On July 28th, the autumn wind is cool and the weather is sunny.

Early in the morning, there was already crowded people from East College Street to the gate of the school office. The first ones gathered were not scholars, but those vendors who sold fruits, sweet wine, and snacks. The vendors were the duck prophets of the spring river water. They rushed wherever they were lively—

One after another, the students who took the provincial examination arrived, and many students who did not obtain the provincial examination qualification also came. They wanted to see if the famous Zeng Yu could pass this assessment; the children in Nanchang City also came, and the story of Zeng Yu's re-examination entering the school is very inspiring. They came to understand how Zeng Yu successfully passed the re-examination and did not matter if he was assessed again.

At the beginning of Chen Shi, from Baima Temple Square to the school office, it was already crowded. Zeng Yu and Zheng Shi and his party arrived and couldn't get away. They were difficult to move forward. Zeng Yu bowed his hand and shouted: "Everyone, please give in, give in, or you will miss the exam."

Zheng Shi said loudly: "This is Zeng Xiucai of Guangxin Mansion. Please give in and don't delay his exams, otherwise there will be no fun."

The crowded crowd made a "wow" sound, and soon gave up a three-foot air passage. Zeng Yu walked between the two walls. He smiled and listened to the spectators who were polite, praised and ridiculed him. Zeng Yu remained motionless. When he was about to come to the school office, he heard someone shouting "Mr. Zeng". He turned his head to look, but Yan Shaoqing came down to cheer for him by several strong slaves.

Zeng Yu smiled and greeted, waved his hand and strode past, came to the gate of the school office, bowed to Zheng Shi and others, and walked up the steps alone. At this time, two people walked out of the door, one of whom was as thin as a bamboo pole, and his neck was as geese, calling out: "Zeng Sheng--"

When Zeng Yu looked up, it was Zhang Guangtang, a professor of Guangxin Prefecture. The person behind Zhang Guangtang was Professor Li from Yongfeng County School. He hurriedly stepped forward to see him. Professor Zhang twisted his neck and twisted around, looking helpless, and said, "Li Sixun and I were the provincial capital we arrived at yesterday. I was very surprised when I heard about the assessment. I asked Master Huang and found out the truth. Oh, don't be angry, and don't be panicked. A good composition is to pass the assessment with your current knowledge."

Teacher Li from Yongfeng County also comforted Zeng Yu, who was quite moved.

...

The yamen of the Censorate of Jiangxi Daoti Censorate is located on the West College Street of Nanchang City, only half a mile away from the School Office. The hustle and bustle of the school office, and the noise of calling friends to the Censorate of Jiangxi has become a huge and dense and heavy sound. Wang Zongmu, who was about to get on the sedan chair, frowned and asked what was going on with the sedan chair?

The officer bowed and said, "When I say that, I am the people watching the fun at the school office. I heard that a scholar named Zeng would be assessed today and gathered early."

Wang Zongmu laughed and said, "How lively and interesting is the assessment of a scholar!"

Suddenly, someone said, "Brother Xinfu, this scholar Zeng is not an ordinary scholar. He has a legendary experience of extermination of thieves and making meritorious contributions. He dare not say that he is famous all over the world. In Jiangxi, there are not many people who don't know about Zeng Yu's Daming."

The person who spoke was dressed like snow and walked quickly from the hall to Wang Zongmu. This white-robed guest was the mysterious guest who talked with Zeng Yu at the White Horse Temple that day. After Zeng Yu left without any objection, the white-robed guest left the White Horse Temple with two servants, moved into the office of the Censorate Office, and became the guest of honor for the Censor Wang Zongmu.

Wang Zongmu smiled and said, "From the two eight-legged essays and letters sent by Huang Tixue, Zeng Yu is fond of ancient Chinese essays, has great skills, and has broad ideas. It is not wrong for Huang Tixue to allow him to get into the school through the re-education."

The white-robed guest said, "This matter is not about the pros and cons of the article, but a dispute between loyalty and treason."

A middle-aged man with a seventh-rank civil servant led a whispered in front of him: "Brother Fengzhou said very well. The first thing he did is to distinguish between loyal ministers and treacherous parties, and eight-legged articles are the last skill."

Wang Zongmu said: "Zeng Yu has not been deeply involved in the world and has a very shallow relationship with the division. Although his student qualifications were asked to be reviewed, no one has ever pleaded for him, except Huang Tixue."

The white-robed guest pondered silently.

The seventh-rank official said, "Maybe it was a hasty matter, and they didn't make any arrangements."

Wang Zongmu waved his hand and signaled not to say anything, saying, "I won't talk anymore, get into the sedan chair, get into the sedan chair, the time of the first half is approaching." He asked the white-robed guest again: "Will Fengzhou go together?"

The white-robed guest said, "If I don't go to the school office, I'll just watch the fun in the crowd."

The pai army shouted, majestic and quiet. The censor Wang Zongmu and his party came to the school office. Huang Guoqing, deputy envoy of the school, had already been waiting outside the Yimen Gate. A scholar with a square scarf and shirt beside Huang Guoqing bowed to Wang Zongmu and said, "Student Zeng Yu pays homage to Lord Wang."

Wang Zongmu looked at Zeng Yu, and seemed to be familiar. He asked, "You are Zeng Yu. Have you ever been to Bailu Cave Academy in Lushan before and listened to my lectures?" Three years ago, Wang Zongmu was appointed as the deputy envoy of Daoti School in Jiangxi, repaired the Wang Yangming Temple, reopened the Bailu Cai Academy and personally presided over the lectures. At that time, many students came to listen to the lectures in various prefectures and counties in Jiangxi.

Zeng Yudao: "In the autumn of the 38th year of Jiajing, students went to Bailu Cave to listen to the lecture. At that time, Huang Tixue was the director of the meeting."

Wang Zongmu said "Oh" and thought to himself, why did he think Zeng Yu looks familiar? He must have remembered the wrong person and said, "Do you have any complaints about our company's request for your assessment?"

Zeng Yu said: "Mr. Wang, the student wrote a letter to ask for a reassessment. For Huang Dixue's reputation and for the innocent, as long as the assessment is fair, just and open, the students are not afraid of the assessment." Zeng Yu was gentle on the surface, but his tone gradually became crazy.

Wang Zongmu was a little unhappy. Zeng Yu was talking about the thorns, but even if Huang Xuezheng was on the side, he didn't want to say much. Some of the teachers were unknown in this assessment. Huang Xuezheng opposed this assessment and said, "This assessment is still under the leadership of Huang Tixue. Our department only serves as supervision. The imperial examination is the important tool of the country. How can we not be careful and cautious?"

The other three officials who were inspecting and assessing were also here, namely Nanjing Censor Lin, Jiangxi Road Liu Censor Guo Tui, Yuanzhou Prefecture, and after meeting with Wang Zongmu and Huang Guoqing, they went to the Minglun Hall of the School Office together. Zeng Yu also followed him to the hall and stood aside. Looking at the inspectors, he thought to himself: "This Censor Lin from Nanjing should be Lin Run, the former magistrate of Linchuan. He is a family friend of Mr. Xie Zhen. Last year, Mr. Xie was working for me for the re-examination in Linchuan. He asked Lin County to recommend Huang Tixue to see him. Unexpectedly, when time changed, Lin County became Lin County Censor Lin, but he was going to test me. It was ridiculous." He also thought: "I heard that Lin Runfu took office as the Censor, so he violently impeached Yan Shifan's best friend Yan Maoqing. Now he wants to make trouble with me again. The officialdom is really a turbulent situation."

The yamen runner of the school department brought a small square table and a chair, and placed pens, ink, paper and inkstone on the table. Everything was ready, waiting for the exam.

Wang Zongmu said to Huang Guoqing: "Mr. Huang, let's set the question now."

Huang Guoqing said: "It's better for Lord Wang to give the questions. Lord Wang is also a scholar."

Huang Tixue didn't say something clearly, and Wang Zongmu felt embarrassed and coughed and said, "Then let's pick up the book and set the title."

To set the questions by picking a book is to flip the books at will, and you can find a sentence on which page you turn to to do the test questions. This is very common in the imperial examinations, in order to prevent the examiners from leaking the test questions.

Huang Ti’s question: “Do you test small questions or classic questions? Or do you test both?”

Wang Zongmu said: "Just test the small questions only, it is limited to one and a half hours, how about it?"

Huang Ti Xuedao: "But it depends on Lord Wang."

The clerk held the four books, and Wang Zongmu picked up the Analects and said, "Let's go to the title of the Analects." Just as he was about to read the book, he suddenly looked out the door and frowned and said, "Silent, quiet."

The Minglun Hall of the School of Education is facing Yimen. The Yimen is only ten feet away from the main gate. Although the noisy sound of thousands of people outside the main gate does not affect the speech of the officials in the hall, the "buzzing" sound is still annoying, and a servant ran out to shout that everyone should not make noise-

When the hall was quiet, Wang Zongmu flipped out the book and wrote the title, and read it casually. It was "The Fifteenth Duke of Wei Ling", and he told Zeng Yu: "Zeng Sheng, you write an eight-part essay on the title of "All evils must be observed" and must not be less than four hundred words."

The complete sentence "All evils must be observed" is "All evils must be observed; and everyone likes them must be observed." It means that even if everyone hates him, you cannot dislike him. You must check whether this person is really as hateful as everyone says; similarly, if everyone likes him, you should not follow the trend. You must have your own investigation. You cannot believe in whatever others say. Confucius educates his disciples to have the thinking and judgment, and not be confused about appearances.

Zeng Yu smiled and said, "'If you hate it, you must observe it; if you like it, you must observe it." This test question is very good, which can tell the students' current experience. After the students entered the school for the supplementary examination, they accidentally defeated the thieves and made contributions, and received rewards from the court. They have received praise from many parties. It can be said that they like it. You are now 'observing' for students. Can students not be vigilant and self-reflection?"

Huang Tixue couldn't help laughing when he heard Zeng Yu say this.

Wang Zongmu's face was slightly red and a little ashamed, and said, "Then let's answer the questions quickly. Now it's just after the hour of the first hour, and I'll hand in the paper at the beginning of noon."

Zeng Yu is now very skilled in this kind of essay on the topic and eight-legged essay. He grinds the ink while shaping the ink and smacks. He has thick ink and has already had the essay on the belly. He is not busy writing, but he said to the servant who is serving: "Please take a piece of paper with paper, don't cut it."

The servant then took a piece of mulberry paper. This uncut mulberry paper is more than five feet long and two feet wide. The paper is flexible and not easy to break. Zeng Yu did not sit down, but stood by the table and hanged his wrist and stroked his brush. He wrote on this mulberry paper. The characters were as big as a pigeon egg. It was written in Mi Nangong's running script style, which was written in "all evil must be observed." Wang Zongmu, Huang Guoqing and others who sat high in the hall could see the handwriting on the paper clearly, and they couldn't help but wonder what Zeng Yu did.

I saw Zeng Yu write a few sentences, then stop writing and pondering. The two lines of handwriting on the paper are:

"As to people's likes and dislikes, we must be in the same way as they are. And to investigate the reason, we are to like good and evil, and to sympathize with the world. People may be blinded by their own personal gain, so can we not investigate the reason?"

This is a problem-solving and inheriting question that "all evils must be observed". Wang Zongmu, Lin Run and others looked at it carefully, and they were silent. Huang Tixue nodded. Such problem-solving and inheriting questions were concise and high, and they were blameless. Huang Tixue was originally a little worried that Zeng Yu was young and vigorous, and he was easily impatient when encountering setbacks, but he felt relieved when he saw these two sentences and was very pleased that Zeng Yu's writing was a good person and he also earned him face.

The following is the original title, which is why the sages gave the words in the title. Zeng Yu wrote:

"The Master shows people that good and evil in the world are easy to be false, and a gentleman cannot obey the law."

Huang Ti couldn't help but nodded and said to himself: "This is what it means to make a sage."

Next is the beginning of the talk. It is important to have discussions when talking, it is better to be empty than real, and it is more reasonable and correct, with high meaning. The poems are ancient, Zeng Yu wrote:

"There are people who do things that are not close to human feelings, and they do not care about many things. They live in the village and hate them. They stand in the country and the country despise them. Are they hate them too many? However, those who are special are less harmonious, and those who are alone are unfamiliar, and those who are all hate them, and they are afraid that they may not be selfless."

Wang Zongmu is also a famous eight-part essay master. He has been a deputy envoy for three years. He has read more than 100,000 eight-part essays. His eyesight is extraordinary. He often knows the level of the candidates when he sees the question. Zeng Yu's eight-part essay can be said to be perfect from the question to the beginning. However, as a model essay, Wang Zongmu nodded secretly and said, "The turning point is very wonderful, let's see how he makes comparisons and sells stocks."

I saw Zeng Yu writing while thinking. Time passed slowly, and the handwriting on the big paper gradually became more and more full. The main text of this eight-legged essay came out:

"We must verify the reality of his actions and investigate the subtlety of his mind. It is really hateful. I hate it, otherwise I will not harm him as a gentleman. Why do I feel disobeying the public? If you are aware of it, then you will be disgusted from the public and not obscuring the private. There are also people who will follow the human feelings and things must be in accordance with the customs. If you are in the country and the people in the country call it, you will be wise to the people. Isn't it the people who like it? However, if you are a lover of the people, you may not be the public. You must observe the meaning and examine the joy of the heart. You can really like it. Otherwise, how can you know that it is not a villain? Can I be willing to favor the public? If you like it and observe it, then you will like it out of the public and not obscuring the private."

Not to mention that Huang Tixue praised Zeng Yu in his heart, even Wang Zongmu, Lin Run and others also focused on watching. Wang Zongmu had a great time to praise him. Zeng Yu's article was closely linked to the topic and proposed that people's "good and evil" must be clear whether their original intention is public or private. The main text is two major comparisons, and each comparison is confrontational and has a unique idea, which is really a rare good article.

It took about an hour to finish Zeng Yu basically wrote a large piece of paper, and there were some modifications during this period, but the overall picture was still clean. Standing on the wrist and writing for so long, it can be seen that Zeng Yu was young and healthy, which made the old and sick Huang Tixue envious. Zeng Yu finally wrote:

"Ah, those who like to and dislike will rarely lose themselves; those who like to and dislike will not lose themselves; those who like to and dislike will not lose others; isn't this a good way to observe people?"

This is the conclusion of the whole article. After writing the last sentence, Zeng Yu spread this large piece of paper on the table and the floor, and then took another roll of paper to write. This roll of paper is the kind of paper used in the county and government trials. It has bounded red lines and vertical lines. It is stipulated that Mi Fu's unrestrained running regular script cannot be used at this time. It is changed to small regular script with rigorous rules. This kind of calligraphy is required for composition in the field house. Zeng Yu has been working hard for calligraphy this year. He learned small regular script by Wen Zhengming. Wen Zhengming's small regular script was born from Wang Xizhi's "Huang Ting Jing" and "Le Yi Laid". He used a sharp tip into the paper. His brushwork was vigorous and elegant, and his structure was loose and straight, which had a great influence at that time.

It took less than half an hour to copy the text on the large paper of paper on the roll, and carefully wrote the name, age, and origin. Then he handed the roll to the clerk next to him, who handed it over to Huang Tixue.

Huang Tixue read the full text and knew it in his mind, saying, "Say to Lord Wang, and the paper will be rated by Lord Wang."

Wang Zongmu took the roll of paper, glanced at the words, and thought to himself: "Calligraphy is also good, and he is indeed a ignorant person." Wen Yan said: "Zeng Sheng, since the answer is finished, you should leave."

Zeng Yu had long expected that there would be no comments on the spot, so he folded the draft paper and put it into his sleeve, saying goodbye.

“Let’s wait.”

On the other side, Censor Lin asked: "Zeng Sheng, what is the intention of taking away the draft?"

During the imperial examination, the draft was also required to be handed over to prepare the grinding investigation paper, but it is not a formal examination now. Zeng Yu was even more disgusted with Lin Run's tone of trial and replied: "Thousands of students outside the gate are waiting to read the students' compositions. The students post it out for everyone to see. This is called public."

Lin Run was about to propose the regulations that the draft of the imperial examination should be submitted, Huang Tixue first spoke: "Zeng Sheng wrote an essay in front of everyone. Do you still need to check the essay? It would be better to let the students outside the door read this essay, and see how everyone commented?"
Chapter completed!