CH 6

Fang Yun sighed softly.

The previous Fang Yun had average memory, and he only went to a private school in the morning and worked as a helper in a restaurant in the afternoon. He didn't learn much and recited little. If nothing unexpected happened, it would be difficult for him to pass the Child Scholar exam.

Fang Yun had learned many things on Earth, but not this.

He thought about his worries and hoped that the extra memories could help him. Then he took out the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

Everything else was ordinary, except for the two paperweights made of simple stones that Yang Yuhuan had picked up from the riverbank. Other people's paperweights were made of specially carved jade, metal, or rare wood. But his paperweights were only two fingers wide and chopstick-long blue stone tools that Yang Yuhuan had slowly polished.

Although the previous Fang Yun felt embarrassed every time he used the paperweights, he liked them very much because they were Yang Yuhuan's gift.

Fang Yun spread out the first test paper and pressed it with the paperweight. He looked at the first question and poured water into the inkstone. He held the long ink stick and ground it slowly.

While he was thinking and grinding the ink, he had no clue about the first question.

"In the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao, where was Sage Confucius?" Fang Yun complained in his heart. "How should I know! This is the first question, and according to my past experience, it should be the easiest." He couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried.

After grinding the ink, Fang Yun chose a small regular script brush, dipped it in the thick ink, put the brush back, and placed a piece of woolen felt under the test paper. With the woolen felt absorbing the ink, the ink wouldn't penetrate the paper.

Fang Yun picked up the brush, reluctantly looked at the first question, and was sure he didn't know the answer. He was about to look at the second question when a cover of an ancient book suddenly appeared in his mind.

"The Records of the Grand Historian."

Then the book automatically turned to "The Seventeenth Chapter of the Genealogy of Confucius." Fang Yun was overjoyed, but the entire page suddenly became blurred.

Fang Yun's heart skipped a beat, feeling that something was wrong. Suddenly, some memory fragments appeared in his mind and flew into "The Records of the Grand Historian." He saw "The Fifth Chapter of the Biography of Sage Confucius" quickly changing from "The Seventeenth Chapter of the Genealogy of Confucius," and the content of "The Biography of Sage Confucius" was much more than that of "The Genealogy of Confucius."

Fang Yun was stunned but quickly understood.

"The Records of the Grand Historian" had twelve biographies, eight books, ten tables, thirty genealogies, and seventy biographies, each with different content.

Among them, the "biography" was at the forefront and was the outline of the entire book, recording the most important emperors and dynasties, such as the Xia Biography and the Qin Biography.

The "genealogy" recorded the deeds of the kings, dukes, and important figures, ranking second only to the biography.

On Earth's "The Records of the Grand Historian," Confucius was only in the genealogy.

However, the Confucius in the Holy Origin Continent was not the same as the Confucius on Earth. His status and practical role exceeded any emperor in the "biography," so there was no "Genealogy of Confucius" in "The Records of the Grand Historian" here, only "The Biography of Sage Confucius," which was listed between the Zhou Biography and the Qin Biography in chronological order.

In the Holy Origin Continent, the author of "The Records of the Grand Historian," Sima Qian, was a Half-Sage and was titled "The Saint of History." He was the representative figure of the Sima family and his words in the book were considered saintly.The text of the fifth biography of Sage Confucius became clear, with densely packed black characters on it. In the blink of an eye, some of the characters turned from black to golden.

After reading these golden words, Fang Yun breathed a long sigh of relief. The golden words were the sentences related to the title.

Fang Yun carefully read it again and thought to himself that the questioner was really tricky. The first question had a small trap. The question asked where Confucius was that year, but in fact, that year Confucius returned from Qi Nation to Lu Nation and was not in one place.

This was not the end. Book after book appeared in Fang Yun's mind. The first book was "Zuo Zhuan". Turning to the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao, the golden font wrote that a man named Jizha from Wu Nation went to Jin Nation.

The second book was the "Book of Rites". Turning to "Under the Sandalwood Bow", it wrote that when Jizha was in Qi Nation, his eldest son died and was buried between Yingbo in Wu Nation. Confucius attended the funeral, but the time of the funeral was not written in this "Book of Rites".

Fang Yun was dizzy. Since these two books jumped out one after another, they must be related to this question. However, it was impossible to determine whether this funeral was in the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao from the surface, so it was impossible to determine whether Confucius went to Wu Nation that year.

Just as Fang Yun was hesitating, various books such as "The Examination of Township and Clan", "The Records of Trustworthiness in Zhuzi and Sizi", "An Examination of Confucius' Return from Qi to Lu", and "The Sayings of Confucius" appeared one after another, with golden font floating.

Fang Yun carefully read these books. The golden words on them proved that Jizha went to Jin Nation and returned, and his eldest son died when he passed through Qi Nation. In this way, the time of his eldest son's death was determined.

Since Confucius attended the funeral, it indicated that he not only went to Qi Nation and Lu Nation in the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao but also went to Wu Nation.

Even with various books for reference, Fang Yun was almost confused. He initially felt that this question had no practical significance, but upon careful consideration, this question was still a comprehensive question in the humanities, including history, geography, and other classics. Even an outstanding talent would find it difficult to answer.

Fang Yun picked up his pen and wrote down the content of the golden words.

"Lu was in chaos, and Confucius went to Qi. In the twenty-seventh year of Duke Zhao, the Qi nobles wanted to harm Confucius, so Confucius left and returned to Lu. Jizha, the son of Yanling, went to Qi, and his eldest son died and was buried between Yingbo. Confucius said, 'Jizha of Yanling is also a person who is proficient in rituals in Wu Nation. I went to observe his funeral.'"

Qi, Lu, and Wu were all present.

After answering the first question, Fang Yun looked at the not-so-neat handwriting and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

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"This Child Scholar's test is too difficult!"

After complaining in his heart, Fang Yun realized that the books in his mind had disappeared and involuntarily guessed their origin.

"I vaguely remember that when the library caught fire and collapsed, the dragon-shaped jade pendant I was wearing broke, and then I don't remember anything. These books couldn't have entered my mind out of thin air. They should be from the Dongjiang Library. My mother said that this jade pendant was left by my father and I must wear it. She said it would protect me. Could it be that my ability to be reborn is really thanks to the jade pendant?"

After pondering for a moment, Fang Yun immediately put away his thoughts and carefully answered the second question.The second question was about when King Xuan of Qi said the phrase "I am greatly ashamed compared to Mencius." A book immediately appeared and Fang Yun quickly wrote down "the third year of King Nan of Zhou."

Fang Yun answered several questions in a row with his pen flying fast. He found that except for the first question, the others were not difficult, so he relaxed.

Fang Yun adjusted his mood, slowed down his speed, and began to write slowly stroke by stroke. He knew that there was also a "handwriting score" at this time. If the handwriting was too poor, even if the answer was correct, the score would be lowered.

Neither of Fang Yun's calligraphy was good, but it was too late to practice now. He could only pass the Child Scholar Exam first.

When he reached the fourteenth question, Fang Yun looked at the test paper and didn't immediately write. His worst fear had happened!

This was still the Holy Origin Continent, not Earth.

In addition to those with the same names as on Earth, there were also Half-Sages who had never appeared in ancient China. The works of these people could not be found in the East Jiang Library.

There was an unwritten rule for the Child Scholar Exam and the Accomplished Scholar Exam.

The Accomplished Scholar Exam had a large number of papers that guaranteed that the works of each Saint were included, but the Child Scholar Exam was different.

Although there were thirty test papers in the Child Scholar Exam, the handwriting was relatively large, and the actual content was less than expected. Only a limited number of test questions could be included, but there were many Saints.

Confucius and the six Semi-Sages had a transcendent status and at least half of the test questions had to be about them. The works of the several Half-Sages who led the Hundred Schools of Thought Contend were also a must-have, otherwise it could not reflect the return of all schools to Confucianism. In Earth's terms, it was "united front" or "political correctness."

The works of several Half-Sages with extremely high historical status were also a must-have, such as Dong Zhongshu's On the Great Unity, Zhuge Liang's Exhausting One's Means, Tao Yuanming's Poetry and Prose, and so on.

This left very little space, and the remaining Half-Sages could not be included.

Therefore, a rule was formed, and the Child Scholar Exam was divided into three parts.

The first part was the famous works of Saints that were tested every year.

The second part was the masterpieces of the three examiners of the year.

The third part was three to five works selected from the remaining Half-Sages' works each year, and they were tested in rotation.

Fang Yun was lucky because, except for the three Half-Sage examiners, all the works of the Saints tested in this year's Child Scholar Exam had appeared on Earth, and the East Jiang Library had collected them.

Before the Child Scholar Exam, once the names of the Half-Sage examiners were determined, candidates from all over the country would spend a lot of time memorizing their masterpieces.

The questions of other Saints varied in difficulty, but the questions of the Half-Sage examiners were particularly simple.

Because the living Half-Sages were new Saints with an unstable foundation, they urgently needed literary fame and naturally wanted the world to know their masterpieces.

"To put it in the words of the past, it's a giveaway question. Scholars and students appreciate it, and the literary fame of the new Saints can be spread, killing two birds with one stone."

Fang Yun relaxed when he thought about it carefully because he had started memorizing the masterpieces of the three Half-Sage examiners last month.

The fourteenth question was very simple. It asked about the time and place of the ennoblement of a Half-Sage named Mi Fengdian. Although Fang Yun couldn't remember it for a moment, he felt that he must have remembered it.

Mi Fengdian was one of the three Half-Sage examiners of this year's Child Scholar Exam, and his name had already spread throughout the world before the exam.Fang Yun pondered for a moment and wrote down: "Autumn of the 145th year of the New Calendar, Shu Nation, Shu Capital."

After answering, Fang Yun suddenly realized that a blank blue-gray ancient book appeared in his mind, and then a small fragment of memory flew into it.

The blank ancient book immediately turned into "The Five Classics Annotations by Feng Dian" (Volume One), written by Mi Fengdian, a Half-Sage, and was canonized 56 years ago.

Then, new blank ancient books appeared one after another, extracting fragments of Fang Yun's memory to form a collection of Mi Fengdian's works and poems, totaling five books, none of which were complete, either being only one volume or fragments.

Fang Yun looked pleased, he didn't expect it to turn out like this.

"I don't know what that is, but since there are a lot of books and it can absorb new books, let's call it 'Wonder Book World.'"

The next question was also about the Half-Sage of Shu Nation, Zhuge Liang, who had already passed away.

The experiences of Zhuge Liang in different worlds were different. Fang Yun took some time to think and avoid answering incorrectly.

The state established by Liu Bei was called "Han," claiming to be the legitimate successor of the Han Dynasty. They never had a Shu Nation, but others did not recognize it and referred to it as Shu Nation, which had a derogatory meaning. This continued on to later generations.

In the Holy Origin Mainland, Liu Bei also established a state called "Han" and aimed to inherit the Great Han's legacy and unify the Holy Origin Mainland. However, he was opposed by the alliance of Dong Wu and Wei Nation, and had to change the country name to "Shu" and was ultimately maintained by the Half-Sage Zhuge Liang until it became one of the ten countries.

With the Wonder Book World, Fang Yun became even more familiar with the Zhuge Liang from Earth.