Poor but talented scholar

Chapter 65 Waiting List

The last quarter of the Yin hour.

"Collect the papers—!"

With a long shout from the clerk of the ceremonial office, he checked the examination card, name, and the format of the eight-legged essay one last time. After confirming that everything was correct, he held the paper flat with both hands and handed it to the invigilators who filed in.

When they walked out of the cells, many students were unsteady on their feet, and some were even supported by their classmates.

The door creaked open.

"Chuan'er!"

Lu Shouye's voice stood out conspicuously in the crowd.

Lu Chuan looked up and saw his father and sixth uncle with their hair all messy like a bird's nest, desperately tiptoeing to peek inside.

Seeing Lu Chuan emerge unharmed, Lu Shouye's lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a single word.

"Father, Sixth Uncle. The exam is over." Lu Chuan walked quickly over and helped his swaying father.

"Good, good, it's good to be back." Uncle Liu sniffed his red nose and patted Lu Chuan's shoulder hard. "Let's not ask how the exam went. Let's go back inside first, and Uncle Liu will go get you a bowl of hot ginger soup!"

The first county-level examination was popularly known as sand filtering.

I spent half a day in the venue and a whole day engrossed in reading.

The next day, waiting for the results, was the most grueling.

Back in the side room, Lu Chuan didn't rush to discuss the questions or argue like the other candidates.

He put down the test basket and immediately fell asleep.

But things were not peaceful outside.

In Wenchang Lane, the sighs and lamentations of students could be heard everywhere.

Some people stamped their feet and beat their chests because they wrote a radical incorrectly; others went on a drunken rampage in the lobby because they misunderstood the question.

Lu Shouye and his sixth uncle sat on the steps outside the side room.

"Do you think Chuan'er can handle keeping the family business?" Sixth Uncle asked in a low voice.

"Whether it works out or not, he's still a son of our Lu family village." Lu Shouye smiled honestly, but his eyes were a little moist. "I saw how confident he was when he came out, unlike those whining and crying boys. Our Chuan'er knows what's good for him."

The next morning, before the sun had even risen, the area in front of the county government office was already crowded with people.

This is the first preliminary list, also known as the case release.

Anyone whose name is not on the list is sent home immediately, not even qualified to participate in the later exams.

"The results are out—!"

Amidst a deafening gong and drum blast, several bailiffs carried a huge sheet of red paper and steadily applied paste to the screen wall.

"Stop pushing! Step back!" The constable brandished his fire-and-water stick.

Lu Shouye and his sixth uncle didn't dare let Lu Chuan try to squeeze through the crowd. The two old men used their brute strength to carve out two paths through the crowd.

"What's his name? Where is Lu Chuan's name?" Lu Shouye opened his old eyes wide and searched from the bottom of the list upwards.

There's a rule in how the county publishes the results of the imperial examinations: the lower the ranking, the closer to the edge of the red paper.

Lu Shouye continued reading until he reached the middle, but still hadn't seen the name Lu Chuan. His heart sank.

"Oh no, did it fail?" Lu Shouye's voice was trembling with tears.

"Look up, look up!" Uncle Liu had sharp eyes. Although he didn't know many characters, he had seen the name Lu Chuan countless times at home and could recognize it with his eyes closed.

He pointed tremblingly to the very top of the red paper.

There, in the very center of a huge circle (the top spot being marked inside), it was clearly written:

"First place: Lujia Village, Luchuan."

A deathly silence fell over the stage, which was then broken by shouts.

"First place, it's first place!" Uncle Liu jumped up suddenly. "Shouye, did you see that? In that circle, it's our Chuan'er's name."

Lu Shouye stared intently at the black characters on the red paper, frozen in place.

He shakily pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, rubbed his eyes hard, and looked at it again.

"I won the first prize!" Lu Shouye suddenly squatted down, covered his face, and burst into tears.

The students around them turned their heads, some with envy, others with gnashing teeth in jealousy.

"Lu Chuan from Qingyang Academy? He actually surpassed Young Master Zhou from the city?"

"That essay on the topic of 'Harmony,' did he really write something extraordinary about it?"

When the news reached the inn's side room, Lu Chuan was tidying up his examination basket, preparing his writing materials for the next exam.

Zhang Ru rushed in like a madman, his voice hoarse from shouting: "Brother Lu, you're the champion! You were the top scorer in the first round! The county magistrate personally wrote a vermilion comment, saying that your essay has the style of an ancient gentleman."

Lu Chuan's hand holding the pen trembled slightly, but it was only a slight tremor.

He put down his pen and spoke to Lu Shouye and his sixth uncle who rushed into the room.

"Father, Sixth Uncle, this is only the first round; there are two more rounds to come."

Lu Shouye wiped away his tears, chuckled, and nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay, Chuan'er, you just sit inside. Dad will go buy you the tenderest chicken legs. We'll win first place again next time."

......

The title of first place in the first round of investigations is just the beginning.

But Lu Chuan knew all too well that the county examination was a process of sifting for gold at every level.

The second event was called the First Recap.

This test assesses the depth of thought and understanding of the laws of the court among scholars.

The moment the question was posted on the screen wall, the students, who had initially held onto a sliver of hope, instantly turned pale.

The title of the Four Books passage is: "Wealth and honor are what people desire; but if they are not obtained through proper means, they should not be accepted."

Lu Chuan sat in his cell, looking at the question.

In his explanation, he wrote:

"It is not that a gentleman does not desire wealth and honor, but he truly fears that if wealth and honor come, he will be ashamed of the Way. Where the Way is, poverty and lowliness will not sway him; where the Way is lost, even a house full of gold and jade will be considered a thief."

This discourse not only distinguishes between "desire" and "the Way," but also reveals his extreme contempt, as a son from a poor family, for wealth and status obtained through opportunism and exploitation of his fellow villagers.

Subsequently, when expounding on sexual theory and discussing "the good and evil of human nature," Lu Chuan did not blindly agree, but instead adhered closely to the principles of Mencius, emphasizing the importance of "cultivating one's vital energy" after birth.

The most tedious thing was to memorize the "Sacred Edicts and Extensive Instructions".

A single mistake in marking a single character in a text of just over a hundred words will result in a grade reduction.

Lu Chuan held his breath and focused intently, each stroke landing precisely on the paper, without a single mistake or alteration.

If the first two rounds tested stability, then the third round, which is a repetition, tests talent.

This one was the most agonizing.

Not only will the exam test difficult scriptures, but it will also test the most spiritually important regulated verse and examination poems.

The title of the passage is taken from the *Book of Rites*: "Courtesy demands reciprocity. To give without receiving is impolite; to receive without giving is also impolite."

In his discourse, Lu Chuan avoided the trivialities of etiquette and instead elevated them to the fundamental balance of "state relations and human relationships."

What truly made him ponder was that five-character, eight-line examination poem.

Topic: [An ancient temple hidden deep in the mountains, yielding the character "锺" (zhong).]

Lu Chuan closed his eyes, and the image of the small temple shrouded in mist appeared in his mind, as if he could hear the distant sound of bells.

He picked up his pen and wrote:

"Where ancient trees cast shadows, the sound of chanting rises from the verdant hills. Deep in the clouds, the path is unknown; the bell tolls as one returns from the distant mountains."

The parallelism in regulated verse is as precise as if carved by a knife, while the poetry in examination essays is as lively as a flying fairy.

The fourth and fifth rounds are collectively referred to as "continuous reversals".

These two sessions did not have a fixed question type, and involved classical texts, parallel prose, and even some rudimentary forms of policy essays that tested the breadth of knowledge.

This was the county magistrate's way of selecting the truly talented individuals from the final examination papers.

The following are the topics to be addressed: [On agriculture, sericulture, rites and music, and governance.]