Can some paraphrase this? ''He must study the Four Books, the Five Classics, other Confucian works, and know how to compose poems and write essays. Studying the 5 classics required memorization, but not much questioning.''

This one is a little complicated because I don't have any context, but here:

There won't be a huge amount of questions asked, but he (replace he with person's name) will need to memorize a lot from the books of Confucianism in order to write poems or essays.

a compare and contrast essay is a piece of formal writing in which the author focus on the similarities between two ideas, objects, places, etc., and the differences between them. there are some aspects that the author should take into account when he/she is crafting the essay. first, the author has a clear idea of the effect that he/she wants to produce on the audience (a purpose). his/her main idea should be presented in the thesis statement in a simple but effective way which gives the audience a clear idea of the content and the direction of the essay. in addition, it is also important to focus to the similarities and differences that not only are interesting and relevant to the reader but also provide a new, impressive point of view or deeper understanding of a topic.