Three Kingdoms

Deng Li was in the examination room.

The Deng family was originally a popular surname in Nanyang, but not all surnames can be stable from generation to generation.

Natural and man-made disasters brought Deng Li's family to decline. During the Battle of Jingzhou, Deng Li followed the refugees to Chang'an. Deng Li thought he would die of illness on the way, but what he didn't expect was that thanks to the doctors under the Cavalry, a few prescriptions of appropriate decoctions relieved his symptoms a lot, and after a period of rest, he was considered alive. coming.

But people are alive, but money is gone.

I have just recovered from a long illness, and I can't do any heavy work. I can only rely on my early study foundation to work hard in the examination room.

There are many older candidates like him in the examination room.

Deng Li had never thought about taking the exam before, but he wanted to recommend someone and couldn't find anyone. Even if he found someone, he would inevitably have to do something like licking his back. Deng Li couldn't help but look like this. In addition, The money I carried was getting less and less day by day, and I still had a wife and children to support at home. After thinking about it, I just decided to take the exam.

If you can pass it, then it would be a good idea to squat in a pit first.

Speaking of pits, the candidates in the examination room seem to be in pits one after another.

Although there are half-height wooden boards as intervals, the cool north wind still makes people not only shiver with cold, but also feel a little nervous.

Answering the question in this environment is simply a test of both the mind and the body.

Although there is a fire cage some distance away, with a copper and iron cage on the outside and charcoal inside for heating, for the convenience of invigilation, there are only half walls around it. Fortunately, the floor is covered with thicker cattail leaves. The seats, coupled with the pure natural wood floor, will not directly freeze the chrysanthemums, so it is still acceptable.

Of course, the most important thing is to protect your hands from freezing.

Not everyone has this.

The poor can only rely on themselves to generate heat and rub it with their hands from time to time. Otherwise, when their fingers freeze and turn into carrots, they will really be unable to write anything.

The wealthier ones basically use small smoking cages. Please ask the inspector in the examination room to bring a piece of charcoal and add it to the smoke cage, and it can be used to warm your hands.

In fact, there were many methods used by ancient people to keep warm, such as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty’s Golden House, or Jiaofangdian, which originally meant to keep warm and have more children. There is also a special "central hot air" fire wall, and a "fire department" was set up, which was the earliest heating office. The structure of this fire wall had already appeared in the Qin Dynasty.

There are also more luxurious ones. After all, in ancient times when materials were scarce and faced with the severe cold and long winter, various heating tools and ways to survive the winter emerged in an endless stream. One of them was the top one, which will be difficult to surpass until later generations. Sun Tong recorded in "Yu Mo Ou Tan": "Tianbao's legacy, King Shen of the Tang Dynasty had a bitter cold winter, so he ordered his maids to sit in a close circle and call them prostitutes. Also, King Qi of the Tang Dynasty would warm his hands in the arms of his beautiful maid every winter month, which was called a meat-hand stove. 』

Of course, this so-called "Meat Hand Stove" is also very likely to be fabricated. After all, Tang Pozi is more trouble-free.

Unlike most students who were in a trance due to being in a trance due to being in check-in, Deng Li had a more stable aura. After all, given his age, some things had become more open-minded.

Like taking off your clothes and stuff...

So when he arrived at the examination room, Deng Li put his hands in his sleeves, hugged a small smoker and closed his eyes to keep warm, resting his mind while calming down. Even when the inspection handed out the answer sheets, he only nodded slightly, and then I just put the paperweight on it and didn't even look at the test questions immediately.

As the answer sheets were handed out, there were many slight wailing sounds from the surrounding area.

Deng Li's eyebrows moved, but he still didn't open his eyes to look at the answer sheet. After his body and mind were adjusted to the best condition, Deng Li opened his eyes, stretched out his hand, pushed away the paperweight, and then looked at the test questions.

This is a new model of test questions and is printed directly on the answer sheet.

Candidates only need to write their answers on the answer sheet.

I saw two words "make money" printed in the first paragraph of the answer sheet, and two words "enough" printed at the end...

What the hell?

No wonder.

Deng Li could not see the appearance of other students due to half of the wooden planks, but there was a faint sound of wailing in the surrounding area, which also attracted many low-pitched scoldings from the inspection team.

Deng Li couldn't help but shook his head, Hussar was really good at it. If it weren't for the strict inspections before, it would be somewhat unavoidable for someone to cause trouble now, right? As a result, he became so powerful that he didn't dare to be presumptuous even after seeing such an answer sheet.

But this topic...

If there was a Du Niang or something like that in the Han Dynasty, just type a few words and search, and it will basically come out. But the problem is that there is no such convenient search tool, so you can only search it in your own mind.

Deng Li looked at the answer sheet and felt that the questions asked by Qiusi Qi should not be too biased.

After all, everyone has just started to encounter new test questions like this. If a large number of people can't answer it, wouldn't Qiaoqi slap him in the face?

Deng Li had a vague impression of this topic and felt that he should have read these words.

Closing his eyes and thinking for a long time, Deng Li suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his head. He remembered that during this period, he had spent most of the time discussing the three rituals in Qinglong Temple, and then he immediately thought of the four words "head, tail, and missing", which are It comes from the Book of Rites!

From "Book of Rites Forty-Two Chapters"!

The original sentence is "There is a great way to make money. If there are many people who make money, there will be few people who eat it, if you use it you will be sick, and if you use it you will feel comfortable. Then you will have enough wealth."

this……

I believe that many candidates have this experience. When they are reading and doing questions at home, they seem to be familiar with everything, understand everything, and everything is just a small question. But once they enter the examination room and see the examination papers handed out, they have three questions on their minds. Straight up, who am I? where am I? What is this thing in front of me?

But the one in front of me is indeed a test of basic skills.

In later generations, this sentence was included in "The Great Learning", but before the Song Dynasty, "The Great Learning" had always been subordinate to the "Book of Rites". Although the "Great Learning" in the Han Dynasty was not independent from the "Book of Rites", Dong Zhongshu, Dai Sheng, and now Zheng Xuan all made considerable contributions and promotions to the "Book of Rites".

In particular, "Xiao Dai Li Ji" annotated by Zheng Xuan was published and sold in major bookshops in Sanfu, Chang'an, and was also available in surrounding counties and counties, and even in Shandong. In addition, Zheng Xuan has just talked about the three rites in Qinglong Temple. If he really can't answer such a question, he can only lament that his reading of the book is not solid enough.

"There are many people who live" means that there are many people who create wealth; "There are few people who eat" means that there are few people who consume wealth; "Those who use it are sick" refers to the speed at which wealth is created; "Those who use it are comfortable" refers to the speed at which wealth is consumed slow. So in fact, this sentence is a very simple concept of wealth. It simply explains the truth of making the country prosperous and its people, increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, earning more and spending less, which is applicable to the country and the family.

Deng Li filled in the first question, and then looked at the next question...

After retrieving the relevant information, it is not difficult to fill in the blanks. There is no need to expand the discussion. You only need to fill in the words.

Unlike the ample time for writing policy essays, the time for answering fill-in-the-blank questions is only half an hour, and you are not allowed to leave the examination room after handing in the test paper and go directly to the next step of policy essays.

As the cloud board in the examination room sounded the time, there was another burst of wailing in the examination room...

The exam papers received will be sealed by a dedicated person, that is, the name, place of origin and other information will be covered, and then bound into a volume and sent to the next stage of correction...

In the imperial examinations of later generations, during the sealing and correction process, a transcription process was also added. The transcribers used a vermilion pen to copy the red scrolls, and then the red scrolls were read by a specialist to confirm that they were correct. They were originally sent to the review office to make sure that the red and black volumes corresponded correctly, and then the red volume was sent for correction, while the ink volume was kept for future reference.

At present, the examiners and reviewers of the examination paper are all temporarily assigned by Fei Qian, such as Sima Yi, Du Ji, Zong Li, etc., so naturally it is unlikely that there will be anyone who makes secret codes in the examination paper. Condition.

As for whether more advanced cheating methods will appear in the future...

Even if mobile phones are blocked in the future, won’t there still be people taking photos and posting test questions?

So we can only continue to improve. The sharper the spear, the stronger the shield will naturally be!

The sun gradually sets in the west.

Unlike the nervous exams for students, the ordinary people living in Chang'an City are relaxed.

In the Taoist temple of the Five Directions God Sect, the lingering green smoke is mixed with the chanting of the Taoist priests. The believers are either praying or making offerings, which is very lively.

Qiao He stood at the door of the Taoist temple, smiling and distributing the colorful multigrain cooking cakes in his hand to the believers who came to worship. His smile is kind and friendly, and he treats everyone equally and impartially, regardless of whether they are men, women, old or young.

There are currently no chemical dyes in the Han Dynasty, so this type of food is basically dyed with plants, which is somewhat similar to the five-color glutinous rice of later generations.

"Five Directions Heavenly Lord!" 』

"Five Heavenly Lords..."

The believers salute, respond and distribute a "good food".

This type of multi-grain cooking cakes are generally divided into five colors, but only one color of cooking cakes is distributed every day. On the one hand, it is to avoid causing some disputes with obsessive-compulsive disorder or selective disorder, and on the other hand, it is also because of the large number of It is easier to make.

Distributed every Friday of every month.

This kind of five-color multi-grain cooking cake is called "good food" or "virtue cake", which represents the good deeds and merits of the five directions of God. It is not very big, that is, it is about the size of three fingers, which is smaller than the average on the market. The cooking cakes are much smaller, and they are better than nothing for filling the stomach, but their important religious significance is...

and appeal to the general public.

This is a fundamental change between the Five Directions Catholic Church and the previous Taoism.

It is also different from Buddhism.

The religious nature of Buddhism and Taoism in history was from top to bottom, that is, the rulers liked a certain religion, then promoted a certain religion, and then the certain religion became popular.

Buddhism and Taoism all have precepts, but sometimes they themselves do not abide by these precepts.

It is particular, but not entirely particular. There are standards, but not all standards. It is one way inside the house, another way to give out porridge outside, one way to be compassionate and good, and another way to lend money and invade the fields. Just like there are those among officials who on the surface shout to be clean and not corrupt, there are also some monks and Taoist priests who are vegetarians on the surface and say they want to do good deeds and accumulate virtue, but secretly they are big fish and meat, causing harm to the place.

Therefore, it is very contradictory.

The Five Directions Catholic Church is not so complicated and does not have these contradictions. The main source of these contradictions is that the Five Directions Catholic Church does not accept land offerings and is not allowed to hold land.

Other materials can be used, such as cloth, food, money, or other utensils.

This is also in line with the moral concepts of the Han Dynasty. After all, the land nominally belongs to the emperor. Does enshrining the land to the gods of the five directions mean contempt for the emperor?

And Fei Qian's chop directly cut off the possibility of the Five Directions Catholic Church becoming another big landowner...

Kicking the Five Directions Catholic Church down from the ruling hierarchy, it naturally became closer to the people.

Just like this "good food", which is a very ordinary five-color cooking cake. There are not so many fancy things, and there are no rules similar to the diet of nobles. If you want it, you can queue up and get it. If you don't want it, just leave. No need to wait. You don’t need to nod your head to make Hanzhu. You can eat it on the spot or take it home.

Fei Qian feels that religion should be a kind of spiritual sustenance and a promotion of good behavior, rather than imposing various norms on the people and requiring them to become unable to think about anything and everything they do is sinful. Lamb.

In other words, Fei Qian currently does not need religion to provide assistance in governance, but needs religion to strengthen its dissemination.

History has proven that gods and Buddhas cannot save China, only the Chinese people can save themselves.

It's just that Fei Qian's attitude towards the religious system made Qiao Bing feel quite embarrassed at the moment, and he felt that "there is no place for heroes" in his heart.

Qiao did not take the exam, nor did he even take the route of an ordinary official. He took the religious route. Originally he thought it was a shortcut, but now he found that this road seemed to be coming to an end.

Even though Qiao Bing has repeatedly advocated that Fei Qian is a living person of the Five Directions Catholic Church, he is still only recognized among the middle and lower class people. Once he goes to the upper class, the influence of the Five Directions Catholic Church quickly becomes weaker. .

There is a gap between classes.

The Five Directions Catholic Church cannot own land, so how can it get involved with the landlord class?

Coupled with the fact that there is no system similar to Five Pecks of Rice, the Five Directions Catholic Church quickly became popular among the people.

This is also Fei Qian’s original intention.

Originally, the imperial power and the prime minister's power were already beating you to death. If you add a third party religion, wouldn't it be like the Qingliu, relatives, and eunuchs in the political arena of the Han Dynasty, beating people's heads into dog heads?

Religion itself is the mystification of some natural phenomena that humans cannot explain. Like laws, morals, customs, etc., religion is also a social phenomenon and is not a panacea.

In ancient society, due to low productivity, people's production and life were largely dominated by nature. People believed that the quality of harvests and the prosperity of the population were all determined by some supernatural being. Primitive people personified things in nature and endowed them with the power of "gods".

Then for a long time, in the feudal class society, ordinary people, due to lack of knowledge, could not understand how the phenomenon of slaves and slave owners, farmers and landlords, rich and poor came into being. They would think that Class differences, like the forces of nature, are completely alien, mysterious, and governed by natural necessity. That is why there is religious worship and belief in mystery.

For most gentry children, especially the more intelligent gentry children, they know how the emperor came, what Dong Zhongshu did in the beginning, and how to suppress the people, fool the people, and solidify their own class. , to achieve the purpose of passing on from generation to generation, so most of the gentry children do not believe in religion.

And Qiao didn't fully understand these things...

In the early days of the establishment of the Five Directions Catholic Church, Qiao Bing, Wei Duan, and Zhongjie discussed and discussed the doctrines, canons, and corresponding structures of the Five Directions Catholic Church. But now, Wei Duan has become the member of the Council of Laws and Regulations. It is said that Zhongjie, the dean of the academy, is preparing to be promoted to the position of taking over Linghu Shao's position as the chief priest of the academy next year, while Qiao Ji himself is still the chief priest of the Five Gods.

As for what is Feiqian? Fei Qian is the real person of God of the Five Directions...

After the good food was distributed, those who did not receive it did not make any fuss and dispersed on their own.

Around the Five Directions God Taoist Temple, there are many pedestrians in the streets and alleys.

There are two or three villages with a large number of residents nearby, so many believers like to bring their children to the Taoist temple, either to worship the gods of the five directions, or simply to have fun. After all, there are many vendors around the Taoist temple. Buy some. Daily necessities or snacks are a kind of joy among families in winter.

Chang'an is now prosperous and prosperous, and this prosperity and wealth are even more precious when compared with a few years ago, especially when compared with other counties and counties that are still in war.

Qiao raised his head and looked around.

After dark, the lights of thousands of houses reflect the lively atmosphere in the night sky of the city. With Chang'an as the center, scattered spots spread, including mausoleums, surrounding military camps, inns outside the city, large and small villages, and certain places in the distance. The Qinglong Temple, which is brightly lit day and night, seems to be a sharp blade piercing the darkness and the brilliance of Chinese civilization.

Qiao Bing looked at it, thought about it, and then sighed slightly in his heart.

Sometimes, opportunities are like this. Once missed, it is like golden sand leaked from the fingers and mixed into the gravel. It is extremely difficult to find it again.

It's not that Qiao has never thought about changing.

But he has insufficient background.

Wei Duan and Zhongjie were both good at scriptures, and both had certain ability to govern people's livelihood, while Qiao Bizhen was good at "prophecy" and "Miscellaneous Words". When he was in Sichuan, his favorite thing was painting. A symbol...

After all, Zhang Lu's Five Fighters Sect was still very popular at that time. Liu Yan among Sichuan and Shu was a believer in the Five Fighters Sect. Well, maybe it should be said that Liu Yan was just a saint who was obsessed with the Five Fighters Sect?

As for whether the drawn talismans have any effect, this is the same as the behavior of a certain yin in later generations who said he was an economist and a stock operator, and made a lot of money by drawing a picture following the trend and building a model...

If the talisman really had some effect, would Qiao Bing still have to show his face to attract fans and worry about his future?

Seeing others rising step by step, I have been standing still.

The children in my family are getting older day by day, so I can’t let my children continue to draw symbols?

what to do?

He is reluctant to let go of the power he currently holds, and he does not have enough ability to move up to a higher level...

As the sun sets, Qiao Bing stands with a smile on his face, hands behind his back, his Taoist robe is flowing, and his long beard is fluttering. He looks like an immortal and extraordinary, but who knows, in fact, he is restless and restless in his heart. Full of contradictions...