Chapter 149: All Lyrical Composition Rankings Released, All Names Revealed! |
Without a doubt, the Ode to the Goddess of the Luo was rated as Upper Jia-grade.
As one of the very few able to achieve this rank.
When the Grand Secretaries were grading the papers, they all felt somewhat peculiar.
Song Shi'an had very few articles 'circulating in the world.' His history before age twenty was essentially blank, with only two pieces available for reference from the provincial examination: "An Exhortation to Learning" and "Strategy for Military Farming."
These examiners had each read them no fewer than ten times, precisely to identify some of his writing habits so they could pick at flaws during evaluation.
However, among the hundred Jia-grade lyrical compositions, only a portion bore writing habits similar to his, and among the nine pieces that could be rated as Upper Jia-grade, Song Shi'an's was definitely not among them.
They could be certain of this.
Therefore, his lyrical composition subject was at least ranked beyond tenth place.
Originally, they had wanted to trip him up a bit...
It seemed that in terms of literary talent, he was still lacking.
"I invite you to ascend the Lingxiao Pavilion for a moment—which scholar will become a marquis with ten thousand households?" Those words were more about grand ambition and lofty intent than literary skill.
The next afternoon, it was time to finalize the rankings for lyrical composition.
Of course, the Grand Secretaries couldn't make the final decision—ultimately the Emperor would make the call, but they needed to provide a ranking that represented their collective consensus.
Basically, the suggested ranking was equivalent to the actual ranking.
Except for a few predetermined positions that needed minor adjustments.
The Emperor's word was law, but the Emperor also couldn't be too tyrannical. If the conclusions reached after collective deliberation by these Grand Secretaries were completely disregarded, and the actual rankings were distorted beyond recognition, the Grand Secretaries' enthusiasm would be greatly diminished.
Except for tyrants and incompetent rulers, anyone who wanted to be a good emperor understood one principle—the imperial court absolutely could not become a one-man show of 'go play by yourself.'
"Has His Highness the Prince of Jin arrived?" Gu Yixin asked.
"Master Gu, he should be arriving soon," Zhang Zhao said.
"Have the scholars judge everything below Jia-grade first. For Jia-grade, we'll wait for the Prince of Jin to arrive," Gu Yixin decided.
Everyone waited like this for the Prince of Jin to arrive.
Before long, he came.
Everyone rose to salute.
The Prince of Jin returned the courtesy.
Then, he and Gu Yixin sat in the seats of honor, with six Grand Secretaries below them, three on the left and three on the right.
"Your Highness, all the Jia-grade papers are here, all still sealed. We are about to discuss the specific rankings. We request Your Highness to make the decision," Gu Yixin said.
"Master Gu, esteemed tutors, all of you are learned scholars of great erudition. You may discuss freely. This prince is merely observing. In the end, this must still be submitted to His Majesty for His Majesty to decide," the Prince of Jin said.
"Then we shall obey your command."
Gu Yixin nodded, then continued: "Then let us first rank the Upper Jia-grade papers."
Work began.
Sun Kang rose and said: "These three pieces are slightly inferior among the Upper Jia-grade. I propose ranking them seventh, eighth, and ninth. Does anyone have objections?"
Everyone agreed.
To directly rank first through ninth would be too agonizing, but dividing even the top tier into layers made things much easier.
"This piece, 'Dream of Orchid Stream,' has the weakest substance among the three. How about ninth place?" Sun Kang asked.
"The scenery description is good, but it lacks some content."
"Indeed, lyrical compositions have never been purely for displaying literary prowess. This piece has basically obscured all its meaning."
"A purely aesthetic piece."
It was like someone writing a long passage of scenery, exquisitely beautiful, then ending with "this place is truly wonderful, making one linger and forget to return"—its ceiling would be right there.
Why would there be such emotionally insufficient articles in Upper Jia-grade?
Because the writing itself was truly too comfortable to read.
Just like Yu Qiuyu, constantly criticized by his peers, and his book "Cultural Journey," also criticized.
Many people dislike him, possibly because they reject the author's character.
But setting aside character, it really is a good book.
Reading it is very comfortable.
Very quickly, these three pieces were finalized after discussion.
Then the scholars presented them to the Prince of Jin for his personal review.
After reading them, he discovered that he really couldn't be a Grand Secretary.
His comprehension and experience were completely different from these old scholars.
But they were all quite good—not a single one was something he could have written himself. Even if not in the imperial examination context, but given ten days to half a month to ponder.
What he was more curious about was the hierarchical distinction among the nine articles.
These three were together, while among the remaining six, five were in one pile, with the last one separated on its own.
That one should be Sun Qian's.
Why make things so obvious?
Even if giving him the predetermined first place, they couldn't do it so blatantly, could they?
Having reached jinshi level, how could there be such a gap in leadership?
Hadn't Father Emperor's warning taught them a lesson?
The Prince of Jin was indeed part of the aristocratic faction, wanting the aristocracy to counterbalance the meritorious nobility, but he didn't want everyone under him to be rebellious, arguing with the Emperor.
Wait, I'll mention this later.
"These five pieces—both the literary skill and the themes are excellent. Among them, the best written are 'Ode to the Mountains and Rivers of Great Yu' and 'Ascending the Flying Phoenix Pavilion of Xiang River,'" Sun Kang said. "In terms of pure scenery description, they're somewhat stronger than the remaining three."
"But 'The Great River Flows East' has magnificent momentum, and this student's patriotic feelings are expressed most vividly," Zhang Zhao said. "The theme is very lofty and far-reaching."
"'Ode to the Mountains and Rivers of Great Yu' also contains such sentiment."
"Yes, the line 'waves smash the mighty pass, once breaking the horses of Ji's vain ambitions, billows sink Qi's swords'—combined with this recent great victory at Shuofeng, it can invigorate all the people!"
This statement especially pleased the Prince of Jin.
But he couldn't comment.
Because according to the Grand Secretaries' determination, the lyrical composition first place was that separate one.
"Your Highness, please review."
Others presented these three pieces to the Prince of Jin.
After carefully reading them, he felt the differences were indeed not great.
But clearly, "Ode to the Mountains and Rivers of Great Yu" was better.
Perhaps it was the Grand Secretaries' earlier evaluation that had influenced his judgment. He was particularly fond of those nine characters: "breaking the horses of Ji's vain ambitions, billows sink Qi's swords."
The Prince of Jin nodded.
Still fairly efficient—second through ninth places were all finalized.
"Ode to the Mountains and Rivers of Great Yu" led as second place.
What remained was first place.
That first place was Sun Qian's.
So could this second place, which even the Prince of Jin found excellent at first glance, be Song Shi'an?
If it really was, that would be too terrifying.
Even in a subject he wasn't good at, his performance was this perfect?
Did this person have any weaknesses at all?
Perhaps using him back then could really have countered the meritorious nobility and aristocracy.
What the Prince of Jin feared most was being a puppet, so he needed strong supporters.
Could it be that missing Song Shi'an was the greatest mistake of his life...
"As for the last one, which is the first place we collectively selected, there's no need to evaluate it," Gu Yixin said with a slight smile, looking to the side. "Your Highness, please review."
The Prince of Jin accepted this piece.
"Ode to the Goddess of the Luo."
It was about the Luo River, and specifically one within Si Prefecture's territory.
Why would Sun Qian write about this?
It wasn't a great river, nor was it from his hometown.
He didn't understand, but he respected it.
He continued reading.
As he read, he became completely immersed, fully absorbed.
As if entering a kind of illusory, hazy, vast and misty divine realm. Within it was a noble and beautiful goddess, emanating fragrance throughout her being, making his heart yearn...
The Prince of Jin immediately became enraptured.
After the goddess dissipated at the end, he couldn't help but feel lost, as if something was empty inside.
"What excellent writing."
After finishing, the Prince of Jin truly felt it was well-deserved.
It was written so beautifully, with effortless elegance, and quite embarrassingly, there were some characters he didn't even recognize.
However, in his view, this lingered somewhat on romantic sentiment between men and women...
The second-place work seemed to have greater grandeur?
The difference between the two wasn't great.
Based on the Prince of Jin's reaction, the Grand Secretaries could tell.
Whatever other accomplishments this prince might have, in terms of literature, he would find it very difficult to achieve anything more.
He couldn't even distinguish between compositions and masterpieces—he'd probably struggle to even pass the juren examination.
"This prince has no objections," the Prince of Jin finally said.
"In that case, let's rank Upper Jia-grade according to this order," Gu Yixin said.
Next came the remaining Jia-grade papers.
Since they had already been reviewed, it was basically one paper per minute.
In less than two hours, all Jia-grade rankings were finalized.
At the same time, the remaining fifty-plus scholars also finalized the rankings for all examination papers below Jia-grade.
Of course, it was impossible to rank all three thousand students.
Only the nearly five hundred in Yi-grade were ranked.
The rest were simply labeled with two characters: Bing-grade, Ding-grade.
The complex, high-intensity work was finally finished, and several old men were thoroughly exhausted.
Next, under the supervision of the Prince of Jin and eunuchs from the palace, they began unsealing names and registering them.
However, this task was done by the remaining scholars.
The ordinary grading scholars had to continue the initial review of policy essays.
Therefore, those free to pay attention to the name unsealing were these Grand Secretaries and the Prince of Jin.
Among three thousand names, they only cared about two.
The Prince of Jin wanted to know who this second place was, nearly equal to first place.
The Grand Secretaries only cared about who was first.
"'Ode to the Mountains and Rivers of Great Yu,' Sun Qian of Sheng'an."
With this loud announcement, the Prince of Jin was completely stunned.
What?
Sun Qian was second, shouldn't he be first!
Had the other Grand Secretaries made a mistake?
Just as he was thinking this, he discovered that everyone else had expected this result, with only a few making very superficial shows of surprise.
"This Young Master Sun Qian is truly formidable," Sun Kang said.
"Indeed, at such a young age to achieve second place in lyrical composition," someone else praised. "His future is limitless."
Clearly, they had deliberately placed this Sun Qian in second.
Which meant everyone thought this "Ode to the Goddess of the Luo" was much stronger than Sun Qian's, so they dared not manipulate the results?
Then who was this person?
"'Ode to the Goddess of the Luo,' Song Shi'an of Sheng'an."
However, when this statement was made, all the Grand Secretaries collectively froze, all dumbfounded.
They had never imagined it would be him!
Except for Sun Kang, who had some inkling.
But even he couldn't believe it could really be Song Shi'an!
However, even more bewildered was the Prince of Jin—you didn't know this was Song Shi'an's, yet you collectively rated him first?
...
That evening, after receiving news from the eunuchs, Chen Bao hurried to report to the Emperor.
His mood was both chaotic and excited.
Because there was truly too much to say.
"Your Majesty, Song Ce's lyrical composition ranking is out—Yi-grade eighteenth, roughly overall around 120th or so," Chen Bao said.
"Not bad, he's taught his son well."
The Emperor even felt a bit envious of Song Jing.
Sixteen years old, at the metropolitan examination, among three thousand people, ranked 120th in lyrical composition.
This was definitely a talented prodigy.
"When the policy essay results come out, pick someone from the Jia-grade lyrical composition around fiftieth or sixtieth who definitely won't pass, and swap rankings with him," the Emperor said.
Jia-grade fiftieth in lyrical composition, Yi-grade first in policy essay.
Song Ce's jinshi was basically secured.
"That Wang Shuishan—lyrical composition at Yi-grade 290th," Chen Bao said.
"Find someone at Yi-grade fiftieth and swap with him," the Emperor decided.
As long as Wang Shuishan performed well in policy essay, his chances for jinshi were also very, very high.
Next came the main event.
Sun Qian and Song Shi'an.
After a moment of composure, Chen Bao restrained his joy and said with a somewhat trembling voice: "Your Majesty, in lyrical composition rankings, Song Shi'an is first, Sun Qian is second."
Policy essay was already Song Shi'an's strong suit.
Now, no matter how they manipulated things, Sun Qian couldn't possibly compete with Song Shi'an for zhuangyuan!
Originally, Chen Bao thought the Emperor would be somewhat happy.
However, the other slowly turned his head, looked at him, and asked: "You mean to say, with the Grand Secretaries setting questions to favor Sun Qian, grading to favor Sun Qian, and wanting to favor Sun Qian in rankings—under all those circumstances, Song Shi'an is first and he is second?"
"..." Chen Bao froze.
The Emperor's face was frosty, full of murderous intent: "His two sons are truly terrifying."