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Chapter 45: Submitting the Exam Early
🕑 Added 2024-10-02 08:17:29 +0000 UTCEstablishing a unified theory through the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and the Four Seasons to explain the mysteries of heaven and earth and the cycles of life and death has always been the ultimate goal of the agricultural school of thought.
This topic is too vast and profound to be truly answered, even for a top-ranking Grand Shennong official.
However, precisely because of this, everyone can at least score some points on the final question.
Clerks only need to answer according to existing theories, and even if they just write down memorized material, they could still earn two or three points out of twenty.
If they manage to slightly connect the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and the Four Seasons, they could earn half the points.
For higher scores, they must present something innovative.
But they can’t go too far beyond the established theories, as that would be considered "fabrication." Even seasoned Shennong officials may not be able to do it.
So why include such a difficult question if innovation is so hard to achieve?
The importance of the "Five Elements and Four Seasons Theory" lies in the fact that all Shennong officials refer to it when casting the Seasonal Command Spells.
When the Four Seasons are unclear, the officials must determine them. How? By using the power of the Five Elements.
If the Four Seasons are chaotic, how can they be corrected? Once again, the Five Elements must be employed.
Thus, this question is timeless and ever-relevant.
“Clerks can freely answer with their own thoughts and speculations, but they must also consider the examiners' preferences.”
“If the examiner belongs to the Heaven School, the theory in The Grand Five Elements of Heaven would be the best approach. If the examiner belongs to the Earth School, then The Doctrine of Earth Ruling Late Summer would be most suitable.”
“If the examiner is from the Self-School? Then it’s The Yin-Yang Five Elements of the Self. But the Self-School is weak, and its ideas are not popular. Using it to answer would be risky,” Zhao Xing thought.
The Self-School believes that living beings have their own internal timing systems, or "biological clocks," with the five internal organs corresponding to the Five Elements, and the body’s other parts corresponding to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
This theory is called the "Small Five Elements and Four Seasons Theory," also known as the "Internal Five Elements and Four Seasons Theory." From the name alone, it's clear that it’s not widely accepted in the mainstream and remains rather niche.
However, in the Revival Era, the Self-School rises to dominance, and this theory becomes widespread, crushing other schools.
The reason? The ability to "cultivate pure origin soil within the body" and "nurture primordial seeds in the dantian." Eventually, practitioners could observe their inner universe and create a world within themselves.
But if Zhao Xing were to write about this now, even members of the Self-School would consider him insane, as the furthest anyone has gotten in the present era is "cultivating pure origin soil." Creating an inner world? That’s madness!
So Zhao Xing immediately dismissed the idea.
“The earliest Five Elements theory paired Jia with wood, Bing with fire, Wu with earth, Geng with metal, and Ren with water. But the connections were too weak and didn’t account for the balance of the seasons.”
“Later, the seasons were divided into 'Meng,' 'Zhong,' and 'Ji' months.”
“The three months of spring—Mengchun, Zhongchun, and Jichun—are located in the east and belong to the element of wood, paired with Jia and Yi.”
“The two months of summer—Mengxia and Zhongxia—are located in the south and belong to the element of fire, paired with Bing and Ding.”
“The third month of summer, 'Jixia,' is located at the center, belonging to the element of earth, paired with Wu and Ji.”
“The three months of autumn—Mengqiu, Zhongqiu, and Jiqiu—are located in the west and belong to the element of metal, paired with Geng and Xin.”
“The three months of winter—Mengdong, Zhongdong, and Jidong—are located in the north and belong to the element of water, paired with Ren and Gui.”
This is the mainstream theory known as the "Doctrine of Earth Ruling Late Summer."
Zhao Xing had no intention of trying to make his answer stand out since he knew he wouldn’t lose many points on the earlier questions. He was confident that he had already performed well enough to stand out in this exam, so he simply copied the mainstream theory verbatim.
This way, he was assured of at least a 30% score on this question.
"If this were an official temple exam, I could add a bit of refinement. The current Five Elements theory has an imbalance—fire and earth are too weak, collectively covering only two months."
"Should I offer a bit of personal insight here?"
Zhao Xing pondered for half an hour, his brush hovering in hesitation.
In the end, he decided to add two more sentences:
“Among the Five Elements, none are more valuable than earth. It governs all seasons but does not share its glory with fire.”
"Each element governs a season, with earth residing at the center, holding the reins and regulating the four directions.”
With that, Zhao Xing refrained from writing more. This was only a slight improvement to the imbalance in the current Five Elements theory and didn’t count as a significant alteration.
In essence, he had removed earth from the role of directly governing the seasons, instead assigning it a "symbolic control" over the four directions.
But that was enough. A low-ranking clerk who could come up with this already demonstrated great thoughtfulness.
In fact, this was the embryonic form of the future "Theory of Earth Ruling All Four Seasons," but Zhao Xing had no intention of revealing the fully developed version yet. His position wasn’t high enough to support such a bold claim, and speaking too much could bring trouble.
After completing the final question, Zhao Xing realized that it was already dawn—the second day had begun.
“The exam started in the afternoon, and now it's the next morning? I ended up spending so much time on that last question!”
True scholars know the importance of pacing themselves. In the previous exam, Zhao Xing not only managed his own score but also influenced others.
This time, he had to be even more careful, so he took a bit longer.
“I’m starving. I haven’t eaten a thing, and the meal they brought me has gone cold.”
Having struck it rich after his fishing expedition, Zhao Xing no longer cared for the cold "employee meals."
He planned to submit his paper early and head to a restaurant after leaving the exam hall.
Zhao Xing carefully gathered his exam papers, ensuring none were missing, and carried them to the exam office.
Though it was early in the morning and still a bit dark, the patrol and exam supervisors remained vigilant. In an official temple exam, even spirit deities would be present to prevent ghostly interventions and cheating!
"Hmm? Submitting so early?" Xue Wenzhong, sitting in the office, raised an eyebrow as Zhao Xing entered with the guards.
He thought Zhao Xing was being overconfident. The exam wasn’t even halfway done, and Zhao Xing was already finished?
Xue Wenzhong knew the difficulty of the questions, having designed them himself to select the best candidates for the county. The exams grew increasingly challenging as they progressed.
Zhao Xing had a good grasp of spells, but theory was a different matter. A man with muscle doesn’t necessarily write beautiful essays.
“Could his success in the last two exams have made him arrogant?”
Zhao Xing handed in his papers and bowed. “Esteemed officials, I am here to submit my exam.”
Gao Linong, Tang Wanchun, and Pang Yuan were equally surprised. They shared Xue Wenzhong’s thoughts—how could he be finished so soon?
But they quickly composed themselves, showing no outward reaction. Inwardly, they had all resolved the same thing:
Good, good, good. We’re not afraid of your arrogance, only that you won’t be arrogant enough. Since you’re the first to submit, we’ll scrutinize your answers with extra care. No favoritism here!
Chen Shijie, however, had a different opinion. His trust in Zhao Xing’s abilities far exceeded that of the others. It came from a natural confidence he had in this "close friend."
“Well done, being the first to submit. I knew I wasn’t wrong about you. Wait a moment while we quickly assess your results.”
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