Great Zhou Wensheng

Chapter 14 The Seed of Civilization for the Nation—Golden Millet!
Jiang Xingzhou looked at the exam questions and smiled.

The imperial examinations for children in the Great Zhou Dynasty were even more difficult than the college entrance examination in my previous life. I never imagined that after transmigrating to this world, I would still have to rely on this examination to advance my status and change my destiny.

He suddenly remembered that he had seen a rubbing of an oracle bone in the Agricultural Museum before he traveled through time, and it was engraved with the character "黍" (millet).

It's exactly the same as the character for millet in the exam question.

Jiang Xingzhou calmed his mind, picked up his pen, and quickly wrote on the exam paper for question one:
"This interpretation is wrong!"

"[Shu]: can be broken down into three parts - hu (禾), ru (入), shui (水)".

Yi: Grain, also known as sticky grain.

Shape: [禾], depicting drooping ears of grain, like thousands of millet grains falling from a branch. — This character first appeared in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty. The character '黍' resembles the shape of drooping ears of grain, with water droplets beside it, indicating its connection to rainwater irrigation. The radical "入" means a sacrificial vessel containing millet.

Sound: Rain, simplified phonetic component, rainwater irrigates glutinous rice.

The three elements combined form millet, its shape resembles that of grain with scattered ears, its sound is like that of boiling water with the aroma of wine, and its meaning is derived from millet to nourish the people.

Millet has two uses.
The first custom was to offer sacrifices to Heaven: The *Zhou Li* (Rites of Zhou), in the section on the Spring Official, states, "Using the Huangzhong (Yellow Bell) bell, millet grains were stacked to determine the unit of measurement," using millet grains as the standard of measurement. After the fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou official Ji Zi, seeing the ruins of the former capital Yin overgrown with millet, composed a poem in sorrow. Later generations used millet to offer sacrifices at the Temple of the God of Millet.

Secondly, brewing wine: The Book of Songs, Greater Odes: "A vessel of black millet wine." Black millet is called "秬鬯" (jù cháng). "鬯" (cháng) is a fragrant herb. It is made by boiling and mixing millet together and then fermenting it. This millet wine is used for sacrifices and invoking the gods.

The meaning of "文道" (Wen Dao): The ears of grain hang low, symbolizing "a humble heart in literature".

The rule of literature: millet placed in a vessel can be transformed into "literary energy".

Therefore, the [millet] character technique is not a Taoist natural technique, but a farming technique for replenishing supplies.

"Release the [Millet] spell to produce millet grains; eating them can quickly replenish a certain amount of talent."

Jiang Xingzhou quickly wrote down his answers on the test paper.

“There is a historical record to support this: The Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou) records: ‘The Grand Minister nourishes the people with the nine grains, with millet being the first.’”

Millet nourishes all people and is full of vitality!
Graves are deathly still!

How can the shape of millet be maliciously misinterpreted as the shape of a tomb?

Jiang Xingzhou slammed the last line of text heavily onto the exam paper.

After finishing writing on the exam paper.

He also needs to use the [Shu] character technique to condense millet grains.

Jiang Xingzhou flicked two fingers in the air and quickly wrote the character "黍" (millet).

"Millet!"

Jiang Xingzhou gave a soft shout, and the character "黍" appeared in mid-air. Then it quickly collapsed into a yellow jade seed and landed on his desk.

Immediately afterwards, the millet seed on the table took root, sprouted, grew into a seedling, blossomed, and produced ears of grain.

between breaths,

The millet seedling on the desk has grown to three feet tall in the wind, bearing a string of golden millet ears, each grain as big as a soybean, with the ears hanging heavily.

This string of golden millet ears, released through literary arts, grows proudly on the desk, its golden light radiating, dazzling and eye-catching!
The golden light was so intense that it overflowed from the No. 7 examination room, spreading for dozens of feet and enveloping the surrounding five or six No. 7 examination rooms.

"Golden millet?"

Jiang Xingzhou was pleasantly surprised and murmured to himself. As soon as his fingertips touched the millet ears, he could smell the strong aroma of ripe millet.

His bronze bamboo slips immediately revealed a string of data:
Jiang Xingzhou used his literary arts to condense "Sovereign Seed*Golden Millet" x1, three feet long, achieving a flawless state in the literary arts of the five grains!

Efficacy: Consuming this millet can quickly replenish one's talent and energy. [Thirty strands of talent/in an instant.]
Jiang Xingzhou placed the string of golden millet grains, along with the exam paper, into the exam bag and sealed it.

This is to be submitted to the chief and deputy examiners for their assessment of the candidates' literary skills.

Lu Ming, the heir of the Lu family, quickly wrote on the exam paper: "The Book of Rites, Monthly Ordinances, states: 'In the first month of summer, the farmers harvest millet, and the emperor tastes the millet with pigs.'"

Then, he used the [millet] character technique.

Soon, a long string of plump millet ears, radiating a milky halo about a foot long, hung down on the table.

"good!
This bunch of millet is of excellent quality!
Ranking in the top three is definitely a given!

Lu Ming smiled with satisfaction. He covered the exam paper with his name, sealed it in the exam bag along with the string of milky-colored millet ears, and prepared to hand it over to the invigilator.

Just at this time,

His expression suddenly changed, and he abruptly looked outside the examination hall.

It was unclear which of the nearby examination rooms, numbered Jiazi, suddenly emitted an extremely dazzling golden light that filled his examination room!

"How is this possible? Who released such a powerful golden light from the 'Shu' character incantation?"

Is it Cao An from the Cao family? Or is it that young Han Yugui from the Han family, hiding his strength and preparing to make a name for himself?

Unfortunately, he couldn't leave the examination hall, and he didn't know which student's exam paper had caused such a strange phenomenon.

at the same time.

The county college had rows of examination rooms, and unfortunate students could be seen everywhere.

"Click~!"

Inside a certain examination hall, the pen of a poor boy suddenly burst open.

He analyzed the characters based on the "tomb shape" in the exam question, and the millet ears he conjured using his literary skills carried a strong, black, fishy smell of tomb soil.

The young student was stunned and burst into tears.

"It's over. How could this happen?!"

This bunch of black, rotten millet ears looks like rotten, foul-smelling millet. Eating it would definitely cause poisoning, let alone replenish your energy. You'd be lucky if you didn't get diarrhea and your whole body turned black after eating it!

Suddenly, a bluish-black light burst forth from a certain examination room on the west side, designated as Class A.

A young nobleman, dressed in fine clothes, held a writing brush, his expression one of utter panic, his robes soaked with sweat.

On the exam paper in front of him was written the character "冢" (tomb) – this was the trap set by the educational commissioner Cai Chao, which led to his literary backlash.

On the desk,
The character "黍" (millet) in the text transformed into a stalk of millet, its ears glistening with dark dewdrops, radiating a thick, bluish-black light, and reeking of decay—this was the result of manipulating the text according to a misunderstanding.

"Damn it, we've fallen into a trap!"

"Wrong! Completely wrong!"

"You shouldn't!"

Why is the character "黍" tested?

From the examination hall to the north, cries of anguish gradually rose.

A young boy, his hair in the middle of his hair, lay on his desk, sobbing uncontrollably after failing in his writing task.

"After three years of hard study, I failed the county exam again this year!"

An old monk used his magic to conjure millet grains, which withered and cracked, and then spontaneously combusted as if exposed to a raging fire.

He swallowed a mouthful of blood, which twisted into a crying face in the flames as the characters for "tomb shape" rose up.

A bizarre image seemed to appear before his eyes: he was kneeling on a cracked ridge, holding a bunch of charred millet ears and weeping, filled with despair.

Soon, from the next cell came the wailing of another examinee—this unlucky fellow had tried to bluff his way through by misinterpreting the character for millet, but the backlash from the burning flames made his heart ache like it was being torn apart.

"Hmph~!"

Instructor Zheng Shuqian, who was patrolling the examination hall, held a ruler in his hand and looked coldly at the examination rooms that were emitting black smoke and wailing.

Those students who insisted on the correct interpretation naturally developed a great literary talent.

However, when a student answered a question incorrectly, the release of literary skills was like being struck by lightning, causing his blood and qi to surge backward—this was the most cruel "criticism of the literary mind" in the Great Zhou imperial examination.

These ignorant people who practiced the Way could not distinguish between good and evil, truth and falsehood, and could not even tell whether the character for millet was in the shape of a tomb.

The [冢] shape in the first question is a trap. Cai Chao was able to dig this pit because when writing cursive script, millet and mound are very similar, and it is easy for beginners to mistake them for the same shape.

These students, unable to even pass the first question of the preliminary examination, were destined for a short and unsuccessful path in the pursuit of literature.

It doesn't matter if one suffers setbacks and one's cultivation level plummets.

They will be eliminated sooner or later.

Zheng Shuqian naturally ignored it.

Such cases frequently occur in county-level examination venues.

According to the Jiangyin County Annals, in the first year of the Tian Shou era, the county examination included a very obscure character, '秬'.

秬 is black millet!
That exam left countless students utterly bewildered and disillusioned, causing 70% of them to suffer a loss of intellectual capacity and never recover.

However, those who stood out from that county examination were all filled with confidence and made great strides in their literary and academic pursuits.

(End of this chapter)