Chapter 106: The Formulaic Essay

After Gou Ye nodded, Hai Rui turned and climbed into the carriage. Gou Ye could see clearly that the carriage was already old and worn. Even as a high-ranking official, the man was exceedingly modest. Since arriving in the county town, he had never once put on airs. The “Sea of Justice” that people spoke of—Gou Ye had only known him from books. It was not until now that he finally had a true sense of what kind of official Hai Rui really was.

Not long after, Zhu Ling was released from prison. It was said that Zhu Jin had sent people to take her away. Their home, however, had been sealed by Hai Rui’s men. In truth, Hai Rui did not make things any harder for Zhu Ling. First, there was indeed no solid evidence proving her involvement in these events. Second, they still had to take into account her father’s status as the Prince of Jin. After all, she remained imperial kin, and it was not easy to punish her by law.

At the same time, before long, the higher authorities appointed a new magistrate to the county. Gou Ye had not met him, but according to Gu Shen, he was quite a young magistrate, not even yet middle-aged, transferred from another county, and very capable.

What left the best impression on Gou Ye was that the first real thing this new magistrate did after taking office was to reopen the old side alley for market stalls. The villagers of Tumen Village thus had work to do again, and the streets and lanes once more returned to a scene of cheerful bustle. No one was happier than the villagers of Tumen Village. With this new official in charge, they could at last do business here with peace of mind.

At the same time, this magistrate also lifted the ban on Gou Ye’s books and, in the name of the government, compensated Boss Hu for his losses. That was something Gou Ye had never expected. He had seen the government take money, but never before had he seen the government pay it out. Afterward, Boss Hu came to Gou Ye again, hoping he would return to his old trade and join him in restoring their former glory. But Gou Ye politely declined.

Since the merchant clan had fulfilled his request, it was time for him to go to the capital and keep his promise. Just as he had once thought: today it could be Magistrate Qin, tomorrow it could be someone else. So long as one had neither power nor influence, it was always difficult to find one’s footing in this world. For now, the proper course was to settle down, face next year’s imperial examination, and take it from there.

When he returned to Tumen Village, his house had already been burned into a ruin. Fortunately, the silver Gou Ye had hidden away was still there. He felt immensely grateful that this world used silver and copper coins. If it had been modern paper money, it would surely have been reduced to ashes long ago. Even so, after all that remained, there was still less than eight hundred taels.

After a simple repair of the house, the money in hand was down to less than five hundred taels. That was putting it generously, too, because it did not yet include the monthly expenses for Dali, the Guo brothers, and Caisheng. Although Xiaodie was nominally no longer a servant in the household, she had still worked faithfully for so long that Gou Ye included her in those expenses as well.

With business in the village picking up, Caisheng no longer needed to keep doing his old trade. Gou Ye brought him back and had him resume his work as the village accountant, while the shopfront also began once more to be opened for trade.

After all that, everything seemed to have returned to normal, as though with Magistrate Qin gone, everything had improved. But was it really all because of Qin Hui? Or was it because Gou Ye himself had brought these matters to light and brought them to an end that things had improved? Even now, a trace of guilt still lingered in his heart.

When Gou Ye sat once more in his study, he ran his hand over the desk with overwhelming emotion. Though the materials and furnishings were in every way inferior to what they had been before, what did that matter?

What he had to face now was the thing that troubled him most: preparing for next year’s imperial examination. And once the examination was mentioned, one could not avoid the subject of the eight-part essay. Though this age was somewhat different, the eight-part essay was very much alive. Some called it a malignant growth of the literary inquisition, a stale and restrictive style of writing. Others said it was the forerunner of modern standardized examinations.

But whatever the case, the eight-part essay was a hurdle he could not avoid. He had to rely on real skill to clear it.

What exactly was the eight-part essay? Many people did not understand it. Put simply, it could be thought of as a kind of argumentative essay. It required you to draw certain lines from the classics and then set you a writing prompt. The prompt would always come from the Four Books—that is, The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects, and Mencius. It had to be one of those four. Then, following a fixed format and structure, you would develop the prompt and write an essay, much like the argumentative essays of modern entrance exams.

Not only that, the requirements for the eight-part essay were extremely strict. Gou Ye had some understanding of it, but after all he had never tried it himself. The thought that he still had to study the Four Books and Five Classics gave him a splitting headache. Fortunately, Gu Yu had been generous enough to have Gu Shen bring all of them to him. What delighted Gou Ye most was that Gu Yu had even marked out key passages and added annotations in places. Of course, these were not prepared specially for Gou Ye. Rather, Gu Yu had long since internalized the Four Books and Five Classics, and these notes and highlights were all made years ago when he was reading through them himself.

But for Gou Ye, they were invaluable. Luckily, he already had a foundation in classical Chinese, and over the years he had written extensively and read much historical material and these classical texts as well. Though he could not recite them backward as Gu Yu could, he at least had some idea of what he was doing and would not be left helpless before pile after pile of books.

As Gou Ye sorted through the volumes, he said to Yun Niang beside him, “When your Brother Gou Ye has learned all these books, memorized them all, then I’ll count as an expert too.”

Yun Niang could not help asking curiously, “What does ‘expert’ mean, Brother Gou Ye?”

Gou Ye laughed aloud. Once again, something he had said offhand had caught her interest. He replied, “An expert is someone who is specially pretending to understand a lot.”

“Oh.” Yun Niang nodded, only half understanding. Then she suddenly said, “Brother Gou Ye, just study hard for the exam. If you rise above your present station, Yun Niang will benefit from it too and become a lady.”

Gou Ye turned around, tapped her little nose, and gathered her into his arms. “A lady? Whose lady does Yun Niang want to be? So quickly, our Yun Niang already wants to be a lady? Come now, before becoming a lady, shouldn’t your husband get a kiss first?”

As he spoke, Gou Ye puckered his lips and leaned in. Yun Niang shoved him away at once. “Brother Gou Ye, you’re hateful.” Her face flushing bright red, she darted out of the study in a flash.