Chapter 64: Give Up the Imperial Examinations If You Still Haven't Passed the Licentiate Exam by Age Twenty-Three

Sun Shan returned to the main hall and took a drink of water. Madam Huang emerged from the granary, holding a few golden, chicken-shaped pastries. Handing them to Sun Shan, she said with maternal affection, "You must be hungry. Have a bite first to tide you over."

Sun Shan took the pastries without saying thank you; family members had no need to keep expressions of gratitude constantly on their lips.

Taking a bite, he said, "Grandma, these are delicious. You should have some too."

Madam Huang refused, spinning a falsehood without blinking an eye: "Grandma doesn't like to eat them. You eat them." Refusing under any circumstances to partake, she walked into the bedroom, fetched her needle and thread, and set about mending clothes while the twilight still lingered.

Sun Shan walked out to the courtyard, secretly slipping a pastry to his third and fourth older sisters, and whispered, "Don't make a sound, and don't let Mom find out."

The two sisters' eyes lit up as they nodded eagerly. Even without Shanzi telling them, they wouldn't say a word; if Lady Su found out they were eating Shanzi's biscuits, they would either be beaten or scolded.

Lady Su would not scold or beat them in the presence of her younger brother, grandma, or dad. She would wait until they were not around. At home, Xiaoman and Hanlu detested Mom the most.

Stepping out of the courtyard, Sun Shan went to the cow shed. Sure enough, his second older sister, Lixia, was feeding the ox with rice straw. He slipped her a chicken-shaped pastry, and then headed to the kitchen to give one to his eldest sister, Guyu.

Guyu ate the biscuit and muttered, "Next time, eat it yourself. Eldest sister doesn't like sweet things." Caught off guard as her younger brother shoved it straight into her mouth, she could neither spit it out nor refuse it. She patted Shanzi's little head; her younger brother was a good boy who cherished his sisters.

Sun Shan then ran over to the firewood storage area, where Lady Su was tidying up the firewood. These had been dried in the sun today and needed to be stacked and stored for burning.

Sun Shan popped a biscuit directly into Lady Su's mouth, smiling as he said, "Mom, these are chicken-shaped pastries from Grandma."

Seeing that her mother-in-law was not around, Lady Su hurriedly said, "Don't give these to Grandma; Grandma doesn't like eating them." Yet her heart felt as sweet as honey. *As expected, the child I bore knows how to cherish me.*

Sun Shan said innocently, "The chicken-shaped pastries are delicious, so Mom has to eat them too."

Lady Su was even more touched. She tapped Sun Shan on the forehead and said cheerfully, "If they're delicious, eat them yourself. Don't give them to anyone else, you hear?"

Sun Shan nodded, then flew into the kitchen to help his eldest sister tend the stove.

Among the entire Sun family, Lady Su had the most difficult temperament and was the least popular.

Yet Lady Su treated Sun Shan the best, reserving whatever good food and clothing there was exclusively for him.

Sun Shan considered himself a person of pure and kind character, and within reasonable limits, he would do his utmost to show filial piety to Lady Su.

Time passed quickly, and dinner was soon prepared. Early spring still carried a touch of chill; charcoal was burning in the hearth of the main hall, and they ate their evening meal by the light of an oil lamp. Afterwards, Sun Shan began his daily tutoring session.

The eldest sister, Guyu, learned the slowest and kept forgetting many of the characters. The second sister, Lixia, learned the best; her secret was practicing while herding the cattle, and through sheer repetition, she grew familiar with them.

Sun Shan praised encouragingly, "Second Sister, you're doing the right thing. Literacy relies entirely on practice. Once you master them, they remain firmly rooted in your mind, impossible to erase no matter what."

Xiaoman and Hanlu chimed in crisply, "We practice writing every day whenever we have free time."

Glancing at their lagging eldest sister, they encouraged her: "Eldest Sister, you must practice too. Don't give up."

Upon hearing the sisters' conversation, Lady Su decided that as long as it didn't interfere with Shanzi's studies and their chores were finished, they could practice however they pleased.

Paying the tuition for one person amounted to educating the entire family—it was an absolute bargain.

She turned to Sun Shan and said, "Shanzi, teach your mom too." Figuring she shouldn't fall behind either, the more she learned, the more worthwhile the tuition fee became.

Sun Shan was overjoyed and taught Lady Su five new characters on the spot. In any case, teaching a few characters each day meant learning as much as possible, taking it one step at a time.

Early the next morning, Sun Shan arrived punctually at the Zheng Family School, beginning another day of study.

Master Zheng's explanations were crystal clear, and he possessed ample patience, never casually teaching for a moment before leaving the students to study on their own.

He explained the contents of the textbooks with absolute clarity. As for whether everything was entirely correct, Sun Shan knew that certain pieces of knowledge might be flawed, though he could not yet pinpoint where the errors lay; he could only accumulate more learning and gradually come to understand.

blindly believing in books is worse than having no books at all; similarly, blindly trusting a teacher is worse than having no teacher.

Master Zheng's teaching pace was also growing faster day by day, and the number of new characters taught daily increased steadily.

The one who suffered the most was Brother De, who was frequently scolded by the master.

Sun Shan suspected that the boy was on the verge of autism or developing an aversion to studying. Yet after all this time, Brother De's vitality remained remarkably resilient. After being beaten, feeling the pain, and losing face, he would wallow in misery for a full three minutes before returning to business as usual, marching to the beat of his own drum while enduring scoldings and paddle strikes.

At the same time, as he learned more and more, his handwriting grew smaller and smaller. Miraculously, he managed to squeeze all his characters neatly within the grid lines without overflowing.

Master Zheng offered a word of praise: "Sun Dingde, not bad. There is improvement. Your handwriting can actually be read clearly now without requiring anyone to guess."

Faced with such a compliment, Sun Shan was left speechless, unable to tell whether it was a sincere commendation or a sarcastic jab.

Brother De completely missed the subtext in the master's words and chirped happily, "Teacher, I also feel that my handwriting is getting better and better, hehe."

Well, since the person involved was perfectly cheerful, Sun Shan and Yang Qingbei, sitting as his fellow students, saw no need to comfort him.

After finishing the new lessons, the three of them made it a daily routine to practice writing by the small pond.

Meanwhile, Master Zheng would be teaching either the advanced class or the intermediate class.

From the intermittent sounds of reading drifting out from the classrooms, Sun Shan gained a general understanding of what the two classes were studying.

The advanced class, which was the graduating cohort, had already learned most of the characters. Master Zheng primarily taught them *The Nine Chapters on Mathematical Art*, focusing on mathematics and practical knowledge applied in everyday life.

When Eldest Zheng from the county town took a leave of absence, he would have him instruct the students in bookkeeping.

Eldest Zheng worked as a clerk and accountant at the "Top of the Imperial Examinations" bookstore. He could be considered an accounting expert, understanding the subject even better than Master Zheng, which was why he was asked to teach it.

As for the intermediate class, Master Zheng continued teaching character recognition while introducing practical compositions, such as official government documents, public notices, letters, and antithetical couplets—things primarily used in daily life.

As for the Four Books and Five Classics, they were studied using selected anthologies, meaning students didn't need to purchase all the books, only *The Analects*, *The Book of Songs*, and *The Book of Changes*. For other texts, selected passages were taught, and students were instructed to copy them out by hand.

Sun Shan did not understand why these three specific books were chosen; perhaps it was simply a matter of Master Zheng's personal preference.

The Zheng Family School solely and purely taught students how to read and imparted practical, everyday knowledge, entirely avoiding matters related to the imperial examinations.

While practicing his handwriting, Sun Shan silently muttered to himself that once his character recognition reached a sufficient level, he would declare his resolve to take the imperial examinations and transfer to study under a licentiate in the county seat.

The savings accumulated by Sun Bomin and Lady Su over the years should be enough to support him through a few years of grinding away at his studies in a proper academy.

Sun Shan calculated that if he still failed to attain the rank of licentiate by the age of twenty-three, he would abandon the path of the imperial exams, head to the prefectural city to depend on his eldest aunt, become a wage laborer, and simultaneously search for ways to get rich, striving to secure a better life for the Sun family.

As for why he chose twenty-three as the cutoff, it was because that was the typical age of college graduation. If he still couldn't pass the licentiate examination by the age of graduation, it would prove that in the Great Qian Dynasty, he simply wasn't cut out for scholarship. Persisting any further would be futile, and he would rather not drag his family down with him.