Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 157
The imperial examination was an important method of selecting talents in ancient times. The exact date of its origin remains to be verified. However, it is generally believed that the imperial examination began in the Sui Dynasty, prevailed in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang once stipulated: "All Chinese and foreign civil servants enter through the imperial examination, and those who do not have the imperial examination shall not be admitted to the official." This also made the imperial examination extended to Korea, Vietnam and other places under the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang also formulated the "Chengshi of the Imperial Examination", which made strict regulations on the levels, grades, rules, etc. of the imperial examination, which made the imperial examination a standard examination system.

According to the "Chengshi of Imperial Examination", the imperial examination is divided into five levels: children's examination, courtyard examination, rural examination, general examination and palace examination.

To put it bluntly, the children's examination is a qualification examination, and only those who have passed the children's examination are eligible to obtain fame.

The Academy Examination is the first level of merit examination. After passing the Academy Examination, one can become a famous scholar.

The township examination is a threshold for scholars to become officials. Generally, only after passing the township examination and becoming a juren can one become an official official.

The general examination can be said to be the most important part of the imperial examination, because after passing the general examination and becoming a tribute, as long as there is no accident, you can get a title on the gold list.

To put it bluntly, the palace examination is a ranking battle. Gongshi generally become Jinshi, but the top three rankings of Jinshi need to be finally determined through the palace examination.

The general examination became Chunwei again. According to the "Imperial Examination Forms", the general examination began on the ninth day of February in the second year of the provincial examination. There were three examinations, each three days, until the end of February [-]th.

Most of the people who participated in the examination were juren, and the supervisors of the Guozijian could also participate after passing the examination.

As for the number of people taking the exam, it depends on how many places the emperor gives. After all, there are a lot of things to prepare for the exam. The most basic thing is that every candidate must have an exam booth, and a pot of charcoal fire must be distributed for each exam. Three candles and a stack of test papers.

This thing doesn't look like much, but if there are more people participating in the test, it will not be a little bit.

Therefore, the number of people in each imperial examination is generally about [-] to [-], while the number of places in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty is about [-].

However, this time, Taichang broke the convention again and doubled the quota.

In other words, he recruited nearly four thousand candidates!

This blow made Gu Bingqian and others miserable.

There are nearly 1 candidates, and more than [-] pots of charcoal fire alone must be prepared!

There are also candles, more than 3 are needed.

There are also test papers, large and small, and hundreds of thousands of copies must be prepared!

As for the test shed, it is the easiest, because there are many test sheds in the Beijing Gongyuan.

In order to cope with the rural examination, there are more than 3000 test sheds in the Gongyuan in the capital. Moreover, Zhang Juzheng, the famous Wanli minister, specially changed all the test sheds into brick and tile structures, which are much stronger than the previous wooden test sheds. Also much easier to clean.

Basically, you just need to go in and sweep the floor, and then wipe the boards.

Taichang attached great importance to this rural examination. After the new year, he had to personally check the progress of the preparations for the rural examination almost every morning. Moreover, once each progress was completed, he would take the cabinet scholar and six ministers to carefully review the progress. examine.

The first thing to be done is to clean up the test sheds for the imperial examinations, which is the number sheds in the Gongyuan in the capital.

When Taichang heard the news, he immediately summoned all the cabinet scholars and six ministers to the Gongyuan in the capital.

It was his first time to visit the Gongyuan in the capital, but he was no stranger to this place, because the Gongyuan was just opposite the Armor Factory, it was so big and scary.

Accompanied by Gu Bingqian, Huang Liji, Cui Chengxiu, Xu Guangqi and Bi Maokang, he walked into a numbered room and was surprised.

To put it bluntly, this number room is surrounded by three walls. There is a door at the entrance, and a certain font size is marked on the door.

The number rooms are all without roofs, and when you walk in, you will see rows of number sheds.

And this number shed is the place where candidates take the exam, and each number shed is hung with a number from the heavenly stems and earthly branches.

At this time, Taichang couldn't help sighing in his heart, it's really not easy to take the imperial examination!
The front, back, left, and right sides of this room are only about one meter long, and there are only three walls. The side facing the aisle is empty and has no walls.

The purpose of doing this is naturally to prevent candidates from cheating, but it is really not ordinary cold to sit in a small room without a door to answer questions in such a freezing and snowy weather.

Moreover, after the start of each exam, the examinee must stay in the narrow room for three days and two nights, eating, drinking and drinking, all in this less than one meter space!

He really couldn't imagine how these candidates survived these three games and nine days.

It is rumored that this imperial examination often tests dead people. If you are not in good health, you may not be able to get out after entering.

It seemed that the rumors were true. In such a cold day, it was really possible to freeze people to death in the shed.

Standing in front of the booth, Taichang sighed, and then said to Gu Bingqian: "Prepare more charcoal, and try to keep the charcoal fire in the brazier of all candidates burning."

Hearing this, Gu Bingqian couldn't help crying secretly.

Your Majesty, do you know how much charcoal it takes to burn a brazier for a day?
If there is no fire for nine days, then you have to bring in charcoal as big as a few mountains!

Of course, he only dared to whine in his heart and contradict the emperor, he absolutely did not dare.

Taichang didn't care so much, he just took this group of people for a stroll in the tribute courtyard, and then went back to the palace.

What he did, somewhat baffled the eunuchs.

What do you mean, Your Majesty?
You said that you value this exam, so you don't have to drag us all here to accompany you around here, right?
What is there to check in this examination room, isn't it just rows of numbered rooms?

Taichang is actually paralyzing these people. The reason why he emphasizes the test every day is to make these people think that his attention is on the test.

How could these people have imagined that he left Xu Guangqi and Bi Maokang to prepare for the test, while he was preparing to deal with these guys.

Do it after the palace test!
This day really flies by, the yamen on the 20th day of the first lunar month began to officially handle affairs, and it was less than [-] days until the ninth day of February, Taichang has tossed these eunuchs for half a month, and the examination will soon begin .

At this time, the [-] infantrymen of the Shenwu Battalion also returned to Beijing.

Taichang specifically explained in the early court that these soldiers of the Shenwu Battalion were recruited back to serve as the No. [-] army, that is, they took turns to be on duty in the examination room, delivering tea and hot meals to all the candidates.

This does require a lot of manpower, the huge tribute college, nearly [-] candidates, even if there are at least two shifts a day, tens of thousands of soldiers are needed.

The eunuchs didn't even think about doing it, they just thought that the emperor really paid special attention to this test.

Taichang took everyone to prepare in a hurry for nearly 20 days, and the test finally started.

Next, it's cheating.

As for how to cheat, it was actually very simple. He only needed to send the deputy examiners Xu Guangqi and Bi Maokang to inspect the numbered room.

Liu Zongxiang, Sun Yuanhua, Song Yingxing, Song Yingsheng, Cheng Yuandan, etc., who need "special attention", Xu Guangqi will go over to have a look, pretending to patrol, but actually memorizing what is written on their test papers.

In this way, even if the names were sealed and Yu Lu would copy them again, he could easily recognize these people's test papers.

Bi Maokang takes care of those who need to be cleaned up, such as Wu Kongjia, Zhang Douyao, etc., and some relatives and friends of the eunuch party.

These guys even ran to find Wei Zhongxian before the test, didn't I know?

Before entering the imperial court, I want to be an eunuch, but no one like this should even think about being named on the gold list!

(End of this chapter)