"Becoming A Scholar Official", By Logan Haug

“Becoming a Scholar Official”

My name is He Gao. My house is in a small village just outside of the Imperial City, China. The house is made of bamboo. It has 5 rooms. A Meditation room, A bedroom, A kitchen, A dining room, and a Shrine room. It is furnished with bamboo furniture. Outside of the house is a bamboo forest, and a lake which I like to go out and fish at. In front of the house is a village. Me and my grandson, Ni Tan were in the Dining room.

“Grandfather, what is your job?” said Ni tan

“Ni Tan, I have told this story at least a million times.” I said said

“Then you will not have any trouble telling it a million and one times.” Ni Tan begged.

“Fine, I will tell it one last time.” I choked out.

“When I was your age I had worked on a farm for all of my life,” I Started. “ I hated every second of it. The huge expanse of fields that covered the countryside always smelled like manure. Even when the manure should have been dried out, it still smelled. My parents also thought it was good for me, but I still despised it. I also lived in one of the shoddiest houses in the village, but not because we were poor. My parents purposely bought the cheapest house so that they could have more money. It was a small farm house, the walls were made of dried mud, and the top made of wheat. This house had been old before my parents bought it, and they constantly insisted that it wouldn’t fall apart. It had three rooms. A dining room, and two bedrooms. My father never left his and mother's bedroom, because he always was drunk. Once I started to go to school, I fell in love with it. It gave me an escape from my ever constant duties at the farm. My teacher’s name was Wu bin. She was the nicest person I had ever met. I loved every second I was learning, and I became sad when I wasn’t. My parents were very odd. Ma mu had lived in poverty, and didn’t have food most of the time. She was paranoid that if we didn’t stop farmingwe would run out of food. My father was a common barfly. Everything was like this until I did something one night at dinner that revealed my opinions to my parents.

“ He, did you plant your rice?” My Mother Ma Mu, asked

I stared at my rice which had been sitting in the field for way too long.“ No.” I declared defiantly.

“Why?! We need that rice to grow, so that you can eat. We will run out of food if you don’t!” Ma Mu said.

“ Why can’t Father do it? He has barely planted anything this season!” I Screamed.

“You know he is bedridden!” She screamed back.

“Maybe if he hadn't drank his weight in rice wine!” I challenged.

“ What would you rather do! Learn from Wu!? Knowledge is worth nothing in this world! The only thing that will ever get you anywhere! is farming! I am pulling you out of school, it is clear to me that is has corrupted your mind with attachment! You know this is the buddhist way!! NOW GO PLANT THAT RICE!!!!!” Ma Mu screamed with bloodcurdling seriousness.

Shortly afterward I stepped out of the house, I didn’t know what to do. It was clear to me that Ma Mu would never take me back, and it was also clear I didn’t want her either. I needed to find food and a place to live. I realized that in my little head that I need money to buy those things. I also realized that to get money I needed a job. The first thing I did was I ran to every store in the village to see if they needed workers. The problem was that no one wanted a malnourished child that was weak. I first asked the butcher, he laughed and then realized I was serious. I didn’t want to work there, because it smelled like bear. Then I went to the kite shop, but they didn’t want some know it all boy who was also weak. Finally after trying other stores, and being denied. I went to the paper shop. The owner is called Tang Kai. He was a nice old man. After talking to him for a while he let me work as customer attracter. I got the customers in, and he let money come into my pockets. He also let me live in his store.

I worked there for a while until one day I saw a poster for scholar officials. Apparently the government needed Scholar Officials. I thought that this would be a good job for me. It also looked like it was high paying. I talked to Tang Kai and he said he had tried the tests to become Scholar Official, and He failed. He also said that the tests were very hard, and that I would never pass them. This did not stop my determination. I said to him that I wanted to become a scholar official. He sighed then said he would give me paper, and a brush, and transportation. He said that they didn’t provide paper, and brushes. I got a ride on an Ox cart. Then my brother came rushing up.

“He, why have you left?” he said.

“Mother is Corrupted!” I responded.

“Come home!” He yelled

“No!” I yelled. Then I turned and ran. He didn’t follow me, but my eldest brother did.

I have never ran as fast as I did then. I barely made it out. Whenever I felt I like I was getting ahead he was still right behind me. When I made it to the Ox cart I told the owner very quickly who I was, and told him to get going. I never saw my family again. Once i got to the Imperial city I was hit by a wave of astonishment. I had never seen such nice ... well everything. The city was full with vendors, with food that had been freshly made. I looked at a vendor that was selling lamb stew, and my stomach rumbled. I then looked at another vendor who was selling fish. Then I realized how hungry I was, I hadn't eaten since I got on that ox cart. I then realized with sadness that I had no time. I realized I had to get to the government building to take my test. It took hours to find it, because the city was so complex. When I finally found it, I was hit by another wave of amazement. As I walked up the giant stone steps to get to the entrance, I gazed up at the giant wooden roof. It was two tiered that was four times as big as my house. All of the stone supports that they used were painted red, it was truly a beautiful building. I had never seen such a huge building in my life. I stepped forward, and realized how big the line was. Most of the people there were twice my age, and had twice as fine clothing. One person had the nicest clothing I had ever seen. He had a large flowing jade green tunic, with pink lotus flowers painted on to his robes. I think it was made of silk. I then looked down at my tunic and robes. It occurred to me that in my run away from my brothers I had made ten more holes in the cheap fabric my clothes were made of. At the time they were hemp, I also had boring brown clothes. The other test takers were wearing fine silken clothing. I also looked at their paper, it was as smooth as their clothes. The brushes looked like they had just been made. In comparison to my brush and paper mine looked like it came out of an alley way that birds had already picked through (which was partially true). It was very clear to me that I was the only farm boy here. I never saw the other people from that test become Scholar Officials. When I finally got to the front of the line, I was let into a large room that had 20 pads for sitting. As well as the test. There were the same number of government workers sitting on the side. They also had very nice clothing, except they only wore black and white. All of them were men. I wondered what they were doing. Then i realized that they were copying our tests. It took hours to finish the test. The test was also very hard. Later when I became a scholar official, I got to talk to the person who made the test. Apparently it was based on a religion called Confucianism. I had never heard anything about this religion, but I still managed to pass the test. Then I had to take 20 more of them. All of them were about the same difficulty. Than I was a scholar official. After that I was sent to another village, and got commands from the emperor to do things. That was all I did. I stayed as a Scholar official, until I was unfit for the job because of age.”

“I could think of a few words for that story” said Ni Tan.

“You don’t have to like, but that is what happened. At least I think.” I responded.