The daily life of a peasant girl taking the imperial examination

The last question in the first session of the prefectural examination was a question about the Five Classics.

The title is: [King Mu's Respectful Retreat]

King Mu, also known as King Mu of Zhou, was an important monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty. His deeds and achievements have had an undeniable influence on later generations.

When Zhuge Yunshu saw this question, this was the first piece of information that came to his mind.

She wondered to herself, "Could this article be trying to get us to sing praises of King Mu of Zhou's life and deeds?"

wrong! wrong!

Zhuge Yunshu quickly rejected this first thought in his mind.

She racked her brains trying to recall the contents of the Five Classics, but the only passage she could find was in the Book of Poetry that described the social and political landscape of that period. Although it mentioned King Mu of Zhou in passing, it did not provide a detailed account of his specific deeds.

The Book of Documents does record many important political events and the behavior of monarchs during the Western Zhou period, but the deeds of King Mu of Zhou are only mentioned briefly and are not the main content.

As for the three books, the Book of Rites, the Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals, they are even less relevant, and King Mu of Zhou had very little connection with them.

Zhuge Yunshu felt something was wrong; she suddenly discovered something very important.

She seems to have gone off-topic!

Upon realizing this, Zhuge Yunshu was quite surprised.

It wasn't that she was surprised that she herself would 'go off-topic,' but rather that the prefect had dug such a huge pit for them, the candidates, in the very first exam of the prefectural examination.

When faced with a problem and lacking inspiration, Zhuge Yunshu habitually grinds ink while pondering the problem.

She mentally dissected the four characters "Mu Wang Jing Zhi" repeatedly, pondering them carefully... Suddenly! A flash of inspiration struck her.

This question should be selected from the "Wen Wang" chapter of the "Greater Odes" section of the Book of Songs. The complete sentence is:

[The venerable King Wen, with utmost respect and reverence.]

Having found the source of the exam question, Zhuge Yunshu couldn't help but look up at Prefect Wei, who was sitting at the head of the examination hall.

At that moment, all she wanted to say to him was four words: 'cunning and treacherous'.

Who would immediately associate the "King Mu" in the exam question with "King Wen"?

Even if your exam question is something like "King Wen's Respect for the King," it's still better than this "King Mu's Respect for the King."

There was nothing she could do but complain; she still had to keep working on the problem. She wrote nine characters (excluding punctuation) on the draft paper: "Mu Mu Wen Wang, Yu Ji Xi Jing Zhi".

Literally, "穆穆" generally refers to King Wen's dignified and respectful demeanor, while "缉熙" means continuous brightness. Here, it also implies that King Wen's virtue and achievements will continue and be passed on to future generations.

The term '敬止' (jingzhi) likely refers to a compliment and reverence for King Wen's behavior and conduct...

In summary, this sentence roughly means that King Wen was diligent and enterprising, and acted with integrity and caution.

It is not difficult to see that this sentence is a high praise for King Wen.

With this in mind, Zhuge Yunshu probably had the answer.

The texts praising King Wen are nothing more than a comprehensive and meaningful tribute to him from various perspectives.

Starting with the discourse of the *Daya* section of the *Book of Songs*, Zhuge Yunshu picked up his brush and wrote down the opening statement for this article on a draft paper:

The poet speaks of the true nature of saintly virtue and expresses his deepest admiration through his words.

See, she's not just making things up. Poets have clearly praised King Wen's noble qualities through poetry. This is real, and they have repeatedly used words of praise and admiration to express their respect and reverence for King Wen... Zhuge Yunshu felt that there was nothing wrong with her approach.

I ask you, throughout history (including ancient times only), which scholar would dare to question the "words of the sages"? They would probably be "criticized" to death by those scholars.

Having broken through this initial point, Zhuge Yunshu went on to further clarify the meaning of the topic, which is known as "following up the topic":

The virtue of a sage is indeed profound, yet it ultimately boils down to nothing more than reverence. The poems of poets, though finite in words, convey boundless meaning.

Next, Zhuge Yunshu spoke on behalf of the sage, that is, he imitated the tone of the sage, and verified the 'real virtue of the sage' and 'words of praise' in the solution from multiple aspects.

For example, "In the past, the Duke of Zhou described the virtues of King Wen to admonish King Cheng." Another example is, "The Zhou dynasty, from the time King Wen received the mandate of heaven for eight hundred years, began to change under the Qin dynasty." Zhuge Yunshu ultimately wrote the last line on his draft, the so-called "binding of the legs," which reads:

In my humble opinion, this serves not only as a model for King Cheng, but also as a guiding principle for rulers throughout the ages.

(Here, "King Cheng" refers to all wise and virtuous rulers.)

After writing the last sentence, Zhuge Yunshu couldn't help but pick up the draft paper and blow on it. Then, he came back to his senses and realized that he was in the examination hall, right under the nose of the prefect. Finally, he awkwardly put the paper on the examination table and honestly began to check it.

After a short while, Zhuge Yunshu confirmed that everything was correct before transferring the contents of the draft paper onto the official answer sheet.

As the last question of the exam, Zhuge Yunshu was extra careful, afraid that he might accidentally miss a few taboo words or write the wrong word.

The thought of such an outcome sent a chill down Zhuge Yunshu's spine.

Meanwhile, Prefect Wei had been keeping a close eye on Zhuge Yunshu.

Originally, he was somewhat pleased with himself when he saw Zhuge Yunshu stumped by the fourth question on the Five Classics.

But as he waited and waited, he saw that the girl did not write anything, and he began to wonder if he had dug too deep a "trap" with this question about the Five Classics.

However, before he could reflect for long, he saw the girl suddenly seem to have grasped something. She picked up a brush and, in one go, wrote the first draft of the article on the draft paper in less than half an hour... Then, with a serious expression, she revised and modified it for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, and finally spent another half hour copying the final article onto the answer sheet...

Prefect Wei felt that this child was driving him to the brink of a mental breakdown.

At that moment, he had only one thought: to see Zhuge Yunshu's four answer sheets as soon as possible.

Especially the third and fourth ones.

Prefect Wei asked himself honestly, and realized that these two questions were inspired by a friend in the town school of Yunmu Town in Linxi County. They were of a very high standard and could be said to have pioneered the imperial examination system (at this time, he did not know that this type of question was created by a few young children).

But for some reason, seeing this child, who was only eight or nine years old, answering these two questions seemed to pose no obstacle whatsoever...

Thinking about this, he suddenly felt a sense of anticipation, but at the same time, a faint fear lingered—a fear that his hopes would be dashed because they were too high...

This complex feeling made Prefect Wei very uncomfortable; he was eager to grade these papers as soon as possible.

However, what he didn't know was that Zhuge Yunshu's next move would make him even more uncomfortable.

(Because this was the first prefectural examination, the author felt it was better to describe the content of the imperial examination in more detail to make it more relatable; this approach would not be used for the later examinations.)

(Note: The topics of breaking down the question, developing the topic, and concluding the argument in this chapter are quoted from a Five Classics question by Zhang Yue in the Ming Dynasty Imperial Examination Records.)