Chapter 435: Second Provincial Examination
In one morning, Sun Shan not only successfully finished three questions from the Four Books, but also passed the test.
Sun Shan kept it carefully. This was the answer and it must not be dirty or damaged.
At noon, the officials came to distribute the food. Sun Shan took a look and found that it was white rice with braised meat, a plate of vegetables and a bowl of egg drop soup.
Oh my, the food in the provincial examination is not at the same level as that in the imperial examination. The food in the provincial examination is so sumptuous, which is completely beyond people's expectations.
Because only candidates go to the toilet in the morning, the toilet next door is not very smelly for the time being.
Sun Shan quickly stuffed the food into his stomach. Although he really didn't want to eat, he still ate it all.
Alas, the weather is hot, and I am naturally in a bad mood. Although it is autumn, the summer cicadas are still chirping, which makes people even more irritable.
After the official took the bowl away, Sun Shan rested for a while. When he woke up, he had to pee urgently, so he applied to the toilet.
At this time, the toilet was already full of grains. Sun Shan felt nauseous. After enduring the extreme stench, he hurriedly went to the toilet and walked two steps to his cell.
Sun Shan stared ahead with dull eyes, just like the dull look he had when he was five years old standing by the river.
Sun Shan's cell was in the last row, with the same layout as the ones for the college entrance examination. On his right was a Chaozhou man, and on his left was a toilet, which was against the wall.
In front of him was a row of rooms, but they were facing away from him.
That is to say, he was the only one in the West District who was next to the toilet. The candidates in front of him might smell the stench, but they were able to ignore it.
Sun Shan was so angry. Why did God arrange him to this place?
Could it be that "Therefore, when Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a man, it will first test his mind and will, exhaust his muscles and bones, starve his body, deprive him of all poverty, and make his plans frustrated. This is to stir his heart and harden his nature, and increase his ability to do what he could not do before."?
But Sun Shan felt that he didn't need it, because he had done it once, so why would he need to do it again.
Sun Shan's mind was full of thoughts and he couldn't fall asleep. He was greasy after eating and wanted to take a nap.
But my brain was working at high speed, so after thinking about it, I got up and continued to do the questions.
I washed my face with water first and applied some homemade cooling oil under my nose.
Sun Shan originally wanted to make Tiger Balm, but the ingredients were hard to find, so he changed it to make a home version of cooling oil.
Homemade refreshing drink, very simple
The method is also very simple. Steam the wormwood and mint leaves, filter them, add tea seed oil and steam again, and finally add natural beeswax. Put it into a jar and wait for it to cool down until it becomes solid.
Cooling oil has the functions of cooling and repelling mosquitoes, relieving itching and reducing swelling, and is a must-have item at home.
This time he brought it in mainly to repel mosquitoes and relieve itching, but now he uses it as perfume.
When he came in, the officers broke his solidified cooling oil into pieces, but it was fine as long as it was usable.
Sun Shan also scattered a lot of sulfur in the cell to repel mosquitoes, snakes and ants. Combined with the smell of cooling oil and the smell of the toilet, Sun Shan now didn't know what he was smelling.
After gulping down a bowl of water, he continued to do the questions.
My current condition is pretty good, much better than the drowsy feeling I had during the college entrance examination. At least I haven’t suffered from heatstroke, and my ears and eyes are still very clear.
There were four questions on the Five Classics in total, and Sun Shan planned to finish one question first and then think about the next one.
I had never done these four questions before, but I quickly found the sources. It seems that the examiner really intends to take a steady and cautious approach.
The questions were not very difficult. For those candidates who were familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics, as long as they had a solid foundation, they could find the sources of the questions.
So these questions tested the candidates' understanding of the annotations. Sun Shan instantly gained confidence and continued to work hard.
I don’t know how long it was before the person who delivered dinner arrived. After packing up and eating dinner, Sun Shan planned to continue working on his homework in the evening.
On the first day of the three-day exam, Sun Shan finished all the questions on the Four Books and also came up with a question on the Five Classics. He was very satisfied with his speed.
Finish one Five Classics question tonight, then finish the remaining three Five Classics questions tomorrow, and check for any missed questions the day after tomorrow.
After dinner, candidates came one after another to poison the students. This time, they were even more ruthless and clearly wanted to go to the toilet.
Sun Shan lay on the bed in a daze, deciding to go to sleep first and wait until those people had gone to the toilet before starting to do the questions.
I don’t know how long I waited, but the Teochew guy next door started snoring.
Sun Shan looked up at the sky helplessly. The Chaozhou guy next door seemed to be only five or six years older than him. How could he snore when he was so young?
It was even possible for him to sleep so soundly in such an environment, which impressed Sun Shan.
He got up, lit a candle, washed his face, and applied some cooling oil to his nose. Then, Sun Shan put up the wooden board and continued to do the questions.
"Attract the people of the world, gather the goods of the world, trade and leave, and everyone gets what they deserve"
This is a question from the Book of Changes.
From "The Book of Changes_Xici Part 2".
The general meaning is "open a market at noon, gather people from all over the place, and gather goods from all over the place. After the transaction, everyone gets what they want and leaves."
It tells the story of the early days of business, when there was no currency and only goods were exchanged.
Sun Shan thought about it and realized that this question seemed to be about the most primitive way of trading, but it actually highlighted the last sentence - "everyone gets what they deserve."
How to achieve “everyone gets what they deserve”?
In "Su Shu * Yuan Shi" it is said: Virtue is what people gain, which enables all things to get what they want.
The so-called virtue is what people get. It means letting all things in the world get what they deserve and what they hope to get.
Note: "Desire is the desire to seek. Desire but not to obtain is not the highest virtue. Those who seek rules and regulations only get squares and circles; those who seek balances only get weights and weights."
It can be seen that the so-called "virtue" means "gain".
It means to enable the general public to get what they deserve, to find their own position, to make the best use of their talents, and to enable all things in the world to fully display their strengths and satisfy their wishes. It definitely does not mean to take them for oneself.
Sun Shan was sweating profusely as he thought about it.
From a passage in the Book of Changes, we can grasp the central idea of the topic: "Everyone gets what he deserves."
Then the reference book "Su Shu" is introduced by the annotation of "each gets what he deserves".
Finally, we can grasp the key word "得" again from "各得其所"-----lead to the fact that "德" can also be written as "得", and finally we can get the meaning we want to express most.
The title comes from the "Book of Changes", which apparently talks about trade, but in fact it talks about "virtue", and has nothing to do with the original commercial activities.
Sun Shan couldn't help but think that the test questions would not only test the proficiency in the Four Books and Five Classics, but also the scope of one's expanded reading in daily life.
The provincial examination is not in the same category as the college entrance examination in the previous life, and the difficulty level is not the same.
The scope of the provincial examination appears to be narrow, but in reality it is very broad, or it can be said to have no scope.
There is also a reference range for you to refer to for the college entrance examination.
After Sun Shan figured out the main idea of the question, he began to solve it.
In the dead of night, I finally finished this problem of "The Book of Changes".
Sun Shan wiped the sweat from his forehead again, took a long breath, packed up his things quickly, lay down on the board without any image, endured the stench, and fell into a deep sleep.