Chapter 352: The Real Questions

Jiao Gongli and the other “examinees” opened the examination syllabus and were dumbfounded. It turned out that this examination syllabus had quite a few rules and regulations. The list of “reference books” alone had several titles: some he knew—like the Compendium of Materia Medica—and some he had never even heard of—The Imperial Song Dynasty Ministry of Health’s Standard Textbook for the Professional Qualification Education of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Pharmacists (Trial Version).

The problem was that this Compendium of Materia Medica was not the one sold on the market. Song Shengying, due to his business in medicinal materials, had read this book, but the one listed in the syllabus was restricted. It had to be the “revised version” decreed by the “Imperial Song Dynasty’s Australian Administration.”

The reason the Compendium of Materia Medica had to be the one published by the Senate was that the materia medica used in later generations was not the same as the one that had just been published. For traditional Chinese medicine, the Compendium of Materia Medica was the most important reference book, but the book itself had many errors. When Li Shizhen revised the Compendium of Materia Medica, he had already corrected a large number of previous pharmacological errors, but modern times had also made significant revisions to the Compendium of Materia Medica—it could be said that it was very different from the early versions.

The syllabus and textbooks were all compiled by Liu San. At first, he was a little stumped. Unlike modern medicine, traditional Chinese medicine had many theoretical schools, some of which were very different. The same disease could have several different treatments. Moreover, traditional medicine was passed down through oral tradition and by reading the medical books of predecessors. Everyone was exposed to different theories and had different understandings of them. It was difficult to simply use a question-and-standard-answer model for assessment.

In the old time and space, the professional examination for traditional Chinese medicine practitioners was determined by standard textbooks. No matter what theoretical school you belonged to, to become a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, you had to take the examination entirely according to this syllabus. So his first step was to compile “standard textbooks” and “reference books” to unify the examination content.

Both were easy. The Great Library had enough materials for him to choose from. Liu San focused on “simplicity” and “practicality,” mixing various traditional Chinese medicine college textbooks and training materials for barefoot doctors from the 1960s to compile the textbook. In addition to traditional Chinese medicine knowledge, such as the “eighteen antagonisms” and “fifteen incompatibilities,” basic medicinal properties, acupuncture points, and so on, it also included basic knowledge of modern medicine, such as human physiological structure.

This textbook was not only for the students of the traditional Chinese medicine department and for training health personnel, but also served as the content of the examination syllabus. It could be said that the current teaching, clinical practice, and management of traditional Chinese medicine under the rule of the Senate were completely based on the books he had compiled.

Liu San was quite proud of this. A small traditional Chinese medicine practitioner like himself had now founded a school. From now on, the standards of traditional Chinese medicine in this time and space would all come from the “Liu school.”

However, for people like Jiao Gongli, Song Shengying, and the Meng brothers, who knew a little about medicine, the content of this syllabus was a bit difficult. Huang Zhen hurriedly went to buy reference books again, spending a lot of circulation coupons. Jiao Gongli looked at them for a long time and just shook his head in confusion. His bone-setting skills were actually based on oral tradition and years of practical experience. He knew how to treat, and he also had a few prescriptions that had been proven effective over many years. How could he understand the theoretical syllabus now? If there was anything he could understand, it was the human skeletal diagrams inside.

As for Song Shengying and the Meng brothers, they were even more at a loss. Because they gathered medicine or dealt with the medicinal materials trade, they were more familiar with the properties of medicinal materials and thus knew a little about medicine. To be honest, they were not much better than the average quack doctor. They were thoroughly practical and had no theoretical basis at all.

After reading a few pages of the textbook, these few made a judgment: they would definitely not be able to pass the traditional Chinese medicine license examination. The Meng brothers said that with some effort, they might be able to pass the traditional Chinese medicine pharmacist license, but their knowledge structure needed to be updated. As for Song Shengying, he said that he was old and really couldn’t memorize such a thick Compendium of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In this way, the original pharmacy was discounted. They could only open a pharmacy that didn’t need a doctor. That wasn’t a big deal, but the key was that without a doctor, the scale of the shop would have to be reduced. How could they accommodate so many people? Shops never kept idle people. The local officials would naturally become suspicious if they saw too many idle people in your shop.

Huang Zhen scratched his head, at a loss. Sima Qiudao was not around, so there was no one to discuss it with. Seeing the shop taking shape day by day, he still didn’t have a doctor. This was not like the Great Ming, where any quack or charlatan could practice medicine and sell drugs openly. Without a license, it would be what the female director called “illegal practice of medicine.” If caught, you would first be whipped 100 times on your bare buttocks, and then sent to dig sand. The great cause of resisting the would be over.

Just as he was at his wit’s end, Zhou Zhongjun suddenly returned. Since she came down from the mountain and arrived in Lingao, she was like a caged bird released. Although Huang Zhen had repeatedly warned her not to run around outside, she still often found excuses to go out.

Once she went out, it was a big deal. Zhou Zhongjun immediately complained that her allowance was not enough and went to Huang Zhen, throwing down an ingot of silver and insisting on exchanging it for more circulation coupons.

Huang Zhen couldn’t refuse and had to exchange another one hundred circulation coupons for her. He couldn’t afford to offend the Hengshan sect—not because the Hengshan sect was so powerful, but because this operation had used many female disciples to cover their tracks. But female disciples from other sects were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. The only sect that could send a sufficient number of female disciples was the all-female Hengshan sect.

In other words, the Hengshan sect had sent the most people, and Zhou Zhongjun was a disciple of a powerful figure in the sect. Both master and disciple were proud and arrogant. If he really angered them, they wouldn’t care about any “martial arts world situation” or “the safety of the world” and would just leave in a huff. He couldn’t bear that responsibility.

Once Zhou Zhongjun had money, it was a big deal. She immediately fell into the consumption trap of Lingao. From buying some fun and good-looking but completely impractical small things at the beginning, she later started to shop crazily. Recently, she had even changed her clothes to the “Australian style.” Just the skirt that exposed her calves made Huang Zhen’s eyes almost pop out. If Master Miejing saw this, she would definitely cut him down with her sword.

Of course, persuasion or prohibition was useless for Zhou Zhongjun. Except for her master and the sect leader, she didn’t listen to anyone. The others were too lazy to argue with her and just let her be.

Today, she went out shopping again under the pretext of “gathering information.” Seeing the full straw bag in her hand, Huang Zhen knew that she must have gone to the Nanbao branch of the cooperative again. The cooperative was not only the largest and best-stocked store in Nanbao, but it also had many services: amusement parks, teahouses, restaurants, and so on. It was like a small shopping mall. Not only did the locals often go there for entertainment and shopping, but even the people from the nearby Li areas often came here to shop. Although the Li people enjoyed the benefits of “fair trade” under the glory of the Senate and were no longer exploited by unscrupulous peddlers, they quickly got lost in the net of “abundant material” they had never seen before and spent all their money in a flash.

Zhou Zhongjun was no exception. Today, she was wearing the latest spring outfit recommended in Zhiyin: a blue floral dress made of Indian printed cotton, with a cinched waist, a slightly flared skirt, and a small round collar. The style was gentle and elegant.

Don’t be fooled by the simple style; it had a great background. It was designed and launched by the fashion club under the Feiyun Society.

By the standards of the old time and space, the skirt could only be considered conventional—especially since the hem was actually lengthened. But in the 17th century, just the exposed calves were enough to be shocking. The dress came in short-sleeved and long-sleeved versions. Zhou Zhongjun still had some scruples and bought the long-sleeved version. She didn’t wear socks and wore a pair of leather sandals on her bare feet—martial arts women all had natural feet, so there was no need to cover them up.

She had practiced martial arts for many years, so her figure and posture were much more beautiful than those of ordinary native women. In particular, the upright and vigorous posture of a martial artist was rare in ordinary people. Wearing this kind of figure-hugging dress was particularly beautiful, almost dazzling.

Huang Zhen just pretended not to see. Anyway, she was of no use at the moment. When the main force arrived, her master would naturally discipline her.

Zhou Zhongjun, however, came over and asked in a low voice:

“Brother Huang, are you still worried about the examination?”

Huang Zhen sighed and nodded. “This stuff is really complicated! Sect Leader Jiao said he can’t even understand it. It’s probably impossible for him to learn it!”

“What about Village Master Song and the two Meng uncles?”

“Village Master Song is not going to make it. The two Meng brothers can still give it a try,” Huang Zhen said with a bitter smile. “They’ve been studying hard in their rooms these past few days. I really feel sorry for them this time. If they also say they can’t pass, we really can’t do this pharmacy business. We’ll have to start over!”

“You should have said so earlier,” Zhou Zhongjun said, lifting her face and showing a mysterious smile. “I have something good.” After saying that, she mysteriously took out a flat paper box from her straw bag and stuffed it into his hand.

“What is this?”

“A treasure. With this, what kind of license can’t you get!” Zhou Zhongjun smiled.

Huang Zhen’s heart stirred. He knew that there was cheating in all imperial examinations. Even the questions for the metropolitan examination could be obtained if you had money and connections—there were people in the capital who specialized in this business. Since the had “examinations,” they probably also had people who did this! He secretly called himself a fool. He was also an old hand in the jianghu, how could he not have thought of this!

He opened the box. Inside was indeed a small booklet bound with thin cotton paper, densely filled with small characters written in fly-head script. Huang Zhen unfolded it and looked. It was indeed full of various questions and answers. He had carefully read the textbooks and supplementary materials these past few days and had studied this license examination.

These questions were indeed very similar to the content in the Past Examination Papers Collection. He couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy. However, he was an old hand in the jianghu after all. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, “Where did you get this?”