Chapter 2, First Trial: What is Etiquette?

  In the blink of an eye, five days have passed.

  In these few days, the young man reviewed "Zhou Li", "Li Ji" and "Yi Li", made preparations for the first test, practiced piano, wrote characters and read Confucian classics.

  The entrance examination of the Sandalwood Academy tested six arts: ritual, music, archery, charioteering, writing and arithmetic.

  Rites, or etiquette, in the Six Arts, refer to the ancient Five Rites: auspicious rites, funeral rites, military rites, guest rites, and festive rites.

  The rites, without learning "rites" cannot be established. Therefore, among the six arts, "rites" are crowned, first, and important. As Guanzi Mu Min said, "When the granary is full, one knows the etiquette, when clothes and food are sufficient, one knows honor and shame." In ancient times, folk weddings, funerals, entering school, paying respects to teachers, and sacrificial rituals all had officials in charge of rites and music.

  "Li" is the ritual and moral code of the dynasty, maintaining social and political order, consolidating the hierarchical system, and regulating various social relationships and rights and obligations between people.

  Therefore, in educating the young, one should start with the Way and then teach them skills.

  The Six Arts take ritual as their starting point.

  The imperial examination for admission to the Imperial Academy, the first test was "Etiquette".

  On the first day of the exam, the old servant saw the young man enter the Tangxiang Academy gate and then waited quietly outside with many others. Except for the day of registration, the academy did not allow idle people to enter at will, so as not to disturb the order of the academy and affect the academic atmosphere. The academy was a sacred place, how could it be polluted by ordinary people?

  Li Tu walked into the school gate with a steady pace, holding his examination card in his hand. The examinees were either sitting in groups of three or five on the lawn, discussing in low voices, or standing in twos and threes in the painting gallery, admiring the paintings, or several people gathered around the pavilion, chatting and laughing, each with their own demeanor.

  It's almost half a time before the exam, and Li Tu has also chosen a place to wait quietly.

  About a quarter of an hour later, twenty-two young invigilators appeared and led the candidates to the examination hall.

  Young Li Tu followed the crowd, every move was very natural, and there was no trace of inappropriateness in his actions.

  If you don't pay attention, you won't notice that among them, there is actually a blind person. Now each candidate focuses on the exam and doesn't have much time to pay attention to others.

  The first test of "Li" was held in the square of the Imperial Academy, located at the center of the entire academy, with a main road leading directly from the gate to the square.

  At this time, the square had already neatly arranged thousands of tables, divided into twenty-two groups, with pens, ink, paper and inkstones on them.

  "Group A is here."

  "Group B is here."

  "Group C is here."

  ……

  On the square, a named assistant stood in front of the group and shouted loudly, so that the examinees would not get confused and find their positions.

  The candidates immediately go to the designated location according to their admission ticket, and 1,000 candidates are divided into twenty-two groups of Tian Gan and Di Zhi. Each group of Tian Gan has forty-six people, and each group of Di Zhi has forty-five people.

  Li Tu's draw card is Zi Yi, which means he will be in the first position of the Zi group.

  As the candidates took their seats, Li Tu stood behind the crowd and silently calculated his own position's orientation and distance based on others' footsteps, chair movements, discussions, and the proctor's guiding voice.

  A moment later, Li Tu also sat down and drew a few strokes on the table with his finger, immediately clarifying the arrangement of pen, ink, paper and inkstone.

  Li Tu sat quietly in his seat, his face calm, but his heart still somewhat uneasy. If the school found out that he was blind and refused him, what would he do?

  For four years, having been rejected by thirty-one colleges, Li Tu had more or less left a shadow in his heart. So this time, when he took part in the entrance examination of Tánxiāng Academy, he didn't dare to reveal that he was blind from the start. He feared that as soon as the academy heard about his blindness, they would immediately reject him and not even give him the opportunity to take the exam.

  So, the young man concealed it.

  Li Tu knew that his blindness could only be concealed for a short time and would soon be discovered in the six arts examination, perhaps even in the "rites" test, but he always had a glimmer of hope.

  If I won't be found out, maybe I'll pass the entrance exam and the school will take pity on me because of my grades and make an exception for me?

  Each subject of the university entrance examination has one chief examiner and two deputy examiners, who are responsible for setting questions, invigilating, marking, etc.

  The exam starts at 8:00 am sharp.

  At this time, three old men in white robes walked onto the square and came before the chief examiner.

  The candidates all stood up, bowed and said: "We have seen the three sirs."

  The elder standing in the middle of the three lightly waved his hand and said, "Everyone please take a seat." After all the examinees were seated, he continued, "Each of you is an outstanding talent from various counties and regions of Tanxiang Prefecture. Being able to participate in the entrance examination is also a blessing for our academy. Today is the first test of our academy's entrance examination, which is also the 'Etiquette' test. The topic of the 'Etiquette' test was set by myself, so listen carefully: What is etiquette? You have two hours."

  The old man's voice was clear and loud, with a hint of dignity, like thunderous sound that echoed throughout the entire square, falling into each candidate's ears, making all the students' spirits shake.

  "Please answer, what is propriety? You have two hours."

  Twenty-two invigilators on the square also shouted in unison, with full momentum, and their voices echoed through the square again. Then came a gong sound, and someone placed twelve incense burners around the square, each with two thick incense sticks inserted, one of which was already lit.

  The exam officially begins, and the exam time is from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm.

  Li Tu picked up the jade bottle on the case, poured some clear water into the inkstone, then took up the ink stick and slowly ground out the ink. Listening to the "hohoho" sound of grinding ink, as well as the faint scent of ink in his nostrils, his uneasy mood quickly calmed down, and his mind began to ponder.

  What is propriety?

  Li Tu slowly ground the ink, recalling his studies in his mind, "Zhou Li", "Liyue", "Liji"...... constantly thinking about how to write.

  At this time, the incense stick had already burned one-third of its length. Some candidates began to write drafts.

  Time passed bit by bit, the incense stick had already burned halfway, as if in the blink of an eye half a time had passed, now it was exactly at the beginning of Si, Li Tu still sat quietly in his seat without any sign of making a move.

  After one incense stick had burned out, Li Tu finally picked up his brush.

  "Rites are bodily; speech is the body of affairs..."

  "Loyalty and sincerity are the foundation of propriety; righteousness and reason are the embellishments of propriety. Without a foundation, it cannot be established; without embellishments, it cannot be carried out..."

  ……

  "Without learning propriety, one cannot take his stand."

  Every word written by Li Tu is extremely serious, and he doesn't dare to be even slightly lazy between each stroke. His movements are also as natural as those of ordinary people, without any unnaturalness.

  In these years, with the help of his old servant, Li Tu practiced hard day and night, and the characters he wrote were not good but also not bad.

  The font is majestic and expansive, with a strong and powerful bone structure, and an air of grandeur.

  A thousand-word article was written stroke by stroke, and Li Tu used almost half a time.

  When there were only two minutes left before the end of the exam, the proctor walked to Li Tu's front and said in a low voice, "Can't you see with your eyes?"

  Li Tu's body suddenly shook violently, and a sense of fear suddenly arose from the bottom of his heart, causing his body to tremble slightly.

  The proctor saw that the young man did not answer and spoke again: "Please answer my question."

  The young man's face turned pale in an instant, his fingers trembling constantly.

  "What's meant to come will come! Maybe I'm just hoping too much."

  The proctor looked at the youth whose face had turned deathly pale in an instant and was already quite certain that he was blind, but he couldn't have imagined that there would be a blind person who dared to deceive the school, nakedly mixing into the examination room under the eyes of many examinees and examiners, and even participating in the entrance examination. If this gets out, it will absolutely be a joke, ridiculing the entire dynasty's other counties, becoming the laughing stock of the academic circles.

  Li Tu's anxiety in his heart turned into pain, helplessness and speechless bitterness. After being discovered by the school, he instead let go of the cautious and fearful mindset that had been worrying about being discovered all along. His trembling hands made an effort to prop himself up against the table, his face deathly pale, he forced a smile and said with difficulty: "Although my eyes can't see, my heart can."

  A storm of criticism immediately erupted around the young man, shocking everyone.

  "What? He's actually blind?"

  "A blind man took part in the school's entrance examination, didn't he?"

  "Am I dreaming? Even a blind person can read books?"

  ……

  At this moment, the square immediately became a sensation, spreading wildly in all directions like an epidemic, almost instantly spreading throughout the entire square, with either astonished, stunned, shocked or puzzled eyes pouring in.

  "He can't really be blind, can he?"

  "It's really hard to imagine a blind person reading books."

  "Have you ever seen a blind person read?"

  "Blind man reading books? Isn't he an idiot?"

  "This blind man must be out of his mind, he actually ran all the way to the school."

  "How can an academy possibly accept a blind person?"

  "How did he get a letter of recommendation? I won't believe it was bought with a lot of money. I've heard that such things happen in some places."

  Li Tu's body was slightly trembling, and his face turned even paler.

  The proctor looked at the pale and painful young man, perhaps with some mercy in his heart, and said: "You can go now, maybe the school won't pursue this matter."

  "Can't you just give me a chance? I'll definitely treasure it well." Li Tu struggled to lift his head and said with difficulty.

  Those eyes were very dark and bright, extremely clear, but had no focus.

  The young assistant shook his head and said, "Even if you have some talent now and can surpass some students in a certain aspect, your inability to see severely restricts your ability to read, write, and observe. You cannot do anything like ordinary people, and everything is extremely difficult. In the short term, you may be able to catch up with other students relying on your talent, but as time goes on, your talent will lose its advantage, and you will not be able to keep up with others. Ultimately, you can only be mediocre among the crowd. If a student cannot even do the most basic reading and writing, how can they talk about studying?"

  The proctor looked at the pale and suffering young man, remained silent for a while, then said: "You'd better leave."

  Li Tu's body kept trembling, his pale face looked extremely painful, he opened his mouth to say something, but not a word came out.

  "Is it really going to end like this? Who is this person?"

  Li Tu slowly left his seat, slightly bowed towards the podium, and then turned around with difficulty, leaving behind a disheveled figure.

  "For the past five or six years since I lost my sight, regardless of whether it's scorching heat or bitter cold, windy or rainy, I, Li Tu, have been diligently studying and reading day and night, not daring to be lazy for a moment, not daring to be slow for a moment. In order to enter the academy to study, I, along with my old servant, braved the hardships of mountains and rivers, boats and carriages, traveled thousands of miles, visited thirty-one academies, only to receive ridicule from others."

  "Finally, I set my goal on the best school in the county, because of its motto: 'Heaven is strong and self-reliant, gentlemen are strong and unyielding; Earth is gentle and tolerant, gentlemen are virtuous and carry things with virtue.' I always fantasized that maybe the school wouldn't reject me just because I'm blind, so I sold my land, even my ancestral home, and spent all my family's wealth to get a letter of recommendation. But in the end, it was all the same."

  "I wish to strive tirelessly, but heaven does not give me the opportunity; I want to cultivate virtue and carry things, but people do not teach me knowledge."

  "It's all over. Time is up, fate is sealed!"

  The young man muttered to himself and left in a sorry state, his figure shrouded in unparalleled loneliness and sorrow.