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This episode we are going to finally see what happens during the spring exams! It is one of the dramas that actually spent the money to put this together so that’s nice to see.
But before we do that, we must follow Fan Xian to prison becauuuuse Guo Bao Kun and Fan Si Zhe have returned to the capital. This is perfect timing because Fan Xian needs Guo Bao Kun’s father, Guo You Zhi,’s help. Guo You Zhi is currently in prison for his actions in season 1, aka helping the princess royal in faction battles which is a no no. But, Fan Xian agreed to help Guo Bao Kun free his father if he agrees to help Fan Xian with some stuff. Now, is that perfect opportunity to help Fan Xian.
What was supposed to be a touching reunion between son and father in the prison suddenly turns hilarious because Guo Bao Kun, who we know is not the smartest cookie out there, is telling his father all about his accomplishments being the spy leader in the Qi kingdom. His father then is like, Is the Qi Kingdom going to fall? Ahahahaha.
If you didn’t get it, what this means is that he knows there’s no way his son could be that masterful of a spy and there’s no way he could lead a spy organization without being discovered. If that were truly the case, then Guo You Zhi, the father’s only explanation is that the Qi kingdom is so inept and useless that it’s about to meet its doom. Hahahaha. Father knows best.
[Cathy]
Anyways – the reason why Fan XIan is here is because he needs Guo You Zhi’s help. In the last episode, the current Minister of Rites Guo Zheng, who has no blood relation to Guo You Zhi, gave Fan Xian a booklet of all the rules needed for the spring exam. Fan XIan wants Guo You Zhi to take a look because he was the Minister of Rites for several years before that. It was good step to check in with Guo You Zhi because he immediately noticed that while all the WRITTEN rules were written with no issue, there was nothing about all the unwritten rules that could spell disaster for Fan XIan. A key target would “protoges” of Fan Xian’s. He’s taken aback because he doesn’t have anyone under his wing, only to realize, at Guo You Zhi’s prompting, that any of the men he spent time with the last few days would qualify. That would be Shi Chan Li and his friends. This gives Fan Xian pause as he ruminates next steps. Fortunately, Guo You Zhi is there to help him.
Elsewhere, Fan Si Zhi and his mother Mistress Liu stop by to speak to Fan Xian. Mistress Liu is there to show her appreciation for Fan Si Zhe’s safe return but also to request he stay home. However, in a surprising announcement, Fan Si Zhe says he wants to go back to the Qi kingdom. He wants to help his brother manage the business trade between the two kingdoms, which is nice! Fan Si Zhe is growing up.
Now it’s time to turn to the spring exam or the imperial entrance exam! I just gotta commend how much money the drama had to have so many extras for these episodes. It’s a lot of dudes to get dressed and coordinate to film the scenes of these hopefuls running to the examination hall! Also, when the horde of men are crossing the dragon gate bridge, i was like, please be safe, please be safe, please be safe, as in i hope no one tripped on those stairs! They look rather precarious!
At the gate to the exam hall, Fan Xian is there to greet everyone. He gives a speech to encourage the crowd but also to remind them to not break any rules. He is here to protect the fairness of the exam and if anyone does break rules…well tough luck.
Soon, the security check begins. Everyone’s materials are meticulously checked and the men are stripped down as well to ensure no one brought cheat sheets.
[Karen]
Here is where the fun begins. Yang Wan Li, one of the men Fan Xian met over the last few days, is going through his security check when within his food box, a small slip of paper with writing on it is discovered. GUo Zheng immediately snatches the folded piece of paper and makes a huge scene. Poor Yang Wan Li, he was randomly chosen by Guo Zheng as someone to target as part of Fan XIan’s group. He was about to kick Yang Wan Li out and ban him from the exam when some random soldier steps in to take the fall. Fan Xian and Guo Zheng are both like WTF, this was not in the cards, but this random soldier is rather aggressive in taking the blame for messing with this Yang Wan Li.
Fan Xian at this point steps forward and tells the soldier to shut up. He then asks Guo Zheng to look at exactly what the piece of cheat sheet says if they are to turn that in to evidence. And guess what. the piece of paper is none other than a food menu with prices of various flatbreads. Guo Zheng is shocked at this turn of events and has no choice but to let Yang Wan Li go.
Turns out, all of this was a ploy. Xie Bi An, the 2nd prince’s swordsman/retainer, bumped into Yang Wan Li as the students were all on their way to the hall and slipped that piece of paper in his food basket. Evidently, Fan Xian’s men saw this and switched it for something else. This tells Fan Xian that Guo Zheng is indeed in league with the 2nd prince and that this will be a long 3 day battle. As for that random soldier that stepped into help FAn XIan? He took orders from the Chancellor to help Fan Xian when needed. Awww that’s actually really kind of the Chancellor but it also potentially meant the sacrifice of this soldier. This guy had 5 min of screen time but I am mightily impressed.
With all the students through the initial checkpoint, it is now time for the exam to start. Again, the sweeping scenes of the exam rooms that were built for this scene is really quite impressive I gotta say. $$$$ was spent here!
The students are given the exam paper and they start. Fan XIan and Wang Qi Nian are overseeing the proceedings when soldiers with several large boxes arrive. They contain candles that will be given to the students at night to continue the exam. But, after closer inspection, Fan Xian finds that these candles all have a strong kerosene smell. Per Guo You Zhi’s analysis, fire prevention is key for this exam. If something were to happen to the students where a great fire happens in the exam hall and students die, that will be the end of Fan Xian as well. Sure enough, this is a trap set by Guo Zheng for Fan XIan.
Forutunately, Fan XIan is prepared. He orders the men of the 1st bureau to swap out the candles prepared by Guo Zheng for untarnished ones. He also ordered the water bowls used to prevent or stop fires to be replaced with fresh water as the existing water is also tarnished. As Wang QI Nian correctly critizes, wow, Guo Zheng and men clearlydon’t care about whether or not these students die in some type of massive fire.
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[Cathy]
Let’s move on to history and pop culture in this episode! There’s quite a lot, believe it or not.
We’ll focus mainly on the shenanigans at the imperial exams or the 春闱.
First is when the Minister of Rites, Guo Zheng starts posing for more paintings, Fan Xian chimes in and says – oh, 工作日记 or work diary. I get it! This work diary is definitely a modern day term but it’s pretty straightforward.
Next up, Minister Guo informs Fan Xian that all the examinees are crossing the 龙门桥 or the Dragon Gate Bridge for good luck. Yang Wan Li also says 万鲤争流, 同赴龙门. This translates to 10 thousand carps fighting against the stream, all towards the Dragon Gate. This ties back directly to idioms that Wan’Er states back in episode 16 of 鲤跃龙门 or Carp Leaping Over the Dragon Gate. Again, these idioms all refer to the ancient folktale that if the carp jumped over the dragon gate that was carved by ancient dragon 应龙, then the carp will transform into a dragon.
The examinees are the carp all desperately trying to become a dragon by testing well on the exam.
[Karen]
When Fan Xian greets the men and of course, it’s only men, he gives a short pep talk.
拿着智慧库的金钥yao，带着万卷书的头脑，顶着自信的光环，踏着好运的滑板，一路扬帆起航驶向春闱那成功的彼岸
My translation is – Grasp the golden key of the knowledge base, take the brain with ten thousand scrolls of books, basking in the light of confidence, step on the skateboard of good luck, hoist the sail of the boat towards the glorious bank of the spring exam.
If you notice, he stopped at the phrase 一路扬帆起航驶向高 before changing it to 春闱. Well that’s because this whole pep talk is the used every year to wish all of the high school seniors in China luck as they take their college entrance exams or 高考. Haha, it sounds quite inspiring but yep, it’s used pretty regularly. Fan Xian simply changed the name of the exam. I mean, it is quite applicable because the Chinese 高考 or the national college entrance exam is perhaps the most important exam for Chinese students. It determines whether someone has the opportunity to go to college.
[Cathy]
Now turning to the exam itself. We’ve talked about the exams in the various dramas but not from the examinees perspective.
Throughout Chinese history, the 春闱 or metropolitan exam was the most important exam for these aspiring politicians because by passing and becoming a 进士, that granted the person the opportunity to become an official at court. There were other ways of entering court, but for the average person, this was the only “fair” way.
The number of young men who took the metropolitan exam varied throughout the centuries. They were called 举人 and were selected by the provinces and must have passed the provincial exams to take the metropolitan exam. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the number ranged from 2000 to around 9000 with only 2-300 being selected as a Jin Shi. That’s less than 10% acceptance rate on a very good year and even more competitive than some Ivy league colleges!
The exams were overseen by the Ministry of Rites. The examiners were typically and were officials of high rank, such as grand secretaries or ministers who had themselves obtained the jinshi degree, or vice censors-in-chief and above. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the metropolitan exams were held in Beijing at the Gongyuan 贡院 (Imperial Examination Compound). The exam was held every 3 years and students were tested on the classics, history, current affairs, amongst others. During different dynasties, the lengths of the exams were different but during the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was 3 exams lasting 3 days each for a total of 9 days.
Different cities also had examination compounds or 贡院 for the different provincial exams that still exist today. The rooms are TINY, much smaller than what you see in the drama. Well they had to be because these compounds literally had thousands of rooms built for the once purpose of hosting exams either once a year, or every 3 years.
Cheating was a huge problem and throughout the centuries, officials used different measures to clamp down on cheating. I’ll discuss more of that in the next episode.
[Karen]
Next let’s talk about 坑人. Speaking of Cheating, someone put a little cheat sheet or so they thought in Yang Wan Li’s food. A guard steps forward to say he did it to 坑人.
If you translate the words literally – 坑 translates to creating a pit or trap. 人 means human so put that together. It’s creating a trap for someone. This phrase is used quite commonly in Chinese right now. People usually say it when feeling deep regret or distress resulting from a financial loss. Like oh 他坑我. He fooled me into this trap. People also use it when talking about general schemes – like oh, my political enemy dug a hole for me to jump in. No chance I will fall for it.
So in the context of this drama, the guard said, I dug a trap for this guy. I didn’t know this but this phrase has been around for roughly 800 years as it can be first traced back to Yuan Dynasty literature. Eh, I guess it’s literal enough that people continue to dig holes and traps for others after 800 years.
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[Cathy]
Lastly let’s end with book differences!
We finally get to the exams! In the book, Fan Xian makes no preparations PRE exam in the sense that he never asks the Overwatch Council to prepare any candles or water, but rather he catches a lot DURING the exam. In the book, many examinees come in with cheat sheets INCLUDING Yang Wan Li. Fan Xian catches them and orders them to give their cheat sheets up. He doesn’t catch all but at least many willingly give up their materials. At this point in the book, Guo You Zhi is the Minister of Rites and has no allegiance to Fan Xian, indeed his allegiance was with the Crown Prince. The drama pushed this portion of the storyline up so they needed another Minister of Rite to take Guo You Zhi’s spot. Guo Zheng just so happens to be the newly created character to take this spot.