In every dynasty, before the announcement of the Provincial Examination results, candidates were always desperate to learn their fate. They often tried to pry information from the examination hall's gatekeepers, a practice nicknamed "peeking at the dovecote."
...But it was a pointless endeavor. Inside the heavily guarded examination hall, even the examiners grading the papers didn't know the final rankings until the very last minute. What could anyone possibly find out by questioning a mere gatekeeper?
This brings us to the examination system of the day.
For the Provincial Examination and any higher-level exams, after the papers were collected, not only were the candidates' names covered, but the exams also had to be transcribed by official scribes. These transcriptions, written in vermilion ink, were called the "red copies," while the originals, in the candidates' own handwriting, were kept as the "ink copies."
