Chapter 45 Submit papers in advance
The ultimate goal of the Agricultural School has always been to establish a unified theory that can explain the mysteries of heaven and earth and the cycle of birth and death of all things through the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, and Four Seasons.

This question is too grand and too profound. It is impossible to truly answer it, even for a Grand Minister of Agriculture of the first rank.

But because of this, everyone can get points from the last question.

Clerks only need to answer according to current theories and write down what they have memorized by rote, and they can get at least two or three points out of 20.

If you can make some connection between the Five Elements, Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches and the four seasons, you can get half the points.

If you want to go higher, you have to come up with something new.

However, it cannot be too extreme and must be based on existing theories, otherwise it would be "fabrication" and even those experienced agricultural officials may not be able to do it.

Since it is difficult to come up with an original answer, why do we have to ask this question?

Because the theory of the five elements and four seasons is so important, all the ministers of agriculture would refer to the theory of the five elements and four seasons when they were compiling the solar term orders.

If the four seasons are not obvious, how can we determine the four seasons? We must use the five elements to determine.

If the four seasons are in disorder, then we should change them. How to change them? We still need to utilize the power of the five elements.

So this question is basically never out of date.

"Clerks can answer freely and write their own opinions and guesses, but their answers must also be based on the examiner's preferences."

"If the examiner is of the "Heavenly Time" school, then the theory of the book "The Five Elements of Heavenly Time" must be used to answer the question. If the examiner is of the "Geographical Advantage" school, then the "Earth King Jixia Theory" is the most appropriate."

"If it is the ego school? Then it is the 'Yin Yang and Five Elements Self Sutra'. However, the ego school is weak, and its ideas are not popular and have nothing to do with mainstream theories. Using it to address the topic is a forced answer." Zhao Xing thought to himself.

The ego school believes that the body of a living being has its own set of timekeeping systems, which is simply called a "biological clock", with the five internal organs matching the five elements, and other organs of the body matching the celestial branches and earthly stems.

This set of theories is called the 'Small Five Elements and Four Seasons Theory', also known as the 'Inner Five Elements and Four Seasons Theory'. From the name, we can tell that it is not accepted by the mainstream and is relatively unpopular.

But it was not until the revival version and the rise of the ego school that this theory became popular and crushed other schools.

Because 'pure soil can be created in the body', 'Dantian can breed native species', and even by looking inward at the heavens and the earth, one can create a world of one's own.

But if you write it down now, even the people of the Self School will think you are crazy, because the best you can do now is to "open up pure soil". A world in your body? Are you crazy?
So Zhao Xing ruled it out directly.

"The earliest five elements chapter matched Jia with wood, Bing with fire, Wu with earth, Geng with metal, and Ren with water. But the correlation was too weak, and the coordination of the four seasons was not considered at all."

"Later, the four seasons were divided into three months: Meng, Zhong and Ji."

"The three months of spring, Mengchun, Zhongchun and Jichun, are located in the east, and belong to the element of wood, matching Jia and Yi."

"The two months of summer, Mengxia and Zhongxia, are located in the south. They belong to the element of fire and are paired with Bing and Ding."

"The third month of summer, 'Jixia', is located in the center, and belongs to the earth element, paired with Wu and Ji."

"The three months of autumn, Mengqiu, Zhongqiu and Jiqiu, are located in the west, and belong to the metal element, and are paired with Geng and Xin."

"The three months of winter, Mengdong, Zhongdong and Jidong, are located in the north, and belong to the element of water, paired with Ren and Gui."

This is the mainstream 'Tu Wang Jixia theory'.

Zhao Xing did not plan to give a brilliant answer, because he would basically not lose points in the previous questions, which was enough to stand out in this assessment, so he just copied the mainstream theory.

In this way, I can get a score of 30% at least. "If this question is asked in the official temple exam, I can make some improvements. The current five elements are not balanced in matching the moon. Fire and earth are too weak, and they only match two months in total."

"Would you like to give us a little opinion first?"

Zhao Xing pondered for half an hour without picking up his pen.

In the end he decided to write two more sentences.

"Of the Five Elements, none is more precious than earth. Earth is in charge of all the four seasons, and it has no share of fame or honor with fire."

"Wood, fire, metal, and water each govern one season, with earth in the center, holding the rope to control the four directions."

After writing these two sentences, Zhao Xing did not say any more. This was just a slight improvement on the unbalanced matching of the five elements with the moon, and it was not a big change.

In fact, it excludes "earth" from "ruling the four seasons" and gives it a false name of "controlling the four directions".

But it is enough. The fact that a minor official can write these things already shows that you are very thoughtful.

In fact, this is the prototype of the "Earth King Four Seasons Theory" of later generations. However, Zhao Xing does not intend to release the improved "Earth King Four Seasons Theory" of later generations now. If one's virtue is not worthy of the position, and he talks too much, there will be disaster.

After answering the last question, Zhao Xing found that it was already daybreak and it was the next day.

"The test started in the afternoon, and now it's the next morning. How come I took so long to answer? It seems that I spent too much time thinking about the last question."

A true academic master must consider controlling his scores. In the last assessment, Zhao Xing not only controlled his own scores, but also controlled the scores of others.

This time I had to consider the actual impact, so I thought about it for a little longer.

"I'm starving. I haven't even had a meal yet. The food that was delivered to me is cold."

After becoming rich from Lao He, Zhao Xing no longer cared about the cold "employee meals".

Anyway, I planned to hand in the paper early and go to a restaurant after leaving the exam room.

Zhao Xing sorted out the answer sheets, without missing a single one, and walked towards the examination hall with them in his arms.

It was not yet completely light in the morning, but the patrols and invigilation were not slackened. If it was a formal temple exam, even the ghosts would come to invigilate, to prevent ghosts from helping people cheat!

"Huh? Why did you hand in the paper so early?" Xue Wenzhong was sitting in the hall, looking at Zhao Xing who walked in with the guards, and couldn't help but frowned.

He thought Zhao Xing was too arrogant. He had finished answering all the questions before half of the exam time had passed?
He naturally knew the difficulty of the questions set by Xue Wenzhong. In order to screen talents and report them to the county, the subsequent exams became more difficult than the last.

Zhao Xing has a good understanding of magic, but theory is another matter, and a muscular man may not necessarily be able to produce brilliant works.

"Having won the first place twice, has he become arrogant?"

Zhao Xing handed in his answer sheet and then bowed: "My Lords, I am here to hand in my paper."

Gao Linong, Tang Wanchun and Pang Yuan were quite surprised when they saw this. Their thoughts were similar to Xue Wenzhong's: You finished it in such a short time?
But then he calmed down, showing no sadness or joy, and had one thought in his mind:
Okay, okay, we are not afraid of you being arrogant, but we are afraid that you are not arrogant enough. You are the first one to hand in the paper, so we must review it carefully and not let you off!

Chen Shijie's opinion was different from theirs. His confidence in Zhao Xing far exceeded that of others, which came from his natural trust in his "confidant".

"Okay, you're the first one to hand in your paper. I was right about you. Please wait here for a moment. We will be able to check your results soon."

(End of this chapter)