A drop of icy rain in the spring chill.
Zhu Pingan finished writing the second of the eight shares and closed his pen, just in time to see a drop of icy rain smashing on the ground outside, and the big soldiers outside cowering up their necks.
It was raining!
Zhu Pingan raised his head and took a closer look at his own number house, well, not bad, although it is a stinky number, but the house has a good structure, especially the top floor is even just repaired, the rain barrier is also well arranged, there is no need to worry about leakage of rain at all.
So, Zhu Pingan took out the umbrella he had brought from his travelling bag, stretched it outside, pointed out his umbrella to the soldiers who were cowering their necks outside, and then placed it on the outside wall of the number house.
To use it or not to use it, you can see for yourself.
After putting down the umbrella, Zhu Pingan no longer cared and continued to work on the questions.
This is the last question of the Four Books of Righteousness, the title is also moderate, is from the “Mengzi” in the sentence: “Confucius climbed the eastern mountain and small Lu”.
This is a very simple sentence, meaning that Confucius climbed up the East Mountain, looked down, and realised that the state of Lu was small. Simple is simple, but according to this sentence to write a free flowing eight-legged essay is not so simple, really want to write according to the surface meaning of this sentence, can not write a Confucius climbed the East Mountain travelogue it.
This topic should be placed in the full text of the understanding of the full text of this sentence is this, Mencius said: “Confucius climbed the East Mountain and small Lu, climbed Mount Tai and small world, so it is difficult to look at the sea for the water, travelling in the door of the saints is difficult to say. There are techniques to view the water, and the waves must be viewed. The sun and the moon are bright, and the light will shine. The flowing water is also a thing, not Yingke not; the gentleman’s ambition in the road is also, not chapter and verse.”
Seeing this sentence, Zhu Pingan thought of Zhu Xi.
Zhu Xi, Zhu Laozi, when reading this chapter of Mencius, made a note in the margins: “This chapter says that the way of the saints is big and original, and those who learn it must use its gradualness to be able to reach it.” What Master Zhu meant was that the Confucian doctrine established by the sages was lofty and broad and had its roots, and that those who seek to learn must follow the law of learning step by step, so as to reach the lofty state of the Confucian doctrine established by the sages.
Zhu Xi Zhu Laozi’s words are not ordinary words. This is the golden rule in the imperial examinations, Ming Taizu Hongwu two years (1369 years), the imperial examinations to Zhu Xi and other “transmission of notes for the Zong”.
Zhu Pingan pondered for a moment, then had a thought, then according to Zhu Xi’s words. As a breakthrough text, expand the argument.
Outside the rain gradually tightened, “crackling crackling” more and more big, with the residual winter chill, in the north wind whistling drive meandering. Leaching bleak, such as sobbing like a complaint, Gongyuan all around, the sky full of exudation.
Outside of the invigilator soldier at the moment braced Zhu Pingan gave him the umbrella, looking at the nearby colleagues in the storm shivering, thankful, the heart is incomparable gratitude to sit in the stink of the number of Zhu Pingan, look at Zhu Pingan’s eyes are with gratitude.
However, Zhu Pingan was completely immersed in his own ink-stained world, which in turn made that big soldier waste his grateful eyes.
Dipping into the ink. Zhu Pingan landed the breaking sentence of this eight-legged essay:
“The Sacred Way is large and original, and scholars must reach it with gradualness.”
After breaking the title, Zhu Pingan text does not add points, will be this piece of eight shares of a wave, in accordance with Zhu Xi’s words down to expand the exposition, will be a Confucian doctrine a blow, great touting, the Confucian doctrine compared to the lofty Taishan, compared to the vastness of the sea, compared to the sun and moon shine. Of course they all have roots and sources. Then it is emphasised that those who seek to learn should start from the beginning and progress step by step. This is roughly how this eight-legged essay was written out.
To here. The three Four Books of Righteousness eight-legged essays for this exam have been written, and the remaining four questions should all be Pentateuchal eight-legged essays. The Pentateuchal righteousness eight-legged essay was relatively easier, this was Zhu Pingan’s experience in doing eight-legged essays, it was entirely a matter of personal preference.
Zhu Pingan opened the test question paper and continued to look down.
There were no surprises, the remaining four questions were all from the Pentateuchal Yihua. None of them were difficult either. Zhu Pingan read the four questions in one breath, and his thoughts spread out along with the sound of the dripping rain outside.
Rain falls on the eaves, drip drip drip drip, that dry sound seems to have some cheerful feeling …… Zhu Pingan’s thoughts also with it away, that drip drip drip drip rain sound, deeply swept up the ripples of this literary thought, waves swept away, silent.
The thoughts flowed, and Zhu Pingan continued to do so.
Just like this, in the midst of the rain, a teenager wearing a mask, tirelessly waving his brush and splashing ink.
On a rainy day, the smell in the toilet was even stronger, and there were several other smelly numbers like Zhu Pingan in the Tribute Academy. Most people were smoked and vomited. Another person couldn’t hold on and was sent to the Mingjing Building by the invigilator. The remaining ones who were still holding on were all pale and shaky.
However, Zhu Pingan was wearing a mask and did not seem to be affected by the odour next door at all, waving his brush and splashing his ink smoothly, as if he was in the midst of the birdsong and the fragrance of the flowers. Every candidate who went to the toilet and passed by Zhu Pingan’s place was always shocked by the figure of Zhu Pingan waving a brush and splashing ink in the stinky number.
“Swinging the axe under the bed, making a dojo in the screw shell.”
This is how people generally feel, just like playing with an axe under the bed, or doing dojo and casting spells inside a river snail, they all feel that they have nowhere to exert their power. Because the eight-legged essay strictly limited to the format and number of words, each sentence has a fixed style, queuing couplets and so on.
However, Zhu Pingan felt at this moment that he was already at ease, the direction of the intention, the pen falls, is completely in line with the various requirements of the eight-legged essay.
In one breath, Zhu Pingan finished writing two Pentateuchal Eight-legged Writings before stopping his pen, and his stomach flopped again.
So, Zhu Pingan stretched his hand, received the “out of respect card”, hung a linoleum cloth as a curtain in front of his own house, to prevent the wind and rain from blowing into his own house when using the toilet and making the test papers wet, put his test papers and other papers into a test paper bag, and hung it on the wall, and then went out of the number of the house to go to the next door of the toilet.
Although I had a mask, I couldn’t help but tolerate the odour once I entered the toilet.
Of course, if you don’t have a mask, it’s going to stink to high heaven. The toilet was also very unclean, unlike our modern toilets, which have flush toilets and whatnot, it was a squatting pit, and it couldn’t be flushed out, so the inside was intolerable anyway.
Toilet paper was also placed inside, it was that very rough straw paper.
Zhu Pingan almost used the fastest speed in his life to solve the problem, and then went back to his own number house.
By this time, it was already about four or five o’clock in the afternoon, the sky outside was getting darker and darker, and the rain was also getting heavier and heavier, almost forming a curtain of water outside the number house, which was about to become a waterfall cave.
Just then, a mournful howl was heard from outside.
“Cao, it’s leaking! My rolls!”
Then a candidate was seen screaming like a madman outside the number house, jumping and screaming, three or five number soldiers couldn’t hold it down, in the end, it was only six or seven number soldiers who were able to control it, and then escorted it to the Mingjing Building to wait for disposal.
Unlucky child, should be the number of house leakage of rain will be wet paper, paper wet, there will be traces, and then the paper will be invalidated, this examination is also counted as invalid, will test is also invalid. So, it is inevitable that this child paper this way.
In this way, the stinky number, it seems that it is not so unlucky. Zhu Pingan wore a mask and smiled to himself.
