Chapter 459 - 176: Xiaocheng Hall
Chapter 459: Chapter 176: Xiaocheng Hall
The moment Zhao Jing and De’an entered the Professor Bureau, they were surrounded.
The crowd looked at Zhao Jing with amazement, then glanced at De’an... Looking at De’an was just an afterthought; their main focus was Zhao Jing.
"Such talent, to have been overlooked. What a pity, what a pity."
"No wonder Mr. Yin spoke so rudely. With looks like that..."
"Ahem, ahem. A brilliant young man, and your essays are pearls of wisdom. How about you come to my Jindao Hall?"
"Hey! You, old Deng, have no shame! How can you try to poach him right in front of me! He’s a student from my Yueli Hall, and I’m standing right here! You’ve gone too far!"
Amid the commotion, Zhao Jing remained calm and composed, his posture as straight and unyielding as a green pine or lush bamboo.
He clasped his hands in a salute and respectfully greeted the assembled instructors and proctors.
"May I ask why you esteemed teachers have summoned this student?"
De’an saw that the atmosphere was good and had a gut feeling he wouldn’t be kicked out of the prefectural school this time. The weight in his heart lifted slightly, and he followed suit, offering his greetings as well.
The instructors chuckled and reached out to help the two up before eagerly firing off their questions again. "Zhao Jing, I’m interested in having you join Jindao Hall. What do you think?"
"We have plenty of brilliant young men in Bowen Hall. You should fit right in. Why not join Bowen Hall?"
"The students of Guanshan Hall are the friendliest, and they focus single-mindedly on their studies. You can’t go wrong coming here..."
"De’an, in your final policy essay, you mentioned allowing eminent monks and Taoist masters to participate in Confucian debates to demonstrate the superiority of Confucianism through a ’Debate of the Three Teachings.’ Do you have a specific plan for this?"
"In your essay, you wrote about adopting astronomy and calendrical calculations while abandoning tales of creation and redemption, using technology to defeat gods and buddhas. Can you elaborate further on this?"
They say three women are noisier than a hundred ducks, but if you gathered all these instructors and proctors from the prefectural school, their combined force would far surpass that of gossiping housewives.
They all spoke at once, making Zhao Jing’s and De’an’s heads spin. Fortunately, after sorting through the barrage of words, they finally understood why Mr. Sun had so urgently summoned them.
The issue, once again, stemmed from their exam papers.
As for Zhao Jing’s paper, leaving aside the content for a moment, his calligraphy was truly powerful and spirited, leaving one in awe. But even more stunning than his handwriting was the content of his essays.
Take his second policy essay, for instance, which discussed: "With the rise of Buddhism and Taoism encroaching upon our teachings, how can we support orthodox scholarship and quell heretical doctrines?"
In his explanation, Zhao Jing not only distinguished the fundamental nature of "orthodox scholarship" versus "heretical doctrines," but also proposed strategies to support orthodox learning: clarifying the orthodox lineage to establish the foundation, promoting social rites to solidify human relations, and applying knowledge for statecraft to test true scholarship.
Furthermore, he proposed methods for quelling heretical doctrines, such as guiding rather than prohibiting, imposing institutional constraints, and winning over the hearts and minds of the people.
Finally, he pointed out that the key to unification was to rectify the ruler’s heart and refine public morals.
The entire essay was well-structured and balanced, profound yet easy to understand. The conclusion, in particular, demonstrated the bold spirit of "carrying on the lost teachings of past sages"—truly a masterpiece of the highest order.
An essay like this would have had the examiners at the provincial examinations slamming their desks in praise, let alone in a mere prefectural school test.
As for De’an, his essays weren’t as well-written as Zhao Jing’s, nor was his accumulated knowledge as profound.
Zhao Jing’s writing gave the impression of handling a weighty topic with effortless ease. The entire piece flowed like moving clouds and flowing water, completed in a single, seamless breath. Reading his work was a pleasure, both inside and out.
And De’an?
From his writing, one could tell he was racking his brains to piece it all together. Unfortunately, though his ambition was great, his ability fell short, and the essay was merely passable.
But his level was what one would normally expect from a newly enrolled Scholar.
Someone like Zhao Jing was completely off the charts. If you compared them to Zhao Jing, ninety-nine percent of the students in the prefectural school would have to be thrown out.
To continue with De’an, while his essay was nothing special, it offered surprising moments as one read on.
This student’s mind was always filled with fantastic and novel ideas. Whether it was the three-way debate between monks, Taoists, and Confucian scholars, or using "science" to combat heretical doctrines, his suggestions were refreshingly brilliant.
Especially the scientific examples he mentioned—
In large family burial grounds and mass graves, will-o’-the-wisps often flicker in and out of sight, even seeming to move with a person’s movements, and are considered an ominous sign. Those blue flames are not ghostly fires, but the spontaneous combustion of gases produced by the decomposition of bodies after death.
A mirage is not the magic of immortals, but the refraction of light in the air. When burning joss paper during tomb-sweeping, a whirlwind might kick up, but it isn’t ghosts coming to snatch the money; it’s because the air above the fire heats up rapidly, causing the airflow to rise quickly while surrounding cold air rushes in to fill the space. And in the dead of winter, when straight cracks appear across the surface of a frozen lake, these are not the footprints of a mountain god, but the result of a sudden drop in temperature causing the ice sheet to expand and crack.