On the way home, Shen Yichen secretly regretted it, because he suddenly remembered that he had seen a painting called "Scenery of Fanhui in the Southern Capital" in the National Museum.

This scroll is like the Riverside Scene during the Qingming Festival, which vividly depicts the life scenes of Nanjing City in the Ming Dynasty. It left a deep impression on Shen Yichen at that time, and the market in the center of the scroll was called Nanshi Street.

"If I had known better, I wouldn't have acted like this, and promised Zhao Hongjie that boy would go shopping in Nanshi Street."

Of course, regrets are regrets. Shen Yichen's decision to go back first was not just for showing off, but more because the amount of information he saw and heard today was too large and he needed to calm down and sort it out carefully.

In the courtyard at the end of the alley, Mrs. Shen was weaving. She was a little surprised when her son came back and asked, "Chen'er, why did you come back so early today?"

"My husband didn't teach much homework today, so school ends early."

Mrs. Shen did not have the slightest doubt about Shen Yichen's words. She put down the spindle in her hand and stood up and said, "You must be hungry. Mom, go prepare some food."

"Mom, there's no need to rush to cook. I'll go back to the house and read a book first."

When Shen Yichen said that she wanted to go back to the house to read first, Shen was startled subconsciously. It seemed that her son had not been so diligent in these years, which made her a little worried and said: "Chen'er, nothing happened at the father-in-law's house. Bar? "

"It's okay, don't worry, Mom, I'm just preparing for next year's county exam."

Shen Yichen quickly explained that it seemed that sometimes the changes were too big, which brought not surprises but shocks.

"Okay, okay, then Chen'er, you can study in peace."

After confirming that nothing happened to her son and that he was just going to study hard, Mrs. Shen's face was filled with a smile of relief.

"Mom, I'm going back to the house first."

After Shen Yichen finished speaking, he turned around and walked towards his room. However, when he walked to the door, he vaguely felt that Shen's reaction just now was a bit strange. Even if it was unusual for him to become diligent and studious, why was the first thing he thought of? Something happened to Chengguo Duke's Mansion?

Thinking of this, Shen Yichen stopped and turned around and asked: "Mom, when I was a child, I lived in Chengguo Duke's Mansion, right?"

Mrs. Shen was a little confused and said, "Chen'er, why do you suddenly ask about this?"

"It's nothing. Today I met Chen Qingtong, the only daughter of Marquis Taining. She still remembers what happened when we were children."

Hearing Shen Yichen mention Chen Qingtong's name, Shen smiled and nodded and replied: "Yes, Qingtong liked to play with you the most when I was a child. I still remember that whenever you were not in the room, that little girl would sit on the doorstep. Waiting for you to come back."

"Then why did we leave the government back then?"

The appearance of Chen Qingtong today also reminded Shen Yichen of some dusty memories.

He was not denied by Zhu Yong since he was born. When he was a child, he was treated like a concubine and lived a normal life in the Chengguo Palace. He only had to choose a good and auspicious day to be included in the genealogy.

But all of this suddenly changed. Shen Yichen vaguely remembered that night, when her mother took her out of the Chengguo Palace in a panic, and she lived in this corner courtyard from then on, never mentioning what happened that year.

Although the mother, Shen, was born as a maid, she was gentle, courteous and thrifty, and theoretically would not anger Duke Cheng Guo. And more importantly, in the third year of Xuande (1428), Zhu Yongjin was granted the title of Taibao, the crown prince, and was officially in charge. After the camp in Beijing, he rarely returned to the Chengguo Palace in Nanjing. He was not in Nanjing at all during that time, and there was no way to offend him, so there must be something hidden in this matter.

In the past, Shen Yichen lived a wasteful life, with only ideas but no actions, and never delved into the past. But now, Shen Yichen is different. He knows that whether it is for himself or for his mother, it is absolutely impossible to recognize his ancestors and return to the clan. An easy thing is to understand what happened.

When Shen Yichen asked this question, the smile on Shen's face instantly froze, and she replied with evasive eyes: "It's all in the past, there's no need to mention it again, just study hard."

Seeing the changes in his mother's mood, Shen Yichen could basically conclude that his guess was correct, and something did indeed happen that year. However, since his mother did not want to mention it, Shen Yichen did not continue to ask, so he nodded.

"I see."

Back in the house, Shen Yichen sat in front of the desk, looking at the Four Books and Five Classics placed on the desk as well as the interpretations and annotations written by the sages, and began to think about how to achieve success on the road to fame in the shortest time.

My current identity is Meng Sheng, and I would be at the level of a primary school student in future generations. Of course, the actual difficulty is definitely far beyond the level of a primary school student.

In the ninth year of orthodoxy, two college examinations will be held in three years next year. The first examination is called the county examination. It is administered by the county magistrate. It is equivalent to the entry-level examination. Those who pass it will be qualified to participate in the second government examination. .

The government examination is an advanced examination and is presided over by the prefect or an official at the same level. If you pass the government examination, you will be granted the status of a child student.

Even though Tongsheng is the most basic imperial examination status, it is the watershed of whether one can be called a scholar. If you can't even pass the Tongsheng examination and call yourself a scholar, you may feel a little guilty in your heart.

This is why, in the Chengguogong School, Li Da used his status as a child student to mock Zhao Hongjie. It was indeed a bit embarrassing that he had not even officially obtained the status of a scholar after attending school for several years.

After passing through the county and two levels of the government examination, the next step is the last level of the college examination. The examiner is the admiral of academic affairs, and the admitted candidates are known as "scholars" in later generations, which is equivalent to having formal honors, and the first place in the college examination is still good. Will be called the head of the case.

If being a child is the watershed that distinguishes scholars, then the scholar is equivalent to the watershed that distinguishes the class. From then on, he can be regarded as entering the class of scholar-bureaucrats and has privileges such as being exempted from corvee, not kneeling before the magistrate, and not being tortured casually.

Shen Yichen doesn't have high ambitions at the moment. He feels that he can easily achieve high school success, Jinshi, etc., so he only focuses on the most basic status of a scholar.

But having said that, being a scholar is not that easy. It requires an in-depth understanding of the Four Books and Five Classics, as well as a certain level of poetry strategy and theory.

Let’s put aside the poetry strategy for now and take the main Four Books and Five Classics as an example. Simply looking at the number of words, the Four Books and Five Classics only have 170,000 words, so it is not difficult to memorize them by rote.

However, in the imperial examination, you are not just asked to write silently, but to take a paragraph or sentence to write a proposition composition in a standardized format. This is the well-known eight-legged essay.

If you want to write eight-part essays well, in addition to your own understanding, you also need to refer to the conceptual arguments of Wenzong masters, such as the famous Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and then imitate the tone of the ancients to "make speeches on behalf of the saints."

To use the simplest and crudest explanation, the so-called eight-part essay for the imperial examination is simply the "reading notes" of those who took the exam!

In later generations, it is very simple to buy practice books for the college entrance examination. Who has not passed two five-year college entrance examination and three-year simulation books? But in ancient times, it was not the scholarly family or the rich gentry and officials who wanted to have a huge library, so collect this It is not an easy task to write "imperial examination teaching aids".

Comparatively, Shen Yichen was relatively lucky. Although he was kicked out of the Chengguo Palace, he could at least study in a foreign school and enjoy the top educational resources in ancient times.

What Shen Yichen needs to do now is to convert this educational resource into actual results. Without the help of plug-ins and systems, the only thing he can rely on is his own efforts.
Chapter completed!