Before long, Su Ke heard the sound of soone clearing away the bowl and chopsticks.
He still had not opened his eyes when he heard the voice announcing the topic. Only then did he open them.
Into the small window beside him were handed a few paper rolls, and additionally a bamboo tube of clear water. Su Ke took them and unfolded them to see that one roll was draft paper, and the other the exam questions. He picked up the questions, eager to review them.
Before the Spring Imperial Civil Service Examination, his ntor had already gone over the questions from previous years with everyone.
Since this Spring Imperial Civil Service Examination was the first set of questions issued since Emperor Jiantai’s ascension, all the academies were exploring the preferences and habits of His Majesty. However, after the Chief Examiner was confird, the ntor had carefully analyzed the preferences of several examiners who set the questions. The deputy minister of the Ministry of Rites, who had recently taken on the additional role of the Deputy Minister of Revenue, Lord Gao, was an early-year student from a humble background who valued water irrigation highly. And this year, as soon as His Majesty confird Lord Gao as the Chief Examiner, he also decided to add two to three water irrigation-related questions.
The majority of students who traveled to Shengjing for the exams, either taught by large aristocratic families or supported by the hopes of their entire clans, had little to no practical use—as scholars, how could they get the chance to co in contact with so-called water irrigation? It really gave many students a headache, and they had to cram at the last minute.
Through the history of the Great Zhou Dynasty, each ti a new ruler ascended the throne, it was a blessing for all those scholars who had toiled through poetry and books.
If he could, as his ntor said, place within the top ten and be granted an audience in the Jinluan Bao Hall, becoming the favored student of the emperor, then he truly would "Illuminate Ancestors".
Of course, Su Ke would not put such pressure on himself; his goal was to beco a Jinshi Scholar, and beyond that, the higher the ranking the better. Naturally, even making it onto the Secondary List would not be in vain after his years of hard work.
As for things like consistently being top scholar or third place, that was entirely up to personal luck. He did not believe he was so fortunate that good luck would fall on him.
Su Ke scanned the exam questions from start to finish.
The first exam of the Spring Imperial Civil Service Examination still followed the early traditions of the Great Zhou Dynasty, testing the Four Books and the Five Classics, no different in scope from the Autumn Imperial Civil Service Examination. Four questions for the Four Books, five for the Five Classics, and the questions, similar to those in the autumn, were all fill-in-the-blank. The exam paper would select a line from the books, leaving so words blank, asking students to fill in the blanks, with the intention of testing the students’ foundational knowledge. There were even questions asking which sentence ca from which book, on which page, and in which line—such questions were solely testing students’ familiarity with the classics and were really tricky and more profound.
Su Ke had made it to this point from the Autumn Imperial Civil Service Examination; he naturally had such foundational skills.
After looking over the questions, he did not rush to answer them but instead rolled up his bedding and fell into a deep sleep.
He awoke in the middle of the night, shivering from the cold. After trembling for quite a while and unable to endure it, he got up and groped for two white candles at the window, lit them, and put on all four of the thick undergarnts he had brought with him before curling up to go back to sleep.
He slept until daylight the next day, when the sll of at from the exam number next to his woke him up, as the worms in his stomach roused him from his slumber.
Only then did he open his eyes to discover it was already morning outside.
Hurriedly getting up in the freezing cold, he no longer cared about tidying himself up, picked up the hot soup from the window ledge, and poured it down his throat.
With the hot soup in his stomach, a warm heat rose from his belly, and Su Ke felt his entire body co to life. Using the water for grinding ink, he hastily washed his pasty face with the Respectful bucket, had breakfast, and then began to answer the questions.
The first exam’s questions, generally speaking, would not be difficult as long as one’s basic skills were solid.
Before entering the exam hall, his ntor had boldly hypothesized about this year’s exam questions. The proportion of scores in the exam papers for students, should be the sa for all three sessions, whether it is basic skills or article flair—if a student veers off-topic in any question, they would undoubtedly be eliminated imdiately.
This year’s participation in the Spring Imperial Civil Service Examination saw the largest number of students in recent tis. Typically, there would be around three thousand six hundred students, but this year, over ten thousand students ca to take the exams, three tis the number of previous years. However, the number of successful candidates was only three hundred and sixty, rely double that of past years. Though touted as the Beneficent Examination, in actuality, the selection ratio had intensified from the original three thousand six hundred candidates competing for two hundred spots to this year’s ten thousand vying for three hundred and sixty spots, effectively a thirty to one ratio, making the competition fiercer and the selection more rciless.
Furthermore, there were fixed quotas for successful candidates from various regions, which also had to be adjusted based on the number of applicants, the size of the region, and the population.
These students who were able to participate in the Spring Imperial Civil Service Examination were certainly no ordinary lot; only those who had successfully passed preliminary exams and had beco successful candidates could even enter the Spring examination hall. If one’s dossier exhibited imbalances in subjects or contained errors, harboring any hope of becoming a Jinshi Scholar was simply out of the question.
By the afternoon when the light began to fade, Su Ke had finished answering all the questions.
There was no stir of emotion.
It wasn’t until early morning on the third day that the Chief Examiner announced that the candidates could submit their papers.
Like the other students, Su Ke tapped lightly at the window and before long, an official ca to collect the exam paper through the window. Upon collection, the candidate’s na and ho province were sealed imdiately on the dossier; after all three examination sessions were completed, people were assigned to transcribe and mark the papers. Then those dossiers selected for admission were unsealed to verify the candidates’ information.
Having submitted his paper in the morning, Su Ke had nothing to do in the afternoon. As the students could not leave their Exam numbers or speak out loud without risking disqualification, Su Ke could only walk back and forth within the exam compartnt to stay warm and stimulate his circulation.
The second examination took place on the morning of the fourth day when the exam papers were handed out.
This session required the students to compose a poem and a piece of prose.
It was extrely important!
If the first session tested basic skills, then the second session gauged the depth of knowledge the students possessed. It was an assessnt of whether they could integrate and apply the knowledge they had acquired from their studies.
Writing poems and prose was not necessarily Su Ke’s strongest suit, but neither did it cause him stage fright.
The poetry topic appeared simple: "Yellow Flowers are like Scattered Gold".
Su Ke took a mont to contemplate holding his dossier.
In the Great Zhou Dynasty, exam questions often liked to be "headless and tailless," aning combining unrelated sentences.
For example, later examples would include sentences like: "The waters of Taohua Pond are a thousand feet deep, and my father is Li Gang." "Before my window, the moonlight is bright, and my father is Li Gang." "The old man bursts with the vigor of youth, and my father is Li Gang." "Children et and do not recognize each other, but I say my father is Li Gang!" Such sentences were headless and tailless, randomly cobbled together to form exam topics.
Upon seeing "Yellow flowers like scattered gold", his mind imdiately flashed with a famous line from "Li Ji. Monthly Commands", "In the season of late autumn, chrysanthemums bear yellow flowers".
In this text, the yellow flowers referred to chrysanthemums. Writing began with the intent of autumn scenery, while also praising the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Su Ke carefully ground his ink, smoothed out his draft paper, and was ready to write. But then another line ca to mind.
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