Back In Time For Imperial Examination Chapter 162

At dawn, several imperial censors and supervisors inspected the examination room. They assigned a sergeant from the provincial army to guard each examination room and ordered the candidates not to stand up or walk around at will. Only then did the first provincial examination officially begin.

The papers that had been handed in to the ritual room of Shuntian Prefecture earlier were distributed, with a printed test paper inside. Twenty-three questions were neatly printed on the paper: three questions from the Four Books and twenty questions from the Five Classics. The candidates picked out four questions to do according to their own classics.

If there are talented people who have learned all the Five Classics, they can also do all the twenty questions on the Five Classics. As long as they have the ability to answer them all, no matter how well they answer, they can earn a reputation of being "learned" and are sure to pass the exam.

Ryan Cui certainly didn't have the energy and academic ability. According to the experience passed down by his teachers and predecessors, the seven essays in the exam are only focused on the first one. The examiners don't have enough energy to look at the later ones, and they won't look at them carefully. They can directly use familiar essays or even essays they have seen before. Even if the examiners recognize it, they will not blame you for plagiarism. Instead, they will have to accept it because it has been examined by other examiners and the level is enough to be accepted.

If it was another examiner, he could have copied some papers, but since Teacher Li was the examiner, he, as a student, had his reputation tied to Teacher Li's, so he couldn't make any mistakes. There were more than 2,300 candidates participating in the provincial examination, but only 135 candidates were selected. As soon as the examination was over, some failed candidates would go to Shuntian Prefecture and beat drums to accuse Li Dongyang of admitting him based on personal preference. If he copied someone else's essay, the failed candidates would know about it and would attack the examiner for being unfair in selecting candidates and selecting a talentless person like him. If he used his own old essay, someone with ulterior motives might use it to frame Li Dongyang for leaking the questions to him in advance...