CHAPTER 45: CHAPTER 45: SUBMITTING EARLY

Establishing a unified theory that can explain the mysteries of heaven and earth, the cyclical birth and death of all things, through the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and Four Seasons, had always been the ultimate goal of the Agricultural School.

This proposition was too grand and profound. It was impossible to truly answer, even for the Grand Minister of Agriculture of the First Grade.

But precisely because of this, everyone could score points from the final question.

Clerks only needed to answer according to the existing theories and write down the memorized content. They could score two or three points out of twenty.

If they could slightly relate the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and Four Seasons, they could get half the points.

To score higher, they needed to come up with something innovative.

However, they could not be overly outrageous; they had to base their answers on existing theories. Otherwise, it would be considered ’fabrication,’ and even experienced Minister of Agriculture Officials might not be able to do it.

So, if it was hard to come up with new ideas, why bother with this question?

Because the theory of the Five Elements and Four Seasons was very important. All Ministers of Agriculture would refer to the theory of the Five Elements and Four Seasons when revising the Seasonal Order and casting spells.

If the Four Seasons were not clear, how could they be defined? They had to be defined using the Five Elements.

If the Four Seasons were chaotic, how could they be adjusted? The power of the Five Elements was still needed.

Therefore, this question was basically always relevant.

"Clerks can freely answer, writing their own views and guesses. However, the answers need to cater to the examiners’ preferences."

"If the examiner was from the Heavenly Time Sect, they would definitely base their questions on the theory from the book ’Heavenly Time Five Elements.’ If the examiner was from the Earth Advantage Sect, then the ’Earth King Meng Xia Theory’ would be most suitable."

"What if it was the Self Sect? Then the ’Yin Yang Five Elements Self Scripture.’ However, the Self Sect was weak and its ideas were not popular; they were not in line with mainstream theories. Using it to answer the question would be forced," Zhao Xing thought to himself.

The Self Sect believed that within living beings was a system of heavenly time operation, essentially a ’biological clock,’ matching the Five Organs with the Five Elements and other body organs to the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

This theory was called the ’Small Five Elements Four Seasons Theory,’ also known as the ’Inner Five Elements Four Seasons Theory.’ From the name alone, one could tell it was not accepted by the mainstream and was relatively niche.

However, when its revival version appeared, the Self Sect rose to prominence, and this theory began to dominate, crushing other sects.

Because they believed that ’within the body, Pure Essence Soil could be cultivated,’ and ’the Dantian could nurture primordial seeds,’ even allowing for internal observation of heaven and earth, creating a world within oneself.

But now if you wrote this down, even people from the Self Sect would think you were crazy. Currently, the most that could be done was ’cultivating Pure Essence Soil’ within the body. Creating a world within oneself? You must be mad!

So Zhao Xing directly eliminated that option.

"The earliest Chapter on the Five Elements paired Jia with wood, Bing with fire, Wu with earth, Geng with metal, and Ren with water. But the correlations were too weak; they did not consider the coordination of the seasons at all."

"Later, the seasons were divided into ’Meng,’ ’Zhong,’ and ’Ji,’ three months each."

"The three months of spring: Early Spring, Zhong Chun, and Jichun, were in the east, corresponding to the wood element and paired with Jia and Yi."

"The two months of summer: Meng Xia and Midsummer, were in the south, corresponding to the fire element and paired with Bing and Ding."

"The third month of summer ’Meng Xia’ was central, corresponding to the earth element and paired with Wu and Ji."

"The three months of autumn: Early Autumn, Mid-Autumn, and Late Autumn, were in the west, corresponding to the metal element and paired with Geng and Xin."

"The three months of winter: Early Winter, Mid-Winter, and Late Winter, were in the north, corresponding to the water element and paired with Ren and Gui."

This was the mainstream ’Earth King Meng Xia Theory.’

Zhao Xing did not plan to answer brilliantly because he had basically not lost any points on the previous questions. This was enough to stand out in this examination, so he transcribed the mainstream theory in earnest.

In this way, he could score at least thirty percent of the points.

"If this question appeared in the formal Temple Examination, I could add some improvements. The current pairing of the Five Elements with months is unbalanced; fire and earth are too weak, together they pair with only two months."

"Should I add a bit of my opinion?"

Zhao Xing pondered for an hour, but still had not moved his brush.

In the end, he decided to write two more sentences.

"The Five Elements hold earth as the most precious. As to the Four Seasons, earth commands them all. It should not share merit with fire."

"Let wood, fire, metal, and water each govern a season, while earth resides in the center, governing the four directions."

After writing these two sentences, Zhao Xing did not add more. He only slightly improved the imbalance in the Five Elements’ pairing with months, which was not a significant change.

This actually excluded ’earth’ from ’governing the Four Seasons,’ giving it a nominal role of ’ruling the four directions.’

But it was enough. A clerk who could write this would show that he was very thoughtful.

This was actually the prototype of the future ’Earth King Four Seasons Theory,’ but Zhao Xing did not plan to reveal the improved version now. Lacking the virtue to match one’s position would bring misfortune for speaking too much.

.......

After completing the final question, Zhao Xing found that the sky had already brightened, and it was already the next day.

"The exam started in the afternoon; now it’s the next morning. I actually answered for so long? It seems I spent too much time on the last question."

A true top scholar needed to consider point control. In the last examination, Zhao Xing not only controlled his own points but also controlled others’ points.

This time he had to consider the actual impact, so he thought even longer.

"I’m starving. I didn’t even eat; the food that was delivered has gone cold."

After getting rich from the river, Zhao Xing no longer looked favorably on this cold ’employee meal.’

He planned to submit his paper early, then go out to a restaurant after leaving the examination room.

Zhao Xing organized his answer sheets, making sure none were missing, and walked towards the examination hall.

It was still early morning, and the sky was not fully bright, but the patrolling and examinations were not lax. If it were a formal Temple Examination, even the Yin God would come to invigilate, preventing any ghosts from helping people cheat!

"Hmm? Submitting so early?" Xue Wenzhong sat in the hall, watching Zhao Xing walk in with the guards and couldn’t help but frown.

He thought Zhao Xing was too arrogant. The exam time hadn’t even passed halfway, and he was already done?

Xue Wenzhong knew the difficulty of the questions he set. To select talents to report to the county, each subsequent exam was more difficult than the last.

Although Zhao Xing had good aptitude in spells, theory was another matter. A muscular man didn’t necessarily produce beautiful essays.

"Two consecutive First Ranks, did it make him arrogant?"

Zhao Xing submitted his papers and then saluted: "Lords, I am here to hand in my paper."

Gao Linong, Tang Wanchun, and Pang Yuan were all quite surprised. They had similar thoughts to Xue Wenzhong. Did you finish in such a short time?

Then they quickly restrained their expressions, showing no happiness or sadness, but inwardly, they all had the same thought:

Good, good, good. Not afraid of your arrogance, but afraid you are not arrogant enough. The first to submit, we will definitely examine carefully, and we absolutely cannot let this slide!

Chen Shijie’s view differed from theirs. He had much greater confidence in Zhao Xing, stemming from natural trust in his ’kindred spirit.’

"Good, the first to submit your paper. I was right about you. You wait here for a moment; we will soon have your results."