Fantasy: Starting out as a gigolo, born a Confucian sage

When everyone handed in their papers and walked out in the afternoon, they hurriedly discussed the answers with each other.

"No, I saw that Brother Haggard handed in his paper at noon. Is this question easy?"

"No, I think it's very obscure. There are many things in the sutras that I haven't seen before."

"Why is Brother Haggard so fast?"

"Those obscure ones seem to be the contents of ancient texts and classics, which have not been tested for several years."

Everyone talked and walked out of the Imperial Examination Hall.

After the exam, the special commissioners sent by the prefectural yamen, the governor's yamen and the Ministry of Rites immediately sealed off the examination room.

Then, the officials of the Ministry of Rites personally escorted all the test papers to the Imperial Examination Hall where Wei County, the capital of Dingzhou, was located.

The Wei County Imperial Examination Hall had already gathered officials of the Ministry of Rites specially dispatched by the capital as examiners.

"Most of the papers are blank. How can such a waste be allowed to sign up?"

"A waste of time."

"This handwriting is uglier than dog's crawling. If you can't even write well, what's the point of studying Confucianism?"

"Garbage, garbage, all garbage."

In the Imperial Examination Hall, a group of examiners were overwhelmed and looked at the piles of test papers with very bad tempers.

Especially now, although it is autumn, the weather is not cool.

Those examiners who have not yet cultivated their righteousness were sweating all over and had no good temper.

After a glance, if they saw too many blanks or the paper was too messy, they would throw it directly into the bamboo basket beside them.

It was equivalent to giving up.

Unless there were too few papers that they liked in the end, they would pick gold from the shit.

Otherwise, those papers would be thrown into the warehouse and sealed forever.

...

The civil examination was divided into three parts, and it was difficult for an examiner to be good at all three parts at the same time.

So they were all divided into separate papers.

Lu Yuansheng, the member of the Ministry of Rites, was the chief examiner of Dingzhou arranged by the capital.

Although he was only a fifth-rank official, even the Dingzhou education commissioner had to follow his arrangements in the imperial examination.

But in reality, local officials could only be responsible for the examination of candidates, and could not participate in the marking of papers.

All the people were brought by Lu Yuansheng from the capital.

The Ministry of Rites had few people to begin with, and now they were scattered to various states, so Lu Yuansheng only arranged seven or eight people.

But he had to be responsible for the marking of all the candidates in Dingzhou, and each person had to read thousands of papers.

Lu Yuansheng was also a headache.

Not only was it tiring, but more importantly, the quality of these Dingzhou candidates was really unbearable to look at.

There were large blanks in the scriptures alone, which really made him worry about the future of the court.

The elites of a state were actually at this level?

"Waste, too waste, what's wrong with these Dingzhou officials? The education level is so poor."

Lu Yuansheng cursed throughout the whole process, and the other marking officials in the room couldn't stand it.

"This cannot be blamed on the examinees. We can only say that the test questions this time are indeed very biased, too remote."

"Even if we were to do it, I'm afraid we would have to leave half of them blank!"

"Yes, many of them are about ancient texts and classics. Since that incident, there have been no questions about ancient texts and classics for several years."

Everyone was talking about it, and then an official from the Ministry of Rites looked at Lu Yuansheng.

"By the way, Lord Lu, do you think the change in the test questions this time means that His Majesty wants to overturn the verdict on that matter?"

"And the poems and policy essays all mentioned innovation, could it be..."

The official had a probing look in his eyes, and Lu Yuansheng's face suddenly darkened, "Don't ask nonsense questions."

"Just mark your papers carefully. Whether to reform or innovate is a matter for the higher-ups."

"Your Majesty and the Prime Minister are not in a hurry, so it's not our turn to gossip about the little minions of the fifth and sixth ranks."

After Lu Yuansheng warned, the official immediately slapped his mouth, "Blame me, blame me, I just said something wrong."

"I'm glad to know." Lu Yuansheng scolded, then picked up the teacup next to him and took two sips.

He stretched himself, then picked up another paper to mark, and suddenly felt his eyes brighten.

I don't know if it was because he ate too much shit before, or drank tea and rested for a while, which made him feel pleasing to the eye.

The handwriting is just average, but it is well-behaved, clear and neat.

Then he looked at the scripture and nodded.

"At least it is full. Even if there are mistakes, at least this attitude is more correct than others."

Lu Yuansheng praised and read the questions one by one.

The Book of Songs part is all correct, which is normal, after all, many Confucianists start with the Book of Songs.

The Book of Documents part is also correct, but it is normal to think about it, and it has appeared before.

The Book of Rites part... This part is relatively obscure, and many candidates will not focus on it, although all the answers are correct?

The Book of Music part is still all correct?

This test paper made Lu Wensheng very comfortable to mark, and he finally picked up a piece of gold in a pile of garbage.

After marking all the way, Lu Yuansheng flipped to the back and found that he had already finished marking.

"Huh?"

Lu Yuansheng looked surprised, then picked up the first paper and read it again from beginning to end.

Really all of them?

"This... this is impossible..."

Lu Yuansheng served in the Ministry of Rites for decades and participated in many local prefecture and county inspections.

He even served as a paper examiner at the feet of the emperor, who was known for his literary virtues.

But no one has ever been able to get all the answers right in the first subject. This is simply a legend.

The last time this happened, it was that evildoer...or rather, the fallen evildoer.

"This..."

Just as Lu Yuansheng was in a daze, a examiner next to him came over with a test paper in his hand, looking tangled.

When he came to Lu Yuansheng, his eyes were still turning over and over on the test paper, his face full of emotion.

"Lord Lu, take a look at this test paper." The visitor handed the test paper to Lu Yuansheng.

Lu Yuansheng was a little confused, "What's wrong? Is there any other poem that stumped you, Zhang Zhushi?"

Lu Yuansheng knew Zhang Zhushi, and he was not very high in terms of Confucian practice or official position.

Only in terms of his attainments in poetry, he was the best in the whole Luozhou.

There was once a sentence "Seven or eight o'clock rain meets Cold Food Festival, twenty-two winds reach red apricots", which was called Hongxing Zhushi.

"It's not about whether it's good or not, but the content..." Zhang Zhushi handed the test paper to Lu Yuansheng with an embarrassed look.

"The March of the Troops?" Lu Yuansheng took it, looked down, and muttered, "The chariots rumble, the horses neigh, and the pedestrians have bows and arrows on their waists."

"Not bad, the artistic conception, picture, and rhyme of the poem are all there, and just two sentences can be called the best choice."

"Look at the back." Zhang Zhushi reminded him, his face full of bitterness, "This is a satire on the government... No, it can't be considered a satire, it's basically open."

Lu Yuansheng's eyes continued to move back, and he slowly read it out, his expression gradually dulled.