Chapter 59: The End of the First Match

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The first question: "The king cultivates great virtue, establishes the Mean among the people, regulates affairs with righteousness, governs the heart with ritual, and leaves a rich heritage to posterity."

This is taken from "The Book of Shang: The Announcement of Zhonghui." An announcement is a proclamation, using words to instruct others. This chapter was composed by Zhonghui, a wise minister of the Shang dynasty, to argue for the legitimacy of King Tang's overthrow of the Xia dynasty and to resolve King Tang's most pressing concern.

The meaning of the prompt is that a monarch should strive in virtue, win the trust of the people, handle national affairs with moral integrity, educate the populace through ritual, and bequeath prosperity to future generations.

Under the tutelage of Chen Xianzhang, the essay-writing proficiency of Minister Li Jie had advanced by leaps and bounds. After a brief moment of reflection, he raised his hand and wrote: "The minister informs the sovereign of bright virtue to establish the Mean throughout the empire; only when both inner and outer cultivation are fully achieved can it be passed down to later generations."

Once the introductory theme was set, his thoughts flowed like a gushing spring, and hundreds of polished characters sprang onto the paper in a single, unbroken stream. Upon finishing, he reviewed it and found it utterly beyond improvement. Li Jie smiled and nodded in satisfaction, knowing that rewriting it might not yield a superior result; truly, such an essay was a work of natural creation, captured by a master's hand.

By the time he finished the second of the Five Classics questions, dusk had already fallen. There was more than enough time remaining to complete the final two questions, so he simply paused his brush to prepare a little food, intending to rest properly after completing the transcription.

During the Ming dynasty imperial examinations, answers had to be drafted first on rough paper before being neatly transcribed onto the official booklet. There were explicit examination regulations stipulating that candidates who failed to submit drafts would be disqualified. This rule was instituted primarily to prevent cheating; no matter how high one's talent might be, without draft papers, one could not be selected.

With Li Jie's Four Books questions, passing was hardly an issue; as for his ranking, that would depend on the Five Classics questions. The Five Classics were graded separately. In this provincial examination, there were a total of eighteen examining houses. When determining rankings, the top papers from each house were placed together. Among the top eighteen, the top five spots were allocated one to each of the Five Classics, known as the Classics Leaders, or the Five Classics Head Scholars. The final rankings had to wait until all three sessions of examinations concluded and grading was completed. However, following the principle that selection prioritized the first session, no surprises were expected.

When the final results were posted, the top scorer was the Jieyuan, the second was the Yayuan, the third through fifth were the Classics Leaders, and the sixth was the Yakui. As for the remaining scholars, they were designated as provincial graduates (Juren). Although they were all provincial graduates, the top six held exclusive honorary titles (much like the golden IDs in certain video games, accompanied by a side-glancing smile).

On the afternoon of the second day, Li Jie finished transcribing the four questions on the Four Books and the three questions on the Classics. After one final check for any errors or omissions, seeing that everything was in order, he clapped the door of his cell and called out to the guards outside, "Submit the papers!"

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The cry of submitting papers rang exceptionally clear through the quiet examination hall, drawing the attention of the guards and surrounding candidates. In such a crucial examination, handing in papers ahead of time was akin to submitting an exam early in modern high-stakes tests. Most candidates, even if they had finished writing, would continuously seek ways to polish and revise their answers to make them as flawless as possible, and would never choose to turn them in early.

In the eyes of most people, submitting early meant either an absolute, unshakable confidence in one's essays or a self-abandoning despair with no heart left for the exam. The curious candidates around him craned their necks to see which category this person fell into.

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Outside, the patrolling guard unlocked the door of the examination cell and confirmed with Li Jie once more, "Are you truly submitting your paper?"

"Yes, submit the paper!"

Upon catching sight of Li Jie, the candidates suddenly realized the truth.

"It's him! Lin Pingzhi, the Lesser Triple Crown! No wonder he dares to hand in his paper so early!"

Hearing Li Jie's confirmation, the guard notified the receiving official to collect the test papers. To prevent cheating and minimize grading errors during the provincial examination, the preparatory work prior to grading and the safekeeping of the test papers were extremely rigorous.

The examination papers first had to be handed over to the receiving official, who classified them according to the particular Classic the candidate had studied. The receiving official then delivered them to the sealing office, where the sealing officials applied seals to them. Next, they were sent to the transcription office, where personnel used red ink (hence the origin of the term "red scrolls") to copy them word for word and line for line according to the exact wording of the original drafts. Finally, the collation officials cross-checked the copies to ensure no omissions had occurred during transcription and to prevent any malpractice or favoritism by the copying clerks.

Following sealing, transcription, and collation, the examination papers reviewed by the examiners essentially conformed to a standardized format—red scrolls bearing neither the candidates' names nor any distinguishing marks.

When the receiving official arrived, he questioned Li Jie once more: "Confirming submission? No regrets?"

Li Jie answered with unyielding resolve: "Submit the paper! No regrets!"

At that, the receiving official gathered Li Jie's examination paper. After sealing, transcription, and collation, it was handed over to the custody office for safekeeping. Escorted by supervisory officials, the transcribed red scrolls were delivered to the Hall of Caution and Reverence. The inner-curtain officials, who were cut off from all outside contact, awaited them there. The papers were transferred via military guards; outer-curtain and inner-curtain officials were strictly forbidden from handing them over to each other directly.

Once the papers were brought behind the curtains, the chief examiner went up to the hall and had the document-custody officials inspect them on the spot, randomly distributing them to the various examining houses to be stamped with small seals. They were then divided according to the Five Classics subjects and sent to the respective houses for evaluation. Co-examiners conducted the initial reviews, passing the "recommended papers" they selected on to the associate examiners, while also setting aside a reserve of backup papers. If an associate examiner deemed a recommended paper acceptable, they would write the character "selected" upon it and forward it to the chief examiner. Once the chief examiner marked it with the character "accepted," the candidate was officially passed.

The three sets of examination papers for the successfully chosen candidates were then jointly ranked by the supervising officials, commissioning officials, examiners, and co-examiners. During the ranking process, a portion of the papers might occasionally be eliminated. If the number of primary papers fell short after elimination, replacements had to be drawn from the reserve papers.

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After the grading concluded, examiners were generally required to conduct a secondary review of the rejected papers to remedy any oversights made during the evaluation process. After all, grading essays involved a high degree of subjectivity; what was honey to one person was frequently arsenic to another. However, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, chief examiners rarely dared to scrutinize the previously eliminated papers too thoroughly; most merely went through the motions as a formality, and examiners diligent in recovering overlooked gems were exceedingly rare.

Such was the intricate procedure of grading the provincial examinations. Perfected over generations, these steps drastically curtailed malpractice in the imperial examinations and provided a reliable safeguard for the fair selection of talent for the nation.

Li Jie stepped out of his examination cell and looked over the tranquil examination grounds, where patrolling officers paced back and forth along the corridors from time to time. A soldier following behind urged him, "Stop gawking about and leave the examination hall immediately!"

Arriving at the Dragon Gate, he spotted a few other candidates who had also submitted their papers early waiting nearby, among whom was Lun Wenxu.

Seeing Li Jie approach, Lun Wenxu greeted him, "Shenzhi, seeing you here makes it clear you are brimming with confidence regarding this provincial examination!"

Li Jie smiled faintly and replied, "Likewise, likewise!"

Once everyone had gathered, the Dragon Gate swung wide open. Li Jie and Lun Wenxu walked out of the examination grounds together. The scene outside was much like that outside a modern college entrance exam site, with numerous people waiting eagerly outside the gates, striving to be the first to welcome their family members home. Seeing his family servant waiting for him, Li Jie walked over in that direction. Since Lun Wenxu had come to take the exams entirely on his own, Li Jie invited him to share his carriage and give him a ride.

Lun Wenxu did not refuse. Once inside the carriage compartment, he spoke up: "Shenzhi, there is a matter I would like to consult you about. Censor Liu has recommended me to study at the Imperial Academy. What are your thoughts on this?"

Hearing this, Li Jie replied, "Bochou, our teacher once said that with your proficiency, passing the provincial examination should not be difficult. As for the metropolitan examination, it would be best to attend the next session. Studying at the Imperial Academy is a wonderful opportunity; I fully support your going."

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