Chapter 164: Is the Exam Like Being in Prison?

Date: June 6th.

Exam Venue: Jiangnan Imperial Examination Hall.

Alright, it’s time. No buying or selling around the examination hall, no shouting to sell watermelons, and no one is allowed to tap bricks to transmit Morse code. Streets outside the examination hall are off-limits for trading and traffic.

The examiners have arrived, the main and deputy examiners who ride in palanquins are here too.

The candidates are all in line, talking but not pushing; this is like carp leaping over the dragon gate. In case someone falls into the river and drowns, that wouldn’t be good. Keep your spirits up, hold the basket under your feet, get your steamed buns ready, and if you haven’t bought buns, you can go to Wu Dalang’s house to buy some pancakes.

To enter the examination hall, you need to undergo inspection.

First, look at the things in your basket: pen, ink, inkstone, candle – no contraband. Why does that bun look irregular? Could it be that you steamed it yourself? Open the bun for inspection. Oh, daring to sneak in a note. Someone, press him down! Take him to the Ministry of Rites, let the Ministry of Rites hand him over to the judicial department for disposal!

And that guy eating the bun, send him along too.

The basket is fine, hair is fine, now take off your clothes.

Outer garments are fine, inner garments are fine, underwear… cough, well, that, shoes and socks are fine. Alright, here’s your tag, you can go in.

Once inside the examination hall, don’t run around. Sit according to the number on your tag.

The examination hall has thousands of rooms, all single rooms of the same style. You will take the exam in this room, and you’ll sleep here too.

Comfortable, right? Think about the future; where do you get single-room treatment like this?

But, this single room is a bit special.

It’s called a “number room.”

The specifications are as follows: length – five feet, width – four feet, height – eight feet.

One foot is roughly 30 centimeters, you can figure it out. This isn’t a luxurious self-service tour; it’s clearly a prison cell.

People in the future call being in prison “serving time,” and here, “serving time” is the number room.

Yes, the exam is like being in prison, that’s how it goes.

Apart from knowing that you’ll see the sun tomorrow and occasionally writing a few hundred words, there’s not much difference from being in prison.

There are people watching outside, keeping an eye on you, not letting you escape. You don’t eat well, drink well, sleep well, and personal hygiene issues also need to be solved inside; it’s uncomfortable.

Someone might say, it’s just a bit narrow, squeeze a bit, endure it, and it’ll be over after the exam, right?

But this exam doesn’t just last two or three days; the imperial examination often takes seven or eight days…

Everyone is here, so let’s start the exam.

The Ming Dynasty imperial exam is divided into three sessions. In the first session, there are three questions on the “Four Books,” each requiring more than 200 characters, and four questions on the “Classics,” each requiring more than 300 characters. Those who can’t finish will be allowed to omit one question.

Among them, the questions on the “Four Books” are the famous eight-legged essays.

The titles of the eight-legged essays are taken from the Four Books and Five Classics. Whether you can write a good eight-legged essay directly determines if you can pass the exam.

The “eight legs” refer to eight parts: introduction, continuation, exposition, entry, beginning of the essay, middle of the essay, end of the essay, and conclusion.

All eight parts need to be written using paired sentences.

At the end of the conclusion, you also need to write tens or hundreds of characters of summary text, called the big conclusion.

The eight-legged essay has been criticized for a long time, not only by later generations but also by ancient people.

For example, Song Lian, a teacher of Zhu Biao, described the person selected through the eight-legged essay as follows: “When conversing with them, their eyes stare blankly, and their tongue is mute, unable to respond.” Imagine that appearance; doesn’t it resemble an idiot…

In the late Ming Dynasty, Gu Yanwu even directly stated: “I foolishly believe that the harm of the eight-legged essay is greater than burning books.”

In his view, Qin Shihuang only burned a few books, but the eight-legged essay harmed all scholarship, as he said, “The prosperity of the eight-legged essay diminishes the importance of the ‘Six Classics,’ and the rise of the eighteen schools leads to the decline of the twenty-one histories.”

Of course, if the eight-legged essay is just rubbish, no one will keep using it. After all, the court is not a garbage dump.

In the future, Wu Jingzi’s “The Scholars” writes: If the eight-legged essay is done well, you can do anything—poetry if you want, prose if you want. It’s like leaving a whip mark with every stroke, leaving a bloody mark with every slap.

From this, it can be seen that the eight-legged essay is a foundational literary form for poetry and prose.

Rationally speaking, the eight-legged essay has its problems, but directly linking it to the idea of keeping the people ignorant and foolish is inappropriate.

The establishment of the eight-legged essay was meant to comprehensively assess a scholar’s grasp of classical texts and their ability to refine language. In that era, it might not have been the best method, but it was indeed a literary form that suited the times.

Saying that the eight-legged essay restricts thinking is not entirely accurate; it can only be said that some people, in their study, unintentionally or intentionally inserted their own viewpoints into the essay. They mistook the format of the essay for the thoughts in it. The format has a framework, so they framed their own thoughts.

But there’s no way around it; you put yourself into it.

How many powerful figures in the Ming and Qing Dynasties didn’t emerge from the eight-legged essay?

Xie Jin, Yang Rong, Yang Bo, Wang Shouren, Yu Qian, Wang Fuzhi, Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, and many others—all of them came through the eight-legged essay.

They weren’t foolish, nor were they constrained, because they understood that the eight-legged essay had a format, but thoughts didn’t have a format.

Many people, in the eight-legged essay, intentionally or unintentionally inserted their own views and wrote brilliant articles.

For example, Wang Shouren’s eight-legged essay:

“What he does is solely:

To understand the principle of avoiding the simultaneous rise of different doctrines and to dedicate one’s life to achieving the aspirations for the peace of the world. Even if one dies, there will be no regrets.

With no compromise in his mind, he sacrifices himself for the sake of promoting the way for the world. Even if he perishes, there is no regret.”

Reading it is astonishing.

After the first round of exams, the second round begins: an essay of over 300 characters and a judgment with five statements, decreeing a detailed expression of one subject within the Ministry of Rites.

After that is the third round, testing on history and classical strategies with five questions; those unable to answer all can omit two, all requiring over 300 characters.

In the examination hall, there is relative fairness.

Whether you are the son of grand secretaries or a commoner, whether your family is wealthy or impoverished, as long as you come here, everyone is on an equal footing.

Superiority or inferiority is judged solely by the articles.

Yang Shiqi walked through the examination hall, occasionally stopping to look at the answers from the candidates—nodding, shaking his head, and then moving on to continue his inspection.

As night fell, candles were lit in the number rooms.

With the brushing of brushes, the hunched bodies, the silent gazing at the starry sky, the murmurs of lowered heads, under the flickering and solitary lamps, were scholars harboring aspirations for the nation.

In the Wuying Hall, Zhu Yunwen finished handling the memorials, instructed Shuangxi to submit them to the Ministry of Personnel, then got up and walked out of the Martial Excellence Hall. He asked Liu Changge, “Is everything going smoothly at the examination hall?”

Liu Changge replied, “Reporting to Your Majesty, everything is going smoothly.”

Satisfied, Zhu Yunwen nodded and said, “In the essay section on the ‘Four Books,’ there is a question by Xie Jin named ‘One Rectification for the World.’ Hehe, do you know its meaning?”

Liu Changge shook his head ashamedly and said, “Your Majesty, although I know some characters, I have no scholarly knowledge. I don’t know its meaning.”

Zhu Yunwen, hands behind his back, looked into the distance and lightly said, “One Rectification for the World comes from the ‘Analects of Confucius,’ where Confucius said: ‘Guan Zhong served Duke Huan, consolidated the states, and rectified the world. The people of today continue to enjoy his gifts.'”

“Confucius believed that although Guan Zhong had made mistakes by first assisting Zi Jiu and later assisting Duke Huan of Qi, judging by his achievements, the world had benefited, it is the greatest benevolence. Liu Changge, is your benevolence still here with me?”