Le Cheng Emperor wanted to read in advance, so naturally Chen Zheng Ming could only respectfully presented it up.
Speaking of this imperial exam, if one has good handwriting, then even if the content was a little inferior, majority of times, it would still get a better grade than those essays with bad handwriting yet pretty good content. After all, when the examiners are grading the exam, the first thing they look at is the handwriting, and only if it’s good will they have the mood to keep reading. And as long as the content isn’t terrible, it should still be promising. But, if one has crappy handwriting, then after the first glance, the examiner will not want to give it a second glance, and probably will directly be thrown back. In this case, no matter how great the contents were, if it wasn’t even looked over, what all can you still hope for?
Chen Zheng Min’s handwriting, Le Cheng Emperor had already seen, so naturally it wasn’t bad. In the beginning, he still carried three part absentmindedness. His thoughts were the same as the majority of the court officials’. In this short amount of time, even if Chen Zheng Min had gone back and carefully pondered over this problem before, the improvement still wouldn’t be particularly great. However, gradually, Le Cheng Emperor’s expression became solemn, his posture also unconsciously straightened up even more.
Seeing Le Cheng Emperor’s reaction, the court officials all looked to one another, seemingly somewhat beyond their expectation. Afterwards, quite a few all had their sights placed onto Chen Zheng Min again, who was sitting upright with his brows lowered and his gaze restrained, and didn’t, because his was the first to be personally read over by Le Cheng Emperor, become elated, and nor was he nervous. In fact, he was startled by neither favor nor insult. Such young age, could it be that he’ll become the second Sun Yi Lin?
Compared to previously when he read Sun Yi Lin’s essay, Le Cheng Emperor’s current speed was actually a little slower, seemingly still pondering over some areas. This, could it be that it was even better than what Sun Yi Lin wrote? If this really was the case, then it truly would be impressive.
Although the time spent on it was a little longer, Le Cheng Emperor however didn’t let out any elated expressions either, momentarily making everyone unable to grasp the situation.
“Beloved officials, you all take it for a look too.” Le Cheng Emperor once again had the inner court attendant take the essay to the court officials.
The court exam naturally was the same as the previous exams, having a time limit. As the time passed little by little, more and more people finished. Naturally, there were also those that because their mental strength wasn’t good enough, got affected, becoming increasingly frantic and increasingly worse, and thus naturally wasn’t able to write well. From the looks of it, they ultimately will only have room to cushion the bottom.
In the meantime, Sun Yi Lin and Chen Zheng Min’s essay have more or less been read and passed on by all the court officials already.
Le Cheng Emperor had someone go collect a few more essays over for him to read. Of course, the further towards the front, the greater the chance to get picked.
There were those few that made Le Cheng Emperor nod his head instinctively as he read.
“Beloved Minister Luo, did that Chen Zheng Min ever take this exam prompt to you for guidance?”
“Replying to your Majesty, no.”
Speaking of which, this prompt, Chen Zheng Min had gotten from Sun Yi Lin. Moreover, after learning that Sun Yi Lin had feelings for his fiancee, even desiring to steal her away, and probably because he was also haunted by the desire to win, Chen Zheng Min thus didn’t take this prompt to Luo Pei Shan.
Le Cheng Emperor nodded. “Have to say, Beloved Minister Luo’s eyesights are indeed very good. Everyone has also looked over, what do you all think? Beloved Minister Ruan, you speak first.”
Ruan Rui Zhong stroked his beard, “Although in certain areas it’s still immature, but there are also quite a few original points. Scribe[1] Sun’s previous essay was full of drive, with some places indeed a little extreme, and this current one is clearly trying to complement the previous one. Combining both sides, there’s stability in the middle ground, making progress while ensuring stability, truly hard to come by. And as for candidate Chen’s previous essay, this subject does not know about, but solely discussing this current one, it’s a combination of new and strange. And one thing that is similar with Scribe Sun’s is that it doesn’t lack that youthful drive, similarly a fine piece of writing.”
Le Cheng Emperor then listened to the other people’s opinions, naturally also including his sons’. In reality, to him, his sons’ views were actually even more important than the court officials’. Li Hong Yi’s comment conformed with the norm, but secretly all leaned towards Sun Yi Lin. Li Hong Ming’s evaluation can be considered impartial, and also had his own views, not bad. Gong Qinwang, in military affairs, rather stood out quite exceptionally, but in scholarly learning, he was even worse than Li Hong Yi. The sickly number five, this while, was still laying in bed, and as for the ones behind Li Hong Yuan, the one that ranked seventh simply didn’t have any interest in these, while number eight had already gone to the underworld to become brothers with number two. As for the two further back, their time spent participating in politics so far was short; their answers more or less was just ‘I agree too’. As for the ones in the rear, for the time being, they still don’t have the qualifications to appear here yet.
“Old six, what do you think?” Originally someone that they thought would be overlooked, but unexpectedly, in the end, Le Cheng Emperor still pointed out ‘Bastard Yuan’. Just look at that sitting posture of his, the worst of everyone present, appearing lazy and bored, like as if he was about to fall asleep.
Li Hong Yuan lifted his eyes, and then slowly stood up, “Imperial father, are you sure you want to hear this son say?”
Le Cheng Emperor choked. As expected, he was just looking to suffer. He waved his hand, letting him quickly sit down, and stop being an embarrassment.
Li Hong Yuan’s face was already thicker than the city walls, and the court officials have also long been accustomed to it, not having the slightest reaction. Even those officials that secretly belonged to him also were long accustomed to his two completely different kind of style when in public and when in secret.
In actuality, Li Hong Yuan was thinking, if his old man really were to make him say, then he was actually prepared to seriously say a few words. Whether it be the current Chen Zheng Min, or Sun Yi Lin, in his eyes, they were both immature brats. Truthfully speaking, if not for involving Wan Wan, then these two, in another ten years, perhaps might be able to receive a good look from him. Their thoughts and opinions at the moment were still far inferior.
Le Cheng Emperor, rather, didn’t rashly decide Chen Zheng Min’s placing either, letting the court officials quickly read a few more. All were ones belonging to the top twenty candidates of the metropolitan exam, and quite a few were all popular for the first class.
When the time was up, all the exam papers were collected over.
Although the court exam was personally overseen by the Emperor, no Emperor would actually read through several hundred essays one by one. For him to be able to read twenty was already pretty good. And the ones that need for him to personally appoint, normally, were just the three people in the first class.
Le Cheng Emperor, according to the essays he read over, randomly asked a few other’s opinion, and afterwards, more or less had an idea inside.
“In the court exam this time, Candidate Chen Zheng Min was the most outstanding, but because he’d previously solved this problem beforehand, thus will be dropped from this place, granting first class third place, entering the Imperial Hanlin Academy as an editor. Candidate Xie Ren Xun’s essay, although slightly inferior, but was fair and upright, deeply receiving this emperor’s favor, granting first class first place, entering the Imperial Hanlin Academy as a compiler. Candidate Jiang Wei’s essay was also a top quality work, granting first class second place, entering the Imperial Hanlin Academy as an editor. As for the remaining essays, they will be handed over to the Ministry of Appointments and evaluated as soon as possible, releasing a proper rankings list.”
(T/N: I just noticed that this new character Xie Ren Xun (谢仁勋) has the exact same name as the Cabinet Minister Jiang back in chapter 102. It was mentioned only once but Cabinet Minister Jiang’s full name is Jiang Ren Xun (姜仁勋). I wonder if the author really likes this name.)
Top Scorer Xie Ren Xun, metropolitan civil service exam third place;
Eyes of Notice[2] Jiang Wei, metropolitan civil service exam first place;
Flower Snatcher Chen Zheng Min, metropolitan civil service exam fifth place.
Chen Zheng Min was surprised, but the final ranking can also be considered within expectations. After all, among the top ten of the metropolitan exam, he was the youngest and looked the most handsome. All say the flower snatcher wasn’t judged solely on one’s learning, but also in appearance as well. It’s said that after every court exam, the most popular was usually never first and second place, but rather the third place flower snatcher.
Of course, to be able to enter the imperial court as an official, at the very least, need to look proper and upright. In other words, among the court officials, for the most part, there weren’t any ‘crooked gourds or split jujubes’[3]. Although for the regional officials, the requirements weren’t this strict, but if one’s appearance really is a hinderance to the eyes, then it definitely won’t do either. Even if one was able to smoothly become a successful official of a region by relying on one’s solid backdoor relations, one still wouldn’t be able to become an official in the capital in their lifetime.
The court exam, for the most part, was able to come to an end.
“During the Grand Elder Princess’s birthday, the ten prizes, among you all, is there anyone who received an embroidered pouch?”
Among the three hundred candidates, there really was someone that had gotten an embroidered pouch. Where he sat belonged to the middle section, slightly towards the front. He somewhat excitedly walked out from where he was originally sitting. “This student was fortunate enough to receive one.”
“Come forward.” When that youth reached the front, Le Cheng Emperor causally asked a few things, and then had the embroidered pouch in his hand fetched over. He opened it up and looked over what was written on the slip of paper inside. “Go, have the prepared bestowments all brought over, then have the holders of the other nine embroidered pouches all summoned into the palace immediately.” Le Cheng Emperor looked to the youngster, who despite trying his best to conceal it, still couldn’t contain his happy expression. Le Cheng Emperor helplessly laughed inside. As expected, youths like Sun Yi Lin were in the minority. “Have his essay fetched over, if he can rank in the second class, then have his ranking pushed into the top ten. If he can only rank in the third class, then just go on as usual.”
[1] This is Sun Yi Lin’s position and title in the inner court. I’m fairly certain I had translated it as inner court scribe previously. In chinese his title is 秉笔 (bing bi) which translates to ‘to hold the pen’ or ‘to do the actual writing’. My struggle with consistency when some titles only appear like once every 50 chapters ;;;v;;;)
[2] Title for second place in the imperial exam. I’ll have you know that I translated myself into a hole with this one. So the origin behind this title is that the second and third place candidates in the imperial exam are like the right and left eyes of the top scorer, the title for second place translates directly as ‘announcement board eyes’, the announcement board referring to the list of names in which the successful candidates are listed in. However all these titles in reality are just the people’s way of referring to the top three scorers in the imperial exam. In actual historical court documents they don’t really use these titles.
[3] Basically the literary phrase for ugly people.
