It is as light as a cicada’s wing and as white as snow, and it shakes like fine silk without a sound.
The township test is not comparable to the child test, even the draft paper is also so excellent, Zhu Pingan Zhanping just recorded the draft paper of the examination questions, the quality of the draft paper is full of praise.
This three day and two night exam requires a total of seven eight-legged essays, three eight-legged essays on the Four Books and four eight-legged essays on the Five Classics. This amount of questions varied from person to person, some candidates might finish it in less than two days, but there were candidates who could not finish it in three days and two nights. Zhu Pingan finished reading all the exam questions and felt that he could finish it without using the night.
Dipping his brush in ink and spreading out another piece of draft paper, Zhu Pingan began to work his way down from the first.
The first question was the Four Books of Righteousness, “A gentleman’s illness is not known in the world but his name is not known.”
This is a very standard Four Books of Righteousness eight stranded question from the Analects Wei Ling Gong XV, which means that Confucius said, “A gentleman’s posthumous hatred is that he reaches his death without his fame being celebrated.”
This is Confucius said a heartfelt words, life in the world, but the word fame and fortune. A “name” word, white how many young people head, shed how many heroes tears! The geese have left their voices behind, and people are suffering from the lack of fame. Although Confucius himself repeatedly said “people do not know and not huff” and so on, but also lamented “no one knows me ah! (Xianqian) Not to be known, not to be understood, is still the reason why Confucius made the Spring and Autumn Annals “to see himself in the future”. （To put it bluntly, this is exactly the reason why “a gentleman’s illness is not known to the world, but his name is not known to the world.”
Therefore, Confucianism is not not important name, not do not like “make wide reputation in the body” (Mengzi), but only against the reputation over love, fame and reputation, deceiving the world is just.
This sentence is easy to understand. It is also simple to do.
Zhu Pingan almost dipped his ink and began to write, as if he had the help of the gods.
“There is no name of posterity, and the sages are worried.”
This sentence was a break in the title, and it could be said to be a very standard break in the title. Failure of fame to be spread in future generations, this was something that the sages worried about.
After breaking the title, Zhu Pingan dipped his brush in the ink stone and continued writing again:
“The fame of the moment need not be there, but the fame of the later generations. It must not be absent. Therefore, a gentleman does not seek fame, but has to be fastidious about it.
If I say: good name, people’s constant feelings. Therefore, the corporal seeks fame, people can not be thought of as manic, but I hate the name of the anxious moment. But I hate the name of the rush. If the gentleman is aware of the reason why the trial in this carry on!
There are only those who are greater than this, and there are only those who have been here for a long time. If the camp in the morning and evening, is to seek the end of the fast also, good name is not like this?”
In less than an incense stick of time, Zhu Pingan finished writing the first eight-legged essay. After writing the first eight-legged essay, Zhu Pingan put the draft paper full of words on the table to dry for a while, so as not to stain the test paper with ink flowing from the words.
While drying the draft paper, Zhu Pingan proceeded to read the second question.
The second question was a bit similar to the one in the last courtyard examination review. However, it was not all the same. The questions were like this: A gentleman is not powerful if he is not heavy, and the Lord is loyal and trustworthy if he does not learn from his mistakes. If you have no friends less favourable than yourself, do not be afraid to change your faults.
Last time, only the last “do not be afraid to change” was tested, but this time, the whole sentence was tested.
Don’t underestimate the difference, the answer idea is completely different, last time only for “do not scruple to change”, this time is for the whole sentence to essay. The meaning of this sentence is: gentleman behaviour is not solemn, there is no majesty, attitude is not solemn, learning knowledge is not consolidated to be a man of loyalty, trustworthy, do not make friends with people less than yourself if there is a fault, do not be afraid to correct.
For this question. Zhu Ping’an is this way to break the question: “the gentleman in learning, the noble quality and must be exhaustive of its way.”
While pondering. While waving a brush and splashing ink, Zhu Pingan thus completed this eight-legged essay in one go without any haste.
After completing these two eight-legged essays. It was just noon, Zhu Pingan put away the pen, ink, paper and inkstone and pressed them with a ruler to avoid the north wind from scraping them away.
Then he tidied up the number house into a state of rest, ready to take a short break and take a lunch break.
However, this number house is also too narrow, he is not yet completely high, can not stretch their legs, can only curl up their legs to rest. However, when Zhu Pingan was about to squint his eyes, he only heard a miserable roar coming from the next door, shocking Zhu Pingan’s only brewing sleepiness into oblivion.
“Crap, the old paper is writing string pages!”
After this miserable roar, there was a thud thud thud thud sound, if not wrong, it should be this dude hitting the wall.
Then, another roar full of anger followed, which was another person’s voice, as if he had a father-killing and wife-taking hatred with the owner of the first sound.
“Dunlop thy mother, I am frightened by thee and my pen falls, and my examination paper is stained!”
Well, one wrote the answers on a string page, and the other was frightened by his voice and his pen fell, inking the paper. Write a string of pages of the, must be to lose the list, so he found so miserable; but the second brother is very sympathetic, was writing a string of page number of buddies a voice to frighten the quill pen fell stained the test paper, the test paper a large mass of ink, must be treated as a cheating to leave a mark, is also to lose the list.
Luckily, I was resting, or else he was coldly a voice, may also be scared of the test paper stained.
Soon, there is an invigilator led four sergeants over, without saying a word, the two men’s test papers confiscated, and then four sergeants like wolves and tigers will be those two people with a cloth ball stuffed with the mouth, from the number of houses dragged out.
These two buddies, this examination is considered to be blown, the future can not participate in the examination is also a matter of opinion.
After this accident, Zhu Pingan also did not have any sleepiness, and restored the number house into a table and chair. He roasted jerky over a charcoal fire pit, and then took a snack from, and simply ate a lunch with plain water.
After the meal, he packed up the things properly, put away the ink, paper and ink stone, and continued to do his own draft.
The third eight-legged essay is quite difficult, Zhu Pingan conceptualised about more than an hour before starting to write, writing than the first two is also much slower than the afternoon time will be exactly the eight-legged essay before finishing.
The title of this one is only four words, “Abyssal Abyss”, from “Zhongyong”, meaning that the sage’s thoughts are as deep as a pool of water.
However, how to write this sentence eight-legged!
The full text of this sentence is: Only the world’s utmost sincerity is capable of experiencing the world’s great scriptures, establishing the world’s great fundamentals, and knowing the transformations of heaven and earth. I have no idea what I’m talking about. The gizzard is kind, the abyss is deep, and the sky is vast.
After pondering for about an hour or so, Zhu Pingan remembered that someone in modern times had once explained the “Meanwhile”, and at that time, that person had used the phrase “Heaven does not speak, the earth does not speak, and the human being is in the middle of the establishment of the principles and norms” as the main idea. as the main idea of this sentence.
Another moment of thought, Zhu Pingan frowning eyebrows stretch, began to pen up, the side of thought will be written down, until the sun is thinning in the west before this one eight-legged essay writing finished.
After writing three eight-legged essays in one day, the remaining four could be written in two days with his eyes closed. Zhu Pingan nodded with satisfaction, put away the written draft paper, ate dinner, and then laid out a blanket and covered himself with it to sleep.
The rabbit skin blanket was warm, blocking the wind and keeping him warm, and Zhu Pingan slept soundly throughout the night. However, some people weren’t so good, the north wind howled at night, although it didn’t snow, it was unusually cold, many people, especially the candidates who had once mocked Zhu Pingan at the door, froze at night and shivered, their intestines were green with regret.
