Chapter 488
Chapter 488
The subjects for the first day of the examination were *Cheopgyeong* and *Myeongsan*. The sheer volume of test papers was enough to overwhelm anyone at a glance.
What was *Cheopgyeong*? During the Tang Dynasty, *Cheopgyeong* involved selecting a passage from the Four Books and Five Classics, obscuring three characters, and having the candidate fill them in. Answering five out of ten questions correctly was a passing grade.
However, the *Cheopgyeong* section of the State of Yue’s imperial examination was not as simple as its Tang Dynasty counterpart. Not only did one have to fill in the blanks, but one also had to provide annotations. In essence, it was a subject that could be mastered through rote memorization. No matter how unfamiliar a question might seem, it was guaranteed to be from within the scope of the Four Books and Five Classics.
So, how many questions were there in the State of Yue’s *Cheopgyeong* exam? Every time, as if the examiners had lost their minds, there were at least ninety questions. The sight of the densely packed examination paper was enough to make one feel suffocated.
The Four Books and Five Classics combined amounted to hundreds of thousands of characters. Who but a memorization fanatic could possibly learn it all by heart? Thus, while the *Cheopgyeong* was considered the simplest part of the imperial examination, it was also undeniably the most grueling for the candidates.
In China, as the imperial examinations evolved over later dynasties, a specific school of thought emerged to tackle this. Scholars collected a vast number of obscure and ambiguous passages that had appeared in past examinations and compiled them into dozens of songs, making them easier to memorize. This genre of work was known as *Cheopgwal*. This way, instead of dry memorization, one could simply learn the material as if singing a song from a book.
The State of Yue had not yet developed such a school of thought, and the examiners were relatively sane in their question-setting. Of the ninety questions, fifty percent were from relatively common passages, thirty percent were from rarer texts, and the final twenty percent were of a perverse difficulty—so obscure that one would doubt if they were even from the Four Books and Five Classics. The last ten questions, in particular, were so arcane they were nearly impossible to answer. Upon seeing them, most candidates would likely think:
‘What passage is this? Is this really in the Four Books and Five Classics? Impossible!’
(The Four Books of the Four Books and Five Classics refer to *The Great Learning*, *The Analects*, *Mencius*, and *The Doctrine of the Mean*. The Five Classics generally refer to *The Classic of Poetry*, *The Book of Documents*, *The Book of Changes*, *The Book of Rites*, and *The Spring and Autumn Annals*. Even scholars could not learn all of this content in their academies, so it was common practice to focus on the most important passages. Therefore, it was inevitable that they would encounter unfamiliar texts they had not studied.)
In truth, the examiners themselves had to scour the Four Books and Five Classics to find such passages for the exam. Otherwise, they wouldn’t know where they came from, and without the books in front of them, they couldn’t answer the questions either.
But Madman Lan was a perfectionist, a prodigy. A prodigy with a photographic memory. Among those who considered themselves well-read, very few had memorized the entirety of the Four Books and Five Classics. Unfortunately for them, he had long since committed them all to memory.
Thus, the ninety questions of the *Cheopgyeong* were an absolute breeze for him. Most candidates would need at least six hours to complete these ninety questions, and for the final ten difficult ones, they could only guess and hope for the best. But Madman Lan answered them all in less than half an hour, with one hundred percent accuracy. He then moved on to the *Myeongsan* section.
What was *Myeongsan*? The name suggested arithmetic, but it wasn't just about calculation. In modern terms, it would be more aptly called natural science. (In the modern era, the term 'natural science' refers to a theoretical system of knowledge supported by the application of mathematics and the methodological awareness of experimentation. The author uses the term in this sense.)
A total of thirty questions were drawn from texts such as *The Arithmetical Classic*, *The Gnomon of the Zhou*, *A Record of Mathematical Arts*, *The Three Classes of Numbers*, *The Method of Interpolation*, and *The Collection of Ancient Mathematical Classics*.
In fact, Shen Lang had been quite puzzled when he saw these books. Most of them were not from the same period as the Four Books and Five Classics but were works from after the Han Dynasty. Yet in this world, they were all considered ancient classics.
In the Great Yan Dynasty’s imperial examinations, *Myeongsan* was considered the least important subject, so it wasn't even included in the provincial examinations. Scholars also viewed it as the lowest class of subject. In the imperial examination, it was the section with the lowest scores, yet it was incredibly difficult to study for.
But again, Madman Lan was a prodigy. His natural talent for mathematics far surpassed even Shen Lang's. If they were to solve arithmetic problems fairly, without any tricks, Shen Lang would be no match for him. From simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to even quadratic equations with one variable, Madman Lan could swiftly find the correct answer through mental calculation alone. Shen Lang couldn't help but marvel at Madman Lan's innate genius; he couldn't even begin to imagine how his brain was wired.
The *Myeongsan* section featured thirty infuriating problems, with the last three being particularly absurd. Most candidates couldn't even comprehend the questions, let alone write down an answer. Therefore, as was customary, most of the smarter candidates would simply give up on some of them. Why waste energy on pointless problems when it was better to prepare for the next day's exam? The policy essays on the second day and the poetry composition on the third were the most crucial subjects.
But Madman Lan finished all thirty *Myeongsan* problems in less than fifteen minutes. To him, they were too, too, too simple. Answering them felt like an insult to his intelligence. The problems Young Master Shen came up with were far more interesting and incredibly profound. Some of them he still hadn't been able to solve. In his heart, Madman Lan believed Shen Lang was the one with true, all-encompassing knowledge. He didn't know that Shen Lang was standing on the shoulders of a giant, with a computer—an infinite repository of knowledge—in his head. In terms of true, innate mathematical talent, Shen Lang was inferior to Madman Lan.
On the first day of the exam, an ordinary candidate would spend the entire day working, even continuing by candlelight into the night. But Madman Lan finished everything in less than an hour and didn't even need to check his answers for mistakes.
‘Sigh! How boring. How am I supposed to squander all this remaining time?’
Madman Lan now regretted going to bed so early the previous night. His stamina was poor, so he had fallen asleep after just a couple of rounds.
‘I might as well just go back to sleep!’
And so, Madman Lan flipped his exam paper over, laid his head down on the desk, and began to snore softly. About a quarter of an hour into his nap, an assistant examiner approached him.
‘Is this that good-for-nothing degenerate, Madman Lan? He certainly lives up to his reputation. The exam has barely started, and he's already asleep. There’s no hope of him passing. Why would trash like this even come to take the exam? Is he here to disgrace Shen Lang or Ying Zheng?’
But those two weren't afraid of disgrace. One was so thick-skinned he didn't even know the meaning of the word, and the other was an inauspicious person with no status whatsoever, it would be hard to find a place for him to be disgraced.
The surrounding candidates saw Madman Lan sleeping and looked on with scorn and ridicule.
"You can't plaster a wall with rotten mud. That beggar fell asleep as soon as the test began. The defeat of that human calamity, Son-in-law Shen, is sealed. He’s going to drown in the spit of the people."
"We should have made the bet about pissing on him, not spitting."
They spoke in quiet murmurs, as if talking to themselves. But with nearly a hundred people muttering, the noise grew considerable, prompting an examiner to shout.
"Silence! Anyone who makes another sound will be thrown out of the examination hall."
The examiner then walked away from Madman Lan, leaving him to sleep soundly. After all, sleeping wasn't forbidden in the examination hall. As long as he didn't do anything disruptive, it didn't matter.
* * *
*Who is first to awaken from the great dream? All my life I have known it is I.*
Just like the famous saying, Madman Lan soon woke up. Seeing the sun directly overhead, he realized it was noon. It felt like he had slept for a long time, yet not even four hours had passed. The wait was agonizing.
‘Time to eat!’
He spent a leisurely hour munching on delicious meat buns. Now, Madman Lan wasn't sleepy anymore and had no idea what to do. He couldn't just doodle on the exam paper, as that could get him disqualified.
Finally, Madman Lan closed his eyes and began to read a book in his mind. He knew *Battle Through the Heavens: Boundless Wind and Moon* by heart. Rereading it in his head as if for the first time was thoroughly entertaining. Thank goodness he had *Battle Through the Heavens* and *Journey to the West* in his memory; otherwise, he would have died of boredom in this examination hall.
Of course, he also had *Jin Ping Mei: Boundless Wind and Moon* in his head, but it wasn't appropriate for the examination hall. What if he got excited and lost control? Taking an exam with a stick between his legs was not a good look.
While others wracked their brains, racing against every minute and second, Madman Lan was simply killing time out of boredom.
Finally, the first day came to an end. Madman Lan prayed inwardly.
‘Please let tomorrow's exam be a little harder, so I can spend more time and use my brain a bit more.’
* * *
The second day of the Special Examination was for the policy essay.
The current imperial examination system of the Great Yan Empire placed great importance on policy essays, making the second day's test extremely critical. To put it in perspective, in this Special Examination, the policy essay on the second day accounted for fifty percent of the total score, the poetry and prose on the third day accounted for thirty percent, and the *Cheopgyeong* and *Myeongsan* from the first day made up the remaining twenty percent.
A successful performance on the policy essay meant a good chance of passing the examination. Failure meant no hope of passing, no matter how well one did on the other two days. This was why Shen Lang had made Madman Lan memorize a thousand policy essays over the past month.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the topics for policy essays were drawn from passages in the Four Books and Five Classics. However, the policy essays of the Great Yan Dynasty did not necessarily quote from them. Sometimes they did, but often they did not. A conventional monarch would tend to set questions from the Four Books and Five Classics when holding an examination, while an unconventional one would not.
So, was Ning Yuanxian a conventional monarch? Of course not. An analysis of the imperial examinations held in the State of Yue in recent years showed that questions quoting the Four Books and Five Classics were rare.
Ning Yuanxian fancied himself a skilled question-setter and, not trusting his examiners, always liked to write the examination questions himself. For instance, in this Special Examination held across the State of Yue, the king personally set the policy essay and poetry composition questions for three of the five examination districts.
When the candidates received a question set by the king, they were driven half-mad. The king typically posed bold questions. But even if His Majesty was bold in his questioning, the candidates dared not be bold in their answers. In the end, they could only write their responses with fear and trepidation.