"This name sounds so familiar. Could it be Chen Yichen from Yingtian Mansion?"

"It is unlikely. How could Yingtianfu run to Shuntianfu provincial examination? It will be the spring examination for next year's examination."

"But the age is similar, there are not many people with the same name and surname as Chen Yichen. How could this happen?"

"It would be great if it was Chen Yichen. I memorized several of his poems and I have always longed for them!"

Chen Yichen did not respond to these discussions. He was not a person who liked high-profile at all. In addition, in the Yingtian Mansion Boy Examination, he had not forgotten his experience of being jealous of many people, so he did not want to cause too much trouble in the provincial examination.

When he came to the inspector, Chen Yichen wrote his name, year, hometown, name of the third generation, name of this sutra and other information at the beginning of the paper.

Then the sealing officer pastes the candidate's information and stamps it with a seal. At the same time, the sealing officer also seals the long seal with his own name at the end of the scroll, and finally returns the main paper to the candidate himself, completing the entire name paste process.

However, during this process, both the supervisor and the seal officer looked at Chen Yichen with a strange look.

It is obvious that they knew Chen Yichen's true identity, and they were a little surprised and curious about why they saw him at the tribute court in the Shuntian Provincial Examination.

After completing the body search, Chen Yichen was led by a military officer into the examination room. The number location was assigned two days before the exam. He also posted the candidate's name outside the examination room, which was not like the boy exam, and he could choose after entering the venue.

Chen Yichen's number house is in the best position in the middle, and it is also a newly built number house with brick and tile structure.

After several imperial examinations, Shen Yichen is no longer as naive as before, thinking that he is lucky. It is obvious that he can be assigned to such a house, and someone above helped him arrange it. If nothing unexpected happens, it is Zhou Xu.

After entering the mail room, the military officer who led the way did not leave, but stood directly in front of the mail room to guard. From this, we can also feel that the strict control of cheating in the provincial examinations will hardly give the candidates a chance.

In addition, the punishment for cheating after discovering cheating in the provincial examination is also very strict. Once there are illegal acts such as holding words and exchanging answer sheets with others, you must be shackled in front of the examination room for a month, and then be punished for the people.

Think about Zhu Jin, who was the boy Yingtian, was caught and cheated, but he only showed up for one day and canceled the test results of this year. The completion was not painful or itchy.

On the central corridor of Shuntian Gongyuan, there is a tallest building in the Gongyuan, called Mingyuan Tower.

The word "Mingyuan" is taken from the meaning of "be careful in the end and pursue the far, and return to the deep virtue" in the "Great Learning" and literally, it also contains the meaning of clearly observing the far and near, which is the main office space for the examiners of the inner curtain.

Correspondingly, along the corridor northward, there is also a very majestic building in the middle, which is called Zhigongtang, which is the office space of the invigilators of the outer curtains of the Gongyuan.

The two chief examiners and four fellow examiners of the provincial examination were standing on the Mingyuan Building, condescendingly observing the preparations for the pre-examination in the entire Gongyuan.

Zhou Xu looked at the bustling candidates below who were preparing to enter the hut, and said to Wang Yining, the Hanlin lecturer who was also the chief examiner beside him, "Wentong, after such a grand occasion, it is probably difficult to see again."

There is no nominal difference between the two examiners of the provincial examination, the main and the deputy, but in actual operations, most of them are based on the older ones.

Zhou Xu and Wang Yining were both Jinshi in Yongle for the 16th year. The two can be called the same year. The actual age of Wang Yining is a little older, and in theory, Wang Yining should be the main one.

However, in the Jinshi admission ranking that year, Zhou Xu was the second place in the imperial examination and the first place in the second place in the palace examination. Wang Yining could not compare with this.

Therefore, in the ninth year of Zhengtong, the ranking of the two examiners was still based on Zhou Xu as the top candidates.

"Yes, now the Hushe Country Examination is overwhelmed, which has caused many hidden dangers. After the preliminary examination is implemented, the number of candidates will be reduced by 30% next year."

The reason why Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty implemented the pre-examination system was that in addition to the fact that there were too many students, the Gongyuan would not be able to accommodate it, was that in the Shuntian Prefecture provincial examination in the third year of Zhengtong, a fire broke out in the Gongyuan.

Although no serious casualties were caused, many candidates' test papers were burned, causing many scholars to protest, and they had to retake the exam again.

In order to avoid such incidents from happening again, it is imperative to reduce the number of candidates.

"Wentong, I wonder who do you think will win the title of Jie Yuan in this competition?"

It is almost a common discussion for examiners to guess who can win the lead before the exam, and this time it is no exception.

"He Pingyan, a tribute student from the Imperial College in the capital, is extremely talented and has the capital of Jie Yuan."

Wang Yining did not hide it, and directly expressed his optimistic candidate.

He Pingyan is the head of the Baoding Prefecture case. He is proficient in literary talent and is selected to study at the Imperial College. Wang Yining guided his articles by chance and had an in-depth understanding of his level of knowledge. Therefore, he believed that if nothing unexpected happened, he would become a strong competitor to the Jieyuan of Shuntian Prefecture.

"Dear colleagues, where are you?"

Zhou Xu asked several fellow examiners again, wanting to hear the candidates in their minds, so that when the final exam is final, there will be a specific direction.

"The Xiaguan has seen articles by Gongsun Han, a student of Changping Prefecture, and it is truly wonderful."

"Sun Shaozong, a student of Shuntian Prefecture, has a stable knowledge and a famous family, so he has great hope."

"I am optimistic about Ma Zheng, a born man from Shuntian, who has a solid foundation in calligraphy and scriptures and a profound family background."

After hearing everyone's recommendation, Zhou Xu only had a faint smile on his face and did not make any comments.

Because he also heard about these students, the first two were indeed famous for their literary talent. As for the latter, one was the son of Sun Zhong, the relative Huichang, and the other was his daughter, the current emperor's legitimate mother, the Empress Dowager Sun.

The other one is the son of Cabinet Minister Ma Yu.

Both of them have a deep background. If nothing unexpected happens, they should have been relatives who have said hello.

"Brother Gong Xu, where are you?"

Seeing that Zhou Xu was just smiling and not talking, Wang Yining asked.

Zhou Xu had a great right to decide who was the winner of the Shuntian Prefecture Provincial Examination. Unless the candidate was unanimously opposed by the remaining examiners, he would basically be optimistic about whom the Jie Yuan dispute would be settled.

"You will know when the exam is over."

Zhou Xu beat up a dumb fan and did not say the candidate in his heart. In fact, this name is about to come out, and that is Shen Yichen.

After contacting this period of time, the character and knowledge that Shen Yichen showed has been completely recognized by Zhou Xu.

Even in the hearts of Zhou Xu, Hanlin, Shen Yichen is far beyond his peers. If the talents of all the students in the world are one stone, he can do everything he can!

However, Chen Yichen's identity can also be called a deep background, and he is also the son of the popular powerful and powerful prince Chengguo.

If I had spoken Chen Yichen's name, I'm afraid that I would have been greeted by others.

Since that's the case, just use articles to speak and wait for the papers to be reviewed after the provincial examination. Zhou Xu has absolute confidence that Chen Yichen can stand out!

"Brother Gongxu, you have actually kept your cover. It seems that this candidate is quite special."

Wang Yining and Zhou Xu worked in the Hanlin Academy for many years and knew each other well.

With Zhou Xu's serious and upright personality, if he is optimistic about anyone, he will say it directly without caring about the outside world's evaluation. Now he chooses to hide it. The problem is definitely not about Zhou Xu, but only the candidate has a special identity.

"I'm ready to start the exam, let's talk about it."

Zhou Xu still smiled and refused to answer. At the same time, the sound of the gong ringing sounded at Shuntian Gongyuan, which meant that the provincial examination for the ninth year of Zhengtong had officially started.

At this time, Chen Yichen was sitting in the hall, focusing all his attention on the provincial examination questions.

There are seven questions in the first examination of the provincial examination, namely the meaning of the four books and the meaning of the five classics. Since the proportion of the five classics is high, the top five in the provincial examination is also called the "Five Classics Kuai".

Although there are as many as seven questions, the requirements for the number of words are not high. The answers to the Four Books are only required to be more than 200 words, and each of the Five Classics questions is more than 300 words.

Even if candidates have to write really slowly, they can also ignore one of them and answer five questions.

Of course, if you write two fewer questions and hand in the paper, it basically means you will choose to eliminate it. After all, everyone else can complete seven paths, so why can you still be beaten if you only complete five paths?

If this is possible, then the candidates will learn from it in the future and concentrate on writing five questions, and the regulations on the seven questions will be useless.

In addition, the limitation of freedom of answering questions in the provincial examination is very damning, which is more similar to the basic knowledge test. All standard answers can be found in the "Four Books and Five Classics" issued during the Yongle period.

In other words, even if a candidate does not have a little room for divergent thinking, as long as his memory is strong enough and has the ability to memorize like a robot, he can still pass the provincial examination.

In a sense, the provincial examination is an exam with a very high lower limit but a very low upper limit. As long as every candidate is not caught by the troubled waters, he can basically answer roughly, and he will not miss it like a boy exam.

However, it is precisely because the restrictions are too severe that those who stand out will be very eye-catching among the candidates.

What Chen Yichen wants to do is how to perform a unique dance wearing the shackles of the Four Books, Five Classics, Eight Essays.

After careful consideration, Chen Yichen focused on the first four-book title. The first question of the imperial examination was important. If you want to get the special attention of the examiners, the first question must be extremely outstanding in order to surpass the heroes!

The four books are titled: Advanced in rituals and music.

This title comes from the Analects of Confucius, and the full text is written by Master: "Advanced by rituals and music is a savage man; later by rituals and music is a gentleman. If you use it, then I will follow the advanced."

The translation means Confucius said: "Those who first learn rituals and music and then become officials are ordinary people who have no titles and salaries; those who first become officials and then learn rituals and music are the children of nobles and officials. If I were asked to choose talents, then I would like to choose people who first learn rituals and music."

This question was once solved by Zhang Juzheng of the Ming Dynasty. His thinking was that those so-called gentlemen were just showing their own appearance and did not really care about the quality of etiquette and music, so they were inferior to those of ordinary people in the countryside.

Zhang Juzheng has a very high attainment in the eight-legged essay. His idea of ​​solving the problem is a standard template answer. Almost all scholars will go to this.

What Chen Yichen wants to do is to challenge Zhang Juzheng's template essay and take a unique approach without deviating from the topic.
Chapter completed!