Zhao Yi secretly took out Zhao Xin's handwritten letter from the envelope with a slight glance, and then couldn't help but say "huh". Zhao Tingyan, the son sitting behind him, couldn't help but lean over and look surprised.

Zhao Xin's letter is actually nothing in terms of content, mostly in vernacular, and mostly praise. He said that Zhao Yi "has a master of the world, but has not done his best", and said that Yuan Mei "has a talented and knowledgeable person, and is disdainful to rely on others' roofs" and so on. In fact, with his current status, he does not have to be like this, but in order to give Wang Zhong face and give the new imperial examination in Beihai Town, he must cooperate.

Of course, it would be fine if it was just these. At most, Yuan and Zhao were secretly proud. The most important thing was that his hard pen handwriting aroused Zhao Yi's interest and felt refreshed.

You should know that in the Ming and Qing dynasties, all those who achieved success in the imperial examinations wrote good regular script, that is, the style of the Pavilion. Although this thing is the same as thousands of hands and has no personality, it is the introductory skill for scholars to settle down.

What surprised Zhao Yi was that Zhao Xin's letter was written in small regular script. Although it didn't look like it was written in brushes, it still wrote the brush style, which was quite like Ou Kai. Although the strokes of each character are slender, the handwriting is strong and powerful, full and compact. Occasionally, it is like a spear and epoxy, which is obvious that it has been put into practice for many years. Just for this stroke, it is easy to use a scholar.

Well, if Zhao Xin's father was present, he would definitely feel very pleased. He used his son to copy the pen copybook that he had been copying for ten years, but it was not in vain. In fact, Zhao's father planned to let Zhao Xin work in the system, and having good writing would definitely be valued. However, Zhao Xin really didn't like that atmosphere, so he quit after staying for two years.

At this time, Yuan Mei, who was standing by, also realized something was wrong, so he came over to look at it for a moment, and couldn't help but be amazed. He couldn't help asking Xu Dayong: "I'm ignorant, and this is the first time I have seen this writing. Can you ask who has learned the calligraphy of your ancestors?"

Xu Dayong didn't know how to learn calligraphy. His spider-crawling characters were learned over the past few years. Yuan and Zhao saw that he looked confused, so they stopped asking.

Compared with Zhao Xin's polite words, the content in Wang Zhong's letter is much more detailed. He first explained the content of the new imperial examination in Beihai Town in early August. The general principle is the twelve words "correct the origin and promote the classics, and literature must be useful."

Yuan Mei couldn't help but smile and thought to himself, Wang Rongfu, after struggling for a long time, it turned out that he was doing Gu Ningren. However, he thought again, weren't Wang Zhong, Jiang Fan, Hong Liangji, Jiao Xun, Duan Yucai, and Liu Taigong who defected to Beihai Town all the descendants of Gu Yanwu!

Since the ancestors are so powerful, Wang Zhong and others will naturally follow it.

Speaking of which, in Gu Yanwu's work "Rizhilu", criticisms about the imperial examination system and the eight-legged essay account for nearly one-third of the length, and the seven volumes of the beginning are directly related to the eight-legged essay; Volumes 16-17 are specifically interpreted on the imperial examination system; Volumes 18-21 are discussing arts and literature, and they discuss the methods of making meanings and the truth of the article in detail.

Some people later said that Gu Yanwu opposed the imperial examination, but in fact they opposed the imperial examination after the mid-Ming Dynasty.

OK, let me tell you, listen, think about the beginning...

Since the imperial examination system in ancient China took shape in the Tang Dynasty, the two subjects "Ming Jing" and "Jin Shi" have risen and fallen in the imperial examination system. The meaning of classics and the debate on poetry and essays have been endless, and it was still not well resolved until the early Northern Song Dynasty. The "Ming Jing" subject takes Confucian classics as the content, paying attention to classics and arts and annotations; the "Jin Shi" subject takes poetry and essays as the content, paying attention to rhetorics and articles.

When Wang Anshi reformed, he completely reformed the imperial examination, abolished the "Ming Jing" subject, and changed the examination content of the "Jinshi" subject to the meaning of classics and policy theory. At this point, the Jinshi subject was unified. Of course, this guy also had a lot of personal information. He used the "New Meaning of the Three Classics" he wrote as the scope of the test and the basis for judging the test, and put himself in the position of a saint.

After the Southern Song Dynasty, Neo-Confucianism emerged, and the number of fans of the four schools of Lian, Luo, Guan and Fujian increased sharply. Driven by Zhu Xi and his disciples, Cheng and Zhu Neo-Confucianism came to the forefront. Zhu Xi's "Collected Notes on the Four Books" replaced Wang Anshi's "New Meaning of the Three Classics" and became a new outline for the imperial examination. However, the changes in this stage were all about setting the foothold of the imperial examinations on selecting talents with the ambition to benefit the country and the world, and real talents and practical skills. This is what Zhu Xi said, "know that the nature is inherent and the position should be done, and each one should bend to do his best."

When Lao Zhu was in power in the early Ming Dynasty, he naturally had to continue to use his own textbooks as the exam syllabus. However, the standards at that time were different from those later, and they were highly praised by Gu Yanwu, believing that only in this way can we obtain real talents.

In the early Ming Dynasty, there were three exams for the Jinshi exam. The first exam was three questions in the "Four Books", the second exam was one question, and the third exam was one strategy. Who can't be a troll? After the troll, there must be a solution. In addition, the three games have passed and not finished yet. There are still five levels to pass, namely, riding, shooting, book, calculation, and law.

However, during the Chenghua period, the "eight-legged essay" appeared. The so-called "stock" is actually a dualistic approach, requiring one positive and one reverse, one false and one real, one shallow and one deep.

As soon as the candidate writes, he must first solve the meaning of the question and say three sentences, which are four lems; after two to four sentences in the middle, he will follow the theme and explain the meaning, which is four lems; then he must explain why the saint said this, so he has to add two sentences to the original origin; finally he will make a conclusion.

Such regulations are actually mainly to unify the standards for the paper judgment. Otherwise, if you write a 3,000-word essay at any time, the examiner will go crazy. As long as the first three sentences are not correct, no matter how well you write it later, it will be useless. Just PASS it.

The development of eight-legged essays in the Ming Dynasty can be divided into three periods. The eight-legged essays from the early Ming Dynasty to Chenghua are called classical essays. They have not yet separated from the old system of "Song and Yuan essays", and mainly use classical interpretations and annotations.

Chenghua to Jiajing was the finalization period of eight-legged essays, and ancient essay techniques were integrated into it, focusing on "using ancient essays as the current essays", which opened up the grand situation of eight-legged essays in the Ming Dynasty.

However, after Longqing and Wanli, due to the various reasons such as political corruption, fierce party struggles, and the prevalence of mind science, the respectful status of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism began to shake, traditional Neo-Confucianism began to disperse, and major changes occurred in the eight-legged essays.

During this period, there were many schools of philosophical rituals. Although they were written one by one, they were useless to national politics. They focused on writing skills and were free from reality. For a time, the literary nature of the eight-legged essay was fully demonstrated. Tang Xianzu, Gu Xiancheng, Yuan Hongdao, Tao Wangling, Dong Qichang, etc. are numerous.

The study of mind, which is empty talk, plays a very bad role in this, especially the "Zhezhong School". For example, Wang Ji once said that pursuing karma is virtue and karma, not two things. This means that as long as you can pass the imperial examination and become a scholar or even become a Jinshi, you will become virtuous. Since this is the case, whether it is corruption, party struggles, or even harming the country and the people, it has nothing to do with morality.

As for the late Ming and Qing dynasties, it was even more perfect, and the Qing Dynasty naturally needed to use Neo-Confucianism and eight-legged essays to imprison ideas, and through fame and fortune, literati gave up their personality and became slaves. The moral achievements and integrity of scholars became one family and one person. Scholars focused on hunting for subjects, reading and writing for exams, ignoring classics and history, and some people didn't even know who Su Shi was.

As a result, those literati who based on the classics and history and follow the classics and uphold the truth cannot use the topic when creating the eight-part essay, and must be consistent with the strange style of the current writing, so they will fail many times.

Just like Wang Zhong, Hong Liangji, Liu Taigong, Jiang Fan, Jiao Xun, they are all very easy to be a scholar, but they can't survive the juren and Jinshi. It's not that their talent is not high enough, but because their value orientation for eight-legged essays is different from the mainstream, and there is no room for adaptation to the ideological differences between the two sides. If people like them want to pass the imperial examination and show their ambitions, they can only compromise and bow their heads.

Whether it was Yuan Mei or Zhao Yi, both of them hated this situation, but they were powerless. The Qing emperor wanted a group of obedient slaves, not people with independent thinking. As long as the officials followed their own baton, it was the emperor's credit for benefiting the people! Corruption is nothing, just kill a group, and some of them were waiting in line behind.

Yuan Mei read this letter from Wang Zhong very slowly, so that Zhao Yi finished reading Zhao Xin's letter, and he finished reading the second page. He said that he and Wang Zhong actually knew each other and had suffered from each other. It was eight years ago when Wang Zhong visited Xiaocang Mountain and saw a couplet in his study that actually read "There are mountains, steep mountains, lush forests and bamboos here, so you can read the Three Tombs, Five Classics, Eight Ropes and Nine Hills."

Wang Zhong is a person who claims to be "reading everything without books". He actually looks down on Yuan Mei at all, and he thought he was so full of big cloves of garlic!

So in the subsequent conversation, he teased Yuan Mei, saying that he heard that Brother Xian had read the Tomb Dian Suoqiu, and he was really well-read. Today, I came here to borrow this book. I wonder if it was possible? Of course, Yuan Mei couldn't take it out, so he felt a little embarrassed and couldn't come to Taiwan. After Wang Zhong left, he quickly asked someone to withdraw the couplet.

In short, Wang Zhong said very clearly in this letter that the eight-part essay should be used as the standard for answering questions when choosing a subject in Beihai Town. However, candidates do not have to make words on behalf of the sages. Benefiting the country’s people’s livelihood is the first priority. Moreover, he stated that King Zhao intends to relax the standards and increase the proportion of candidates who have passed the exam.

Yuan Mei finished reading the letter and handed it to Zhao Yi. After reading Zhao Xin's letter, he began to think about what Beihai Town is like and what the big iron ship looks like. He really wanted to see it and go to Beihai Town to enjoy the scenery of the North.

Although this old man is 78 years old, he can't stay idle at all. He often goes out to travel around, especially when his son Yuan Chi was 63 years old, he has lost his burden of having no descendants. He has been to Guangdong and Guangxi as far as he has, climbed Huangshan at the age of 68 and Tiantai Mountain at the age of 77. He is very energetic.

At this time, Xu Dayong saw Yuan Mei thinking and said nothing, and asked, "What do you want to ask about Mr. Jianzhai?"

Yuan Mei smiled faintly and said, "I wonder when the Gui Shang will send a boat to pick up people?"

"In mid-May, the latest will not be later than the end of May."

"So early?"

"The meaning of "The Scholars" is that when they arrive, it is best to be familiar with the environment of Beihai Town first, and also take them to visit various places so as to understand the various systems of Beihai Town."

Yuan Mei nodded after hearing this and was about to ask about the ship again, Zhao Yi suddenly interrupted, "I would like to ask, when did King Zhao lead his army south? Now that you have occupied a corner of Shandong, what are your plans for the next step? Could it be that you want to imitate the old things three years ago and land in Dagukou again?"

Xu Dayong knew that this person had done military preparation and knew a little about military affairs, so he said in a deep voice: "Mr. Oubei, military affairs are about being a soldier who never gets tired of deception. You ask me the specific time of entry into the pass, what do I say? But what I can tell you is that the Qing Dynasty has begun to flee west."

"Escape from the West?" Yuan Mei and Zhao Yi looked at each other in shock, thinking that when they saw Qinggui a few days ago, they had never heard from each other.

Zhao Yi said anxiously: "Where are you going to escape? Western Regions?"

Xu Dayong said with a smug look: "Mr. Oubei, now my Beihai Town has taken over the entire northern Mongolian in the Mobei region. It is impossible to go to the Western Regions. They can only go south from Xining to Tibet."

"Into Tibet?!" Zhao Yi was stunned for a moment, and suddenly slapped the table and said, "No wonder the court has been conquering Gurkha for half a year, and he does not mention the tribute and tribute at all!"

Yuan Mei was not in military affairs, only knowing that the imperial court appointed Fukang'an as General Fuyuan last year and sent troops to hide. He turned to look at Xu Dayong and said, "What does Brother Xu mean?"

"That's right. Gurkha is a retreat left by the Qing Dynasty."

Yuan Mei and Zhao Yi couldn't help but look at each other, with shock. The two then sighed at the same time. Unexpectedly, the Qianlong Dynasty, which was a martial arts-proud, had reached such a state. The world was really like a dream. Although they had seen through the world and did not care about the officialdom of the court, no matter how they said that they were both Jinshi from the Qing Dynasty and had both served as officials in the Hanlin Academy. Now the building is about to collapse, and they feel deeply moved.

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! But then again, since we have reached this point, we must consider the future of our children in our family, so we have to take on this big ship in Beihai Town no matter what.

Zhao Yi raised his head and pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I heard that Gui Shang claimed to be the lineage of the former Ming Dynasty, how could the powerful and powerful Manchus escape from heaven?"

Xu Dayong said: "If Oubei Gong wants to know, why not go to Beihai Town and ask for a question in person."

Zhao Yi focused heavily and said, "I am just thinking about it!"

After that, the three of them finalized many details, including when and where to take the boat, how to contact each other, how many disciples, relatives and friends would Yuan and Zhao mobilize, etc., and Beihai Town must prepare at least two or three months in advance.

Sure enough, when Yuan Mei suggested that he would go to Beihai Town, he immediately shocked his son Yuan Tong. He thought to himself that this was not climbing Tiantai Mountain with you on his back, and that he could still take a breath when he was tired; that was to take a boat to sea, and he would really encounter storms and waves, and he would die for a lifetime!

After more than an hour of negotiation, Yuan and Zhao were old and could not bear it after talking for a long time. They felt that they had almost asked what they could ask, so they offered to say goodbye.

Xu Dayong and Shen Guisheng were leaving too. Although Yinshan Temple used money to bribe the abbot, it was not a place to stay for a long time. They took two subordinates and four of them out of Yinshan Temple.

The two old men walked slowly, and Xu Dayong had no intention of accompanying them, so he bowed farewell to them outside the mountain gate, walked down the mountain quickly, went straight to Xijindu, and boarded a fast boat from the Cao Gang and left.

Yuan Mei and Zhao Yi, leaning on crutches, walked slowly down the stone steps with the help of their sons. Halfway through, Zhao Yi suddenly proposed to go to the small pavilion halfway up the mountain to rest, and Yuan Mei agreed happily. Then the four of them came to the pavilion to sit down, silently and had their own thoughts.

Yuan Tong and Zhao Tingyan were thinking about what kind of official position they would have in the future if they passed the imperial examination in Beihai Town. Yuan Mei was so content. He had been to the capital at the northernmost part of his life. He only heard that it was a bitter and cold place outside the pass, but it was a different scene in Xu Dayong's mouth, which was fascinating.

Zhao Yiping looked at the river gurgling eastward under the lonely peak of Suanshan. Somehow he suddenly remembered the past when Zheng Chenggong swore a swearing battle in the northern expedition and defeated the Qing army in Zhenjiang.
Chapter completed!