To The Land of Nevernight

"Fleeing from ink must return to Yang", from "Mencius Jinxin", the original sentence is "If you escape from ink, you must return to Yang, and if you escape from Yang, you must return to Confucianism".

During the Warring States period, there were not as many schools of thought as in the Spring and Autumn Period. There were three schools of thought that were more accepted by the world. These three schools were the Mohist School, the Yang-Zhu School, and the Confucian School. "Fleeing from Mo must belong to Yang" is Mencius' comment on these three schools.It means "If you abandon the Mohist school, you will inevitably go to the Yangzhu school. If you abandon the Yangzhu school, you will inevitably go to the Confucian school."

All in all, in Mencius' view, the Confucian school is the orthodoxy, the ultimate righteous way of all schools.

If you simply look at this topic, it is not particularly difficult to write.The Mohist school advocates both love and non-aggression, and what is important is to sacrifice oneself to save others and benefit the common people.The Yang Zhu school is self-interested, regardless of others, regardless of the world, not harming others but only benefiting oneself.Tang Shen could immediately come up with two ideas to solve the problem, such as writing from the perspective of self-interest and benefiting others, and using the two schools of Mohism and Yang Zhu to promote the Confucian thought of self-interest and benefiting others.

However, all of this is based on the premise of criticizing Mohism and Yang Zhu and respecting Confucianism.

Tang Shen looked at the topic on the paper, then looked up at the Mingyuan Building in the distance, and sighed deeply.

But no one in the world knows, everyone doesn't know that today's sage Zhao Fu pursues immortality and cultivates elixirs, and he has already entered Taoism!

The Yang Zhu school is exactly the three classics of Taoism.

Zhao Fu never said that he respected Taoism, and he even valued Confucianism very much. Every year on the anniversary of the death of Confucius, he personally wrote articles to mourn.But Zhao Fu's obsession with Taoism was witnessed by everyone in the court.It is not a problem for Master Li to ask this question, but if the candidate really criticizes Yang Zhu completely, maybe one day when he is named on the gold list and ranks first in the official rank, he will be stabbed in front of Zhao Fu by his political opponents.

The king's heart is unpredictable, and being with you is like accompanying a tiger, who knows what Zhao Fu will think!

Tang Shen thought to himself, there are only two possibilities.Zhao Fu is not a faint king who uses words to accuse him of crimes, so he doesn't care; Zhao Fu cares about his courtiers' criticism of his pursuit of immortality.However, in any case, if Zhao Fu wants to mobilize his courtiers one day, this article against Taoism will become one of the reasons for him to question his courtiers.

Other Juren might not think so much, but Tang Shen had to think about it, and he couldn't think about it.

What he saw was not the test in front of him, what he saw was the future!

Closing his eyes, Tang Shen discarded all the ideas in his mind to solve the problem.He chose the simplest and least error-prone way, but also the least brilliant way, and then wrote: "The heretics are angry and trembling, give up a little to seek freedom, and return the evil of ink to Yang." , must say why do you think it..."

I found that those who have different ideas from Confucianism often become irritable and fearful because they are influenced by these evil principles.So they abandoned the Mo family and turned to Yang Zhu, in order to seek the open-mindedness and comfort in their hearts.However, why did he abandon Mohism and switch to Yang Zhu?

Yes, Tang Shen abandoned all ideas of expanding the topic and diverging thinking, directly started from the topic itself, and wrote an eight-part essay demonstrating "why the disciples abandoned the Mohist school and switched to the Yang Zhu school".This is a panacea article, Tang Shen did not say that the Yang Zhu school is correct, he even called the Yang Zhu school a heresy, but he did not wantonly belittle the Yang Zhu school in the article.

He had never written such a tiring essay before, and Tang Shen knew that the title of his essay must not be that brilliant, so he started with logic and argumentation, and spent three hours carefully considering every word and sentence, and finally finished writing. The second art.When he finished writing, he realized that his back was already wet with sweat!

In the cold winter of February, he was sweating all over!

After writing this article on the draft paper, Tang Shen stared at it blankly, suddenly not knowing whether what he did was right or wrong.

Did he think too much? This is just an article that he will try, so there is no need to worry so much.

But then he thought again: "If it was Wang Zifeng, he would definitely do the same thing as me."

After finishing writing, Tang Shen thought that although his essay was not so outstanding, it definitely belonged to the upper class among the examinees. He copied the essay well and fell asleep after being tired.When I opened my eyes again, it was already the third day of entering the examination room.

Tang Shen had already read the third question before going to sleep, and this time the question was "I examine myself three times a day".

Zeng Zi said: "I reflect on myself three times a day. Are you not loyal to others? Are you not trusting your friends? Are you not accustomed to passing on?"

This sentence comes from "The Analects of Confucius Shuer", and it is also a classic that is familiar to later generations.Tang Shen was inevitably a little depressed after finishing the second part, but when he finished the third question, his mood immediately cleared up, and he almost burst out laughing in the examination room.

Normally, there will be three essays in the first round of the exam, two from "The Analects" and "Mencius", and one from "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean".But Master Li is not a normal person!For the first question, he asked a weird question, for the second question he asked a question that might offend the Holy Wrath, and for the third question, he unexpectedly asked another question from "The Analects of Confucius"!

Tang Shen was a purebred engineering student in his previous life and didn't study much, but how could he not know the phrase "I examine myself three times a day", and he even knows another phrase.

"Change it if there is one, and encourage it if there is none!"

This is Zhu Xi's commentary on "Three Reflections on Myself in My Day".

At such a time, Tang Shen was not polite, and directly started with Zhu Xi's broken topic, and wrote an article eloquently according to Zhu Xi's point of view: "Zongsheng examines himself three times, observes benevolence and loyalty, and learns. If a sage is like this, I will say If there is something, change it, if there is nothing, encourage it!"

The third article was written in one go, Tang Shen looked back and found it soul-stirring.It's just a sentence of "If there is something, change it, if there is nothing, then encourage it", no matter how badly he writes later, he will definitely get a high score.

After transcribing the last eight-legged art, Tang Shen read the last five-character and eight-rhyme test post poem.

The title is: "The wind and rain are desolate".

The wind and rain are miserable, and the cock cries.Seeing a gentleman, the cloud is not a shame.

From "The Book of Songs·Guofeng·Zheng Yu".

This poem depicts the scene of wind and rain, and the whole poem is about the woman's love for her lover.Tang Shen thought about it for a while, and then wrote a test post poem.

Hearing the Tao, looking for the clouds, listening to the wind startled the cicadas.

The rain beats the plantain green, and the thunder moves eightfold.

……

The white head returns to the end of the road, and the lovesick cuckoo cries.

During the test, the handwriting and calligraphy of the students are not that important, after all, the examiners will not see the papers written by themselves in the end.But Tang Shen still seriously copied the test post poems, and after checking that they were correct, he stood up and handed in the paper.

When he walked out of the numbered room and came to the corridor, he happened to run into Mei Shengze.

Mei Shengze was also very pleasantly surprised to see him, and said, "Jing Ze, how do you feel?"

Tang Shen replied honestly: "How shameless!"

Mei Shengze also suddenly lost the joy of meeting friends, and said depressedly: "Shameless!"

The two laughed and walked out of the examination room while talking.

Mei Shengze: "The first question, I thought about it for two hours before deciding how to solve it. I am not good at stereotyped art, and you and Brother Liu Fang are better than me in this. How are you doing now? , The title of the test post poem "Wind and Rain is desolate" is extremely simple, and the first stereotyped art is extremely difficult! Fortunately, the title of the two stereotyped essays written by Li Daxue is a bit simpler, otherwise I would have hit my head to death in Mingyuan today. On the pillars of the building!"

As soon as Tang Shen heard it, he knew that Mei Shengze didn't think as much as he did when he wrote the second article on making art.

The two walked out of the tribute courtyard and said goodbye to each other.

Yao San had brought the doctor with him, and had been waiting for Tang Shen outside the door for a long time.Tang Shendao: "Go home first. I'm in pretty good health this time. I think I have the experience of the last rural exam. This time I'm fine. Go back and take a shower, sleep, and come back for the exam tomorrow."

Yao San and Accountant Lin both heaved a sigh of relief.

In the evening, after taking a hot bath and sleeping soundly, Tang Shen came to the gate of the Shengjing Gongyuan before dawn the next day.

Wang Qin once said to Tang Shen that among the four major scholars of the Imperial Academy, Yang Dashi and Pan Dashi like "Book of Changes", and Zhou Dashi likes "Spring and Autumn".The only thing is that he didn't say what Master Li likes.Tang Shen didn't ask him either, because he knew that the reason why Wang Qin didn't talk about it was probably that Li Dashi didn't have any special preferences in the Five Classics. Maybe he liked the "Analects of Confucius" in the Four Books, so only two "Analects of Confucius" came out in the first test. "question.

Since Master Li had a mediocre interest in the Five Classics, Tang Shen chose the one with the easiest questions and began to answer the questions.

Three days later, Tang Shen walked out of the examination room with a slightly pale face.

Yao San walked up immediately.

Tang Shen said: "It's okay, I'm just tired."

After a good night's sleep and recharging his energy, Tang Shen entered the prison-like cell again, where he stayed for three days and three nights, writing down several current affairs questions for the third round of the exam.

The test, which lasted for three nine days, finally came to an end.As soon as they returned home, shopkeeper Lu came.He obviously came to the door at the exact time when Tang Shen finished his examination, but when Tang Shen saw him, he waved his hand and said, "Come back tomorrow."

Shopkeeper Lu smiled helplessly: "Okay, I will listen to the little boss."

The next day, Tang Shen slept until the sun was up. Tang Shen ate the Shengjing scones he bought with a pen, and sipped porridge, when shopkeeper Lu knocked on the door and came in.He bowed to Tang Shen and said, "My little boss, it's done! The day before yesterday, when you were still taking the exam, shopkeeper Xing of Qianli Building came to me. He pointed out straight to the point that I was the shopkeeper of Xixia Building in Gusu Mansion, and then made indirect remarks. Ask me if I want to cooperate with Hua Tangqiu to sell soap and golden strands!"

Upon hearing this, Tang Shen immediately put down the bowl and said, "He knows you are the shopkeeper of Xixia Building?"

"That's not true. I handed over the gift box containing the golden strands to him two months ago. I was also puzzled. My little boss, we made our intentions so clear that we wanted to cooperate with Huatangqiu. Why is that shopkeeper Xing?" Look like I haven’t received the gift, and I don’t understand at all? It’s only now that I understand that people don’t understand, they secretly investigated my identity, so they came to the door!”

Tang Shen smiled and said, "Shopkeeper Xing is certainly not an ordinary person who can make Qianlilou and Huatangqiu the number one store in Shengjing. How did you talk with him?"

Shopkeeper Lu clearly explained the preliminary agreement between himself and Shopkeeper Xing, and said: "... I think this is not a problem, and the conditions that Shopkeeper Xing gave me are considered good. However, it is difficult for the two shopkeepers to finalize the specific matters. , Shopkeeper Xing hopes that you can meet with the behind-the-scenes owner of Qianlilou, and the two of you will make a clear agreement."

Tang Shen asked in surprise, "The Prince of Xiaoyao, Zhao Ao?"

Shopkeeper Lu: "It's Prince Jing's son, Zhao Qiong."

A figure flashed in Tang Shen's mind, and he nodded immediately: "Okay, of course we have to meet."

The author has something to say: Pharaoh next door: A day without scenes?

Xiao Tang Lang: Why, what role do you want?