[Cathy]
We are now in the throes of the Spring Exam where Fan Xian wants to create a safe and fair environment for the students for once. It is a 3 day affair and the students don’t know it, but they are targets of essentially a massive attack which would ultimately result in Fan Xian’s downfall. Luckily, Fan Xian is prepared with the help of Guo You Zhi’s intel. He is the former Minister of Rites and knows all the nefarious traps that could be set for Fan Xian. In the last episode, Fan Xian swapped out the water and the candles for fresh ones to avoid a fire hazard. In the beginning of episode 20, he also has his men freshly build new bathrooms or latrines because that would be the other main spot where there could be a fire hazard. Well. Not just a fire hazard, a possible explosion if there’s kerosene on the candles. Eeek. Clearly, the court officials overseeing the exam don’t care one iota about the lives of these students if it means that they can pin it on Fan Xian.
But, with the new latrines, candles and water, it looks like Fan Xian headed off the major threats. As the 2nd prince says, if there aren’t a couple dozen deaths, at this event, it won’t impact Fan Xian that much so there’s no point enacting any other plans. Ummm helloooo? Clearly the 2nd prince doesn’t care about human lives either.
So for the next 3 days, the students are able to spend their time banging their heads in their little rooms, racking their brains to write responses that will hopefully change their lives. It’s a rather cool scene where the camera pans across these different individuals and each cubby is a window into each person’s actions at that time of day and then a change of lighting helps us see the passage of time. After three long days, the students turn in their papers and the officials start evaluating them.
It’s a whole process that we will discuss later on as to how the exams are done. This drama does a pretty good job at showing how the exams were supposedly proctored to ensure anonymity and fairness but also how that is taken advantage of so it’s not entirely fair. Fan Xian takes it upon himself to also walk around the premises while various Ministry of Rites officials are evaluating the exams and loudly calling out possible practices that could help with cheating. This shocks Guo Zheng, the acting Minister of Rites and person in league with the 2nd prince, and he is forced to wave off quite a few people from proceeding with their cheating tactics because it’s evident that Fan Xian knows exactly what is happening. At least now, it means, with Fan Xian’s oversight, that there SHOULD be no cheating involved with who actually passed the exams and who did not.
[Karen]
I say SHOULD because one person is conspicuously NOT on the list of people who passed. That is Yang Wan Li. During the exams, Fan Xian walked over by his stall to read his essay and even saw one of the evaluating officials mark Yang Wan Li’s essay, or at least the contents of his essay as passed. However, when Fan Xian received the final list of individuals, Yang Wan Li’s name was NOT included. This piques his interest so he heads directly to the Ministry of Rites to investigate.
Turns out, Yang Wan Li’s essay, as Fan Xian remembers it, IS indeed included in the pile of papers that passed. However, the name of who WROTE the essay was changed. A student on the list that the crown prince gave Fan Xian takes the spot for Yang Wan Li’s paper.
This prompts Fan Xian to head immediately to the Crown Prince’s residence to confront him. Pay attention to what the Crown Prince is doing when Fan Xian arrives. He is painting again. And painting paintings of a woman with no face. Even though we saw earlier in this season that his mother made him. Not only that, HE DESIGNED CLOTHES FOR HER. Like full on a whole fashion show of clothes for this no faced woman. UHhhh stalker much? He’s definitely obsessed. You can tell Fan Xian is weirded out by all of this.
Anyways, he’s here to discuss this name replacement act. Fortunately, Fan Xian knows that there’s no way the Crown Prince would make such an obvious move of swapping the name of someone that people likely know are under Fan Xian’s wing for someone on the Crown Prince’s list. Fan Xian also doesn’t think it’s the 2nd prince’s doing because only one name is a little too conspicuous. The 2nd prince would likely want to swap out a bunch of people. Because they aren’t able to figure out who’s behind it, Fan Xian suggests that they raise this right up to the Emperor for his guidance and they head to the palace.
[Cathy]
On the way in the palace, Fan Xian and the Crown Prince are now being guided by the young Eunuch Hong. We’ll hear more of his backstory later on but note what he says here. He cleverly praises Fan Xian’s actions for coming into the palace to fight for the fairness of the students. Fan Xian pauses at this because no one is supposed to know the purposes of his and the Crown Prince’s visit to the palace. Why does this Eunuch know? Also, did you notice how the students all heard about what Fan XIan was doing as well? It was deemed as gossip in the streets. But who spread that gossip? The Eunuch also gives Fan Xian the hint that everyone in the streets knows about Fan Xian’s wish for fairness. This is important news as it gives intel to Fan Xian that someone is deliberately spreading this news on what he may or may not be doing.
Fan Xian and the Crown Prince arrive in the Emperor’s study. He’s not alone as Chen Ping Ping is already there with a box full of files. It is as if the Emperor and Chen Ping Ping are waiting for Fan Xian. The two young men arrive to inform the Emperor of their wish to investigate the fairness of the exams while also stating that they are fixing the final list to ensure its accuracy. Fan Xian, however, needs to ask for permission because he needs to know how far and how deep he can investigate as it can have ties to many important people at court.
The Emperor doesn’t skip a beat and motions towards the files that Chen Ping Ping brought over. THey are all complaints from prior exams of unjustness and unfairness or corruption that occurred over the past 5 years. Fan Xian steps forward and requests for the ability to take on the responsibility of investigating all of these cases. He is willing to take on the fallout of this investigation. The Emperor doesn’t say much more, other than, yes investigate.
[Karen]
If it wasn’t clear by now, this entire added hiccup with Yang Wan Li’s name being replaced by the Crown Prince’s guy must’ve been orchestrated by the Emperor, and Chen Ping Ping, in order to push Fan Xian to take on the full responsibility of investigating the corruption in the Spring exam. Otherwise, no other “power” would be strong enough to spread rumors immediately and also have the capacity to change just that one name. We also see scenes of a single eunuch walking in and out of a room and only the eunuchs are ordered on behalf of the palace. In this case, we’ll assume it’s the Emperor. So, clearly, the Emperor WANTS there to be some chaos at court and Fan Xian will be the one to cause it.
We’ll close the episode with Fan Xian being led out of the palace by the young Eunuch Hong. However, when the 2 are alone, the Eunuch shocks FAn Xian by kneeling to his knees and giving his deepest gratitutde to Fan Xian. Turns out, the Eunuch’s original last name is Chen and he is the last surviving member of his clan after a corrupt official seized his property and killed his family. He had no where to go which is how he ended up in the palace as a eunuch. But it is because of Fan Xian’s anti corruption initiatives did this corrupt official get investigated and he has been sentenced to death via execution. Eunuch Hong is forever grateful for Fan XIan for helping him get justice. Fan Xian is confused because he wasn’t personally involved in this. But Eunuch Hong says that if it wasn’t for Fan Xian’s initiatives, this never would’ve happened.
I’ll close out the episode with this. In my view, Eunuch Hong is the butterfly effect of what happens when someone like Fan XIan DOES stand up for justice. You don’t know the number of people you are helping by standing up for what’s right. Eunuch Hong is the example of that. He is now here in the capital and will be a powerful ally for Fan Xian.
–
[Cathy]
Given the conclusion of the exams, let’s spend some time discussing one piece of pop culture and spend the rest on the cheating within the imperial exams.
The first is an example of pop culture when Fan Xian and Wang Qi Nian are discussing all the effort they’re putting into keeping the exams safe and fair. Fan Xian leaves with the phrase
好人好事不留名, 还请叫我红领巾
Translating this literally, it’s good people, good work, no name is left behind, please call me instead a red scarf.
The usage of this phrase is pretty recent. The first line of good people, good work, no name is left behind is pretty straightforward. The second, please call me a red scarf, references the children who wore and still wear the Red Scarves. In China, they are called the Young Pioneers.
The red scarf is a general name for the identifying scarf worn by members of youth vanguard organizations in many socialist or communist countries and in some other nations. It is typically a red triangular scarf that is worn around the neck. The common belief is that the red scarf originated from Communist Russia back in the late 1910s, early 1920s as a way to promote communist ideology in children. The idea was picked up by the Chinese and is still used today.
In China, Young Pioneer organizations are mainly found in schools that provide compulsory education. Young Pioneers wear the red scarf while at school or when taking part in collective activities such as school events and training. Schools teach children how to properly wear the red scarf and will check whether students are wearing it correctly. If you watch Chinese dramas depicting school children, you’ll notice the red scarves as part of the uniform.
Typically, during the five or six years of primary school, students join the Children’s Corps in grades one to two, and then join the Young Pioneers in grades three to four. The vast majority of primary and middle school students are required to become Young Pioneers. During middle-school years, students who turn 14 and are considered “outstanding” are successively asked to join the Communist Youth League. Membership in the Youth League is not mandatory, but either formally joining the League or graduating from middle school counts as leaving the Young Pioneers, meaning students no longer need to wear the red scarf (although some schools still require all students to wear it in middle school). That’s why in HIGH SCHOOL you don’t see many students if at all any wear the red scarf. In summer, wearing the Young Pioneer badge is allowed as a substitute for the red scarf.
There’s a lot of communist language that the students need to learn and recite during the school events so you’ll see them wear the scarf with the right hand up in a fist or as Fan Xian depicts in the drama. As for the drama, Fan Xian is using this expression to depict some playful nostalgia to show that he’s a moral person.
[Karen]
The key crux of this episode is the blatant cheating that occurs during the imperial exams. The previous episode focused on the cheating methods from the students but this episode focuses on the systematic cheating from the officials. The imperial exams began during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, with a history of over 1300 years. Cheating, or records of cheating have been documented since the 8th century CE and continued till the end of the Qing Dynasty. Cheating wasn’t exclusive to the metropolitan exams. It occurred at all levels, such as the lower level provincial exams. Most of the examples found in the drama do have historical examples so let’s discuss them!
The first method is 夹带 or 小抄 which just means cheat sheets. The cheaters would find ways to smuggle in mini versions of reference books to the exam hall. This was the most cost effective and easiest way to cheat. There are surviving artifacts including one mini copy of basically an encyclopedia of critical information. It’s 100 pages, covering 1,400 essential poems and classics for the exam, and can basically fit in the palm of your hand. The hiding places for the cheat sheets or books were everywhere – inside hats, shoe soles, underwear, on the belly, inside inkstones, inside snacks, even inside the rectum. From the Qianlong era onward, so think the mid 18th century, examinees had to strip completely for inspection before entering the exam hall, with even the private parts not exempt. We saw this form of cheating in the last episode.
[Cathy]
Next there was the method of leaking exam questions. This required more skill and could be accomplished in 2 ways. (1) purchasing the exam questions in advance from the setters or chief examiner, and (2) passing answers from outside the exam compound after the questions were revealed on-site. This required a lot of money and needed a whole organization to be in on this racket.
Buying off the question setters or chief examiner was difficult especially for the palace examination, where the emperor himself wrote the questions. Yet even this was not impossible. Some managed to bribe eunuchs close to the emperor and infer the questions from scraps of waste paper. The most miraculous was 和珅, a favored official during the reign of Emperor Qian Long, who could guess the exam questions simply by observing what books the emperor was reading or the topics he discussed during the question-setting period.
Naturally, those capable of leaking exam questions were no ordinary figures. Such cases usually resulted in a group of high-ranking officials being dismissed. In the Yongzheng era in the 18th century, one particular inspector was sabotaged by his own household as his concubine and servant secretly sold the exam questions to candidates. The inspector was sentenced to death.
The third method was Replacing Exam Papers. In the early 19th century, in the Hunan provincial exam, a candidate paid 1,200 taels of silver to bribe clerks to cut off the header of the first-place candidate’s paper and replace it with his own, enabling him to top the exam. However, the real candidate had memorized his own paper in advance and used it as evidence to expose the fraud. The candidate who paid the bribe and those who assisted him were executed. That’s SORT of what happens here in this episode with Yang Wan Li’s case.
[Karen]
Another option was to hire Substitute Test-Takers. Isn’t that the start of the TV show Suits? There were no systems to verify ID in ancient times, only vague physical descriptions, providing room for substitute candidates. This was another example of if you had the money, you could pay for these services. During the Qing Dynasty, there was a whole suite of services where one can pay for someone to take an exam for you from the lowest levels all the way up to even the palace exams!
People got caught because well…the impersonator was too competent while the real candidate was too weak, which causes suspicion. For example, a whole group of Jiangnan salt merchants somehow all were accepted as Jin Shi during the 17th century. Not to say salt merchants COULDN’T perform well, it’s just highly unlikely that many salt merchants would have that capability. During the 18th century, 岑照 Cen Zhao placed number one on his provincial exam but in a separate small essay, he had over 300 mistakes which raised MANY eyebrows.
There was also the methodology utilizing False Registration of Origin. In ancient times, and honestly today, candidates’ academic abilities varied greatly by region. During the 14th century, when northern scholars collectively failed the exam, this caused quite a bit of civil unrest because they thought the standards were too high for those students in the north who did not have the same opportunities as those in the south. To pacify the situation, the Emperor Yuanzhang exiled the chief examiner, executed the deputy examiner, and held a special exam solely for northern candidates, creating the “Southern and Northern Lists.”
Differences in academic standards and the number of available slots meant that the difficulty of scoring well varied greatly across regions, so cases of falsifying one’s registered origin were common.
The last one which is honestly the most effective is simply to buy off the officials to have them place you at the top or on the list. Why do I say most effective? Well, you pay or someone pays and then it’s up to the officials to figure how to cheat! Haha. Some examples are what we see in the drama. Officials make subtle marks on the exam papers, or swap the exam papers as was a case during the Tang Dynasty, or else smuggle specific slips of paper to the examiners as happened in the 19th century.
[Cathy]
It’s also not as though the governments didn’t try to quash the cheating. Throughout the centuries, as new ways of cheating emerged, the Chinese emperors and governments tried their best to implement new rules. For example, during Empress Wu Zetian’s reign in the Tang dynasty, the “masked-name method” was introduced: candidates’ names were covered with pasted paper so that graders could not identify them. That’s what we see in the drama. This later became standard practice in the Song dynasty. Another invention was the transcription system, in which designated scribes copied each candidate’s paper before it was sent for grading, preventing examiners from recognizing handwriting. We also see that in the drama.
During the Song Dynasty, the “locked exam hall” system was established. Each exam session had multiple chief and deputy examiners, all temporarily appointed so they could monitor one another. After receiving their appointments, examiners entered the examination compound on the same day and were not allowed to leave or receive visitors until the exams were completed and results were posted.. If bribery was discovered, both bribe givers and receivers could be sentenced to death, and fellow examiners might be implicated and punished as well. We sort of see that in these two episodes but not quite because Fan Xian is able to pull members of the Overwatch Council into the compound.
To prevent candidates from smuggling cheat sheets, soldiers were already present during the Tang examinations. From the Song dynasty onward, all exams were conducted inside designated examination compounds. Candidates were separated by walls—these cubicles were called “exam cells.” Candidates were forbidden from making noise or leaving their cells to prevent passing papers or communicating. In the 18th century, the government issued detailed regulations specifying the permitted size and thickness of items candidates could bring—such as inkstones, charcoal, pastries—as well as the materials allowed for water flasks and candle stands. Even the style of writing brushes and baskets was precisely defined.
[Karen]
The Tang and Song dynasties were developmental stages of the exam system. Cheating did occur, but not on a large scale, and few were implicated. In the Song dynasty especially, the custom of not executing officials meant offenders were relatively lucky. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, as cheating became more sophisticated, punishment grew increasingly harsh. During the 18th century, dozens of candidates caught with cheat sheets during the metropolitan exam were publicly arrested and displayed during the exam, terrifying over 2,000 examinees into fleeing the exam hall.
Impersonators and cheating candidates were severely punished: typically stripped of all degrees and permanently banned from the exams. More serious offenses brought cangues, flogging, tattooing and exile, or even execution. Those who masterminded fraud faced even heavier penalties such as loss of office or death not just for the mastermind but for the whole family too.
Phew – that was a lot of cheating and preventative measures for these imperial exams. There’s 1000+ years of history with which people cheated and still do so it’s not always fool proof!
–
[Cathy]
Let’s conclude with book differences. In the book, Fan Xian watches all of the cheating happen from the officials but makes no move to change anything. He sees that the officials are masking the names of the examinees but making specific cuts on the masking slips to differentiate them. He himself slips in a few names himself to include as individuals he favors. It’s only AFTER the exam and after it seems the names are ready to be posted does he strike. He orders the Overwatch council to arrest 4 men from the south (hilariously 3 have salt merchant backgrounds, which ties to the historical example earlier) and seizes evidence of bribery through letters and then silver that is present in the house of the Minister of Rites, who at that time is Guo You Zhi. At this point in the book Guo You Zhi is in league with the Crown Prince, so unlike in the drama where it’s the Second prince who’s Fan Xian’s biggest enemy, Fan Xian instead strikes out to Guo You Zhi and the Crown Prince. The Second Prince doesn’t even really appear in this debacle. In the book, it isn’t even known that Fan Xian was the whistleblower because well, everyone has a few lists in his hand and Fan Xian kept relatively quiet.