Origin and Standing (Chu Shen)

How a chart enters the examination halls

This is the imperial-examination chapter, and its language is the language of its era. Its method, though, is familiar: eminence turns on a hidden mechanism, not on display. A chart cleaned of turbidity passes even if some cloud remains; a 'scholar' whose clarity is real but whose officer star never rises stays a scholar; and the man who enters by an unusual road should not be dismissed, since the day master with real strength meeting the wealth star can still arrive. Substitute any career ladder for the examination and the structural instruction holds.