Chapter 89: Strategic Counsel

A great board of notice sheets, stitched together from many papers, hung before the Hall of the First Master, and below it stood the county academy students in clustered groups, black scarves and white robes brushing one another.

By the time Zhang Yue and Guo Lin arrived, many had already seen the list and hurried away.

“Blessed be this day—the Way has shown its favor.”
“Master Xie the Dean has shown mercy.”
“I thought we might be driven out of the county academy this time; I didn’t expect we’d be going off to drink instead.”
“I can’t bear your shameless lack of resolve.”
“Brother Xiahou, who was turning restlessly in the monastic dorm these last two or three nights?”
“I… you haven’t slept well either, have you?”

Many who had read the list and left were ordinary students, content with mere passing.
Many others stood and pointed at the board, whispering up and down.

Zhang Yue and Guo Lin advanced slowly together.
“Isn’t that Sanlang?”
“Sanlang, you came to see the list as well?”
“Now you know, this time first place is not your name?”

Zhang Yue was about to say his habitual, “What good fortune,” but stopped, startled by what he heard.
Just then someone congratulated Guo:
“Brother Guo, I never would have guessed it. You, usually so reserved and unobtrusive, are now one of only two students from the Classics Hall recommended to the prefecture!”
“Sanlang, this gives you a fine position.”

When the two men stood before the list, the arrangement was plain: the Jinshi Hall on the left, the Classics Hall on the right.
Zhang Yue saw that the top name in the Classics ranking was not his.
The first-place candidate had completed all five Classics, fully passed two categories, passed nine in four categories, and passed eight in one.
From top to bottom through dozens of names, there was no sign of him.

A man laughed. “Sanlang, no need to keep searching. Your papers were already sent to the prefecture, so the county office had no time to record them. Still, don’t assume it means first.”

Zhang finally understood. Of course.
He looked at Guo next.
Guo had passed nine in six categories, only eight in one.
His Great-Questions section had indeed been weak, Zhang knew; he had been fifth at first, but then a line had been added: first in Mingjing.
At that moment the Jinshi side erupted.
Only one student from Jinshi Hall could be promoted to the prefecture, and the front ranks were arguing already.

“Isn’t there no first in learning and no second in arms? Why should your poetry and fu be called better than mine? Even if it were so, my policy discourses are higher than yours.”

In the Classics Hall there was no such confusion; the ranking was immediately clear.
“Brother…” Zhang Yue was about to speak to Guo when a voice cut in:
“Even a rough fellow like one surnamed Guo deserves Mingjing?”

The words shocked Guo. He stood still for a long breath before saying, “Brother Han, why do you slur me?”

The speaker was Han Chi, third in the Classics Hall.
Seeing Zhang by Guo’s side, Han Chi seemed uneasy and offered a respectful bow:
“Sanlang has taken first overall. I can only agree. But do you truly know what weight Guo carries, Brother Guo?”

“Even fifth place can rise into Mingjing,” Guo said quietly. “Could there be some hidden channel in this?”

A student stepped forward to defend him, but was checked.
“Could there be such a trick for me?” Guo snapped. “Brother Han, do not speak wild words.”
Zhang Yue added, “If something displeases you, Brother Han, you may tell the Dean in private. Is it fitting to speak of this before all your fellow students? Are we to give these people cause to laugh, like the Jinshi Hall?”

Han Chi’s face reddened. Zhang Yue had made him feel his impropriety.
As the first-ranked student of the Classics Hall and a close associate of the Dean, Zhang’s words had weight.

He went on: “Guo’s papers have already gone up to the prefecture. All I know is that his Great-Questions paper was poor, while his textual exegesis and interpretation were better than ours. If you still dispute, take your papers and argue before the exam-master.”

Han Chi replied, “Before the civil trial there was no separate grading by category. To send Guo at once to Mingjing while he was only fifth before—this feels unjust.”

Zhang Yue answered, “Brother Han, the autumn examination will from this year on set Mingjing separately. That decree came down this month. I learned it only recently.
We two are both sent to the prefecture, but not to the Imperial Academy. The decision rests with the prefectural Dean and the prefect. If they see no fault, who are we here to quarrel?”

Han Chi exhaled, defeated.
“Sanlang has spoken exactly right.”
Several of their classmates of the Classics side added: “Exactly. Which one of us does not admire Guo’s talent? He was delayed before by that Great-Questions paper; now this Mingjing path is not so bad.”
“We needn’t bark like those in the Jinshi Hall and tire everyone out.”
“Let’s make this clear. Brother Han has no malicious intent. Guo, accept our congratulations first.”

Guo said, “Thank you all for your tolerance. Right and wrong may be argued, but in the end it rests on principle. If anyone thinks I have stolen this place, I am willing to yield it.”

Now it was Han Chi who looked ashamed.
“Brother Guo, what I said was sudden righteous outrage, nothing else. Forgive me.”

Guo, reddened, bowed deeply. “Brother Han, do not say it. We are classmates, brought together after many years; why break harmony over a trifle?”
Han Chi returned a long bow. “I dare not.”
Guo said again, “No, Brother Han, please don’t.”
And so they bowed to each other until the whole disturbance faded as if it had never been.

Across the courtyard, the Jinshi Hall argument grew fiercer.
Hu, the school Dean, and the two hall masters had arrived and seen how differently the two sides behaved.
Hu remarked, half in wonder, half in irony, “People call the Classics poor and the Jinshi noble. Yet now, which way is the world turned?”

The Jinshi hall master’s face lost its color. The Classics master merely smiled.
“Dean, the quarrel between Brother He and Brother Huang is no more than a flare of pride.”
Hu turned and replied, “If pride can fit in a grain of rice, then so be it. But Commissioner Cai himself told me: we are to raise men for the court, choose talent from the province. Talent is not enough; upright conduct must be judged as well.”

The masters of both halls listened with new seriousness.
Hu said gravely, “He also said talent comes first, yet virtue cannot be ignored. Though Zhang Yue and Guo Lin are from the Classics Hall, their humility, courtesy, and regard for fellow-student ties show the temper of true men. In conduct alone, they stand foremost in this academy.”

He continued, looking toward them, “I had hesitated about Guo at first. Now I see I was still right in judging men. Go separate those two and stop this quarrel, or I won’t know where to put my face.”

The next day Zhang Yue and Guo Lin were received by Hu together.
Hu first spoke in a stern voice: “Look at your books, Zhang Yue—you are through only eight in Classics. That is no small thing.”
Zhang lowered his head. “Student feels ashamed. Master still does not know the result.”
A pause. Then Hu’s expression softened. “Fortunately there are other marks that still stand. Your papers were marked by Assistant Sun himself and sent directly to Prefectural Dean Li, so the county had no time to enter them.”
“Student should at least be told what he has earned,” Zhang said.
Hu gave a short, dismissive sound, then reached for a note. “This is what I copied from Assistant Li’s record. Read it.”

Only then did Zhang finally see his score.

Treatise: complete.
I-Ching: nine.
He understood at once. Earlier that day, the Dean had clearly signaled something during the exam, and he had not responded in time. Later, waking from sleep, he had seen several mistakes in places usually too small to notice—careless, careless.

Rituals: complete.
Filial Doctrine: complete.
Scripture (Shu): eight.
He exhaled deeply. His weakest area, the Shu section, had failed exactly as expected, and he had also written his Great-Questions too poorly, with time running out.

Poetry: complete.
Public Composition: nine.
Classical Gloss: complete.
Left-Style Chronicle: nine.
Rites: complete.
Ceremony: complete.
First in every other section.
In total: seven complete passes, three nine-passes, and one eight-pass.
Indeed, that put him well above the second-ranked student in the Classics branch; seven complete passes canceled out the single eight in Shu.

Hu said, “Though your Shu is only eight, among prefecture and county students there is no one else to match your Classics work.”
“This trip to the prefecture,” Hu continued, “follow all directions from Assistant Sun. He holds you in high regard. If Dean Li approves, you may be recommended straight to the Taixue.”
“Taixue?” Zhang asked.
Hu nodded slowly. “The Imperial University in Bianjing. Hezhou sends only one county candidate there in a year. You should value it.”
Zhang bowed. “Thank you, Master, for my training.”
Hu raised a finger. “Do not thank me too early. Dean Li must still decide. And you must do well on three policy essays.”

“Those three policy prompts,” he said, “the state-affairs questions are too ethereal; you cannot write them well now. Writing only strategy notes would be trickery. Spend your efforts on three historical policy essays. Work them through yourself. I need not say more. Only remember: no one may write them for you.”

He gave several further instructions, then dismissed them.
As they left, Guo Lin, brow knit, said, “Brother, I am good at textual glossing and subtle interpretation, but I am poor at Great-Questions. How then with these policy essays?”
Zhang laughed softly. “Younger brother, do not think I have not my own anxiety. Writing essays belongs to the Jinshi men; even one Great-Questions paper gives us pain. Yet Hu Master read my heart at once and forbids ghostwriting for the Jinshi passages. This will cost us real effort.”
Guo’s eyes widened. “I see—you had really thought of finding someone else to write.”
Zhang shook his head. “Can men of learning call help from one another ghostwriting? That is merely pooling insight, each giving what talent he has.”
“Still,” he went on, “there is no harm in learning. The lower rounds and Mingjing, even the prefectural examinations, may not all require policy essays, but the palace examination does. There it is the Son of Heaven’s own essay test.”

Guo nodded. “Yes, we will have to learn policy writing someday. But how?”
Zhang smiled. “That is easy. Master Boyi is the foremost scholar of this age. We can both go ask him.”
“That…” Guo said, “I am not Master Boyi’s disciple.”
Zhang laughed. “To teach one student is teaching; to teach two is teaching all the same. The master will not begrudge us a touch of face.”
Guo said, “You’re making use of your junior brother again.”
Zhang rested his chin on his hand. “Let us return to South Peak Academy one more time. Imagine what they will do when they learn I was first in the county academy.”
Guo thought inwardly that his brother had not forgotten being turned away from the clan school.