“The ritual of impropriety!”

Fang Yun felt a strange power spreading throughout his body, as if it were the highest rule between heaven and earth. He involuntarily bent over and held the pen, writing on a blank piece of paper.

These four words seemed very simple, but Fang Yun found that there was an invisible and majestic force preventing him from writing these four words. It was as if once he finished writing these four words, he would be crushed by that force.

Fang Yun knew that this was the examination of classics, which was far more peculiar than reciting sacred words and poetry.

Fang Yun took a deep breath, and the source of this sentence came to mind.

“In the Commentary on Laozi by Mencius,” Mencius said, “The ritual of impropriety, the righteousness of unrighteousness, the great man does not do.”

Fang Yun slowly wrote the four words “the ritual of impropriety” on the paper, and as he finished writing the last word, it was like breaking through a layer of window paper.

A thunderous sound exploded in Fang Yun’s ears.

“What is ritual?”

Fang Yun was stunned for a moment. He thought that ritual was actually a general term that could refer to the entire social system, the norms of individual moral behavior, or books like the Book of Rites and the Zhou Li. It could also be specific to marriage, funeral, and other ceremonies. To directly answer what ritual is seemed simple, but it was actually a difficult task.

Even the extraordinary book Tian Di could not help him answer this question. At this moment, Fang Yun could only rely on his own learning in the past few days to answer.

“Ritual is rules,” Fang Yun answered calmly.

The invisible force suddenly disappeared. Fang Yun looked down and saw that the words on the paper were still there. He breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that he had passed the first stage of the classics examination and could officially take the exam.

As soon as Fang Yun sat down, he heard loud crying not far away, but the crying suddenly stopped, as if it was blocked by something.

“It seems that someone answered incorrectly, or because it was their first time taking the classics examination and they were too nervous, causing them to lose their qualification for the exam. Taking the classics examination in the imperial examination is not the same as writing classics at home,” Fang Yun thought to himself, placing the paper with “the ritual of impropriety” in the upper left corner. Then he took out a blank piece of paper and placed it in front of him.

The title was just four words, and a classics essay was at most a thousand words, but it had to be examined for a whole day, which was enough to show how difficult classics were to write.

Fang Yun thought to himself, “The ritual of impropriety. Simply interpreting it literally, it can be understood as norms that do not conform to the rules. And this title is a very tricky one.”

“The original sentence is ‘the ritual of impropriety, the righteousness of unrighteousness, the great man does not do.’ If I only explain ‘the ritual of impropriety,’ although I won’t ‘commit a mistake,’ I will definitely fall behind. Even if I write well, I won’t get a good score. If I involve ‘the righteousness of unrighteousness’ and write it well, I will naturally receive a good evaluation. But if there are any slight problems, it will be considered a ‘mistake’ and directly classified as the lowest rank. Failing the exam.”

“Others can avoid making mistakes by only writing about ritual and not righteousness, but if I want to compete for the title of top talent, I must focus on ritual and involve righteousness. So, how should I break through the topic and cleverly connect ‘the ritual of impropriety’ and ‘the righteousness of unrighteousness,’ while also explaining ‘the ritual of impropriety’ well?”

Fang Yun was momentarily stumped because writing classics was not difficult, but writing it well was extremely difficult.

Moreover, the sentence “the ritual of impropriety, the righteousness of unrighteousness, the great man does not do” was explained differently by different great scholars.

Among them, the explanations for ‘the ritual of impropriety, the righteousness of unrighteousness’ were similar. It could be explained as “norms that do not conform to the rules, acts that do not conform to righteousness.” But the phrase “the great man does not do” had three different explanations: one was “adults do not do it,” one was “people of high virtue and reputation do not do it,” and one was “people of high status do not do it.”

Fang Yun thought to himself, “Since the three types of people are different, the angle of explaining ‘the ritual of impropriety’ will also be different. And when providing examples for argumentation later, the examples given will inevitably be different. One wrong step will lead to all steps being wrong. Even if all three explanations are correct, there will inevitably be a difference in quality.”

When Fang Yun read Mencius and various annotations before, he had considered how to explain the two words “the great man” and had to connect them with the previous text.

“This sentence is the sixth section of the Commentary on Laozi by Mencius, and there is a fifth section before it, which talks about how the ruler of a nation should pay attention to benevolence and righteousness. Therefore, it is obviously impossible to superficially consider the great man as an adult, and it is not enough to say that it refers to people of high virtue and reputation. It clearly refers to people of high status.”

“Most importantly, ‘the ritual of impropriety’ is obviously directed at the makers and enforcers of rules. If the great man is simply explained as an adult, then the previous text could also be written as ‘the act of impropriety,’ and Mencius, being a semi-saint, would definitely distinguish between ‘the ritual of impropriety’ and ‘the act of impropriety.’”

Fang Yun quickly determined that this sentence was Mencius admonishing those who make and enforce rules not to exercise norms that do not conform to the rules and not to perform acts that do not conform to righteousness.

When Fang Yun realized this, he suddenly clapped his hands and laughed.

“I understand!”

“What is the ritual of impropriety? Since it is a rule, why would it not conform to the norms? Therefore, the key to breaking through these four words is to first determine in what circumstances the ritual is a ritual and in what circumstances it is not!”

Fang Yun felt as if he had been enlightened, and everything became clear before his eyes.Thus, Fang Yun began to ponder deeply.

Soon, Fang Yun was stumped again. Although it was easy to break the topic, the underlying intention had its own hierarchy.

“Since the ‘adult’ I recognize is a person of high position, the maker and executor of rules, then the ‘uncivilized etiquette’ should be elevated to the state governance of the court or the policies of the Holy Academy. After all, the Holy Academy is managed by the Half-Sages. If I write about their ‘uncivilized etiquette’, I might be killed by their ‘Courage to Write’. Therefore, it’s best to write about the court and the nation.”

“Having a direction is a good thing. However, if I want to write a top-grade interpretation, and overwhelmingly surpass others, I must do as Feng Yuanjun said, and write some ‘astonishing’ ideas or thoughts. But these thoughts must conform to the trend of the world and can exist in the future. Fortunately, this doesn’t stump me.”

“So, what should I choose to interpret ‘uncivilized etiquette’?”

Fang Yun was so worried that he couldn’t make up his mind until lunchtime.

After lunch, he kept thinking until half past one in the afternoon. Finally, Fang Yun had an inspiration and kept writing on the blank page. In the end, several words appeared repeatedly.

“Ancient and modern”, “abdication”, “inheritance”, “hereditary”, “monarch”, “election”…

Looking at these words, Fang Yun thought, “Besides time, what else can change etiquette? For a nation, what etiquette is more important than the political system? Therefore, I will write this interpretation based on the changes in the political system from ancient to modern times! Abdication is an ancient etiquette, but it is not in line with the current rules, it is ‘uncivilized etiquette’; while hereditary is the current etiquette, in the future, it may also be ‘uncivilized etiquette’.”

“This is the trend of history, even the Sages cannot change it. Therefore, this intention is not only correct, but for the current Holy Origin Mainland, it is definitely ‘astonishing’. However, I can’t write out the specific future system, I just need to point out some characteristics of the future political system that conform to the future etiquette! I must not write too much or too completely, otherwise it will definitely bring disaster.”

“At the same time, I also need to incorporate the ‘unrighteous righteousness’.”

Fang Yun wrote and drew on the paper again, finally deciding to write this interpretation from the changes in the political system from ancient to modern times.

Fang Yun picked up his pen and chose a blank page to write the topic.

“In ancient times, people regarded this as etiquette, but if I must follow it today, it may not conform to the ancient etiquette; in ancient times, people regarded this as righteousness, but if I must follow it today, it may not conform to the ancient righteousness.”

After Fang Yun finished writing the last ‘also’, the entire academy, including the Temple of Literature, suddenly shook slightly. Then, a terrifying power that no one noticed silently descended on Fang Yun’s examination room.

Fang Yun was originally overjoyed, because after picking up the pen, the talent on the entire page was not “slowly rising and increasing” like ordinary poetry, but “rolling and rising”, as if the talent had life. At the same time, the page began to float.

“This is the phenomenon that only occurs in the ‘Spread to the World’ above the ‘Nation Stabilizing’!” Just as this thought emerged in Fang Yun’s mind, the rolling and rising talent disappeared, and the page fell back to the table like a deflated ball.

“What…” Fang Yun panicked. There were two possibilities for this situation, one was extremely good, and the other was terrifying.

“What should I do?”

Fang Yun carefully looked at this page, then gently blew it. The page was blown and there was no anomaly.

The ‘Nation Stabilizing’ poetry weighs a hundred jin, and the ‘Spread to the World’ poetry weighs ten thousand jin per page. If it is not the original author himself, at least the Grand Academician can barely pick it up. Those below the Grand Academician can’t move it at all. Only when the page of the ‘Spread to the World’ poetry is placed in a box made of “Floating Wood Cloud” from the demon world, others can hold the box to read it.

“That’s strange! If this is not a ‘Spread to the World’ article, it is not the best possibility. If it is the worst possibility, I am already dead.”

Fang Yun dared not move his pen, thought hard, and always couldn’t understand its meaning. In the end, he found that there was not much time left, and if he didn’t write anymore, he wouldn’t be able to finish.

“Forget it! The text I wrote is the experience of the human race in another world. Even if it conflicts with this world, it will not cause a major disaster. If my article really causes a disaster, the Half-Sages will stop it and won’t let me continue writing.”

After thinking about it, Fang Yun picked up his pen again and wrote the “start” part after breaking the topic.

“As for the affairs of the world…”

After finishing the “start”, Fang Yun began to use the change of political system as an example. This time he was more careful than before, for fear of writing something too astonishing and causing a big change.

Fang Yun wrote slowly, and when he finished the last word, nothing happened.

“Phew…”

Fang Yun let out a long sigh of relief. The pressure just now was too great. If he wrote a concept that conflicts with the Path of the Saints in this world, he might be punished by the Saints, which would be terrifying.

“Since this article can be written smoothly, it means there will be no problem. I have seen a longer history of the human race, and I wrote this interpretation based on their experience. If this kind of insight is not as good as Tong Li, I might as well commit suicide!”

Fang Yun carefully checked this interpretation, carefully checking word by word, and only stopped after checking five times.

“Dong dong dong…”

The drum sounded, and the prefectural examination ended. (To be continued.)