Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination Ch. 159

Chapter 159

Ever since two years ago, when that overgrown child prodigy Cui Xie published his 《Compilation of Antithetical Couplets in the Four Books》, the gentry and exam graduates from his hometown in Qian’an had spread the word far and wide. It had stirred up Minister Zhang’s righteous urge to tighten discipline at the Military Academy, and from that moment on, the good days were over for the Beijing military students.

They couldn’t skip class anymore, weren’t allowed to wear their fine clothes, and the instructors kept them under strict watch day in and day out, drilling them on the Four Books and Five Classics one hundred characters at a time. Only on training days when they had to do drills, when they had to report to the barracks, could they find some small relief.

And now that same Cui Xie has put out a 《Must-Read for the Civil Service Exam》 –not just a single book, but a whole series! This one was labeled “Volume Four,” so there must surely be a One, Two, and Three waiting in the wings. If this continued, would they end up stuck in this academic prison under Minister Zhang’s yearly inspections and biannual crackdowns, grinding it out all the way until graduation?

Two years ago, there were still a few brave upperclassmen at the academy who had dared give that Cui Xie a good scare. But now… the academy was even more strictly controlled, and with the Jinyiwei patrolling the streets every day, who would dare try anything in broad daylight outside the Imperial College?

Tsk. Even if they didn’t act in daylight, the Jinyiwei would still be on patrol. Those guys had eagle eyes for anything that looked like a scuffle: just a glint of trouble and they’d come galloping over and drag you off on the spot.

The young students, who had just barely survived two years of suffering and were starting to glimpse a sliver of hope in life, could no longer bear it. After academy let out, they gathered into a tight knot and went to consult the three former “heroes” who had once taken action against Cui Xie.

Graduates Li, Zhang, and Chang, these three had been military cadets at eighteen or nineteen back then. Now, at twenty, they had all returned to the main army camps of their respective family lines. Looking at the current batch of students was like staring at a younger, distant past–a lifetime ago.

Zhang Ying, the younger brother of Zhang Tai, brought the group over and asked them, “Back then, how did you three manage to scare that Cui Xie so badly he didn’t dare publish anything for two whole years? Us didi can’t go on like this. Our instructors aren’t just making us read his books to reflect on ourselves anymore, they’re practically telling us to do the exercises!” 

But the older brothers, having now graduated, were no longer the same firebrand students they once were. Looking at these younger brothers poised to drown in a sea of test prep, they instead took on the tone of their elders and offered vague, useless advice like: “Study while you’re young” ,“There’s no harm in learning more,” “It never hurts to have more skills” –all meant to brush them off.

Zhang Ying cried out in indignation, “Da-ge! Back then, you had the guts to go after Cui Xie. I’m your own little brother, are you saying I don’t have the guts to do it too?!”

His elder brother said gravely, “You mustn’t lay a finger on him, you don’t understand who he is…”

Isn’t he just someone who publishes books?

Yes, he’s received favor from His Majesty, entered the palace, taught the Crown Prince, and even written exam questions that the Crown Prince himself has done, but at the end of the day, he’s still just a student at the Imperial College! As long as he hasn’t passed the provincial or metropolitan exams, what can a mere college student like him amount to?

Back then, hadn’t the three seniors gone to the Imperial College to teach him a lesson? And did anyone show up to defend him?

Seeing this group of younger military cadets so riled up, the three seniors, now sobered by the world, exchanged glances and were finally forced to reveal the truth they had long kept hidden:

“We never really taught him a lesson back then. We just wore those tight-fitting yesa robes that were trending at the time and strutted into the College to let him have a look, hoping he’d feel ashamed of his plain clothes…”

And in the end, it was they who were shamed–by a student in a simple, standard-issue Imperial College robe. He had even given them advice that led to actual well-tailored garments.

The first popular tight-fit yesa design had been made at his request. Later, when they asked the tailor again, they found out that many of the best-looking, trend-setting garments had also originated from him. If this group of students ended up hurting Cui Xie… whether it would stop him from publishing books was uncertain, but it would definitely stop him from designing new clothes!

Li Yan earnestly laid out the stakes and warned the younger cadets again and again: under no circumstances were they to harm Cui Xie. By the time he finished, the color had drained from many of their faces. In low voices, they muttered:

“How… how could it be him… Why can’t he just stick to making nice clothes and shoes and all the things people like? Why does he have to write all these horrible books…”

Zhang Tai recalled the days outside the Imperial College and said with a heavy heart, “He’s good-looking, and he doesn’t act like a dry old pedant either. And yet, for some reason, he insists on writing these terrible things that ruin people’s lives.”

By now, Chang Jing had already joined the Jinyiwei. With stern authority, he gave them a hard warning: “All the Colonels in the divisions are under strict orders to patrol the city. Every officer is itching to make a name for himself by catching some street thugs. Don’t go throwing yourselves into our hands! If you end up in my patrol zone, even I won’t go easy on you.”

Back then, when they were still students, they could ride away on horseback and leave the old scholar officials panting in their dust. If they ran fast enough, they might just get away. But the Jinyiwei—those could catch this whole group of students without even breaking a sweat. Getting flogged or put in solitary would be the least of their worries. What if their instructors at the military academy, or worse, their own parents, decided to use this chance to grind the rebellious spirit out of them and actually made them sit down and ask those questions? How would they survive that?

The boys from the military academy trudged home, pitiful and crestfallen. As for the older graduates, even they sighed and shook their heads, and passed along the tale of the academy’s misfortune to their fellow alumni.

Word of this spread and eventually reached Xie Ying’s ears.

These days, he no longer had to patrol day and night. Now that he was overseeing criminal affairs at the Northern Administrative Office, he had more time after court was dismissed to drink with colleagues. And it was at one such gathering, hosted by Heir Apparent Sun, that he heard the story.

Xie Ying had just taken a sip of wine when he nearly choked on it. After several gulps to push it down, he finally managed a smile and asked, “Did the Minister of War really make them do the questions?”

Heir Apparent Sun shook his head, though the corners of his mouth betrayed a bit of glee. “Not yet. But if one of those dignitaries gets in the mood during an inspection, who knows, those students will be made to sit down and do them. Lucky for us we’re a few years older, or we’d be stuck in class crying over those tests ourselves.”

Xie Ying stared into his empty cup and said quietly, almost to himself, “That wouldn’t be so bad.”

If only he’d been seventeen or eighteen again, still a cadet at the military academy…

If only, at that age, he had met Cui Xie, been able to read those books and answer those questions, perhaps he might’ve passed the county exams, made it to the provincial level, and studied side-by-side with Cui Xie, living freely, as equals.

Heir Apparent Sun was startled by the tone of Xie Ying’s voice and asked in alarm, “Wait, you really think that? That reading fever of yours that started two years ago, has it still not passed?”

Xie Ying pulled himself back from his thoughts, set down his cup, and said with a wry smile, “Think about it, Your Grace. Those are exam questions the Crown Prince in the Eastern Palace himself did. Before this book came out, how many students at the Imperial College even had the chance to do the same? If not for that book, would any of those kids at the military academy have ever laid eyes on those questions?”

Put like that, it did make a certain amount of sense.

The other men drinking with them were all past their academy years, and when they heard what Xie Ying said, even they couldn’t help but find a certain truth in it. Among the group was Commander Shao, nephew to Imperial Consort Shao. At the mention of Eastern Palace, he couldn’t help but sigh sourly, “Isn’t that just the way of it, those questions were specially written for His Highness, and even the young princes born to Shao-niangniang haven’t had the chance to study them.”

After all, the Crown Prince was the Crown Prince. Though his aunt’s rank as consort was higher than Noble Consort Ji’s, and her three sons were all bright and promising, they hadn’t been granted the privilege of studying with official tutors in the Eastern Palace. Naturally, they dared not dream of receiving the same treatment as the heir. But if even common students could now use a book like this, were Imperial Consort Shao’s sons not even allowed that much?

The envy and frustration in Commander Shao’s heart simmered as he thought about it. Upon returning to the city, he rode straight to the Peace of Mind Study, dropped a pile of silver, and forcibly bought ten or so sets of the newly released annotated Mencius study guide. Then he passed them through his mother to be sent to Imperial Consort Shao.

When the Fourth and Fifth Prince returned from their lessons in the inner study that afternoon, they were greeted by their mother sitting beside a small mountain of books. With a gentle smile, she explained, “Your aunt sent these in this morning, your cousin went out of his way to find them for you. They’re copies of 《Mencius》, explained by Director Fei of the Imperial College, with follow-up questions written by Hanlin court scholars.”

She picked out one set and handed it to the Fourth Prince, Zhu Youyuan, with a warm expression. “Yuan-ge is reading 《Mencius》 right now, aren’t you? When your tutor finishes each chapter, you can go over it again in this book and try some of the questions. Wouldn’t that be even better? As for Lun-ge and Yun-ge,” she said, referring to the younger princes, “you’re still a little young, but I’ll keep your copies safe for when your studies catch up.”

Fourth Prince, Youyuan, a boy of exceptional talent and already fond of his books at a tender age, said nothing about how his tutors had already given him similar assignments. He simply bowed in thanks, accepted the book, and opened it with interest. The Fifth Prince, still too young to read the Four Books and Five Classics, peeked at the neatly stacked volumes set aside for him and his little brother and shivered slightly at the thought of what lay ahead.

Their cousin used to always send them nice gifts–why had he suddenly started gifting these awful books?

At this age, the young princes only knew that the books were written by Director Fei and bought by their cousin, so they bore resentment only toward these two. Meanwhile, the true mastermind behind the entire series, one Mister Cui, had already persuaded Chancellor Qiu to allow him to produce a 《Great Learning》 study guide, preparing to once again “surprise” the nation’s scholars with another release.

Originally, Chancellor Qiu’s status was far too lofty, and unlike with the Mencius volume, Cui Xie didn’t have a helpful intermediary like Young Master Fei to smooth the way. But lately, for the sake of assisting with the Crown Prince’s companion examinations, Chancellor Qiu had personally tutored their group a few times. With Director Fei’s published work now setting a precedent, Chancellor Qiu himself became intrigued and ultimately granted a single approving “Yes.”

The 《Great Learning》 notes included a good deal of Chancellor Qiu’s reflections on the 《Expanded Meaning of the Great Learning》, totaling over 20,000 characters. With more than a dozen skilled craftsmen working at once, they had the plates carved and ready for print within days. As usual, Cui Xie sent out copies to the editorial team first for review, then, seeing the New Year approaching, bundled a few sets to send his father as a holiday gift, alongside a collection of essays copied by his two younger brothers from 《The Collected Works of Li Dongyang》. All this was shipped off to Yunnan.

He didn’t include such disappointing, mood-killing gifts in the parcels sent to his maternal Liu family. For them, he prepared finely wrapped copies of the 《Story of the Pipa》 script and 《The Headless Case》 storytelling pamphlet. These books were filled with illustrations of dashing Colonel Xie, or rather, the dashing youth of the Jinyiwei at large, glorifying the positive image of civil-military unity, perfectly suited for his soldiering cousins defending the frontier.

Shortly after the festival gifts arrived, a letter from his father, Official Cui, also reached the capital. Surprisingly, it didn’t ask for money. On the contrary, it included several dozen taels of silver and some Yunnan specialties. The letter acknowledged having received Cui Xi’s previous letters and, knowing now that he had apprenticed under Li Dongyang, urged him to serve his Master well–and to gently remind said teacher to speak favorably of his father to any friendly Ministry of Personnel officials, in hopes of securing an early transfer back to the capital as soon as possible.

The letter also mentioned that Official Cui had once hoped to arrange a marriage alliance with the family of He da-ren, a Provincial Administrative Commissioner. Unfortunately, Left Provincial Administrative Commissioner He was due to return to the capital by year’s end, and his family had already moved, refusing to marry off their daughter locally, thus, the match fell through. The new appointee, a Commissioner Luo from Shaanxi, was described as rather temperamental. Left Assistant Administrative Commissioner Cui was struggling to curry favor with him, times were hard, and he couldn’t spare much silver to send home. Thus, as his son, Cui Xie was expected to understand his father’s hardships and do everything possible to help his Master, Li Dongyang, to mediate and grease the wheels back in the capital.

Cui Xie let out a cold chuckle and picked up his brush to pen a reply: he assured his father that he would do his utmost to serve his teacher well and would not fail the teachings he had received.

He truly did apply himself, studying diligently under Li Dongyang, carefully compiling the questions drafted by various Hanlin scholars into a workbook, and then collecting answer sheets throughout the Imperial College to create a companion Answer Key to match the Study Notes for both Mencius and The Great Learning.

The Crown Prince’s nine-member companion study group acted as judges, selecting the best submissions to include. For fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, true/false, and short-answer questions, there were standard answers, but for each essay-style question, at least five reference responses were chosen. Though each was just a brief hundred- or two-hundred-character piece, compiled together, they filled a thick volume.

This 《Answer Key》 cost only six-tenths tael of silver—affordable even for students who had just scraped together enough to buy the 《Mencius》 and 《Great Learning》 volumes—and ended up selling even better than the 《Notes》 themselves.

Xie Ying also followed the trend and bought two fresh sets of the 《Notes》 and 《Answers》 to keep at home. Occasionally, he would flip through them, trying a few of the fill-in-the-blank or multiple-choice questions in the back. Quite a few could be answered directly from the Four Books and commentaries, which gave him the illusion of studying together with Cui Xie.

Once Xie Ying had filled several pages with answers, he had them sent to the Cui Residence, with a note explaining that, as a military man without access to proper instruction, he hoped Cui Xie might review and correct them.

When Cui Xi saw those neatly written pages, he could almost picture Xie Ying, after finishing his official duties, sitting in his study and earnestly working through the assignments. Xie’s handwriting wasn’t the fashionable, ministerial style script, but it had a lean, unyielding quality to it, true to his character. Xie Ying usually wrote only brief notes in his letters, but these pages were filled top to bottom. The script, like the man, radiated reliability.

On a whim, Cui Xi laid thin parchment over Xie Ying’s writing and tried tracing it. When he compared the result, he found his own handwriting rounder and more docile, lacking the same sinewy strength. He copied and traced for a while, and before he knew it, had transcribed most of Xie Ying’s answers.

So Cui Xie simply recopied those pieces, corrected them in red ink, and sent the marked version back to the Xie Residence. The original pages, he kept for himself, marking them with red pen as well. After reviewing them for a while, he quietly tucked them into a small box.

The red annotations, nestled among Xie Ying’s strong, deliberate script… they looked quite fitting together.

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TN: Hi everyone!! I just came back from a conference earlier this week which went well! I think its quite endearing that Xie Ying is so willing to continue and work on his scholarly learning thanks to Cui Xie. I think the best kind of relationships are the ones that make you want to be a better person and strive to do the best you can with a supportive partner by your side~

Announcement: We have set up a kofi and patreon account! If you would like to support us or get early access to advance chapters for Blood-Sucking Empress OR TMD OR my new novel, those options are available for you (in support us page)! I have just added a patreon tier for Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examinations in which patreons can have access to a google document with ALL of my advanced translated chapters for the novel. Since I am a grad student, there should usually be at least 10 advance chapters in the document at a time, but depending on my schedules, there may be fewer or more. I’m currently extremely busy, but I have translated out some new chapters for you all! But, I will still post each week with the same schedule. Thanks!

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