Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 100: Going off the beaten track
The fundamental reason why Su Xun wrote "On the Six States" this year was ultimately due to the profound impact the first Song-Xia War had on the scholar-officials of the Song Dynasty.

As I said before, historical commentary is not simply about writing history; most of it uses history to illustrate the present.

The core argument of Su Xun's "On the Six States" is that "the destruction of the six states was due to their bribery of Qin." It criticizes the rulers of the six states for their policy of seeking peace by ceding territory, and uses historical examples to satirize the Song Dynasty's policy of paying tribute to the Liao and Xia dynasties, warning against repeating the mistakes of the six states.

Of course, the reasoning is correct, but specific problems need to be analyzed specifically. It is true that the Xia Kingdom is an ungrateful wolf cub, but the Liao Kingdom really didn't cause any trouble after taking the money!
On the one hand, the Liao Dynasty's "North-South official system" was significantly different from any previous nomadic dynasty such as the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Rouran. The Liao Dynasty not only recognized itself as the legitimate dynasty, but also exerted strong control over its army, which was composed of Khitan, Bohai, and Han people.

On the other hand, this peace was also the result of decades of tug-of-war between the Song and Liao dynasties. From the fall of the Northern Han to the Treaty of Chanyuan, they fought for so many years that both sides realized that with their strengths basically equal, neither side could expand their territory on a large scale. Fighting was just a waste of money, food and troops, so they simply stopped fighting and started doing business instead.

"On the Six States" was a very common topic of historical discussion in this era, and many people wrote about it. The three Su brothers each had a different perspective on "On the Six States": Su Xun criticized "bribing Qin", Su Shi emphasized "nurturing scholars", and Su Zhe advocated "uniting to resist Qin".

There is no historical record of when Su Shi and Su Zhe wrote "On the Six States," but there is no doubt that since their father Su Xun wrote "On the Six States" this year and it was included in "Jiayou Collection: Quan Shu," and is generally recognized as his representative work of historical theory, then Su Shi and Su Zhe must have thought about this topic.

Sure enough, Su Zhe's eyes lit up when he heard the topic.

Cheng Jianyong was the same age as the Su brothers and lived in Meishan. They had a close relationship and naturally knew that Su Xun had just written "On the Six States". So he asked in a low voice.

"Ziyou, have you prepared for this question?"

"I hadn't prepared for it, but judging from my father's actions, I naturally had some thoughts on it."

Upon hearing this, Yang Yaozi laughed and said, "Then you'd better get first place, otherwise you won't be able to explain it when you get home."

"Brother Yang, please don't make fun of me," Su Zhe said with a wry smile. "There are plenty of people here who came in first place in the county examinations. How can I be so sure of getting first place?"

Yang Yaozi disagreed, saying, "What does it matter if you get first place in the county exam? Which prefectural school can't produce dozens of first-place county exam takers every ten years or so? How many of them can actually pass the imperial examination? The gap between students from different prefectures is already as vast as heaven and earth. For example, your elder brother is also a student from a prefecture, but is he the same as us?"

"Yes," Cheng Jianyong sighed, "If we had a father and brother like you who could teach us all the time, we might have had a chance to pass the imperial examination."

Su Zhe waved his hand repeatedly. He and his two sons had not yet passed the imperial examination. Even if they had great talent, if they thought the imperial examination was in their grasp and agreed to it now, wouldn't it be embarrassing if they failed the examination in the future?

"You should just focus on writing."

The two stopped joking with him and each pondered at their desks, then began writing their own "On the Six States".

For a moment, the scene fell silent.

Mr. Baisha, Li Tian, ​​is old and his legs are not very good, so he no longer walks around to inspect the area.

But Jiang Zicheng, as a professor at the state academy, was not idle. He paced back and forth among the dozens of desks on site, which was very good at creating psychological pressure for people.

When they arrived at the plum tree, Zhou Mingyuan, being an older student, was sitting there in a daze and couldn't participate. When he saw the professor coming over, he quickly tried to get up and greet him, but Jiang Zicheng stopped him.

Jiang Zicheng paused to look at the group of people and noticed that Lu Beigu was deep in thought and hadn't said a word, so he walked away.

How is the academic level of this year's freshmen?

After walking around, Jiang Zicheng arrived at where Li Tian was sitting, and Li Tian asked him a question.

"It's alright. Meizhou is generally stronger than in previous years, as is Rongzhou. On the contrary, apart from the Dong family's son, there are no other outstanding talents in Jiaozhou."

What about Luzhou?

"It's hard to say." Jiang Zicheng shook his head. "Let's finish writing everything and then see." As for Lu Beigu, he was indeed a little unsure how to approach and develop the topic of "On the Six States."

He hadn't thought of this topic beforehand, and there were simply too many people who had written "On the Six States" in this era. The vast majority of them were based on the viewpoint of "bribing Qin" in Jia Yi's "On the Faults of Qin" from the Western Han Dynasty. It was not easy to come up with something original.

However, Lu Beigu's goal was not merely to write a mediocre and error-free historical essay.

After all, this isn't a county-level exam. The requirement for a county-level exam is to get a sure score without making any mistakes, but in this kind of situation, what's needed is to stand out!
In Lu Beigu's plan, he must be among the top five in this welcoming gathering to gain the right to choose a teacher. Only then can he take advantage of his special status as the top scorer in the county examination to enter the middle dormitory in the subsequent dormitory assignment exam and ultimately choose Mr. Baisha as his teacher.

Only in this way can one's academic ability improve rapidly to the point of being able to pass the imperial examination and become a successful candidate in just over two months.

Such a perfect plan cannot go wrong from the very first step.

Bribing Qin? Resisting Qin? Cultivating loyalists? Economy? Diplomacy?

One entry point after another appeared in Lu Beigu's mind, only to be eliminated one by one.

Finally, after a moment of contemplation, he came up with a somewhat unconventional approach.

"Ultimately, we must use history to illuminate the present!"

Lu Beigu began to write his own "On the Six States".

Because Lu Beigu had been working on his ideas for a while, and since the welcoming gathering wasn't a formal exam, people started handing in their papers shortly after he began writing.

This is not surprising.

The top five prizes are certainly good, but many freshmen are self-aware enough to know that even if they sit here and brainstorm for a whole day, the historical essay they write is unlikely to get into the top five. So they might as well just write whatever comes to mind, and finish writing as soon as possible to relax.

Of course, some of them had prepared for the topic beforehand, so they wrote quickly and efficiently.

For example, Fang Wei.

He finished writing quickly, checked it briefly, and confidently handed in the exam paper.

However, for most freshmen who are truly aiming for a high ranking, this historical analysis must be approached with extreme caution.

So after the first wave of papers being handed in, not many people handed in their papers anymore; everyone was quietly writing.

Although Li Tian was old, his eyesight was still good. He graded the papers quickly and did not use a pen to mark them. He simply put the papers he thought were well-written into a separate pile.

After a while, Su Zhe finally finished writing and handed in his paper.

When Su Zhe's paper was handed to Li Tian, ​​Li Tian's grading speed slowed down significantly.

Jiang Zicheng leaned closer to him, bent down to look, and said.

"This article is quite insightful."

(End of this chapter)