Chapter 128: The Grand Elimination, Drawing the Line with a Square

"Apprentice Artisan Examination... The second testing zone. Twenty-five candidates have been eliminated, leaving over two hundred and five remaining. All candidates are to remain in place and await the replacement of the giant carpenter's square materials."

Only twenty-five people eliminated? In Wang Ge's first three rows alone, eleven had been disqualified. With so many rows behind her, only fourteen more had been eliminated! It was clear that the truly skilled were gathered in the rear ranks.

This was easy to understand. When queuing to enter, those who were most anxious to be at the front were just like her: without status, lacking confidence, and instinctively wanting to secure their spot as quickly as possible.

The inspecting official first compared Wang Ge’s gear tag to her wooden board, engraved it with "Bu, Twenty-five, Two," and then removed it. Within three days after the exam, any candidate who disagreed with their results could file an appeal; these labeled materials served as the evidence for verification.

The replacement of the carpenter's square materials began.

In the Great Jin Dynasty, a carpenter's square was typically carved from a single piece of wood; the horizontal and vertical scales were fixed and immovable.

Its shape was equivalent to two rulers joined at their ends, forming a right angle. Both the horizontal and vertical segments featured markings for "fen," "cun," and "chi." The starting point for all markings was the vertex of the right angle, extending outward horizontally and vertically.

However, the materials the official was now providing were two separate, unconnected planks of wood.

One was over a zhang long.
The other was about half a zhang (five chi).

The arrangement: The long plank was placed vertically and straight in front of the candidates, just like the first exam. The shorter plank was placed further away, positioned vertically at a right angle above the end of the long plank.

The two materials were separated by more than two chi!

Once all the materials were replaced, the officials walked to the front of each row, each shouting out the rules for this part of the exam.

It was chaotic, but Wang Ge listened intently.

"The Great Elimination Trial... Part two... Drawing lines with the giant carpenter's square. This stage is divided into two halves. We will begin with the first half. You are to demonstrate your mastery of 'cun-intervals.' You must only engrave 'cun-intervals' on the long plank; you may not engrave 'chi-intervals' or 'fen-intervals.' Do you understand?"

"Understood!"

"The starting position for your lines must be the end at your feet. Furthermore... you must leave a gap equivalent to the width of the short plank's joint! Do you understand?"

"Understood!"

This meant that when marking the "cun-intervals" on the long plank, one could not start from the very edge; one had to account for the width of the short plank. For example, if the short plank was five cun wide, the first "cun" mark on the long plank had to start at the five-cun position, followed by two, three, four... until the end of the long plank where less than one cun remained.

"The first half of the trial... the time limit is two ke. The width of the short plank must be determined solely by eye! Candidates are forbidden from touching the short plank with their hands or carving knives, forbidden from marking the ground, and forbidden from using external objects for measurement, such as hair, fingers, or headbands! I repeat, only by eye! Violators will be treated as cheaters. Do you understand?"

"Understood!"

The candidates cursed inwardly. This was not what they had expected. Only by eye? If they misjudged, wouldn't all the subsequent marks be a waste of effort?

"Remember! The margin left on the edge of the long plank must not deviate from the actual width of the short plank by more than one 'fen-interval,' or you will be eliminated. One zhang is ten chi, one chi is ten cun. If you mark ten 'cun-intervals' incorrectly, you will also be eliminated. Candidates... do not lose your sense of proportion."

After delivering this, the officials returned to the sides of the rows.

The lead examiner shouted: "After three drumbeats, begin!"

*Boom!*

Wang Ge took a deep breath with the sound: *Calm... calm... must stay calm!*

*Boom!*

The vast majority of candidates... could not stay calm! The difficulty of this test was not just in engraving at least one hundred "cun-intervals"; the hardest part was judging the width of the short plank by eye. That was why the time had been extended to two ke.

*Boom!*

There was no time to think!

Wang Ge and all the other candidates rushed to the short planks. Whether they were craftsmen trained by noble families or those from humble backgrounds, they all hunched over, butts in the air, peering at the short plank, relying on their accumulated experience to estimate its width.

Candidate A muttered to himself, "One cun, two cun..." *Hiss!* Because he was too close to the plank, he had to shift his gaze from the one-cun mark to the two-cun mark. With that shift, the position for two cun immediately drifted.

This method wouldn't work!

Candidate B was smarter than A; he knew that observing from too close was a mistake. When he crouched down, he kept his face over a chi away from the plank. But when trying to judge the cun-intervals, his eyes strained involuntarily. Trying to keep his gaze from drifting, his eyes began to water by the third interval, and by the fourth, he was forced to blink.

This method wouldn't work!

Someone stood up.
Then another stood up.
And another... and another...

How were they estimating? How could they be so sure their visual estimation was accurate? How big was a "fen-interval"? It was only the width of a single grain of millet!

More than half the candidates were constantly wiping their eyes, blinking, and adjusting the distance between their faces and the planks. It could be said that every candidate had practiced visual estimation, but this was an exam; there were no second chances. If the initial positioning was wrong, every "cun-interval" would be in vain.

By now, Wang Ge had already marked twenty intervals.

She was the first to stand up!

Six cun and two fen—that was the width she had estimated for the short plank. It had been determined in the span of a single breath, requiring no further observation.

This confidence did not come from thin air; it was forged through thousands of trials.

After returning to Nanshan from Weiting, she had set aside at least one hour every day to improve her visual estimation. Later, she increased it to two hours a day and devised a progression test: wherever she went, she would estimate the length and height of any small object she saw, then verify it with a wooden ruler to check the margin of error.

The extent of her initial errors was truly terrifying; it was a completely different skill from using a carving knife. At first, when she estimated the length of her desk, she was off by more than a cun! Since the desk was the object she used most, the fact that she could be so far off showed just how difficult visual estimation was.

Aside from those with natural talent, there were no shortcuts for ordinary people to improve their visual estimation. She could only test and verify, over and over again. After two or three breaths, her eyes would reach their limit—they would water and ache—requiring a few breaths of rest.

Sometimes, when her errors were outrageous, she would recall the ink-making method mentioned by Xie Ju to encourage herself: even the poorest pine soot ink had to be pounded in an iron mortar at least thirty thousand times; the more it was pounded, the better it became.

If she wanted to become a master artisan, her grasp of proportions had to be refined through thousands of trials, far exceeding that of a mere journeyman.

Standard engraving was the basic skill of a journeyman.
Standard visual estimation was the basic skill of a master artisan!

*Boom!*

The drum signaling one ke had sounded.

At this moment, all candidates were busy engraving their "cun-intervals."

Wang Ge had already finished. She stood for a while; although the rules didn't explicitly forbid looking around, she was cautious by nature and didn't glance about. She only knew that the first two rows hadn't finished... wait, one person had put down their carving knife and returned to their original position.

The artisan official and the patrol officer patrolling the middle rows suddenly cleared their throats.

Here it comes! As Wang Ge had anticipated, the official shouted: "Though the structure of the carpenter's square is simple, like the radical 'Ju' in this character, it implies that it encompasses everything. Do you understand?"

"Understood!"

The patrol officer asked: "The carpenter's square can measure land, measure height, measure length... what other purposes does it serve? Candidate, you answer." He stopped in front of a candidate.

How unlucky! The candidate cursed inwardly, but kept a solemn face, set down his knife, and replied: "It can also draw lines..."

"What else?" The officer signaled for the next candidate and posed the question.

"It can draw right angles, draw squares..." Before he was told to stop, he continued: "Verify whether the structure of an object is vertical..."

"Good." The officer nodded in satisfaction.

Suddenly, he turned back several paces and looked at Wang Ge. "What else?"

Wang Ge replied: "It can also test whether the edges of an object form a right angle, act as a plumb line, and measure the flatness of an object."

"Good."