candidates who took the exam were exhausted, but even the officials in charge of the exam were exhausted physically and mentally.After all the papers were collected, Chu Ci immediately summoned people to grade the papers together.

This time, they don’t need to copy the papers with names and other steps. Chuci’s request is to directly read the papers. When marking the papers, they need to find out the answer papers that have been stamped with “shit stamps” and are on the “Blue List” and put them aside. As for the other answer papers, Just put the score on it.

Regarding the score issue, Chu Ci also held a meeting with the masters who were in charge of correcting the papers.Usually, when grading papers for the township examination, only words and circles are written. Although this saves time when correcting the papers, the gap cannot be seen.Therefore, Chu Ci formulated the scoring standard based on experience for this revision.For example, if each article is calculated on a ten-point basis, two points will be awarded for breaking the topic, two points will be awarded for clear and fluent language expression, three points will be awarded for the ability to quote scriptures to move people's hearts, and three points will be awarded for the thought-provoking article.

Teachers only need to give appropriate scores according to this standard, and after corrections, the same group of people have to review it again, and correct high and low scores again to avoid bias and injustice.

Because of the large number of masters convened, one person only needs to judge more than [-] papers.However, one examination paper includes three questions from the Four Books, five questions from the Five Classics, four imperial edicts, five essays, and one five-character eight-rhyme poem. Together, eighteen articles are too much for people. .To sum up the above reasons, even though the number of students is relatively small, it took five days to complete the mock exam.

After the modification, it is time to register the points. Teachers need to calculate their points for each game and record them on the table, and then record the total points at the end.After the total score is calculated, the ranking is required, and the ranking can only be released after the ranking is out.

This process is also very complicated to do, and it took another two or three days to go back and forth.As the boss, Chu Ci was not idle, he wanted to calculate the total cost of the exam, and then pay these people the bill.

For example, the invigilation fee is calculated at two renminbi per person per day, and the total cost of the seven examination rooms for one day is 16 taels, and after nine days, it is 150 taels.The paper correction fee is one and a half cents per person per day, and after five days, it is 32 taels or three cents.The total of the two items is 180 three and two five coins.

In addition to the question fee of 36 taels, and more than 800 copies of printed test papers and "wenwei rolls" for answering questions, the total adds up to about 260 taels.In addition to the arrangement of the examination room for them before, and the food and drink expenses of the officials these days, the registration fee collected before is not much left.

After Chuci finished the calculation, he felt very lucky in his heart. Fortunately, he didn't ask the university to ask the Tixue Division to pay the money. If it came a few more times, the Tixue Division would probably go bankrupt.Chu Ci had no intention of confiscating the remaining dozens of taels of silver. He used the silver as a bonus and went to shopkeeper Liu's bookstore to purchase a large amount of stationery to reward the top [-] students this time.

On the tenth day of October, sixteen pieces of paper were pasted on the wall at the gate of the Tixue Office in Fucheng, before the scores of all the students in the county who took the mock exam were announced.

On this day, all the township examination classes in Fucheng had a day off, so that these students had to go to check their results.

Chen Yuzhi, a student from Fucheng, has always been the proud son of heaven. When his article appeared in the first issue of Education News and was praised by Chu Ci himself, his reputation became even louder.In the midst of compliments from countless people, even though Chen Yuzhi was still humble on the surface, he still had a trace of pride in his heart.In this mock test, he thought that with his own strength, he would be ranked in the top three at worst.But who knows, he is not in the top ten.

Chen Yuzhi suppressed the panic in his heart and continued to look down, only to see himself at No.16.He took a closer look, 63 points in the first game, 51 points in the second game, 42 points in the third game, and a total of 150 points.

He didn't understand what this score meant, but he compared it. The guy who ranked first in this test had a total score of 170.He was eighteen points away from that man!Facing the puzzled eyes of his classmates, Chen Yuzhi's face was burning hot, almost ashamed.

Just as the students were arguing endlessly because they couldn't understand the scores on the ranking, the door of the Department of Education opened.

Chu Ci, who was dressed in an official uniform, came down to the students surrounded by the crowd.The students under the steps immediately bowed and saluted, shouting in unison, "Students have seen the Great Master and all the adults".

"You don't need to be formal, get up." Chu Ci said loudly, and the students bowed again before straightening up and listening to him quietly.

"The official knows that you may have some questions about the above scores, so I will answer them here. You have a total of 180 essays in the three exams. Each essay is counted as [-] points, and the total score is [-] points. The scores of each exam are registered in the It's up, everyone can check it out. If you need more detailed checks, you can stop for a while. The Department of Education has a register, which records the deduction of points for each article. You can pass this exam. Come to check for leaks and make up for vacancies, and make use of strengths and avoid weaknesses."

After talking about the scores, Chu Ci analyzed the results of the exam again.

"The highest score in this exam is Zhu Zeyi, a student from Changping County, with a total of 170 points. He only deducted some points for rhymes and official documents, and the rest were given full marks by the masters. Is Zhu Zeyi here? After Chu Ci's question, Zhu Zeyi squeezed to the front from the crowd, and excitedly answered Chu Ci: "The great master is here, and the student is Zhu Zeyi."

Chu Ci nodded, and praised: "I have read all the articles you wrote, and they are very good. If there is no accident, you will definitely be on the list in the next year's provincial examination." Before he was happy, Chu Ci He also said, "But it's too early to say anything. When the real township exam comes, there will be various factors that will affect the judgment of the examiners and the chief examiner. The result is still unknown. So, Zhu Zeyi, don't be proud of it." I am complacent, and I still need to work harder to ensure that the township examination is foolproof."

Zhu Zeyi's originally elated expression cooled down a bit. After listening to Chu Ci's words, he also realized that he was indeed a little carried away at this time, and he said: "Thank you, Great Master, for the reminder. The students will definitely work harder to get the provincial examination Being on the list, I have lived up to the great expectations of the Great Master and Masters."

"Very good. It should be the attitude of scholars like us to be neither arrogant nor discouraged in victory. Therefore, don't worry too much about the students who didn't pass the exam this time. You just need to reflect on yourself, and then make up your mind. Don’t lose your confidence because of one or two failures. Xunzi said: Perseverance will never break the rotten wood; perseverance, gold and stone can be carved. I hope all students will keep it in mind, study harder in the future, and never let the masters down. The kindness of hard work and the longing for the young and old in your family."

Chu Ci took the opportunity to explain to the students who did not pass the exam, so as not to let them recover from a setback.

After hearing Chu Ci's words, Chen Yuzhi and the others, who were a little sullen just now, immediately cheered up.Yes, the purpose of this mock exam was originally to let them adapt to the exam room in advance and recognize themselves. It is better to be frustrated here than to be frustrated in the township exam a year later.

Seeing them regain hope, Chu Ci finally felt relieved.He said a few more encouraging words, and by the way informed the top 140 people to stay and receive their rewards later, and then prepared to leave.Unexpectedly, a voice suddenly asked at this moment: "Master Tixue, my score is clearly [-], why did I rank on the last few sheets of paper?"

As soon as this remark came out, many people who had the same experience as him seemed to be encouraged, and they also cried out.

"Silence! Be quiet! How can you be presumptuous in public!" Zhou Qing, as the head of the Foreign Affairs Office, immediately took control of the scene to prevent them from being annoyed by the noise.

Chu Ci turned around and looked at the student who had just spoken without saying a word.When he was stern, there was an inexplicable intimidation, and the group of people who were screaming vigorously just now gradually quieted down.

"I thought you knew it well, so I didn't want to point it out in front of everyone. Since you asked now, I will explain it clearly to you. The candidates on the last three papers, I am very disappointed with you Yes. The disappointment is not because of how good or bad your test is, but because of your attitude towards this test."

Chu Ci glanced at the group of students in front of him, and continued: "I'm afraid you are thinking in your heart, is it just a mock exam, is it worth taking it so seriously? So you wantonly defaced the answer sheet, and even gave the answer in a perfunctory way. What you just said The one you are talking about is called Li Wenbo, right? I am very impressed with you, your cursive handwriting is pretty good, and the pen is as fast as a snake, with ease, if it is placed in any other place, it is worthy of my appreciation."

Li Wenbo's expression turned pale in an instant, and Chu Ci shook his head and sighed: "It's a good thing for young people to have personality, but it doesn't mean that you can do it anywhere. The imperial examination stipulates that candidates must answer in the pavilion style, even if If you make a mistake in one word, it will become a blue list, and you will waste three years. You should be glad that you did not write such a word in the examination room of the township examination, otherwise the other examiners may punish you for contempt of the examination room !"

After Chu Ci finished speaking, Li Wenbo cried out in shame. Seeing that he had admitted his mistake, Chu Ci couldn't say much, so he could only turn to other students who had objections, and said to them: "The last three pieces of paper are covered with shit stamps. There are 33 people who have made mistakes, 42 people who have defaced the test papers, and as many as 80 people who have three or more typos in their answers. You know, such test papers will never appear in front of the examiners in the rural examination. At that time, no matter how good your article is, you will only end up failing.”

"I would like to advise you, if you still have to take such an attitude to take the exam in the future, wasting those three years and three years in vain, why don't you put down your studies from now on and find another livelihood!"

"Study is a hard thing. If you can't endure hardships, how can you be a master? The imperial examination system has been like this since ancient times. Before it changes, you can only adapt to it!"

"Because... only by adapting to it, will there be a chance to change it in the future!"