The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

In the examination room, students continued to write test papers.

Among them, Chen Zhiyuan has a smile on his face, a strong fighting spirit, and is determined to win the first place among the people.

In the pavilion next to the holy temple, a group of officials looked at Zhao Jingkong with envy.

Fang Yun appeared outside the examination room carrying a green bamboo bookcase and a wattle basket.

It was dark, and there were bright lights near the Prefectural Liberal Arts College. Many relatives and friends of the students lived in the open space in front of the examination room. Some lived in carriages, some set up tents, and some just spread bedding on the ground.

Officials from Fu Ya and Zhou Ya were on guard to protect the relatives and friends of these candidates.

The lights further away were the oil lamps of small vendors, and the aroma of various snacks wafted around, reminding Fang Yun of the scene after school that year, so far away and so beautiful.

Fang Yun walked quickly to the food stalls. He had been eating dry food for the past two days, which tasted bad. He was ready to find delicious food to replenish his stomach.

Fang Yun walked a few steps and heard someone crying.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

Fang Yun looked around and saw a young scholar kneeling in front of a middle-aged man in his early forties crying.

"Why are you crying? There's no hope! This is your first time taking part in the national examination. You'll be damned if you pass! If you don't succeed this year, try again next year! Get up, and I'll beat you up if you don't get up!"

"Yes." The young scholar stood up wiping his tears.

Not far away from that person, several scholars carrying book boxes were talking in low voices.

"Oh, how do I explain it to my family? I wrote well at first, but the more I wrote, the more restless I became. I knew I had gone astray, but I didn't know where I was wrong. I kept writing and writing, and finally I got so flustered that I had to give up. Test."

"Me too, the meaning of the scriptures really kills me. Although the "Book of Songs" was revised by Confucius himself, he rarely drew topics from it. I panicked when I saw the title. It took me a while to remember it, and the more I wrote, the more The more imaginary it is.”

"We are just scholars, we cannot remember like Jinshi. If the questions asked are slightly off, we have to rack our brains and think about it. I thought about it for five hours before I dared to write it, for fear that there would be some mistakes. There is a slight flaw. I have finished writing, but for some reason, I am always afraid of making mistakes. In the process of writing the policy review, I kept reading "Wei Min Zhi". After this lesson, I will be too unsteady in the coming year. It will definitely go further!”

"We are all ordinary scholars. We cannot compare with those geniuses. If you can pass the exam in ten years, it will be smoke coming out of the ancestral graves. It is normal to give up the exam a few times. You see, another person gave up the exam and came to discuss it together... This person seems to Something looks familiar.”

One person smiled and said: "Oh? Could it be a classmate? This...isn't this Fang...Fang Wenhou? Fang Wenhou gave up the exam?"

The man almost shouted the last sentence.

Everyone around looked at Fang Yun. Everyone was shocked by the shouts of "Marquis Fang Wen gave up the exam." People in the distance didn't hear clearly and asked the people in front, so the news that Fang Yun gave up the exam spread to all directions.

First, the relatives of the candidates and the surrounding government officials knew about it, then the surrounding vendors and passers-by, and finally everyone on Wenyuan Street knew about it.

This is Jiangzhou, Dayuan Mansion, and Fang Yun's hometown. Everyone pays unimaginable attention to Fang Yun, and such important news spreads at an extremely fast speed.

Many people didn't believe it and hurried to the entrance of the examination room.

Fang Yun knew that he couldn't finish the snacks, but he couldn't talk nonsense about Shengbi's evaluation, so he had no choice but to sigh and walk out quickly.

"No way! Even if Fang Zhenguo's grades are not good, he should have come out early in the morning on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. Could this person just look like Fang Yun?"

"I won't be mistaken. I saw him when he entered the examination room yesterday. Even the bookcase and basket are exactly the same. If he comes out in the third grade of junior high school, I will definitely believe that he has answered the questions in advance and easily won the position of Jie Yuan. But today is the first grade of junior high school. Second, the actual time is only one and a half days, and the total time spent thinking and revising the three test questions cannot be less than one and a half days!”

"The exam started early in the morning in the first grade of junior high school, and left in the evening of the second grade of junior high school. It's been almost seventeen hours now. It's not even a day and a half. Even if he writes hard, he can't finish the answer. He is a genius, not a semi-saint!"

"well……"

Amid everyone's discussion, Fang Yun had to speed up his pace, but in the eyes of others, it became evidence of his failure in the imperial examination.

Normally, everyone could stop Fang Yun, but now they all speculated that he might be in a bad mood and would not be able to come forward.

One person couldn't help but asked loudly: "Master Wenhou, have you finished answering the test paper?"

Fang Yun breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that someone finally asked this substantive question, and immediately said: "The answer is over." Then he smiled slightly and walked away.

"I'm just saying, Fang Zhenguo has finished answering, don't talk nonsense there!"

"Then let's calculate carefully. There are three policy essays plus one chapter on classics and poems. There are five articles in total. Even if he writes hard, his speed is limited. After all, there are still drafts. Even if he writes for two hours. Each article Wenhua spent at least three hours thinking, checking and revising. This is already more than any candidate in the past. , that’s fifteen hours. Just counting it like this, it’s already seventeen hours! Don’t forget, this is an imperial examination, not a practice. What about eating? He spent a lot of energy, rest and What about sleep? You just came out like me, tell me how you came here last night?"

"When I write poetry, I can do it well, but when I think about the meaning of the scriptures, my mind goes blank to a certain extent, my eyes are filled with stars, my literary palace is shaking, and I have to rest for a while before I can continue to think. I slept for three hours last night before I could do it. If you are full of energy, it doesn’t matter if you don’t sleep for two or three days on weekdays.”

"I have participated in the Juren exam twice, and it was the same every time. The classics and policy essays are too brain-consuming. In fact, it is not difficult to write, but it is very difficult to write well. Especially some concepts involving the holy way, if you don't think thoroughly and write randomly, at least the Wen Palace will be shaken, and at worst, you will vomit blood and faint. If you don't write these important ideas, don't get A or B, you can't even get C."

"So, Fang Yun spent at least six hours just resting, eating and sleeping. He spent eleven hours to finish five imperial examination articles? Ask those Juren who have passed the Juren exam or even Jinshi, let them take sixteen hours to participate in the Juren exam, can they enter the top ten Juren in a state?"

"That makes sense. It is not difficult for Jinshi to pass the exam in such a short time, but it is impossible to enter the top ten in a state."

"But Fang Yun did say that he had finished answering, and the great Wenhou would definitely not Will deceive us."

"Yes, he did answer, but what is his level? How is his result? This is the key! And the most important thing is his attitude. Leaving the examination room in a day and a half is not arrogant, but contempt for the Holy Way! Let me ask you, as a semi-saint examiner who sets questions, you give students three days to take the exam, but someone only uses half of the time to finish the questions. Isn't this saying that the semi-saint can't set questions? "

"Nonsense! The results of the Juren exam haven't been announced yet, how can you accuse others like this? Every year, there are scholars who guess the essay questions in the imperial examination, maybe he is one of them!"

"Then wait until the results are announced."

"Humph, even if he passes the exam, so what? Arrogant and contemptuous of the Holy Lord! It's a pity that my Jingguo has lost a role model of literati!"

In the dark night, Fang Yun, dressed in a dark blue scholar's uniform, left Wenyuan Street and walked towards Fang Mansion with a book box and a basket on his back.

The people in Fang Mansion didn't know that he left so early, and there was no carriage waiting, so he continued to walk. After walking for two quarters of an hour, when approaching Fang Mansion, the Wenhou Golden Seal on his waist kept emitting strange fluctuations. Compared with the normal time, the Wenhou Golden Seal now was like an explosion.

Fang Yun smiled helplessly. He knew what was going on without looking. He was now a famous person in the Ten Kingdoms. Two quarters of an hour was enough for all the middle and high-level scholars in the Ten Kingdoms to know about this matter.

But he couldn't not look at it. Fang Yun held the Wenhou Golden Seal in his hand, walked slowly, and read the letter sent by the wild goose.

"Fang Yun, what's wrong with you? Did you encounter something big that made you confused? Is there something wrong with your family or something? I want to send a letter to Prefect Sun, but he can't receive it in the examination room! Tell me what's going on?" Cai He, the county magistrate of Ji County, who was very close to Dayuan Mansion, sent the letter first.

"Are you crazy? Hurry up and explain yourself! We sent you to the examination room yesterday and left Dayuan Prefecture. We just arrived in Qingdu today and planned to drink for three days before going to Kongcheng to participate in the Double Ninth Festival literary meeting! We were discussing whether you could write a national poem on the Double Ninth Festival, but we got the news that you gave up the exam! What happened to you?" The second letter was from his good friend Li Fanming.

"Where are you? I'll pick you up." Jiangzhou Grand Commander Lu Hongyi didn't say much, but the friendship was heavy.

"Let's get back together and take the exam again next year. It's a trivial matter, don't worry about it." Fang Yun smiled knowingly after reading Li Wenying's letter, and was even more moved. The great university scholar deliberately said this to comfort himself, which was a good intention.

"Fang Yun! What are you doing? Just kill me with your own hands! You are a Jing countryman who is the best in literature. If you give up the exam, your reputation will be ruined! Others give up the exam, but you cut yourself off from the holy way and the saints! Where are you? Tell me what happened!" Yuhai prefect Dong Wencong's words were full of anxiety.

"What happened to cause you to give up the exam? If you trust me, Zeng Yuan, you can tell me."

"You have guts! Damn it, we Jing countrymen have guts! You dare to give up the exam? I will never beat you up when I see you again after I have defeated the barbarians!" This is Zhang Poyue's.

"Our editorial office of "The Holy Way" is waiting for news, and half of the Holy Academy is in chaos. This is a shocking event, you must not make mistakes!" The editor of "The Holy Way", An Daxueshi, warned.

"We, the literati of Qing, have been laughing like crazy and are preparing to attack you. We have joined forces with the sharpest writer in Juwen Pavilion and have sharpened our ink, waiting to tarnish your literary reputation and hinder your path to sainthood with a single inch of pen." This is from Zong Wude.

"I believe there are other reasons. If you have a clear conscience, you don't need to care about others." Fang Yun thought to himself that Yan Yukong was different. He was only a juren, but he was calmer than many jinshi.

"You! You! You! Why?" Zhao Hongzhuang, who was far away in the capital, sent a letter.

"You almost pissed me off!"

Fang Yun's hands trembled after reading it. He didn't expect the queen mother to personally send him a letter. He was upset. If the outside world knew about this, I don't know what rumors they would make up.

The queen mother's status was special. She even let the eunuchs transfer letters to those great Confucian scholars. She never sent letters to others in person because it was a royal etiquette.

This was probably the first time in the past few years that the queen mother personally sent a letter to an outsider.