Emperor Ming Dynasty

The Ministry of Rites dismantled the Li Fan Yuan, the Ministry of Officials dismantled the Organization Department, and the Ministry of Households dismantled the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Second Ministry of Finance, which shocked the world.

However, for the Gongshi who have just finished the examination, all this is just floating clouds.

The test, which lasted more than ten days, made everyone in the capital feel very worried, for fear of disturbing this group of future officials.

According to the statement made by Yin of Shuntian Prefecture: the people in Gyeonggi all hold their breath, lest the sound of breathing disturb the tranquility of the Wenqu stars.

Shuntianfu Zhigongtang is seven rooms wide, with five ridges hanging from the top of the mountain, green brick walls, and glazed tiles. It is the most magnificent building in the Shuntianfu Gongyuan. question.

After the death of Zhang Juzheng, Emperor Wanli liquidated him and almost opened the coffin to kill the corpse. Most of the effective new policies implemented by Zhang Juzheng were also abolished, but no one replaced this plaque, and it is still hanging high today.

At this time, there are rows of red candles in the Zhigong Hall, which are as bright as day.

Duan Yizhi, the chief examiner of the Guozijian, sat in the middle, and the rest of the supervisors, the officials who promoted the transfer, the officials who accepted the papers, the officials who made the seals, the officials who transcribed, the officials who read the papers, and the officials from the 82th Room of the Five Classics and [-] reviewers There are a lot of officials.

In the Shaowu Dynasty, the practice of the former chief examiners of the pavilion was changed, and the Guozijian Jijiu was the chief examiner. It was a huge loss for those pavilion elders who wanted to restrain their disciples.

Similarly, for the examinees, the pure and poor Jijiu, whose power is tantamount to nothing, is really not a big tree to cling to.

Duan Yizhi is 60 years old, and he is about to retire in two years, but now he is full of energy, and he is not tired after reading for several days and nights.

"Start dismantling accounts, rolling names, and writing lists."

"Yes--"

On the eighth day of the fifth lunar month, since the completed official list must be stamped with the official seal of the Ministry of Rites, eight hundred battalion soldiers led by the commissioner and supervisor will escort the official list to the Ministry of Rites.

Outside the gate of the Gongyuan, [-] examinees, together with tens of thousands of relatives, friends and servants, had been waiting for most of the night before the three gates were slowly opened.

Two teams of battalions came out first, shouting loudly to order some people to retreat, and everyone moved aside a little bit, then heard the sound of drums and music. In the colorful booth is the list of positive rankings, and the candidates in the square asked one after another:

"Who is Huiyuan?"

"Can Anhui Zhang Shining win?"

The shouts were overwhelming, and the sound seemed to overturn the promotion officers who were riding on the horses, and the crowd was so crowded that they couldn't get out at all.

After discussing with the supervisor for a few words, the commissioning officer spoke condescendingly to the dense crowd on the square on horseback:
"Silence, silence, I will announce to you in advance the names of the top five in this test—"

The square quickly quieted down, but the breathing of tens of thousands of people was also loud, and it took a long time for the sound to stop.

The roll call goes from fifth to first, only these 5 people enjoy such a privilege, and the rest can only look at the yellow list.

"No. 5 Zhang Yongqi of Anqing Mansion in the Guisi Annual Examination..."

"No.4, Huzhou Shen Quan..."

……

Afterwards, after the top five were listed, everyone rushed forward, trying to find their names.

For a time, it is inhumane to be happy or sad.

Once you enter the general examination, you must be the title of the gold list.

Next, just take the palace test and see who can be ranked first.

Even if it is the top three, it is also a Jinshi background. Compared with Jiansheng, Juren, it is not the same.

A few days later, the palace test began.

A group of examinees drove to the gate of Daming in a carriage, and Tiancai Daliang gathered in the lobby of the Ministry of Rites with his examination basket, and lined up according to their rankings in the examination.

A total of 300 people, led by Xu Wenbin, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites, walked through the Thousand Steps Corridor and the Jinshui Baiyu Bridge to the outside of the Chengtian Gate.

These guards are from the Department of Guards. They are all nearly six feet tall, with wind-winged helmets and gold armor. .

This time the search is not based on books being carried, but whether there are weapons. This is just in case, which candidate will bring a sword into the palace, isn't this courting death?

Walk through the square in front of the hall paved with bluestone, and stand outside Danbi.

Fourteen scroll-reading officials and dozens of deacons headed by Duan Yizhi came in and stood in Danbi. According to the ancestral system, the emperor was to be promoted to the palace to accept the salute of all officials and give advice and questions on the spot.

I saw the emperor sitting on the dragon chair, wearing a golden five-clawed dragon robe and a winged crown on his head.

Many examinees immediately bowed their heads at the first glance, filled with emotion in their hearts.

Candidates kowtow three times five times: "Long live my emperor, long live——"

"Be flat!"

The emperor raised his hand and smiled: "The weather is fine today, I hope everyone will not be restrained, and spare no effort to write and ink for the country."

With that said, the exam has officially begun.

The officials of Guanglu Temple have already neatly placed the three hundred examination papers in the main hall. The Huangji Hall is 32 feet wide and sixteen feet deep. , began to grind the ink and wait for the hair to curl.

The fourteen examiners stayed in the Wenhua Palace last night, and each drew up a strategy, and asked the eunuch who was in charge of ceremonies to send it to the Qianqing Palace to be delineated by the emperor's imperial pen, and then sealed and sent back to the cabinet, in the cabinet lobby The servant who ordered the internal officials to print 340 eight copies on the spot. When printing the title, the inner and outer doors were separated, and the policy title was never allowed to be leaked out in advance.

"Since Zhongxing, I have been lamenting day and night, thinking about the jealousy of the king of martial arts, fearing the loss of my ancestors, and worrying about repeating the same mistakes, so that the world will be chaotic. Please write it clearly in the article, don't stick to the pen and ink—"

A policy theory, a very conventional and common policy theory.

To sum it up, Lao Tzu conquered the world with great difficulty, but like King Wu of Zhou, he couldn't sleep well every day, for fear that future generations would repeat the same mistakes, so that the world would change drastically.

If you have any good strategies, write them all!

All the students breathed a sigh of relief.

Unexpectedly, on the other side of the board, the topic was listed again.

Today there is a pond about ten feet square, and Jia grows in the center of it.Out of the water one foot, lead the reeds to the shore, so that it is at the same level as the shore.Ask about the depth of water and the length of reeds.

There is a pond measuring a foot square. In the pond grows a young reed, which rises a foot above the surface of the water. If it is brought to the shore, it will be just level with the shore. How deep is the water, and how long is the reed? (one zhang is equal to ten feet)
Then there is the third question, which is still a mathematical geometry problem:

Today there are people who take rice out of three passes, take one out of three out of the outer pass, take one out of five in the middle pass, and take one out of seven in the inner pass, with five buckets of surplus rice.Q: What is the geometry of this meter?

Someone brought a batch of rice out of three gates. The outer customs collected one-third of the goods, the central customs collected one-fifth of the goods, and the inner customs collected one-seventh of the goods. Five buckets of rice.Question: How much rice did this person bring?
Fourthly, there is a country today called Japan, which once invaded and occupied North Korea and was an enemy of our Ming Dynasty. Let’s talk about its land, customs and characters...

Now, everyone is talking about it.

The eunuchs on the side said sharply: "Qu Jing, there are two questions in the imperial examination."

"One is policy theory, and the other three are additional questions."

"For these three questions, you can choose one of the three, and you can do all of them. Let's do it according to our ability!"

Now, everyone is happy and sad.

There is an additional question, which has advantages and disadvantages.

For those who have covered a lot, this question is equivalent to sending sub-questions.

And those who were imprisoned in the Four Books and Five Classics, who recited poems and opposed them, all looked sideways.

It was simply too difficult for them.

Zhu Yixi just looked at them like this, thoughtful.

People have no worries about food and clothing. At this time, they should be trained to be officials. They only know about romance every day, which is really despicable.

He sat for a while, then got up and left.

Then it was evening, and whale oil candles lit up the entire hall, and many scholars suddenly realized that it was getting dark.

Theoretically speaking, the palace test is one day and one night, and it is not limited by time.

However, the theory is only a few hundred words, at most a thousand words, and three hours are enough for copying and writing.

As for the emperor, he had already gone to the harem and was happy.

In fact, if he hangs around often, it will affect the performance of the scholars.

The spring night in Miyagi was silent, with fragrant tea on the desk, and the fourteen examiners began to turn tables to review the examination papers.

The so-called table rotation means that a test paper starts to be reviewed by the chief examiner, stamped with the first to fifth grade marks and the seal of the examiner, and then transferred to the next examiner for review. Fourteen examiners must complete one examination paper. After reviewing and affixing the grade marks, and finally making a general review, those with more fourth and fifth marks must be listed in the top three.

Of course, all this has to be presented to the Emperor for preview.

If the emperor thinks that a person's name sounds good, or the handwriting is good, and the flattering is comfortable, it is common for the emperor to choose the champion.

Otherwise, how could it be called a palace test?What about the disciples of the Son of Heaven?
Wenhua Hall is quiet and serene, with two gold-plated cranes at the corner of the hall exhaling a strange fragrance, and time passes slowly amidst the rubbing sound of reading papers.

The examiners in the East Pavilion closed the door to review the papers, and those scholars in the capital who were on the examination list had already begun to drink and revel, and regardless of their ranks in the palace examination, no matter whether they had not yet participated in the ceremony of passing on people, this Jinshi would not be able to escape. To be happy, to drink and sing, how much life is.

After a night of overtime work, [-] articles were ranked, and then according to the ancestral system, the examiner had to kowtow and kneel in front of the emperor after marking the papers.

Zhao Shu, the cabinet bachelor and chief assistant, personally submitted and read the test papers of the first and third places to the emperor.

Zhao Shu was getting older, the summer sun shone through the window and shone on his body, the gray temples were undoubtedly revealed.

After nearly ten years of hard work, this former staff member of Sun Chuanting has already ranked among the top officials, and his reputation has spread all over the world. Who doesn't admire him?
Everyone is a person like Li Shanchang and Zhuge Liang.

The voice is round and slightly vicissitudes, hoarse, it sounds really good, cadence.

Policy theory pays attention to momentum. If the article is well written, it will be like overwhelming.

But if the writing is poor, it will be dull, repeating the same old tune, without the slightest taste.

"The top three articles are all good."

After a while, the emperor opened his eyes and nodded slightly in appreciation.

Liu Afu on the side prepared the imperial pen, waited on the emperor Zhu Pi, and hand-picked the top three.

"The articles of the scholars of today's academic circles are remarkable, sweeping away the decadence of the previous dynasty, and full of vitality, with a little style of Tang and Han Dynasties."

Zhao Shu also praised it.

To put it bluntly, since it was tantamount to founding the country again, some relationships in the imperial court were also swept away, and the burden was gone.

Once in a while there is a mood.

For example, in the Song Dynasty, the biggest characteristic of scholars was volume. They first suppressed warriors, and then suppressed alien parties.

In the early Ming Dynasty, scholars liked bars, and there were many hard bones.

But now the emperor has made drastic reforms, and even continued to move eastward and westward, taking back all the former Western Regions, which greatly improved the morale of the Chinese people.

"The elegance of the Han and Tang Dynasties?" Zhu Yixi was taken aback for a moment, and then laughed dumbly: "It's only been a few years, not until that time."

"By the way, how about additional questions?"

"Can you get all three questions right?"

Hearing the emperor's question, Zhao Shu cried out inwardly.

Basically, only two of these three tripod armors were made.

And those who have done three additional questions can only be ranked in the top three, after all, the strategy theory is quite satisfactory.

"There is no one among the three tripods, but among the top three, there is a scholar from Panyu, Guangdong, who has answered all three questions."

"Oh?" Zhu Yixi said with joy, "Submit it quickly and let me see how it is done."

"Yes!" Zhao Shu had no choice but to have someone hand it in for the emperor to read.

Soon, the document appeared in front of the emperor.

In terms of policy theory, this person endorsed the post reform in a high-profile manner, but he was more radical, saying that this was a temporary solution rather than a permanent cure.

Although the bureaucrats are simple nowadays, for the high-ranking officials and nobles, it only takes a few years of work, and they will be corrupted immediately.

Therefore, he strongly requested that the post station's reception function be abolished, and only the government's letter transmission be provided, so as to further reduce consumption.

And he began to give examples, such as a poor post station in a certain county, but the loss of thousands of dollars a year, and timely reporting of accounts, is also a heavy burden for the county government.

Later, he also cited the fact that the Commerce and Taxation Department appointed subordinate officials from the former dynasty. Some old rules are still there, and the burden on the common people has been reduced, but not much.

Obviously, his suggestion on the station was completely rejected by the examiners.

Wouldn't it be a catastrophe if the post station's reception function was eliminated?
You must know that not everyone has a lot of money to travel thousands of miles to become an official. There will always be people who are poor. If the court doesn't bear the burden, won't it make people starve to death halfway?
As a result, he ranked first from the bottom of the top three.

"Hahaha!"

The emperor couldn't help laughing when he saw it.

This guy is a typical angry youth.

Although he didn't say it explicitly, his contempt for officialdom was described between the lines.

In particular, taking the Commercial and Taxation Department as an example, this is referring to Sang and scolding Huai. Although the subordinates are mentioned, they are scolding those former officials.

This is really courageous, pointing at someone's nose and scolding.

Additional questions are well done.

He did both geometry problems correctly, but he has a profound understanding of Japan, pointing out that the Japanese king is nothing more than a minister who steals power, and the emperor has been reduced to a puppet.

"Not bad!" The emperor praised, glanced at Zhao Shu, and put it in front of him: "Let him be the number one scholar!"

Although it didn't comply with the rules, Zhao Shu still complied.

It was Fanyu and Wang Xu from Guangdong who revealed his name.

Twenty-three years old, his ancestors were wealthy merchants, and his father was also a merchant.

No wonder there is a way to answer the geometry questions easily.

But from the understanding of Japan, his family should be a maritime merchant.

"23 years old is considered young and promising."

The emperor sighed in admiration and was deeply moved.

If this happened in later generations, the 23-year-old county magistrate and department-level cadre would be sensational.

But in the era of imperial examinations, this is indeed normal.

At noon, Tian Ren, the supervisor of ceremonies and the eunuch Bingbi, came to the cabinet of Huangjimen with the examination papers of the first and third persons appointed by the imperial pen, and the fourteen examiners were all waiting eagerly.