Chapter 58: The Beginning

With three beats of the drum from the Mingyuan Tower, the examination officially began.

The examination rooms were already bolted from the outside. If candidates needed to relieve themselves, they had to be accompanied by dedicated guards who watched them closely at all times to prevent cheating. Scribes passed the examination papers to the candidates through the small reserved doors of each individual compartment.

The first session consisted of three questions from the Four Books and four questions from the Five Classics. The time allotted was somewhat tight, but every candidate who had made it this far had undergone extensive preparation. There were several strict rules regarding the answering of the papers that could not be violated.

First, all answers had to be written exclusively in ink. Second, the top of the roll must state the candidate’s name, age, place of origin, the names of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, as well as the specific Classic he studied at school. Third, the writing had to avoid the personal names and temple titles of the reigning emperor, and self-aggrandizement or hinting at one's noble lineage was strictly forbidden to prevent cheating. Fourth, candidates were prohibited from communicating with one another or hiring someone to answer on their behalf. If a candidate had not finished answering by dusk, three incense candles would be lit; once they burned down completely, the candidate would be escorted out regardless of whether they were finished or not. The candles issued earlier were meant for this exact time.

Upon receiving his test paper, Li Jie immediately unfolded it and began reviewing the questions. Following the traditional emphasis on the first session and the opening question, he knew he had to pour all his effort into the Four Books and Five Classics questions of the first session. If he performed poorly in the opening session, no amount of success in the second or third sessions would save him.

The first Four Books question was: "To serve the ruler, one must be reverent in his duties before partaking of his food," which came from The Analects. Reading this first question, Li Jie could not help but ponder the deeper meaning behind Zhang Yuanzhen setting it. The sentence meant: "When serving the sovereign, one must first revere one's duties, fulfill one's utmost responsibilities, and relegate the thought of official emolument to the back of one's mind."

Zhu Xi elaborated in his Collected Annotations: "When a gentleman serves as an official, those with administrative responsibilities cultivate their duties, and those with advisory responsibilities exhaust their loyalty. All they do is revere their own tasks, without harboring a desire for salary beforehand."

The general idea was that a gentleman taking up an official post should be loyal to his duties and fulfill his responsibilities to the utmost. What we must revere first and foremost is our professional duty, without first entertaining thoughts of a government salary.

By setting this question, Zhang Yuanzhen was likely expressing his dissatisfaction with the corrupt state of governance during the Chenghua Emperor's reign. The imperial court affairs were essentially monopolized by eunuchs and powerful ministers who formed cliques for private gain, completely ignoring the grand affairs of the nation. State administration fell into decay and official corruption worsened day by day, led notably by the Grand Secretary Wan An and his faction known as the "Paper-Mache Three Grand Secretaries," who cared only for themselves rather than the country.

After the Hongzhi Emperor, Zhu Youtang, ascended the throne, these sycophants and cronies were largely purged, leaving only Liu Ji among the "Paper-Mache Three Grand Secretaries." Zhang Yuanzhen setting this question was undoubtedly a biting satire directed at such people.

With this realization, a general outline for breaking the theme formed naturally in his mind. After a brief period of reflection, he picked up his brush to write the opening lines.

"When the Sage discusses the righteousness of a court official, he strives solely for self-exhaustion without seeking personal gain." Respecting the commentaries and annotations, he condensed the teachings of Confucius and Zhu Xi into a mere two sentences.

Following that came the elaboration on the theme: "To serve merely for the sake of a stipend is not the proper way to serve a sovereign; when service is pursued with total self-devotion, the salary follows without a thought. The Master's words establish the moral defense line for a subject."

The general meaning was: to take an official post solely for wealth is not what a minister ought to do. Once your duty is properly performed, will the stipend be lacking? The words of Confucius teach us how to be a competent and dutiful minister.

Regarding Zhu Xi's commentary that one "must not first harbor a desire for salary," most candidates would likely approach the narrative from a positive angle. Li Jie chose to start from the negative perspective, beginning with the principle that one should not seek self-interest to enrich one's family. Thus, when the examiners waded through a massive pile of homogenized answers, Li Jie's paper would instantly provide a breath of fresh air and make it much easier for him to stand out.

Having grasped the core focus, the rest of his answers flowed smoothly in one unbroken breath as he moved on to the next Four Books question.

"If rites and music are not revived, then punishments will not hit the mark."

This was taken from The Analects: Weilu, and the subsequent sentence was, "If punishments do not hit the mark, then the people will not know where to put their hands and feet."

This meant that if the ritual and musical systems were disordered, legal punishments would lose their appropriateness; when punishments lost their appropriateness, the common people would be left at a loss as to how to behave.

In his annotations on this section, Zhu Xi stated: "That things attain their proper order is called ritual; that creatures attain their inner harmony is called music. If affairs fail to succeed, there is neither order nor harmony, hence ritual and music must be revived. If ritual and music are not practiced, all policies applied will lose their proper path, and thus punishments will fail to hit the mark."

In the provincial and metropolitan examinations, the classical interpretation questions were major essays, devoid of the fragmented, pieced-together questions found in the preliminary trials. Consequently, breaking down the theme was not overly difficult, and instances of misunderstanding the prompt were rare. However, this made it all the more challenging to truly shine in the examination. Grasping the underlying intent and striking the right chord with the chief examiner became critically important.

Upon seeing this question, Li Jie surmised it was once again Zhang Yuanzhen's expression of dissatisfaction with the imperial court during the Chenghua era. Shortly after Zhu Jianshen ascended the throne, Zhang had submitted a memorial urging him to "diligently attend lectures, respectfully listen to governance, and widely employ the worthy," hoping to unfold his grand ambitions under the new emperor.

Who could have expected that Zhu Jianshen would completely ignore him? As if that neglect weren't enough, Zhu Jianshen later favored eunuchs and Buddhist and Daoist priests, letting state affairs fall into neglect. Coupled with conflicts with his superiors, Zhang Yuanzhen grew disheartened and feigned illness to retire to his hometown for as long as twenty years. It was only when he saw that the Hongzhi Emperor possessed the demeanor of an enlightened ruler that he returned to the court.

Having pinned down Zhang Yuanzhen's mindset, Li Jie lifted his brush and broke the theme.

"From the fact that punishments missed their mark, we realize that ritual and music cannot be discarded."

He then smoothly unspooled the relationship between ritual and music and penal law, explaining from the failure to revive ritual and music the root cause of why punishments missed their mark, and revealing that the decline of ritual and music inevitably breeds various administrative evils.

In ancient times, ritual and music was an exceptionally important concept. Confucius wrote extensively about it. On a grand scale, governing a country required harmony and correctness through ritual and music if it was to remain stable and united. On a personal level of conduct, ritual could cultivate a person's realm of thought and sentiments, broaden their vision, open their heart and mind, and teach them how to regulate their behavior.

What was ritual? It was order; all things possessing order were termed ritual. Music represented virtue, which bore no resemblance whatsoever to what people nowadays called music.

The Book of Rites: Record of Music stated: "Music does not refer merely to the bells of Huangzhong and Dalu, nor to stringed instruments and martial dances; those are but the trivial extremities of music."

Virtue did not carry its modern meaning of morality either. Back then, the Dao (the Way) and De (virtue) were two separate concepts. Virtue referred to things that changed and developed in accordance with the laws of the Dao.

As for the Dao, it was the ultimate proposition among all schools of thought. Without comprehending it, one could not render a school of thought self-consistent, nor could it ever attain the status of official orthodoxy. Both Daoism and Buddhism offered definitive answers to this question.

Confucianism advocated benevolent government and rule by propriety, yet it offered no explanation as to why this should be done. It was not until the formation of Neo-Confucianism in the Song dynasty, which used the concept of "Heavenly Principle" to answer this question, that Confucianism finally secured its position as official orthodoxy.

With the three Four Books questions completed, midday had already passed. When attention was intensely focused, time always flew by quickly. On ordinary days, Li Jie would feel hungry and need to eat right on schedule, but today he had been so completely absorbed in answering the questions that he had forgotten even to eat.

Coming back to his senses, he decided to postpone copying his draft. The most important task now was to fill his stomach; if he did not consume the cooked food he brought in his examination chest soon, it would spoil later on. First, he coaxed the charcoal into a fire to boil water. Before the water came to a full boil, Li Jie asked the patrolling inspector for permission to use the latrine. After relieving himself, he felt refreshed, full of vigor as he returned to his compartment.

Seeing the water in the pot gradually bubbling, he tore open the prepared meat patties and poured them in, adding the seasonal vegetables he had readied beforehand. A pot of steaming thick soup was soon ready, which he ate alongside oil-cured chicken cut into strips. After finishing his meal, he took a short nap to conserve his strength and sharpen his edge.

Waking up from his nap, he patted his cheeks to wake himself up completely and looked over at the Five Classics questions. Among them, Li Jie selected the question based on his core Classic, The Book of Documents.